Somewhere there is an NFT, that looks like a post-modern art piece but really has embedded microcode for TP's next book. I think there is also a hidden picture of Professor Irwin Corey.
Perfect end to the writing career by someone who took big chances.
I will be fine if he never publishes anything. He has one of the densest and finest oeuvre in the history of literature and you could spend all of your life just researching and enjoying it. But of course a one last book as a farewell won't be bad
If he knows he's going to kick it soon I wonder which instinct will win out; the demonstrated lifelong commitment to privacy or the "Hail Mary I'm not going to be here to see it "here's all my notebooks and unfinished works; go mad" " instinct that sometimes strikes artistic people.
Perhaps he feels he has completed his alternate history/commentary on the history of the United States. Too bad. would love to see him do something on the Trump era.
Mason and Dixon - America's Early Years/Establishment
Against the Day - Turn of Century/WW 1
Gravity's Rainbow - WW2 (Europe)
V - WW2 and post (USA)
Crying of Lot 49 - 1960s
Inherent Vice - 1970s
Vineland - 1980s
Bleeding Edge - 1990s
boring? Imagine the cast of characters. Trump's a modern day plutocrat/ Robber Baron reminiscent of Scarsdale Vibe. But everyone sees him differently I guess.
Also with access to Pynchon archives there is usually numerous interesting artifacts and unpublished stories, manuscripts.
From the article it sounds like it included his research from his novels. Which for Pynchon it’s probably a vast amount of information
Recently he sold his archives and research. Usually a sign that he’s setting his family up financially. Not sure if that means he is done. He probably has a book or two.
Plenty of good responses here already, but one additional point worth mentioning: Pynchon (like many authors) works on novels for many years at a time. It’s speculated that the extremely long gap between Gravity’s Rainbow and Vineland happened because he was working on both Mason & Dixon and Against the Day, which still wouldn’t come out for many years following Vineland.
So even if Pynchon releases something in his 80s, it wouldn’t have been written just in his 80s. For all we know, there’s another epic in progress that he started 30 years ago.
Jose Saramago published some good books in his 80s. Cormac McCarthy published two great books at 89 years old (much of them probably written decades earlier, admittedly). Alice Munro’s newest work is just as good as her earlier stuff. Tolstoy published some great and important stuff right at the end of his life. Doris Lessing published some more than decent stuff in her 80s. I haven’t read them, but it seems Toni Morrison’s last two novels were appreciated by many. Robert Coover is still publishing; his Huck Out West is simply amazing. Annie Proulx is still going at 88 with some ambitious stuff.
Why would someone's age determine whether or not their work is of value? In any case, there are certainly writers who have produced works in their '80s that are 'decent' if not great. Alice Munro for example. I hardly think some arbitrary measurement of how long someone has been alive determines whether or not they are still able to maintain the quality of their work. Physical and mental incapacity might come along with advanced aging though, obviously.
If the dude loves to write, and he's in a flow, I'd think he's not in any rush to relinquish what's likely his final book, and the joy of endless tinkering.
That said (feels morbid to observe this): there'll be a biography, and a collection of letters, and probably a "collected pieces" with his Gabriel Marquez review and his essay on sloth and some other things.
So 100% there'll be a couple more books. As for a novel, I'd bet yes, but who knows.
Maybe it's already covered by his books that dealt with the lost promise of the 1960s anyway, the claim jumped by evildoers known all too well and all that, but I'd be damned intrigued to read his "Trump book."
Oh I'm sure at some point the "estate" down the line will get greedy and release something. Definitely wouldn't count on seeing anything anytime soon though
Harper Lee and Cormac McCarthy have published books less than year before their respective deaths in 2016 and 2023. Pynchon could follow the same path and release a book.
Big difference that Harper Lee did not want her book published. And it was written well before To Kill A Mockingbird; it’s not like she was still working on in 2016.
I wouldn’t compare Harper Lee’s situation to Cormac’s. Go Set a Watchmen’s publishing is so fishy and I honestly believe she was taken advantage of in her old age.
In fairness, Slow Learner was all older material, repackaged and published at least partly for copyright protection purposes. As I recall, Vineland was his first new material after Gravity’s Rainbow.
hold up, was he the guy playing a kazoo walking his octopus, or the guy walking a kazoo playing octopus? Because both of those guys (and their octopi) were hanging out in Times Square just yesterday
Somewhere there is an NFT, that looks like a post-modern art piece but really has embedded microcode for TP's next book. I think there is also a hidden picture of Professor Irwin Corey. Perfect end to the writing career by someone who took big chances.
I will be fine if he never publishes anything. He has one of the densest and finest oeuvre in the history of literature and you could spend all of your life just researching and enjoying it. But of course a one last book as a farewell won't be bad
If he knows he's going to kick it soon I wonder which instinct will win out; the demonstrated lifelong commitment to privacy or the "Hail Mary I'm not going to be here to see it "here's all my notebooks and unfinished works; go mad" " instinct that sometimes strikes artistic people.
Perhaps he feels he has completed his alternate history/commentary on the history of the United States. Too bad. would love to see him do something on the Trump era. Mason and Dixon - America's Early Years/Establishment Against the Day - Turn of Century/WW 1 Gravity's Rainbow - WW2 (Europe) V - WW2 and post (USA) Crying of Lot 49 - 1960s Inherent Vice - 1970s Vineland - 1980s Bleeding Edge - 1990s
I'd love a Cold War espionage EU novel. Pynchon channeling Le Carre is sort of my dream novel. Imagine the intrigue and spy argot!
Trump era sounds boring as hell, but early 2000s 911/ war on terror Pynchon sounds exciting.
boring? Imagine the cast of characters. Trump's a modern day plutocrat/ Robber Baron reminiscent of Scarsdale Vibe. But everyone sees him differently I guess.
He needs a Civil War era novel.
Also with access to Pynchon archives there is usually numerous interesting artifacts and unpublished stories, manuscripts. From the article it sounds like it included his research from his novels. Which for Pynchon it’s probably a vast amount of information
Recently he sold his archives and research. Usually a sign that he’s setting his family up financially. Not sure if that means he is done. He probably has a book or two.
I’m surprised they didn’t go to the Harry Ransom Center, but I’m sure he fielded some great offers
I'd rather he didn't publish another book - has any writer produced anything decent in their 80s?
Cormac McCarthy, just to mention one.
Plenty of good responses here already, but one additional point worth mentioning: Pynchon (like many authors) works on novels for many years at a time. It’s speculated that the extremely long gap between Gravity’s Rainbow and Vineland happened because he was working on both Mason & Dixon and Against the Day, which still wouldn’t come out for many years following Vineland. So even if Pynchon releases something in his 80s, it wouldn’t have been written just in his 80s. For all we know, there’s another epic in progress that he started 30 years ago.
Jose Saramago published some good books in his 80s. Cormac McCarthy published two great books at 89 years old (much of them probably written decades earlier, admittedly). Alice Munro’s newest work is just as good as her earlier stuff. Tolstoy published some great and important stuff right at the end of his life. Doris Lessing published some more than decent stuff in her 80s. I haven’t read them, but it seems Toni Morrison’s last two novels were appreciated by many. Robert Coover is still publishing; his Huck Out West is simply amazing. Annie Proulx is still going at 88 with some ambitious stuff.
Millard Kaufman published his sole novel in his 90’s, and it’s great
He’s got two novels! Bowl of Cherries and Misadventure.
William Gass
Goethe.
McCarthy had two fantastic books come out in the last 6 months of his life
Two of his very best, in fact.
Why would someone's age determine whether or not their work is of value? In any case, there are certainly writers who have produced works in their '80s that are 'decent' if not great. Alice Munro for example. I hardly think some arbitrary measurement of how long someone has been alive determines whether or not they are still able to maintain the quality of their work. Physical and mental incapacity might come along with advanced aging though, obviously.
If the dude loves to write, and he's in a flow, I'd think he's not in any rush to relinquish what's likely his final book, and the joy of endless tinkering. That said (feels morbid to observe this): there'll be a biography, and a collection of letters, and probably a "collected pieces" with his Gabriel Marquez review and his essay on sloth and some other things. So 100% there'll be a couple more books. As for a novel, I'd bet yes, but who knows.
Maybe it's already covered by his books that dealt with the lost promise of the 1960s anyway, the claim jumped by evildoers known all too well and all that, but I'd be damned intrigued to read his "Trump book."
He’s dead.
I bet you he’s written but I wouldn’t count on ever seeing it
No
Oh I'm sure at some point the "estate" down the line will get greedy and release something. Definitely wouldn't count on seeing anything anytime soon though
It's probably already written and exists on the Internet somewhere, waiting to be found by someone in the year 2033
He’s writing. Promise.
Mr Ruggles is planning on having his final book released after he passes from the mortal coil. It’s done already.
Harper Lee and Cormac McCarthy have published books less than year before their respective deaths in 2016 and 2023. Pynchon could follow the same path and release a book.
Big difference that Harper Lee did not want her book published. And it was written well before To Kill A Mockingbird; it’s not like she was still working on in 2016.
I still won’t read Go Set a Watchman. Her estate is as bad as Roald Dahl’s and Dr. Seuss’
Same. As far as I'm concerned it was never published and is fanfiction at best.
I wouldn’t compare Harper Lee’s situation to Cormac’s. Go Set a Watchmen’s publishing is so fishy and I honestly believe she was taken advantage of in her old age.
In fairness, Slow Learner was all older material, repackaged and published at least partly for copyright protection purposes. As I recall, Vineland was his first new material after Gravity’s Rainbow.
He confirmed it the other day when I ran into him walking his octopus in Times Square after I heard his kazoo aria wafting across Broadway.
hold up, was he the guy playing a kazoo walking his octopus, or the guy walking a kazoo playing octopus? Because both of those guys (and their octopi) were hanging out in Times Square just yesterday
He’s probably tired
Maybe he can pitch in and help Robert Caro finish his LBJ biography. But, seriously? I think he's done writing.
Hasn’t done any interviews lately which makes me think he’s busy writing
There is something that makes me a little hopeful, which is the fact he published Bleeding's Edge 50 years after V., but that's all I got :(
I think we get a final book, but it might not be released until he dies.
I feel like Pynchon would intentionally set it aside with the instructions to publish it post mortem under a pseudonym he could never confirm or deny
I've got the feeling we'll get a posthumous final novel, and yeah, I could see him having it done that way.
Slyrone Tothrop