90 - Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 (Guest: Seth of WASTE Mailing List)

Seth — aficionado of difficult fiction and driving force behind WASTE Mailing List — joins the podcast this episode to chat with David about the endless gifts to be found within the endless layers of Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49. Pynchon-lite it is not! Encompassing both the absurd and the prophetic, this early work by the reclusive author covers everything from embedded allusions to the cultural tumult of the 1960s, distrust of any and all formal systems, and a prescient view of the future of communication (cough, the internet, cough). But perhaps the most meaningful conclusion to draw from Pynchon’s work is the absence of drawn conclusions. It’s messy out there, readers. Grab a copy, give it a read, give it another read, then take a listen. * For more Books of Some Substance Instagram -   / booksosubstance   Twitter -   / booksosubstance   Web - https://www.booksofsomesubstance.com/ Find Seth YouTube -    / @wastemailinglist726   Instagram -   / wastemailinglist   Twitter -   / wastemailing   Thomas Pynchon (b. May 8, 1937) is one of the greatest American novelists. His work is dark, humorous, linguistically playful, and surreal; it is concerned with a seeking of meaning in a seemingly chaotic meaningless world, bombarded with information and misinformation, cultural entropy, madness. Pynchon’s second novel, The Crying of Lot 49, is the story of Oedipa Maas, "executrix” of the estate of ex-lover and millionaire Pierce Inverarity. Once named executrix, she begins a journey--a quest--through a labyrinthine conspiracy involving W.A.S.T.E. and Tristero. Along the way she encounters outcasts, deadbeats, weirdos, conspiracy nuts, all disaffected and disfranchised moving through the absurdity of America.