His insight into magic, postmodernism, nerdery, and slackerdom (as mentioned in this Salon piece) would probably be a good fit for Modcult.
…a Princeton grad who was an English Ph.D. candidate at Yale (his unfinished dissertation was to have been on morality, magic and technology and “Gravity’s Rainbow”).
I was in a book store the a few weeks ago and noticed Zak Smith’s Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon’s Novel Gravity’s Rainbow, which is exactly that: a book of illustrations matching the action on each page of Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow. I remember reading about this as part of the 2004 Whitney Biennial, but didn’t realize it was out in book form. It’s also available online.
Zak Smith is now a porn actor under the name of Zak Sabbath.
I know I’m late to the party, but I hadn’t seen the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of Gravity’s Rainbow featuring cover artwork by Frank Miller till yesterday. I guess the rumor is that Pynchon, while not being stalked by CNN, hanging out in bus stations, or impersonating a bag lady in northern California) requested Miller. Of course, maybe he didn’t.
thanks to your fucked up post I still haven’t seen it.
what, your web browser can’t read TIFFs? it’s updated now for those of you using windows 3.1.
Smoking Dope with Thomas Pynchon: A Sixties Memoir
“Although I met Thomas Pynchon one evening in Berkeley in June of 1967, I cannot say I really know him. He remains for me a figure as mysterious and ungraspable as Pancho Villa, a dope-smoking guerilla warrior of the imagination, disappearing into his Mexican desert.”
Nicely encapsulates all there is to love and hate about the ’60s and the boomers.
