The Pynchon Playlist: a Catalog and Its Analysis
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Musical Landmarks in New York
MUSICAL LANDMARKS IN NEW YORK By CESAR SAERCHINGER HE great war has stopped, or at least interrupted, the annual exodus of American music students and pilgrims to the shrines T of the muse. What years of agitation on the part of America- first boosters—agitation to keep our students at home and to earn recognition for our great cities as real centers of musical culture—have not succeeded in doing, this world catastrophe has brought about at a stroke, giving an extreme illustration of the proverb concerning the ill wind. Thus New York, for in- stance, has become a great musical center—one might even say the musical center of the world—for a majority of the world's greatest artists and teachers. Even a goodly proportion of its most eminent composers are gathered within its confines. Amer- ica as a whole has correspondingly advanced in rank among musical nations. Never before has native art received such serious attention. Our opera houses produce works by Americans as a matter of course; our concert artists find it popular to in- clude American compositions on their programs; our publishing houses publish new works by Americans as well as by foreigners who before the war would not have thought of choosing an Amer- ican publisher. In a word, America has taken the lead in mu- sical activity. What, then, is lacking? That we are going to retain this supremacy now that peace has come is not likely. But may we not look forward at least to taking our place beside the other great nations of the world, instead of relapsing into the status of a colony paying tribute to the mother country? Can not New York and Boston and Chicago become capitals in the empire of art instead of mere outposts? I am afraid that many of our students and musicians, for four years compelled to "make the best of it" in New York, are already looking eastward, preparing to set sail for Europe, in search of knowledge, inspiration and— atmosphere. -
Italian-American Theatre
Saggi Italian-American Theatre Emelise Aleandri Artistic Director of «Frizzi & Lazzi», New York An Italian-American actor hesitates before the entrance to a shop in Little Italy at the turn of the century. It is a day in the life of a skilful, practiced ticket-vendor of the Italian-American theatre. To disguise the distress he feels at performing the onerous task that awaits him inside the shop, he assumes the mask of confidence, tinged slightly with arrogance. Summoning up a glib tongue, the actor enters the shop and before the shopkeeper knows what has happened, the actor fires away at him this familiar reprise: «Buongiorno. Come sta? La famiglia sta bene? Lei è un mecenate, lei è un benefattore del- la colonia. Io non so cosa faccia il governo italiano, dorme? Ma quando lo faremo cavaliere? Vuole un biglietto per una recita che si darà il mese en- trante: “La cieca di Sorrento?” Spettacoloso drama [sic]»1. With an unsuspecting shop owner, this spiel would almost always be suc- cessful in selling a ticket, but this one has been through this game before and when he learns that the performance is scheduled for a Thursday evening, he is quick to respond: «Oh! Guarda un po’, proprio giovedì che aspetto visite. Vi pare, con tutto il cuore!»2. But the actor is even quicker and has purpose- fully misinformed the storekeeper: «Mi sono sbagliato, è di venerdì»3. The shopkeeper, stunned, mumbles: «Oh! Venerdì... vedrò»4. Tricked, and now the reluctant buyer of a ticket, the shop owner spits back «Come siete seccanti voi altri teatristi!»5. -
Metamodern Writing in the Novel by Thomas Pynchon
INTERLITT ERA RIA 2019, 24/2: 495–508 495 Bleeding Edge of Postmodernism Bleeding Edge of Postmoder nism: Metamodern Writing in the Novel by Thomas Pynchon SIMON RADCHENKO Abstract. Many different models of co ntemporary novel’s description arose from the search for methods and approaches of post-postmodern texts analysis. One of them is the concept of metamodernism, proposed by Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker and based on the culture and philosophy changes at the turn of this century. This article argues that the ideas of metamodernism and its main trends can be successfully used for the study of contemporary literature. The basic trends of metamodernism were determined and observed through the prism of literature studies. They were implemented in the analysis of Thomas Pynchon’s latest novel, Bleeding Edge (2013). Despite Pynchon being usually considered as postmodern writer, the use of metamodern categories for describing his narrative strategies confirms the idea of the novel’s post-postmodern orientation. The article makes an endeavor to use metamodern categories as a tool for post-postmodern text studies, in order to analyze and interpret Bleeding Edge through those categories. Keywords: meta-modernism; postmodernism; Thomas Pynchon; oscillation; new sincerity How can we study something that has not been completely described yet? Although discussions of a paradigm shift have been around long enough, when talking about contemporary literary phenomena we are still using the categories of feeling rather than specific instruments. Perception of contemporary lit era- ture as post-postmodern seems dated today. However, Joseph Tabbi has questioned the novelty of post-postmodernism as something new, different from postmodernism and proposes to consider the abolition of irony and post- modernism (Tabbi 2017). -
The Extraordinary Lives of Lorenzo Da Ponte & Nathaniel Wallich
C O N N E C T I N G P E O P L E , P L A C E S , A N D I D E A S : S T O R Y B Y S T O R Y J ULY 2 0 1 3 ABOUT WRR CONTRIBUTORS MISSION SPONSORSHIP MEDIA KIT CONTACT DONATE Search Join our mailing list and receive Email Print More WRR Monthly. Wild River Consulting ESSAY-The Extraordinary Lives of Lorenzo Da Ponte & Nathaniel & Wallich : Publishing Click below to make a tax- deductible contribution. Religious Identity in the Age of Enlightenment where Your literary b y J u d i t h M . T a y l o r , J u l e s J a n i c k success is our bottom line. PEOPLE "By the time the Interv iews wise woman has found a bridge, Columns the crazy woman has crossed the Blogs water." PLACES Princeton The United States The World Open Borders Lorenzo Da Ponte Nathaniel Wallich ANATOLIAN IDEAS DAYS & NIGHTS Being Jewish in a Christian world has always been fraught with difficulties. The oppression of the published by Art, Photography and Wild River Books Architecture Jews in Europe for most of the last two millennia was sanctioned by law and without redress. Valued less than cattle, herded into small enclosed districts, restricted from owning land or entering any Health, Culture and Food profession, and subject to random violence and expulsion at any time, the majority of Jews lived a History , Religion and Reserve Your harsh life.1 The Nazis used this ancient technique of de-humanization and humiliation before they hit Philosophy Wild River Ad on the idea of expunging the Jews altogether. -
Elizabeth Jane Wall Hinds, Ed. 2005: the Multiple Worlds of Pynchon's
Elizabeth Jane Wall Hinds, ed. 2005: The Multiple Worlds of Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon: Eighteenth-Century Contexts, Postmodern Observations. New York: Camden House. 222 pp. Celia Wallhead Universidad de Granada [email protected] Thomas Pynchon is a notoriously slow writer. Not for nothing was one of his early works entitled ‘Slow Learner’. In all his writing career of at least fifty years (he will be seventy in 2007), he has written a mere five novels. On average, that is one novel every ten years. But what novels! Where Pynchon writes one brilliant novel of over five hundred pages (Gravity’s Rainbow, Mason & Dixon – and his forthcoming Against the Day has over 1000 pages), other writers produce three mediocre to good ones. The ‘slow learner’ business is ironic, or pretend false modesty, at the very least. What Pynchon researches and practises in ten years, it would take us ordinary mortals twenty years, or never, to research. But even in the Pynchon offshoot industry, or the ‘Pyndustry’,1 the cogs grind slowly. The book under review here, The Multiple Worlds of Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon, seems to have taken seven years to come to fruition. In all cases involving Pynchon, however, the wait is usually worthwhile. Elizabeth Jane Wall Hinds tells us at the beginning of her Preface that the Modern Language Association devoted its first session of the December 1998 meeting in San Francisco entirely to Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon, which had come out the year before. She and her four fellow presenters went out to breakfast together afterwards and agreed that they all wanted to know what other experts like themselves, experts in eighteeth-century America and postmodernism, thought about the novel. -
Overture to Don Giovanni, K. 527—Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Overture to Don Giovanni, K. 527—Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart’s incomparable musical gifts enabled him to compose at the highest level of artistic brilliance in almost every musical genre. We are privileged to experience his legacy in symphonies, chamber music, wind serenades, choral music, keyboard music—the list goes on and on. But, unquestionably, his greatest contributions to musical art are his operas. No one— not even Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, or Richard Strauss exceeded the perfection of Mozart’s mature operas. The reason, of course, is clear: his unparalleled musical gift is served and informed by a nuanced insight into human psychology that is simply stunning. His characters represented real men and women on the stage, who moved dramatically, and who had distinctive personalities. Of no opera is this truer than his foray into serious opera in the Italian style, Don Giovanni. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, at its première in Vienna in 1786, was a decided success, but nothing like the acclaim that it garnered later, in December of that same year, in Prague. The city literally went wild for it, bringing the composer to the Bohemian capital to conduct performances in January of 1787. A commission for another hit ensued, and Mozart once again collaborated with librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte—this time basing the opera on the legendary seducer, Don Juan. Italian opera buffa is comic opera, and Mozart was a master of it, but the new opera—given the theme—is a serious one, with hilarious, comic interludes. Shakespeare often made adroit use of the dramatic contrast in that ploy, and so does Mozart, with equal success. -
Pynchon's Sound of Music
Pynchon’s Sound of Music Christian Hänggi Pynchon’s Sound of Music DIAPHANES PUBLISHED WITH SUPPORT BY THE SWISS NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 1ST EDITION ISBN 978-3-0358-0233-7 10.4472/9783035802337 DIESES WERK IST LIZENZIERT UNTER EINER CREATIVE COMMONS NAMENSNENNUNG 3.0 SCHWEIZ LIZENZ. LAYOUT AND PREPRESS: 2EDIT, ZURICH WWW.DIAPHANES.NET Contents Preface 7 Introduction 9 1 The Job of Sorting It All Out 17 A Brief Biography in Music 17 An Inventory of Pynchon’s Musical Techniques and Strategies 26 Pynchon on Record, Vol. 4 51 2 Lessons in Organology 53 The Harmonica 56 The Kazoo 79 The Saxophone 93 3 The Sounds of Societies to Come 121 The Age of Representation 127 The Age of Repetition 149 The Age of Composition 165 4 Analyzing the Pynchon Playlist 183 Conclusion 227 Appendix 231 Index of Musical Instruments 233 The Pynchon Playlist 239 Bibliography 289 Index of Musicians 309 Acknowledgments 315 Preface When I first read Gravity’s Rainbow, back in the days before I started to study literature more systematically, I noticed the nov- el’s many references to saxophones. Having played the instru- ment for, then, almost two decades, I thought that a novelist would not, could not, feature specialty instruments such as the C-melody sax if he did not play the horn himself. Once the saxophone had caught my attention, I noticed all sorts of uncommon references that seemed to confirm my hunch that Thomas Pynchon himself played the instrument: McClintic Sphere’s 4½ reed, the contra- bass sax of Against the Day, Gravity’s Rainbow’s Charlie Parker passage. -
Dissertation M.C. Cissell December 2016
ARC OF THE ABSENT AUTHOR: THOMAS PYNCHON’S TRAJECTORY FROM ENTROPY TO GRACE A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of English and German Philology In partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of English Philology Matthew Clayton Cissell December 2016 Director: María Felisa López Liquete Co-director: Ángel Chaparro Sainz (c)2017 MATTHEW CLAYTON CISSELL Abstract The central thesis of this dissertation is that Thomas Pynchon has come to occupy a specific position in the field of literature and that this can be seen in his latest novel, Against the Day , in which he is not so much writing about the past or even the present, but about what the present can become, about where it might be driven. Pynchon is self-consciously exploring the politics in the discursive field in which his book is situated, using the fin-de-siècle to highlight the ways that the present is geared toward catastrophe and that people, in a dans macabre , hurl themselves toward that endgame. The theoretical view and methodology behind my analysis of the novel draws to a great extent on the work of Pierre Bourdieu, specifically his sociological literary analysis. This sets an academic precedent in studies of Pynchon’s novels but it also requires applying an approach that has several necessary and onerous steps. In order to see how the social space of the novel is a refracted image of the author’s own social world one must analyse the field of power, after that the literary field and the positions of agents, next the space of possibilities, all of which help one understand the genesis of the author’s habitus and thus his trajectory and the creative project that develops. -
Coversheet for Thesis in Sussex Research Online
A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be, submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. However, the thesis incorporates, to the extent indicated below, material already submitted as part of required coursework and/ or for the degree of: Masters in English Literary Studies, which was awarded by Durham University. Sign ature: Incorporated material: Some elements of chapter three, in particular relating to the discussion of teeth and dentistry, formed part of an essay submitted for my MA at Durham CniYersiry. This material has, however, been significantly reworked and re,,ised srnce then. Dismantling the face in Thomas Pynchon’s Fiction Zachary James Rowlinson Submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy University of Sussex November 2015 i Summary Thomas Pynchon has often been hailed, by those at wont to make such statements, as the most significant American author of the past half-century. -
16 BRIAN JARVIS Thomas Pynchon Thomas Pynchon Is Perhaps Best
16 BRIAN JARVIS Thomas Pynchon Thomas Pynchon is perhaps best known for knowing a lot and not being known. His novels and the characters within them are typically engaged in the manic collection of information. Pynchon’s fiction is crammed with erudition on a vast range of subjects that includes history, science, technology, religion, the arts, and popular culture. Larry McMurtry recalls a legend that circulated in the sixties that Pynchon “read only the Encyclopaedia Britannica.”1 While Pynchon is renowned for the breadth and depth of his knowledge, he has performed a “calculated withdrawal” from the public sphere.2 He has never been interviewed. He has been photographed on only a handful of occasions (most recently in 1957). Inevitably, this reclusion has enhanced his cult status and prompted wild speculation (including the idea that Pynchon was actually J. D. Salinger). Reliable information about Pynchon practically disappears around the time his first novel was published in 1963. While Pynchon the author is a conspicuous absence in the literary marketplace, his fiction is a commanding presence. His first major work, V. (1963), has a contrapuntal structure in which two storylines gradually converge. The first line, set in New York in the 1950s, follows Benny Profane and a group of his bohemian acquaintances self-designated the “Whole Sick Crew.” The second line jumps between moments of historical crisis, from the Fashoda incident in 1898 to the Second World War and centers on Herbert Stencil’s quest for a mysterious figure known as “V.” Pynchon's second novel, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), is arguably his most accessible work and has certainly been the most conspicuous on university syllabuses. -
View/Download Entire Issue Here
ISSN 1904-6022 www.otherness.dk/journal Otherness and the Urban Volume 7 · Number 1 · March 2019 Welcoming the interdisciplinary study of otherness and alterity, Otherness: Essays and Studies is an open-access, full-text, and peer-reviewed e-journal under the auspices of the Centre for Studies in Otherness. The journal publishes new scholarship primarily within the humanities and social sciences. ISSUE EDITOR Dr. Maria Beville Coordinator, Centre for Studies in Otherness GENERAL EDITOR Dr. Matthias Stephan Aarhus University, Denmark ASSOCIATE EDITORS Dr. Maria Beville Coordinator, Centre for Studies in Otherness Susan Yi Sencindiver, PhD Aarhus University, Denmark © 2019 Otherness: Essays and Studies ISSN 1904-6022 Further information: www.otherness.dk/journal/ Otherness: Essays and Studies is an open-access, non-profit journal. All work associated with the journal by its editors, editorial assistants, editorial board, and referees is voluntary and without salary. The journal does not require any author fees nor payment for its publications. Volume 7 · Number 1 · March 2019 CONTENTS Introduction 1 Maria Beville 1 ‘Some people have a ghost town, we have a ghost city’: 9 Gothic, the Other, and the American Nightmare in Lauren Beukes’s Broken Monsters Carys Crossen 2 Sanctuary City: 27 Pynchon’s Subjunctive New York in Bleeding Edge Inger H. Dalsgaard 3 Anthony Bourdain’s Cosmopolitan Table: 47 Mapping the ethni(C)ity through street food and television Shelby E. Ward 4 Eyeing Fear and Anxiety: 71 Postcolonial Modernity and Cultural Identity -
Inherent Vice, Aproductivity, and Narrative
Overwhelmed and Underworked: Inherent Vice, Aproductivity, and Narrative Miles Taylor A Thesis in The Department of Film Studies Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (Film Studies) at Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada May 2020 © Miles Taylor 2020 Signature Page This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Miles Taylor Entitled: Overwhelmed and Underworked: Inherent Vice, Aproductivity, and Narrative And submitted in Partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Film Studies) Complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final Examining Committee: Examiner Luca Caminati Examiner Mary Esteve Supervisor Martin Lefebvre Approved by Marc Steinberg 2020 Rebecca Duclos Taylor iii Abstract Overwhelmed and Underworked: Inherent Vice, Aproductivity, and Narrative Miles Taylor This thesis proposes an artistic mode called aproductivity, which arises with the secular crisis of capitalism in the early 1970’s. It reads aproductivity as the aesthetic reification of Theodor Adorno’s negative dialectics, a peculiar form of philosophy that refuses to move forward, instead producing dialectics without synthesis. The first chapter examines the economic history aproductivity grows out of, as well as its relation to Francis Fukuyama’s concept of “The End of History.” After doing so, the chapter explores negative dialectics and aproductivity in relation to Adam Phillips’ concept of the transformational object. In the second chapter, the thesis looks at the Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice (2009), as well as the 2014 Paul Thomas Anderson adaptation of the same name.