Summer in Vineland
Podding through Pynchon for Broad Sound
When I first read Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland (in anticipation of it being the loose basis for Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming DiCaprio-starring film), I had this to say about it:
[Pynchon] stuffs his books so full to the brim with characters, plots, and ideas that I’ve never been able to totally pin one of them down, if that’s even possible in the first place. In that way, reading him is more about surfing his avalanche of words than it is about drawing a perfect outline of a wave.
By that metric, this is far and away the most enjoyable Pynchon I’ve read/surfed, and not coincidentally the most straightforward (even if that’s like saying “the most red blue”).
Well, now I’m putting that to the test by getting back on the board to ride the wave again — this time with an actual PTA scholar,
. Throughout the rest of the summer (leading right up to the release of One Battle After Another), I’ll be joining Ethan on the Broad Sound podcast feed, where we’ll be attempting to surf each chapter of Pynchon’s goofy, revolution-via-Looney-Tunes satire of the ‘80s.If you’ve never read it but want to knock it out before the film, or if you have and want to dive back in, or if you haven’t and don’t want to but are just curious to see what a fool I can make of myself with an open mic for half an hour a week, then I’d love it if you’d join us. And either way, hang ten.