What the fuck is this shit? I'm 15 pages in and its all about bananas, panties, and tonsils. Should I keep going?

If you can make it through section one you're essentially home free. And since you're almost done with it without too much trouble you're in good shape.

haha. Tell me how well you understood the first 110 pages after finishing the book.
yea don't listen to this guy.

Beyond the zero is hard because it's mostly setup.

The second section is very easy and mostly linear.

I hear the third is very disorienting but I haven't gotten there yet.

the third part is where you realize that the first two parts were just there to trick you into thinking it was a manageable book.

This tbqh

Once Slothrop fights the octopus (middle of 2nd part, I believe?) shit starts to get really W A C K Y

I don't think this is the worst advice.

He's telling him to get a better grasp on Pynchon's writing before tackling his most difficult work.

quit psyching out the newbies dood

desu if you're having trouble in the first 100 pages you're not really going to enjoy the rest of the book

>V
>a similar narrative structure but is less complex and less daunting.
V is NOT easier, this is terrible advice

gravity rainbow is video game of literature. Terrible quirky garbage

this, just started reading the book

I expected a literary masterpiece with refined and thoughtful prose but instead it's all pirates and bananas

V is actually harder to read than Gravity's Rainbow because it's so disjointed and kind of boring, at least GR was actually consistently fun to read

I read GR as my first Pynchon and I legitmately regret it. I have since read CoL49 and V and I really wish I had read those two first. I think I would have gotten more out of GR and been more prepared for Pynchon's genuis. I will, of course, reread GR in a couple years and probably enjoy it much more.

>V is not easier
>V is boring
Seriously you guys need to reevaluate your supposed "love" of Pynchon.

Hes kind of right, GR had a point, I cant even tell you what the motivations of any of the characters was in V, I literally had no idea what the fuck was going on, in GR I sort of did

He wrote it completely out of his mind on acid. He doesn't even know what half of it means. Anyone who tells you they do is a lying tryhard. Read it if you want, but don't expect to understand it.

Pull that head out of your ass, if someone is having difficulty with the more basic aspects of GR it's senseless to direct them towards V. which has just the same pitfalls and then some.

This.

V is more difficult to follow than GR. Keep going.
user if you want some advice keep your eye on Roger Mexico and Slothrop for the start of the book. Also a harp is a harmonica, I didn't know this somehow and was confused as fuck during the Kenosha Kid chapter, which by the way is very confusing, don't sweat it.

>I cant even tell you what the motivations of any of the characters was in V,
-Stencil is looking for clues about his father but is scared of actually finding the truth
-Old Stencil is working in the interest of the realm. A true english patriot.
-Profane is just trying to survive and is probably the closest thing to an author self insert in any of Pynchon's works.
-Rachel is gradually finding out that she has a love for profane that she initially denies and begrudgingly accepts.
-Esther is insecure and looking for anything that will give her validation even if that means giving up some of her humanity.
-Paola wanted to gain entrance to the US but now wishes to return to Malta to see her father again.
-V is somewhat confusing, I'll grant, but I think she's supposed to be the enigma of the book into which we only get glimpses.

>I literally had no idea what the fuck was going on
I'm sorry about that. Maybe you didn't pay enough attention.

>reading a long-ass fiction book you didn't enjoy a 2nd time

lol

>V is more difficult to follow than GR.
Man, if this is true then I don't even understand all the fuss with GR.

I read V only once and I think it's relatively straightforward.

>Structure
You have profane (and the whole sick crew) chapters which take place in the present

then you have Stencilized chapters that often operate as short stories and have some recurring characters but are mainly they are different glimpses into what V is and stencil's father.

They basically go back and forth one at a time until the two stories are joined at the end like a V (:^o).

I'm reading GR right now and it's much less structured at least until Casino Herman Goering where it has become almost linear.

>V is somewhat confusing, I'll grant, but I think she's supposed to be the enigma of the book into which we only get glimpses.
We see a lot of V., user, there are all the "Veronicas" as well as her eponymous chapter.

Also, Pynchon spends a lot of time talking about the dichotomy between animate and inanimate. I don't think that it's a mere coincidence that by the end of the novel V. has replaced most of her body with inanimate objects. I think V. is a harbinger/ambassador/envoy for the inanimate.

>which take place in the present
You must have missed the odd chronology (not that I can explain it myself)

"I just started Gravity's Rainbow. I tried reading it once before, but this time around it's much more fun. It's a really early one, isn't it? This one seems easier to get into than V." — Thom Yorke

It's 1955 at the beginning and there are time jumps between chapters but the whole sick crew's chapters are all in sequence.

>Man, if this is true then I don't even understand all the fuss with GR.
V. and GR pose many of the same obstacles, but I found V. was much more chaotic, and page by page it was much more nebulous as to what was actually going on, i.e. who was actually narrating, was this a dream, memory, etc. For example on my first read of V. I didn't realize the 'Stencil does 8 impressions' chapter was actually Stencil reconstructing what he thought had happened based on research he had done.

And re your description of the structure, yes this much is patently clear, but the happenings within this structure are harder to see with lucidity than what happens in GR.

>V is NOT easier, this is terrible advice
IDK how many of these posts are faggots who've never been memed into reading pinecone, but V. is an easier novel to read than GR.

Well you're wrong, maybe not in the sense that I could say anything useful to dissuade you, but I've read both and found V. more challenging, and I've given my account here: I'm not asserting that everyone who reads the two will have the experience I did, but at the very least if someone cannot make sense of the first 3 chapters of GR, telling the to read V. first is just losing the plot.

>He hasn't mentioned the giant (Balkan?) amoeba monster

Are you talking about the Adenoid?

Fair enough.

I'm starting V. 40 pages in and it's a blast. Pychon, for all his wackiness, can really set up a scene. Profane sneaking up and watching Rachel grope her car was both hilarious and horrifying.

I've read 49 before, which was ambigious in it's events but has more straightforward sequencing. With Pynchon, you realize you just have to accept his freewheeling style.

I've read each twice and disagree, there are parts of V. I still can't make greater sense of

Pynchons my fav writer for sure because my fav thing in books is goofs, gags, jokes and rambunctious behavior, and his books are full to the brim of it.
Every novel is like one of those novelty snake cans, you open the book & POP you get a face fulla snakes and you fall back cackling.
The mad mind, the crack genius, to do it! and then you think hmmm whats he gonna do next, this trickster, and you pick the book back up and BZZZZZZZZZZ you get a shock and Hahahahahah you've been pranked again by the old pynchmeister, that card.
"Did that Pynch?" he says, laughing yukyukyukyuk. Watch him as he shoves a pair of plastic buck teeth right up into his mouth and displays em for you- left, right, center- "you like dese? Do i look handsome???"
Pulls out a mirror. "Ah!" Hand to naughty mouth. And you're on your ass again laughing as he snaps his suspenders, exits stage right, and appears again hauling a huge golden gong.

it's a reference from The Great Dictator where Chaplin plays Adenoid Hynkel.

Third section is pretty simple tbqh.
It's just a narrative re-construction of post-war Germany told from a couple perspectives.