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TrixRabbi posted:Just because it's universal doesn't mean it isn't also directly about the sixties. And also, I may be going a bit off the book here, but all the specific references to Nixon and then-Governor Reagan. The sheer dedication to building an authentic atmosphere for this very specific year (1970). In order to understand our own time, and all the times in between, we have to look to the sixties (just as the sixties have to look to the fifties and so on and so on). Pynchon and Anderson are pointing to this era, and really this particular year, and saying: Look. This is what has been going on forever. This is one specific example of it happening. The "straights" in this story are the ones who elected Nixon, and they went on to elect Reagan. The government squashed the hippies, they squashed the Black Panthers. The hippies gave way to the yuppies and they all either went straight or OD'd. When I read the book, I viewed it as specifically a companion to the waves speech. The "high water mark" broke and fell back because the culture that pushed it contained an inherent vice insuring it's own failure. The sad truth is the hippies were never going to win. Which is one of the things I liked about it, that Pynchon isn't blinded by nostalgia. It's an honest book in that way.
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Jan 15, 2015 17:00
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resurgam40 posted:Saw this a couple of nights ago at the AFI, and... well, it was kind of a mistake. That isn't to say I thought it was bad (it's really well done), or that I didn't enjoy myself (I very much did), but it just felt like I missed a lot of details I might have missed, having not read the book at all. I'm going to have to see it again, with the benefit of a pause and rewind button. (And subtitles; Phoenix was great, but he mumbles, drat it!) But my overall impression is that it's a fascinating experience in which everything (director, writer, actors, soundtrack, cin-tog, etc) contributed positively to the overall picture, which while I cannot confirm is Pynchon-ian, was a drat treat to watch. Inherent Vice is his most accessible book. It has the most coherent plot. He's not really known for coherent plots.
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Jan 16, 2015 20:42
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Leon Einstein posted:I guess if the disorientation is part of the experience, I understand it a lot more. I did like watching it, but I spent too much time trying to parse the plot. The experience you had is the experience of the protagonist. Doc was disoriented and trying to parse the plot. He ultimately fails to make sense of it all because all the apparent connections add up to nothing. As such, the film is more about the death of the hippies as a genuine cultural movement than it is about all the murders and kidnappings. The only real story that we follow beginning to end is Doc returning Coy to his family.
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Jan 21, 2015 23:25
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