American Novelist
And those Inherent Vice movie posters just keep on coming…
Here’s one, a scene from the Paul Thomas Anderson film. A rendering of this photo was the centerspread in the programs that were given out at the New York Film Festival screening of Inherent Vice in November 2014:
And then there’s this supergroovy Last Supper — with pizza — poster promoting the film, featuring Owen Wilson, who plays Doc Sportello. Apparently, this was created over at the Little White Lies website in the UK:
Warner Bros. and Paul Thomas Anderson have been quite busy creating new ways to promote Anderson’s upcoming Inherent Vice, based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon.
Well, now we know who those lovely legs and feet belong to — Katherine Waterston who plays Shasta Fay Hepworth in the film.
Finally, there’s a new trailer directed by Anderson to promote the film in the United Kingdom. It’s shorter and goofier, leaning harder on the comedic aspects of the film in both selection of clips and accompanying music:
Artist Alex Fellows, the Associate Creative Director at TracyLocke in New York, created his own concept for a poster for the Paul Thomas Anderson film of the Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice.
I must say I like it better than the more conventional ones put out by the Warner Bros studio. More, um, Pynchonian…. Agree?
When Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice hits the theaters — in December, 2014 — Penguin Books, Pynchon’s publisher, will be ready with a movie-tie-in cover for the paperback edition of the novel.
While it retains the neon text treatment of the original cover, the surf-shop imagery (created by Darshan Zenith) is replaced with the neon-infused face of Joaquin Phoenix (as Doc Sportello), with characters and imagery from the movie — à la Klaus Voorman’s illustration for the cover of the Beatles’ classic mid-60s LP Revolver — tangled in Phoenix’s hair. Pretty cool….
“Pet Sounds” – Released May, 1966.
Pynchon was able to wrangle his deep and complex vision into an incredible novel, winning the National Book Award in 1974 and almost garnering a Pulitzer Prize (rather than select such a controversial novel, the jurors gave out no prize for literature in 1974). Wilson, however, facing pushback from his band (made up of three brothers and a cousin) and his record company, as well as a psyche increasingly destabilized by his drug intake, was unable to bring his Smile project to fruition.
Yes, these two artistic giants did meet, due to Pynchon’s enthusiasm for Pet Sounds and a Cornell classmate, writer Jules Siegel (RIP), who also knew Brian Wilson. The meeting, which occurred sometime in 1966, didn’t result in any meaningful exchange of ideas between the two; but a meeting by two such highly creative men at the height of their powers and both involved in massive projects, is noteworthy. Here’s the story….
In his March 1977 Playboy article “Who Is Thomas Pynchon…And Why Did He Take Off With My Wife?” writer Jules Siegel claims that in 1966 while on assignment to do an article on Bob Dylan for The Saturday Evening Post, he visited Pynchon in the one-room apartment he rented in Manhattan Beach, California, to wit:
I told [Pynchon] about the Dylan assignment. ‘You ought to do one on The Beach Boys,’ he said. I pretended to ignore that. A year or so later, I was in Los Angeles again, doing a story for the Post on The Beach Boys [ultimately published by Cheetah magazine]. He had forgotten his earlier remark and was no longer interested in them. I took him to my apartment in Laurel Canyon, got him royally loaded and made him lie down on the floor with a speaker at each ear while I played Pet Sounds, their most interesting and least popular record. It was not then fashionable to take The Beach Boys seriously.
‘Ohhhhh,” he sighed softly with stunned pleasure after the record was done. ‘Now I understand why you are writing a story about them.’
Yep, as one reviewer said, Paul Thomas Anderson’s film of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice is a “zany tragicomic odyssey that calls out for a repeat viewing” and so it appears. The reviews are, for the most part, positive.
Like any Pynchon novel, the film is weird and murky and the central mystery remains unresolved at the film’s conclusion. If it did resolve, it certainly wouldn’t be faithful to the book. Many of the critics note that Inherent Vice will reward repeat viewings, that there’s simply too much to taken in the first time ’round. Sound familiar?
I, for one, am green with envy for those who were able to see the initial screenings. I can’t wait to see this film!
Here’s an overview of Inherent Vice‘s reviews after the initial screenings at the New York Film Festival in early October 2014.
[Read more…]
Today, Sunday, September 29, 2014, Warner Bros. released the Official Trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice, as well as a poster (at left; click to enlarge).
Odd that the trailer features Sly Stone’s “I Want To Take You Higher” (1969) and Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World” (1960), neither of which was namechecked in Pynchon’s Inherent Vice, and there were a LOT of 1960’s/1970’s tunes namechecked in that novel!
Judging from the trailer, the film is a slapstick affair, wacky and well lit…. Boom shaka laka laka!
On the Bleeding Edge wiki, readers contributed to a list of typos and misspellings (aka “errata”) in the first hardback edition of the novel:
56: “some some tell”
71: “there might not much difference”
131: “Scream, Blacula, Scream” film title does not have commas
181: “Latrelle Sprewell” – should be “Latrell”
192: “dos” should be “does”
297: “does not not entirely”
314: “The spread on the Jets-Indianapolis game Sunday is 2 points.” It was actually 1.5
314: “a defensive end who then proceeds to run the ball 98 yards to a touchdown.” It was actually 95 yards.
340: “Keenan and Kel” should be “Kenan”
451: “Off she goes goes on the time machine”
457: “the Schachtman unpleasantness” – Shachtman is how the name is spelled.
Today, at my local bookstore I checked the new paperback edition against the list of typos and, to my surprise, only one of the typos — “Off she goes goes on the time machine” — had been fixed.
Now, why they wouldn’t bother to correct the spelling of Latrell Sprewell’s name, or “Schactman” or the other super-obvious errors is beyond me. Is it just laziness? I’m sure Pynchon is a stickler for errors of this sort and I wonder if he’s even aware of this.
Anyway… Hey! Penguin Books! Get your editorial shit together! You’re passively promoting the Decline of Literacy!
“Inherent Vice,” the movie, will be shown four times on Saturday, October 4, 2014, at the 52nd New York Film Festival. At the Tully Hall viewings, director Paul Thomas Anderson and select cast members will be present.
The Festival’s website includes (actually, included – see below) this synopsis of the film:
In ‘Inherent Vice,’ when private eye Doc Sportello’s ex-old lady suddenly out of nowhere shows up with a story about her current billionaire land developer boyfriend whom she just happens to be in love with, and a plot by his wife and her boyfriend to kidnap that billionaire and throw him in a loony bin… well, easy for her to say.
It’s the tail end of the psychedelic ’60s and paranoia is running the day and Doc knows that “love” is another of those words going around at the moment, like “trip” or “groovy,” that’s being way too overused—except this one usually leads to trouble.
With a cast of characters that includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers, a murderous loan shark, LAPD Detectives, a tenor sax player working undercover, and a mysterious entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax dodge set up by some dentists… Part surf noir, part psychedelic romp – all Thomas Pynchon.
HOWEVER, I just now re-visited the Festival’s site and the above description has been replaced (!) by this completely different one:
Matt Selman, executive producer of “The Simpsons,” tweeted out Thomas Pynchon’s handwritten edits to his script for his second Simpsons appearance, which he says Pynchon faxed to him.
Pynchon’s edits illustrate his sense of humor, his groan-worthy puns — “the Frying of Latke 49” … “V.-licious!” — and his ability to make something funny even funnier.
And, of course, Pynchon’s punning fits right in with the episode’s title, “All’s Fair in Oven War.”
Pynchon signs off with “Sorry, guys. Homer is my role model and I can’t speak ill of him.”