To be sure, there were already plenty of computers around then, but they were not quite so connected together as they were shortly to become. Data available these days to anybody were accessible then only to the Authorized, who didn’t always know what they had or what to do with it. There was still room to wiggle — the Web was primitive country, inhabited only by a few rugged pioneers, half loco and wise to the smallest details of their terrain. Honor prevailed, laws were unwritten, outlaws, as yet undefinable, were few. The question had only begun to arise of how to avoid, or, preferably, escape altogether, the threat, indeed promise, of control without mercy that lay in wait down the comely vistas of freedom that computer-folk were imagining then — a question we are still asking. Where can you jump in the rig and head for any more — who’s out there to grant us asylum? If we stay put, what is left to us that is not in some way tainted, coopted, and colonized, by the forces of Control, usually digital in nature?

I have always considered Pynchon’s introduction to Jim Dodge’s Stone Junction a masterpiece (and I must say I am more than envious of Jim Dodge for the honour to have such an essay like this in his first pages of his book). It appears that Pynchon not only read and enjoyed Stone Junction but actually went into a depth on commenting about its story and structure which reveals in a sense his own analytical mind, and I like to think the process of his own research for preparing for a book.

The passage I included above from this introduction is also quite revealing of the sentiments that Pynchon has about ‘networked computers’, the collection of data, the internet. It appears that if not entirely negative it is cautious of the consequences of this networked world which is about to flourish. Pynchon writes this introduction on 1997. He has just published the rather melancholic Mason & Dixon, and the internet is a mass of computers and servers linked with random information with very few organization points and its more chaotic – and uncontrollable – than it is today.

Someday – he figured Sparky would confirm it – there ‘d be phones as standard equipment in every car, maybe even dashboard computers. People would exchange names and addresses and life stories and form alumni associations to gather once a year at some bar off a different freeway exit each time, to remember the night they set up a temporary commune to help each other home through the fog.

Yet twelve years later the above passage from the last pages of Inherent Vice shows a glimpse of a rather different view of networking and the web. In the same sense as Web 2.0 is not simply the data and the networked computers Pynchon talks about the people, the relationships between them, the prosaic (like annual alumni meetings) and the important (like making communes to make it through the fog). I find that this is probably a rather remarkable change in Pynchon’s feelings about the world today.

I ve always considered Against the Day a rather optimistic book. And Inherent Vice is certainly a very optimistic book (for many reasons). Both of the also seem to talk about the ‘power of the commune’ compared to the innefectual acts of a single individual, contrary to what I believe is apparent in all his previous books.

These two books are also the two most personal books that Pynchon has ever written and just for these reasons they mark a rather strong difference with all his other works. This is the mature, open minded, community-believing, Pynchon. Different than the Pynchon of Gravity’s Rainbow, different than the Pynchon of Mason & Dixon. This is Pynchon 2.0.

So what do I do? Well, I give this the benefit of the doubt due to my heavy program, and I am going to restart the book with a clearer head.

Let’s see how this goes.

(page 1)

What does the tense of the novel reveal about it? I am thinking that maybe the most impressive element of Gravity’s Raibow is the fact that is taking place in present tense. If I am not mistaken no other Pynchon book has this characteristic, since the others are narrated in the past tense.

Yet Inherent Vice – almost – starts by associating the word ‘Tonight’ – a word denoting a near present – with the past tense. For a man who is so ‘addicted’ to detail I find that this is definitely not a coincidence. Inherent Vice is supposed to take place in the early 70ies, but I feel that there is a lot more here than meets the eye. It feels as if its a book about today, about LA on 2009 as much as it is about 1970.

But there are 368 more pages to go…

Life plays strange games with us. When I met my – future – wife I eventually found out that her uncle is a permanent resident of (yes, you guessed it) Torrance, so part of our honeymoon was based on Torrance, my teen dream location.

In the fifteen days I spent there I realized that I was close to where Pynchon lived back in the seventies so I took quite some time around Manhattan beach and Redondo beach.

Inherent Vice apparently is taking place in Gordita Beach which is supposed to be Manhattan beach, so I think somehow that this will be a very personal book for me. Simply because it bridges the gap between the textual Pynchon and my actual presence to the area in which he lived and he chose to use as a theatre for Inherent Vice.

Under this detail, the comments that will be expressed in this blog will probably be a lot more personal than the ones that appeared in http://againsttheday.wordpress.com, so any readers of this blog feel free to argue with me at any stage of this reading.

A reading that will start tomorrow… Single up all lines so we can fly into grace

However, this time I decide to add some new technology to things. I will also use twitter to post small things as I read Inherent Vice, and maybe link bigger posts in this blog with my twitter account. If that interests you then you can follow me on http://twitter.com/viceinherent

Another journey begins… can’t wait.