How to Read Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
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- Опубліковано 2 чер 2024
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0:00 how to read Gravity’s Rainbow
1:00 great books are inexhaustible
1:40 why read Gravity’s Rainbow?
2:30 Pynchon’s postmodern masterpiece
3:56 reading Pynchon as a community
4:44 the difficulty of Gravity’s Rainbow
7:56 Pynchon’s encyclopaedic novel
8:32 the story of Gravity’s Rainbow
8:50 the V2 vs V1 rockets in WWII
10:00 life during the London Blitz
12:44 gallows humours in times of war
13:25 on fear of death in WWII
15:00 atomic fear and Cold War anxieties
16:33 first epigraph for Gravity’s Rainbow
17:13 who was Werner Von Braun?
19:20 paranoia in novel form
21:27 reader relationship with Pynchon
22:25 characters in Gravity’s Rainbow
23:00 the character of Tyrone Slothrop
24:00 central plot line for Gravity’s Rainbow
25:00 the Pulitzer’s reaction to Pynchon
25:45 experiments in classical conditioning
28:15 reversal of cause and effect
30:00 meaning of Gravity’s Rainbow’s title
30:37 the quest of Tyrone Slothrop
32:00 repression and religious allegory
33:19 the line between life and death
34:27 how we deny our mortality
35:00 Time Magazine’s review of the book
36:30 attaining freedom through play
37:55 why did Pynchon write this book?
38:48 humour in Gravity’s Rainbow
40:00 Pynchon works on the unconscious
40:30 literature as coping mechanism
41:00 the rocket threatening all of us
42:35 the reputation of Gravity’s Rainbow
43:22 James Joyce and Thomas Pynchon
44:10 Thomas Pynchon’s cult following
44:33 Pynchon as ‘reclusive’ writer
45:10 Gravity’s Rainbow first published
46:00 why is Gravity’s Rainbow difficult?
46:50 modernism vs postmodernism
48:40 collapsing high and low culture
49:20 pastiche, parody, and irony
50:15 two kinds of Pynchon reader
50:45 metafiction in postmodernism
51:40 strange loops and paradoxes
53:10 companion to Gravity’s Rainbow
53:50 dealing with Pynchon’s allusions
54:10 reading Pynchon with a community
54:52 active reading and marginalia
55:30 confusion is preface to understanding
57:00 proposed pacing for Gravity’s Rainbow
58:15 some words of encouragement
1:00:00 your relationship with this book?
You make great literature and great advice accessible to people who previously had no access to it. You’re the best person on UA-cam :)
Aw, thank you so much! I really appreciate that! 🙏☺
I first read this the year it was published. I was 17. I was bewildered and absolutely enthralled. I've re-read it, but I'm going to hit again at 68.
Pynchon is a master of sensory imagery. _Gravity's Rainbow_ tells the story of a young man's search for his harmonica. It's wonderful.
Ha ha! That’s brilliant, Slothrop as Huck Finn, lighting out for the territories…. I always thought of Vonnegut as the successor to Mark Twain, but maybe it was Tommy Pinecone all along!
My first reading of Gravity's Rainbow happened the year it was published, when I was 22. I reread it last year at 71 and loved it, appreciating and understanding the novel much more than the first time. I read a lot if it aloud and sang all the songs. It stopped my soul with both passages of beauty and of sorrow. I've been rereading Pynchon in publishing order; up next: Vineland. Thank you, Benjamin, for your enthusiastic and erudite videos.
Oh man I love Vineland.
Great post.
To me, the sign of a great writer is one where even if you don't quite get what they're saying all the time, they will write scenes that will be scorched into your brain for the rest of your life. Pynchon has been doing that for me since I read Inherent Vice back in college a decade ago.
Gravity's Rainbow was the first book I read in English (second language), and I fell absolutely in love with it. It has been in my top 5 for years alongside Against the Day. Good to see Pynchon on this amazing channel, as you have inspired me to finally tackle other greats like Moby Dick, Ulysses and Middlemarch.
Wow! That is an incredibly impressive accomplishment. Gravity's Rainbow is such a cool book to have as your first in English. I'm so happy that this masterpiece is such a special work for you. There truly is an extraordinary amount to love about Pynchon's writing!
Lost in the giant works is what I think is Pynchon's most emotionally-accessible book, "Vineland". It has all the silliness of the others, but is the only one of them all (yes i"ve read all of them) that brought me to tears.
As a Pynchon fan who had read 3 of his works previously I decided to embark on Gravity’s Rainbow about a month ago. I’m close to the end now and it’s nothing short of a masterpiece. It’ll probably become one of my favourite books -if not my favourite- upon finishing it. To everyone I say, please don’t get discouraged by it’s proclaimed difficulty, it’s one of the most beautiful and hilarious things I’ve ever read. I’m not even a native english speaker, i probably didn’t understand a quarter of it and am still enjoying each and every page… just go with the flow, I think that’s what Pynchon himself would want. I’ve cried and laughed dozens of times with this. Can’t recommend it enough and can’t wait for the last 20 pages i’ve got left.
Thank you for your endorsement! Im going to make it my Winterbreak reading!! 2023-24.
Ben McE is so inspiring! Im loving his commentaries, growing in my ability to understand complex ideas.
Cheers!!
What a brilliant, inspiring video. Thank you. I'm gobsmacked to borrow a British expression. Gravity's Rainbow is going on my bucket list. Hope I'm not too old at 83 to tackle tackle such a challenging read. Love your videos and your enthusiasm.
Aw, thank you so much, Anne! Your kind words have completely made my day! I'm so happy that Pynchon's great novel is going on your bucket list. I would really love to know what you make of it :)
It’s an absolute monsterpiece! I love Pynchon. He has a quality that defies his work as common sense masterpiece.
Benjamin, I appreciate your ability to simplify complex ideas, making them easily understandable. I find it more beneficial to listen to your insights before delving into a book, as it enhances my understanding. Each time I hear your thoughts, it sparks a desire to read all the books on earth, even though I can only tackle one at a time. Since I began listening to you, I can confidently say that I've increased my reading and comprehension. I take pride in my progress.
Considering the impact over the next five years is exciting.
Keep up the excellent work. Thank you for your valuable contributions.
I read Gravity's Rainbow when I was in my middle 20s and loved it for its radiant prose, wit, and inventiveness. I discovered it by way of a quiz in The New York Times Book Review one Sunday, where they listed the first lines, last lines, and titles of several books (ten gave you the answers), and the first and last lines of this one struck me as superb. One thing I remember most vividly is the section where Pynchon writes variations on the phrase "You never did the Kenosha Kid," a reference to Orson Welles. Such a simple phrase assumes all sorts of guises through, among other things, punctuation and line breaks. Frankly mind-blowing. Some day I hope to get back to it, and I know I won't be disappointed. Thank you for your marvelous video!
I’m about 85 pages into this dense work and I find myself chuckling sometimes between feelings of paranoia and dread. I’m reminded of a similar experience while reading Philip K. Dick. However, Pynchon is a denser read and it’s well worth taking the time to look up references to things which were common knowledge or in popular usage at the time. I am just old enough to recall some of the products utilized by my parents and grandparents so I enjoy a familiarity younger readers won’t have. I recall the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations,the general trauma left behind, in addition to the loss of public trust in our institutions, only magnified in the present day. I can’t say I am enjoying this book, but I am intrigued because the writing is precise and gripping-much like Virginia Wolfe.
I want to connect to the characters in a novel, and this has not happened yet for me. None the less, I look foreword to this with hope, perhaps when I’m deeper in. As I read, I find myself asking what I am looking for in a great work. Is it enough to be beautifully written yet driven into psychological despair? Do I expect a great work to provide a sense of beauty or spiritual uplifting? Does a great work color in our reality and abandon us without comment? My first impression reminds me of learning about the Mannerist painters who followed the great artists of the Renaissance. They had technical expertise but their themes, in my opinion, were empty. Was that the point?
The big set piece -- banana breakfast -- at the beginning is just incredible. In some ways reminds me of Dickens. Pynchon does a similar thing at the beginning of Against the Day -- the whole Balloon over Chicago and the world's fair -- based this time on boy's literature of the early 20th century. But again Dickensonian in its deep dive into the atmosphere (pun!) of the place and time. Another wonderful thing about Pynchon is that his scientific and engineering gobbledegook is actually much more informed than most. It actually, despite its bizarreness, uses proper scientific vocabulary and concepts, albeit in unusual ways.
Ben, thank you for this. It's exceptional. I was among the many who couldn't finish Gravity's Rainbow, but I'm going to tackle it this year with more clarity and confidence thanks to you. Cheers.
I'm reading it now, after becoming informed of it by it's inscrutable reputation. I loved Ulysses, especially it's humor. I'm about halfway through and it's a wild ride. Thank you for the breakdown.
This was so powerful - wow. So much to reflect on. Grateful for your thoughtful, insightful reflections.
Thank you so much, Leia! I really appreciate that 🙏😊
I love the challenging recommendations here! Brilliant.
Hi Ben! Love your videos. Gravity’s Rainbow has been on my bucket list and going through chemotherapy I think the time is running out and it is time to get to it. I have been considering to join your book club but isn’t it better to go through the difficulties of the book on one’s own first and to see how much one gets out out of it first. One of the greatest joy of reading is experiencing the joy of discovering the truth of a book on your own. After that joining the book club seems like a great idea. Am I wrong to think this way? Keep up the great job.
It's quite fun to listen to Ben's lectures like an online class. He is my professor here. Ben, would you please consider talking about these certain texts in the future:
The Faerie Queen
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Ramayana
The Mahabharata
Midnight's Children
Virginia Woolf's books
I read Gravity's Rainbow in my 20's and again in my 70's and thoroughly enjoyed it each time. What is wrong withf me? I didn't see any difficulty.
😊 I'd say there is absolutely everything right with you.
Thank you for making this video. It’s an incredible primer and now I feel ready to re-attempt my first proper reading!
What a wonderful introduction to a very difficult book! I was completely lost most of time during my first reading a few years ago, but when I reached the end, I had that unmistakeable feeling that I had just read something very special. Pynchon seemed to me to be descnibing the forging of our modern world in the white-hot crucible of the War. I'll be using the guide Ben mentions for my second reading.
Thank you so much, Brendan. I really appreciate that. Your description of what Pynchon was doing in Gravity's Rainbow is incredibly powerful. And I completely relate to your first reading experience. I remember coming to the end felt like waking up from a surreal and meaningful dream. I'd love to hear what you make of your second read through!
A Screaming comes across the sky 🚀 ….A Masterpiece for the ages!
Levels that require serious thoughts, nevertheless it a novel to ponder upon
after reading it & rereading it…
A mind warping experience, yet remains a mystery!
Well done !
Thank you Ben! I feel like my IQ rises when I listen to you. It hasn't been long since I became less of a casual reader and more hardcore. You are really an inspiration to follow the more thoughtful and more rewarding road. Gravity's Rainbow was not a book I would have considered reading before this talk. Now it's on my list. You've encouraged me to dig out the old books and, *gulp* purchase quite a few new ones. I don't think I read fast enough to keep up with the channel!
What a timely upload! I’m about 500 pages in.
Nice one!! You're doing a great job with it! :)
Wonderful analysis Ben. Honestly, I've been turned off from approaching this novel based on its reputation. You have encouraged me to incorporate it into my personal cannon.
Hey, Ben! This is off-topic a bit, but your description of GR as impenetrable immediately brought to mind William T Vollmann. I’d love to work through one or more of his works with you. Great video, as always!
One of the most amazing books I have read. I have read it twice now. The second time over ten years ago. Time for a revisit it seems. Thanks for the inspiration. And it is ridiculously entertaining and funnier the second time around.
I completely agree! Pynchon is hilarious and he has me grinning through Gravity's Rainbow. I would love to know how your third reading goes. Definitely a work that rewards a deep reread :)
As one of the many who bounced off this book, I appreciate your lucid discussion of it here immensely. I may even take another crack at it.
Thank you so much, Will! I'm so thrilled to hear that! :)
Hi Benjamin, I'm new to your channel but must say that you have sparked an interest in reading that has up until now been at best sporadic. I was listening to one of your podcasts where you talked about reading a short story a week. That sounds doable. What would you recommend by way of anthologies?
Thank you benjamin!! Your insight is impressive and motivating. Deep stuff here!
Thank you so much, James! I really appreciate that :)
Oh my this is great. I want to tackle this novel someday. I’m so deep into Louise Erdrich work currently. I will return to this.
Awesome summary. The companion idea sounds good. If you enjoy reading aloud you will find some gems in here.
Thank you so much, Peter! I'm completely with you there. This book begs to be read aloud :)
Sigh, now I need to reread this again. Keep on coming back to it over and over. I am probably too "stupid" to get it but I know for a fact it is absolut amazing to read, just the way it is written absolut joy.
This book intrigues me so much!
It's on my tbr for this year.
Benjamin, please consider making a video about Portuguese authors (I'm portuguese). José Saramago, Fernando Pessoa, Luis de Camões deserve to be remembered! ❤
This is the video I've wanted for so long, thank you, could you please consider doing one of these for Edmund Spenser's epic the Faerie Queen
You're so welcome, my friend. Thank you for watching! I would definitely love to have a deep discussion on Spenser's Faerie Queene in the future :)
First. I have you as my first top podcast of the year on Spotify. I wonder why... oh, maybe cause I listen to most episode twice cause I need to take notes... Second. I never know what to think of a book before reading it. I read the blurb and the first page at the store and if I'm hooked then it's sold. But then there is more then the blurb and the first two pages and your videos helps so much with dissecting the process and make a book a friend and not the bogeybook. Thanks again.
I just wanna say that I love your Channel Benjamin!
I read this--or at least brushed my eyes over every word of it in 1977. It took me a long time to get through it and I never felt I had read it. Yes, it certainly had some good parts in it, but in the end I really didn't get it as I thought I should. I'd read V and The Crying of Lot 49 and mostly enjoyed those books, but GR gave me trouble. Time to double down, and thanks to this video and your urging, I'm almost ready to try GR again. Thank you for this.
I love your phrase "brushed my eyes over it!" That vivid phrase has caused me to try and come up with a phrase for the opposite type of reading experience. How about , "My eyes mopped up the meaning while my pen dabbed a few drops in the margins."
Thanks to you I am eager to start my first read of this challenging book.
I'm so thrilled to hear that, Tom! I can't wait to find out what you make of it :)
I love your videos so much! I don't know what I would do without them and I want to ask you, if you could do a "How to Video" for "Pale Fire" by Vladimir Nabokov?
Have a great day :)
Will you make a video on how to read the Divine Comedy?
Thank you for all you do.
You are so welcome, Brian! Thank you so much for watching. I appreciate you! :)
Benjamin you have awaken my reading hunger. I am starting Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time, The journey may be long, but I know it will change my life.
Aw, thank you so much, Yolanda! That really means a lot to me to hear that! 😊
I am going to try to read all seven novels of "Remembrance of Things Past" during 2024. I read the first novel, Swann’s Way, a few years ago. I found the writing in Swann’s Way to be incredibly sensual and unlike anything I have ever read. I was deeply moved by it. I just purchased a book by Alain de Botton titled "How Proust Can Change Your Life." I plan to read it first for inspiration before I start reading Proust.
I've read this book four times so far, and by now the "story" has pretty-much taken shape. There's a lot more to connect and relate yet, But at least I know more-or-less where to look. If you're confused just keep reading, and something will come into focus and it's usually quite entertaining.
So, my thing is I can enjoy all kinds of different literature and love Shakespeare and Proust and Dickens is very much my comfort read. My two favorite novels are Frankenstein and Dracula, so I definitely have a darker taste than most when it comes to media consumption. That is the reason I haven't tried this book because I guess I hear the word comedy and it puts me off the book 😅 thats why I haven't touched it yet. But you are such an amazing reviewer, I truly wish to read it now!
Such an amazing video, wow! I am looking forward fro my third read, this Time with te companion. Thanks!
Thank you so much! I'd love to know how your third read goes, my friend :)
I just finished it 2 days ago and I'm awestruck at the book itself. It feels less like a book I read and more like a lived experience. I hated having to finish it, because it felt like saying goodbye to an old friend.
I'm going to reread it again as some point, but for the time being I'm still pondering the implications and meanings I was able to find and the questions I'm going to ask when I re-read it.
Wow. What a great teacher you are. ❤🤯❤
Thanks Ben! I think thus is the perfect novel for me to contemplate while I'm studying orbital mechanics qnd rocket propulsion ( if it helps )
I am one of those who found it hard to read. My struggle was the profanity laden prose as I was in my teens. After viewing your video, I will make another attempt now. Thank you!!!!
I'm so happy to hear that, Susan :) I completely relate to finding it hard to read because of the profanity. There are pages that I end up skipping over because it can get a bit overwhelming!
Great video, Ben! I am looking forward to tackling this book. Maybe after this, I'll give Ulysses another chance!
Waiting for this video for a long time!
Thank you, Daniel. I'm so happy to hear that!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Very happy to have found your channel. A true inspiration to keep people motivated when taking on challenging books. Thank you!
I'm being inspired to try again. I've enjoyed other Pynchon works (V, Vineland, Against the Day, Bleeding Edge), but GV has defeated me more than once.
And it is an unconditioned reflex, not a stimulus, paired with a neutral stimulus in classical conditioning.
great work Benjamin-
Thank you so much, Philip!
Wow 🤩 🎉🎉🎉 Thank you very much, Benjamin, for such a gem 😌🙏🙏🙏
My absolute pleasure! Thank you so much for watching ☺️
Thanks for your generous, brilliant video. I'm gobsmacked to borrow a British expression. You have filled me with a new enthusiasm for postmodern literature. Gravity 's Rainbow is going on my bucket list. I hope I'm not too old at 83 to tackle such a challenging read. Love your videos.
Nice one! Looking fwd to more on GR
Finishing up my lit degree at Tulane in 89’ I felt a course called “Jewish mysticism and Novel” sounded fun. You guessed it “Gravity’s Rainbow” yep, right at the top of the syllabus. The other nine novels were in no way “light reads” either. It was outstanding, and the second most rewarding course i took.
What was the most rewarding course?
@@Boppip Glad you asked ! Number 1. With every year the significance of this seminar, it’s impact on the fabric of my life increases. It was called “Four Women Writers” it was a graduate seminar I had to scheme my way in. 4 visiting professors each taught for 6 weeks.
1. Iris Murdoch 2. Ursula Leguin
3. Nadine Gordimer 4. And a young Canadian named Margaret Atwood, whose recent novel, The Handmaids Tale was doing pretty well!
I am begining to read it...Its my New Years Resolution..Hope it'd not be too complex.
Happy New Year to you and your family.Greetings from Kathmandu🤗
Gravity's rainbow was one of those books that I tried to read in high school and just couldn't. I had read a lot of pynchon's work prior, and the crying of lot 49 was one of my favorites at the time. When I got into college I resolved myself to finish gravity's rainbow and so I did. I have reread that book at least five times since then, and frankly I consider it to be one of the greatest pieces of literature of our time. I have a top 10 book list in my mind and gravity's rainbow is always near the top and a big part of it has to do with its complexity which is most certainly off-putting it first. Once you truly get past that barrier, you start to appreciate what pynchon was trying to do and then you realize that he couldn't have written this story without the complexity.
Great video, and timely too, just finished this book a few days ago. Have you considered making one for Mason & Dixon. It’s probably my favorite Pynchon-dare I say, better than Gravity’s Rainbow?
Great analysis as always!
Have you read Benjamin Labatut’s The MANIAC? if so I’m curious to hear your thought on it
Having just started "Gravity's Rainbow" and not wanting to have any outside influences cloud my perceptions of it, I am going to wait until after I finish it to come back and watch this video. Quite often, I prefer to read books and view movies blind, as I call it, without knowing much or anything about them at all.
I completely understand that! Happy reading, Ron :) I'd love to know what you make of Gravity's Rainbow when you finish it!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy
I gave it my best effort. I read quite a bit, made myself read more and then, made myself read even more. Though I did enjoy some of the allusions and the structuring of phrases, my desire to keep going gave out. What finally killed it for me was that I liked neither the characters nor the story.
Never picked it up (could I?), I don't know . . . whew. I don't mind cognitively challenging books, but if it is not beautifully written I probably couldn't stick. I am for instance reading Riddley Walker right now and it is so so incredibly beautiful. Challenging sure a little at first, but now I prefer Ridley Walker's Inlandish to English.
I love this channel, it challenges me so much and sparks anew my love for reading! Has anyone had trouble accessing his website? I can't since Sunday. I am waiting for the Hardcore Literature 2024 Syllabus.
Ben's description of Gravity's Rainbows reminds me of another postmodernist work that is in my top three of all times, American Psycho. After years as a teenager not reading any fiction aside from mandatory schoolwork because "a man shouldn't bother with fiction" (what a stupid mindset in hindsight!), I fell in love with American Psycho's unreliable narrator, extensive and arguably pointless cast of characters, chapter-length tangents, thought of consciousness passages, and pop culture references. I had never read anything of the sorts, and it made me reappreciate fiction. Although I imagine it's going to be a more complex and different experience, the parallels make me incredibly stoked to get into Gravity's Rainbows. Who knows, maybe postmodernism is my thing!
Couldn’t be better timing! Halfway through my first read of it.
Fantastic timing! Nice one on getting to the halfway point :)
I will be sure to watch this after I’m done reading, I want a raw reaction to the book before other analysis… PS: thanks for starting my literary journey you helped me thought Ulysses
Crazy timing. I just finished Crying of Lot 49 and loved it. Gravity's Rainbow sounded a little too daunting. I figured I would get used to Pychon's style and humor first, although you do make a compelling case to read it. An extended metaphor about Fruedian labido leading sex seeking missiles is hilarious.
Hey I just finished crying of lot 49 too , and I'm thinking about my next Pynchon read .. do you wanna discuss it together ? Help each other out
About to pick up Crying of lot 49 today too!
@@ebraheemblekaa8356
Sure! I have looked into all of Pynchon's other works. While I do want to tackle Gravity's Rainbow at some point, I think I need another "easier" work first. I was thinking of reading Inherent Vice as my next Pynchon novel. It is about a stoner private investigator and should give more of that mystery deconstruction thing that Lot 49 gave us a taste of
@@dellh86 that's exactly my thought!, maybe after that, i might read against the day or bleeding edge .. i'm gonna leave gravity's rainbow to the very end..
Anyway, if you're interested in exchanging views about the literature we read overall i'd be glad to.. i'm reading Salman Rushdie's midnight children's right now and i'm floored by it
Pynchon has such an interesting imagination. I've only read V. and it was such a strange read. His writing style was so hard to get through, but every chapter I made it through, I felt a deep appreciation for what he was writing about and how he wrote it. I tried to read Vineland but found myself thinking "Oh God, am I gonna climb Mt. Pynchon again? Not sure I can handle this so soon." But that was so many years ago. I may give Gravity's Rainbow a read. I want to try to climb Mt. Joyce first.
I picked up this book on the strength of those two opening sentences alone. I can't wait to read it when I have the time.
Also, I was quite surprised to see Karamazov in your top 3 most difficult books! Why so?
Nice one! It truly is a powerful opening, isn't it? As for The Brothers Karamazov, this was the book that pushed me the most when it came to really thinking through my spiritual beliefs. I found wrangling with the theological concepts that Dostoyevsky dramatises to be painful, but, ultimately, incredibly rewarding and life-changing.
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Even though Karamazov is my favourite novel ever, I myself abandoned it due to its initial pace and also because of the Grand Inquisitor chapter as I wasn't familiar enough with the Bible to grasp it. But after doing some research and with some perseverance, I came to not only appreciate the book, but fall wholly in love with it, with some sequences genuinely raising my pulse rate, particularly in the second half. It's the definition of a rewarding read, and a reminder that the greatest art is almost never immediate.
What do you think are the most common misconceptions about post-modernism, or modernism, and how can you retain specific character information across the course of novels as long as Gravity's Rainbow? It's always possible to refer back to earlier passages, but are there any other methods?
For retaining character information, I put a box around their names when they are first introduced. And I'll highlight information connected to them that seems pertinent, symbolic, or interesting. I'm quite visual, so I find this fills the book with little anchors. I also like discussing characters with others as though they are real people in my life. And I think one of the most common misconceptions about postmodern literature is that it's elitist. It's often deliberately difficult, but, generally speaking, a lot of postmodern writers would love to be part of mainstream discussion and enjoyed by non-academic readers.
BTW, I don't know that anyone else has I identified Slothrop in this way, but I believe it's a play on words of Winthrop, as in Winthrop Fleet and their passengers of which Pynchon can trace his ancestral lineage. Just another layer.
Damn! I wish you and your literary book club vids had been around when I was 19
Against the Day is my all time favorite novel. It felt like Pynchon thought about redoing Rainbow without burying all the gold beneath puzzles.
It is a difficult book but it has some of the most beautiful writing
I completely agree! Truly some of the best prose in English!
It took me three tries before I could get "hooked" into this book, and that was due to my being stuck in a beach hotel in Nha Trang during a typhoon. Seems to be like V on acid. Part of the astonishment factor to me is just reading a paragraph at random & being floored by it & noting there is a whole book full of them. My current (age 74) issue is that I am experiencing memory decline.... book difficult enough to keep tabs on even when firing on all cylinders... about 2/3's thru 4th reading... maybe I should make a chart like some are said to have done with War & Peace.... cheers
Great video Ben, do you perchance plan on covering Samuel Beckett?
Thank you, my friend. Definitely! Samuel Beckett has been on my mind a lot recently!
I read The Crying Of Lot 49 in preparation for GR but it ended up having the reverse effect of putting me off Pynchon altogether.
I loved it up until about half way through but then it got incredibly convoluted and confusing. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that frustrated reading a (very short) book before and by the time I’d battled my way to the end I absolutely hated it!
So I’m extremely hesitant to break open Gravity’s Rainbow. However this video essay, brilliant as always, is inspiring so maybe one day..
Read The Crying of Lot 49 for a College Lit class.
And that's all I got to say about that...
Never read Gravity's Rainbow. Just curious, have you read the Wolf Hall Trilogy, Ben? If so, what did you think of it. I love it. X
What a fantastic coincidence that you've asked this, Kate. I'm actually reading the first one before bed at the moment. I really love it too :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoyGreat minds think alike! I'm glad you're enjoying Wolf Hall. I recently listened to Wolf Hall on Audible again while rereading the book, loved it. I've got the Folio Society edition of Wolf Hall last Christmas, it's beautiful and the drawings are fantastic. This Christmas, I've bought myself Folio Society's Bring Up The Bodies. On the cover, Anne Boleyn is clutching her neck. Again, I can't wait to reread and relisten to it. I'm guessing that the Folio Society will print The Mirror and The Light for Christmas 2024. Will you do a video about The Wolf Hall Trilogy when you've read it? I highly recommend the BBC adaptation of Wolf Hall (it covers Bring Up The Bodies as well.) It's fantastic to watch! Enjoy Ben. X
Whenever I'm struggling with a piece of literature I think "Has my ole mate McEvoy made a video on how to read this thing?"
I'm looking forward to diving into this one.
I would love to know what you make of it, Jay!! :)
Nice video man
Thank you so much, my friend :)
You have a great gift
Thank you, Bonnie! :)
Thank you so much. I wont try reading it aloud. My Polish-Hebrew accent wont do. Living in israel, being exposed daily to rocket attacks, i hope ill be able to finish reading the book. You made it come to life .
To paraphrase Freud, sometimes a rocket is just a rocket. I got through it, glad it is over. I am enjoying The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen, which involves an anecdote by Harold Bloom.
I'm here because I've tried 3 times to get into this book. Thought perhaps this will help in my next endeavor...
I love your content! Could you do a video on Finnegans Wake anytime soon?
He did talk about Ulysses...
I read it when I was in college, but I need to read it again!
I read it in 1974. I was young, don't remember a word of it. Putting it on my list.
The problem I have with post modern literature is "When you have eliminated all which is peripheral, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the point".
Apologies to Sherlock.
Lol, the opposite of Ken Follett's "I like the story to turn every 4-6 pages (he says Jane Austen was like that), and you only need to read my sentences once." Is the postmodern style what they call "stream of consciousness"? I wonder what specific novels influenced Pynchon's style (Oakley Hall's Warlock? Mellville & Faulkner?). Maybe I can figure out Samuel Delany's Dhalgren after reading GR (Gravity's Rainbow not Guns n' Roses lol).
To understand your dreams try lucid dreaming. To be aware you are dreaming while immersed within your dream.
Also, you "die" a little each hight when you go to sleep. You're not aware of the exact moment, all your aware of is the approximate moment you awake. The only difference is, with death, you never awake!
Lastly, "Question Everything. Trust No One." - i.e. Do your own thinking and don't simply follow others. Following others is mental laziness!
Well now I am convinced that i can read at least 10 pages of this novel.
The irony of the v2 being a metaphor for a penis, the very root of life through insemination, but also juxtapose against the literal v2 being the ultimate bringer of death really hits home the black and white rockets on the front cover of my copy of the book. The rainbow truly is everything in between including the arc of the v2 itself.
You should voice some audiobooks. The opening lines had me SHOOK
Thank you so much! I appreciate that because it's a dream of mine to do some narrations in the future :) And I'm so with you. Pynchon's prose is incredible!
This dropped just as I finished Bolanos 2666 and about to pick up the crying of lot 49
The Crying Lot of 49 I read. That was possible to understand and enjoy. Everything else he wrote, I can’t understand a word.
Just upgraded to Proust from Dickens. It takes about a month to get books here in Cyprus from Ireland. We don’t have any all English bookstores but some English books in Greek stores. I’ve got many on your reading list but not all. I guess I will wait for the 2024 reading list and order what we will read in January as soon as I get news of that. Bye.
I have been wanting to read this book, but heard it is very hard to understand
Thank you Benjamin for a thorough and insightful discourse.
Read it shortly after it came out. The most difficult novel I've ever read.
Weren't the "buzz bombs" zeroing in on the release of sexual energy (orgasims)? An intriguing concept.
My favorite line/rhyme, "Colder than the nipples on a witche's tit. Colder than a bucket of penguin shit. Colder than the hairs on a polar bears ass. Colder than the frost on a champagne glass."
The book has different meaning for anyone who reads it. Each time I read it, I see it in a different light.
Ben..I listened to this video whilst mowing my lawn - and by the end, I’d bought the book .. brilliant. Thank you sooo much.
Oh wow! I'm so happy to hear that :) Good luck with your journey through this masterpiece. Please do let me know what you make of it!
Now you just need to mow your way through Gravity's Rainbow!
Secret Dickens’? 😊
The make you feel stupid trinity:
Ulysses
Rainbow
Finnegan's Wake (Champ)