Evan > Recent Status Updates

In one of the books I bought today someone's calling card was stuck inside, and it reads: "My Card." You know this funster probably also had a joy buzzer and a hard slap on the back at the ready.

So far I'm having no trouble with this novel; I think there's a lot of fear mongering out there about its difficulty. Knowing a lot of the pop cultural references and some of the scientific concepts has helped. Really good insight about the psychological paranoia of war, which in the present situation of chaos makes it timely and relatable. For me, anyway.

Moving right along. Yeah, I'll finish this, the Lord or Zeus be willing.

Cousin's 70th birthday party tonight and had no idea going in he'd have the best jazz trio in the city playing in his living room. I knew this jazz guy from my days working at the university. Dude was playing Triste and Night and Day and Take the A Train on the sax like the fucking master he is and I was calling them off and drinking top-shelf prosecco wine. What a shindig!

Never dreamed I'd be able to to follow this book, but so far I am. Reading lotsa tough ones in succession has heightened the awareness. In any case, this is prime time for heightened awareness, innit? When they want the ones with heightened awareness dead. Pynchon is telling us in 1973 what's going on right now.

Outside shot to make it to page 100 today but just stopped short. Book is getting dense now.

Crutchfield seems partly a model for Judge Holden in McCarthy's Blood Meridian, but chatGPT tells me that's not the case. But here's where the human mind prevails over AI. The mind virus will not take me. So, we're in the first infamous scatological passage of the book. Naturally I was eating breakfast while reading it. haha. I'm following this blend of fantasy and "reality" somehow. Onward.

Three times farther into this than I've ever gotten before, so the mo' is rolling. A crazed state of being is the state to be in, for this.

Getting to the experimentation part of the book and the parallels to our current AI-technocratic-autocratic era could not be clearer. Pynchon is very prescient here.

Book's getting a bit fuzzy, but still following it well enough. The impeccable writing helps. Reference to an entourage of little people showmen make for an odd intersection with The Tin Drum, which I just read. Fascinating serendipity. Combination of blood thinners, cigars (nicotine) and unusually good cheap wine making the words sing; a combination of downers that even Hunter Thompson never dreamed of. Onward.

Merrily rolling along now. Reading this aloud is quite a pleasure. It helps greatly that I understand all the references. Life-long learning, people.

OK. Tommy boy Pynchon, I think I have you now. Reading Gaddis, Grass and Burroughs in advance have burst you wide open for me. Those guys may have been the key to prep me. This is now EASY?, somehow, and for the first time I'm actually enjoying this thing. Even laughing here and there. The writing is unparalleled. I haven't lost the thread yet, but it is early on. Good cardiology report today, so that helps.

I can see how Pynchon's sense of humor and mine may not be compatible. He thinks bananas are funny (they're not) but I say cheese is funny (it is). Hopefully this will be the only impasse. (I somehow doubt it. Stay positive, you!)

Barely got started on this before being called into the cardiology exam. But it seemed good. Bought two of the Nova Trilogy books by Burroughs today at HPB, because these do not last on the shelf very long. i bought them right off the stocking cart -- they never made it to the shelf.

"Trump's gonna keep us out of war." Starts war.
"Trump's gonna win the war." Loses war.

I have started and quit this novel so many times I feel I should be able to recite the opening pages from memory. Glutton for punishment as I am, and having notched three other gnarly behemoths in a row, let's go for it! Can we finally do this, this year? I just bought a pristine copy for $11 at Half Price Books. That's a motivator.

I'm not sure who was the more unreliable narrator, Oskar in The Tin Drum or Groucho in this, but this was a fun and breezy time, nonetheless.

It would not be worth having Trump's money to be as miserable a human being as he is.

Back section is translator's notes, which I read in advance. Wow, yeah, this was something else. Indisputable masterpiece.

Might have finished today if not for chores that needed doing. One more push should get it.

In the home stretch and this baby hasn't weakened at all. Going to be, I think, my favorite read of the year along with Burroughs' Naked Lunch.

Score one for me. The references to Klepp staying in bed for days took my mind straight to Oblomov, and I checked it out with the great AI brain, and it's true. I haven't even gotten to the part yet where Oblomov is expressly referenced in the book. Knowing lit helps in knowing other lit.