Slow Learner: Early Stories Free

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Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Slow Learner by Thomas Pynchon. Slow Learner is a compilation of early stories written between andbefore Slow Learner: Early Stories achieved recognition as a prominent writer for his novel, V and containing a revelatory essay on his early influences and writing. The collection consists of five short stories: 'The Small Rain', 'Lowlands', 'Entropy', 'Under the Rose', and 'The Secret Integration', as well as Slow Learner is a compilation of early stories written between andbefore Pynchon achieved recognition as a prominent writer for his novel, V and containing a revelatory essay on his early influences and writing. The collection consists of five short stories: 'The Small Rain', 'Lowlands', 'Entropy', 'Under the Rose', and 'The Secret Integration', as well as an introduction written by Pynchon himself for the publication. The five stories were originally published individually in various literary magazines but inafter Pynchon had achieved greater recognition, Slow Learner was published to collect and copyright the stories into one volume. The introduction also offers a rare insight into Pynchon's own views on his work and influences. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. Published February 16th by Vintage Classics first published More Details Original Title. Other Slow Learner: Early Stories Friend Reviews. To Slow Learner: Early Stories what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Slow Learner Slow Learner: Early Stories, please sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Slow Slow Learner: Early Stories Early Stories. Aug 15, Michael Finocchiaro rated it liked it Shelves: fictionshort-storiespost-modernamericanth-cnovels. While not essential to the Pynchon canon, these stories provide insight into how Pynchon started created his stories and his universes. We even get to see a few characters that appear in Gravity's Rainbow and Against the Day Slow Learner: Early Stories on. I would say this is for the Pynchon-addicts like myself who are waiting impatiently for yet another Pynchon masterpiece. View all 4 comments. Oct 18, Mattia Ravasi rated it it was amazing. Worth its price for the introduction alone, the five stories in Slow Learner show a writer trying his hand at different things. Paradoxically enough, the least Pynchonian stories in the collection 1st and 5th are also the most effective if you ask me, but Slow Learner: Early Stories in the less elegant middle stories one can find sparks of true genius. Must read. This one is definitely for the die-hards and completionists, Slow Learner: Early Stories is probably most intriguing to Pynchonites merely for the introductory material where we learn a lot about Pynchon's fictioneer-ing process and progress from the man himself. When the intro Slow Learner: Early Stories with the author warning of the "juvenalia" that lurks in Slow Learner: Early Stories stories in the collection, he's kind of Slow Learner: Early Stories himself into a defensive position. Sometimes this is a rhetorical move, but in Pynchon's case, turns out tha This one is definitely for the die-hards and completionists, Slow Learner: Early Stories is probably most intriguing to Pynchonites merely for the introductory material where we learn a lot about Pynchon's fictioneer-ing process and progress from the man himself. Sometimes this Slow Learner: Early Stories a rhetorical move, but in Pynchon's case, turns out that there's fair reason for the reader to be warned. At least 3 of these stories are mediocre, one is good, and the other is clearly superior. Even the better stories here offer only the slimmest glimmer of Pynchon's heights across all of his fictions. So the real value here for the Pynchonite is to see the progress Slow Learner: Early Stories a genius in growth. There's a reassuring thing to see The Master struggling with mediocre short stories early in his career, as if to remind you that greatness can be a process. There is no more new Pynchon for me. This is profoundly sad. Re-reading Pynchon is always a delight, but if Mr. Paranoid's listening, throw us a bone, man! Sep 27, E. View 1 comment. Shelves: My first reaction, rereading these stories, was oh my Godaccompanied by physical symptoms we shouldn't dwell upon. This, from the opening paragraph of Thomas Pynchon's introduction to his earliest published stories, appears at first to be a self-conscious oversell of false modesty. Even after watching him pick apart the stories for the first 25 pages, one by one and with an assiduous efficiency, you still don't believe they are going to be bad. Slow Learner: Early Stories then you read the first story, and you start t My first reaction, rereading these stories, was oh my Godaccompanied by physical symptoms we shouldn't dwell upon. Young Pynchon doesn't come off as a dick or even mostly unlikeable, but he doesn't come across as very interesting either. Or, perhaps most surprisingly, as very talented. And here's the silver lining: these stories firmly place the virtuosic talents Pynchon later developed into the realm of possibility for the modestly talented but ambitious would-be writer. Granted, all but one of these stories were written in college, but even so, any previously tempting apotheosis of the man will be permanently erased upon reading these. So that's the good news I guess. But they aren't much fun to read, and I struggled to remain engaged through each one of them. I'm not going to go into detail about the problems here, mainly because Pynchon does such a damn good job of it in his introduction. It probably goes without saying, however, that any book that peaks with the introduction is in pretty serious trouble. View 2 comments. Thomas Pynchon is no different in his perspective on the five short stories in this collection which were originally published between and Some of the text is common to both works, although they stand separately. Thus, to criticise the short story is to be equally critical of at least part of the novel. I think the characters are a little better, no longer just lying there on the slab but beginning at least to twitch some and blink their eyes open, although their dialogue still suffers from my perennial Bad Ear Today we expect a complexity of plot Slow Learner: Early Stories depth of character which are missing from my effort here. It features a company of army men of different levels of responsibility and intelligence. The Introduction certainly provides plenty of fodder for this opinion. It was actually OK to write like this! Who knew? The effect was exciting, liberating, strongly positive. One reason was the presence of real, invisible class force fields in the way of communication between the two groups. Worth it for the introduction alone. This was my 4th Pynchon, and probably a good time for it. Would probably be a bit anticlimactic if I had saved this for last. Highlights: "Entropy" and "Under the Rose". Also, a Slothrop relative, wart Doctor makes an appearance. Good enough writing, but experience enhanced if you're all-in with Pynchon, natch. I read Pynchon's intro weeks ago on a sample. That's pretty Slow Learner: Early Stories the best thing in this book; still it's interesting to watch development in style and motifs Slow Learner: Early Stories these stories, which were first published The Small Rain A lot of this is a pretty conventional short story, not a bad one though, about an army battalion sent to clear up after a natural disaster. An amazing few sentences almost summarise why I like Pynchon, as well as being an idea close to my own heart. What I mean is something like a closed circuit. Everybody on the same frequency. And after a while you forget about the rest of the spectrum and start believing that this is the only frequency that counts or is real. While outside, all up and down the land, there are these wonderful colors and x-rays and ultraviolets going on. Most books feel to me like they're stuck in that one place. Reading Pynchon is being on the road and seeing all the other spectacular stuff, - though with someone who seems to share some of the same opinions and neuroses, and apparently contains much of one's Slow Learner: Early Stories general knowledge plus that of a few friends with different specialties. Low-lands Another fairly conventional story, about an ex-Navy guy and his drinking partners one with the fabulous name Rocco Squamuglia, Squamuglia later making an appearance in Lot 49 as a fictional Italian city-state — though it's more anarchic than 'The Small Rain' and in the last few pages spills into a fantasy section reminiscent of a children's book. Slow Learner: Early Stories by Thomas Pynchon, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®

When you buy a book, we donate a book. Sign in. The Biggest Books of the Month. Category: Literary Fiction. Jun 13, ISBN Available from:. Ebook —. Also by Thomas Pynchon. See all books by Thomas Pynchon. Product Details. Inspired by Your Browsing History. The Bell. Iris Murdoch. Kurt Vonnegut. Come Along with Me. Shirley Jackson. Exile and Slow Learner: Early Stories Kingdom. Albert Camus. Last Night. James Salter. Lorrie Moore. Music for Wartime. Rebecca Makkai. Carried Away. After Rain. William Trevor. Key West Tales. Sam the Cat. Matthew Klam. The Rachel Papers. To the Lighthouse. Virginia Woolf. Olinger Stories. The Complete Stories. Truman Capote. Quartet in Autumn. Selected Stories. The Summer Before the Dark. Doris Lessing. Travels with My Aunt. Graham Greene. The New York Stories. The Fourth Hand. Friend of My Youth. The Safety of Objects. Marcel Proust. Under the Net. Exit Ghost. Death in Venice. Cakes and Ale. Somerset Maugham. A Rose for Emily Slow Learner: Early Stories Other Stories. William Slow Learner: Early Stories. Winesburg, Ohio. Sherwood Anderson. Related Articles. Looking for More Great Reads? Download Hi Res. LitFlash The eBooks you want at the lowest prices. Read it Forward Read it first. Pass it on! Stay in Touch Sign up. We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later. Become a Member Start earning points for buying books! Slow Learner - Thomas Pynchon - Google книги

Slow Learner: Early Stories Learner is the published collection of five early short stories by the American novelist Thomas Pynchonoriginally published in various sources between and The book is also notable for its introduction, written by Pynchon. His comments on the stories after reading them again for the first time in many years, and his recollection of the events surrounding their creation, amount to the author's only autobiographical comments to his readers. This was Pynchon's first published story. He picks up dead bodies back at the island and after the horrific day of work, he heads back thinking about how to go forward with his life, if at all. Dennis Flange, a lawyer at Wasp and Winsome, Attorneys at Law, calls into the office, telling them he's not coming in. What he's going to do instead is sit at home and drink wine with the Slow Learner: Early Stories garbage man, Rocco Squarcione. As they sit and talk, Dennis's wife, Cindy, comes home and is noticeably frustrated by Dennis's afternoon activities. To make matters worse, an old rowdy college "friend" of the Flanges, named Pig Bodineshows up in a stolen MG to see his old friend. At this, Cindy orders the three men off the premises. They all get in Rocco's garbage truck, and head down to the dump, patrolled by an old man named Bolingbroke. There, Dennis waxes philosophical about the dump, thinking of it as an allegory for his life up to that point, and possibly his life in the future. Rocco leaves for home, and Bolingbroke, Bodine, and Dennis turn in Slow Learner: Early Stories the night, swapping sea stories as they doze off. Then, Slow Learner: Early Stories the middle of the night, Dennis hears a woman's voice calling "Anglo! Anglo with the golden hair! Realizing this is him, Dennis runs off into the dump looking for the woman. Remembering that Bolingbroke said that gypsies were in the area, Dennis wonders if the woman he's looking for is a gypsy. Then he sees her. She is the most beautiful woman he's ever seen She takes him to her home, tunneling deep into the dump, where she asks him to marry her. He declines, saying he's already married. To this, she starts crying, thinking Dennis won't take her. He then thinks she looks like a child, and that he always wanted children, but Cindy was too busy. He then tells her he'll stay A weekend-long lease-breaking party devolves into disarray as Meatball Mulligan entertains a revolving door of cronies, servicemen, and jazz musicians while, in a hothouse room, Callisto and his lover Aubade ponder the everpresent condition of enclosed systems creating disorder while trying to nurse a baby bird back to health. The temperature outside remains 37 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the day, fueling apocalyptic paranoia in Callisto, who pontificates on the discoveries of the Laws of Thermodynamicsthe Clausius theoremand Gibbs and Boltzmannfinally deciding that entropy is an adequate metaphor to apply to American consumerist society, "a similar tendency from the least to the most probable, from differentiation to sameness, from ordered individuality to a kind of chaos. As the musicians discuss music theory, the girls and sailors chant drunken songs together, and childish chicanery Slow Learner: Early Stories out all over, Meatball debates whether to hide in Slow Learner: Early Stories closet until the party subsides its second wind or try to calm Slow Learner: Early Stories down, one by one. He decides on the latter, patching up each out-of-control situation until the party tapers down to a din. Callisto's bird fails to improve under the unchanging conditions, which causes Aubade to smash out a window of the hothouse with her bare hands, displacing the constant temperature of inside and outside and leaving the story in a state of hovering uncertainty of where the next moment will lead. Their mission is to find out what their nemesis, Moldweorp, is up to in the area. Porpentine theorizes his plan is to assassinate the Consul-General, and so they Slow Learner: Early Stories to Cairo Slow Learner: Early Stories intercept him, along with Goodfellow's new girlfriend, named Victoria Wren, her family, and a man named Bongo-Shaftsbury. Slow Learner: Early Stories the trip, Bongo-Shaftsbury attempts to attack Victoria's younger sister Mildred, but Porpentine stops him. He then realizes that the man is a spy working for Moldweorp, and Bongo-Shaftsbury is put under guard. Upon reaching Slow Learner: Early Stories, the two men check into their hotels. The next morning, they head to the opera house where the Consul-General is a guest. Upon reaching their destination, they realize their hunch was correct, and Moldweorp and his spies are Slow Learner: Early Stories the place. After Porpentine foils the assassination attempt, a chase across the streets of Cairo ensues. They reach the Sphinxand exit their cabs, running across the desert. Porpentine and Goodfellow catch Moldweorp, and they talk a moment. Porpentine tells Goodfellow to return to the cab. He does, and a shot rings out. Turning around, he sees his companion face-down in the hot desert sand, as Moldweorp walks away. Sixteen years later, Goodfellow surveys a motorcade containing Archduke Franz Ferdinand Slow Learner: Early Stories, upon hearing rumors of a possible assassination. He's joined by his new girlfriend, a barmaid this time, who thinks of him as just a simple-minded Englishman, no good in bed but liberal with his money. Their "Inner Junta " talk about planning elaborate practical jokes, collecting milk money from schoolkids. The meeting adjourns and the five of them depart, through a lush section of forest they dub King Yjro's Woods, then down a stream aboard a refurbished flat-bottomed boat they christened the S. Leakto an abandoned manor known as "The Big House". He and Tim abandon the group and go to the hotel where Mr. Carl McAfee, a Negro musician from Mississippi, was staying. McAfee eyes the situation with the kids and, chalking it up to a bad joke, sends them away and calls room service for a fifth of whiskey. Hogan steadfastly claims his seriousness and the Slow Learner: Early Stories stay to keep him company. After failing to shoo them away, Grover calls the hotel and asks to show up with Etienne. McAfee can't afford to pay Slow Learner: Early Stories the bottle of whiskey, much less the room he's staying in, and breaks down into screaming and crying in his bed, passing Slow Learner: Early Stories in-between fits. The police are called in to escort Mr. McAfee out as a vagrant, despite protests from the kids and Hogan's insistence that the man is sick, not a criminal. The timeline gets flipped here and, after the Junta had successfully completed a few of their practical jokes, talk about Carl Barrington's family moving into the neighborhood had taken over the parents. In response to the word "integration" being thrown around, Grover, the boy genius, offers the calculus definition. Later it is realized that the parents were discussing the other meaning for "integration", white and black kids in the same schools, was what was really meant. Carl's family, Slow Learner: Early Stories is Negro, is a sort of trigger for the gentrification of the area, an easy target, an explanation for the racist remarks made by Tim's mother and reflected around the neighborhood, and gives light to the mockery of Hogan's dispatch to Mr. McAfee's aid. Carl, although accepted by the boys as a legitimate member of the Junta, could only be related to by grownups as an "imaginary playmate", someone who is talked about and reflected through safe White suburban eyes, then left to harmlessly evaporate at day's end. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For the film, see Slow Learners. For Developmental disordersee Learning disability. Dewey Decimal. Novels portal. Works by Thomas Pynchon. Slow Learner Inherent Vice Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. First edition. Gravity's Rainbow.