joining the death pact
But, to give myself some fair chance of catching up, I will be reading along using Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow by artist Zak Smith.
Page 1 - allusion to Edvard Munch, only urban. Also to the Vavooms of Raymond Pettibon.
Page 3 - stained glass devotionals, farmland from above, babies encrusted like unmined diamonds under the weight of all that iron and fields. Maybe a passenger train?
Page 4 - a less oppressive urbanity here, but the themes are already clear. Pinheaded locals. Trash and pants.
Page 5 - am assuming a "wrong side of bed" joke was present in the orig. text.
Page 6 - back to urbanness, but now floating (literally) above it all. Imperious.
Page 7 - here goes the banana business. Back to the stained glass motif as well.
Page 8 - I first mistook the shape of smoke rising from the grill as a gramophone, old style - but no, there's a telephone present instead.
Page 9 - is this a comic book narrative? Food slicing, more bananas, skulls, knife anxiety, parachutes, an apartment-dweller's terrain.
Page 10 - lately I have found meals where all the food is the same color oddly comforting. But still odd, for that.
Page 11 - Second phone receiver appearance, first appearance as a vaguely fleshy thing causing anxiety. IT'S FOR YOU
Page 12 - Man trailing heavy stained-glass borders from his head, embedding urban street-junk chaos.
Page 13 - An urban park? Tops of trees and heads either light and angelic or burnt out and overexposed.
Page 14 - looks for all the world like bad public sculpture crossed with mushrooms. Although really it looks like the sort of sculpture I enjoyed playing in as a kid. That's what artists with public commissions should go for.
Page 15 - same figure as page 12 (joycean/chaplinesque), only exhaling the chaos this time? Barely coalescing into another human face.
Page 16 - train stations establish order over the urban, in a cathedral-like way, but are presented here as a threat. A barbershop quartet, complete with razor?
Page 17 - looks like an old, washed-out photo. Pre-Blitz London?
Page 18 - difficult to describe this beyond "desk full of crap" due to this plate being a photo of a photo of a drawing, with focus effects. Deliberate distancing?
Page 19 - Parody of a detailed urban street map. London or Paris. Rivers as fractures in the stained glass, or cartoon stars as symbols of impact.
Page 20 - clouds forming strata behind foregrounded smoke plume. Plenty of those plumes in here. Maybe coming from a gun barrel instead of lounging smoker?
Page 21 - Disheveled Bogart (smoke plume again) vs. mad scientist Red Skull looking at the city under hot interrogation spotlights.
Page 1 - allusion to Edvard Munch, only urban. Also to the Vavooms of Raymond Pettibon.
Page 3 - stained glass devotionals, farmland from above, babies encrusted like unmined diamonds under the weight of all that iron and fields. Maybe a passenger train?
Page 4 - a less oppressive urbanity here, but the themes are already clear. Pinheaded locals. Trash and pants.
Page 5 - am assuming a "wrong side of bed" joke was present in the orig. text.
Page 6 - back to urbanness, but now floating (literally) above it all. Imperious.
Page 7 - here goes the banana business. Back to the stained glass motif as well.
Page 8 - I first mistook the shape of smoke rising from the grill as a gramophone, old style - but no, there's a telephone present instead.
Page 9 - is this a comic book narrative? Food slicing, more bananas, skulls, knife anxiety, parachutes, an apartment-dweller's terrain.
Page 10 - lately I have found meals where all the food is the same color oddly comforting. But still odd, for that.
Page 11 - Second phone receiver appearance, first appearance as a vaguely fleshy thing causing anxiety. IT'S FOR YOU
Page 12 - Man trailing heavy stained-glass borders from his head, embedding urban street-junk chaos.
Page 13 - An urban park? Tops of trees and heads either light and angelic or burnt out and overexposed.
Page 14 - looks for all the world like bad public sculpture crossed with mushrooms. Although really it looks like the sort of sculpture I enjoyed playing in as a kid. That's what artists with public commissions should go for.
Page 15 - same figure as page 12 (joycean/chaplinesque), only exhaling the chaos this time? Barely coalescing into another human face.
Page 16 - train stations establish order over the urban, in a cathedral-like way, but are presented here as a threat. A barbershop quartet, complete with razor?
Page 17 - looks like an old, washed-out photo. Pre-Blitz London?
Page 18 - difficult to describe this beyond "desk full of crap" due to this plate being a photo of a photo of a drawing, with focus effects. Deliberate distancing?
Page 19 - Parody of a detailed urban street map. London or Paris. Rivers as fractures in the stained glass, or cartoon stars as symbols of impact.
Page 20 - clouds forming strata behind foregrounded smoke plume. Plenty of those plumes in here. Maybe coming from a gun barrel instead of lounging smoker?
Page 21 - Disheveled Bogart (smoke plume again) vs. mad scientist Red Skull looking at the city under hot interrogation spotlights.