IVIV reception: "like all good Pynchon books, frequently hilarious"

[Doug Millison]

http://www.chicagoreader.com/TheBlog/archives/2009/08/17/diddy-and-felix-lectro-black

Diddy and Felix: Lectro Black Posted by Miles Raymer on Mon, Aug 17,  
2009 at 4:56 PM
Over the weekend I tore through Thomas Pynchon's new Inherent Vice,  
which is excellent and, like all good Pynchon books, frequently  
hilarious. Given its late-60s LA-hippie setting and Pynchon's  
affection for rock music, it's not surprising to encounter talk  
throughout about acts like the Trashmen, Thunderclap Newman, and Wild  
Man Fischer. Less expected—and thus more Pynchonesque—was a frequently  
repeated joke revolving around a P. Diddy reference. (I'm not gonna  
spoil it here.)

For me reading Pynchon has always had the side effect of heightening  
my paranoia levels and increasing my sensitivity to coincidence (or  
maybe that should be "coincidence"). Which is why I had to stop and  
consider what the universe might be trying to tell me when, just hours  
after finishing the book, I learned that P. Diddy had dropped a mix  
tape with Chicago electro legend Felix da Housecat under the name  
"Lectro Black."

After downloading the mix I decided that the universe was probably  
trying to tell me that a) P. Diddy can actually get down pretty hard  
with Felix's electro styles, b) it's still mostly Diddy's fault if  
we're all underestimating him, and c) "Lectro Black" sounds like a  
good name for a Pynchon character. It's not exactly satori, but I  
guess you take what you can get.