[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pynchonyearbook_3812.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:One of the few pictures of Pynchon's face, here from his college yearbook.]]

->''"Here's your quote: 'Thomas Pynchon loved this book, almost as much as he loves cameras!' ''(waving at passing cars)'' Hey, over here! Have your picture taken with a reclusive author! Today only, we'll throw in a free autograph! But wait, there's more!"''
-->-- '''Thomas Pynchon''' engaging in SelfDeprecation on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS15E10DiatribeOfAMadHousewife Diatribe of a Mad Housewife]]"

Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. (born May 8, 1937) is an American author and famously ReclusiveArtist, probably most well-known for his novel ''Literature/GravitysRainbow''. He is one of the most notable writers of the literary movement of [[PostModernism Postmodernism]], and his works are highly renowned.

An almost mythic figure. Only three known photographs of him exist, dating from the 1950s. He has given no interviews, no signings. His voice has been recorded only for the guest appearance mentioned above (one of two appearances he made on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'') and a promotional video for his book ''Literature/InherentVice''. Speculation about him has been fueled, including suggestions that Pynchon is a pseudonym for [[Creator/JDSalinger J.D. Salinger]], as claimed by William Poundstone. It was even suggested at the time that he may have been [[Literature/IndustrialSocietyAndItsFuture the Unabomber]]. Fan folklore is rich and complicated, fed by the tiny bits of information about Pynchon that have come out, through the man himself or otherwise.

His works are often [[{{Doorstopper}} long]], [[ViewersAreGeniuses exceedingly complex]] and completely hilarious. Despite constant and often in-depth discussions on imperialism, industrial society, religion, science, mathematics, technology and racism, along with heavy borrowing from both world history and the history of literature, Pynchon's novels are equally interested in so-called 'low-culture,' television, comic books and rock 'n' roll (common to the [[PostModern postmodernists]]), with the emotional centre of his books usually residing with a 'schlemiel' (leading, predictably, to the comment that most Pynchonian heroes likely couldn't read his books). In addition, his books are silly and cartoonish, [[MoodWhiplash jumping back and forth between absolutely ridiculous and very bleak (but mostly sticking to the former),]] and are full of humorous obscenity and absurdism.

At this point we should probably say a word on the topic of paranoia. Paranoia is the fuel Pynchon's novels run on, and is likely his most recognizable thematic obsession. Characters become convinced that their actions are being manipulated (and is usually confirmed, then denied, then confirmed again, leaving the audience in the dark about what exactly to believe), shadowy cabals are hinted at (but almost never confirmed) and the constant, sinking fatalism that our destruction is ensured, sooner or later, but only at Their convenience. Pynchon often explores conspiracy theories as a form of social narrative and folklore, and as a rigid interpretive framework, frequently contrasted with other frameworks (Calvinism and Marxism are common). This shows especially in ''Literature/TheCryingOfLot49'', which involves a character trying to make sense of various signs and symbols she sees around her (as well as a band called The Paranoids), and ''Literature/GravitysRainbow'', in which even the ''narrator himself'' seems to have the novel escape from under him as he struggles to find some way to interpret the events. UsefulNotes/{{Anarchism}} sometimes shows up as well, most notably in ''Literature/AgainstTheDay'', although a case could be made that it is present in nearly all of his works due to the strong distrust of hierarchical authority implied by their plots.

A [[Film/InherentVice movie adaptation]] of ''Literature/InherentVice'', directed by Creator/PaulThomasAnderson, was released in 2014. It is the first full-scale adaptation of any of his works—50 years after his debut novel.
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!! Novels by Thomas Pynchon with their own page include:
[[index]]
* ''Literature/{{V}}'' (1963)
* ''Literature/TheCryingOfLot49'' (1966)
* ''Literature/GravitysRainbow'' (1973)
* ''Literature/{{Vineland}}'' (1990)
* ''Literature/MasonAndDixon'' (1997)
* ''Literature/AgainstTheDay'' (2006)
* ''Literature/InherentVice'' (2009)
* ''Literature/BleedingEdge'' (2013)
[[/index]]
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!! Short stories collection include:
[[index]]
* ''Slow Learner'' [[/index]] (1984), a compilation of early [[ShortStory short stories]].
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!! Short stories include:
[[index]]
* "The Small Rain" (1959)
* "Mortality and Mercy in Vienna" (1959)
* "Low-lands" (1960)
* "Entropy" (1960)
* "Under the Rose" (1961)
* "The Secret Integration" (1964)
[[/index]]
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!! Works by Thomas Pynchon contain examples of:

* AuthorAppeal: Pynchon likes: mathematics, jazz, drugs and the downtrodden; he dislikes: exploitation, fascism, racism, "Them" and hypocrites.
* BawdySong: ''Gravity's Rainbow'' is loaded with these, and he kept it up to a certain extent in ''Vineland''.
* CoolShip: Seems to always include at least one ship (of varying levels of coolness), though the prize has to go to the "John E. Badass" (which actually doesn't do anything but ''what a name'').
* ConspiracyKitchenSink: His books basically run on concentrated paranoia.
* ContinuityNod
* {{Deconstruction}}: Often to the point of calling in the DeconstructorFleet... and occasionally shooting it out of orbit.
* {{Doorstopper}}: The prize going to ''Against the Day'', his longest and loosest, which runs for 1085 pages. ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Mason & Dixon'' are pretty long, too.
* EndOfAnAge: One of the recurring themes in his body of work.
* FunWithAcronyms: WAMBAM is just the tip of the iceberg. '''D'''on't '''E'''ver '''A'''ntagonize '''T'''he '''H'''orn, either.
** '''W'''e '''A'''wait '''S'''ilent '''T'''ristero's '''E'''mpire.
** ''Bleeding Edge'' gives us he '''D'''isgruntled '''E'''mployee '''S'''imulation '''P'''rogram for '''A'''udit '''I'''nformation and '''R'''eview.
%%* GainaxEnding: If his novels don't have NoEnding they will probably have one of these. Sometimes they qualify as both.
%%* GambitPileup
* GenreRoulette: His books phase in and out of various genres seemingly at random. ''Against the Day'' is probably the most extreme example of this, where not only does the genre shift frequently, but so does the entire writing style with it.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Historical cameos, especially celebrities, abound, including (among many others) Creator/MickeyRooney and UsefulNotes/MalcolmX in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington and Creator/BenjaminFranklin ''Mason & Dixon'' (not to mention Mason and Dixon themselves), and Creator/BelaLugosi and [[Creator/TheMarxBrothers Groucho Marx]] in ''Against the Day''.
%%* HistoricalInJoke
%%* IntellectualAnimal
%%* KudzuPlot
* LighterAndSofter: Almost a pattern with his body of work. ''The Crying of Lot 49'' is much shorter and easier to digest than ''V.'', ''Vineland'' is a ''lot'' easier to comprehend than ''Gravity's Rainbow'', and ''Inherent Vice'' and ''Bleeding Edge'' are this when compared to ''Mason & Dixon'' and ''Against the Day.''
* UsefulNotes/TheLongitudeProblem: The novel ''Mason & Dixon'' talks a lot about the Longitude Problem. This is reasonable when your protagonists are surveyor-astronomers tooling around the British Empire in the 18th century. Mason and Dixon test chronometers and work out moon-observation tables in the course of their careers.
* MeaningfulName: Or possibly not. Pynchon's bizarre names (eg. Mike Fallopian, Dr. Hilarius, Ruperta Chirpingden-Groin) have been the source of many arguments, with little agreement even among academics about what they mean, if anything at all.
* {{Metafiction}}
* MindScrew: Pynchon himself has even admitted to being unable to understand parts of ''Gravity's Rainbow'', much of which was written on various drugs.
** ''Gravity's Rainbow'' isn't the only offender here, of course, although it's certainly the biggest.
* MoodWhiplash
* TheMusical: It is not uncommon for characters to break into song. One of his more immediately recognizable traits.
* NoEnding
* NoFourthWall
* PopCultureSymbology: Being a postmodern writer, he encompasses lots of this, mixing anicient conspiracy theories and sci-fi with modern-day pop culture and cartoons.
* ProperlyParanoid: Many of Pynchon's characters quality for this trope. Though often subverted, as an ultimately safe solution to the problems of life and society:
--> "If there is something comforting - religious, if you want - about paranoia, there is still also anti-paranoia, where nothing is connected to anything, a condition not many of us can bear for long."
-->-- '''Gravity's Rainbow'''
* PopculturalOsmosis: ''The Crying of Lot 49'' contains the first known use of "shrink" to refer to a psychiatrist (although Pynchon spelled it "Pshrink", which didn't catch on).
%%* {{Postmodernism}}: One of the seminal authors.
* ReclusiveArtist: Does this even ''need'' to be explained?
** His agent has claimed that he's not reclusive in the sense of being a shut-in and is actually rather social, but also that he's completely uninterested in being a public figure and chooses to stay below the radar. With no recent photographs available, and the fact that he [[HiddenInPlainSight lives in New York City]], it's hard to know for sure.
** Creator/SalmanRushdie, an author who was deeply influenced by Pynchon, noted that he supported him when he was under the fatwa and invited him to meet him. Rushdie stated that Pynchon was pretty much like one of his own characters, "hair like UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein and teeth like WesternAnimation/BugsBunny".
%%* RuleOfSymbolism
* ShadowArchetype: Most notable with Tchitcherine from ''Gravity's Rainbow'', who spends most of the book chasing his (black) African half-brother, Oberst Enzian.
%%* ShoutOut
* ShownTheirWork: And how. Partially why he has a reputation as such a "difficult" author.
** To an absurd degree, which might explain why he's only had eight novels published in 50 years. It took him '''10 years''' to write ''Gravity's Rainbow'', over '''20 years''' to write ''Mason & Dixon'', and, possibly, over '''30 years''' to write ''Against the Day''.
** One of the few biographical details known about Pynchon is that he worked in the US aerospace industry during the early UsefulNotes/ColdWar. This presumably explains the extremely accurate information about rocket dynamics included in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.
* SlidingScaleOfLibertarianismAndAuthoritarianism: Firmly to the anarchist end of the scale.
* SophisticatedAsHell: His prose ranges from poetic and long-winded to really informal.
* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Inherent Vice'', to ''Vineland'', which itself is this to ''The Crying of Lot 49''.
* WrittenByCastMember: He was allowed to rewrite his lines for his cameos on ''[[WesternAnimation The Simpsons]]'' and it turns out he was the one who came up with the "''V.''-licious" and ''The Frying of Latke 49'' jokes.
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