You wondered if Trainspotting ripped off Slothrop climbing into the toilet bowl. You were tickled by the custard pie battle with Major Marvy. The sadomasochistic defecation moment made you puke whilst giving you an erection. Among many other things
you’ve become preoccupied by the notion of true statelessness and might start microdosing Slothrop’s mindset and experiences in an attempt to feel the Earth move beneath your feet, but your increasing, yes, ~*~*paranoia*~*~ will eventually lead you back to a thick-bordered consensus reality, where you can at least celebrate your own nondisintegration
over drinks at the bar. Embarrassingly I hit post too soon.
The book is great and made me want to move to Europe. I still do. I felt and feel like at least half of it went over my head and I utterly failed to form any sort of big picture aside from the, ahem, arc of the book itself, which of course in many ways parallels the arc of the rocket and ends in a dissolutive explosion. I forget if he overtly calls that arc (or a visualized sum of all potential arcs) “gravity’s rainbow” in the text, but I did get excited when I made the connection. You can think all this too, if you’d like.
I kind of want to get into Pynchon because I like encyclopedic/grandiose/experimental writing, but everything I know about him also makes him seem super dated and tied to a particular time. He’s all about that particular blend of cold war paranoia and early post-war American culture that feels kind of cringe in retrospect and that you’d have to be a boomer to fully appreciate. That’s my impression after reading none of his work, anyway.
>He’s all about that particular blend of cold war paranoia
Def not. The paranoia in lot 49 is justified and the paranoia in GR isn't paranoia, in the story it is all fake, he is being set up, and it's been going on his whole life.
>early post-war American culture
in the sense of gr being heavily influenced by war movies, sure, for example:
i don't think boomers are too familiar with black and white ww2 movies that's more of the silent generation's jam... lindy hopping and kenosha kidding and foxtrotting? DFW was a baby boomer, dawg.
i like that chart, too many people jump into GR and complain they don't get it immediately. good description of the "paranoia" in GR- the fact that it's been going on since he was Baby Tyrone is important but not discussed enough. i would also add that the paranoia in 49 is justified *most of the time* but not always, which makes the reader paranoid, in a sense. we (the reader) have to sort it all out, like oedipa, and like maxwell's demon
in lot 49 where does the conspiracy become hallucination? obviously pierce is fricking with her via metzger, having told him oedipa won't be 'easy' and having coordinated with the local tv station to play the movie he was in—AND they bang it up by playing it out of order, or something...
San Francisco though is probably hallucination? Right? Or
2 years ago
Anonymous
my guess is that san francisco is largely hallucination, yes, and because the book ends before we definitively get any resolution, i think it's implied the mystery doesn't, or rather cannot, end. which means, no matter what is hallucination and what is conspiracy, both always exist as possibilities that we have to sort through. some things are clearly one or the other (most likely...) but the reader still has to make the decision, it's not in the text, which is the point i think.
>it's been going on since he was Baby
nah
how not?
2 years ago
Anonymous
he was used in an experiment once and wiped clean and that's it, no further questions.
You wondered if Trainspotting ripped off Slothrop climbing into the toilet bowl. You were tickled by the custard pie battle with Major Marvy. The sadomasochistic defecation moment made you puke whilst giving you an erection. Among many other things
Thanks! What about the lightbulb part?
byron was absolute kino
loved it. walked around my apartment muttering 'what now slothrop' for a week after finishing it
you’ve become preoccupied by the notion of true statelessness and might start microdosing Slothrop’s mindset and experiences in an attempt to feel the Earth move beneath your feet, but your increasing, yes, ~*~*paranoia*~*~ will eventually lead you back to a thick-bordered consensus reality, where you can at least celebrate your own nondisintegration
over drinks at the bar. Embarrassingly I hit post too soon.
The book is great and made me want to move to Europe. I still do. I felt and feel like at least half of it went over my head and I utterly failed to form any sort of big picture aside from the, ahem, arc of the book itself, which of course in many ways parallels the arc of the rocket and ends in a dissolutive explosion. I forget if he overtly calls that arc (or a visualized sum of all potential arcs) “gravity’s rainbow” in the text, but I did get excited when I made the connection. You can think all this too, if you’d like.
thx
never finished rainbow.
but now im reading CATCH22
and i too specifically came here to ask a question: what to do?
I kind of want to get into Pynchon because I like encyclopedic/grandiose/experimental writing, but everything I know about him also makes him seem super dated and tied to a particular time. He’s all about that particular blend of cold war paranoia and early post-war American culture that feels kind of cringe in retrospect and that you’d have to be a boomer to fully appreciate. That’s my impression after reading none of his work, anyway.
>He’s all about that particular blend of cold war paranoia
Def not. The paranoia in lot 49 is justified and the paranoia in GR isn't paranoia, in the story it is all fake, he is being set up, and it's been going on his whole life.
>early post-war American culture
in the sense of gr being heavily influenced by war movies, sure, for example:
i don't think boomers are too familiar with black and white ww2 movies that's more of the silent generation's jam... lindy hopping and kenosha kidding and foxtrotting? DFW was a baby boomer, dawg.
i like that chart, too many people jump into GR and complain they don't get it immediately. good description of the "paranoia" in GR- the fact that it's been going on since he was Baby Tyrone is important but not discussed enough. i would also add that the paranoia in 49 is justified *most of the time* but not always, which makes the reader paranoid, in a sense. we (the reader) have to sort it all out, like oedipa, and like maxwell's demon
in lot 49 where does the conspiracy become hallucination? obviously pierce is fricking with her via metzger, having told him oedipa won't be 'easy' and having coordinated with the local tv station to play the movie he was in—AND they bang it up by playing it out of order, or something...
San Francisco though is probably hallucination? Right? Or
my guess is that san francisco is largely hallucination, yes, and because the book ends before we definitively get any resolution, i think it's implied the mystery doesn't, or rather cannot, end. which means, no matter what is hallucination and what is conspiracy, both always exist as possibilities that we have to sort through. some things are clearly one or the other (most likely...) but the reader still has to make the decision, it's not in the text, which is the point i think.
how not?
he was used in an experiment once and wiped clean and that's it, no further questions.
>it's been going on since he was Baby
nah
Mind's a sweet shambles, but lots of energy to pace around and gaze out some window for long stretches
Here's what I think:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B4M98NTH
Why don't you make a real thread?