'Vineland' online reading group begins

By Eric Wagner
Special guest blogger 

Vineland Introduction 

My friend Paul Chuey first told me about Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 in 1982. We both loved Wilson and Leary's writing, and Leary's writing about Gravity's Rainbow intrigued us. Paul got me Gravity's Rainbow for Christmas in 1983. It took me four years to read it, and I then read The Crying of Lot 49, V and Slow Learner. In 1990 when Vineland came out in 1990, I found myself broke, but I kept having dreams about buying Vineland, so I splurged on the hardcover. I expected a struggle reading it, but instead I finished it in four days. I felt like I had climbed a flight of stairs and at the end stumbled because I expected more steps. I loved that book so much, and I still do. I have reread it over and over again. I bought his next four books on the first day of publication. 

In the eighties, before the announcement of the publication of Vineland, people speculated that Pynchon might never write another novel after Gravity’s Rainbow (1973). Various rumors spread about Pynchon. He had become obsessed with The Brady Bunch. He had lost all his money and wrote Godzilla screenplays. When I first read Vineland, I loved how Pynchon incorporated these theories into the novel.  

For this study group we will read one chapter a week, starting next Monday, June 30. Oz Fritz will write the posts for the odd numbered chapters. I will write the posts for the even numbered chapters, and we will finish up just in time for the publication of Pynchon’s new novel Shadow Ticket on October 7 

June 30        Chapter 1 

July 7           Chapter 2 

July 14         Chapter 3 

July 21        Chapter 4 

July 28        Chapter 5 

August 4        Chapter 6 

August 11        Chapter 7 

August 18        Chapter 8 

August 25        Chapter 9 

September 1     Chapter 10 

September 8    Chapter 11 

September 15    Chapter 12 

September 22    Chapter 13 

September 29    Chapter 14