Fred Marcellino's Book Cover for Thomas Pynchon's Slow Learner

Slow Learner is the self-deprecatory title of Thomas Pynchon's 1984 collection of his early short fiction. Fred Marcellino's cover illustration depicts a fountain pen seated on a bicycle. The background is airbrushed with the bicycle added as a collage element. The bicycle appears off center over toward the right to allow the background to wrap around the spine of the the book.

Fred Marcellino
Original art
Slow Learner (1984) by Thomas Pynchon

Fred Marcellino
Swann Galleries January 24, 2013
20th Century Illustration
Sale 2300 Lot 219

First Edition

https://www.secondeditionaustin.com/listing/528007650/first-edition-slow-learner-by-thomas

Note:  Longtime readers may be wondering about the status of my anticipated interview with Thomas Pynchon. I'm still playing hard to get.


Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives: 

Thomas Pynchon

Original Book Cover Art

Attempted Bloggery's Index in Training

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Blog Post No. 1400: New Goals for an Old Blogger

If it's not clear to you just exactly where this blog is headed, you're not alone. I'm not certain what lies ahead either and I write this thing. Perhaps it might help if I were to clarify what some of my existing goals are for Attempted Bloggery and even to set some new ones. After publishing 1,400 blog posts over not quite four years, I'm cognizant that not enough people are reading what I write. I know that this material is not for everyone, but I do worry that many of those who might be interested aren't finding their way here. The benchmark I use to measure this is simply page views. As you may know, I met my well-publicized goal of reaching 500,000 page views for the blog by Beethoven's birthday (December 16) on that very day--just. Now I need a brand new goal regarding page views. I've decided to reach for the sun.

Goal: I am going to try to reach 1,000,000 page views by Bloomsday (June 16) 2016. If it took three and a half years to reach my first 500,000 page views, I see no reason to wait nearly so long for the second 500,000. A year and a half should do it. Status: With just 516 days left in which to achieve the remaining 483,000 page views, I have set my sights on averaging some 936 page views per day. This will require an immediate increase of my daily readership of at least 50%. I have no idea why I think this is achievable, but I like a challenge.

Attempted Bloggery's Page View Stats as of January 16, 2015

Here are some other challenges:

Goal: I understand perfectly well what it means to have 517,000 page views on my blog, but I have no idea what it means to have 5,000,000 views on Google+, one of the social media sites on which I promote the blog. Since I don't know what it means, I have no compunction about trying to reach 10,000,000 views rather quickly, let's say by Columbus Day 2015. Status:  We'll just have to see now, won't we.

My Google+ Stats as of January 16, 2015

Goal:  The other major social media site I use to promote the blog is Twitter. I figure my blog stats can't increase sufficiently to meet my readership goal unless my social media presence increases first. My goal here is to increase my followers from about 1,000 to 5,000 by New Year's Day 2016. Status: I'm going to need more than ten new followers every day. That shouldn't be a problem, right?

My Twitter Stats as of January 16, 2015

Goal:  It has long been my desire to have Siri write my individual blog posts for me. I would prefer to retire from the daily grind of generating blog posts and instead to function in the background as a sort of blogging muse for Siri. Status:  Apple's technology so far has failed to keep up with my blogging needs.

Goal:  When I told New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff I had been a finalist in the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest four times, he inscribed my copy of his memoir with the erroneous statement that I'd been a winner four times. Therefore, in order to spare him a lifetime of embarrassment over this little mistake, my goal now is actually to win the Moment Cartoon Caption Contest four times. Status:  I've now won once and been selected a finalist six times.

Goal:  The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest is an even more daunting challenge. I'll set a goal of making it to finalist status not because I have a chance, but because  well, what's the point of entering so often without such a goal? Status:  No way, José.

Goal:  I suppose it's no secret that I'd like to see this blog cited in print, either in a book or even better in a college syllabus. Status:  Nothing yet. This blog is  online. How on earth would I ever know what's published in print?

Goal:  To interview novelist Thomas Pynchon. Status:  He hasn't asked me yet.

Note: Help me meet my new goals. Follow me on Twitter and on Google+.

I like nice round numbers! All the previous Attempted Bloggery centennial posts are right here for your counting pleasure:

Blog Post No. 100
Blog Post No. 200:  A Shaggy Dog Story
Blog Post No. 300:  From the Libraries of Searle, Koren, Booth, and Saxon
Blog Post No. 400: The Attempted Bloggery Quiz
Blog Post No. 500:  The Second Attempted Bloggery Quiz
Blog Post No. 600:  What I Do When I'm Not Blogging
Blog Post No. 700:  The Many Hazards of Blogging
Blog Post No. 800:  Think Locally, Blog Globally
Blog Post No. 900:  The Blog I Was Meant to Write
Blog Post No. 1000: Happy New Year, Lurkers and All!
Blog Post No. 1100:  The Power of Google

Blog Post No. 1200:  The Ukrainian Situation

Blog Post No. 1300:  Plus-Sizing the Readership

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Interview with Thomas Pynchon

Q:  We live in the age of publicity. All manner of celebrities, the famous and the not-so-famous, seek to promote their careers through the relentless pursuit of coverage in the mass media. As a genuine cultural icon, isn't it time for you to capitalize on your blue-chip literary name and exploit your public persona in the various news, entertainment, and social media? To be sure, you've toiled nobly at your craft for decades. Why not finally cash in?

A:

Q:  Mr. Pynchon?

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A Hypothetical Question

Please don't go starting any rumors. I want to make it clear that the question I pose today is purely hypothetical. I'm asking it now because one day this very situation indeed could come up at short notice and I will need to know pronto how best to act. So here goes....

If ever Thomas Pynchon graciously agrees to be interviewed for this blog, how will I reliably be able to verify his identity? I mean, the very fact of this publicity-averse writer somehow consenting to be interviewed would suggest strongly that it mightn't be the genuine Pynchon at all with whom I'm dealing, but some impish impostor.

Then again, one can never be absolutely certain. There's always the remote possibility that one who refused interviews his entire career could have a change of heart and want his voice finally to be heard in, let's say, an obscure but sincere online venue. So it could be a grave error to accuse him of being an impostor unless of course he actually were one. Do you see my dilemma? This could give a conscientious blogger sleepless nights.

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Book Review: Inherent Vice (2009) by Thomas Pynchon

Inherent Vice (2009)

Thomas Pynchon

It's been about thirty years since I last read Thomas Pynchon. I really enjoyed and thought the world of his first three novels too. Gravity's Rainbow, of course, was particularly amazing, a real apocalyptic masterpiece like no other, and it ended with such brilliant finality that it was possible to believe for many years after 1973 that Pynchon was not going to have anything more to say ever. It now seems apparent to me that Pynchon never stopped writing, and a book such as Mason & Dixon was decades in the making. The fact of the matter is, while Pynchon got back into the habit of publishing, I did not get back into the habit of reading him. Until now, that is.


Inherent Vice, Pynchon's seventh novel, is his hallucinogenic take on the noir novel. With Hammett's Nick and Nora Charles, the liquor cabinet was never closed. In this 2009 novel, Doc Sportello seemingly is perpetually stoned. The result is a private investigator with the incredible ability to follow the many threads of a bewilderingly complex case, threads the sober reader may well get hopelessly lost in, but Doc also has a doper's seeming inability to recall a plain conversation even while he's having it. Pynchon returns to this dope-induced memory loss again and again. I must have laughed out loud every time.

Yes, the book is funny, often outrageously so, but this is still a serious work of literary fiction with many of Pynchon's quirks and hallmarks. It's actually nice to see Pynchon enjoying himself so much, but one only has to pay attention to all the discussion about Charles Manson, Vietnam, greedy real estate developers, President Nixon, and Governor Reagan in the California of 1970 to realize that powerful forces are going to put an end to the hippie paradise that Pynchon may or may not be romanticizing. I'm not sure the convoluted plot itself has the kind of meaningful payoff one hopes for, but perhaps Pynchon is wise not to have every conspiracy look like the Tristero system in The Crying of Lot 49. He's after something much vaster here, something that encompasses all the tentacles of capitalism. I think this is a mistake, but then I was never a hippie.



December 18, 2011 Update:  Thomas Pynchon narrates this promotion for his book.

Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon

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