Where do I start with him? Is there a flow chart? I own GR, TCoL49, M&D, and Vineland

Where do I start with him? Is there a flow chart? I own GR, TCoL49, M&D, and Vineland.

V. -> Lot 49 -> GR -> M&D

The other ones aren't worth it

what about ATD?

Half is up to snuff, the other drags. If Pynchon's your boy, I'd say it's maybe worth it, but I'd just reccomend moving on to other postmodern lit at that point.

Start with Lot 49 because not only will it give you a succinct taste of the essence of Pynchon, but it's also very short so you don't have to invest much, and it's the most-read Pynchon book. After that you can read V. if you like or go straight to GR, because, honestly, nothing prepares you for GR. I do recommend reading V. at some point though. After GR you can go anywhere. And yes, they are worth it.

Lot 49 is his best. this board views length and difficulty as synonyms for quality. read V. first if you're reading his first three.

Why?
What makes him so good?

Based on how he is spoken about here, and excerpts, it just seems like lulsorandom and protomemes?

Yes, here.

Forgot to add, if you make it to GR and can only find a penguins classic edition (as they are seemingly the most ubiquitous) the litmus test to see if your copy is error ridden is to see if the last sentence of pg 139 is sensical or not, in the misprints there is an entire clause omitted leaving a nonsense sentence fragment.

Read him and find out. And if you still don't get it read some academic stuff on him.

>This
Then maybe W. Gass or W. Gaddis

>Can't articulate what makes a writer good
>Recommends reading academic literary criticism to "find out" why he is good
You sound like the worlds biggest pseud, t-b-h.

TCoL49 is just a glorified wacky mystery novella with some basic symbolism attached for that sweet "high-brow" cred.

It always feels like the Simpsons writers are trying to seem snoody when they include a writer who only has cultclasses to his name

>wants a succinct explanation of what makes a writer "good" instead of actually reading them
ok

What's the difference between Will G. and Will G.?

They're different people

His best books know how to alternate between bullshiting you, dazzling you woth technique and actually telling a story in a way that still keeps you drawed in.

I'll rephrase: what's the difference between their respective work? They both get memed on here, but I don't have a sense of who is better to start with, what literary traditions they follow/expand upon, their subject matter and style, etc.

Gaddis pretty much invented literary postmodernism. Gass is a little more Joycean in his language, but his first book, Omensetter's Luck is a great read.

Thanks, this helps. I'm doing a bit of research on their main works and inserting them into my queue.

Out of curiosity, where do the Will G's lie in terms of "difficulty" (meaning opaqueness of prose)? On a scale of Pynchon (being very readable, albiet perhaps dense or obscure) to McElroy (being next to fucking impossible to subvocalize )?

Start with the first book he published and continue in chronological order.

This is the optimal path for 99% of writers so I don't know why people ask this question so often.

Gaddis is on the Pynchon side of things, maybe even a bit less dense. J R can throw you for a loop at first because the text is made up completely of unattributed dialogue, but it's easy enough to get into.

As for Gass, Omensetter's Luck is pretty approachable, but The Tunnel wore me out quick. Very verbally indulgent in the McElroy/Barth sense.

Is it just me or does Lot 49 really suck? I loved V, and Inherent Vice, but something about Lot 49 just seems like he's trying way too hard to be clever without setting up a decent story first.

I find Pychon easy to start hating, but no.

>without setting up a decent story first.

Inherent Vice doesn't have a 'decent story' either, I thought that was a common thing in Pynchon's writing.

Pynchon himself hates 49 and considers it his weakest work

Sauce?

he says it in Slow Learner somewhere, don't have the exact quote