The faith to finish "Against the Day"...

[TheChilly]

So far, I've finally made it to Part 4 of "Against the Day", and looking back at my 3+ years time with this novel, it really was a long road (the longest time I've ever spent with a novel, including breaks in between because I was going through some personal stuff), at many times painful (especially in Part 3, titled "Bilocations") and at other times eye-opening and paralleling the technological advances of today's society.

As I struggle with these last two parts of the book, there have been points where I was really losing my faith because my head was hurting so much reading and following the work because of its out-of-the-radar depth (which I understand that Pynchon is trying to reconstruct and deconstruct our past in order to intertwine it with where civilization is going) and constant jumping between scenes and clusters (the clusters here consisting of a mass-load of differing writing styles).

I'm really trying to keep the faith in myself to finish this daunting, daunting work (Hell, I found "War and Peace" so much easier to read) and I'm praying for you guys' support.

Wish me luck!

-- Chilly

[m2vihand]

What kind of book could that be?

[conartist]

I'm amazed that you've been reading it for over three years. No matter what anyone says you can't stop now. I remember reading a Finnegans Wake guide a few years ago in which the author stated that he had spent four years reading, analysing and researching the work and that he advised no one else to ever do this. Do you think it stands up with the best of Pynchon? The only post Gravity's Rainbow work of his I've read is Mason & Dixon, which I loved.

I read the first half a dozen or so pages of my friend's copy of Against the Day about a year ago. I have my own now but am yet to start. Maybe I shall try soon. I also have a first-edition copy of Vineland, but have been put getting into it by the horrendous reviews, though it looks comparatively simple and straightforward.

[TheChilly]

For me, it does stand up with the best of Pynchon, even if critics and readers were divided in terms of reception because of its incredible length. It's just as complex as Gravity's Rainbow, but at the same time, easier to read in terms of its prose, even sharing mood parallels with the 1973 work (The first halves of both works begin lightly and playfully, but get increasingly darker as you reach the second half. GR is a more intense example because things dissolve into a nightmarish acid trip). I will have a review up once I'm finished with AtD. Personal opinion: It's my favorite novel from Pynchon.

Key thing to getting the most out of your experience is to slow down and enjoy the ride.

In the case of what kind of book it is, it's a postmodern hybrid of historical metafiction and a pastiche of various, various writing styles popular during that time (which I noticed were part of "clusters" once I was able to research and connect those writing styles to the respective characters present in those scenes using those styles).

[TheChilly]

UPDATE: ...








Finished.