[browserman]

Jules Siegel, Pynchon's college friend and roommate, once wrote that "...you have to accept the fact that Tom’s grasp of things that he glibly sets down as if he were a master of the material is usually quite superficial, based on reading anything from, say, Bible Comics to learned journals. This is not a criticism, but a description."

Of course, Siegel was maybe not the most reliable informant, given that Pynchon also famously slept with his wife.

[paulcole]

> you have to accept the fact that Tom’s grasp of things that he glibly sets down as if he were a master of the material is usually quite superficial

$1 to whoever finds Pynchon’s HN account

[canadiantim]

Steps to finding Pynchon's HN account:

1. Create a new HN account and populate it with posts containing samples of Pynchon's writing style

2. Go to: stylometry.net and put in the username of the HN account you created

3. Report back if anything of interest comes up

4. Split Paul Cole's $1 reward

[motohagiography]

We can call it PynchonNotPynchon.ai After prefs and dilution, as founder you can probably expect end up with about 3-5%.

The spin-off of PynchonOrNot.io, where GPT ranks them on a scale of not-Pynchon to very Pynchon indeed - could do very well, given the precedents. I would even bet more people would want to know if the internet thought they were Pynchon or not than hot or not.

[flir]

PynchonNotPynchonInPythonNotJython?

[Mistletoe]

Does something like that site exist for Reddit?

[jacquesm]

A lot more background:

http://shipwrecklibrary.com/the-modern-word/pynchon/sl-siege...

[klohto]

This deserves its own post. I love the writing style.

[Kreutzer]

Pynchon hired post-docs to research the dotcom bubble and cultural ephemera of the time for BLeeding Edge. Many other writers employ researchers for their writing as well, James Ellroy comes to mind. It's a kind of open secret in the publishing industry. Of course, writers and their publishers alike would prefer if readers had no idea of this.

[coldtea]

It's not more a secret or shameful than a Hollywood director paying consultants in various aspects (from slang, history and politics to fashion, interior design, and cars) to make his mafia movie more historically accurate

[dbspin]

Novelists using researchers isn't a secret, and it's not shameful. Not sure where you picked up this idea.

[Kreutzer]

I didn't say it was....

[bmitc]

That seems to track with some of the more critical reviews of Gravity’s Rainbow I read recently. I have never read one of his books and was considering that one, but I’m not a huge fan of sprawling novels.

[jrumbut]

I would recommend The Crying of Lot 49 over Inherent Vice, if you're looking for a shorter novel.

I'm not saying his more recent novels are bad, per se, but I would only read them if you exhaust the earlier works and still want more.

[WastingMyTime89]

Deeply disagree.

Inherent Vice is extremely funny. It’s like a more successful Vineland, itself a good book. They are extremely good.

The Crying of Lot 49 is also good but it feels somewhat rushed. It was written to get some money while writing Gravity’s rainbow and it shows.

[Apocryphon]

I’ve been trying to read Bleeding Edge mostly for the tech startup scene and Y2K setting.

It reads a lot like a Douglas Coupland novel, especially JPod.

[bratwurst3000]

Read Inherent Vice. Its an easy and amusing read.

Gravitys Rainbow is one hell of a trip. Had to read it twice. Something for self torture with some fun in it.

[themelodyfarm]

I enjoyed all the Jewish tidbits sprinkled through the the book.