/lit/ - Literature

Why doesn't /lit/ like this book? It's one of my all time favorites. Are you all plebs?

Just finished this.

I feel like I just read the literary equivalent of Thomas Pynchon masturbating into 1000 napkins over the course of a decade, and then meticulously attempting to recreate each napkin in text form, then publish it as a novel.

Basically, I don't think I've read a single book worse in my entire life. I remember reading random books I found in the library as a 12 year old that were genuinely more interesting and left a more lasting impression on me than this. I've never been happier in my entire life to be finished a book, if only for the sake of knowing that now I can read other books without the nagging guilt of having left the other incomplete. I can now rest completely assured that the book was as terrible as I thought it was at it's conclusion as I felt it was in it's beginning and middle. Just started reading Wu Cheng En's Journey to the West, and it felt like a breath of fresh air.

How did this novel make you folks feel?

Loved it

is there anyone here who's genuinely read all of this book? I get the feeling it's one of those books everyone gives up at around 100 pages due to sheer difficulty and you all pretend it's a masterpiece.

Halfway through this

What the fuck am I reading?

I'm about 150 pages deep and I'm wondering, is there a 'right' way to read this book? I'm reading this because a friend wanted me to get into postmodern literature, and while I think I'm starting to get used to the way this book is written I'm still unsure if I'm supposed to be reading annotations along with it or doing research about all the things Pynchon is talking about that I don't know.

I'm about 150 pages deep and I'm wondering, is there a 'right' way to read this book? I'm reading this because a friend wanted me to get into postmodern literature, and while I think I'm starting to get used to the way this book is written I'm still unsure if I'm supposed to be reading annotations along with it or doing research about all the things Pynchon is talking about that I don't know.

"Is this the final straw? Do you want to move so far away that you can brag about it? Would you rather tear out your brain stem, walk out into the middle of the nearest three way..."
"Four way!"
"...four way intersection and skip rope with in than continue living where you do now? Then move to..."
BZZZZZZ
"I hate this channel."

Any novels with "random" stories that are connected by a single event? pic related.

film recommendations also welcome (Magnolia is a close example)

Besides Poklar's story in the book which is about 30 pages, what else did this worthless pile of crappy, convoluted literature have going for it?

Can someone explain why /lit/ adores this novel so much, and why everyone considers it a hallmark in American literature? Right now I just finished the second part of the book, and all I seem to be getting out of it is paranoia, fucking (whole lots of it), and an unstructured plot with dull writing. Maybe someone on /lit/ would be kind enough to point out why this book is so good.

Just finished The Crying of Lot 49. I thought it was okay. I didn't find it particularly difficult.

Is Gravity's Rainbow really as impenetrable as some people make it seem, or is it one of those things where it is only as difficult as you want it to be?

>tfw this will never be made into a movie ;_;

Best novels of the 70's?

Just read up to the third part of this thing for the third time. Reading it is pure agony. Why should I not just quit it for good?

ITT: Must read books.

Alright. So I'm 200 pages from the finish and I'm pretty sure that this book isn't real. There is no possible way that a person wrote this. I think I've lost all of my sanity. Discuss.

Hey I'm new in /lit/ I don't know how often this is discussed here, I'm interested in reading pic related and have a bunch of questions. Will this be a frustratingly difficult read for someone who speaks english as a second language? Is there anything you'd recommend as preparation for this? alternatively, how do I into Pynchon?

40 pages in and I don't see what the big deal is

somebody explain pls

Only book that has ever taken me over a year to read.

ITT: books /lit/ trolled you into reading

Alright so I've made it through Crying of Lot 49 and Gravity's Rainbow. Which of his books should I start on next?

>>3280753
From Gravity's Rainbow. It's full of bloat, but once in a while you'll find a really good passage.

Also
It was at that critical juncture in age where virginity - that ugly epithet applied to those who, for one reason or another, dared not burden women with the quelling of their lascivious urges - stops being something acceptable and starts being something of shame, a fragment of your person to be veiled behind half-truths or whole lies.

From a book a /lit/izen wrote

http://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Eros-ebook/dp/B007Z7XQRK/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid
=1356484276&sr=1-1&keywords=hunting+eros