Who is Thomas Pynchon?📯📧📬

I hadn't read a Thomas Pynchon book until recently, and it's the only one I have read so far, 'The Crying of Lot 49'.

Working my way backwards in chronological order through '1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die' a few weeks back I was supposed to read Thomas Pynchon's book 'Against the Day', but was advised by a lot of readers to maybe start with 'The Crying of Lot 49', which is also listed in '1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die', and since I had purchased a copy at the 'Avid Reader' bookstore last year knowing it was a book that I must read before I die, I took the advice of the readers and podcasters and read it as my first Thomas Pynchon book.

90 - Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49

EP 1: Who is Thomas Pynchon ...?

While I found 'Mapping the Zone: A Thomas Pynchon discussion podcast' interesting, I can't say that I agree with their takes on reading 'The Crying of Lot 49', but at least listening to the chapter breakdowns kept me reading the book, where maybe I would have put it down as a book to read later ... like a lot of other books laying around me to read later.

Diatribe of a Mad Housewife

Oddy enough, today marks 21 years since 'Diatribe of a Mad Housewife' aired where Thomas Pynchon has a cameo "appearance", his face hidden by a paper bag with a question mark on it. 

This is intended to satirise the author's "own carefully crafted anonymity". 

His appearance on The Simpsons was "his only sanctioned authorial image in decades".

I think that reading 'The Crying of Lot 49' is like looking into a Rorschach test to see what you and other readers make out of it, rather than what Pynchon is putting before you in words.

The symbol of a muted post horn with the label "W.A.S.T.E." I found synchromystic on a few personal levels.

I'm a Spurs fan and tomorrow Spurs are playing Leicester City in a crucial EPL game.

The word Spurs on page 137 of 'The Crying of Lot 49'

"In 1844, the German cornet player Hermann Koenig wrote Post Horn Galop as a solo for post horn with an orchestral accompaniment. In the 20th century it became a popular piece for brass bands. It has been the walk-on music for the Leicester City Football Club since 1935."

I also picked up the latest ALDI catalogue to see that horns are on sale there from Wednesday.

X number of Americans/'The Crying of Lot 49'

I think that the 'Books of Some Substance' podcast guys with their description of the book in their podcast episode summary sum up my feelings as well,"Encompassing both the absurd and the prophetic, this early work by the reclusive author covers everything from embedded allusions to the cultural tumult of the 1960s, distrust of any and all formal systems, and a prescient view of the future of communication (cough, the internet, cough). But perhaps the most meaningful conclusion to draw from Pynchon’s work is the absence of drawn conclusions."

I wonder if Gaga was W.A.S.T.E.D in
that photo with her muted horn tattoo?-)

I certainly don't think that I'm ready to read 'Gravity's Rainbow' yet.

Maybe V. is next for me?
I wonder if I should have it posted to me?-)

UPDATE: January 27th, 2025

Postecoglou unsure on future?

January 26th is Australia Day and with me and the Spurs coach both being Australian citizens this result did not make for a happy Australia Day for either of us, I feel:-(