Soundtracks Of Our Lives w/e 4 July 2010 CE

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Five F
Five Jul 5, 2010 19:31:32
Replying to Dog 3000

Dog 3000 wrote:
I thought it was pretty good, if not an earth-shattering work of LITERATURE. I do seriously wonder if he's seen "Lebowski" and may have been a bit inspired by it (the "doper detective" vibe if not anything relating to plot or characters.)

Anyway he can't always be taking 15 years to write a 1200 page novel . . . I liked this one better than "Against The Day".

VINELAND was tripped out and strange but on the whole I've enjoyed it ... the language was awesome, the characters bizarre, and tho I read it over a year ago I'm still thinking about. Just started re-reading V. Would like to read "Inherent Vice" but Pynchon is such that getting it from the library doesn't really work. (Takes too long to read.) Skimmed a few pages of one in a bookstore that involved a hot air balloon and was truly odd. Went back to buy it some time later (used store, thinking who coulda wanted that besides me) but it was gone.

D Dog 3000
Dog 3000 Jul 7, 2010 02:53:18
Replying to Five

I enjoyed VINELAND a lot and think it's one of his better ones -- though only read it once so far, in fact I think I will get it out and give it a second read now. "Inherent Vice" is a bit similar to that one (hippies and detectives are involved.)

The hot air balloon one was "Against The Day" -- took me nearly a year to get through, in the end I thought it was just a shaggy dog story (I don' geddit.) Probably more like "Gravity's Rainbow" than anything else he has written, but I may be a bit unusual in not being much of a fan of either of these!

However I loved "Mason & Dixon" which is just as long and rambling, and "even worse" is written in 18th century dialect. But worth the effort if you have several months to devote to an epic! I think it's his "most masterpiecish" (so far.)