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Cin Deih Tuang

Ms. Lacey
English III
24 February 2016
Thomas Pynchon
Literature is reflected in the society or community of group of individuals within specific

time period. In reading the work of Thomas Pynchon, an author associated with the

postmodernism, and whose work was published during WWII. One can find relevant issues and

themes. Additionally Thomas Pynchon legacy has had a lasting impact on my readers,

particularly African American.

Thomas Pynchon was born in Glen Cove, New York in May 8, 1937. Oyster Bay High

School in Oyster Bay was where he graduated high school. After he graduated from high school,

Thomas Pynchon continued to study engineering physics at Cornell University. However, he left

and served two years in the United States Navy and earned an English degree from Cornell

University.
In 1964, his application to study mathematics as a graduate student at the University of

California, Berkeley was turned down. In 1966 Pynchon wrote a first-hand report on the

aftermath and legacy of the Watts Riots in Los Angeles. The article was published in the New

York Times Magazine Wikipedia. After he had publishing several short stories, he began

composing the novels. "Thomas Pynchon's willingness to address the most important cultural

and social issues makes him an important writer" Stark. Moreover "Pynchon's first publication

was a short story, Mortality and Mercy in Vienna" Stark. His novel best known was The Crying

of Lot.
Equally important The Crying of Lot 49, Vine lane, and Gravity's Rainbow are his major

work. The study of student "The Crying of Lot 49 is one of the most deceptive--as well as one of

the most brilliant [books]--to have appeared since [World War II]." A wealth of references to

science and technology and to obscure historical events, his books dwelling on the detritus of
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American society and culture are contains in his novel. The novel is brilliant because the novel

related to what had happened in World War II. Moreover there are more about what the author

wants us to know, that is "Readers should be aware that there are sexual references and scenes as

well as drug and alcohol used throughout the book, and the novel may not be suitable for

younger readers for a variety of reasons" Gale, and "The Crying of Lot 49 offers a rich and

ultimately rewarding reading experience" Gale. One of the important to know is "The plot of The

Crying of Lot 49 has an unlikely start and becomes increasingly chaotic throughout the book."

Gale.
Also another thing that the novel significance about is "Thomas Pynchon opens Gravitys

Rainbow (1973) with the experience of a rocket-bomb that goes beyond Adams prediction"

Richard. Furthermore Gravitys Rainbow is one of the landmarks of American fiction Gale. In

the same fashion the novel take place the last month of World War II. Most of his novels are

included War World II. Further he published his books around that time of period. That makes

audience interested and signified. Some scholars have hailed it as the greatest American post

World War II novel, and it has similarly been described as literally an anthology of postmodernist

themes and devices Wikipedia. The novel Gravitys Rainbow shared the 1974 National Book

Award. Furthermore, That same year, the Pulitzer Prize fiction panel unanimously

recommended Gravitys Rainbow for the award Wikipedia.

Many writer, directors and artists are influence by Pynchons works. Not long after,

Thomas Pynchon became known as one of progenitors of cyberpunk fiction in 1987. His books

and every novel led to hypertext fiction movement of the 1990s. In the same manner, "In

Pynchon, with a few critical exceptions, repetition tends to enforce not difference, but identity:

such a way of reading can of course seem fatalistic or paranoid, but it sometimes offers a way to

forge liberating connections" Richard said, Pynchon's characters often imagine that they are
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being controlled by unseen historical forces, immanent interventions, and inexplicable repetitions

and patterns. Also Connection in Pynchon itself often functions as a form of doubling,

because comparison tends to create near consonance--tropes become identitarian. (In

transcendental writing--which I argue provides a context for virtually Pynchon's entire body of

work--metaphors often become synecdoches, and synecdoche literalizes.) Richard said.

Moreover, He is almost a mathematician of prose, who calculates the least and the greatest

stress each word and line, each pun and ambiguity, can bear, and applies his knowledge supple

diction can first treat of a painful and delicate love scene and then roar, without pause, into the

sound and echoes of a drugged and drunken orgy. The way he wrote his novels, short stories,

books, even The New Yorker or Poet makes people interested. Consequently, Pynchon is

transcendental in numerous contexts, but most of all through his ascription of will and sentience

to the world Richard Such pronouncements are part of Pynchon's larger transcendental, and

specifically pantheistic, worldview, which animates the inanimate, tends to sentimental

surrealism, and, as suggested, often literalizes metaphor.

To concluded, I like that Thomas Pynchon went to Navy after high school to learn more

about War. Furthermore, the most I like about him is the writing style that he use when he wrote

his novels or short stories. Many authors and readers are influence by his books. Unlike others

authors I learned, he is the one who pushing himself to be an author, and successful man. These

what I really like about him and interested about. Finally, these are what Ive learned about

author Thomas Pynchon.

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Works Cited

Hardack, Richard. "Consciousness without Borders: Narratology in Against the Day and the

Works of Thomas Pynchon." Criticism 52.1 (2010): 91. Literature Resource Center. Web.

18 Feb. 2016.

"Overview: Gravity's Rainbow." Novels for Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis. Vol. 23. Detroit:

Gale, 2006. N. pag. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Mar. 2016.

"Overview: The Crying of Lot 49." Novels for Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis. Vol. 36. Detroit:

Gale, 2011. N. pag. Literature Resource Center. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.

Pearce, Richard. "Pynchon, Thomas 1937." American Writers: A Collection of Literary

Biographies, Supplement 2. Ed. A. Walton Litz. Vol. 2. New York: Charles Scribner's

Sons, 1981. 617-38. Scribner Writers on GVRL. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.

Stark, John. "Thomas (Ruggles) Pynchon, (Jr.)." American Novelists Since World War II: First

Series. Ed. Jeffrey Helterman and Richard Layman. Detroit: Gale, 1978. N. pag.

Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 2. Literature Resource Center. Web. 18 Feb. 2016.