He started telling her about Vheissu. How it was reached, on camel-back over a vast tundra, past the dolmens and temples of dead cities; finally to the banks of a broad river which never sees the sun, so thickly roofed it is with foliage. The river is travelled in long teak boats which are carved like dragons and paddled by brown men whose language is unknown to all but themselves. In eight days' time there's a portage over a neck of treacherous swampland to a green lake, and across the lake rise the first foothills of the mountains which ring Vheissu. Native guides will only go a short distance into these mountains. Soon they will turn back, pointing out the way. Depending on the weather, it is one to two more weeks over moraine, sheer granite and hard blue ice before the borders of Vheissu are reached.
Thomas Pynchon, V., (1963): pp. 168-169.
News
The Modern Word is back!
After a hiatus of 15 years, legendary Pynchon (and Borges, and Joyce) web site The Modern Word, love child of Allen Ruch and Larry Daw, is being resurrected by Allen through the Ship Wreck Library.
International Pynchon Week 2022
International Pynchon Week 2022 will be held the week of June 6-10 in Vancouver, BC on the campus of the University of British Columbia, organised by Dr. Jeff Severs.
Online readings: Reddit/Waste
There's Reddit reading of Against the Day going on, as well as a Bleeding Edge reading at Waste's pynchon-l.
A small selection of this site's content below, but way more to explore!
- The Crying of Lot 49 as read by Charles Hollander -and more articles by Charles and others...
- Paul Nightingale reads Against the Day, section by section...
- Extended Table of Contents for V., Gravity's Rainbow, Mason & Dixon, Against the Day and Inherent Vice
- Dup Goevaers Illustrating The Crying of Lot 49!
- Use search: it helps you in finding items, pages, episodes or sections in the index; or authors, publications, publishers and more in the secondary bibliography.
Elsewhere, good stuff!
- Pomona Pages. Online since 1995
- Pynchon Notes. Home of your favourite journal. All 511 articles are now available online through the Open Access Library of the Humanities!
- Die sauberen Schweine. Otto Sell's German/English site
- ThomasPynchon.com and PynchonWiki. Curated by Tim Ware (and maintained by you)
- Orbit: A Journal of American Literature. With Pynchon Notes having ceased publication, this journal started originally as Pynchon-only but covers now contemporary American literature. And it is 100% open access!.
