Vineland is a 1990 novel by Thomas Pynchon, a postmodern tale of cultural tumult, social upheaval, rock music and drug use. Its central locale is Vineland, California, a fictional small town in California's Anderson Valley (perhaps based upon Boonville). The title Vineland may be a play on the word "Hollywood", or a reference to the first Viking civilization in North America, Vinland. Still others contend that the title refers to Vineland, New Jersey, the hometown of Patti Smith. However, the most obvious explanation is that the title is a reference to the area in which the novel is set, which is near California's grapevine-filled Napa Valley wine country.

Vineland disappointed the many critics and readers who waited almost twenty years since Gravity's Rainbow in 1973. In contrast to Pynchon's earlier works, Vineland was seen as overtly political and polemical, as if Pynchon, disgusted with Reaganomics, penned an angry modern adaptation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. On the other hand, one reviewer argues,

But such appraisals are the result of these readers' failure to apprehend the historical depth the novel offers, and their refusal to take seriously the endpoint of the history it relates. There has yet to be a critic who, like the ghost of Walter Rathenau in Gravity's Rainbow, is able to "see the whole shape at once," the continuing pattern of executive aggrandizement so carefully interwoven into the exposition of Vineland and which leads up to a moment as apocalyptic as any in recent fiction. To answer Leithauser, Wilde, and Mackey, there is in Vineland something "overarchingly malignant," "some glamorously threatening force," an "awesome glimpse of the sublime and the demonic"; it has simply gone unrecognized.

More on [ Vineland ]

Vineland - Twitter Search

New http://bit.ly/2cAxvC #RealEstate #Listings: 2704_PERNA_LANE #VINELAND #NJ #08361 $169000 Bed:3 Bath:2 House
RealSeekrNJ (RealSeekr) Sun, 13 Dec 2009 08:56:51 -0000
New http://bit.ly/2cAxvC #RealEstate #Listings: 2704_PERNA_LANE #VINELAND #NJ #08361 $169000 Bed:3 Bath:2 House
Boston Market is Hiring: Hourly Shift Manager (Vineland, NJ) http://bit.ly/OsaeX #Jobs #TweetMyJOBS
tmj_phl_mgmt (TMJ-PHL Mgmt. Jobs) Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:49:36 -0000
Boston Market is Hiring: Hourly Shift Manager (Vineland, NJ) http://bit.ly/OsaeX #Jobs #TweetMyJOBS
New #job: Physical Therapist - Genesis HealthCare - Vineland, NJ #health #jobs #medical http://bit.ly/8kG88i
NwJrsyJobHealth (New Jrsey Health Job) Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:56:10 -0000
New #job: Physical Therapist - Genesis HealthCare - Vineland, NJ #health #jobs #medical http://bit.ly/8kG88i
Out with the boys in vineland with lauren. Totally unplanned as usual
StonieSG (Stonie) Sun, 13 Dec 2009 05:06:12 -0000
Out with the boys in vineland with lauren. Totally unplanned as usual
New http://bit.ly/2RDuxr #RealEstate #Listings: 45_EAST_WEYMOUTH_ROAD #VINELAND #NJ #08360 $309900 Bed:3 Bath:2 House
RealSeekrNJ (RealSeekr) Sun, 13 Dec 2009 05:00:11 -0000
New http://bit.ly/2RDuxr #RealEstate #Listings: 45_EAST_WEYMOUTH_ROAD #VINELAND #NJ #08360 $309900 Bed:3 Bath:2 House
nothing like blasting sweet caroline down apopka vineland at midnight lol <3
Hrgrombol (Hannah Grombol) Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:52:32 -0000
nothing like blasting sweet caroline down apopka vineland at midnight lol <3

Subscribe to Vineland RSS feed