Pynchon

>entertaining
>intellectullulz
>""
Really made me consider your opinion

I just finished COL49. I don't get it. So she wanted an adventure and then went kinda crazy?

Yeah you got it, the message, is don't go wanting adventures, kids! Or something about meaning and paranoia

I just got V. and CoL49. Read GR a bunch of times; M&D twice. Didn't realize V. was so popular. Why's it so good?

M&D > ATD >>>> GR >> V (debut) >>> BE = IV = TCOL49 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> V (Vineland)

Mason & Dixon is unironically the great american novel
ATD is my personal favourite though, I have a soft spot for the turn of the century

Don't get the wrong idea, it's still rough, but has stand-out moments and is probably getting points for having been written as his first book and for the ways in which it leads to GR

its where he starts his habit of beautiful prose poems

I am the twentieth century. I am the ragtime and the tango; sans-serif, clean geometry. I am the virgin's-hair whip and the cunningly detailed shackles of decadent passion. I am every lonely railway station in every capital of Europe. I am the Street, the fanciless buildings of government. the cafe-dansant, the clockwork figure, the jazz saxophone, the tourist-lady's hairpiece, the fairy's rubber breasts, the travelling clock which always tells the wrong time and chimes in different keys. I am the dead palm tree, the Negro's dancing pumps, the dried fountain after tourist season. I am all the appurtenances of night.

I think a big factor is the order in which you've read his work. A review on amazon pointed out how the first time reading V was semi-entertaining the first read, but quickly became his favorite after 3 other re-reads.

That I can see. Didn't care much for M&D first time probably because I had read GR so many times

Wait really? Like, this book was about how we should just accept life as a bland series of burka ties and then cheat on our lovers?!

INherent 420

I might swap M&D with GR, Bleeding Edge with CoL49, and haven't read Against the Day yet, but this is roughly the truth

Tyrone... easy on the Kenosha

>Reading Pynchon for the message

Then, what do I read for?

Plot, entertainment, prose. I really don't think his novels even have a message. How can you find one in all that mess?

This answer here was actually meant for this guy

I'd move Against the Day above V., otherwise this is fucking spot on.

I feel if we were ranking on a purely entertainment basis Inherent Vice and ATD would be higher.

Fair. I'm used to reading then having some deeper meaning. Where should I goto now? I liked CL49, I just expected a conclusion.

any. whatever book sounds most interesting to you. I went to AtD after reading CoL49

All I've read is V. Am I ready for Gravity's Rainbow? If not, what next? (I know the chart says CoL49 next but seeing it consistently ranked so low and knowing he made it for some quick money makes it not interesting to me)

Lot 49 is still entertaining enough. Going in with low expectations, you wouldn't be disappointed. You don't need to read it before GR though.

People who don't rate Against the Day as his best haven't a clue. It's his best, followed, admittedly closely, by Mason & Dixon.

The Crying of Lot 49 gets a respectable third. Vineland is fourth, followed by Inherent Vice. V. next, and then Bleeding Edge at the bottom. One might argue V. is his worst, though.

I haven't read Gravity's Rainbow yet so I don't know, but I'm willing to bet it either surpasses Against the Day or is very close to it like Mason & Dixon. Go for either of the latter ones and you will not be disappointed.

In this order
>Mason & Dixon
>Gravity's Rainbow
>Against the Day
>V.
>Crying of Lot 49
>Inherent Vice
Haven't read Vineland or Bleeding Edge yet

Dang, why is Crying so low on everyone's list?

I suggest you to read TCoL49 right before GR to get in the mood. V. is much more "down-to-the-ground" and less trippy if compares to TCoL49, and reading the latter might help you to get into the style. It's a very entertaining novella and doesn't deserve all this hate

I'll rank what I've
>Gravity's Rainbow
>Inherent Vice
>V.
>power gap
>Lot 49
GR is so fucking good. Its "difficult" but it's not difficult in the way that something like Ulysses is difficult. If you just take your time it's very fun to read, and has a ton of great characters. A lesser writer could spend their entire carrier writing spin off novels of GR characters.
I don't know why IV gets a lot of shit, it's seems to me it's as well made as GR, just less ambitious. Great characters as well.
V. Is very good, but it's evident is some passages and characters that it's an early effort. Still very good though.
Lot 49 feels like a different writer trying to imitate GR Pynchon, but getting the important things wrong. A potboiler for sure. Not awful, but still not great.

It's good but it can't really compete with his heavier tomes

>thinks GR is difficult
M&D will destroy you

That seems to be the consensus. It has some of my favorite P-jokes. It also hit me pretty hard the last time I read. It doesn't stack up to the tomes like GR, but I have trouble seeing how people rank Crying lower than IR or BE. There is an anger and an artistry that is in parts missing in the more recent books.

Granted, I haven't read ATD or M&D just yet.

What are your hopes for the next Pynchon novel?

What I was saying though is that it's not really difficult unless you just aren't thinking about it.
I think people who play up the difficulty were probably just reading it to say they did, and never got over the idea that it's some impossible beast.
Some chapters have a style that is halfway obtuse at worst. And figuring out how some things relate can be difficult, in the short term, with most becoming clear over time, or with thought.
It's difficult enough to be engaging, but not difficult on purpose enough to be annoying.

...

that there will be one that he finishes before he keels over

/thread

My favorite is Inherent Vice, but for personal reasons. I'd probably rate them like this:

GR = M&D > AtD > Inherent Vice > V. > Bleeding Edge > TCoL49

I read V first, but after reading his other work it became clear V was not among his best.

The next Pynchon novel, (working) title The Circuit, follows Dusty Biggins, an employee of a private military contractor in postwar Iraq. The novel is largely about the privatization of military affair and the consequential mercenary markets cropping up in the Middle East.

Pynchon began working on this novel before Bleeding Edge. It's purported to be a doorstopper.

It's probably his worst novel, honestly, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It gets a lot of hype because it's the only one most people around here have actually read, since it's short and much easier than his masterpieces.

Best Pynchon novel if you just want to experience wacky stories?

The fuck is wrong with you? M&D is a lot of fun.

Best work of his if you don't claim to be an erudite edgelord?

>just like M&D to appear more "intellectullulz"
But it's easily one of Pynchon's most accessible and immediately rewarding doorstoppers

Assuming you mean to ask which one a retard might still enjoy, Inherent Vice.

Stop falling for Veeky Forums memes and realize you're talking about the guy who writes vulgar limericks with engineering puns.

The best part of my day is reading comments from people who assume that just because they couldn't understand something others must be pretending to like it to seem smart. No friend, you're just an idiot. It's an incredible book. Against the Day is fucking amazing too.

to an author that can actually tell a story

The reason I love Pynchon is that he can do that and then 20 pages later have me bawling. The wackiness is such a small part of what he can do, but it's the part that any dumbass can understand and point to to prove they've read him. You might want to go back and reread him.

GR > V > Mason and Dixon > Lot 49 > Against The Day > Vineland > Inherent Vice > Bleeding Edge

GR and then realize pynchon sucks and his stories are shit and excuse yourself from post-modern books forever.

pynchon's not even that "postmodern" though

Not everyone is looking for a story to read.

why then are you reading a fictional story?

Are you unironically defending reading for the plot and nothing else?

You might as well masturbate to porn, it's healthier for you
what good is useless psuedo-intelligence that's essentially just a form of hedonism

It always makes me laugh that a picture of DFW is randomly thrown in there

me too, but what i don't get is the upside down image of a badger in the corner

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.

Read and enjoyed 49. Skimmed through all his other work and the only ones that look worth reading are GR and ATD (also maybe IV)

I beg to differ. Maybe after 400 pages when they reach america, but it's not worth the time investment.

Why don't you go beg for some good taste instead

that's Torquato Tasso. look through the Veeky Forums archives for it sometime, hell. Just read this. Read the whole thread, actually. Fucking great shit.

the book is shit, get over it.

We get it, you're not intelligent. Stop trying to make it more obvious and just go back.

Reading Gravity's Rainbow at the moment. I can see why many people don't consider it his best. Perhaps I was expecting something else. I don't know how to place it, but I'm not enjoying it. A shame, really. I hope it gets better somehow. Is there ever a shift, or am I to go sifting through waiting for a brief glimmer of enjoyment, something that can actually grip you? It seems like they are few and far between, almost as though pynchon's entertaining sections are poisson points along a sea of dullness. The prick. Has anyone enjoyed this work? If so, may I ask why?

What part are you reading, user?

just hit part 2.

Part 2 is much less frammentary than part 1. You begin to grasp what the fuck is going on. I'm 50-ish pages into part 3, and I'm loving it. I have to admit some parts may result boring, but overall my expectations were repayed

so far it feels like a ww2 erotically paranoid x-men development with a smattering of drug-induced "just good enough to be noted" prose. the only points i enjoyed myself were during the brave doggo's escape (though balanced later with an equally unlucky doggo), and the utterly hilarious candy drill. oh, and of course the banana breakfast. otherwise, it reminds me of V., which admittedly i left unfinished; moments of true fun interspersed with an oxymoronic foggy exactness that boils your brains out almost monotonously. I wonder if you're at the climax of the trajectory?

Also, I don't remember where is the part where they give Slothrop strange-flavoured candies but that had me laughing out loud

I don't think I will be able to recognize the climax even while I'm reading it, I surely have to re-read it. They say plot structure has the shape of a parable. So far, I haven't noticed that

> moments of true fun interspersed with an oxymoronic foggy exactness that boils your brains out almost monotonously
That's the style of the Pynch, however, and there's nothing we can do about it. I suggest you to at least try to finish GR. If you aren't enjoying it, you don't really have to read it

> ww2 erotically paranoid x-men development with a smattering of drug-induced
If I had to describe Gravity's Rainbow (and may God have mercy of my soul if I had to do it), I would say it's "The Man Who Stares at Goats" having a very bad trip on high doses

i know, but i would be disappointed. i feel more like there's something to enjoy that i'm missing out on rather than wanting to be a part of an exclusive club. I plan on finishing it. no moments are intolerable, it has been tempting to skim, some moments seem like jazz, and i doubt they're connected to a reward.
it's around 120 pages in, 114 is the section upon checking, in the penguin blueprint edition.

V>IV>III>II>I

Yeah yeah we get it you're clever but Gravity's Rainbow is actually VII

Mason & Dixon (go to this after GR)
Gravity's Rainbow
V
The Crying of Lot 49
Vineland
Against the Day
Inherent Vice
Bleeding Edge

ATD>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>IV>COL49>>>GR>>>>>M&D

further into it now, glad i've stuck with it, read about a hundred pages last night, i keep getting this looney tunes vibe from pynchon, some kind of fifties cartoon film with rape and shit eating, i fell asleep imagining pynchon riding on a beverly hillbilly's auto, honking his horn *AWOOOOGA* and misfiring, clacking his way towards me, telling me to hop aboard as he drives through America's carnival through the eyes of a movie lens.
It was an odd feeling to think of the fecal feast in black and white cartoon animation

Currently reading ATD and it feels in places like a retrospective, tying together the themes of all his previous novels at that point. I'm not sure where else he can go other than more lighter pieces in the same vein IV or BE, but we shall see. Either way, you should definitely leave ATD until after V, CoL49, GR and M&D

is it good? is it a little more consistently entertaining than say GR or V?

Yeah it's his best book imo. You can read it directly after either IV or V or Lot49. It's tons more fun than M&D, unless ye olde english is your jam.

>M&D
>ye olde english
Yeah okay

Lot 49 > V > Gravity's Rainbow

For me, it's his best work, way better than GR.

Pynchon, easy pn your obsession for zoots

Its is a parable. Everything is appening at the center, wile beginning and end are out of focus

Parabola, yeah?

Ha ragione, signor terrone, parabola!