Friday, December 18, 2009

Pynchon and Zappa, reiterated...


Pynchonoid (from a few years a-go go):

""Zappa shares at least one musical interest with Pynchon (he has written about the "cheerfully deranged world" of Jones' music) :
Zappa was interested in sound for its own sake -- as in the cowbells and car horns of Spike Jones's recordings. It would be interesting to know if Pynchon crossed paths with Zappa or any of these folks while he was in Lower California. Chances are if he had, somebody would have kissed and told by now. ....."


Zappa also appears in Capn' Tom's latest noir, Inherent Vice--or, at least his image appears on a t-shirt (did Sir TP clear that with Gail?), and an allusion made to a FZ concert at Pauley Pavilion. Readers of Vineland might also recall FZ making brief showings in that cartoony-kalifornian dystopia (I believe Zoyd Wheeler's musician pal Scott Oof has a momentary vision of The Mustachio'ed One on.....Mt Rushmore).

trey & phish play zappa:



(scaweee, huh, phonies, honkeys, lurker-snitches)

exxtratreat for FZnewbies: where the fevers grow

2 comments:

mark hoback said...

Just finishing up 'Inherent Vice', and made note of the very funny Zappa ref. Great book.

J said...

I perused quite a bit of Inherent Vice at Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago, and TP's extracts online (he also reads from it on youtube, and has a soundtrack), and it looks--and sounds-- pretty copacetic, sort of LA cyberpunk meets Ray Chandler. Pynchon's reading is entertaining as well---he's got a sort of wise-guy joisey sound...

The price tag however for hardback--25 bucks or so--was not so copacetic. I'm trying to find used online, but will see whether price goes down after Xmas.

I've read V., COL 49, Vineland, and Gravity's Rainbow (tho' GR years ago, and don't recall so much of the mad hallucination of WWII--Tom may have had too much to... think with GR). Mason Dixon still working on. COL-49 and Vineland still resonate with me--sort of the wrong side of Kalifornia ...

He's sort of an overwhelming writer, a Zappa of books--well read in sciences, and quantum physics, information theory--and lefto-freak politics as well (Vineland features a history of the IWW--and what was W.A.S.T.E., and the Tristero in Crying of Lot 49?? subversives, which is to say... the preterite). Plus comix, movies, and obscure writers. Check Vineland also for the Zappa references (I believe TP approves of Zappa but with all things Pynchon, there is always an ironic element to be considered).

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