Have you seen this man? (Photo: Inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com)

The legendarily reclusive Thomas Pynchon, author of Gravity's Rainbow and The Crying of Lot 49, is set to publish a new novel titled Bleeding Edge in September. And what weird corner of Americana has Mr. Pynchon chosen for the subject of his latest opus? Why, Silicon Alley, circa 2001, during “the lull between the collapse of the dot-com boom and the terrible events of September 11,” according to Sarah Weinman of Publisher's Marketplace.

First Mike Judge's show for HBO and now this? Our cup runneth over! Suddenly this advance copy of Lean In doesn't seem so exciting. Sorry, Sheryl.

Movie buffs/onetime teenage girls might recall that Mr. Pynchon will be revisiting some of the territory trod by Josh Hartnett in the 2008 indie movie August. However, we imagine that this take will come with a boatload more facts sure to wow members of your pub trivia team.

This news means that if you've had any offbeat encounters with oddball middle-aged strangers at General Assembly or New York Tech Meetup in the last couple of years, you've officially got an excuse to spin it into a maybe-maybe-not anecdote. Just saying.