gravitys rainbow: the trout mask replica of books?

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It is, insofar as they're both tough to get through. Spoken as someone who has started both several times; it's been a while, maybe I should dust myself off and try again.

― Mark, Wednesday, 6 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Mark S -- yr. comparison to Dharma and Greg is flawed coz Dharma is played by Jenna Elfman whose sweetness and sparkle are much more Frenesi than Zoyd. I actually like Vineland the most of all Pynchon's "lesser" novels. I always wanted to found a nightclub and call it The People's Republic of Rock and Roll. As it is, I find Vineland quite mournful and elegiac, sort of as GR came to grips with the counterforce's failure, Vineland now comes to grips with the converse side -- the world didn't end either.

Fred is quite right about The Secret Integration. I prefer it as a "gateway" work for those new to Pynchon above anything else he's written, especially (ick) The Crying of Lot 49.

And Steve T's list of musical works that fit Pynchon is a cop-out, coz he mentions or praises most of 'em.

― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 6 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

How could it be the TMR of books, anyway? Getting through TMR is easy - you just sit there for ~ an hour. Reading GR is a bit less passive.

A question related to this - finding music that fit somehow with GR - came up on the Pynchon mailing list like more than a year ago. There were some attempts at answers but I think the best I heard was that there's not really any piece of music comparable to it - it's just too damn big and complicated.

― Josh, Wednesday, 6 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

'Decrepitude'??

'Cop-out'???

― the pinefox, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Personally, I consider Gravity's Rainbow to be the Läther of books. And yes, I do like Pynchon -- how could I not love the books of one of Nabokov's students?

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Has anyone else seen footage or images of Pynchon's schematics (huge maps and diagrams that show how the elements of his books link together) or is it just something I saw on the back of my eyelids?

― K-reg, Friday, 8 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

one year passes...

''Pynchon's schematics (huge maps and diagrams that show how the elements of his books link together)''

ha! is Pynchon the anthony braxton of am lit then?

(I got a copy of GR for 3 quid)

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 21:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Vineland" and "Mason & Dixon" are fun, and good if you like that kinda thing. I think the earlier Pynchon is pretty dated satire myself, some nice moments. "Trout Mask" isn't too dated, really, but then again I've never regarded it as all that difficult, since I've listened to a lot of blues. Nabokov is a lot better. To me, and I have had people almost start fights over this, Pynchon is a lot like Faulkner (hick Joyce), a lot of difficulty and no payoff. "TMR" is just a very sprung-rhythmed r&b/blues album, some decent post-beat poetry, no big deal. I have yet to meet a woman who liked "TMR," despite what Van Vliet has asserted over the years.

― Jess Hill (jesshill), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 00:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

I have this bizarre theory that "V" was directly inspired by Gunter Eich's "The Year Lacertis", but that would require that Pynchon speaks German, since "V" predates the english translation. Anyone know if he does (did at the time)?

― Dave Fischer, Wednesday, 19 March 2003 01:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

I have yet to meet a woman who liked "TMR"

Pleased to meet you.

― A Woman Who Likes "TMR" (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 01:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

hehe...yay for JBR!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 09:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

I have yet to meet a woman who liked "TMR"

Pleased to meet you.

-- A Woman Who Likes "TMR"

Likewise I'm sure!!

― Jess Hill (jesshill), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 19:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

one year passes...

No it's the "Station to Station". I think its NME review pointed out some perhaps intentional similarities.

― elwisty, Thursday, 20 January 2005 00:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Would that make "V" Lick My Decals Off, Baby, then?

― J (Jay), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:24 (nineteen years ago) link

surely Finnegans Wake is the TMR of books?

― zappi (joni), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:43 (nineteen years ago) link

Look Station to Station is the only album that starts with a ten minute approximation of the third Reich gone marching on Europe with funk rather than fascism or maybe funky fascism but that would imply {{x}}and so on. And alienation and sex and Nazi's and rockets (V2 Schnieder is on "Heroes" but I wanna make a point about something) Bowie is the British Pynchon but not.

― elwisty, Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:50 (nineteen years ago) link

Finnegan's Wake doesn't have an musical equivalent yet. It will have to be some epic symphony from the future or something.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Thursday, 20 January 2005 01:54 (nineteen years ago) link

Perhaps this open an interesting high culture vs low culture thing in that maybe pop music simply cannot compete with literature or really that they are in no way analogous.

― elwisty, Thursday, 20 January 2005 02:08 (nineteen years ago) link

Perhaps this open an interesting high culture vs low culture thing in that maybe pop music simply cannot compete with literature or really that they are in no way analogous.

in no way analagous is wrong but I've become increasingly convinced that critics' assumptions that there is something called *Art* that can generally be discussed in a similar way, as opposed to more-or-less completely different things like literature and music and painting that need to be discussed in completely different ways is a bad thing.

― frankiemachine, Thursday, 20 January 2005 15:05 (nineteen years ago) link

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