The LGC #authoroftheweek is Thomas Pynchon [1937-]. Few writers have so comprehensively channelled the panoramic sweep of American paranoia. Beginning with 1963’s V, Pynchon’s encyclopaedic sensibility appears an obvious successor to the maximalism of Joyce and Eliot, merging conspiracy theory, surrealism, parody, and absurdist humour, into a delirious postmodern bricolage. In the '50s, Pynchon studied engineering in Cornell University; after serving two years in the navy, he returned to college, where he graduated with a degree in English [he was taught briefly by Vladimir Nabokov]. In the early '60s, he was employed at Boeing as a technical writer on the BOMARC surface-to-air missile. From there, he spent some time in New York, then Mexico, before settling in California. There is a haziness and mystery to Pynchon’s biography. Notoriously private, only a select few photographs of the author exist. Novels like The Crying of Lot 49 [1966], Gravity’s Rainbow [1973] and Inherent Vice [2009] have cast an exorbitant shadow over literary culture, stretching the boundaries of the novel form for the following generation of writers and readers. #ThomasPynchon #americanliterature #Nabokov #JamesJoyce #InherentVice #V #pynchoninpublic

Thomas Pynchon’s 1973 novel Gravity’s Rainbow is a story about the mind shattering impact of war, razing landscapes both psychic and physical. Although, this only scratches the surface. Pynchon’s 760 pager, foregrounds naïve lieutenant Tyrone Slothrop who awakens to his unwilling involvement in an elaborate and sinister conspiracy that somehow connects back to the German V-2 rocket program. This novel is boundlessly experimental, exploiting the author’s seemingly limitless knowledge of pop culture, military technology, and arcane history. Its labyrinthine plots are famously challenging; few texts teach you their own strategies of reading as you go. Frequently hilarious, sometimes disgusting, Pynchon’s novel would be a surprise best-seller [published widely by Viking], and would garner an enthusiastic cult of admirers. Gravity’s Rainbow was famously turned down for a Pulitzer, the jurors objecting to the novel’s more obscene passages. However, Pynchon’s epic was given the National Book Award in 1974. Famously camera shy, he would not appear at the award ceremony. In his place, comedian Irwin Corey appeared ‘as Pynchon’ to the bafflement of everyone at the ceremony. Watch for Corey’s unforgettable and hilarious acceptance speech: youtube.com/watch?v=I-NBPpM-… #ThomasPynchon #GravitysRainbow #postmodernism #NationalBookAward #IrwinCorey #pynchoninpublic #TyroneSlothrop #greatbooks