Pynchon probably fw Kanye

Crying of Lot 49 is one of my favourite works of fiction, first time I read it I finished it in one night, what a thrilling story!

Mason and Dixon is up next first Pynchon novel. Dove into Wallace head first with IJ and didn’t really have a problem. The universe is just pulling me to Pynchon and I’m stoked

Don’t really think you’re supposed to tbh.

When it comes to older books I read them as the people of the time would have, they wouldn’t have had access to the internet or anything, and likely wouldn’t go out of their way to try and find out what every little thing meant through exhaustive manual research.

I agree just my curiosity gets the best of me at times especially when I feel I’m not fully grasping the book. Interpreting art naturally without influence or preconceptions is always the best 100 percent of the time

The only outside a***ysis that I typically do is maybe read up on the history of whatever was occurring when the book was written because that can often times inform a lot of what it’s about or alluding to.

Luckily a lot of newer editions of books typically refer to background info like that in the foreword (alongside maybe brief biographical descriptions of the writer), especially in translated works.

That’s typically the big disconnect that can affect comprehension, the changing of times.

Interesting first Pynchon novel. Stylistically it’s very different from his others, as it aims to replicate the style of the time period, but it’s definitely great. A lot of people think it’s his best.

I’ve been meaning to get to it, how does it compare to GR in terms of complexity and general incomprehension?

Is it as esoteric, or is it generally a smoother read?

I thought M&D was more difficult because of the syntax.

I’m super excited. I ended up reading Crying Lot first while I was getting through another book and I pretty much zoomed through it. I liked it but I definitely feel like it was a novel very in the moment. Just really couldn’t relate to the satire all that much due to the era it was satirizing. I understood it and got the jokes but didn’t really land for me. Still a good book though. Starting M&D in a few weeks.

Hell yeah, lemme know what you think!

Hope he gets the Nobel prize Ana puts out at least one more piece of writing

most difficult to read books ever. I've tried gravitys rainbow, gave up after around 120 pages, idk i definitely like the themes, maybe after watching a movie or series or anything about it I can easier read it. Not sure about the other books but I think GR is one of his most complex ones.

Infinite Jest is definitely a similiar difficult read, but that one I have read. Very dry passages throughout the book, you have to actually fight with the book on the footnotes as well, definitely worth read.

Again all those have inspirations on brothers karamazov which is the most philosophical of all, but I think I love TBK the most out of all books ive read and I can say that I didn't understand many passages because of no context reading ( iwas younger too). Definitely the one book to read in your life time, damn

I'm almost done with part 2 in Gravitys Rainbow this book is ridiculously good. Work life balance sucks because this book is consuming me. My girlfriend isn’t happy either but god damn this s*** is too good

Gravity’s Rainbow damn near got me into the mind of a poop fetishist, book is amazing. Love how it tells you a bunch of incomprehensible s***, but as it goes on, you realize there’s semi-logical reasons for everything.

Incredibly rewarding of your patience

Now everybody -

Finished GR yesterday. And I think it’s fair to say it is the greatest American novel atm. Definitely in the 20th century.

I have no words. I am speechless. Loved it.

I read Lot 49 for a post-moderinst lit class. Good times

Congrats man, it's such a journey and so rewarding.

I've been pausing Against the Day for months at this point. I'm at the beginning of the final section. Finishing up Heat 2 and then gonna dive back in.

such a beautiful journey. Loved every second. Took me a little over 4 weeks. One weekend I blasted through almost 200 pages lol if I didn’t have a girlfriend or job I would have binged it.

Against the day looks and sounds like a gnarly beast. I bought a pretty nice used hardback copy at a used book store and it’s a f***in heavy weight for sure.

You got this

Part of me just doesn't want it to end. It's the last of his three massive books that I've read and it's been such an amazing experience.

Once I'm done with this I've just got V, Vineland and his short stories. Maybe he'll publish one more before he's done.

It's hard to compare it to Gravity's Rainbow, they're very different books. But I'm sure you'd love it. But Gravity's Rainbow is just one of those books that feels limitless. I think about it all the time still.

Really enjoyed getting into his stuff in college but his work is so complex I honestly haven’t had the time since starting grad school

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lothrop_Stoddard

was just stumbling on this name researching eugenics (after finding out Japan practiced it after WWII till '96..)

gotta be the inspiration for Slothrop right

Mason and dixon unbelievable payoff at the end. Made me cry.

Against the day is next

I knew about the WW2 stuff but til 96??

Do you have any links on that?