YMMV / Thomas Pynchon

• Epileptic Trees: It was once rumored that Pynchon and fellow reclusive author J. D. Salinger were the same person; the rumor is less popular now that the latter has passed away.
  • That theory was once published in an article of the Soho Weekly News. Pynchon sent a reply: "Not bad. Keep trying."
• Genius Bonus: One or the other, depending on the work; whichever it is, he's probably the king of the trope in question.
• Growing the Beard: Although V. and The Crying of Lot 49 is considered fair and favorable among fans, it wasn't until Gravity's Rainbow where Pynchon's true brilliance is shown, and continues to gain wider recognition around the globe.
• Memetic Mutation: The Trystero sign from Lot 49, as well as the fun he has with acronyms:
  We Await Silent Trystero's Empire
  Don't Ever Antagonize The Horn
  • Radiohead adopted W.A.S.T.E. as the name of their fan club and online store, in a deliberate Shout-Out to Pynchon.
• Nightmare Fuel: With a career that explores various themes and topics such as paranoia, obsession, identity and madness, this is inevitable.
• Paranoia Fuel: Hoo boy.
• Squick: Often used symbolically, no less!
• Tearjerker: For all the zany antics that go on in his books, moments of immense melancholy and sadness are also bound to show up and is more pronounced in his post-Gravity's Rainbow novels. Perhaps most apparent in Vineland, which centers around the collapse of a family and their efforts to make things right again.
  • The other two, arguably the strongest and profoundest, Mason & Dixon and Against the Day.

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