/lit/ - Literature

I like this one.

popped some boners reading Slothrop's escapades

I can't make sense of part 3, wft is going on there? help?

>...yet his face, for that first time, seen in autumn sunlight through the great west window of the drawing-room, kneeling naked except for a studded dog collar, masturbating metronomic, at shouted commands from Captain Blicero, all his fair skin stained by afternoon a luminous synthetic orange she has never before associated with skin, his penis a blood monolith, its thickly gasping mouth audible in the carpeted silence, his face raised to none of them, but as if to something on the ceiling, or in the sky which ceilings may in his vision stand for, eyes-down as he seems most of the time to be—his face, ascending, tightening, coming, is so close to what she's been seeing all her life in mirrors, her own studied mannequin's stare, that she catches her breath, feels for a moment the speeded percussion of her heart, before turning just such a stare toward Blicero. He is delighted. "Perhaps," he tells her, "I will cut your hair.”
>a luminous synthetic orange she has never before associated with skin
So the nazi pedophile has orange skin in this sequence... Drumpf btfo?

>tfw you read this without knowing any German or WW2 history
>tfw a year later you start reading about Germany and WW2
>tfw you realize you missed 95% of the book

Don't make my pleb mistake

How do I go about journaling about what I am currently reading? I am attempting to start reading things other than newspapers and magazines, so I picked up Gravity's Rainbow yesterday.

I knew going in that it's regarded as a complex book, and that I might not be able to finish it. However, I believe it would be an excellent book for me to slowly read and analyze.

The problem is, I am lost as to what I should journal about. I want to venture more into analytical writing; although, I was never really exposed to it during high school and I am currently saving up for college. I know this may sound stupid, but should I focus on writing more of a summary of what I just read, my analysis, or both?

My other two questions are:
When journaling while reading, is there some sort of style guide to follow in order for one to come up with a better analysis? Maybe like writing about the author's biography, defining words that I am unfamiliar with, listing all of the figurative language that I can find, and rounding it off with my interpretation of the page, chapter, and/or book?

Are there any good introductory books that might cover this topic that /lit/ is aware of?

The whole reason for me wanting to journal is because I have slight memory problems, and I've understood over the years that I'll remember something more if I write it down. Please be easy on me :(

>>9035628
made me giggle ty anon

ive never been really into str8 up war novels but more around literary responses to war, if youre into that too, then i suggest:

slaughterhouse v - vonnegut
americana/the naked lunch - don delilo
catch 22 - joseph heller

currently reading this, very interesting ideas and well worth the effort of reading (i say that because the book is littered with obscure references on an unclear narrative structure)

I have a feeling I'm going to be called a dumbass for admitting it. But this thing's impenetrable even after multiple reading. I had to follow the synopsis below to finally understand the plot.

http://www.ottosell.de/pynchon/rainbow.htm

Just finished this. Have I fallen for a meme?

>S-Gerat, the mysterious device the whole world was desperately searching for, turned out to be a sissy in a fetish suit
>in fact, there are absurd events throughout, to the point they make up the majority of the book
>what were implied to be important points (e.g. Tchitcherine meeting Enzian, the Schwarzkommando firing 00001) either don't happen or pass without incident
>Slothrop goes mad and may have hallucinated the whole thing

Is there some deep meaning to all this I'm missing out on, or was it just 995 pages of rambling? Because if this is serious literature, I'll stick with genre fiction.

Is this edition of GR rare or something? I can't find it avaliable to buy online

>>8459597
No, this one

Does anyone wanna actually have a discussion about this book? I started "The Zone" section today and while I understood Part 2 pretty well the whole tunnel/shwarzkommando/description of the double integrals thing has made me wanna put the book down again. Also what are your thoughts on the Advent section in Part 1? Where Roger and Jessica walk through London and Pynchon waxes poetic on Christmas and the War? I read it a while back but it still continues to confuse and enamor me. Jesus this book is frustrating but for some reason I keep picking it up day after day out of sheer awe, even after it has frustrated the hell outta me.

So I actually just finished it yesterday and I fucking loved it.

It felt so raw and real in a way very few books do but at the same time insanely surreal.

I loved how Pynchon would go off on long tangents that contained incredible insights in so many different things while maintaining a sort of humorous attitude throughout the whole thing.

I'm excited to read it again because there were lots of parts that kept going past what I could pick up and so I know there'll be new things in another (and probably even more after that) read.

This was honestly one of the best books I've ever read.


I didn't know if it was going to be really good or not because I found Infinite Jest (I did end up dropping it) to be boring and probably something I could have enjoyed when I was a depressed teenager.

I thought that the joke was that people would waste their time trying to find meaning in a book that was just kind of alright but with an unjustified length.

>>8101116

It was worth it.

Hey lit,
I have never read any postmodern fiction.
I have read many classics; lots of Greeks, all Shakespeare, 18th and 19th century lit (mostly Russian, French and British), modernists, etc.
The closest thing to postmodern I've read would probably be Borges.

Anyways, my question is what do you suggest for my first? Maybe a short, few book, reading order to get into it?

>Le Hilbert-Spaess man
>Le double derivatives
This shit is fucking tiring. I get it, Pynchon knows math and physics. It's like reading a script for a pretentious Big Bang Theory episode sometimes.

Still p good tho

I, uh... what?

>>6379286

https://www.youtube.com/embed/lezoqO0d4g4

>>6367985
How about this one? I've got it and I think it's fantastic.
Also, does anyone know if this version is one of the one's with that missing text that I've heard about? It's from 1975, so I'm assuming it wouldn't have much taken out.

WOW...IT'S FUCKING NOTHING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNyG-xu-7SQ