THOMAS PYNCHON

American Novelist

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Inherent Vice Diagrammed: the making of a new Pynchon resource

August 1, 2019 by Paul Razzell 2 Comments

A new Pynchon resource helps you keep track of Inherent Vice’s 130 characters, 37 entities, 6 gangs, 4 bands, and 1 dog. The website features color-coded diagrams, plot summaries and other resources so you can get the most out of reading Pynchon’s complex detective novel. Inherent Vice Diagrammed creator Paul Razzell explains the origins and development of this innovative resource.

THERE’S A TELLING IMAGE in the film adaptation of Inherent Vice where private eye Doc Sportello attempts to diagram the connections among 16 people involved in his intersecting cases. Using crayons, he writes characters’ names on his living room wall then draws lines between the names to show relationship, connection … or something. Why is this a telling image? 

For starters, it reminds you that Doc is trying to do exactly what you’re trying to do: see the relationships among so many characters and what those relationships can tell us about their motivations, loyalties, hostilities, and power dynamics. 

Second, the scene is the filmmaker’s acknowledgement to viewers that keeping track of all these characters and their relationships is hard work. Even a seasoned private eye like Doc, who’s had personal contact with most characters, needs a visual aid. (Doc’s diagram shows 16 characters only. There are over 50 in the film. His wall is nowhere near big enough to accommodate so many names at once nor, you are led to believe, is his mind.) 

Third, the image reveals a cognitive flaw in Doc’s diagrammatic approach: all of his lines are unlabeled. How is Glen related to Clancy? How is Coy related to El Drano? Doc’s highly generalized crazy wall doesn’t answer such questions. It carries no precise or informative meaning that would lead him—or us—from confusion to revelation. 

Inherent Vice Diagrammed brings you much closer to that revelation. This free resource helps you see through Doc’s marijuana haze with

  • elegant diagrams showing character-relationships 
  • concise chapter summaries
  • plot summaries
  • an index revealing each character’s relationships. 

Reading Inherent Vice is, after all, detective work. It’s about finding connections between many people, organizations, and entities with a view to solving crimes and, perhaps, seeing where America is headed.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Inherent Vice Film, Pynchon Analysis, Pynchon General News, Pynchon Inspired Tagged With: American fiction, Bigfoot, Coy Harlingen, crime, crime fiction, David Foster Wallace, design, diagram, Doc Sportello, fiction, Golden Fang, Harry Potter, index, Infinite Jest, information design, Inherent Vice, Inherent Vice Diagrammed, J.K. Rowling, Kurt Vonnegut, Lord of the Rings, Mark Lombardi, Mickey Wolfmann, news, Paul Razzell, plot summary, postmodern fiction, postmodernism, pynchon, Razzell, Shasta Hepworth, stories, story, thomas pynchon, Tolkien, visual explanations, visualizing data

Chryskylodon Blues – Behind the Scenes of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice

November 9, 2015 by TPmaster Leave a Comment

Paul Thomas Anderson“Chryskylodon Blues,” a 12-minute film by Laura Colella that captures behind the scenes filming of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice, is shot in grainy Super-8 color. Its name comes from the place in the Thomas Pynchon novel called Chryskylodon Institute (“from an ancient Indian word meaning ‘serenity’), an upscale rehabilitation facility in Ojai, where Micky Wolfmann is being kept.

Chryskylodon Blues from Laura Colella on Vimeo.

The narration, by Theo Green, is a selection of readings from the Thomas Pynchon novel and is similar in tone and spirit to Pynchon’s narration on the trailer for the novel Inherent Vice. The accompanying surf music — with period-enhancing ticks and pops — is by a group identified in the credits as The Growlers. They are the guys who play the Boards, a surf band in Pynchon’s novel.

From Ben Sach’s informative article on the short film:

The movie, in short, is a gift that keeps on giving—naturally, it inspired a superior making-of documentary that’s now available to watch online. Chryskylodon Blues, directed by the gifted underground filmmaker Laura Colella (Tax Day, Breakfast With Curtis), is as novel in its approach to the behind-the-scenes doc as Inherent Vice is to the literary adaptation. Shot on Super-8, it looks like it could have been made in 1970, when Vice takes place. Colella recently explained to me that Anderson, an old friend, originally intended for her to play an amateur filmmaker during the scene set at the surf-rock band’s party that Sportello crashes midway through the film, and that she’d shoot Super-8 footage onscreen. She ended up using the Super-8 camera to film Chryskylodon, rather than shooting it digitally. (When asked why Warner Bros. decided not to include her film on the Inherent Vice DVD, she declined to comment.)

It’s definitely worth checking out.

Filed Under: Inherent Vice Film, Pynchon General News

Check Out New Inherent Vice Posters

December 28, 2014 by TPmaster 4 Comments

Steven Chorney

Steven Chorney

Warner Bros. released a collection character-focused posters in advance of the general theatrical release of Inherent Vice on January 9. They were created for online use only.

Each poster features a specific character in Inherent Vice.

The posters were designed by BLT Communications, LLC, an advertising agency located in Hollywood, CA. BLT also designed the Inherent Vice billboard art seen here and here.

Steven Chorney was the artist. His artwork won three Clio awards in 2015 (1 Grand, 2 Gold). Working in Hollywood, Mr. Chorney (b. 1951) has been doing illustrations since the 1970s.

When I asked Steve, by email, about his contribution to the artwork, he diplomatically responded: “no one person can claim credit. It was due to the combined efforts of some very talented people. I am happy to have been a part of it.”

He subsequently followed up, messaging to me….

“Thank you very much for wanting to include any thoughts or observations regarding my involvement with the Inherent Vice posters. It was a very involved project to be sure. All the character posters, the main Key art poster, the billboard art, several internet illustrations and also a film magazine cover in the UK. And that is not even counting all the preliminary concept sketches and several additional illustrations that in the end, were never used. This project was monumental…no one artist could have possibly done it alone! It was indeed a “team” of skilled artists that threw in together in order to make it happen. I can honestly say I was really happy to have been part of it because I am not sure we will see anything quite like it again!!”

Looking at his past work, you can get a good idea of his contribution to the “Inherent Vice” posters.

Enjoy!

Owen Wilson - Inherent Vice

IV-poster-Josh

IV-poster-Reese

IV-poster-benecio

View more from this series →

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Filed Under: Inherent Vice Film, Pynchon General News Tagged With: Benicio del Toro, inherentvice, josh brolin, Paul Thomas Anderson, ptanderson, reese witherspoon, thomaspynchon

Review: A Pynchon Fan’s First Impressions of “Inherent Vice” the Movie

December 11, 2014 by TPmaster 16 Comments

Inherent Vice - Last Supper Art PosterOn November 10, 2014, I was fortunate enough to attend an advance screening of Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel Inherent Vice, at the Harmony Gold Screening Room on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles.

Just prior to the evening screening, I decided to re-read the final three chapters of Inherent Vice, as it had been over five years since I’d read it. This may have been a mistake, as a movie isn’t a novel and has to compress a novel’s essence into a much briefer time span. The trick is to make a movie that works as a cinematic experience and, often, requiring that faithfulness to the novel take a backseat. But re-reading a bit allowed me to better see the disparities between the film and the novel, at least for those few chapters.

As an enthusiastic reader of Pynchon, I was skeptical that even a director of Anderson’s calibre could successfully translate a fairly conventional Pynchon novel to the Big Screen. And after seeing the film, I wasn’t sure what to say in a “review,” due to the complexity of my reaction and the feeling that I really needed to see it again, that it requires multiple viewings. But I’ve procrastinated as long as possible, as the film comes out tomorrow (in selected cities; general release is January 9, 2015)!

So off we went… My pal David Kipen, who procured the tickets, and I left Pasadena and headed to West Hollywood, both of us pretty excited despite my being at the tailend of a brief-but-brutal stomach virus and so a bit shakey.

CAVEAT: Regarding this “review,” I’ve only seen PT Anderson’s Inherent Vice once. I feel the film justifies a repeat viewing to really grasp Anderson’s vision. It’s entirely possible that my opinion of this film may evolve after a second look. And I DO recommend that you see it. MY job was to write this review; HIS job — much more difficult — was to actually make a good film…

UPDATE 12.12.14: I was privileged to speak to Mr. Anderson this morning via the PBS program Forum (on KQED in the SF Bay Area) and ask about all the great period music included in Pynchon’s Inherent Vice not making it to the film. Paul explained his reasons for not doing so. Here’s our exchange:

(If your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio, click here to listen to the show; my bit begins at 31 minutes.)

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Inherent Vice Film, Pynchon General News, Pynchon Reviews Tagged With: inherentvice, paulthomasanderson, ptanderson, thomaspynchon

“Inherent Vice” – Official Website and New Trailer

December 11, 2014 by TPmaster Leave a Comment

Inherent Vice Film Website Masthead
Check out the Official Website for Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice, which includes a great new trailer for the film:

Filed Under: Inherent Vice Film, Pynchon General News

Inherent Vice Posters Riff on the Last Supper

December 3, 2014 by TPmaster 1 Comment

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:

Inherent Vice - Last Supper

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:

Inherent Vice - Last Supper Art Poster

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Inherent Vice Film, Pynchon General News, Pynchon in the Media

New Poster Variations and Trailer for PT Anderson’s Inherent Vice Film

November 18, 2014 by TPmaster Leave a Comment

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.

New poster variants to accommodate different contexts

Well, now we know who those lovely legs and feet belong to — Katherine Waterston who plays Shasta Fay Hepworth in the film.
Inherent Vice Poster - Long Form

Inherent Vice Poster

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Director’s Cut Trailer

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:

Filed Under: Inherent Vice Film, Pynchon General News, Pynchon in the Media

New Poster for PT Anderson’s “Inherent Vice” Movie – Imagined!

November 18, 2014 by TPmaster Leave a Comment

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?

Alex Fellows - Inherent Vice Poster

Filed Under: Inherent Vice Film, Pynchon General News, Pynchon in the Media

Penguin’s Movie Tie-in Cover for Pynchon’s Inherent Vice book

October 30, 2014 by TPmaster Leave a Comment

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….

Inherent Vice Movie Tie-in Cover

Filed Under: Inherent Vice Film, Pynchon Covers, Pynchon General News

Initial Reviews of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice Movie are Overwhelmingly Positive

October 8, 2014 by TPmaster Leave a Comment

Inherent-Vice-feet-posterYep, 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…]

Filed Under: Inherent Vice Film, Pynchon General News

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