An Investigation of Pynchon's Openers

Gravity's Rainbow (1974) - No
The Crying of Lot 49 (1965) - Yes!
V (1961) - No, but equivocally
Mason & Dixon (1997) - Yes!
Vineland (1990) - Yes
Inherent Vice (2009) - Yes
Against the Day (2006) - No
Bleeding Edge (2013) - Yes!
Slow Learner (1984) - Yes

This is my main assessment tool for books. I'm now in my 30s, so I've been wracking a little harder about it. Like there must be a way to finetune this instrument to be more predictive. 

I'm glad I went through all of these. Some have that baseline style that really lifts Pynchon's floor. Even if you don't understand what all is going on, that's there to fall back on. I don't think all his books fall in the same place on the complexity scale. Inherent Vice wasn't complicated at all. The Crying of Lot 49 was pretty complicated. In fact thinking back on when I read it, I don't have a great feeling. I want to read it again; maybe I can get below a few more layers. 

So that could be my next one. Or Bleeding Edge. That might be a safer bet. It appears less complex than COL49. Vineland makes a lot of sense on paper. PTA likely loves it (like he loves IV), so maybe it holds some similarity with that book as well. I'm not sure how labyrinthine Vineland is, so I'm cautious there. Mason & Dixon seems like an extraordinary commitment. The bit is great, but would I tire of it? I did read like 30 pages of it once before? I think that went well. 

Those are the options. I can't read Inherent Vice again. It wouldn't be an awful time, but it'd feel performative or something to re-read it.

The Shining

I picked up a copy at my local bookstore during one of my thrice-yearly visits. 

The cover is not the most appealing. It's the black one with the Doctor Sleep movie tie-in. I don't hate movie tie-ins, but ideally it'd be one with the actors' faces plastered across. The font of Stephen King's name is also splattered a bit, which bugs me.

The font is Times New Roman. Not ideal. But the font is spaced well. And it's exceedingly pleasant to hold, open, and manipulate generally. 

The epigraph is overlong--in true Stephen King fashion. But you have to respect that.

What got me over the threshold was the opening words of the first chapter. It is when Jack Nicholson's character has a job interview with Stuart Ullman. That is among the very best scenes in the movie. And reading that adds quite a bit. It probably works as a stand-alone short story. 

I read a little more afterward. A nervous Shelly Duvall interacts with Danny. I don't find Danny that interesting. Maybe if I had kids I would.

I've quit the book. The writing was on the wall. I wasn't going to get terribly much from it, unless the interview continued on and on. And I started reading the first Bourne book, which occupies a similar lane. 

Just now I've wrangled the book a bit more. It feels fantastic. I see why I started reading it in the first place.

Short Stories #4: Leo Tolstoy

I did read one by George R.R. Martin too. It was a bit shocking to read something he wrote outside the grand structure of ASOIAF. It was so long ago I can't recall what it was about. My only memory is there is some grand AHA! moment nerds frequently produce. It ends on one I think. A bit of a that's deep bro moment combined in there too. 

And I very slowly read another Tolstoy story. It was the same as the others. Profound and perfect. It's like the Bible's parables written by a prose magician. They are intimidating to read though. It's easier to slip into something more pedestrian, like a biography. Maybe they force confrontation with moral failings other things can sidestep. 

"FTA"

"Two Old Men"

Joker 2

I am excited for Joker 2. 

I recall seeing the trailer for Joker before some other movie. I probably saw it several times. It didn't look that appealing. But when the movie came out it clearly left an imprint, so I went to see it. I was mostly bored. I can never really hear Joaquin's mumblings.

I ended up seeing it again recently. It's a pleasant movie. I like the rumination in a character with antisocial personality. The guy that everyone hates. Who's also stupid (not derogatory). And the comic-bookness really seems forced in there as ad-hoc justification. Pure satiation. It's just about this guy and what he's led to.

The reception of Joker 2 wasn't discouraging either. I like musicals. QT likes it. Maybe I should've seen it on a massive screen though. Lady Gaga isn't a big draw for me, but she was good in A Star is Born. And Todd Phillips is among the previous generation of competent directors. I wonder how Zazie Beetz factors in. Is this a love triangle? Schizophrenic wanderings? Does she visit him in Rikers? I also wonder what'll be lost now that Joaquin is fully Jokered. He was just a modest guy but now it's post blood-smile. I doubt we can go back. Who are the characters I want back? Beetz, yes. The guy who gave Joaquin the gun, yes (though sadly he's dead). De Niro, yes (dead as well). Joaquin's therapist, yes (dead too, I think?). Beetz's kid, yes. So not many, hopefully they can restock the pantry

The Winds of Winter sample chapters PDF

https://mega.nz/file/UegXkLxA#razlCT6rfMmKyvvmdWfertITs70DciiyZ8sZdXdcQSg

Short Stories #3: Leo Tolstoy

The early tension of this here held me off from continuing through these stories for many months. But finally I pushed through.... Not sure what else there's to say. These are all the same. Life's beauty; a single unity. The car's so nice you don't drive it anywhere. How can I make this the mission?

"A spark neglected burns the house"

On the page #4

I used to do these on my other blog, but they fit better here. 

I am reading Be Cool most days. It was the most appealing Elmore Leonard at my local book shop. It's mostly boring, but Leonard does some interesting things. I won't read another. I started reading Rage again. I really lost interest in Trump last fall. But with the election cycle in full heat, it's a good time again. This sort of nonfiction is the easiest thing to read, though much of the time it's boring. I finished Children of Dune like a month ago. It feels like the greatest encapsulation of the Dune ethos so far. Dune 1 is pretty standard; Messiah is the pulp fanfic pageturner; this is an exploration of the most distant implications of Herbert's presets. It's a warm and friendly place to occupy. 

I was reading Fellowship heavily for a couple weeks, but I put it aside to focus on completing Children. The meticulous construction of Middle Earth makes it pleasant enough. I also like constant puzzle-experience presented by its divergences from the film. My copy also is pretty old, with yellow pages, which makes the words feel more hallowed. The universe is male-dominated so I assume that will limit its ceiling somewhat. But that's most books I read. I'm hoping as the overall volume of my reading (and breadth of survey) increases I'll have a better sense of where what I'm looking for is hiding. 

I read the entire series of Neon Genesis Evangelion manga. This was an exhilarating experience. That month also coincided with a sizable work project, which I would toil at by myself every day. I built the whole thing with the modern tools most pleasurable to wield. And after work each day, maybe just before bed, I would read a bunch of NGE on my computer. It is a perfect match of story and medium. Losers will tell you to watch the anime first. The manga allocates necessary time to contemplate the imagery before jumping forward. 

After this amazing manga experience, I tried to read Ghost in the Shell. The world feels very similar to Neuromancer's. It's interesting, but in a compartmentalized intellectual way. There are no emotional bridges to board. The first manga I read was actually Tokyo These Days. It presents how personal and professional life intersect. I wish there was more stuff like this. 

I started reading Moby-Dick. It is a new thing to experience. I'm glad to venture into the uncharted, even if it's not accompanied by welcoming feelings. It's not the profound thing I was hoping for, but it's unfamiliar enough that it continues to change. 

I started reading The Hare. Years ago I was consistently reading Aira, but something shifted, so I stopped. I might be back in that place now. And this might be me be walking down the golden path again. So much while reading in general there'll be a total detachment from the pages, with a random 1% green candle, then back to flatline. The hit rate here is 10 or 20x. 

I read The Education of a Coach. It's a lot like the Musk and Jobs books--how focus and brilliance manifest in professional life. When an incident is taken to the microscope we see some compelling case studies. When it goes to survey-mode it's worthless trash. Halberstam is definitely among the greatest writers of sports material--far above the mean. E.g. I read Benedict's LeBron book. Part of the problem is the obscene breadth of material. The Heat-Cavs-Lakers arc is just not explored in any reasonable detail. Just fact vomiting. I did find LeBron's early life up to joining the NBA very interesting; but there's a complete absence of style.

Edits: typos