/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.5304816]

Can we discuss the ending to this?

I finished a few days ago and the ending has stuck with me. It was extremely dark and unexpected, for me at least.

The whole 4th part in general was not what I was expecting at all.

[The cats No.5304836]

I liked the ending because it gave closure to the weird-ass Hansel and Gretel BDSM. Also Byron the Bulb and the scene with the moving city and the audience, fuck yes.

[Anonymous No.5304872]

So much of this book was gibberish to me when I first read it. I'm a much better reader now, I think it's time I give it another go.

[Anonymous No.5304883]

Should I read GR first or Mason & Dixon if I have never read a pynchon book before?

[Anonymous No.5304887]

>>5304883
neither, read V. first

[The cats No.5304888]

>>5304883
Neither :^)

[Anonymous No.5304894]

>>5304872
what makes you a 'better reader'?

[Anonymous No.5305214]

>>5304836
Yeah, I liked how it wrapped up everything. I'm not saying I disliked it. Just a lot darker than I expected, especially because in the beginning parts of the 4th part they sort of hype up the counter force and then it all goes to shit.

[Anonymous No.5305224]

>>5304883
Read the crying of lot 49 first. Then read V.
I can't imagine reading GR before V.
Haven't read M&D though

[Anonymous No.5305237]

I think Gottfried's sacrifice inside the rocket represents the murder of naivete, idealism, and the hope for science as a good, and the corruption of all the 20th century Modernist hopes because on page 410, during the first visit of Ilse to Pokler, whilst talking about Ilse's love for the Moon (a previous hope and obsession of Pokler's in the pre-war days), she says "May I fly in it someday? I'd fit inside it, wouldn't I?" followed by "She asked impossible questions. 'Someday,' Pokler told her. 'Perhaps someday to the Moon.'"

that's my theory anyway

[Anonymous No.5305239]

>>5305224
I read GR before V, but there are characters and events in V that come back in GR so it makes a lot of sense to read it like that.

[Anonymous No.5305293]

>>5304816
I think the oddest part about the 4th section is how much you completely lose the Slothrop/Tchetcherine thread that had dominated section 3. And that gets replaced by, like...cartoonish Japanese kamikaze pilots? And a long parable about a sentient lightbulb?

Both of which are awesome, but I don't think I've ever come up with a good answer for the "meaning" of the narrative abandoning its main character.

>>5305237
this is interesting and I'm pretty convinced of it at first glance

[Anonymous No.5305310]

>>5305293
I think (>>5305237 and I'm that jackass btw) the totally-going-off-the-deep-end of part 4 is supposed to be the drastic ends that the resistance in the text (and us, the readers, and all post-modernists, and everybody basically) must go to in fighting the system of death and fear that's been built up. Like when Pirate Prentice joins the Counterforce and nothing makes a lick of sense, it seems like a parable for the abstract art movements that have risen out of that need for a voice that cannot be controlled, for a voice against the MAN.

[Anonymous No.5305354]

>>5305310
I buy that. When I was reading it the best explanation I could come up for myself was something like "everything's falling apart so where Slothrop is doesn't matter anymore," and what you're saying is kind of a stronger and more formalized version of that.

Man, I only barely remember that Pirate joining the Counterforce plotline. It's been about 5 years, I need to read it again.

[Anonymous No.5305380]

>>5305354
Yeah, the way Slothrop just disintegrates as a character and becomes a scattered ball of thoughts and feelings scattered throughout the Zone is one of the most gorgeous things I've ever read.

this book is the shit. and yeah, I'm on my second read, infinitely better the second time.

[Anonymous No.5305577]

I want to reread this so badly but I also don't feel like committing to it