xposts, totally didn't mean to sound like I was talking down to you, was all meant in good faith, etc., sry :/
GR just hits me on an epistemological level, and maybe that's why clover's themes-as-motifs instantly makes a lot of sense to me-- normally motifs serve the themes, and in GR's case, it seems like the themes are themselves motifs serving something larger and more to the heart of wtf narrative/storytelling does at its basic level. Just seems like the book isn't built the way it's built in order to say something about post-war anxiety is all. So I guess fuck me I disagree :(
― Spertify (CompuPost), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 19:28 (eleven years ago) link
heh i was just defending my right to dissent
― the late great, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 20:32 (eleven years ago) link
Its not that I feel vehemently "you are wrong" so much as i just love getting to talk and think about pynchon. also i've put so much into and gotten so much out of GR that there's no reading of it (including my own) that I'm not going to find reasons to say "no, that's missing the point".
― s.clover, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 20:44 (eleven years ago) link
anyway after i finish my MA i swear to every mod on ilx that i will read this mfing novel next summer
― kell surprise (country matters), Sunday, 4 October 2009 20:42 (3 years ago)
So it happened last night then, and how's this for a little bit o' Country Matters Hyperbole - this is the greatest artistic achievement of the twentieth century, as it stands, course there's Vlad and Jimmy J lurking in the sideroom...
― once a week is ample, Thursday, 8 November 2012 12:18 (eleven years ago) link
wtf. Once a week and it's not about barca being stymied.
― ut's nutta bull, ut's a *romanda* (darraghmac), Thursday, 8 November 2012 12:23 (eleven years ago) link
took you a little while to finish that MA did it
― Yorkshire lass born and bred, that's me, said Katriona's hologram. (thomp), Thursday, 8 November 2012 12:28 (eleven years ago) link
The degree of Master of Arts is awarded to BAs and BFAs seven years after matriculation, without further examination, upon the payment of a nominal fee.
― woof, Thursday, 8 November 2012 12:29 (eleven years ago) link
bwahaha
― Yorkshire lass born and bred, that's me, said Katriona's hologram. (thomp), Thursday, 8 November 2012 12:31 (eleven years ago) link
i am so over thomas pynchon. i feel quite sad when i remember how much more of a thing thomas pynchon used to be for me. i won't lie, this is when my friends who still take drugs start talking about how much of a thing thomas pynchon is and must always be for everyone in perpetuity.
― Yorkshire lass born and bred, that's me, said Katriona's hologram. (thomp), Thursday, 8 November 2012 12:32 (eleven years ago) link
I never really got over him. I reread about half of Mason & Dixon earlier this year and was rapt. Rapt. For all his faults (which have become more obvious as I've grown up), there's no living novelist I'd rather read.
― woof, Thursday, 8 November 2012 12:40 (eleven years ago) link
death of the author changes everything
― ut's nutta bull, ut's a *romanda* (darraghmac), Thursday, 8 November 2012 12:44 (eleven years ago) link
yeah i've reread half of mason & dixon a couple times, is the thing
― Yorkshire lass born and bred, that's me, said Katriona's hologram. (thomp), Thursday, 8 November 2012 12:46 (eleven years ago) link
so over thomas pynchon
― max, Thursday, 8 November 2012 12:51 (eleven years ago) link
get out
― Yorkshire lass born and bred, that's me, said Katriona's hologram. (thomp), Thursday, 8 November 2012 12:52 (eleven years ago) link
The first novel I've read that has made me burst into tears for about an hour afterwards, crying for Slothrop's beautiful disintegration, for the heroic Counterforce that is the whole damn novel, for the scattered and headlong resolutions of those astonishing, damaged characters, all resolved truth by the Rocket's catharsis, for the dreams and the visions, thegenuinely Gnostic harnessing of High Math as religious conduit, for us all, and our comedy in the face of oppression...this would make for the greatest movie of course but only really if done as a ten-hour anime...fuck, this was so much of what is real to me
― once a week is ample, Thursday, 8 November 2012 20:58 (eleven years ago) link
i kind of want to see it made in the style of 'inglorius basterds'
― Yorkshire lass born and bred, that's me, said Katriona's hologram. (thomp), Friday, 9 November 2012 02:43 (eleven years ago) link
i mean, whatever. we all read anthony powell down here kid
damn, once a week, that is the most compelling 'reaction' to pynchon i've ever heard. maybe it is time to force myself to read all of this damn book.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 9 November 2012 03:03 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-NBPpM--pY
― everybody loves lana del raymond (s.clover), Tuesday, 29 July 2014 16:40 (nine years ago) link
once a week is ample still otm
― one way street, Tuesday, 29 July 2014 20:28 (nine years ago) link
:)
― i'm elf-ein lusophonic (imago), Tuesday, 29 July 2014 23:03 (nine years ago) link
Had I but world enough and timeI still wouldn't make it to the end of this book
― Dr. Winston O'Boogie Chillen' (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 02:02 (nine years ago) link
this would make for the greatest movie of course but only really if done as a ten-hour anime
oh dearie me..
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 07:51 (nine years ago) link
Couple of days ago was @ nu-Foyles - looking for a new book (which they didn't have). There was a guy looking over which Pynchon to buy first. He had a good look at GR but went for Lot 49 instead. I felt the urge to shake him out of it, but you know..
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 07:57 (nine years ago) link
how are you finding nu-foyles xyzzzz__? haven't been in yet. but went in to the old one for the first time since I worked there in the late '90s before it moved and felt it still had the best range and depth of any bookshop in London. hoping move hasn't involved a "rationalisation".
― Fizzles, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 08:27 (nine years ago) link
Fizzles its really good - actually been to the coffee shop a couple of times just to read. I think the shop is just as strong in terms of depth as the old one if not more so.
Compare to Waterstones CX where the fiction section is def slimmed down.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 09:07 (nine years ago) link
waterstones near the university is the only great waterstones in town now, imo
― The beer was cold, but so was the glass, which drives me crazy. (stevie), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 09:43 (nine years ago) link
Gower st has an ok 2nd hand section. Reminds me I should go there in August to have a look.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 09:49 (nine years ago) link
love Gower st – the academic remainders make it for me.
tbh I think the Piccadilly branch is a great browsing bookshop – some really good tables, like the little by-publisher sections in fiction (if they're still there), so that all the NYRB or Dalkey or w/e is together. It's a bit lifestyley and Foyles has better stock for most of the things I care about but it's much improved, nice inviting version of a giant bookshop.
― woof, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 10:19 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, had forgotten about the academic remainders, possibly deliberately, as the last couple of times I've been have made me frightened at what I might do when I go back. different thread really.
Gravity's Rainbow has the heft of being The Great Pynchon novel to recommend it as a first read for toe-dippers, but M&D would be my choice for ease of enjoyment.
― Fizzles, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 10:30 (nine years ago) link
At this stage I'd have Against The Day only a tiny, tiny smidgen behind GR and miles ahead of anything else I've read (so take this with a pynch of salt). I think it'd make a fantastic introduction, length notwithstanding. Perhaps the way to go would be to read in chronological order of setting :D
― i'm elf-ein lusophonic (imago), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 11:09 (nine years ago) link
this thread is best when people discuss bookshops, not Gravity's Rainbow.
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 30 July 2014 12:50 (nine years ago) link
have started to notice that everywhere I get laid, a bookshop closes
― i'm elf-ein lusophonic (imago), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 13:08 (nine years ago) link
the book depository
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 30 July 2014 13:31 (nine years ago) link
Really enjoyed this review of GR by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Also there is a talk. C4 journo Paul Mason is a fan!
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 14 August 2014 11:24 (nine years ago) link
oh i'm there
rosenbaum review is brilliant. read it a while ago. discovering that my favourite movie writer was a massive pynchon fan basically made my day
― i'm elf-ein lusophonic (imago), Thursday, 14 August 2014 11:40 (nine years ago) link
Mason's own novel, Rare Earth, is quite enjoyable in a sub-Pynchon way. The Pinefox and myself were talking about going to the Mason event - impromptu ILB FAP?
― Stevie T, Thursday, 14 August 2014 11:42 (nine years ago) link
Looks quite good, revive the thread nearer the time...hopefully I'll be able to attend.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 14 August 2014 14:36 (nine years ago) link
I think I will go.
― the pinefox, Thursday, 14 August 2014 20:58 (nine years ago) link
couldn't find my copy and was thinking about rereading so bought my third copy in 10 years, a $2 used paperback from 1974, and lol @ its flimsy spine being totally pristine: not once in forty years has this book been read
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 22 August 2014 20:15 (nine years ago) link
i feel silly when i think about how many times i've started and abandoned this book. probably at least 10. then again i had a similar experience with moby-dick and when i finally did buckle down and read it it became my favorite book in the world for a couple years.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 22 August 2014 22:30 (nine years ago) link
imo you're better off reading ATD or M&D or Vineland
― sleeve, Friday, 22 August 2014 22:55 (nine years ago) link
ATD is p much just as good, M&D great but slightly less great, Vineland IDK, need to read
I'm going to that Paul Mason thing, ticket confirmed. Expect to see London ILX there in force
― imago, Saturday, 23 August 2014 07:58 (nine years ago) link
I've attempted to listen to this on audiobook for the sake of speed. Not sure if I'm taking any of it in though.
― Scary Darey (dog latin), Saturday, 23 August 2014 12:03 (nine years ago) link
I gotta say, Paul Morley on Nabokov looks way more like the keeper there
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Saturday, 23 August 2014 15:04 (nine years ago) link
Never really got into this guy, as noted upthread, but am in a contrary mood so maybe it's time to give him another try.
― Dear Ultraviolet Catastrophe Waitress (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 24 August 2014 00:50 (nine years ago) link
I think Vineland is an entry point if you like something more grounded (bit of a political novel, written (one assumes) around the Reagan years). Also mid-length to the bulky novels. This was a good piece on it:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jul/31/thomas-pynchon-vineland-rereading
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 24 August 2014 07:51 (nine years ago) link
Thanks. Either that or Inherent Vice, which that article describes as a prequel of sorts.
― Dear Ultraviolet Catastrophe Waitress (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 24 August 2014 18:59 (nine years ago) link
Well, it takes place in California as well, and deals with post-hippes. But in that case, Crying of Lot 49 is really the start of a 'California-trilogy' of sorts.
― Frederik B, Sunday, 24 August 2014 19:09 (nine years ago) link
update: the front cover came off around page 150
then again i had a similar experience with moby-dick and when i finally did buckle down and read it it became my favorite book in the world for a couple years.
slothrop's disintegration always reminds me of ishmael's weird fade into invisible omniscience, altho it's not as formally adventurous tbh (and ishmael finds himself again on the other side, to tell the tale)
― difficult listening hour, Monday, 25 August 2014 06:33 (nine years ago) link