22: In which one sequence, at least, is pretty straightforward (Gravity’s Rainbow Episodes 3.3-3.5)

A round of applause for the staff at Thomas Pynchon’s local library in the early 1970s. Working overtime getting that man his Herero cosmologies and Soviet orthographical histories. And, hey, let's hear it for the projectionist at the repertory theater showing all those old slapstick flicks, too.

Next time, Gravity’s Rainbow Episodes 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, and 3.10, or pp. 365-403 in the U.S. Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition.

Support the show and get access to monthly bonus episodes at patreon.com/pynchonpals and follow us @pynchonpals.bsky.social.

For the month of July’s Patreon-exclusive bonus episode we’re watching Merian C. Cooper’s King Kong (1933).

Show Notes:

“Thomas Pynchon Shows Us How White Writers Can Avoid Appropriation,” by Ariel Saramandi via Electric Literature (https://electricliterature.com/thomas-pynchon-shows-us-how-white-writers-can-avoid-appropriation/)

Clip from Sun Ra’s Space is the Place (1974) (https://youtu.be/Fgz-iQ5lSw4)

r/AskHistorian thread on the New Turkic Alphabet in Pynchon (https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/djxp0c/in_the_book_gravitys_rainbow_by_thomas_pynchon/)

“The National Writer,” by Ted Trautman via The Paris Review on Chinghiz Aitmatov, author of The Day Lasts More than A Hundred Years (https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/06/10/the-national-writer/)

A baby aardvark at the Cincinnati Zoo (https://youtu.be/QwLqSvXnsK8)

An aardvark digging a hole (https://youtu.be/-u2oloi7O2Q)

Content warnings: strong language, physical and sexual violence, racism, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, homophobia, genocide.

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Featuring Patrick Fiorilli, Andrew Tillett, and Duri Long.

Produced and edited by Patrick Fiorilli (www.patf.io and @patfio.bsky.social).

Our theme music is “Horology,” by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives license on the album Polygondwanaland.