/lit/ - Literature

Was this supposed to be sad?
For whatever reason I found this to be incredibly depressing, though also hopeful. It seemed to me to be saying that human life is full of contradictions and insanity, and while we may think that makes us animate, it simply isn't true. There is no animate and there is no inanimate there is only the simple and the complex, the world is all and that is the case. The only thing we can really hope to do to make sense of it all is to just live in it , and love. There is no hope for sanity, as the very act of life is insane.

So I recently decided to start actually getting into good literature. I'd read before but nothing too great (except Lolita, Brave New World etc.) and I decided to pick up this book. I feel like I was a little out of my element. If someone else who has read this could explain what happened in the epilogue to me that would be wonderful. It went right over my head. Also V. general thread.

faggot

you didn't read V first did you?
You've never read Henry James, have you?

GOD DAMN

So I'm going to jump into V. today.

V as in Pynchon's not 'le anonymous leejun' V.

I read Crying of Lot 49 and liked it so I'm pretty excited.

What do you guys think about it?

How difficult is it?

Do I need to know some context or some obscure references or can I just get right into it?

Just finished V. and Jesus fucking Christ. Definitely one of the most fun books I've read. On the downside, I'm to give a presentation on the merits of the book in a week or so and I don't have the time/energy to reread the book, something I feel I need to do.

So, does anyone know a place where I could get a chapter by chapter plot summary/analysis?

tl;dr 2deep4me. Summary/analysis?

Can anyone give me some insight into what chapter 3 is in this book? Is it just Stencil imagining and uncovering the murder of porpentine from multiple different perspective to show how muddy past un-encountered reality is? I feel like I'm missing something, and I feel like I just read a whole chapter that went straight over my head.

same here, reading this with spark notes, whenever I finish a chapter I have to read it's summary in there to understand what the fuck happened. I used the same method while reading Blood Meridian though in that case I did understand most of it and just wanted to catch all the biblical references and it gave me an overall rich experience. In this case I just feel like it's plain cheating since without it I wouldn't understand a single fucking page Pynchon makes me feel stupid

What is the point of Benny's whole story in pic related? I liked his chapters the best but it had absolutely no relevance to the story except for his trip to Malta with Stencil.

watch /lit/ actually talk about books

In Chapter Nine, is the man who rode Firelily and captured the girl Sarah Kurt, Foppl, or some other character? I can't figure it out.

>inb4 you can't even read pynchon pleb

Anyone out there have a pdf or epub of V. ?

It's nigh-impossible to get on #bookz.

So I'm at the 3rd chapter now...and it's pretty random up till now...does it stay this way through the whole book?

So what's with the association of the feminine with the inanimate in 'V.'? Is Pynchon a misogynist?

I just finished reading V and holy shit, it's a masterpiece!

Why do you prefer Gravity's Rainbow to this, /lit/?

I'd like to hear your interpretations of V. I've got a few ideas about his recurring theme of an inanimate world, but none I'd care to share. First Pynchon novel and all.

Just read the first chapter of this along with some annotations. I've read enough to know I will not like the rest.

Perhaps there's something in it later on for others to get excited about but I am very disappointed. Seems like a load of contrived nonsense for me, forced mystique.

I've read the first chapter of this. Seems okay so far but it's too early to tell.

I took a look at the annotations on this Wiki:
http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1

And I just worry too much will be lost on me. No computer at home and a lot of distractions. I've been reading novellas a lot but I want something more involved. Longest books I've read are 'The Magus'; 'Dune' and 'Lolita'.

I also picked up 'The Magic Mountain' and 'Invisible Man' from the library. IM looks an easy read but something about civil rights America turns me off, same with Irish stuff and pre-19th century England.

What is it about Thomas Pynchon's work that made it "postmodern"? Was Pynchon the first postmodernist novelist?

I honestly, seriously think "V." is my favourite novel.

I'm not sure, though.

I'm about 10% in. Does it get better?

It's almost 3 Am.

Pick a book out of bookcase that perfectly suits the late time and mood.

pic related, it's mine

Keep cool, but care.

> iridescent spider monkeys
> hundreds of paintings of cheese danish
> gator hunting in NYC sewers
> lesbian ballerina committing suicide on stage
> song about nosejobs
> Pig Fucking Bodine
> Yoyodyne androids
> Priest falling in love with disciple who is a rat
> Nazis smacking South Africans with sjamboks.

I'll tell you what the shit is going on.

Awesome is going on.

I enjoyed "V", but I couldn't get through GR. I think I gave up after the guy gets flushed down the toilet.

But what about the V. of literature that doesn't suck?