/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.6199296]

I want to read some Pynchon-Lite. Should I read Lot 49 or Inherent Vice?
>inb4 GR

[Anonymous No.6199335]

>>6199296
Lot 49 is not lite. neither is IV. there is no lite pynchon. sorry.

>if you think IV is lite u misread sorry

[Anonymous No.6199338]

lot 49 is easy reading. start there

[Anonymous No.6199342]

>>6199296
i heard IV was very easy, and that lot 49 is a good starting point

[Anonymous No.6199352]

never read pynchon, but in what way is he difficult?

[Anonymous No.6199360]

>>6199335
spoken like a true pleb

[The cats No.6199366]

Honestly start with V. TCoL49 is only rec'd because it's short and it's a polarizing, murky little book.

[Anonymous No.6199414]

>>6199366
i heard V was almost as difficult as GR

[Anonymous No.6199418]

>>6199352
Diverse vocabulary, esoteric references, shifting perspectives & tenses, numerous characters, non-chronological plot, surreal imagery, something something sentence fragments.

>>6199296
Lot 49 is good for introducing readers to themes and concepts he writes about in almost all of his other books.

IV is, so I hear, his most "fun" book.

[The cats No.6199427]

>>6199414
Nah.

[Anonymous No.6199436]

>>6199296
Read Crying of Lot 49 first, see if you like the way he writes. Then read V., get used to it and the Gravity's Rainbow. I made the mistake of reading GR Before V., I think I'd be enjoying it more if I was more prepared to it.

[Anonymous No.6199437]

>>6199414
He's a tough author. Get over your fear of not fully understanding an author's style or quirks the first time you read one of his books.

[Anonymous No.6199451]

Lot 49. IV is fucking dull.

[Anonymous No.6199453]

Don't obsess with "easing into" him so much. Otherwise you're gonna do like so many people and read IV just because it's simple and completely miss the Pynchon experience.

The density is part of the fun. Get over it.

[Anonymous No.6199463]

>>6199453
>Otherwise you're gonna do like so many people and read IV just because it's simple
Based on what I know about IV currently it sounds the most interesting to me.

[Anonymous No.6199496]

>>6199463
Then go read it, ffs. Just keep in mind that you're reading the un-Pynchon Pynchon.

[Anonymous No.6200946]

>>6199496
>un-Pynchon Pynchon
that's nonsensical

[Anonymous No.6200958]

>>6200946
No, he's right. V. is a good starting point for someone wanting to see if they like Pynchon Pynchon. Or one could simply start with Gravity's Rainbow.

[Anonymous No.6200980]

I just bought Mason anf Dixon on impulse because the cover was pretty and you guys praise the author so much. Have I fucked up? What am I in for?

[Anonymous No.6201078]

>>6200958
I think everything he has written is worthwhile though, and that calling something 'lite' or 'un-Pynchon' does not do it justice, and confuses people. Also, I remember that in the case of IV, the book was actually marketed that way, another testament to how irrelevant the 'lite' argument is.
just my opinion though, if someone wants to be told how to approach a book in advance that's on them

[Anonymous No.6201108]

>>6201078
>I think everything he has written is worthwhile though,

So you want to suck the guy's cock. We get it.

Inherent Vice is unbearable rubbish that was only published because it's Pinecone. If he keeps it up, he'll destroy his reputation, no fooling.

I think he's decent, but over-rated anyway, but if he keeps turning out crap like IV and Bleeding Edge, there's a danger that's all he'll be remembered for because of the goldfish memory of popular culture.

inb4 his eternal and inherent genius will guarantee his posterity. That's not how it works, as anyone but a child knows.

[Anonymous No.6201170]

>>6201108
posterity is not my concern, and you seem too mad to properly discuss this. also, you seem to care more about the author's 'reputation' than the enjoyment you took from his works, or anything else substantial. hate all you want, at the end of the day it's you that's having a bad time and raging on the internet, maybe you ought to rethink stuff.

[Anonymous No.6201204]

>>6201108
What contemporary authors do you like then?

[Anonymous No.6202100]

>>6201108
>goldfish memory of popular culture.

it's funny, I mentioned I was reading some Joyce to friends and they all said "the finnegans wake guy?"

They couldn't even name anything else he had done, not even fucking Ulysses. They knew him as the crazy "finnegans wake guy"

> implying finnegans wake is trash because it requires effort

[Anonymous No.6202159]

I like V. more than GR or M&D. It is a good place to start

[Anonymous No.6202179]

>>6200980
It's arguably his masterpiece.

[Anonymous No.6202183]

>>6202100
>> implying finnegans wake is trash because it requires effort
No, Finnegans Wake is trash because it requires so much effort to communicate something so stupid. The actual content of the novel (puns aside) could fit in a greentext post on /r9k/

[Anonymous No.6202188]

>>6202183

stop being retarded

https://bibliot3ca.wordpress.com/dante-bruno-vico-joyce-by-samuel-beckett/

[Anonymous No.6202219]

>>6202188
Literature serves only two purposes:
a) to explain something about the relationship of God to Man
b) to entertain

Anything that doesn't fit these two bullet points is trash.

[Anonymous No.6202237]

>>6202219

for some reason I can't explain, I have more sympathy toward's Beckett's masterful analysis than towards your shitpost

[Anonymous No.6202257]

>>6200980
> What am I in for?
funnnn

[Anonymous No.6202258]

>>6202237
> posts meme images
> unfunny meme images
> namedrops le modernist authority figure
Forgive me, my retard arguing quota is filled, I gotta argue with another retard in another thread. See ya around.

[Anonymous No.6202265]

First I read was V. it was hard as shit (because I'm not even native english speaker) but ultimately enjoyable. Then read TCoL49 and it was much easier. I'd say start with that

[Anonymous No.6202273]

>>6202237
i read this and pretend it's dfw saying it

[Anonymous No.6202398]

OP, ignore the other faggots and shitposters in this thread.

here is the basic guide to pincone:

ranked from most accessible to least accessible

>Inherent Vice
>
>Bleeding Edge
>
>Vineland
>
>CoL49
>
>V
>
>
>
>Against the Day
>
>
>
>
>
>Mason & Dixon
>
>
>
>Gravity's Rainbow

ranked from shittiest to greatest

>inherent vice
>
>bleeding edge
>CoL49
>vineland
>
>against the day
>mason & dixon
>
>v
>gravity's rainbow

make of that what you will