Gravity's Rainbow

[KilgoreT]

I just finished reading Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon- man I feel tired. This was almost certainly the most difficult book I have read, and although I consider myself a reading maniac (in the real world at least, maybe not compared to many on these forums) it took me about a month to get through.

My impression of the book is Wow, I think. I feel like I understand a fraction of what happened, or didn't happen. I am not frustrated though, I feel 1. a sense of accomplishment for reading it through even when I had no idea what was happening at times and 2. a better appreciation of what literature can be be, what it can do. Pynchon's brain must be an amazing (wierd) place and this book provides the reader with a glimpse into it. Decoding and understanding even a little of a book like this is very rewarding to me and I am looking forward to challenging myself more in the future with my reading material. I have a ton I want to read right now but I will definitely be revisiting this book in the future.

Has anyone else read GR? Re-read it? How much did you get out of it, and did you enjoy it?

[dfloyd]

I hope to read more, time permitting. I don't know how hard Gravity is to rlead, but V. is reatively easy and I would recommend it. Pynchon, while not writing in stream of consciousness, does skip from one time to another without leading the reader. Nabokov did this in Lolita and when I read this years ago, it was confusing. On a reread last year, I found that the novel wasn't confusing this time around. Pynchon says he studied under Nabokov, but Nabokov said he didn't remember Pynchon. Pynchon just took some college courses from Nabokov so Nabokov probably wouldn't remember him.

Pynchon is a much better writer than Delilo, Roth, and certainly Franzen, all of whom one could skip without losing anything, or perhaps I should say one should skip.

[My2cents]

The book definitely takes commitment. It took me about three or four tries to really buckle down and see it to the end.

What's really hard to get used to (I found) was the manic pace of the writing which never lets up. Pynchon seems to be in one big rush to say anything and everything and for all we know he may have done just that.

But along the way, what's clear is that his descriptive powers and command of the American idiom are second to none.

[weltanschauung]

i liked it, felt right at home, and since i have a great memory, i didnt have much dificulty remembering the details strategically spread out.
but definetly a challenge to read, specially because its long and crazy.

[Bustrofedon]

I liked Crying of Lot 49 but didn't finish Against the Day. GR has always been on my to-do list. Seems to be getting good reviews here so far.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I've read Lot 49 and V. and enjoyed both. While I didn't find either necessarily difficult, I didn't find them easy, either. They aren't books one can just lay back and read without paying attention. I have GR in my to-read pile, and will be getting to it within a month or so, hopefully. I plan to use the following page as a helping guide (my internet is acting screwy, I'll link it later).

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_gr.html

[laymonite]

Pynchon so craftily packs his sentences full of treasures--sometimes overt, sometimes encapsulated. And it doesn't just end with wordplay; I swear this guy can go on for pages and pages, alluding to everything from an obscure fact about the inception of soda pop to a German opera house that burned down several times without ever overstating the allusion (whatever that means). That is, you're reading about some unknown person engaging in a parley with another unknown person, but the aforementioned allusions are being thrown right at you the whole time. I picture Pynchon's brainstorming sessions as him reading feverishly through a set of encyclopedias and then regurgitating it all within a shiny who-done-it/conspiracy genre wrapper. Of course, there again, with Pynchon, the more you find out about the mystery, the more complex and elusive it tends to become!

Oh yeah: I dig Pynchon!

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Every time I come across a discussion of Pynchon, there seems to be three books discussed: V., The Calling of Lot 49, and GR. Are there other works some of you like better that he's written, or think that have gone underrated?

[sixsmith]

........

[My2cents]

Every time I come across a discussion of Pynchon, there seems to be three books discussed: V., The Calling of Lot 49, and GR. Are there other works some of you like better that he's written, or think that have gone underrated?

Vineland is invariably dismissed as unworthy of Pynchon. I love it however for its scaled down perfection and coherence, not to mention its time frame the '80s and all the pop culture references to that time. (I grew up then.) As to the '60's I suppose people have had enough of it I'm thinking, although I find it, or Pynchon's take of it, quite entertaining.

[KilgoreT]

What's really hard to get used to (I found) was the manic pace of the writing which never lets up.

This is a great way of describing it. The book is 760 pages of intensity. He makes references to whatever and whoever, brings in new side stories, new voices, new characters, old characters you thought were unimportant, all without stopping to explain for you or let you catch up.

[Perandorrrr]

"Pulitzer Jurors Dismayed on Pynchon", New York Times May 8, 1974.

All three members of the Pulitzer Prize jury on fiction expressed distress and bewilderment yesterday that their unanimous recommendation for a prize for Thomas Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow' had been turned down and that no fiction award was given this year.
...
Other members of the 14-member board, which makes recommendations on the 18 Pulitzer Prize categories ... had described the Pynchon novel during their private debate as "unreadable," "turgid," "overwritten," and in parts "obscene." One member editor said he had tried hard but had only gotten a third of the way through the 760-page book."


I haven't read it. Does anyone agree or disagree? I'm curious to know why he got shafted.

[laymonite]

Every time I come across a discussion of Pynchon, there seems to be three books discussed: V., The Calling of Lot 49, and GR. Are there other works some of you like better that he's written, or think that have gone underrated?
I haven't read any other novels of his, but I've read all of his short stories (at least the 5 published in Slow Learner); and I really enjoyed "Entropy."

[My2cents]

"Pulitzer Jurors Dismayed on Pynchon", New York Times May 8, 1974.

All three members of the Pulitzer Prize jury on fiction expressed distress and bewilderment yesterday that their unanimous recommendation for a prize for Thomas Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow' had been turned down and that no fiction award was given this year.
...
Other members of the 14-member board, which makes recommendations on the 18 Pulitzer Prize categories ... had described the Pynchon novel during their private debate as "unreadable," "turgid," "overwritten," and in parts "obscene." One member editor said he had tried hard but had only gotten a third of the way through the 760-page book."


I haven't read it. Does anyone agree or disagree? I'm curious to know why he got shafted.

I suppose it's nice to win awards and the prize monies that come with them. But I would hazard to guess that Pynchon didn't put too much stock in them if the joke he played on National Book Award is any indication. If you don't know already, he never showed up for their award ceremony, sending in his stead a Professor Irwin Corey who many believed was Pynchon himself. Who knows maybe the people at Pulitzer were wary of being dissed likewise and did what they did. In any event, Pynchon is too successful a writer (he's one of only a handful of writers writing literary fiction who can claim to make a cushy living strictly off of his writing, I bet) and too anti-establishment disposition wise, to consider a sanctioned accolade, an official seal of approval, the be all and end all.

[nathank]

Every time I come across a discussion of Pynchon, there seems to be three books discussed: V., The Calling of Lot 49, and GR. Are there other works some of you like better that he's written, or think that have gone underrated?

As much as I've enjoyed GR, I think Mason & Dixon is even better. It's not quite as chaotic as GR because the story follows the more linear story of Mason & Dixon. It's main characters are also much more developed for the same reason and the reader is more emotionally connected to them, at times it even borders on the sentimental. It has all the craziness of a standard Pynchon work though and the gorgeous writing too.

[nathank]

I just finished reading Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon- man I feel tired. This was almost certainly the most difficult book I have read, and although I consider myself a reading maniac (in the real world at least, maybe not compared to many on these forums) it took me about a month to get through.

My impression of the book is Wow, I think. I feel like I understand a fraction of what happened, or didn't happen. I am not frustrated though, I feel 1. a sense of accomplishment for reading it through even when I had no idea what was happening at times and 2. a better appreciation of what literature can be be, what it can do. Pynchon's brain must be an amazing (wierd) place and this book provides the reader with a glimpse into it. Decoding and understanding even a little of a book like this is very rewarding to me and I am looking forward to challenging myself more in the future with my reading material. I have a ton I want to read right now but I will definitely be revisiting this book in the future.

Has anyone else read GR? Re-read it? How much did you get out of it, and did you enjoy it?

For a little help on all those bizarre references try the pynchon wiki. It can really, really help when you are trying to make sense of something.

http://pynchonwiki.com/

[laymonite]

As much as I've enjoyed GR, I think Mason & Dixon is even better. It's not quite as chaotic as GR because the story follows the more linear story of Mason & Dixon. It's main characters are also much more developed for the same reason and the reader is more emotionally connected to them, at times it even borders on the sentimental. It has all the craziness of a standard Pynchon work though and the gorgeous writing too.
There is a copy of Mason & Dixon at a local used books store that I frequent. It has been there for months now, and (humorously) it is in absolutely pristine condition--as is a copy of the Gabler edition Ulysses. I do think I'll go pick M&D up today and give it a go!