Debuting tonight at bookstores around the country, Thomas Pynchon's new novel explores 1970s California, documenting the collapse of the hippie revolution and the early roots of Internet culture in a surreal cultural snapshot.

After reading an advance copy of the novel, this GalleyCat editor stitched together vintage footage of 1970s California, private detectives, old-time computers, and some choice passages from Pynchon's new novel, "Inherent Vice."

While Pynchon maintains a famously low profile, we uncovered some vintage footage exploring key themes from his book. This essay borrowed from three public domain films: a National Institute for Mental Health newsreel about hippies and drugs, an IBM film about early computers, and a classic commercial that used a private detective to sell deodorant.