Abstract

In the decade and a half that separates the publication of Gravity's Rainbow (1973) from that of Vineland (1990), extensive attention has been paid to Pynchon's reliance on movies for thematic and structural purposes. In one of the more exhaustive analyses of this subject, Charles Clerc sounds a warning to those bent on emulating Pynchon by having recourse to television, lest denotational succinctness become speedily outdated topicality and intellectual depth give way to slickness. "The short-hand method of pop-top culture robs the imagination: it makes for laziness, for shoddiness, for superficiality of response, for shallowness of perception. We become the gulls of meretricious hucksterism and commercial entertainment. "Clerc concludes with a challenge: "The use that the fiction writer makes of television in the future thus may become the crucial issue" (Clerc 149).

How to Cite:

Callens, J., (1991) “Tubed Out and Movie Shot in Pynchon's Vineland”, Pynchon Notes , 115-141. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/pn.262