When does T. Pynchon get good?

I have read Inherent Vice twice and just finished V and both were disappointments of which I got nothing out of.

What book should I choose for last chance?

>of which I got nothing out of.

Go for Mason & Dixon next. It's the only Pynchon novel I like.

how so? different user, but i have struggled with finding humanity in Pynchon's work thus far. Some sort of beating heart on the other side is missing for me when I have read him, so carefully hidden behind gags and heavy engineer jargon. I keep wishing for something more than gimmicks to relate to, and oddly enough the word sincerity flows through my mind.

Have you read other works of his than MD? do you get what i'm saying, and does MD solve that problem? if not, I may postpone his work until I have read some of the others I have lined up. I am currently stalled on GR, just fucking around before i decide to nut up and finish it off. I just stopped enjoying the rhythm, stopped even giving a shit about the rocket. I wonder if Pynchon is just not for me.

If you struggled finding humanity in V., for example, that's probably partially because a major theme of the novel is dehumanization.

But Mason & Dixon is largely a story of friendship, so I doubt you'll have much trouble finding humanity in it.

not the same user, the lack of humanity was in GR, but the same can be said of my experiences with V. I just think I need to read someone other than pynchon for a while. I just don't think I like his work. I'm probably just a pleb, but I'm just not enjoying this.

I'll just come back later. There's no hurry. Besides, I change as a man, and will perhaps grow accustomed to the world Pynchon writes.

I don't particularly look out for themes, but so far the two books have just been whacky hijinks to me and I'm not impressed by his prose or sprawling storytelling.

I guess there's times when recommendations by Veeky Forums just aren't for you. I never liked these types of novels.. pulp/detective like stuff. Inherent Vice was hell for me to get through.

well, neither V. nor GR feel or felt like pulp detective novels whatsoever. rather, seperate stories tied together loosely with central themes, fading interest as technical jokes and jargon floods the page, waiting for some shred, some anchor, but nothing, everything is all jangling, all the time. closure is not to be had. hell, even the idea of closure is silly.
I've read difficult works, never claim to understand them, but never had such trouble with them. either this is a different type of difficulty, or genuinely a wall made of my own bristling dislike. I have nothing against pynchon personally, but my entertainment from his work only goes so far. I doubt that's important to a man of his stature, but i think it says it all, for me, from me, to know that I in no way wish to emulate any aspect of Pynchon's work. every other author in some way ormanother has had some quality I desperately wished to mimic (all of the ones worth a damn, after my childhoo)
I want nothing to do with Pynchon's model of literature.
Maybe Mason & Dixon will be different, I plan to find out, and put it to rest woth some confidence in its finality. No longer will I hem and haw over whether or not I enjoy Pynchon. I will know, and for no one but myself. I don't Know why I give the man so many chances. Maybe because I like the man, I think he's a bizarre and interesting character, straight from one of his books. He probably isn't even real and this is as pointless as anything else I've endeavoured to surmount.

I just didn't personally like Inherent Vice at all, due to dislike of detective novels, noir films, everything about that subculture.

I'm interested in your otake on IJ, if you happened to read it

The Crying of Lot 49

thank me later

i only read about three hundred pages, maybe less. i was annoyed that his voice was no different than the one in my own mind. no signature, no music, something that i notice the greats subsisting on. accents coming without symbols or fatiguing transformations of words, some voice, calling through. DFW had none of that i could find. I intend to return to his work fairly soon, I wonder more at myself as of late and how skittish I am with reading, how fearful I am to read something I can't see any gain from. It's a fickle thing, I know so little of what I want, I simply must have it, though.

DFW I am sure is skilled in many ways but I did not particularly see what all the fuss is about. I just can't hear his voice.
Maybe he didn't want one, or didn't have one, I even entertained the idea that his voice was mine, and he intended to remove all traces of his own voice from his writing. I think perhaps that is credit I am loath to give him. I know it's a petty complaint, but for me, without that voice, it is near impossible for me to desire to or force myself to read.

Might as well just go all in with GR

I also found his prose a bit dry, but got used to it eventually – turned out as soon as I started 'hearing' DFW's monotonous, thick 'sh'-ed voice (the same he uses, well, in interviews, lectures etc.) while reading, it clicked. The know-it-all vibes became apparent, and it kinda felt like sweeping through an encyclopedia written by a witty, I'm-14-and-depressive-albeit-I-don't-know-what-depression-really-is-yet-so-I-kinda-laugh-it-off boy.

I love Pynchon, but his characters are not realistic. He's the kind of dude who places people into these grand and overwhelming thematic demonstrations, and their humanity comes out through some kind of high desperate romance. "They were in love. Fuck the war." is about as human as it gets.

I don't really care or need human 3d characters. I like Tolkien and it doesn't include any of them (the characters represent mythological beings)

though the characterization of things itself outside of the grand hijinks is lacking but hey i'm retard so dont take my word

Yeah I'm not sure if I agree with that, but as you said...

I understand the resistance to the meme of 3d characters, however, it's something a person NEEDS after a time living in a sea of madness.
Inwas thinking more about it last night and i realized what my problem with Pynchon was. he's so encyclopaedic, so referential, so allusive, that it genuinely feels like i'm reading soke sort of non-fiction account. Only when the veneer of technical jargon or unbearably imeffable scenes falls, and a joke rises through, some vignette of the rocketman, some fib about the rats in the sewers comes through and makes you chuckle, wondering why he doesn't just write THAT shit all the time. And I know why, because his stories wouldn't be legendary, wouldn't be difficult to penetrate, there would have to be some plot connecting things that wasn't waved off in editing, waved off by the critics themselves. I just feel like I'm reading a historical document written by a madman with surprising moments of not lucidity, but rather climaxes of insanity. I imagine that pynchon is not insane, seems like a pleasant guy, but his books for me are a slog. they have their fun, but they make you pay for it, and i'm finding that it is increasingly valueless to make the trade of time to the dear man and his books.

Just push yourself to finish Gravity's Rainbow and try and understand it as best as you can. The human pulse is there but it's difficult to detect on a micro level, it's something that you recognize in the whole thing AFTER having read it.

I've tried. Three times already. I always end at the end of first page (Vintage edition, three rockets cover). It's just impenetrable to me. I got the gist of Deleuze and Guattari easier.


t. Op

but im gonna try again i guess.

At least get to the banana breakfast

this is good

No I am physically and mentally incapable of continuing past page 1 of GR so far.

idk why im such a brainlet white trash i should kys myself desu

I wish I didn't bother reading this thread knowing now how much of a loser OP is. This is honestly as close to pathetic as I am willing to apply that word to...

It's just a fuggin book.

but dude I get locked at the end of the first page like fuck how do I turn the page what fucking scream

I'll be done soon enough. It's not so bad that I hate it by any means, but I don't find much joy in his work. I will be happy to be done with it.

>unironically discussing books on Veeky Forums

the guy has a point. i shouldn't have been involved in this thread. i feel that i have dishonored this board. forgive me, everyone.

>at least get to chapter 2
hey now dont set the bar too high

Finished Finnegans Wake like 5 months and now every other book is easy mode. GR is a cakewalk so far, 200 pages in. Gotta grind some XP before you take on the big bosses, guys.

Bought a nice first edition copy of Gravity's Rainbow (for cheaper than expected) without having read any other Pynchon novels. I dived straight into it and immediately could tell it was the work of a great prose writer. Still, I'm about 50 pages into it and I'm not entirely sure where it's going or what is really 'happening' in it overall.

when are we gonna talk about the jews

When your sister uploads a webm of your suicide on /gif/

I say push on until at least the conversion of the dodoes

whaddya guys think of the theory that pynchon is friends with thom yorke

If you're enjoying it, keep pressing ahead. By the time you finish part one (Beyond The Zero) and start part two (Un Perm' au Casino Hermann Goering) you should have enough mental footholds to reasonably understand what's going on.

>Still, I'm about 50 pages into it

You're about to get to the part where Slothrop crawls into a toilet and Pynchon talks about human feces for like 5 pages. I wonder if Pynchon put there near the beginning to filter out the pseuds and plebs.

unironically 2d4u

>Finnegans wake is the XP, not the final boss

FW was the final boss, now I'm just rounding up all the collectibles and doing side content only I'm so overleveled from FW that defeating the remaining enemies is trivial, almost boring. If you'll allow me to clarify my stupid analogy.

What's the "DLC-boss-that-beats-you-even-when-you-think-you-are-overleveled-and-then-beats-three-of-your-friends-at-same-time" book?

FINAL BOSSES OF LITERATURE
>All of Shakespeare (including the Sonnets you pleb)
>Ulysses
>In Search of Lost Time
>Gravity's Rainbow

OPTIONAL SUPER-BOSSES
>Finnegans Wake
>Pound's Cantos

Your diary, desu. The worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself.

And the Bible, if you counted God.