100 pages into V

100 pages into V.

How can a book be so comfy, Veeky Forums?

Finally, someone who appreciates the comfiness of this wonderfully disturbing book.. That a 24 yr old wrote it should be submitted to the Vatican as a miracle case in point.

you haven't read M&D have you?

I've read them all except the noirs

Nah, I've just read The Crying of Lot 49, Inherent Vice and now V.

I have Bleeding Edge and Gravity's Rainbow on my shelf though.

>comfy

Wait till you get to Mondaugen's Story.

I read V when I was really new to lit since the concept intrigued me. It wasn't at all like I was expecting but I'm really excited to reread it eventually. I feel like it's the kind of book you can appreciate a lot more on a reread

I know I'm stupud, but can someone tell me why Gravity's Rainbow is so good or why it was a "major literary achievement"?

I read it but I didn't understand its significance. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed most of it, Byron the Bulb most, and several passages full of insightful prose and devastating emotion. Shit, I loved a lot of passages.

But then there were segways between them I had to slog through, the goofs and gags I found annoying, etc. I found the book altogether to have been meh.

Then again, it my first Pynchon read, so once I've smarted up and have read his earlier stuff, I'll read it again.

Anyway, anybody wanna give me an answer?

Because you can read it again and again and somehow it remains saturated with interesting scenes and turn-of-phrase (in my opinion)

Despite some of the more drawn out or boring transitions, it seems like it set a new bar for what a writer could cram into a story.

It has ruined my ability to discuss fiction with normies without cringing, and turned me into more of a pretentious fuck than I already was.

I haven't read a lot, do you think I can start with Gravity's Rainbow right away? Or are there any specific books I ought to read before in order to fully appreciate it?

>It has ruined my ability to discuss fiction with normies without cringing, and turned me into more of a pretentious fuck than I already was.

Why? I think l sort of get what you're talking about, but what did GR do to make you feel that way?

Pynchon pushed his talents to the limits on GR, you can jump right into it but I guess you could read other of his works before so you can get used to him doing stuff that was easy to handle for himself.

It's the only one of his I've read more than twice. x4. I guess that makes it my favorite. I'll re-read GR again some day, and M&D-- 49 I've read twice, the rest but once. What is it about Pynchon? What's drawn me back is his verbal energy, and enormous heart. ...No one can love V., but Pynchon clearly does. What a dismantling!

I want to read V and then GR ask badly but I've just started Infinite Jest and I can't stop thinking how I would rather be reading Pynchon but also cunts post about IJ nonstop so I feel a strong need to read it. What the fuck am I doing?

IJ isn't worth reading. Just skip it.

Any "proof"? It's such a toss up between the three books, I can't tell if its a giant meme and I'm going to waste my time on it. I'm only 20 pages in and it's not bad but I feel I would likely enjoy reading Tommy's work more. I read 100 or so pages of V a year back but lost my copy, just bought a new one last week. Same with GR actually, I had been smoking too much pot at the time of reading it and wasn't feeling myself being able to retain it properly so I postponed it. I no longer really smoke so I figured the time might be now.

I disagree. Not great, but still good.

I sincerely think 'V.' is more enjoyable than 'Gravity's Rainbow.'Finish IJ, it's obviously polarizing, how do you know you wouldn't be on the "love-it" side of the schism? There's lots of time to read Pinecone's stuff too

>The eyes closed. Cammed each night out of that safe furrow the bulk of this city's waking each sunrise again set virtuously to plowing, what rich soils had he turned, what concentric planets uncovered? What voices overheard, flinders of luminescent gods glimpsed among the wallpaper's stained foliage, candlestubs lit to rotate in the air over him, prefiguring the cigarette he or a friend must fall asleep someday smoking, thus to end among the flaming, secret salts held all those years by the insatiable stuffing of a mattress that could keep vestiges of every nightmare sweat, helpless overflowing bladder, viciously, tearfully consummated wet dream, like the memory bank to a computer of the lost?

wut

Honestly you probably can't know if you would like IJ until you are at least 500 pages in. I think it starts to click for different people at different times, but once it clicks it's pretty rewarding to see the pieces you've read about come together.

I start to explain a passage about the probability of bombs falling onto a love scene between a positivist and a romanticist in Beyond the Zero, and then I realize I'm talking to people who think Ready Player One was "cool"

Feels bad, man

I started GR, but by the hundredth page put it down and eventually read Lot 49 before attempting it again

I had to read a number of other pieces of Veeky Forums canon before I felt comfortable reading it, but you should pick the up at your library and give it a go

I read IJ before GR (because, memes) and I think IJ made me appreciate GR even though GR comes off as superior

I'd rather reread IJ than any piece of normie fiction and I'm glad I can form my own opinion on it instead of having it uncracked on my bookshelf

That said, it's unjustifiably long

Entropy and Secret Integration work as a good crash course on GR

reread it