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V. P. Singh Administration
''V.'' is a satirical postmodern novel and the debut novel of Thomas Pynchon, published on March 18, 1963. It describes the exploits of a discharged U.S. Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York with a group of pseudo-bohemian artists and hangers-on known as the Whole Sick Crew, and the quest of an aging traveler named Herbert Stencil to identify and locate the mysterious entity he knows only as "V." It was nominated for a National Book Award. Plot summary The novel alternates between episodes featuring Benny, Stencil and other members of the Whole Sick Crew (including Profane's sidekick Pig Bodine) in 1956 (with a few minor flashbacks), and a generation-spanning plot that comprises Stencil's attempts to unravel the clues he believes will lead him to "V." (or to the various incarnations thereof). Each of these "Stencilized" chapters is set at a different moment of historical crisis; the framing narrative involving Stencil, "V.", and the journals of Sten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), themes, including history, music, science, and mathematics. For ''Gravity's Rainbow'', Pynchon won the 1974 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. (With essays by Casey Hicks and Chad Post from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog. The mock acceptance speech by Irwin Corey is not reprinted by NBF.) He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American novelists. Hailing from Long Island, Pynchon served two years in the United States Navy and earned an English degree from Cornell University. After publishing several short stories in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he began composing the novels for which he is best known: ''V.'' (1963), ''The Crying of Lot 49'' (1966), and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (1973). Rumors of a historical novel about Charles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city in Virginia and List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous city in the United States. The city holds a strategic position as the historical, urban, financial, and cultural center of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area (sometimes called "Tidewater (region), Tidewater"), which has more than 1.8 million inhabitants and is the Metropolitan statistical area, 37th-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Norfolk was established in 1682 as a colonial seaport. Strategically located at the confluence of the Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth River and Chesapeake Bay, it quickly developed into a major center for trade and shipbuilding. During the American Revolution and War of 1812, its port and naval facilities made it a critic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence was a centre of Middle Ages, medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political, economic and financial center. During this time, Florence rose to a position of enormous influence in Italy, Europe, and beyond. Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful House of Medici, Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The Florentine dialect forms the base of Italian language, standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy due to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Society Of Jesus
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola and six companions, with the approval of Pope Paul III. The Society of Jesus is the largest religious order in the Catholic Church and has played significant role in education, charity, humanitarian acts and global policies. The Society of Jesus is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 countries. Jesuits work in education, research, and cultural pursuits. They also conduct retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, sponsor direct social and humanitarian works, and promote ecumenical dialogue. The Society of Jesus is consecrated under the patronage of Madonna della Strada, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it is led by a superior general. The headquarters of the society, its general ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, largest, and average area per state and territory, smallest county by area in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located almost entirely on Manhattan Island near the southern tip of the state, Manhattan constitutes the center of the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area. Manhattan serves as New York City's Economy of New York City, economic and Government of New York City, administrative center and has been described as the cultural, financial, Media in New York City, media, and show business, entertainment capital of the world. Present-day Manhattan was originally part of Lenape territory. European settlement began with the establishment of a trading post by Dutch colonization of the Americas, D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sewer Alligator
The sewer alligator is a colloquial term for alligators that live in sewers outside alligators' native range. Some cities in which sewer alligators have supposedly been found are New York City and Paris. Accounts of fully grown sewer alligators are unproven, but small alligators are sometimes rescued from sewers. Stories date back to the late 1920s and early 1930s; in most instances they are part of contemporary legend. ''The New York Times'' reports the city rescues 100 alligators per year, some directly from homes where they are kept as illegal pets (which can be legally ordered online in other states and are legal to mail when small), and some from outside (where they can attract considerable attention) though mostly above-ground. Though escapees and former pets may survive for a short time in New York sewers, longer-term survival is not possible due to the low temperatures and the bacteria in human feces. Sewer maintenance crews insist there is no underground population of al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Expeditionary Forces
The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) was a formation of the United States Armed Forces on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during World War I, composed mostly of units from the United States Army, U.S. Army. The AEF was established on July 5, 1917, in Chaumont, Haute-Marne, Chaumont, France under the command of then-major general John J. Pershing. It fought alongside French Army, British Army, Canadian Army, British Indian Army, New Zealand Army and Australian Army units against the Imperial German Army. A small number of AEF troops also fought alongside Italian Army units in 1918 against the Austro-Hungarian Army. The AEF helped the French Army on the Western Front during the Third Battle of the Aisne, Aisne Offensive (at the Battle of Château-Thierry (1918), Battle of Château-Thierry and Battle of Belleau Wood) in the summer of 1918, and fought its major actions in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in the latter part of 1918. Formatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in European theatre of World War I, Europe and the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, Middle East, as well as in parts of African theatre of World War I, Africa and the Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I, Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare; the widespread use of Artillery of World War I, artillery, machine guns, and Chemical weapons in World War I, chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of Tanks in World War I, tanks and Aviation in World War I, aircraft. World War I was one of the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflicts in history, resulting in an estimated World War I casualties, 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded, plus some 10 million civilian de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl Baedeker
Karl Ludwig Johannes Baedeker ( , ; born Bädeker; 3 November 1801 – 4 October 1859) was a German publisher whose company, Baedeker, set the standard for authoritative guidebooks for tourists. Karl Baedeker was descended from a long line of printers, booksellers and publishers. He was the eldest of ten children of Gottschalk Diederich Bädeker (1778–1841), who had inherited the publishing house founded by his own father, Zacharias Gerhard Bädeker (1750–1800). The company also published the local newspaper, the ''Essendische Zeitung'', and the family expected that Karl, too, would eventually join the firm. Karl changed the spelling of the family name from Bädeker with the umlaut to Baedeker around 1850. Biography Karl Baedeker was born in Essen, then in the Kingdom of Prussia, on 3 November 1801. After his schooling in Hagen, he left home in 1817 to study humanities in Heidelberg where he also worked for a while at the leading local bookseller J.C.B. Mohr. Milit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1984 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1984. Events * April 4 – The narrative of George Orwell's dystopian novel '' Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (1949) begins and causes widespread discussion. G. K. Chesterton's '' The Napoleon of Notting Hill'' ( 1904) is also set in this year; and Haruki Murakami's '' 1Q84'' (いちきゅうはちよん, ''Ichi-Kyū-Hachi-Yon'', 2009–2010) is set in a parallel version of it. * June 16 – Cirque du Soleil is founded in Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, by two former street performers, Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix. *July – Tom Wolfe's novel '' The Bonfire of the Vanities'' begins serialization in ''Rolling Stone''. * December 19 – Ted Hughes' appointment as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom is announced in succession to Sir John Betjeman, Philip Larkin having turned down the post. *''unknown dates'' ** Prvoslav Vujčić's second poetry collection, ''Kastriranje vetra'' (Castration of the Wind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slow Learner
''Slow Learner'' is the 1984 published collection of five early short stories by the American novelist Thomas Pynchon, originally published in various sources between 1959 and 1964. The book is also notable for its introduction, written by Pynchon. His comments on the stories after reading them again for the first time in many years, and his recollection of the events surrounding their creation, amount to the author's only autobiographical comments to his readers. Content * Introduction * "The Small Rain" – First published in March 1959 in the ''Cornell Writer'', No. 2, pp. 14–32. * "Low-lands" – First published in ''New World Writing'', No. 16, Philadelphia: Lippincott, on 16 March 1960, pp. 85–108. * "Entropy" – First published in the '' Kenyon Review'' 22, No. 2, in Spring 1960, pp. 27–92. * "Under the Rose" – First published in ''The Noble Savage 3'' in May 1961, pp. 233–251. * "The Secret Integration" – First published December 26, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1961 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1961. Events *January 24 – The American dramatist Arthur Miller and the film star Marilyn Monroe are granted a divorce in Mexico on grounds of incompatibility. *February – Sylvia Plath suffers a miscarriage. Several of her poems, including "Parliament Hill Fields", address the event. *March 15 – Hugh Wheeler's comedy '' Big Fish, Little Fish'' opens at the ANTA Theater in New York City, directed by Sir John Gielgud. It is one of the early Broadway plays to explore frankly the issue of male homosexuality. *March 20 – The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, becomes the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and its company the Royal Shakespeare Company, with Peter Hall as director. *May – Grove Press publishes Henry Miller's ''Tropic of Cancer'' in the United States 27 years after its original publication in France. The book leads to one of many obscenity trials (Grove Press, Inc., v. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
