Aggressive Reading Crew discussion

Warning note: there are some very strange agents out there sharing their "insights" on Pynchon and GR. Example: Here are a couple of viewer annotations under a YouTube post including an unknown voice singing "The Doper's Dream" (page 368):

Klaatu
2 years ago (edited)
Slothrop spelled backward is Porhtols which is German for Portholes/ portals. Probably deliberate on P's part. Portholes to where? A kind of zero point energy he talks about in the book? That corresponded with the supposedly fictional scalar energy theories that always claim to be real and frequently connected with Tesla. (Stephen King refers to something similar in Revival) English researchers doing pervy Pavlovian experiments producing extrasensory abilities in Slothrop along with attempted seances. Subtle physical energy body over-mind or another way of saying the soul is not internal but encases the outside of the body. An invisible energy portal several feet above the head that can be hacked by a gestalt hive consciousness? Oboy, maybe not.

Jack Helsdown

+Klaatu I love that TYRONE SLOTHROP is an anagram for SLOTH OR ENTROPY. As though Pynchon is offering the reader a choice; is our inability to do anything a sin committed by ourselves or is it just the natural order of things?

And just so I don't lose track of this link, here's an excellent ten minute intro by someone I've never heard of, with no credentials I can discern, and links below to other useful vids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syYPq...

The video to which the first guy refers reverently. I love this guy's demeanor, his gestures, his messy apartment, and his accent: "The important thing to see is I think that it's a focking messed up book." Along with all that, he shares some very astute and, I think, useful insights into the book and how it relates to the postmodern genre. Thirteen minutes well spent, sez me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua7VR...