Vineland | Literary Precedents

Vineland Literary Precedents

For once Pynchon seems to have read and drawn from his literary contemporaries rather than just basing Vineland on classic works, mythologies, and popular culture sources (although the plot of the book resembles a primetime soap opera). The first third of the book, which establishes the setting and characters, reads very much like the satiric novels of Tom Robbins, with their arrays of odd, grotesque characters and their emotional warmth. In suggesting the importance of family or artificial family, such as the hippie communities of the Sixties as a refuge against the insanity of contemporary life, Pynchon shares the values of Kurt Vonnegut. In fact, it has often been suggested that the more successful Vonnegut is producing a popularized and more easily understandable version of Pynchon's worldview.