Was he really a postmodernist, or was he a dialectical materialist or a structuralist? I know his books have some surreal satire, but most of it is actually a reference to real historical events, secret operations, and socioeconomic systems. His books are full of things that are "unknown" to the characters, but actually knowable to the reader if they do enough research. In contrast, postmodernism, like all idealism, posits that things are unknowable. Similarly, you get the sense of "relative truths" but not absolute relativism in his books.
So why is he called a postmodernist? Does he actually outright say it somewhere?
Pynchon
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Due to The Crying of Lot 49? It ends on the "unknowable".
Reminder that Thomas Pynchon was an antifascist counterespionage revolutionary using literature as his cover to infiltrate and expose fascist networks.
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Even if he was a fascist he'd still be a good writer. So post like yours are irrelevant
How is Crying about the "unknowable" when it's about a secret network run by human beings (who obviously must know it)?
Why are you talking about him in the last tense when he’s still alive and published another book last year?
Pynchon isn't really a postmodernist he's just a really cynical Lefty who fell for the "bro the soviet union is just state capitalism xDDDD" meme that a lot of hippie anarchists spouted at the time and never really recovered
It ends on the moment of revelation. What and whether there is any sort of secret network in actuality remains unclear insofar as the text is concerned. It's been a number of years since I've read it, so I could be wrong.
Lazy academics.
Sorta this. He's a conservative anarchist.
I think he's seen as a "postmodernist" more as a kind of literary genre or style, not in regards to the beliefs he happens to hold.