I know there's a stereotype about a certain kind of douchebag guy who's really into thick books and stuff but it's clear that those guys don't actually take in what they have read. When you go out into the real world a lot of people into Pynchon are into experimental literature which by it's nature is transgressive and runs counter to conservative circles. I'm happy that this community is not buying into the typical culture war bullshit. It's like these guys read the disturbing or explicit passages of certain writers and think that they are conservative like them because the writing is challenging. Conservatives don't want to challenge social norms or even artistic norms, they want conformity. It's all about shapes and colours for them. Historically it's always been the right who have been in favour of censorship. Look at all the book bans happening right now. The right at the moment are saying that they are the new punk rock and they are being all rebellious when all they really want is to reverse any social changes that have come about since the civil rights movement.
Guys, I'm overwhelmed by the positive support I've received in the comments. Thank you so much for supporting me. This may be Reddit's most intelligent, open-minded, and empathetic community. I will be your champion on YouTube. Because you guys like this video, I can produce hundreds more like it! I know you guys are all busy holding down the Reddit fortress!
This guy pumps out like fifty videos on Pynchon and Wallace a day. He's clearly a grifter trying to sell some bullshit writing program
He sucks and all his videos are him yapping at a camera interspersed with ad reads for his course
I knew who this video would be before I even clicked on it lmao, he mostly focuses on McCarthy and some of his stuff is okay but yeah he's definitely grifting the shit out of it and milking it.
Don't be surprised if he shows up in the comments here either!
This didn’t really seem to answer what Pynchon thinks about modern American masculinity though? There is one quote from an interview used to platform the whole tangent.
"I don't think a lot of people have grown up, and I say men but I really mean everyone, but I AM grown up, and also initiation rites are a really good thing, and this Thomas Pynchon quote aligns with this general view that I have and use to feel better about myself when I compare myself to any other guy I know (shucks, isn't my wife lucky?). Also, you shouldn't do anything that interests you, except read 11 books at once with me so you can feel enlightened and integrated. Don't you want to be like me? Sign up today at the low, low cost of $9.99."
I’m kind of glad I saw this post actually. I’d seen some of write conscious’s videos and saw the traction they got and I’m glad to see that Pynchon readers are a little more cautious than that. It seems like for the most part people have been able to figure out the quality level of the videos.
An engagement with the book, in and of itself, is valuable. I bought my first copy of GR from a remainder bin for $2.00. That is what should be frigtening. That is, that Pynchon (McCarthy, DFW, Beckett, Racine and other author's that you can think of) are lost to time. Shakespeare did not know of Dante.
Yeah kinda weird move to pull a quote totally out of context (and likely sourced directly from the internet) in an attempt to make some disjointed, self-serving argument about the state of modern masculinity, and in the process totally mischaracterize the context of this excerpt from the introduction of “Slow Learner,” which, ironically enough, is a self-critique of Pynchon’s own naive, uninformed worldview at the time of writing this particular story.
From the preceding paragraph:
“…along with imperfectly developed attitudes about sex and death, we may also note how easily some of my adolescent values were able to creep in and wreck an otherwise sympathetic character.”
Nah I actually watched the video. It’s interesting! I think you guys are gatekeeping Pynchon which to be honest is very anathema to Pynchon’s ethos to begin with. This isn’t some “god” you have to be “careful” with, he’s a vortex of cultural references both high and low who’s always as refined as he is unruly. Treating his texts as sacred works than can only be handled by exegetes is what truly offends me, and I’m sure it would offend Pynchon. Talking Pynchon doesn’t have to be so damn serious. Besides, any engagement with/exposure to his works is a net positive in my book and I’ll never understand anyone who says otherwise. What’s worse is relegating all discussion of his work to self-styled “experts” who are all too content talking Pynchon to the walls of their room
OP if I’m not mistaken had the arrogance to state that he came off as arrogant in the video, which I think is orders of magnitude more arrogant to say than the guy in the video came off as. They also proceeded to chide him to be more “careful” with the texts. Shit like this bothers the hell out of me to be honest
I’ve read all of Pynchon and I respect Rogan to a degree. (As for Tate I came across this video by an English teacher that might be nice to watch: https://youtu.be/iOkSP-KlfhI?si=v_-FtPukh-Z9-ShQ ). Anyone that doesn’t respect Rogan at all, I believe, doesn’t understand what it takes to be successful and hasn’t really achieved much themselves. He’s deeply flawed of course but has a lot to admire, he’s also not some high IQ intellectual (but my favourite Pynchon characters aren’t and they share a lot of flawed and human qualities). I’ve never been a consistent viewer of JRE but I’ll watch 1-3 episodes a year. I can explain further but I’ve realised it’s kinda pointless on this sub but feel free to ask me anything. I don’t want anyone to start watching Rogan but making the claim “anyone that’s read a page a Pynchon is smart enough not respect Rogan” is a sign of… well a lot of room for growth. Also there was one moment in the last episode I watched where a quack-like physicist was playing the Harmonica to demonstrate the musical notes underlying chemistry and the elements in the periodic table. If that isn’t the closest thing to Pynchon-ian I don’t know what is. I’d love some better examples tbh
“anyone that doesn’t respect Rogan at all, I believe, doesn’t understand what it takes to be successful and hasn’t really achieved much themselves.”
This is implying, you understand what it takes for someone to become successful. Could you pick out people from a crowd and tell me who would be successful and who wouldn’t? (I wonder which colored people you would pick!)
This is such a dick-ride of capitalism, we should not respect all successful white men, especially not ones that spread misinformation and are platformed by privilege. maybe you need to read less fiction! have you checked out Friedrich Engels?
I didn't suggest otherwise - indeed, I assumed that would be the link.
Rogan at least has the decency to be interesting in that he's a bizarre simulacrum of an intelligent person whose actual thoughts and centre of gravity disappear like smoke when you try to pin them down, all while experimenting with weed and hallucinogens. Can see him as an incidental character somewhere in GR or V or IV.
Hey, this is my video lol. If you look at my deep dives into Cormac McCarthy and David Foster Wallace, I already have 100+ videos on each author. No other BookTuber spends 50+ hours on one author.
I plan to make hundreds of videos on Pynchon. This is where I started, and I will continue releasing videos daily on him for the foreseeable future. Many of those will be analyzing his novels. Some will be like this. If you want another one of my videos on Pynchon, here you go!
I've used this Subreddit for years and would rather not make enemies with you guys. If this isn't your cup of tea, I hope to gain your respect soon with analysis videos of his books! Peace!
[https://youtu.be/2htRFbU7tjM](https://youtu.be/2htRFbU7tjM)
Dude its a good video, I don't know why everyone is freaking out here. You're engaging with the literature, and bringing up some interesting points - I guarantee most of the people in the comments here didn't even watch the video if they're complaining. Do your thing, you seem to have a pretty interesting channel.
Yeah its a clickbaity thunbnail, who fucking cares - its a video on youtube. Everybody chill the fuck out
Thank you for your contribution. Unfortunately, your comment has been removed. While we all have different opinions on r/ThomasPynchon, and while we may not always agree with our peers, we must always strive to remain respectful in order to maintain this sub as a safe place for people to express ideas (that are not harmful to others) free and openly. Further instances of disrespect or outright bullying can result in a permanent ban; tread carefully!
Look - I think that you are in an awkward position in that the authors you clearly love and respect (McCarthy, Wallace, Pynchon) are intensely (vibes-wise if nothing else) inherently oppositional to the idea of monetized YouTube content. Like, it’s hard to imagine any of them being anything but utterly horrified at the very idea. So while I can’t not respect your hustle - academia is a shit career - it still feels deeply _wrong_ to subject some of this work to clickbait youtubery. I’m speaking as an elder millennial who has read virtually the entirety of each of these author’s canon(s).
That said you’ll get some views from me because I’m curious now.
I agree with for your sentiment but what makes you say they’ll be opposed to monetised YouTube content? Cormac has been part of monetised YouTube videos - he’s also done podcasts that are have ads on the website that hosts it - essentially the same as monetisation. I don’t get this from their “vibe” either. I think (DFW especially) would definitely be horrified at the state of advertising and sponsors but as long as the conversations are meaningful enough - and spreads the word - he wouldn’t mind it too much imo
I really dig your videos! I’ll check out your guide for Infinite Jest, i’m planning on giving it a first read soon.
Also that Outer Dark shirt is *chefs kiss*
I feel really conflicted about your video. On the one hand, I always appreciate more Pynchon content. On the other hand, you come across as kind of arrogant. Some things in your video don't make a lot of sense, like talking about your students and referencing how they are not far connected to playing with HotWheels, or something like that, which didn't make a whole lot of sense.
Pynchon is an incredibly complex author to talk about academically correctly, and I worry that people who are just being introduced by Pynchon in the context of talking about masculinity is setting up your viewers to be dissapointed when they actually sit down to tackle a Pynchon book.
I'm not trying to slander you either. I feel like you have potential with your series, I just have some concerns with how you will handle talking about him in the future.
This is coming from someone who has read every Pynchon novel more than once, so it's safe to assume that I'm a fan and was very excited to see your video recommended to me on my page.
I also looked at your other video on how you plan on having a book club to read 11 very challenging books, all at once, which just seems a bit absurd to me.
From one Pynchon fan to another, please be cautious of where you continue to go with this because there are a lot of people much smarter than me who I know could tear your video to shreds.
Don't feel bad for criticizing this guy.
Got recommended his videos on David Foster Wallace and they are some of the most low effort commentaries on his work. A quarter of the videos is him trying to funnel people into his courses on how to be a writer at the caliber of these authors. He pumps out hundreds of videos with a bunch of yapping but never really says anything of value or insight. He really mis-characterizes these authors and tries to filter them through all the god awful talking points of modern social media.
He contributes nothing to the discourse on these great writers and is trying to grift courses by using their names as click bait. I'm not someone who's ever wanted to gate keep a work and I always love hearing how literature impacts people. This guy comes across as profoundly disingenuous and I think he should be rightfully criticized because of it.
Hey man I watch your videos sometimes. I think you make some really good points at times. I def don't agree with you 100% on everything but I appreciate how you're willing to go on a little bit deeper dives with some of these topics/writers.
I think the person who posted this maybe didn't listen to what you had to say in the video. It was pretty clear you were exploring a piece of writing from P. about the masculinity topic and connecting it to contemporary discourse. I don't see any reason why a Pynchon fan should be upset at the discussion or the video other than the thumbnail lmao.
this shit is incredibly lame. you don't seem really interested in analyzing pynchon, more just using his name and talking about tangentially related shit that you believe in for a while. Did you do more than cite one quote? I didn't want to sit through the whole thing.
Edit: Before I start this wall of text, I don’t mean this as an insult. I mean this more as constructive criticism for u/writeconscious
I haven’t watched this whole video, but I’ve watched maybe ten of his other videos on DFW and Cormac McCarty, and that’s a pretty common occurrence on the write conscious YouTube channel—just stick someone famous’s name in the title, do a surface level read of some quote, and then speak on a tangentially related topic for the 19 remaining minutes of the video.
I was pretty put off the first time I watched one of his videos when he opened with something like, “Welcome to write conscious, the home of everything David Foster Wallace [or Cormac McCarthy] on YouTube.” It seemed pretty clear that he was in no way legitimately affiliated, and so he’s basically just using the names of dead men for views. To be clear I don’t think he understands that he’s doing this. It’s a Hanlon’s Razor situation—ignorance, not malice. That said hopefully this post makes him aware of how people feel about him doing this the way he’s doing it.
There are respectful and insightful ways to go about this though. I love the John David Ebert and Book Chemist videos on e.g. Gravity’s Rainbow. Ebert goes through the Weisenberger companion to GR and augments it with material from the Pynchon wiki and from his own knowledge. He sometimes makes pretty broad leaps, but they’re all well grounded, and I actually think that those types of leaps are a really positive and natural thing to do while reading Pynchon.
The Book Chemist as I understand it is (or maybe was—he may have completed his studies at this point) an Italian PhD student studying Literature, and specifically interested in twentieth century American literature (but also has wider interests, like Magda Szabo’s The Door or Emile Zola’s Germinal). He’s well studied and obviously has had a lot of conversations about the novels in the past as he has interesting insights and questions to ask about the texts he reviews. The GR read along was great and worked as a nice support for his argument that Pynchon needs to be read in a group; your reading has to be compared with other interpretations.
John David Ebert’s episode by episode analyses of Gravity’s Rainbow, following the Weisenberger: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtnUh75YINX1pJu8tD9NK8OC2_tJz57Ge&si=K4bl0X8bPtnTwhYt
The Book Chemist’s read along: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1imCIzhbzfNDyixDgZT7D4HEWt8cXF1H&si=2X9oGXBOzKC6PjPm
Nice to see Ebert being mentioned. Baffling that he mostly just does his overpriced school now, I can't imagine many are signing up, although I guess he talks about such niche topics that he makes more than he did on Patreon / Substack. Although his Analysis of Gravity's Rainbow isn't one of my favorites of his, it's still probably the best one on Youtube, and he's entertaining. Sad that he never got to Mason & Dixon or Against The Day though, as he would probably have some very unique insights on those. As for The Book Chemist, when I did watch him, I found his videos to be fairly superficial, and his video on Gaddis years ago pissed me off so much that I haven't bothered to watch anything by him since.
John David Ebert is definitely insane (for example, the video he had about YouTube erasing stuff on his hard drive about his ex wife) but man I think that adds a lot to his channel. When he goes off on a tangent, it feels at least thematically appropriate. He feels at least in the same vein as a Pynchon character (e.g. the misplaced paranoia about his wife and YouTube).
I’ve noticed the book chemist diverging from a lot of the earlier stuff that people seemed to connect with him on (like Pynchon). I don’t watch him much anymore for that reason. Still haven’t gotten to Gaddis so I don’t have much of an opinion there but when I do I’ll have to keep that in mind.
One other guy (and these people do tend to be guys lol) to shout out is Paper Bird if you’ve ever seen him. His videos are absolutely fucked. He and Leaf by Leaf are apparently friends in real life so they occasionally overlap in taste, although their approaches are way different. Leaf by Leaf is sometimes kind of dry/boring but paperbird always feels like you just took some drug that absolutely splintered your nervous system. His way of responding to books makes me really excited to read.
Yeah, I've been watching Ebert for 6 or 7 years, so I've seen him go a bit off the deep end a few times. The guy is an encyclopedia but can't be bothered to learn more than the absolute minimum of how to use a computer or how they work. It would make sense if he had any luddite tendencies, but he doesn't. Other than the fact that he's mad he got removed from wikipedia lol (although I've been surprised at the amount of times I've heard his book Art After Metaphysics mentioned over the years, he's a bit more known than you would think by the views he gets on youtube) he says he loves the internet. He once listed his top 10 pornstars. Half the time his mic is clipping horribly... it's great. Definitely a Pynchonian character. At least now that he's gotten off Twitter he seems to be doing a bit better. I've read most of his books minus the film analysis ones and they're great, if you haven't read them.
I tried to think of a single female "booktuber" who I think is great and they are all quite unremarkable lol. I think a lot of the youtubers who I like tend to be older (by older I just mean late 30s and up, with a few exceptions... shout out to Orpheus, who you probably already know), and the women who are really into this more niche stuff became academics, rather than expressing their bibliomania via youtube lol.
Absolutely fantastic to find a fellow paperbird enjoyer. He's brilliant. His videos remind me of the best side of AI art (that being when it's gone off the rails). And they just keep getting more unhinged. The "review" of Raymond Roussel's Impressions of Africa is truly inspiring.
Is the pornstar ranking still up? Also do you have any tweets of his, is his account still active. I found him last year and never thought his books would be well known… in what context did you hear it being brought up? I’m going to definitely buy them now. Loved reading this whole exchange, I’ve never seen Ebert brought up. I always find it fascinating how deeply he believes in astrology and chart-readings. Threw me for a loop the first time I heard him go down that tangent. He seemed so rational and calm until then.
No, it was a tweet. I think his account was suspended then he just deleted it. It would have been back in 2022 when he was posting a bunch of lists like his 10 favorite novels, 10 favorite poets, etc. I don't have any screenshots, but there are a lot on twitter of all the crazy shit he's said just search for John David Ebert or JDE for a laugh (well, half the time it's hilarious, and the other half just sad).
His books definitely are not at all well known, but more know about them than just the tiny subsection of right-wingers or dissident right that follow him now, because his mentor founded the Lindisfarne association... his first book contains interviews with a few members of it, as well as Deepak Chopra and one of the last interviews with Terrence Mckenna. So some folks who have really gone down the new age / new age adjacent rabbit hole have found him that way. I believe I've heard him say that his best selling books are actually the scene by scene film analysis ones, so there's that as well.
The astrology is the tip of the iceberg, have you seen his Nietzsche interview via online seance with a medium?
Man this is insane. I haven’t seen any of this or known about it. I’ve only watched all the videos on V. and Gravity’s Rainbow, and I always found it jarring when he’d go down tangents which were just unfounded truth claims about astrology and seances. At one point he said “No that’s not how seances work. Every time I’ve spoken to the dead they’ve just …” And goes in describing it in vivid detail.
Actually I had subscribed to his Patreon for a month just to see if he had more on Pynchon and I did end up reading some of scene-by-scene breakdowns. He has one on 2001 a space odyssey. It was good but man it’s so weird to write a scene by scene breakdown, should be either a commentary track or have visual aids. It was just chunks of text on each scene. He has a really unique approach to everything.. which I love.
Is he super Rightwing himself? I’m definitely going to watch the Nietzsche interview. That’s genius. I was going to sign up for his Moby dick course that’s live now - but it’s 300 dollars lol. I wonder how many people have signed up
It’s a shame he hasn’t finished it, but man is it nice that we have even that first chunk of the book. As I recall he got at least around half way. I remember him being pretty deep into In the Zone where he leaves off. This is in contrast to write conscious, who does have hundreds of hours on e.g. David Foster Wallace, but doesn’t really say much about the work; for Ebert, he’s incredibly deep in the weeds. If you watch even just the first video of his series on GR, it gives you an incredibly detailed overview of the structure of the book and what symbols and cultural artifacts Pynchon pulls from and interacts with.
I'm trying to figure out if he's a grifter or a true believer. He has an online bookclub that is supposed to read 11 difficult books at once. I am leaning towards grifter.
I’ve just noticed a huge rise in AI voice Clone faceless YouTube essay channels. Compare this channel to say Hardcore Literature and it’s night and day in content but also infrastructure/believability.
u/moodindigos
Lol, thank you, brotha!
To follow up on your edit, as I said earlier, no one on BookTube goes deeper than me on authors. If this isn't your type of video, more Pynchon videos will flood your feed, which will analyze his novels more in-depth.
That’s an insane level of arrogance. I was mostly on your side before but dude… Compared to others on booktube you’re content is like a crayon-scribble. You barely make it through a sentence without stumbling. Also “flooding” people’s feed is closer to a threat than a good thing man. You lack so much self awareness.
I only had to look at the thumbnail to understand what was happening here.
I know there's a stereotype about a certain kind of douchebag guy who's really into thick books and stuff but it's clear that those guys don't actually take in what they have read. When you go out into the real world a lot of people into Pynchon are into experimental literature which by it's nature is transgressive and runs counter to conservative circles. I'm happy that this community is not buying into the typical culture war bullshit. It's like these guys read the disturbing or explicit passages of certain writers and think that they are conservative like them because the writing is challenging. Conservatives don't want to challenge social norms or even artistic norms, they want conformity. It's all about shapes and colours for them. Historically it's always been the right who have been in favour of censorship. Look at all the book bans happening right now. The right at the moment are saying that they are the new punk rock and they are being all rebellious when all they really want is to reverse any social changes that have come about since the civil rights movement.
Guys, I'm overwhelmed by the positive support I've received in the comments. Thank you so much for supporting me. This may be Reddit's most intelligent, open-minded, and empathetic community. I will be your champion on YouTube. Because you guys like this video, I can produce hundreds more like it! I know you guys are all busy holding down the Reddit fortress!
it’s funny that you are unable to get along with anybody who reads the same books as you…
[удалено]
you are being criticized
Wow I’m amazed this dude managed to stop sucking David Foster Wallace’s dick for long enough to make this!
This guy pumps out like fifty videos on Pynchon and Wallace a day. He's clearly a grifter trying to sell some bullshit writing program He sucks and all his videos are him yapping at a camera interspersed with ad reads for his course
I knew who this video would be before I even clicked on it lmao, he mostly focuses on McCarthy and some of his stuff is okay but yeah he's definitely grifting the shit out of it and milking it. Don't be surprised if he shows up in the comments here either!
Surprise surprise!
Die
Sometimes I wonder if Pynchon readers are more prone to mental illness or if the books themselves can cause readers to go nuts. /s
Get me in the straightjacket before I become the largest Pynchon content creator!
Every day we stray further from god's light.
This didn’t really seem to answer what Pynchon thinks about modern American masculinity though? There is one quote from an interview used to platform the whole tangent.
"I don't think a lot of people have grown up, and I say men but I really mean everyone, but I AM grown up, and also initiation rites are a really good thing, and this Thomas Pynchon quote aligns with this general view that I have and use to feel better about myself when I compare myself to any other guy I know (shucks, isn't my wife lucky?). Also, you shouldn't do anything that interests you, except read 11 books at once with me so you can feel enlightened and integrated. Don't you want to be like me? Sign up today at the low, low cost of $9.99."
I am slowly losing hope with each day that goes by
Then don’t spread it around, natch
I’m kind of glad I saw this post actually. I’d seen some of write conscious’s videos and saw the traction they got and I’m glad to see that Pynchon readers are a little more cautious than that. It seems like for the most part people have been able to figure out the quality level of the videos.
we read Pynchon, we expect quality!!! I think this guy thinks about other things while reading besides the books… like reactionary politics…
I think this guy ^ doesn’t know what reactionary means
An engagement with the book, in and of itself, is valuable. I bought my first copy of GR from a remainder bin for $2.00. That is what should be frigtening. That is, that Pynchon (McCarthy, DFW, Beckett, Racine and other author's that you can think of) are lost to time. Shakespeare did not know of Dante.
It sounds weally scawy that you found gravity's rainbow for $2. Are you ok?
Yeah kinda weird move to pull a quote totally out of context (and likely sourced directly from the internet) in an attempt to make some disjointed, self-serving argument about the state of modern masculinity, and in the process totally mischaracterize the context of this excerpt from the introduction of “Slow Learner,” which, ironically enough, is a self-critique of Pynchon’s own naive, uninformed worldview at the time of writing this particular story. From the preceding paragraph: “…along with imperfectly developed attitudes about sex and death, we may also note how easily some of my adolescent values were able to creep in and wreck an otherwise sympathetic character.”
Nah I actually watched the video. It’s interesting! I think you guys are gatekeeping Pynchon which to be honest is very anathema to Pynchon’s ethos to begin with. This isn’t some “god” you have to be “careful” with, he’s a vortex of cultural references both high and low who’s always as refined as he is unruly. Treating his texts as sacred works than can only be handled by exegetes is what truly offends me, and I’m sure it would offend Pynchon. Talking Pynchon doesn’t have to be so damn serious. Besides, any engagement with/exposure to his works is a net positive in my book and I’ll never understand anyone who says otherwise. What’s worse is relegating all discussion of his work to self-styled “experts” who are all too content talking Pynchon to the walls of their room
who in this thread is making that arguement. Also calling people pretentious while saying pretentious shit is pretty funny
Nah he isn’t wrong.. Some people in here are so pretentious and annoying it hurts
OP if I’m not mistaken had the arrogance to state that he came off as arrogant in the video, which I think is orders of magnitude more arrogant to say than the guy in the video came off as. They also proceeded to chide him to be more “careful” with the texts. Shit like this bothers the hell out of me to be honest
no one said the word "careful" why are you using quotes for it?
Ah, OP said “cautious” my bad. Maybe I’ll be more “careful” next time. Still annoying. Any other questions buddy?
why cant i do a rs check on subreddits that arent trueanon
It’s neat how people are so interested in sifting through others’ post histories on this app. I’m flattered
I had a hunch. Calling out other people for being pretentious while saying the word exegetes?
And you followed up on it! Good work gumshoe, once again, thanks for lavishing me with your attention! How lucky am I 🥰
watch out brother you sound really arrogant right now.
No one smart enough to read more than a page of Pynchon is going to be foolish enough to actually respect Rogan or Tate.
I’ve read all of Pynchon and I respect Rogan to a degree. (As for Tate I came across this video by an English teacher that might be nice to watch: https://youtu.be/iOkSP-KlfhI?si=v_-FtPukh-Z9-ShQ ). Anyone that doesn’t respect Rogan at all, I believe, doesn’t understand what it takes to be successful and hasn’t really achieved much themselves. He’s deeply flawed of course but has a lot to admire, he’s also not some high IQ intellectual (but my favourite Pynchon characters aren’t and they share a lot of flawed and human qualities). I’ve never been a consistent viewer of JRE but I’ll watch 1-3 episodes a year. I can explain further but I’ve realised it’s kinda pointless on this sub but feel free to ask me anything. I don’t want anyone to start watching Rogan but making the claim “anyone that’s read a page a Pynchon is smart enough not respect Rogan” is a sign of… well a lot of room for growth. Also there was one moment in the last episode I watched where a quack-like physicist was playing the Harmonica to demonstrate the musical notes underlying chemistry and the elements in the periodic table. If that isn’t the closest thing to Pynchon-ian I don’t know what is. I’d love some better examples tbh
“anyone that doesn’t respect Rogan at all, I believe, doesn’t understand what it takes to be successful and hasn’t really achieved much themselves.” This is implying, you understand what it takes for someone to become successful. Could you pick out people from a crowd and tell me who would be successful and who wouldn’t? (I wonder which colored people you would pick!) This is such a dick-ride of capitalism, we should not respect all successful white men, especially not ones that spread misinformation and are platformed by privilege. maybe you need to read less fiction! have you checked out Friedrich Engels?
[удалено]
i forgot the word, it was bootlicker!
Hating on Joe Rogan doesn’t make you cool. Lowest hanging fruit possible
Lowest hanging knuckles possible.
If you watched the video you would see I am (with help from Pynchon) critiquing Joe Rogan and Andrew Tate...
you don't engage with pynchons work in the video
I didn't suggest otherwise - indeed, I assumed that would be the link. Rogan at least has the decency to be interesting in that he's a bizarre simulacrum of an intelligent person whose actual thoughts and centre of gravity disappear like smoke when you try to pin them down, all while experimenting with weed and hallucinogens. Can see him as an incidental character somewhere in GR or V or IV.
Ya Rogan is just a monkey
Rogan is a douche
I agree.
Hey, this is my video lol. If you look at my deep dives into Cormac McCarthy and David Foster Wallace, I already have 100+ videos on each author. No other BookTuber spends 50+ hours on one author. I plan to make hundreds of videos on Pynchon. This is where I started, and I will continue releasing videos daily on him for the foreseeable future. Many of those will be analyzing his novels. Some will be like this. If you want another one of my videos on Pynchon, here you go! I've used this Subreddit for years and would rather not make enemies with you guys. If this isn't your cup of tea, I hope to gain your respect soon with analysis videos of his books! Peace! [https://youtu.be/2htRFbU7tjM](https://youtu.be/2htRFbU7tjM)
Dude its a good video, I don't know why everyone is freaking out here. You're engaging with the literature, and bringing up some interesting points - I guarantee most of the people in the comments here didn't even watch the video if they're complaining. Do your thing, you seem to have a pretty interesting channel. Yeah its a clickbaity thunbnail, who fucking cares - its a video on youtube. Everybody chill the fuck out
Idiot - get a job
50+ hours of drivel is still drivel.
[удалено]
Thank you for your contribution. Unfortunately, your comment has been removed. While we all have different opinions on r/ThomasPynchon, and while we may not always agree with our peers, we must always strive to remain respectful in order to maintain this sub as a safe place for people to express ideas (that are not harmful to others) free and openly. Further instances of disrespect or outright bullying can result in a permanent ban; tread carefully!
Look - I think that you are in an awkward position in that the authors you clearly love and respect (McCarthy, Wallace, Pynchon) are intensely (vibes-wise if nothing else) inherently oppositional to the idea of monetized YouTube content. Like, it’s hard to imagine any of them being anything but utterly horrified at the very idea. So while I can’t not respect your hustle - academia is a shit career - it still feels deeply _wrong_ to subject some of this work to clickbait youtubery. I’m speaking as an elder millennial who has read virtually the entirety of each of these author’s canon(s). That said you’ll get some views from me because I’m curious now.
I agree with for your sentiment but what makes you say they’ll be opposed to monetised YouTube content? Cormac has been part of monetised YouTube videos - he’s also done podcasts that are have ads on the website that hosts it - essentially the same as monetisation. I don’t get this from their “vibe” either. I think (DFW especially) would definitely be horrified at the state of advertising and sponsors but as long as the conversations are meaningful enough - and spreads the word - he wouldn’t mind it too much imo
I really dig your videos! I’ll check out your guide for Infinite Jest, i’m planning on giving it a first read soon. Also that Outer Dark shirt is *chefs kiss*
I feel really conflicted about your video. On the one hand, I always appreciate more Pynchon content. On the other hand, you come across as kind of arrogant. Some things in your video don't make a lot of sense, like talking about your students and referencing how they are not far connected to playing with HotWheels, or something like that, which didn't make a whole lot of sense. Pynchon is an incredibly complex author to talk about academically correctly, and I worry that people who are just being introduced by Pynchon in the context of talking about masculinity is setting up your viewers to be dissapointed when they actually sit down to tackle a Pynchon book. I'm not trying to slander you either. I feel like you have potential with your series, I just have some concerns with how you will handle talking about him in the future. This is coming from someone who has read every Pynchon novel more than once, so it's safe to assume that I'm a fan and was very excited to see your video recommended to me on my page. I also looked at your other video on how you plan on having a book club to read 11 very challenging books, all at once, which just seems a bit absurd to me. From one Pynchon fan to another, please be cautious of where you continue to go with this because there are a lot of people much smarter than me who I know could tear your video to shreds.
Don't feel bad for criticizing this guy. Got recommended his videos on David Foster Wallace and they are some of the most low effort commentaries on his work. A quarter of the videos is him trying to funnel people into his courses on how to be a writer at the caliber of these authors. He pumps out hundreds of videos with a bunch of yapping but never really says anything of value or insight. He really mis-characterizes these authors and tries to filter them through all the god awful talking points of modern social media. He contributes nothing to the discourse on these great writers and is trying to grift courses by using their names as click bait. I'm not someone who's ever wanted to gate keep a work and I always love hearing how literature impacts people. This guy comes across as profoundly disingenuous and I think he should be rightfully criticized because of it.
Hey man I watch your videos sometimes. I think you make some really good points at times. I def don't agree with you 100% on everything but I appreciate how you're willing to go on a little bit deeper dives with some of these topics/writers. I think the person who posted this maybe didn't listen to what you had to say in the video. It was pretty clear you were exploring a piece of writing from P. about the masculinity topic and connecting it to contemporary discourse. I don't see any reason why a Pynchon fan should be upset at the discussion or the video other than the thumbnail lmao.
u/marlowescoffeemaker Thanks for the support brotha!
this shit is incredibly lame. you don't seem really interested in analyzing pynchon, more just using his name and talking about tangentially related shit that you believe in for a while. Did you do more than cite one quote? I didn't want to sit through the whole thing.
Edit: Before I start this wall of text, I don’t mean this as an insult. I mean this more as constructive criticism for u/writeconscious I haven’t watched this whole video, but I’ve watched maybe ten of his other videos on DFW and Cormac McCarty, and that’s a pretty common occurrence on the write conscious YouTube channel—just stick someone famous’s name in the title, do a surface level read of some quote, and then speak on a tangentially related topic for the 19 remaining minutes of the video. I was pretty put off the first time I watched one of his videos when he opened with something like, “Welcome to write conscious, the home of everything David Foster Wallace [or Cormac McCarthy] on YouTube.” It seemed pretty clear that he was in no way legitimately affiliated, and so he’s basically just using the names of dead men for views. To be clear I don’t think he understands that he’s doing this. It’s a Hanlon’s Razor situation—ignorance, not malice. That said hopefully this post makes him aware of how people feel about him doing this the way he’s doing it. There are respectful and insightful ways to go about this though. I love the John David Ebert and Book Chemist videos on e.g. Gravity’s Rainbow. Ebert goes through the Weisenberger companion to GR and augments it with material from the Pynchon wiki and from his own knowledge. He sometimes makes pretty broad leaps, but they’re all well grounded, and I actually think that those types of leaps are a really positive and natural thing to do while reading Pynchon. The Book Chemist as I understand it is (or maybe was—he may have completed his studies at this point) an Italian PhD student studying Literature, and specifically interested in twentieth century American literature (but also has wider interests, like Magda Szabo’s The Door or Emile Zola’s Germinal). He’s well studied and obviously has had a lot of conversations about the novels in the past as he has interesting insights and questions to ask about the texts he reviews. The GR read along was great and worked as a nice support for his argument that Pynchon needs to be read in a group; your reading has to be compared with other interpretations. John David Ebert’s episode by episode analyses of Gravity’s Rainbow, following the Weisenberger: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtnUh75YINX1pJu8tD9NK8OC2_tJz57Ge&si=K4bl0X8bPtnTwhYt The Book Chemist’s read along: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1imCIzhbzfNDyixDgZT7D4HEWt8cXF1H&si=2X9oGXBOzKC6PjPm
Nice to see Ebert being mentioned. Baffling that he mostly just does his overpriced school now, I can't imagine many are signing up, although I guess he talks about such niche topics that he makes more than he did on Patreon / Substack. Although his Analysis of Gravity's Rainbow isn't one of my favorites of his, it's still probably the best one on Youtube, and he's entertaining. Sad that he never got to Mason & Dixon or Against The Day though, as he would probably have some very unique insights on those. As for The Book Chemist, when I did watch him, I found his videos to be fairly superficial, and his video on Gaddis years ago pissed me off so much that I haven't bothered to watch anything by him since.
John David Ebert is definitely insane (for example, the video he had about YouTube erasing stuff on his hard drive about his ex wife) but man I think that adds a lot to his channel. When he goes off on a tangent, it feels at least thematically appropriate. He feels at least in the same vein as a Pynchon character (e.g. the misplaced paranoia about his wife and YouTube). I’ve noticed the book chemist diverging from a lot of the earlier stuff that people seemed to connect with him on (like Pynchon). I don’t watch him much anymore for that reason. Still haven’t gotten to Gaddis so I don’t have much of an opinion there but when I do I’ll have to keep that in mind. One other guy (and these people do tend to be guys lol) to shout out is Paper Bird if you’ve ever seen him. His videos are absolutely fucked. He and Leaf by Leaf are apparently friends in real life so they occasionally overlap in taste, although their approaches are way different. Leaf by Leaf is sometimes kind of dry/boring but paperbird always feels like you just took some drug that absolutely splintered your nervous system. His way of responding to books makes me really excited to read.
Yeah, I've been watching Ebert for 6 or 7 years, so I've seen him go a bit off the deep end a few times. The guy is an encyclopedia but can't be bothered to learn more than the absolute minimum of how to use a computer or how they work. It would make sense if he had any luddite tendencies, but he doesn't. Other than the fact that he's mad he got removed from wikipedia lol (although I've been surprised at the amount of times I've heard his book Art After Metaphysics mentioned over the years, he's a bit more known than you would think by the views he gets on youtube) he says he loves the internet. He once listed his top 10 pornstars. Half the time his mic is clipping horribly... it's great. Definitely a Pynchonian character. At least now that he's gotten off Twitter he seems to be doing a bit better. I've read most of his books minus the film analysis ones and they're great, if you haven't read them. I tried to think of a single female "booktuber" who I think is great and they are all quite unremarkable lol. I think a lot of the youtubers who I like tend to be older (by older I just mean late 30s and up, with a few exceptions... shout out to Orpheus, who you probably already know), and the women who are really into this more niche stuff became academics, rather than expressing their bibliomania via youtube lol. Absolutely fantastic to find a fellow paperbird enjoyer. He's brilliant. His videos remind me of the best side of AI art (that being when it's gone off the rails). And they just keep getting more unhinged. The "review" of Raymond Roussel's Impressions of Africa is truly inspiring.
Is the pornstar ranking still up? Also do you have any tweets of his, is his account still active. I found him last year and never thought his books would be well known… in what context did you hear it being brought up? I’m going to definitely buy them now. Loved reading this whole exchange, I’ve never seen Ebert brought up. I always find it fascinating how deeply he believes in astrology and chart-readings. Threw me for a loop the first time I heard him go down that tangent. He seemed so rational and calm until then.
No, it was a tweet. I think his account was suspended then he just deleted it. It would have been back in 2022 when he was posting a bunch of lists like his 10 favorite novels, 10 favorite poets, etc. I don't have any screenshots, but there are a lot on twitter of all the crazy shit he's said just search for John David Ebert or JDE for a laugh (well, half the time it's hilarious, and the other half just sad). His books definitely are not at all well known, but more know about them than just the tiny subsection of right-wingers or dissident right that follow him now, because his mentor founded the Lindisfarne association... his first book contains interviews with a few members of it, as well as Deepak Chopra and one of the last interviews with Terrence Mckenna. So some folks who have really gone down the new age / new age adjacent rabbit hole have found him that way. I believe I've heard him say that his best selling books are actually the scene by scene film analysis ones, so there's that as well. The astrology is the tip of the iceberg, have you seen his Nietzsche interview via online seance with a medium?
Man this is insane. I haven’t seen any of this or known about it. I’ve only watched all the videos on V. and Gravity’s Rainbow, and I always found it jarring when he’d go down tangents which were just unfounded truth claims about astrology and seances. At one point he said “No that’s not how seances work. Every time I’ve spoken to the dead they’ve just …” And goes in describing it in vivid detail. Actually I had subscribed to his Patreon for a month just to see if he had more on Pynchon and I did end up reading some of scene-by-scene breakdowns. He has one on 2001 a space odyssey. It was good but man it’s so weird to write a scene by scene breakdown, should be either a commentary track or have visual aids. It was just chunks of text on each scene. He has a really unique approach to everything.. which I love. Is he super Rightwing himself? I’m definitely going to watch the Nietzsche interview. That’s genius. I was going to sign up for his Moby dick course that’s live now - but it’s 300 dollars lol. I wonder how many people have signed up
Admittedly, John David Ebert never finished the gravity's rainbow series
It’s a shame he hasn’t finished it, but man is it nice that we have even that first chunk of the book. As I recall he got at least around half way. I remember him being pretty deep into In the Zone where he leaves off. This is in contrast to write conscious, who does have hundreds of hours on e.g. David Foster Wallace, but doesn’t really say much about the work; for Ebert, he’s incredibly deep in the weeds. If you watch even just the first video of his series on GR, it gives you an incredibly detailed overview of the structure of the book and what symbols and cultural artifacts Pynchon pulls from and interacts with.
He published multiple videos a week. I’m hesitant that it’s just low level content farming
I'm trying to figure out if he's a grifter or a true believer. He has an online bookclub that is supposed to read 11 difficult books at once. I am leaning towards grifter.
I’ve just noticed a huge rise in AI voice Clone faceless YouTube essay channels. Compare this channel to say Hardcore Literature and it’s night and day in content but also infrastructure/believability.
McEvoy is untouchable
u/moodindigos Lol, thank you, brotha! To follow up on your edit, as I said earlier, no one on BookTube goes deeper than me on authors. If this isn't your type of video, more Pynchon videos will flood your feed, which will analyze his novels more in-depth.
That’s an insane level of arrogance. I was mostly on your side before but dude… Compared to others on booktube you’re content is like a crayon-scribble. You barely make it through a sentence without stumbling. Also “flooding” people’s feed is closer to a threat than a good thing man. You lack so much self awareness.
“What?”
-Richard Nixon
What is this!?