Quit your scratching and bleeding and put down the rosary, the cure of all your anxieties has arrived! At long last, the Mapping the Zone Review of Shadow Ticket, Spoilerful Edition, has been released, and it's packed with more hot takes and thrilling twists than any diehard fans of the storied Spoiler-free episode could have imagined. The hype is NOT TOO HIGH!

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Books: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, Ulysses by James Joyce

Music: The Third Man (OST) by Anton Karas, Green Street, Grant’s First Stand, Idle Moments, Nigeria by Grant Green

TV/Film: Brazil (dir. Terry Gilliam, 1985), The Third Man (dir. Carol Reed, 1949), The Long Goodbye (dir. Robert Altman, 1973)

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It's finally here and we got to read it! Shadow Ticket, the newest (and perhaps final) novel by Thomas Pynchon is out in the wild and we are here with a spoiler-free review for those who may not have had a chance to read it as of yet.

We will have a longer, more in-depth review episode out on 31 October 2025, so stay tuned for that if you wanted a more nuanced discussion of our thoughts on the novel.

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Music: Béla Bartók

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Wid'ya lookit that! It's been a hundred pages since our paths last crossed the Chums' of Chance, and here they are, in Venice. That ain't the only coincidence at hand, no, far too many'a them... Something's wrong. Still, hoping to keep with the patriotic aeronauts, and the history presented, our crew resorts to conspiratorial means of tracking the plot. Those mirrors 'n lenses had better help with that map, eh?

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Once in a lifetime, a moment comes around, and one has with the latest film from auteur director Paul Thomas Anderson! We take that moment to assess the film on its own merit, but not without respect to the weight of its primary credited influence, Vineland. Is Sean Penn the next Christian Bale? Just how Pynchonian has PTA gotten lately? Will anyone even need to read the old crank again, with adaptations like these? Answers to these questions, and more, await the listeners of our definitive, and complete, review of One Battle After Another.

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A spot of smoky rooms and heavy drapes suits us as finely as they do Lew, and somehow the more obscure the corner of history referred to by the couple-three iconoclasts he meets, the more our hosts find to discuss. There's plenty of room left in the shadows, as these dialogues reveal their purposes unorthodox even by the TWIT's standard! From the cricket...arenas...of Australia to bathtubs of Condy's fluid, it's no wonder we take a few missteps (e.g. Raimi) from the line of firm tracks this chapter joins them by.

Next episode: Ch. 21 (pg. 242-259) ending on “‘Bells are the most ancient objects. They call to us out of eternity.’”

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Music: The Pod - Ween

Film/TV: Love Liza (2002; d. Todd Louiso), Spider-Man (2002; d. Sam Raimi), Community (2009-2015)

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With how things have gotten so real these past few eps, it's time to see what Lew's been up to in cheery old Inglund! These chaps, Nigel and Nuisance or whatbeit, who've already brung him across the world just have not said quite enough about this infinite tetrangle! Even the demonstrably stable Grand Cohen's powerful rhetoric can not convince our thoroughly skeptic troupe of the TWIT's wisdom. And just so, what more fitting a background to divine the sources of the oncoming strife upon the mainland? If Madame Eskimoff's recordings did not suffice our listeners, they might find a digestif in order while contemplating this episode of Mapping the Zone.

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The Avenger: An Allegorical War Map for 1877 by Fred W. Rose (1877) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War_(1877%E2%80%931878)#/media/File:Fred._W._Rose_The_Avenger_An_Allegorical_War_Map_for_1877_1877_Cornell_CUL_PJM_1080_01.jpg

Books: The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage; Bare-faced Messiah by Russell Miller, Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

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This week we wander through Jeshimon and track Reef as he rescues his father's harried remains from the just yet supernatural decay they'd have suffered in the desecrate airs of the town. Though Webb may rest his children and Mayva shall not and like them we wrestle with grief and legacy in our discussion.

Those distressed by the forestalling of our chapter 19 discussion are recommended to contemplate the tetractys for fifteen minutes each morning and come back in two weeks.

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Books: The Dark Tower (series) by Stephen King

Films/TV: Animaniacs

Music: Hermanos Gutierrez (https://tidal.com/browse/artist/9835680?u)

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Checking in on the Traverse household, things are looking ... somber. As happy as the hosts are to all be present and accountable, the mood is somewhat dampened by the final ties breaking between Lake and her father, and where that leads Webb. Thankfully, the romantic backdrop of Nochecita cushions things a bit, even if Frank and Reef's glimpse at peace is cut short. It's not all a loss, though! We do, at least, meet a few new friends along the way to Jeshimon.

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Films/TV: The Killer (2023; d. David Fincher), The Matador (2005; d. Richard Shepard)

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The Harvard-Yale game brings us by vector analysis to rearrive upon the scraggly isthmus of Long Island. The tales of Vibes are much rehearsed, wooing Kit between Dittany eyelashes and forms seen lonesome in the hallways. The fall of an earnest worker marks the end of Fleet's refrain, but lines up well to the west with Lew on a quest. What clashes here, in mines and minds? Kieselguhr soaked in nitro, wrapped in newsprint and 'cyclomite'! But White City's loss is our gain, as the suspect PI bolts, chased by beavers in the brain, and our scholars, nonplussed, watch his newfound escapades.

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As with the Chums from the center of the Earth, we return from temporary distraction, and yea, what hath time wrought? What did this planet itself cradle slumbering beneath its frozen extremities? What idols have we found ourselves prostrate before, as the thirsting tongues of flame awaken nerves deadened by that chill? May the scourge pass you by, ye who behold... the latest episode of Mapping the Zone!

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