I don’t know, I’m guessing this is intentionally awful. I mean, book trailers are supposed to be awful, right?
Watch This Terrible Book Trailer for Thomas Pynchon’s New Novel Bleeding Edge (Or Don’t)
I don’t know, I’m guessing this is intentionally awful. I mean, book trailers are supposed to be awful, right?
Biblioklept 
Actually there are awards (hey, it’s Hollywood; we have awards for EVERYTHING now…) for the best AND worst trailers, “The Moby’s.”
Some of them are leave you at the edge of your seat spine-tingling or laugh out loud funny, but most of them do what they’re supposed to do in the first place, which is …
…MAKE YOU WANT TO GET THE BOOK.
And then, there are the the ones that make you groan.
LikeLike
Do most of them work?—book trailers, I mean—Do they actually make people want to buy books? This isn’t meant as a rhetorical question—I just don’t know.
The only ones I’ve ever seen that I thought were any good were for Wayne Koestenbaum’s book Humiliation, but I already had read it.
Most of them are just really embarrassing, even if they are ironically self-aware (which I think this one is supposed to be, but damn it’s repellent. But it’s Pynchon, so it doesn’t matter). I’m aware of the Moby Awards and covered them here before (https://biblioklept.org/?s=moby+awards)—they seem like a good excuse for a book party.
LikeLike
I tried. I made it only 37 seconds in.
LikeLike
Hey, don’t knock Nyawky. The trailer’s character is less invented than indigenous. Made me want to be in NYC. All that ego is refreshing. But, I wouldn’t go to the trouble of watching it on UTube. No, it did not make me want to buy the book. Perhaps the actions allude to passages in the work. Or a self-reflective commentary. I wonder if Pynchon wrote the script – by all accounts, he’s quite the character, especially in comic inventiveness. I get the feeling from Biblioklept’s correspondents that Pynchon’s works speak to every fan in a particularly unique way. I can’t wait for the trailer to As I Lay Dying – then the real test will begin. Yes, someone is making a movie of Faulkner’s book. I told you it was the end-time. Let the fur fly – no biting.
LikeLike
https://biblioklept.org/2013/05/13/the-trailer-for-james-francos-film-adaptation-of-as-i-lay-dying-is-pretty-unremarkable/
LikeLike
Thank you for the reference. I caught the end of the comment on the radio and did not know who was making it into a movie.
LikeLike
Creating a trailer in order to get you excited about reading a book is like making a meal to get you excited about listening to a new album.
LikeLike
What the hell was that?
LikeLike
My assumption at this point is that the trailer is purposefully bad: sloppy, annoying, boring, etc. A bad joke on its audience? A gesture ridiculing book trailers?
LikeLike
Problem is that it’s not ironic. It’s just dumb. If it had actually starred Pynchon it might, might have been worth something.
LikeLike
Good or bad, interesting or boring, it has caused quite a stir amongst the bibliokleptophiles. But most of them will probably buy the book asap anyway. I do not see how it would create interest for the book in someone who is not pre-informed. Certainly stimulates speculation and curiosity. Nyawkishness is a trait ‘we’ love to hate, while being charmed by its quaintness. After all NY’ers think that Manhattan is the center of the world. Perhaps the Universe.
LikeLike
New York is a suburb of New Jersey.
LikeLike
Have you seen the New Yorker cover showing the Hudson River from Manhattan, with the western shore labeled NJ and the rest of the world, or something like that? I like Hoboken, myself. According to a some what lengthy article on Pynchon, he has been living on the upper west side (Riverside?), and his ‘roots’ village on the Sound on LI. The new book is about all that. Which probably explains the arcane trailer. Of course, if I had not known it was Pynchon related, I probably would have thought it kind of dull and boring, and obnoxious in a New Yorkish kind of way. Shows you what a name will do. I have been ripped to shreds before because I went nnneh about some cultural icon. Reminds me of the scene in Steppenwolf, where the principal says to his hosts at dinner that he thinks Goethe is overrated. Totally destroyed the whole evening. The hostess was running around the apartment with a bust of Goethe moaning. Obviously, I dare not make fun of Pynchon. Thankfully, the literati are not into politics, or it would be hell on earth. And I would be dead.
LikeLike
Pure genius.
Character, character character.
Read this. No spoilers really.
https://www.pynchon.net/owap/article/view/51/136
LikeLike
Ach! I’m sure the review illuminates the artistic decisions that might have informed the clip—but I have this weird thing about reading reviews of new books that I plan to read. So I’ll have to wait. But thanks for the link.
LikeLike