Pynchon

I had this thing pre-ordered back in 2012. I was excited for a new Pynchon. And then I got a few pages in and gave up for whatever reason. That was a decade ago now. I did pick it back up and went back at it. …

“I can’t make heads nor tails of this infernal contraption, Rudy… What did you call it again?” The Cosmic Kid scratches the bright red latex of his costume where his scalp should have been, confused. He tentatively reaches out to touch a blinking button, but withdraws, suddenly uncertain of its…

“Well, well, well! There’s a how-do-you-do — if it isn’t the world famous Duckeroo Bonsai, Himself!” blurted Rhodólphos KosmiKomikon from behind a panel of humming steel gadgetry, replete with blinking lights, enumerated dials, hissing hydraulics and wildly fanning meter needles. “The Man with a universe in his head and his…

The terrain here on this side of the piccadilly teems with lush vegetation, a fertile nestle of diversity; nothing crumbles here but sun-baked soil awaiting the next Sowing. …

Tyler Burba talked to Why I Cried a little bit ago about his band, Visit. With the urging of a Pynchon scholar friend, Burba and his band recorded an album of songs written by the reclusive author. Pynchon’s wiley lyrics are scattered across the chapters of his dense, ridiculous and…

How an article about genomic sequencing led to an afternoon playing around with AI branding tools — Dumbfounded, flabbergast, gobsmacked, mind-boggled: I’m betting you will be too if you read this New York Times Magazine story about the amazing new power and falling prices of genetic sequencing technology — how it enabled the creation of effective COVID vaccines in months instead of years, and how it’s probably…

Verses on Weight of the World are littered, like autumnal leaves floating on a still river, to the remembrances of Mike’s late mother. On Love Supremacy he scans across the desolate corridors of a graveyard in search of her casket. And on Allstar he lies in bed, presumably in the…

AMC’s now-cancelled show portrayed the enduring power of human connection in the wreckage of late capitalism. The cancellation of Lodge 49 after two seasons, and the now-confirmed failure of the #SaveLodge49 campaign are tragedies. It is sad to think that there is no place in our ever-expanding television landscape for…

I’m between careers right now, not looking to start the next one quite yet. I told my wife, “I want to get famous for being a good reader of Gravity’s Rainbow.” That’s absolutely the longest-shot vocational option on the table for me, but it would also be the easiest, because…