/lit/ - Literature

Sado-anarchism

So in the end was it ever explained how Slothrop's erections could summon rockets?

>>8706966

Is that what this book is about?

How do I explain Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow to my parents/relatives/friends, my dear friends?
Having this certain book in my good old bookshelf will most certainly raise some eyebrows and questions

Just finished this... holy shit. That ending was fucking bizarre. Are the rest of Pynchon's books as good as this? Which one should I read next? The only other one I have read is Inherent Vice.

Is it pretty safe to assume that Pynchon was at least partially influenced by Catch-22 while he was writing Gravity's Rainbow? They both seem to share themes of paranoia as well as alienation and helplessness in the face of an uncaring and hopelessly complex war-machine that leads the protagonist into a mental downward spiral (to a lesser extent in Catch-22). The settings are in the same time-period with various liberties taken to historical accuracy, and they share the same blend of "low-brow" humor and satire with hard-hitting moments of seriousness and reflection.

Has anyone else put heavier thought into this or read into it at all? I found a paper someone wrote on the subject back in the 90's but it is unfortunately behind a paywall.

>>8612183
this one

Post a book and list one or more songs that could be about it, or could be featured in it like a movie soundtrack. Remember this isn't /mu/ so just be explorative and creative.

For pic-related:
>The Dubliners - McAlpine's Fusiliers

Post the picture that best describes a book and isn't a reference to said book.

this is my dads favorite book and i know for a fact he never started with the greeks

>>8537842
No feels in this book, or Ulysses. You might enjoy Kafka and Borges, too.

Which work of literature did you write about for your senior English research paper in high school?

>pic related

So my take after an initial reading is humanity has become obsessed with death and extinction. Much like the Empty Ones of the Herero. So naturally they devise a bomb that will bring about the end of humanity. This why when the 00000 is launched a human must be inside. Humanity must be sacrificed in order for this creation to exist. But then there's Slothrop. This is where I get confused. He's the only thing that can stop this? Hence his search for the bomb. But in the end he ceases to exist? Perhaps isn't even real? But just a common belief in the human race that maybe they have a chance to stop their extinction?

I definitely need to read this again. Or perhaps I'm just a pseud trying to make sense out of nothing.

>>8476182

or nah?

then Ulysses and Dhalgren?

So, just to be clear, this is deliberately meant to be the most antiauthoritarian book ever written, even more than Orwell.

It subverts its own "authority" as a masterpiece of world literature by its inclusion of the most obscene pornography and stupid songs or jokes, so the standard feeling of high culture's superiority is therefore debased.

It mixes a powerful understanding of history and the sciences with persuasive engagements with conspiracy theories and the supernatural or occult. Casting prophecies that are only now becoming fulfilled.

It even calls your own motivations for reading such a difficult and strange book into question - "all you masochists".

I'll stop here, but the list goes on.

It's a genuine defence against all forms of power, and it's also an incredible artistic achievement.

My attempt to clarify. Critique at will.

>he doesn't have the GOAT edition

step up senpai

So I just started Gravity's Rainbow. And I've been following it decently so far. But the Kenosha Kid chapter really threw me for a loop. I get that it's PISCES/Spector injecting Truth Serum into Slothrop. But I'm missing how Slothrop came to be one of Spector's "Foxes". Or is this just left out of the narrative?

I don't know. I was following somewhat decently until this point. It has really thrown me for a loop. But I'll trudge on. Hopefully the farther I read, the more I'll be able to put together.

So I'm like 50 pages into pic related and I have no fucking idea what's going on. When do things start to make sense?

How many books do you have to read preemptively, or how high does your reading level have to be to finish a book like Gravity's Rainbow? I read 1984, The Stranger, The Metamorphosis, The Catcher In The Rye, In The Miso Soup, and The Wasp Factory but a lot of other books are pretty difficult for me, like underground man, the passion according to g h, or nausea, which I just straight up never finish when I try to start reading them.

So how long do you think it will take me to get to the level required to tacked books like infinite jest, gravity's rainbow, or ulysses?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frAEmhqdLFs

I'm not even 100 pages into this and already there have been three independent descriptions of violent gay sex. Is Pynchon a faggot ?

wtf