Pynchon Papers & Essays
A legend to be deciphered by the lords of the winter
Pynchon Papers & Essays
During its first incarnation from 1996–2009, Spermatikos Logos included links to every Pynchon-related paper it could find. Today, sites such as JSTOR make this both impossible and unnecessary. This section of Spermatikos Logos is now dedicated to hosting Pynchon-related papers and essays; although a few “legacy” links have been included. The collection has been organized by general subject, then alphabetically by author. If you would like Spermatikos Logos to host a Pynchon-related paper or essay, please read our “submission guidelines” at the bottom of the page.
General Pynchon Papers & Essays
An interesting article by Dr. Allen of Towson State University, this paper originally appeared in the January 1994 edition of Postmodern Culture.
An essay on Minstral Island, the unfinished science-fiction musical Pynchon started in 1958 with fellow Cornell undergrad, Kirkpatrick Sale (a self-proclaimed “neo-luddite” who has railed against the dangers of technology). The manuscript resides in the University of Texas, Austin’s Ransom Center, and Gibbs was the first one to take a look at it. This essay first appeared in the Denver Quarterly, and is posted here with permission.
From the Cornell Alumni News, Nov. 1978. A discussion of paranoia in the works of Pynchon. Online at Otto Sell’s “Die sauberen Schweine.”
Davin O’Dwyer as Dublin-based writer and editor who has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Irish Times. In “Searching for Cyberspace,” O’Dwyer examines how the Internet is anticipated or prefigured in the works of Borges, James Joyce, and Thomas Pynchon. [PDF]
Shord won the nation’s largest undergraduate literary prize, the Sophie Kerr Prize, in large part thanks to his 100-page critical thesis on the works of Thomas Pynchon. [PDF]
Delivered at the first international conference on Pynchon in 1994, this paper resides on the Pomona Pynchon page and discusses ways that Cyberspace has been prefigured in Pynchon’s work.
V.
This essay “proposes a reading of Thomas Pynchon’s V. through a Sartrian perspective, mainly founding its approach on the concept of dialectical reason; this concept will be used as an interpretation key of both the ontological and the historical thematics that underlie the novel.” [French, PDF]
The Crying of Lot 49
This paper explores the use of entropy in The Crying of Lot 49.
This paper offers a Neo-Wildean aesthetic analysis of the essential ambiguities and uncertainties behind Lot 49, and places Oedipa in a larger postmodern context as a Pynchonesque Heroine. [PDF]
Gravity’s Rainbow
From the May 1996 issue of Postmodern Culture, this paper discusses sex and politics in Pynchon’s masterpiece.
A Freudian look at Slothrop, his many identities, and of course his thing with rockets.
Using Gravity’s Rainbow as a case study, Ketzan discusses the merits and flaws of Amazon.com’s user-review forum.
A detailed astrological account of Tyrone Slothrop. Online at Otto Sell’s “Die sauberen Schweine.”
A discussion of the many aspecrts of the Zone by a professor from the University of Oulu in Finland. Kept at the Pomona College page.
A worthwhile article published in Esquire: Appropriately, everywhere in Gravity’s Rainbow (and Pynchon’s fiction generally), characters seek order, purpose, some organizing principle through which they can make sense of what’s happening to them. Ned Pointsman, a doctor working in The White Visitation for an agency called PISCES (“Psychological Intelligence Schemes for Expediting Surrender”), a hush-hush military program developing “psychological warfare” (and the closest thing the novel has to a literal villain), is a devoted Pavlovian whose worldview is extrapolated from the Russian psychologist’s work: “No effect without cause, and a clear train of linkages.”
Vineland
Berger’s excellent paper discusses Vineland as a work in which the trauma of the 60’s coexists with its effects in the 80’s, and points to a deeper understanding of complex relationship between the Left and the Right. Essential reading for anyone studying Pynchon’s most under-appreciated novel! Posted here with permission.
A look at Reaganomics, courtly love, and other “master-narratives” at work in Vineland.
Mason & Dixon
A comparative essay on Pynchon’s two great epics. Online at the author’s homepage.
Mechanical ducks, talking dogs, and prankster scientists: a discussion of Pynchon’s so-called “Age of Reason.”
This paper examines slavery and the voice of the slave in Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and, in doing so, analyzes much of the recent criticism on the novel.
Astrological information about Mason & Dixon. Online at Otto Sell’s “Die sauberen Schweine.”
A discussion of Pynchon, Luddism, and C.P. Snow. Online at Columbia University.
This thesis takes a broad look at Pynchon’s “meditation on complexity,” detailing its structural elements and highlighting analogies to the common day. [PDF]
Some thoughts on Pynchon’s latest novel by a Swathmore literature professor.
Other Collections
Major Pynchon Searches
Pynchon Notes Archives – A searchable list of the articles appearing in all the issues of Pynchon Notes. An essential reference for Pynchon scholars!
JSTOR “Thomas Pynchon” Search – Over 6000 results. Go wild!
Project Muse “Thomas Pynchon” Search – Project Muse is another archive of published papers.
Academia “Thomas Pynchon” Search –Academia has over 100 Pynchon papers available as PDFs.
ReasearchGate “Thomas Pynchon” Search – Ostensibly a database of scientific papers, ReasearchGate has many Pynchon offerings.
Secondary Collections
Oklahoma City University Law Review – For whatever reason, the Oklahoma City University Law Review has published numerous papers about Pynchon. Unfortunately, they’re all online at HEIN, an expensive archive with a crappy search engine. Good luck!
Pynchon im Internet – Otto Sell’s page has numerous links to German papers about Pynchon.
Submission Guidelines
Spermatikos Logos is part of The Modern Word, a former literature site being “reconstructed” at Shipwreck Library. Spermatikos Logos is a Pynchon site, not a peer-reviewed journal. We offer a place to host academic papers and essays about Pynchon. These works may have been previously published. We also accept works by non-academic writers.
General Guidelines
We prefer PDFs, which will be posted on the site as formatted. Of course, this offers the advantage of maintaining all images and typography. Microsoft Word or other such documents will be converted to HTML and posted as simple Web pages. An abstract is not necessary, but a few sentences for an “About the Author” would be nice.
We prefer PDFs, which will be posted on the site as formatted. Of course, this offers the advantage of maintaining all images and typography. Microsoft Word or other such documents will be converted to HTML and posted as simple Web pages. An abstract is not necessary, but a few sentences for an “About the Author” would be nice.
Academic Papers
Previously-published papers should include information on their publishing history. All copyright issues should be secured in advance by the submitting writer—Spermatikos Logos makes no pretensions regarding copyrights. These are your papers, we are just hosting them!
Previously-published papers should include information on their publishing history. All copyright issues should be secured in advance by the submitting writer—Spermatikos Logos makes no pretensions regarding copyrights. These are your papers, we are just hosting them!
Essays
Essays are shorter and less formal than papers, and may be submitted by writers from outside traditional academia.
Essays are shorter and less formal than papers, and may be submitted by writers from outside traditional academia.
If you’d like your work to be hosted here, please contact Spermatikos Logos.
Editor: Allen B. Ruch
Last Modified: 31 August 2024
Back to: Spermatikos Logos Main Page
Contact: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
Last Modified: 31 August 2024
Back to: Spermatikos Logos Main Page
Contact: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com