So does anyone else have no idea what the fuck is going on like 65% of the time

There is a pretty plot-guide on the internet, ottosell or something like that
There is also the GR wiki with covers lots of the refernces
protip: it all makes sense at the "end", not gonna ruin the surprise 4u tho, but you might not get it at first
Regardless of all that, it still doesn't make sense, at least not in the regular way
Just read it faggot

Gave a shot a few years ago while I was trying to work through the "classics" section at the library. Honestly could only make it to pg500. It is a good story, but sometimes Pynchon just goes off the rail. But this summer I will lay it to rest

after a while you kind of get the hang of it? i tried to read this book last summer, gave up, came back to it a couple months later and then read it in a couple of weeks. once you start to get a sense of the book's places/character maps, and get used to pynchon's style, it starts to make more sense.

If you have no idea most of the time, then something is wrong. Take it slow. There were probably three sections in the beginning where I had no idea what was going on, mainly because of the lack of context with new characters. Use the ottosell guide linked below.
Don't stress over the Pynchon wiki, it's mainly just for references, which rarely help with understanding things on the basic level.
When the passages get dense and strange just try to visualize what is being described.
Also, some things might not "make sense" but that doesn't mean you didn't understand what happened. Knowing what's going on while reading is the important thing, and is not the same as understanding the big picture, which will be assembled as you read.
Things get easier after part one.
ottosell.de/pynchon/rainbow.htm

I'm about 110 pages in and I've understood everything, well at least at the level of discerning what's going on.
Just take it slow, it's also better if this isn't the first Pynch that you read. I read two of his less complicated novels before starting GR.

That's not true, shit Pynchon's repeating himself half the time to make sure the point gets across

Never knew about this, cheers

http.yahoo.com how to access the "web"

Don't be a pleb. Read it blind the first time, then re-read it with the proper research done.

The Pynchon wiki has a good summary of the references (and holy shit are there a lot of them).

Damn, Mcelroy really is full of shit. I feel like an idiot /pol/tard or /x/tard could come at GR and understand it and explain it better.

does nobody have a link to that Pynchon biography? It really helps clarify some things in GR and is apparently the primary source since everything else I come across regarding his history looks to have been sourced from that book.

I didn't have any problem knowing what was going on, it was difficult figuring out why. It all seemed so unimportant to me. All the shit swimming and daughter fucking just didn't do anything for me.

>get used to pynchon's style
Is Pynchon's style consistent throughout all of his work? I had read The Crying of Lot 49 a long time ago and from what I remembered I liked it, but I recently tried Bleeding Edge and couldn't get through half of it. It read like the writing of an hysterical teen girl who kept blabbing on about pop culture. Hopefully I'll be able to try Gravity's Rainbow soon, but Bleeding Edge really... surprised me.