Inherent Vice

by Thomas Pynchon

if acid-tripping was good for anything, it helped tune you to different unlisted frequencies.

What was “walking on water,” if it wasn’t Bible talk for surfing?

concentrated around us are always mischievous spirit forces, just past the threshold of human perception, occupying both worlds, and that these critters enjoy nothing better than to mess with those of us still attached to the thick and sorrowful catalogs of human desire.

as if some stereo needle had been lifted and set back down on some other sentimental oldie on the compilation LP of history.

“You don’t want to start smoking, Bigfoot, smokin’s bad for your ass.” “Yes well I wasn’t planning to smoke it in my ass, was I?” “How I’m spoze to know that?”

“No, no, it’s fascinating as Mr. Spock would say, tell me more.”

What goes around may come around, but it never ends up exactly the same place, you ever notice? Like a record on a turntable, all it takes is one groove’s difference and the universe can be on into a whole ’nother song.”