M&D

For those who have read this what are your thoughts of it? Would you recommend it?

I loved it. I think because of its length it sort of dragged on before the last transit. but after that I could barely keep myself together and eventually I started tearing up as I got closer to the end. it honestly was amazing by the time I closed that book. beautifully written, funny and filled with lots of heart. it's my favorite pynch desu senpai.

THE ABSOLUTE LACK OF RESPONSES TO THIS THREAD IS FUCKING DESPICABLE. YOU FUCKING RETARDED PSEUDS FUCK JACK OFF OVER THE IDEA OF READING GRAVITY'S RAINBOW BUT YOU NIGGAS AIN'T DONE THE MATH. SOMEBODY ONCE TOLD ME THE WORLD WAS GONNA ROLL ME AND NOW THIS IS A STORY ALL ABOUT HOW MY LIFE GOT FLIPPED TURNED UPSIDE DOWN AND I'D LIKE TO TAKE A MINUTE BECAUSE WE MIGHT AS WELL BE WALKING ON THE SUN.

It's pretty good so far. I'm only on part 2 tho.

Which Pynchon is most accessible after Lot 49 and Inherent Vice? I started reading V years ago but fizzled out after 100 pages or so.

I would say mason and Dixon. it's known as the pynch book that would please your grand pappy

Sounds like it made a lot of folks cry reading it. You make it sound like a good book desu
Reddit tier humour

Good book, but tremendously overrated in this board

It's fucking great and definitely more accessible than GR so I'd recommend it over that, but this being Pinecone it's still a very difficult read.

It's also more emotional and less cerebral than GR so that might play depending on what your tastes are. The end of the book really brings the feels.

what's his best then?

I have reached pg 100 and so far i think it's his best. Simply because it is so rich with detail that i feel like a smart man after finishing even a single page.

Gravity's Rainbow, nothing comes close.

It's decent and fun but all the memers hyping it up as his best have no idea what they're on about.

My favorite book. Papa Pynchon relinquishes some of his academic distance and exposes a bit of sentimentalism. You'll probably cry at the end.

Highly recommended

it's so much fun

I honestly preferred V. to GR. Am I a pleb?

Nah, V. is highly enjoyable for different reasons than GR

I'm currently at p. 371 and I'm really enjoying it so far. Favorite parts are all the historical cameos like Washington, Franklin, Mesmer, etc. My favorite Pynchon is Gravity's Rainbow and I don't realistically foresee that changing, but what M&D does better than GR is integrating the scientific into the literary. Many of the concepts in GR, (eg "beyond the zero") assumed some prior knowledge of the topics and really just pushed you into the deep end. M&D takes what I think is a nicer approach and uses the main characters explaining themselves to other characters to also ease the reader into everything, like the transits of Venus or the basic outline of their survey.

One question I'm still thinking about. In the scene with the Learned English Dog, there's a moment where it reads "the L.E.D. blinked" or something to that effect. I laughed out loud at the pun, but I'm wondering if that was actually intentional. Were LEDs common/popular enough at the time of writing that the average reader would catch that joke?

The ending feels rushed. I liked it a lot more than gravity's rainbow. Against the day is still my favourite, though.
He seems to hit his stride after the first half of the book.

Highly reccomend it, of course.

Accessibility ranking, hardest to easiest:

Mason & Dixon
Gravity's Rainbow
Against the Day
V
Crying of Lot 49
Slow Learner
Vineland
Inherent Vice
Bleeding Edge

Against the Day is his best, in my opinion. GR is a close second, and M&D an extremely close third. They go together so well, the Big 3, and it's hard to pick one of them as his best. AtD does seem to be his most polished.

>Mason & Dixon harder than Gravity's Rainbow
Granted, I haven't finished M&D yet, but there's no way this is true. The only really difficult thing about it is the style of the prose, which you get used to pretty quickly. After that it's about on par with Lot 49 or V.

I'm reading V. right now. What's the deal with the chapters where Stencil goes off on his "impressions?" I thought it was only in that one particular chapter but it's happening again.

Why do you think Against the Day is so underrated?

Not guy you're replying to (I'm the one he was replying to) but I really don't know. I think it's because people read gravity's rainbow first. Against the day is his best book. It has the most interesting story (even though it drags a bit at the beggining of part 4) and he polishes and perfects a lot of his favourite themes.

In the end, I think it's more well written but the story is what does it for me. Gravity's rainbow's story is just not that interesting, in my opinion.

The 'Stencil, a quick change artist ...' chapter is just young (Herbert) Stencil formulating what putatively happened based on his research, and various intersecting accounts that he's discovered.

What's the other chapter you're talking about? The painting (The Birth of Venus IIRC) heist is actually set contemporaneously with the heist. Stencil's dad (Stanley, I think is his name) is in some of the historical chapters, perhaps you're conflating the two characters?

Pretty impenetrable in all honesty, very rewarding though, I'm doing a second reading - slowly this time. I had a
>what did he mean by this?
moment every paragraph.
I remember starting it, those twins were called Pliny and Pitt, and I was like what the fuck and then in the shower the next day I was like "sheeeit".
really makes you think desu.
>There's this Jesuit, this Corsican, and this Chinaman, and they're all riding in a greeat Cooach, going up to Bath

Mason & Dixon really isn't that hard.

It's because 'GR' is honestly not that difficult of a read. I was semi apprehensive about the endeavor of reading it because of its putative reputation, then I actually cracked into it and found it to be barely any more difficult than 'V.' They both pose similar obstacles/pitfalls due to style, unorthodox diction, and structure, but nothing insurmountable with some genuine conscious attention/focus, and the plethora of online resources. I honestly found 'J R', 'The Sound and the Fury', etc to be more difficult.

It's my favorite book. If you are considering it just read it. If you are not experienced with Pynchon go into it expecting a challenge and use the wiki and a dictionary. Have fun, it's a wonderful ride. The only con is that when your finished you will be severely depressed.

I agree with what that guy said, but I also think it's too long for most people. Reading reviews, most of the criticism is that it isn't tightly plotted and there's too many characters. It's almost as if these critics had never read Pynchon before. It's getting more and more popular, though, as more and more Pynchon fans finally get to, and finish, it. It's amazing. A masterpiece in every way. It's also his most human; I got misty eyed multiple times throughout the book, and genuinely cared for the characters. It seems like Pynchon was trying to fit everything into one last book, and it's clear he has mastered every technique and style by this point.

I haven't read JR yet, but I thought The Recognitions was more difficult than GR. Though I did read The Recognitions first, so perhaps I was a better reader by the time I read GR.

pleb detected. I read J R, mason and the sound. I would say mason was the hardest to get used to. J R is just dialogue which is really easy to follow because of the fleshed out characters HOLY. the sound and the fury is easy as fuck because of the italics.

>pleb detected
>Mason & Dixon hard to get used to

I like this post

>pleb detected
>Doesn't use the oxford comma

>the sound and the fury is easy as fuck
The italics aren't even used consistently you shiest, they only sometimes are present for major temporal shifts. I respect your spurious appraisal of "easy as fuck", Benji's chapter is universally regarded as difficult and simply noticing that sometimes Faulkner signifies these shifts with italics isn't the main obstacle to be surmounted in the first chapter. To name one other obstacle, everyone in the family has the same fucking name, and unless you looked on online while reading it there is no way you could have known about the male and female Quentins on the first couple name drops,

Favorite novel I've read

Once you get used to the style Mason & Dixon is actually pretty approachable. The most intimidating aspect of it is the fact that it's a doorstopper.

What do you guys think of this cover?

a lot of it didnt stick with me but id still say i really liked it

the parts i do remember were amazing

How do you make sure you're getting all the references and stuff? Do I need to buy a guide with it?

Every Stencil chapter follows the same format as the first one. You're not seeing what actually happened in those times and places but Stencil's interpretations of it.

you get what you get
and then you read it years later and you get more

It's Veeky Forums. Though the "son & xon" cover is incredibly iconic and I distinctly have remembered seeing it way before I even heard of Pynchon and Veeky Forums

Fuck, I guess I'm an idiot.

The 'She Hangs on the Western Wall' chapter isn't following Stencil Sr around in the first person?

What clicked about Pitt and Pliny? Am I missing something obvious?

i'm reading it right now, it's hard at times because i'm not an english speaker but the plot is not hard to follow, i find the pynchon wiki very useful

masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/

i'm at chapter 18 and i can't see any "meaning" though, maybe i'm just stupid but up until now it's a nice story

maybe someone could help me out in this aspect?

Pynchon was at some point an engineer and most likely kept informed but LEDs were already common by that point.

You won't. It's not been as thoroughly analysed as GR anyway (yet), just read.

i sincerely hope you don't read Pynchon is any third world "language"