Advice for a first time reader of Gravity's Rainbow:Gravity's Rainbow is a book you either love or hate, and if you hate it it's probably because you couldn't finish the damn thing. Though by no means impenetrable, the novel is daunting enough to merit a list of tips for those wishing to tackle it for the first time. Below is my advice on how new readers can get over the hump. Trust me, it's a small hump, and the masterpiece that lies on the other side is worth the effort.1. Read V first Pyncho [...]

THIS BOOK IS ABOUT A MAN IN WW2 HE GETS ERECTIONS.

‘What is the real nature of control?’ From the first sentence of Pynchon’s National Book Award winning novel, Gravity’s Rainbow, the Reader is transplanted into a threatening world where death strikes first, the cause second. It is a world of frightening realism and comic absurdity, all fueled through drug induced hallucinations, paranoid ramblings, and psychological investigations that is not all that unlike our own reality once you remove yourself to view it from afar as if it were som [...]

It took three months, but I finally pinned this sucker down to the count of ten. Three months is kinda perfect if you think about it, though. That's my typical honeymoon period in most relationships, the enthusiastic "I can still more than tolerate you" part, so great timing, yeah? Sure, I cheated on him on about 15 separate occasions in that time-frame, but hell, nobody's perfect. The library card in my wallet is like a condom just begging to be used.So yeah, I can now say I've "read" this book [...]

~~I don’t know why exactly you folks out there read, or why you feel compelled to then seek out a community in which you might share your thoughts, impressions, reactions etc. about the books you’ve read… But me myself, I read for many reasons - among them the opportunity to transcend the narrow window of my own point of view; the chance to learn by a leap, however minimally, over the subjective walls of my own stupid existence; also and especially to inhabit for a few moments the warm pul [...]

This is of course the Pynchon pinnacle, the summit of his fame, the cornerstone of his work. So much so that he fell silent for about 14 years after writing it (leading me to wonder if DeLillo was spoofing him in Mao II). It is an amazing book and the first Pynchon I ever read. It is a rude introduction to his style though as it is thoroughly post modern in narration, manipulation of time and reality, and proliferation of characters. There are moments of pure genius but also of repulsion (leadin [...]

Prologue"A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now."GenesisIn the beginning was the earth, and above the earth was the sky. The earth consisted of land and water. The sky consisted of air, the moon, the sun and the stars in the heavens.The land consisted of rock. Water was everywhere, but still precious.The sky was light by day and dark by night. By day, the light came from the sun and sometimes the moon. At night, a lesser light came fro [...]

I know history is rarely kind to harsh criticisms about super nebulous or "difficult" authors , but dig this --This book is horrible. After reading The Crying of Lot 49, Slow Learner and now this, I'm convinced that Thomas Pynchon is a hack, and the reason we don't hear from him is because he has nothing to say and knows that if we gave him a microphone and fifteen minutes he'd be found out.90% of the people who pick up this novel won't finish it, and 90% of those who do won't like it. But 100% [...]

Gather ‘round, everyone, and hear the tale of why the reasoning (not the rejection itself, mind you) behind the rejection of this novel for the Pulitzer Prize of ’74 fucking pisses me off.Their reason? Obscenity. I would hope that they at least wrote an essay justifying their decision that went beyond an insipid mix of morally outraged blatherings and oblique mentions of coprophilia (he ate what? Poop? Oh, we cannot stand for this we simply must not accept this and god forbid we even think f [...]

You know that very brief moment after you wake up in the morning? That moment when you're not sleeping but you're not yet awake. You kind of know what's going but you're not fully aware. You're in conciousness limbo. When you read Gravity's Rainbow you fall into this conciousness limbo. You read the words on the page but they don't all make sense. You're confused, you don't know what's going on but you love it. You're floating through this syntactical Pandora's Box fully unaware of your surround [...]

ITS ABOUT A SECRET ROCKET PROJECT IN WW II BUT I THINK SOME OF IT IS A DREAM BECAUSE IT DOESNT MAKE SENSE. THE AUTHOR IS VERY CLEVER.

I dallied with the idea of writing a very short review, saying pithy things like:"I'm glad that's over."or:"Fuck."OR should I go more eloquent: "I'm going to set this day as an anniversary to commemorate why I'll never read this book again."But I think I'll just state that I think I just got post-moderned in the ass.Or I could say some wonderful things about the novel, too, of which there are many, many wonderful things, such a great and funny commentary on WAR, Operant Conditioning, Drug Fiends [...]

An Approach for Simulating Text Consistent With Gravity’s RainbowTechnical Report issued 6 July 2012 by the Simulation Lab Originating Text-based Handiwork (SLOTH)While the exact algorithm used by Pynchon (1973) to produce Gravity’s Rainbow (henceforth GR) was never documented, we contend that the method proposed in this paper is, on average, in a repeated sampling context, observationally equivalent. As is true of any simulation, there is a deterministic component and a random component. Si [...]

First off, a song: this was supposedly influenced by Gravity's Raibow. HA!This one's for you Slothrop & Bodine (I had no idea that there actually were zoot suit riots! Everything I've learned, I've learned from reading books. Crappy public school education)Where to begin?! Regarding the creation of this novel, it has been said, “ Pynchon sequestered himself in a room, writing the novel out by hand, filling sheet after sheet of graph paper with the precise script of an Engineer. Perched ato [...]

This might be my favorite novel. I read it over the course of around three months, on my fourth attempt, when I was living in Tallinn, Estonia. Something about residence in a very small European country heightens one's sense of the absurd. I would bring it to lunch at the bars where I dined and start crying into my club sandwich when the book was sad and laughing into my kebabs when it was funny (which is nearly always) and there are a lot of bartenders who probably thought I was crazy.The first [...]

I think reading and reviewing this book requires taking on some extra baggage because itwell, I don't actually need to explain why or else Gravity’s Rainbow wouldn't have this baggage in the first place. It's Gravity's Rainbow, and that makes me feel like I need to read it, preferably without thinking too much about why exactly I feel this way. But at the same time I feel like I should avoid it so I don't look like a damn hairdo, which I'm told is British slang for someone who “tries too har [...]

El arco iris de gravedad es de esa clase de obras que son capaces de llegar a lugares que la ficción convencional no puede ni imaginar. No esperen una relación fría, vaga y simple que solo nos exija un mínimo de concentración y una dosis mísera de participación. Con la ficción pynchoniana, se conforma una especie de reciprocidad entre el lector y el escritor que tiende a agarrarnos por la fuerza y empujarnos hacia un viaje que se puede tornar demasiado intenso. En un libro de Pynchon, no [...]

There is no doubt that Pynchon is a brilliant writer. His ability to expound in detail on diverse and difficult topics is incredible (especially for the pre-Internet era), as is the intricacy of the plot: full of interconnecting references, allusions, metaphors on top of metaphors - Gravity’s Rainbow is truly a virtuoso performance. To read it is to be swept away on a wild ride through Pynchon’s imagination, unbridled by form or convention. The entire enterprise seems to defy the rational la [...]

Review of Gravity's RainbowBrilliant, Frustrating, Falls Short of Greatness, and not for the Faint of Heart I don't usually use images in my reviews. But this review screamed for one.Several caveats for anyone attempting to read this.1. You most likely won't get through it on your first attempt. I didn't.2. Reading this is a project! The book is nearly 800 pages, and pretty convoluted. It's like reading Joyce's "Ulysses" (although I think "Ulysses" is the better book). You need to allocate more [...]

I tried sixty-nine pages for the purposes of the Group Read (a Group Read of Gravity’s Rainbow on —a GR of GR on GR, or GR3) but tentatively closed the novel thenceforth. My first thought (I am an intellectual) was WTF?! This has over twenty five-star ratings on the first page?! Then I had to concede I simply don’t like Pynchon’s writing style, period. William raised this point in his review of The Tunnel—you’re helpless against an author’s crystalline prose if you simply can’t s [...]

I am considering giving myself five stars for finishing it. It has taken me forever, and I dropped it for other, less infuriating books over and over again. At some point, when I was over 500 pages into the story (if you can call it a story), I decided that I had to finish it, simply to have it off my to-read-shelf. I have struggled with books before: Ulysses is not easy, neither is Marcel Proust or Dante's Commedia. But this was different. I could not find enough valuable stuff in it to justify [...]

GR is a cult rite of passage. You have literary aspirations? Want a literary badge of honour? Voila. Expire Perspire aspire on this. So the bon ton do. And having circumnavigated this literary Everest, victorious, but a little delirious and oxygen deprived, the finish liners now take positions for a whole new battle. The Battle of the Bulge, PoMo style. The trenches are drawn, and to the left of the house we have the Disbelievers, the Lost, the ones who just ‘don’t get it’. To the right: t [...]

Recipient of my 2017 "Rod of Priapus"For Artsy Outside (Book Jacket Design) covering Multiple Scenes of an Overly Gratuitous Quantity of Vile, Lascivious and Highly Perverted Sex WithinFine Art Painting of Priapus, Minor Greek god of fertility and male genitaliaFine Art Sculpture of Priapus, currently on view at Boston Museum of Fine ArtI Am Obviously a Simple Man, Surely I'm Sickened*More PSA/Editorial than Review: Should You Read this Without Nauseation, You May Disregard ItWarning: I've sanit [...]

Disclaimer 1) I am skeptical of disclaimers because I am a painfully aware of self-as-persona, authorial presence. Disclaimer 2) I willingly admit that I have no idea what the hell I just read.Disclaimer 3) I did not read this with a companion text, [if that's totally prerequisite for enjoyment then, really?] though I did find myself occasionally using the Pynchon Wiki, and googTranslate. Disclaimer 4) This was my first read and a re-read has already been scheduled. Will probably Vineland and lo [...]

1 star for readers who require things like "plot" and "accessibility" in their books — silly readers!2 stars for readers who just don't "get it".3 stars for readers who probably also don't get it, but would rather not infuriate 1-star and 5-star readers by rating too low or too high.4 stars for readers who value writing over narrative, plus more erections (both literal and figurative) than you can shake a stick at.5 stars for TRUE masochists and/or readers who may just wish to appear hipper/sm [...]

Thomas Pynchon is like someone who talks to himself far too much and always in blustering major chords. As such he is rather exhausting. On the other hand about half of what he says is enthralling so at the end of the day he is worth the effort. There are dozens of radiant and exhilarating vignettes in Gravity’s Rainbow. I’ve just done the English sweets scene which was splendid though there’s the obligatory slipshod lack of editing: “his tongue a hopeless holocaust” – is that “hop [...]

"Be sick," is the advice I got on reading Gravity's Rainbow. "Be sick and bedridden and read the whole thing through with no interruptions, and when you're done, flip back to page one and do the whole thing again."And I get it: that would indeed be a good way to understand this drunken maelstrom of a book. But I don't care enough about it to do that, and also I don't get sick very often, so I was forced to just muddle through. Have I unlocked its many secrets? I have not. I can't tell you what G [...]

Gravity's Rainbow is a rocket launched into the zenith of the literary sky…Gravity's Rainbow is picaresque, enigmatic, obscene and labyrinthine. It is all things postmodern tumbled in the huge motley heap.They say that amongst the more than four hundred of characters in the novel there is no protagonist. Well, there is a protagonist: it is the ominous SG-00000 rocket – an epicenter of evil, a mysterious artifact Tyrone Slothrop is looking for, but it hides from us until the end of the book.� [...]

It took me a couple of tries to make it through Pynchon's Great Thing; the first time I began it eagerly enough, only to smash headfirst into an impenetrable wall of thick, viscous prose that so entangled and bewildered me that—after some seventy-odd pages—I said Enough! and moved on. However, the book nibbled away at my mind, and about three weeks later I gave it another try. Determined this time to see it through, I hit the ground running to match pace with A screaming comes across the sky [...]

Reading Gravity’s Rainbow is like being dragged through a wide array of emotions, forcefully. One page you could almost be puking in disgust, the next page you might be marveling at the beautiful writing, and the next page after that you might have an aha moment, revealing a layer of humanity that you were never able to express yourself. And sometimes you just laugh uncontrollably, because Pynchon is hilarious.Pynchon takes us through a world in which everything and nothing is connected. Force [...]