Do we have any Thomas Pynchon fans up in here?
Somehow this thread made it four years without any fellow weed heads recommending the pre-eminent American Postmodernist Writer, the Prophet of Paranoia, the Prometheus of Pot-fiction and Seer of Psychedelia?
Every weirdo in the world is on my wavelength.
—Thomas R. Pynchon
Some have hailed him as “the greatest living American writer,” and that was while Cormac McCarthy was still alive.
Pynchon is my favorite writer, if my gushing hasn’t given it away.
Inherent Vice (2009) is an amazing book. “Stoner noir” is the simplest description. Imagine a hard-boiled detective story where the main character is a pot smoking hippie beach bum and you‘ve got the premise. This book’s a trip, man. I have never read any fiction that encapsulates “the Sixties” like this does. The story is thrilling, mysterious, and hilarious.
Thematically this book makes for an incredible pairing with Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Each features a portrayal & analysis of hippie culture, especially how “the Great Wave” would eventually (inevitably?) crash to the ground. I think it’s no small coincidence for Inherent Vice to be set in 1971, the same year Fear and Loathing was released.
I could go on literally for hours talking about this.
I’ll have to recommend his other books on a different day. Otherwise I’ll keep typing all night, and it’s dinner time right now 