"A screaming comes across the sky."

Chad Post — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:32:09 +0000

This summer the has been posting reader reactions to each of the 77 fiction winners from its 60-year history. Along with Casey Hicks (whose overview is great—Byron the Bulb!), I wrote a short bit about Thomas Pynchon’s which went online today. (Perfect timing with releasing yesterday.) I can’t say for certain, but I wouldn’t be surprised if my piece is the first time both The O.C. and Paris Hilton are mentioned on the National Book Foundation blog . . . Here’s the opening:

��Ĵ�ý�A screaming comes across the sky.��Ĵ�ý�

This is arguably one of twentieth-century literature��Ĵ�ý�s most recognizable opening lines. A ��Ĵ�ý�Call me Ishmael��Ĵ�ý� for the paranoids, the pot smokers, the conspiracy theorists who see patterns in everything. ��Ĵ�ý�No, this is not a disentanglement from, but a progressive knotting into . . .��Ĵ�ý�

I first read Gravity��Ĵ�ý�s Rainbow the summer after graduating from college and was instantly convinced that this was THE BOOK OF ALL BOOKS. Everything is here��Ĵ�ý�high level musings on philosophy, physics, chemistry, psychology, séances and the beyond; outrageous names (lots of outrageous names: Pig Bodine, Teddy Bloat, Pirate Prentice, Captain Dominus Blicero), songs, and a surreal trip down a toilet; information about ��Ĵ�ý�Them,��Ĵ�ý� V-2 rockets, and absolute fear. High culture and pop references. History and trivia. And out of all that comes a the obsessive feeling that all these pieces might add up to something of Monumental Importance, or might just be a fun way to kill a few months . . .

It��Ĵ�ý�s almost impossible to even summarize this novel, which features more than 400 different characters and dozens of plot threads. I mean, this is a novel that starts with a top-secret military group studying data on how each of Tyrone Slothrop��Ĵ�ý�s sexual encounters takes place at a location that is hit by a V-2 rocket days later. Is this just coincidence? Or is it a result of experiments done on Baby Tyrone by Laszlo Jamf involving a mysterious substance called Imipolex G? And what the hell is the significance of the ��Ĵ�ý�00000��Ĵ�ý� rocket and the S-Gerät component?

for the entire piece. And you can find all 77 write-ups at the

casey hicks – Three Percent

"A screaming comes across the sky."