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/lit/ - Literature

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6058311 No.6058311 [Reply] [Original]

Is it just 2deep4me? Am I supposed to keep track of every character and when different things are happening/referenced/meaningful?

I get that the whole "collage of different viewpoints" is cool, and it's interesting that almost every chapter is written from the perspective of a different character, but I honestly just have no idea what's going on 200 pages in. Each collage of perspectives seems to focus in and buildup on a certain event, but when that event finally comes, I fail to see the significance of it, or how it affects the "present day" characters like Profane or the Sick Crew.

Any advice? Thoughts on the novel? Is Pynchon a hack?

>> No.6058341

>>6058311
Jesus. Can no one fucking finish a book before coming here to shit on it because they didn't finish the goddamn book?

Holy goddamn fucking shit. Fuck you. Kill yourself.

>> No.6058347

>>6058311

>Is it just 2deep4me?

Based on everything in your post, sadly, yes.

>> No.6058367

>>6058341
*applause*

>> No.6058392

>>6058341
>>6058341
I'm not shitting on it. I'm actually enjoying it so far, but I feel like I'm not getting everything i could out of it.
I thought i would come to my favourite literature discussion board to discuss literature and maybe a helpful stranger could offer some perspective on it, but apparently anybody who wants to ask questions about a book before they're finished it just makes everybody else upset.

Have you read it? If so what did you think of it?

>> No.6058396
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6058396

>>6058341
Yeah thats right you tell him, serves him right for asking a question

>> No.6058399

i wouldn't worry about keeping track of everything. you can read the book again later, and imo it's better taken episode by episode anyway

>> No.6058409

>>6058392

How can you know if you'll be able to fit the pieces together until you've finished the book? Do you want a summary of the opening chapters or a guide or something? All of that info is on google if you're having a tough time finishing the book

Come back and post a thread when you're done

>> No.6058450

>>6058392
Yes I've read it Finish the fucking book. Sometimes when you read writers who are really good and strange and unbelievably talented they have a meaning that spans the whole book, questions that are answered at the end or in the middle, and you have to actually keep reading to see what it's all about.

Read the fucking book. If you like it, good for you. You enjoy Pynchon.

>> No.6058454

>>6058409
I suppose that's a fair point to make. I guess I'm just discouraged at how little sense I can make of it at this point of the book. I'm not considering abandoning it, and honestly it's probably my fault for having been so inconsistent with reading it over the past month or two.
In the first couple chapters, it seemed like it was really going somewhere, and there were some themes that I could see had opportunity to develop, and the characters had motives and developing personalities, etc. but then the setting jumps back a few decades to give some backstory on a few of the characters, but then the story just stays there in late 19th century Europe, and what's happening there seems to have very little to do with the characters introduced at the start of the book.

>>6058399
I've considered that. I know that Pynchon does a similar thing in Gravity's Rainbow with the "vignettes" separated by rows of squares, like each one is a film strip, meant to be viewed as it's own piece of a puzzle, but i wasn't sure if that's an element of V as well.

>> No.6058468

>>6058450
Alright. Honestly this is the kind of answer I was looking for. If there's an overarching thread connecting these stories, that's all I need to know.
I wasn't sure there was one, or if maybe it was just a collection of short stories that you have to infer a story from, or what have you. I'm obviously going to continue reading it, and I DO like Pynchon, at least from TCOL49 and what I've read so far of GR and V.

>> No.6058480

>>6058450
what a fucking cock you are. You've basically written a lot without saying anything.

>> No.6058965

>>6058468
the ambiguity about this is central to the novel. you are not supposed to be able to answer the question at this point, but you should definitely be thinking about why Pynchon has you asking this. (and you're right to be asking it, but you should read on, as others have said in less nice ways.)

>> No.6059306

>>6058311

Specifically in the case of V., if you have no idea whats going on while being 200 pages in and you cannot appreciate what you have read this far, I believe the rest of the book isn't going to get better for you.

Not sure if the following is a spoiler or not, but by the end of the novel everything definitely does not tie up nicely like you would maybe expect.