Thomas Pynchon A Journey into the Mind of <p.>

'Things are not as they seem.' In US writer Thomas Pynchon's case, this is a mantra, the cornerstone of a life and labyrinthine oeuvre freighted with ceasless speculation. In books like V and Gravity's Rainbow, the covert arenas of the contemporary order (the military industrial complex, governmental conspiracy, the sinister reaches of science) mesh with counter-cultural values, permeating paranoia, arcane knowledge systems and ironic humour in an encyclopedic investigation of modernity. Central to this is a (doomed) quest for some singular explanation of things, a motif taken up by this intriguing documentary. It's a tall order. Pynchon is one of the great cultural recluses, unphotographed for 40 years, his absence from the flashgun flare now an inseparable part of his 'project'. So the Dubinis' film offers an atmospheric collage, chaptered around varying recollections and Pynchon's synchronicity with resonant aspects of post-war US society. Newsreels and found footage of missile experiments and Agency psychedelics tests mix with talking heads, spoken extracts and Pynchon's articulate fans. Required viewing for devotees.