Thomas Pynchon Quotes
Oh, this beer here is cold, cold and hop-bitter, no point coming up for air, gulp, till it's all--hahhhh.
Pynchon, Thomas. Gravity's Rainbow. Viking Press, 1973.
This is one of the proverbs of King Solomon of the Jews, son of King David.
Due to a shortage of raw materials in the aftermath of WW I and the economic conditions of the times, the supplies of beer were insufficient and there was a national shortage in May and June.
The distinction between recreational drinking and heavy drinking is a subtle one and rarely made until modern times. Most leaders who would not have heavy drinkers in positions of responsibility were usually themselves teetotalers and they were very rare. Heavy drinkers and alcoholics have been in positions of responsibility throughout history including modern times—eg House Ways & Means Chairman Wilbur Mills and Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Peter was unusual in that he made the distinction.
Despite his concern about the evils of cider, Adams downed a tankard of cider for breakfast every day of his life. There was a belief that alcohol drinks were safer than water in most cases. The Dutch New York Colonists introduced beer for breakfast.
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. is an American novelist. A MacArthur Fellow, he is noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, science, and mathematics. For Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon won the 1973 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.
