Pynchon In Public Podcast

04.07: Gravity’s Rainbow In which we look at episodes seventeen and eighteen of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.

04.06: Gravity’s Rainbow In which we look at episodes fifteen and sixteen of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.

04.05: Gravity’s Rainbow In which we look at episodes thirteen and fourteen of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.

04.04: Gravity’s Rainbow In which our discussion of Gravity’s Rainbow continues as we examine episodes nine through twelve.

04.03: Gravity’s Rainbow In which we continue our discussion of Gravity’s Rainbow with episodes five through eight.

04.02: Gravity’s Rainbow In which we kick off season four with the first four episodes of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Note: For this season, when we refer to “episodes” we mean a section beginning with the seven squares.

04.01: Gravity’s Rainbow In which we interview the man behind the wonderful blog Thomas Pynchon’s Liquor Cabinet. Michael has embarked upon a noble quest to drink every alcoholic beverage mentioned all of Thomas Pynchon’s novels. Chris and Bo decide to help him along by partaking in a particularly interesting trio of drinks. Which ones? You’ll have to […]

03.09: The Crying of Lot 49 A final capstone discussion of The Crying of Lot 49. In which we say everything there’s left to say…or at least we say a lot. Some of it may even bring some meaning to the text as a whole. Some of it might just wander around San Narciso all night pointing […]

03.08: The Crying of Lot 49 In which we discuss the final chapter of The Crying of Lot 49. Oedipa, with the help of a Warfinger scholar, digs into the history of the Trystero. As the people and things in her life gradually fall away, she finds herself in a fugue. The last bit of her former […]

03.07: The Crying of Lot 49 In which we wrap up chapter five of The Crying of Lot 49. After a night spent wandering the streets of San Narciso and seeing the post-horn at nearly every turn, Oedipa encounters an old sailor who asks her to drop a letter into W.A.S.T.E. for him. She tails a deliveryman […]

03.06: The Crying of Lot 49 In which we talk about the first half of Chapter 5 of The Crying of Lot 49. Chapter 5 begins with Oedipa visiting John Nefastis and his homemade Maxwell’s Demon device. Afterward, she begins a night of peregrination, wandering from place to place, point to point, the muted post-horn always seeming […]

03.05: The Crying of Lot 49 Addressing chapter four of The Crying of Lot 49 with a brand-new panelist. Welcome, Blake! Chapter 4 finds Oedipa first at a stockholders’ meeting of Yoyodyne, after which she finds a young man seemingly hip to the W.A.S.T.E. system. In a code-heavy conversation, he mentions the last of the true inventors, John […]

03.04: The Crying of Lot 49 In which we continue our analysis of The Crying of Lot 49…with our analysis of The Courier’s Tragedy. The Courier’s Tragedy is a Pynchon-invented play within the novel modeled on the revenge tragedies of seventeenth century England. It’s wildly violent and hugely entertaining…but what’s the point? How might it work within the […]

03.03: The Crying of Lot 49 In which we continue our analysis of The Crying of Lot 49.  Oedipa gets something of a curious letter and, later, visits a bar frequented by Yoyodyne employees. In a restroom stall she’ll discover a curious symbol – easily the most recognizable of Pynchon’s symbols. She’ll be told about the W.A.S.T.E. […]

03.02: The Crying of Lot 49 In which we move on to chapter 2 of The Crying of Lot 49.  Oedipa heads to San Narciso to begin her executing Inverarity’s will, runs into a not-quite-British-Invasion band called the Paranoids, and has something of a remarkable tryst with a actor-turned-lawyer named Metzger. If you’re not sure what to […]

03.01: The Crying of Lot 49 In which we kick-off Season Three with chapter one of Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49…and with two new panelists!  

02.09: Inherent Vice In which we give our (many, many) thoughts on P.T. Anderson’s film adaptation of Inherent Vice(2014). Also, you’ll want to sit through the credits on this one in order to catch our announcement of Season Three’s book of choice! Note: The film-within-the-film is, according to Mr. Anderson, a film called The Russians Are Coming! The Russians […]

02.08: Inherent Vice In the final episode of Season 2, we have a look at themes and questions that span the entire novel Inherent Vice. We’ll be back in a few months with Season 3. Thanks for listening!

02.07: Inherent Vice In which we cover the final two chapters of the novel, Inherent Vice, initially trying to crawl out of the rabbit hole we found ourselves in during the previous episode. We’ll address the Doc/Bigfoot relationship for the final time. We’ll look at the role of cars in the novel and how they’re paired with the […]

02.06: Inherent Vice In which we continue our discussion of Inherent Vice, this time on chapters 16 through 18. Is there an extra day in Pynchon’s 1970? We’ll spend most of the episode citing evidence and arguing why this possible time-problem might be significant. This is a rabbit hole from which we’re not sure we’ve yet re-emerged.