Vineland

novel by Pynchon

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July 17, 2026

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Vineland is a 1990 novel by Thomas Pynchon. The story is set in a fictional town in northern California and begins in 1984. Its main character is Zoyd Wheeler, a former hippie and marijuana grower who is a single father. The plot contrasts the idealism of the 1960s with the materialism of the 1980s, particularly the policies of the Reagan-era. The novel was loosely adapted into the 2025 film One Battle After Another by Paul Thomas Anderson.12

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Thomas Pynchon
Vineland, Inherent Vice, and other novels
Pynchon’s next novel, Vineland—which begins in 1984 in a fictional town in northern California—was not published until 1990. Its main character is Zoyd Wheeler, a washed-out ex-hippie, marijuana grower, and single father to 14-year-old Prairie, whose long-absent mother was a radical activist. The novel’s plot pits the idealism…
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Pynchon’s next novel, Vineland—which begins in 1984 in a fictional town in northern California—was not published until 1990. Its main character is Zoyd Wheeler, a washed-out ex-hippie, marijuana grower, and single father to 14-year-old Prairie, whose long-absent mother was a radical activist. The novel’s plot pits the idealism…
Read More

One Battle After Another
…adapt Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel, Vineland, a story about former 1960s radicals (in the vein of the Weather Underground) who have become countercultural relics in the Reagan-era ’80s. And third, he wanted his film to feature a woman revolutionary. The result, two decades in the making, is One Battle After…
Read More
…adapt Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel, Vineland, a story about former 1960s radicals (in the vein of the Weather Underground) who have become countercultural relics in the Reagan-era ’80s. And third, he wanted his film to feature a woman revolutionary. The result, two decades in the making, is One Battle After…
Read More