Difference between revisions of "Main Page"

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==Featured Articles==
 
==Featured Articles==
  
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[[File:Vollmann-article-cropped.jpg|thumb|left|200px]]'''This review is a must read, by the great William T. Vollmann ...'''<br />"His boss was a cards-to-his-chest type named Boynt Crosstown — and here I admit to having dropped that in as the merest excuse to revel right now in more of Pynchon’s christenings: Dr. Swampscott Vobe, Wisebroad’s Shoes, Connie McSpool, Glow Tripworth de Vasta, Cousin Begonia, 'child sensation Squeezita Thickly' — for this author’s longstanding genius there on that private swivel chair of the Department of Character Appellations matches long-gone Lord Dunsany’s for imaginary gods and cities. I cast my grin back upon Tyrone Slothrop, who was first printed in 1973, and wonder to what extent my delight in Shadow Ticket derives from nostalgia. For I’m getting decrepit, while Pynchon is even older, so which will come first, the old lion’s last roar, or my last read? Enriching the nostalgia is Pynchon’s lyrically sad and squalidly beautiful Milwaukee, a place to which I have no connection, and at a time before my parents were born, so why should I care about it? But I do, because it’s a shadow Milwaukee, all the more worth missing for being unreal. [https://unherd.com/2025/10/thomas-pynchons-world-of-shadows/ Full review &#187;]
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[[File:Vollmann-article-cropped.jpg|thumb|left|200px]]'''This review is a must read, by the great William T. Vollmann ...'''<br />"His boss was a cards-to-his-chest type named Boynt Crosstown — and here I admit to having dropped that in as the merest excuse to revel right now in more of Pynchon’s christenings: Dr. Swampscott Vobe, Wisebroad’s Shoes, Connie McSpool, Glow Tripworth de Vasta, Cousin Begonia, 'child sensation Squeezita Thickly' — for this author’s longstanding genius there on that private swivel chair of the Department of Character Appellations matches long-gone Lord Dunsany’s for imaginary gods and cities. I cast my grin back upon Tyrone Slothrop, who was first printed in 1973, and wonder to what extent my delight in ''Shadow Ticket'' derives from nostalgia. For I’m getting decrepit, while Pynchon is even older, so which will come first, the old lion’s last roar, or my last read? Enriching the nostalgia is Pynchon’s lyrically sad and squalidly beautiful Milwaukee, a place to which I have no connection, and at a time before my parents were born, so why should I care about it? But I do, because it’s a shadow Milwaukee, all the more worth missing for being unreal. [https://unherd.com/2025/10/thomas-pynchons-world-of-shadows/ Full review &#187;]
  
 
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Latest revision as of 20:29, 9 October 2025

Shadow-Ticket US-Cover.jpg
Welcome to the Shadow Ticket Wiki!

If you wish to contact us or suggest edits, use this Contact page.


This is the Wiki for Thomas Pynchon's Shadow Ticket. Besides using the Alphabetical Index and the page-by-page annotation, you can also take a look at Shadow Ticket cover analyses, read the reviews, or entertain some theories on the source of the title.


How to Use this Wiki

There are two major ways to use this wiki. The first is the Shadow Ticket Alphabetical Index, used to keep track of the myriad characters, real and imagined, as well as events, arcana, and lots of other stuff. The second is the Spoiler-Free Annotations by Page, which allows the reader to look up and contribute allusions and references while reading the book, in a convenient and spoiler-free manner.

Apart from those, it's up to you.

Shadow Ticket Alpha Guide to Characters, Places & More

A·B·C·D·E·F·G·H·I·J·K·L·M·N·O·P·Q·R·S·T·U·V·W·XYZ TOP↑

 

Page by Page Annotations

Chapter 1
pp. 1-11 		Chapter 2
pp. 12-15 		Chapter 3
pp. 16-27 		Chapter 4
pp. 28-38 		Chapter 5
pp. 39-42
Chapter 6
pp. 43-45 		Chapter 7
pp. 46-50 		Chapter 8
pp. 51-57 		Chapter 9
pp. 58-61 		Chapter 10
pp. 62-69
Chapter 11
pp. 70-75 		Chapter 12
pp. 76-81 		Chapter 13
pp. 82-91 		Chapter 14
pp. 92-101 		Chapter 15
pp. 102-114
Chapter 16
pp. 115-122 		Chapter 17
pp. 123-125 		Chapter 18
pp. 126-131 		Chapter 19
pp. 132-141 		Chapter 20
pp. 142-153
Chapter 21
pp. 154-160 		Chapter 22
pp. 161-172 		Chapter 23
pp. 173-178 		Chapter 24
pp. 179-187 		Chapter 25
pp. 188-195
Chapter 26
pp. 196-206 		Chapter 27
pp. 207-209 		Chapter 28
pp. 210-227 		Chapter 29
pp. 228-232 		Chapter 30
pp. 233-238
Chapter 31
pp. 239-243 		Chapter 32
pp. 244-250 		Chapter 33
pp. 251-256 		Chapter 34
pp. 257-263 		Chapter 35
pp. 264-269
Chapter 36
pp. 270-277 		Chapter 37
pp. 278-284 		Chapter 38
pp. 285-289 		Chapter 39
pp. 290-293

Featured Articles

Vollmann-article-cropped.jpg
This review is a must read, by the great William T. Vollmann ...
"His boss was a cards-to-his-chest type named Boynt Crosstown — and here I admit to having dropped that in as the merest excuse to revel right now in more of Pynchon’s christenings: Dr. Swampscott Vobe, Wisebroad’s Shoes, Connie McSpool, Glow Tripworth de Vasta, Cousin Begonia, 'child sensation Squeezita Thickly' — for this author’s longstanding genius there on that private swivel chair of the Department of Character Appellations matches long-gone Lord Dunsany’s for imaginary gods and cities. I cast my grin back upon Tyrone Slothrop, who was first printed in 1973, and wonder to what extent my delight in Shadow Ticket derives from nostalgia. For I’m getting decrepit, while Pynchon is even older, so which will come first, the old lion’s last roar, or my last read? Enriching the nostalgia is Pynchon’s lyrically sad and squalidly beautiful Milwaukee, a place to which I have no connection, and at a time before my parents were born, so why should I care about it? But I do, because it’s a shadow Milwaukee, all the more worth missing for being unreal. Full review »

Illustration: New York Times
This overview of Pynchon's oeuvre by A.O. Scott for The New York Review of Books is quite good...
"But hear me out: Those plots encompass crime capers, costume dramas, spy thrillers and combat epics. Pynchon’s pages teem with spies, gumshoes, femmes fatales and popeyed sailor men. If his books don’t exactly follow genre formulas, they nonetheless reliably dispense genre gratification. His dizzying inventions are built on a sturdy, sometimes half-invisible scaffolding of popular fiction.

There’s more to it than that, of course. Graduate students revere him for a reason. But let’s roll with the conceit and proceed, in Pynchonesque fashion, to feed his defiantly anti-algorithmic work through a handmade mock algorithm. If you want an anarchist Dan Brown, a horny Robert Ludlum, a countercultural David Baldacci, Pynchon might be your man. Maybe that’s a stretch, and maybe (definitely) none of these books will stay in these conceptual boxes. But here are eight purposely whimsical recommendation prompts, gateways to a fictional universe that finally defies all categorization." Full article »


Illustration: New York Times
In her review, Parul Sehgal isn't thrilled by Shadow Ticket, but her overview of Pynchon's work is very insightful and balanced

"We cannot stop from searching, no matter that, in the world according to Pynchon, there may be no master key to uncover. But let us return to Hicks, toward the end of the book, in the embrace of a woman. She asks him if he likes her new perfume. He does, but before issuing judgment he tells her that he will need to ascertain exactly where on her body she has applied it, and he begins to search and sniff her playfully. It reads like a Pynchon quest in miniature — theatrical, ridiculous, earnest. It spoils nothing for me to tell you that we will leave him there — old Muscles McTaggart, wrapped in that woman’s arms, enjoying not a reprieve from paranoia but a new realization. Seek, as you must; seek all you want. The only satisfaction is in being found." Full article »

Pynchon Wiki Help and Contributor Guidelines

Click here for help with editing and creating pages.

We have a few conventions we ask that you follow:

  • When creating a new page, if its information pertains to one (and only one) specific Pynchon novel, please categorize it with the appropriate identifier. For example, a page pertaining to Bleeding Edge, should use the syntax [[Category:BE]].
  • To open a discussion on an individual listing of the Alpha Index, create one using the entry on Peter Tait as an example. Basically, give it a name that identifies the alpha listing (eg [[Name Discussion|DISCUSSION]]) and notice that the visible name will be "DISCUSSION" in full caps, so it stands out a bit.

External Links

  • Literarywiki.org - wiki annotations to works by Pynchon, Umberto Eco, and many others.

Image Gallery

Below are some of the images you will find on Pynchon Wiki.


Thanks, and enjoy...

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