Slow Learners

We open the ol' mailbag, which is really more of google voicemail inbox, to answer some listener Q&As. At long last!

We accidentally deleted one and apologize. So if you're the person who called in to ask about the "keying waves" sequence, where Slothrop is talking to his dad...well....we are truly sorry. It was a good question!

Stay tuned. We are starting prep on our next season on Proust. We are currently arguing about whether to do just Swann's Way, or all of In Search Of Lost Time, which is like 9 billion words. Maybe we can do Swann's Way first, and then do other books? And then come back to Proust? If you have thoughts, we'd appreciate it, as we like to put our listeners first...after ourselves, and all our stupid, self-indulgent tendencies, and whims. It may be a few months off, in any event.

If you're not doing so yet, follow us on Twitter, which will never be known as "X."

In this extra, bonus "appendix" episode, Asher lays out his theory of Gravity's Rainbow, as a coded biography of its author, Thomas Pynchon.

Also: we're joined by author and researcher Albert Rolls to talk about his book, Thomas Pynchon: Demon in the Text, which is itself a not-quite-a-biography of Pynchon.

Covering Part 4: 12...The End. We take an elevator ride to the skies, reflect on "anarcho-sadism," catch up with some of our old pals in Der Platz, smoke out of a kazoo, and take a tour around the L.A. freeways with our man Richard Zhlubb. Oh also, we lean what the S-Gerät is, and figure out the final terminus of the 00000 (sort of).

Additionally: we are joined by ⁠Dr. Gregory Marks⁠ to chat about the Marxist/historical materialist dimensions of Gravity's Rainbow. Is Tommy Boy a leftist? A crank reactionary? Can both positions potentially be resolved via some kind of...dialectical process? We have all these answers--and more!

Other topics include: John Dillinger, folk heroism, dispersal, Hitler youth kids and their big fat asses, The Fool (the band), The Fool (the major arcana of the tarot), Poison Ruïn, the fourth wall, self-immolation, Adorno, Freud, reification, the sephirot, is prose writing?, illuminated manuscripts, Asher's inner detective, John not being able to read, and...is this even a good book???

Read ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Proverbs For Paranoids,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ John's guide to Gravity's Rainbow.

E-mail us your questions, queries, and crackpot theories: [email protected]

This week: before we head into the final stretch of Gravity's Rainbow, we stop to talk tarot and esotericism with Answers In Tarot, also known as L.A. Lubuschagne. He offers us some insights into the cultural context for the Tarot's reemergence in the '60s/'70s counterculture, unpacks Slothrop's identification with "The Fool," and offers a thorough reading of Weissman's Tarot, as laid down in the book (pp. 747-749 in the Viking edition). What will the cards reveal? Listen to find out.

We'll be back next week with our final read-through episode, when everything goes: KABLOOIE!

Weissman's Tarot lay-out (via PynchonWiki)

CONTACT ANSWERS IN TAROT:

Email: [email protected]

YouTube: @lalabuschagne

Discord: la.labuschagne

Reddit: u/LA_Labuschagne

Covering Part 4: Chapters 7-11. We follow the Counterforce to a surprise dinner, reflect on The World, learn of Weissman's new frontier, and finally reach the THRILLING climax between Tchitcherine and his Herero half-brother, Enzian.

Also: we speak with Professor Jeffrey Severs, literary scholar and co-host of the podcast Don DeLillo Should Win The Nobel Prize, about the 1962 Seattle World's Fair (a.k.a. the Century 21 Exhibition) and its influence on Pynchon's vision of the future: the Raketen Stadt.

Other topics include: Giving LSD to elephants, Bush (and Bush X), Louis Jolyon West, disgust and absurdism, colonialism (again), capitalism (again), Ren & Stimpy, the Military Industrial Complex, the Space Age and all its wonders, Calvino's Invisible Cities, and more.

Read "A City of The Future": Gravity's Rainbow and the 1962 Seattle World's Fair by Jeffrey Severs (requires JSTOR access).

Read ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Proverbs For Paranoids,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ John's guide to Gravity's Rainbow.

E-mail us your questions, queries, and crackpot theories: [email protected]

Covering Part 4: Chapters 1-6. We enter the fourth--and final!--part of the novel. We discuss the formation of the "Counterforce," Slothrop's dispersal, and a fan-favorite episode about a sentient lightbulb that goes nuts.

In this episode, we embrace the threat of sentient technology by speaking with an A.I. generated spectre of the late literary critic Harold Bloom. We chat with "Harold" about the novel, Byron the Bulb, gnosticism, and the prospects of us all being killed by computers.

Other topics include: Keying waves, Mandrakes, some characteristics of Imipolex-G, dualistic ontologies, the CIA, gnosis (in a gnostic way), Robin Wood, psychosis, believing two (or 45) things at once, whips, chains, and leather, bundle of cognition.

Read ⁠⁠⁠⁠Proverbs For Paranoids,⁠⁠⁠⁠ John's guide to Gravity's Rainbow.

E-mail us your questions, queries, and crackpot theories: [email protected]

Covering Part 3: Chapters 24-32. We exit THE ZONE. Many BIG THINGS are revealed about Slothrop's purpose, his family history, and just what the HELL this book is about. Also: there's some pinball.

In this episode we chatted with Matt Christman (@cushbomb) from Chapo Trap House, Hell on Earth and his own Cushvlog about the Masons, the Rosy Cross, and how Protestantism gave rise to capitalism, in America and elsewhere.

Other topics include: Alternative currencies, Pirate's Dream, history as geography, parapolitics and the New World Order, cities of the future, the prognostications of hardcore music, racist toys, the Mujahideen, "The Secret Integration," astral projecting while your wife putzes around the house, disenchantment, re-enchantment, Kurt Russell's son, Mumbo Jumbo.

Read ⁠⁠⁠Proverbs For Paranoids,⁠⁠⁠ John's guide to Gravity's Rainbow.

E-mail us your questions, queries, and crackpot theories: [email protected]

We're taking a short break until the New Year. But for all you true sickos, here's a short (?) seasonal reading of a great passage from Gravity's Rainbow. Blast it with your family, in the car to visit your relations, on the P.A. system of the local mall as last-minute shoppers scramble to snag the last Power Man or Tickle-Me-Elmo.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all, even the haters and losers. Shout out to "Claus."

Covering Part 3: Chapters 13-23. Slothrop goes on a boat, and maybe has sex with a child. Then he goes on another boat. And then back to the same boat. Gravity's Rainbow? They should call this book Boats! Also: Slothrop's beging "thinning out." What does that mean? Has Ozempic claimed Tyrone Slothrop?!

This episode: we talk with with journalist and podcast Noah Kulwin (Blowback) about post-war geopolitics, banana republics, and how the multinational corporation came to supplant the nation-state as the fundamental unit through which power operates.

Other topics include: Porky Pig tattoos, the art of Balthasar Klossowski de Rola aka Balthus, perversion, pedophilia, the fascist connection between youth and beauty, Allan Dulles, Vineland, Nazis as the "ur-evil," conspiratorial vs. skeptical thought, uncorrupted youth corrupted, Tom Pynchon's Ghost, Hannibal Lecter.

Read ⁠⁠Proverbs For Paranoids,⁠⁠ John's guide to Gravity's Rainbow.

Follow "Tom Pynchon's Ghost" on Twitter.

E-mail us your questions, queries, and crackpot theories: [email protected]

Covering Part 3: Chapters 6-12. Slothrop is reborn as "Rocketman," steals some hash, and meets Mickey Rooney, The John E. Badass appears, and does battle using a hot new drug named Oneirine Thiophosphate (or is it Theo-phosphate???).

This episode: we talk with documentarian and chemist Hamilton Morris about the novel's use of drugs, and chemistry, both technically and metaphorically. Is Oneirine real? Could it be?!

Other topics include: The BoDeans, William S. Burroughs, Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin, alternate histories and uchronies, the feeling of an elf sitting on your chest, S&M sex (again), chemophobia, plasticity, and the weak, pitiable nature of the covalent bond.

Read ⁠Proverbs For Paranoids,⁠ John's guide to Gravity's Rainbow.

Read "(Unfinished) Review of PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story" attributed to one "Tyrone Slothrop."

E-mail us your questions, queries, and crackpot theories: [email protected]