The Mystery Behind Thomas Pynchon

[@philipdoherty688]

Anyone thinking Pynchon is crazy for demanding his privacy should reevaluate by watching the people that are obsessed by him

[@jamescalder326]

Secrecy breeds interest

[@angusorvid8840]

Absofreakin'lutely. As a fellow author I understand where he's coming from. We are not public people just because we publish a pamphlet or two. We live in a society obsessed with the gewgawdeedooda of celebrity. Since when did writers ask to be celebrities? Zeeesh!

[@silentwitness8163]

Oh please, he’s nuts. The only reason he wants “privacy” is for the attention it gets him. His books are literal shit and the only reason people get really interested in him is because he’s a reclusive loser. He should just grow a pair and be honest. 😂

[@blkbird]

@@silentwitness8163 Imagine his books being 'literal shit' that's so funny to me lol

[@handiwipe477]

I agree with this statement. I’ve been harassed and ostracized my entire life just to keep a low profile and write what is in my mind with no distractions and no societal demands. I was definitely born in the wrong generation.

[@peterleonard3725]

The use of the Residents for this is perfect! Chef’s Kiss

[@B.Pilgrim]

I like the music, The Residents are great.

[@garysensa1650]

no.

[@PEGGLORE]

Was only listening to this album yesterday. I did not expect this when putting this documentary on. What are the odds of that?

[@jamescalder326]

@@PEGGLORE 1/1

[@maxalbert6770]

I'm 75% sure this video was made by pynchon

[@常識人-q7s]

That is Pynchonesque

[@inanedreamz673]

Only way to watch this fan stalker shit (other than the lovely music)

[@parthjackson189]

I am 100% sure

[@naturesquad9174]

fitting that the fans in the video are borderline stalkers

[@happystance10able]

Thomas Pynchon was the pen name of J.D. Salinger after Salinger got sick and tired of writing the stuff that teenagers liked reading.

[@jamespotts8197]

Who cares what he looks like!! He's a human male, how hard could that be to imagine? His writing is what matters, the phrasing, the intricate nuances that make reading him so enjoyable. Not his face, that's such simple minded vanity. He's an old man by now, that's not really that uncommon.

[@troutmask6800]

Interesting that the music of The Residents are used in this. The group has never acknowledged who former members or current members are except when Hardy Fox was dying he admitted he was their chief songwriter. It’s widely known that Homer Flynn the old remaining member and singer is a Resident. They appear on stage in masks and live they’re mainly session players now.

[@DocSportello1970]

Pynchon, Hesse and Vonnegut.....My current Triumvirate!

[@1m2a3t4t5]

"He had a wide variety of clothes" sounded like she was making shit up as she was going along

[@raid4000]

she said she was joking

[@AAwildeone]

Tim Ware makes it seem like he's the first person to write a companion guide to a great work of literature....it was done for Ulysses by someone I forget his name...as well as Lolita and Nabokov's writing by the wonderful Howard Appel...I just don't want this guy to be able to sit back and say HE was the first

[@garysensa1650]

"Whatever you get paid attention for is never what you think is most important about yourself.” - DFW I've learned nothing worthwhile from this documentary. This is a blatant disgrace to such an amazing human. Thanks for the music though, I appreciate the headache.

[@elliotwalton6159]

19:00 Okay, now I have to go back and watch Inherent Vice because that street and house look very familiar from the movie. Could they have filmed, or built a set of, his old place?

[@gobisGalaxy_star]

I think too many writers are dying to see their face on the dust jacket of a book looking all profound and serious. They want to be quasi-celebrities. Many of their readers are complicit in this. They want to hero worship someone. Knowing so much about a writer, to me, however, deadens the magic of a novel. It's like the line attributed to Jesus about nobody being a prophet in their home town. Of course, the idea being that your mom or brother or whoever, who knows practically everything about you, can't really take you too seriously when you start talking about profound concepts. For me, it's a little like that with writers. Knowing next to nothing about Pynchon, and knowing next to nothing about what HE thought about the book, makes 'V' and certainly 'Gravity's Rainbow' more fun and mysterious for me.

[@blkbird]

Very good comment.

[@Stoney-Jacksman]

I love this with every artform. MF DOOM for example wore his mask for this same reason. Graffiti also I love for this same reason. There is beauty in mystery.

[@hyperTorless]

Jesus these creepy stalkers are absolutely fucking scary. Imagine how much we could achieve if their skills was to be put on actual productive useful stuff!

[@jameswaldrop2688]

A very important question is has Don Delilo read Pynchon. Did Delilo know of this coincidence? Libra is fascinating. The thing about a disruptive student like Oswald is that sticks in your record. They went way back to Elementary School for William Calley Zizek has a fascination with violence. Lacan speaks of "the act."

[@luccaseixasoliveira]

Amazing video with amazing information and amazing music.

[@jameswaldrop2688]

FBI fingerprint card. GENIUS. James Earl Ray was on his way from mixology school to checking out babies all day to being across from the Lorraine Hotel.

[@DocSportello1970]

His Legacy will be up there with The Best. Years from now he will be revered like we do Dickens, Hugo, Hardy and Hesse today, He is a Legit Genius and I really Wish I could meet him and have a chat. Its pretty close to Wish #1 of the 3 I hope to be Granted!

[@Stoney-Jacksman]

You have too little problems my friend. And lack of empathy for that matter. A magical genie would be at total.waste on you. If you ever meet it..tell it ' no thank you sir..i have no problems, im super privileged and only have luxury wishes'.

[@DocSportello1970]

@@Stoney-Jacksman Don't be so sure of that...Wish #2 was for World Peace!

[@Stoney-Jacksman]

@@DocSportello1970 hahah touché;)

[@WilliamBaranowski]

Utterly fantastic.

[@jennifertate4397]

Wow! That was fascinating! Thanks.

[@tonywalton1052]

12:20 an English Nose! oh lord.

[@mishunman]

great music

[@jameswaldrop2688]

Writers block and a blocked toilet are both tough. You unblock toilets with a snake and a plunger. The super paranoia that informs Gravity's Rainbow subsides with the Watergate Burglary-the Plumbers. Burgess and his fascination with Enderby's BMs. The band Rod Kruger? The Doctor was sick indeed.

[@davidlean1060]

You know by the shape of the mouth that that is him at the end, in the red cap, captured on film by CNN.

[@Stiert]

i wish this was 10 hours long

[@sophiebrown2622]

If you wanted you could put it on a repetitive loop.

[@JoeMoreg]

Just change the playback speed settings ;-)

[@jingalls9142]

Woah the bit with the cat was horrible. I mean that caught me so off guard. Wasn't ready for that.

[@PEGGLORE]

Holy Shit, I was listening to 'Hitler was a vegetarian' by the Residents only yesterday. I did not expect the music to come on again when starting up this documentary. Nor did I expect people in the comments to even know who it was. People calling it awful music in the comments are ignorant to shit. The music is genius, kind of like 'magic eye' pictures for the ears, where only some can see the magic that's in it. Anyway, let's see where this goes then in this supposed documentary I'm meant to be watching here, if it cuts off in a minute or what?

[@troutmask6800]

I remember loaning Third Rock and Roll to a co worker in the early 80’s. He was really pissed off at me later; he just didn’t get it. I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1976-1986 and they were constantly being talked about. Actually find that record hilarious as their savaging of top 40 radio song is great for a person like myself familiar with all of it. I did see them live in the early 80’s and they were pretty awful (they got better with live performances later).

[@PEGGLORE]

@@troutmask6800 I bought tickets for the 50th anniversary of Duck Stab show over a year ago. That was meant to be happening in February, but it was cancelled last minute. I've no idea when the reschedule is. Not been given any info and don't know what to do about it. I get the feeling it's not going to happen, and they have my money for it still. Don't really know what to do about it. Maybe I have other priorities now than to think and plan around this mystery concert of theirs. This was surely going to be a special concert and am not happy about what's going on with this. I'll google it now and see if there are any updates now actually. Cheers..

[@r.w.bottorff7735]

The music: the residents! So cool.

[@rabbitss11]

Whatever benefits LSD may have to offer for fuck's sake don't ever give it to a cat, cruel bastards, 37:17

[@richardbailey1993]

Come on... start the show... come on... start the show!

[@GaryALucas]

I bet Pynchon got quite a kick out of this. :/

[@jameswaldrop2688]

Huckleberry Finn at 1.28.43. What are the town folk thinking about me. Counter surveillance perhaps?

[@trasade]

What nerve to take a picture of a man who’s gone through several decades-worth of trouble to avoid having his picture taken? And while he’s walking with his little boy too! Then he went to shake his hand like it “was the end of a game,” or something to that effect. It’s not a game. He isn’t playing. What was accomplished other than pissing off a man whose creative work we love and don’t require his photo to enjoy? I wish I could un-see this video. I need a shower.

[@ultraparadoxical7610]

This is awesome!

[@ultraparadoxical7610]

The Residents soundtrack is perfect

[@jameswaldrop2688]

Remember RAND is nearby. Is that where the Used Car Setting comes in. Imagine IF Daniel Ellsberg wrote fiction? Is there a Whistle-blower ranking where some gal says "I'll give her 5."

[@thephilsharp]

Pretty sure the chap in red hat is Lou Reed.

[@rainbowmichael8569]

I am reading San Francisco cry. I have readen all of him. He is a monument of the XXest literature, undoubtly. I have lived passionate moments with his literature. He is a big. But his make up falls after Unherent vice, unfortunately. He will stay a big writer, with so much references. Thank you, Thomas. Michael

[@clockfingerboards]

He is a big.

[@marcossilveiracamargo2814]

"PORTUGUESE SUBTITULES, PLEASE" 📝 - M.S.C.

[@RookhKshatriya]

He is the American version of Syd Barret.

[@ListenToBigFace]

Pynchon is actually talented though, rather than some upper middle class dilettante who took too many drugs and ended up a bum

[@heydinosaur]

What the fuck? As a music nerd who tends to hang around a lot of music nerds, I've never heard a music nerd talk shit on Syd Barret. I can't take you seriously if you have such a hard time objectively discerning talent. I feel like you probably think U2 is a great band.

[@ListenToBigFace]

I don’t think I can adequately put across to you just how much I don’t give a fuck whether you can take me seriously or not. Apart from the U2 thing. That’s just hurtful.

[@heydinosaur]

That's good that you don't give a fuck. We'd probably get along irl. But, come on! Astronomy Domine, alone, is one of the greatest rock songs of the 1960s, and Piper At The Gates Of Dawn helped shape the entire face of a blossoming psychedelic landscape. People have been ripping off Syd Barret's quirky pop sensibility for 50 years now... You don't have to like his music or his whole aesthetic, but his talent isn't really a reasonable thing to debate. Maybe he didn't shred like Gilmore, but you're talkin' about him like he's justin beiber.

[@edwincamarena6697]

I can see what you're getting at it but I wouldn't agree as Syd Barret burned out rather quickly and Thomas Pynchon has contributed a large amount of work that does nothing but help bolster his reputation.

[@austinfarber3438]

I love this documentary and I love Pynchon. I’d like to smoke dope with him.

[@rtyur6186]

Творчество этого писателя,вернуло меня к жизни.

[@jameswaldrop2688]

Pynchon excavated the mind of his readers and they see images of what they have repressed. Remember the Carano being called a Mauser. Pynchon invites us to look for the pony in a room full of horse dung. Pynchon goes from parallax, to telescopic to microscopic.

[@jackquinnes]

Thomas Pynchon might be enigmatic but are his works so enigmatic in the end, not more than a children's book with pictures of opossums, I reckon.

[@jackquinnes]

On the other hand. what is this voyeuristic obsession with a person behind literary works. It is a shallow issue regardless. Let the poor bastard gather dust in peace. After all he is just another dude shitting, farting and fucking when not trying to sound cooler than he is. His novels, a fitting multilayered image of the post WWII collective paranoia, manipulation, technocracy, drugs and pop culture; a postmodern freak show build on these premises with its hilarious moments. - Yes, he is knowledgeable, nice to know. Does the accidental academic information dropping make a towering pile of sheets of text great literature? No more than it would turn a pile of shit golden. But then again it might mask its potential shortcomings in that regard. Since it is always sexy and cool suddenly to pop out or come across some partial differential equations of rocket dynamics on a page n of a novel x that has temporarily lost its way in the self-knit textual labyrinth. - A deep-diagnostic, bold and thorough x-ray of America of the 1950 s in the grips of fascists of the military-industrial complex? Maybe then. Kudos for that. Anyway, focus on the rich and rewarding texts of interest, not their possible writers who are even at best but pale shadows of what they might have managed to write down once.

[@jameswaldrop2688]

If Pynchon had stayed in the Navy he might have found himself on the Maddox of Turner Joy. When Jeopardy gets up and running again: Quien Saber? LEE HARVEY OSWALD George Stephanopoulos is a candidate for host. "Lee Harvey Oswald for $500." George standing on a milk crate. Dinning! The Daily Double. The Answer: John Wayne. JOE! What is the USS Terrell County.

[@illeagleproducionz8116]

😂thats john Malkovich i sweat

[@aurum8766]

ThomaSPYnchon crying a lot 49 = 4 is D 9 is I Trystero Try Stero di Try Steroid cry a lot Symbol is a syringue pushed to the end Oedipa's Maas = Adiposa (fat) Mass It's a waste... Hahaha he must enjoy himself Amazing!

[@warmleatherette]

Read Pynchon, Listen The Residents... Now Watch Wot?!?? Come on, share your PARANOIA FILMS!

[@fashizzlebadizzle6552]

Inherent Vice

[@naturesquad9174]

Empty Metal

[@erichaynes5826]

If my writing was famous and good, I would be the same

[@kale1305]

Intriguing for sure. Music is not easy to listen to. I get it, it fits the vibe, but holy shit was it horrible.

[@naturesquad9174]

The track at about 44:30 straight up gives me acid flashbacks. And not good ones.

[@GaryALucas]

Pynchon and The Residents, quite a combo. :/

[@PEGGLORE]

You need to hear the whole piece of music in it's entirety, very many times till you know every nuance, then you should grow to like it and like nothing else after getting into it. I listened to it only yesterday. I did not expect to hear it when putting on this documentary. I will enjoy this.

[@quixoticindiscipline9524]

@@PEGGLORE I love the residents, but that is a silly request man

[@PEGGLORE]

@@quixoticindiscipline9524 But you do have to know it pretty much note for note before you start to really appreciate what it is that they do. most hear what's on the surface and just run away from it so miss out on the point. Quixotry is the highest scoring Scrabble word I think, still trying to play it on the Facebook app. One day.

[@education_2020]

the Pynchon coontributions????

[@ben9975]

this is good shit. real ones know

[@RkristinaTay]

He is embarrassed by his work and knows that it is specious. Just imagine being called a post modernist writer. He curdles and hides in embarrassment. He is a reformed dork. Those who love his work, remain dorks.

[@Whocares1987]

Favorite authors?

[@ClarksonFisherIII]

idk what you'll have to say about pynchon for 90 min but can't wait....

[@ClarksonFisherIII]

WAIT this isn't your content and I've seen it multiple times. UNCOOL

[@joshuadominguez1582]

Spanish subtitules, please.

[@rtyur6186]

Творчество этого писателя, вернуло меня к жизни.

[@mdtys]

he's like bigfoot

[@DocSportello1970]

Lieutenant Detective Christian F. "Bigfoot" Bjornsen? Of the LAPD?

[@duantorruellas716]

I want money and smoke on the water , great avant guard versions of these great songs. Yeah the soundtrack was great. It's perfect with this docu/film. 👍

[@AAwildeone]

Sooo WEIRD that these people care so much about Pynchon...I could care less about WHO he is...maybe ALL works of literature should be simply anonymous....

[@janllh24]

Ultimately they all are

[@jingalls9142]

Like the Alan Smithee of literature.

[@Yamariiii]

I have about 3 braincells and i can tell this is all pretty fucked

[@ДмитрийВербицкий-у7д]

Lopez Kenneth Jackson Mark Taylor George

[@austinfarber3438]

The music made this documentary.

[@donbell8187]

Interesting collection of stuff. Really annoying music.

[@kevichiking3563]

Terrifying and terrible soundtrack. Good god man it's a dumpster fire on my ears.

[@alexjager4517]

I Don't mind the music, it seems appropriate...but I love your dumpster fire in the ears

[@abendiaye3330]

Worst soundtrack ever, incredibly distracting.

[@dububro]

Pleb.

[@Haydenthemaker1000]

Worst sound design ever

[@bramsanjanssan4908]

Soo funny to see these soldiers and shit stand around Wernher von Braun smoking cigarettes next to the liquid oxygen ballistic missiles.