Thomas Pynchon Question.

[steve sanders]

Is Gravity's Rainbow worth a read? I wonder if it hasn't dated significantly.

 

[Crisp Sandwich]

"A screaming comes across the sky..."

One of the great opening lines. I wrestled with "Gravity's Rainbow" about 15 years ago and managed 250 pages or so before I backed away from it.

It's incredibly dense and too heady - much like (some of) the work of Ken Kesey, John Irving, Joseph Heller, Philip Roth etc. long tomes with meta plots that were read and beatified by people wearing scratchy jumpers who were stoned out of their wined-up gourds.

It was the '70s... Buckaroo.

Probably has dated as much as certain aspects of "Catch-22". Anti-war parable wrapped around civil/political unrest - looking backward to look forward.

Read Pynchon's "The Crying Of Lot 49" or "Inherent Vice" instead.

 

[Bwana_Dik]

"A screaming comes across the sky..."

One of the great opening lines. I wrestled with "Gravity's Rainbow" about 15 years ago and managed 250 pages or so before I backed away from it.

It's incredibly dense and too heady - much like (some

I wrestled with "Gravity's Rainbow" about 15 years ago and managed 250 pages or so before I backed away

I gave up after roughly 80 pages myself.
My poor head was buckled.
I might give it a lash again before I die, if I live for a long time more.

 

[doppellanger]

Is Gravity's Rainbow worth a read? I wonder if it hasn't dated significantly.

I tried to read it twice and gave up.

Then I tried reading the plot summary on Wikipedia and I gave that up as well.

So that's a 'no' from me, Steve.

 

[sigourney's knickers]

Well Jaysus.

 

[Crisp Sandwich]

Generally speaking; I refuse to give up on a book - especially one that I get a third of the way into like in the case of "Gravity's Rainbow" but it beat me... mercilessly.

"Ulysses" is another one that I tried to plough through but it's impenetrable.

I looked at a copy of "Infinite Jest" in a shop once and cried off without even considering it.

I just bought Don DeLillo's "White Noise" - I fear that it might be another candidate.

 

[Bwana_Dik]

"Ulysses" is another one that I tried to plough through but it's impenetrable.

One of my favourites as it happens.

RTE did a full reading of it a rake of years ago, runs to about 25 hours in total.
Hearing the written word spoken by top class actors renders it much more understandable and enjoyable.
I'd say you might find it if you poked around the interwebs.

There's a few chapters that are a hoor altogether though, the one in Holles St hospital, that's in the format of the conception and birth of English from its "parents" is a dread entirely (extra marks for me though coz I was born in Holles St)

 

[doppellanger]

Generally speaking; I refuse to give up on a book - especially one that I get a third of the way into like in the case of "Gravity's Rainbow" but it beat me... mercilessly.

"Ulysses" is another one that I tried to plough through but it's impenetrable.

I looked at a copy of "Infinite Jest" in a shop once and cried off without even considering it.

I just bought Don DeLillo's "White Noise" - I fear that it might be another candidate.

I read the other 3, only Gravity's Rainbow defeated me.

White Noise is about the most accessible of DeLillo's that I've read, and there's a good film version on Netflix. I got well into DeLillo for a while, he's kind of challenging at first but after a while you get into it. Underworld was difficult to finish.

Ulysses you can sort of pick up and read any chapter as a self-contained story. Each chapter has its own style and if you don't like it, just skip to the next one.

Infinite Jest I managed to drag myself through it but wouldn't really recommend, a lot of it is like an exercise in showing off how good a writer he was; he was brilliant but it's a bit self-indulgent.

 

[BlackpoolTerrier]

Agreed, Ulysses is a wonderful read - bears repeated readings too - new stuff every time.

White noise is doable alright CrispY


But Gravity's Rainbow, jaysus - like other hard cases here, I got out to page 300 or so - mainly because I was on away on a trip and had no other book. I was roundly defeated.

 

[Crisp Sandwich]

White Noise is about the most accessible of DeLillo's that I've read, and there's a good film version on Netflix. I got well into DeLillo for a while, he's kind of challenging at first but after a while you get into it. Underworld was difficult to finish.

Ulysses you can sort of pick up and read any chapter as a self-contained story. Each chapter has its own style and if you don't like it, just skip to the next one.

Agreed, Ulysses is a wonderful read - bears repeated readings too - new stuff every time.

White noise is doable alright CrispY

I might give "Ulysses" another bash.

Also - I just looked at my order because something clicked in the back of my mind - it turns out that I picked up "Underworld" and "Libra" by Don DeLillo rather than "White Noise" and "Libra".

Shit...