Nabokov & McLuhan's sensibilities are synthesized in Pynchon's. It's a real damn shame that people consider him an icon of pretension, & that this impression puts people off of reading him. Gravity's Rainbow is one of the most satisfying novels of the 20th century.
I greatly enjoyed wallace but youre correct that the marketing narrative around him was awful. I have to give Pynchon another try, it just didnt click but this was years ago.