[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 21 KB, 245x350, image.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6532281 No.6532281 [Reply] [Original]

... so why isn't this discussed more on /lit/? Its Wikipedia page gives me the impression that it's effectively the unintentional locus The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow and Mason & Dixon were all aiming for. Should I read it or does it all go downhill from here?

>> No.6532372

People who have read it seem to like it about on par with at least V. If not GR. i'm guessing most people just I haven't. I'm saving it for last I know, because it's 1200 pages so at least when I'm running out of Pynchon I'll have the longest thing he every published left at least.

>> No.6532375

>>6532281
I'm actually looking quite forward to reading it. I like the time period.

>> No.6532474

>>6532281
About halfway through it. I love the absolutely perfect satarizations of authors from the that time. He does everything from Lovecraft (which he invokes brilliantly as a 9/11 allegory), to Owen Wister.

>> No.6532481

>>6532281
Why isn't penguin classics discussed more on lit? Is that what you're trying to say?

>> No.6532526

because most people haven't read it cuz it's long. It's my second favorite Pinecone novel after GR
the ending is so fantastic. Pynchon basically just decides, well I want to write about a private eye in LA but I like the 60s more than the late 1910s, lol time to stop writing and start another book

>> No.6532546

>>6532372
GR / M&D > AtD > V = TCoL49 > IV for me, haven't read BE and Vineland yet, but I doubt this will change based on what I've seen people talk about them

>> No.6532549

OP here. Thanks for the responses guys, I think I'll buy it for myself as an early birthday present.

The time period it's set in and the thematic explorations seem very relevant to my interests as well.

>> No.6532554

>>6532549

>>6532546 Here, the main reason for it ranking so high is the interest in the themes and time-setting as well, so get ready for a wild ride, specially with the Traverse family parts

>> No.6532567

>>6532546
GR > V > L49 >>> M&D > ATD > IV > Vineland > BE

>> No.6532575

Also I'm not too sure if it's an "unintentional locus." Given the wide reach Pynchon put into AtD, both in time, place, and length, he's able to squeeze more of what he's interested in in an even more scatter-brained and digressive style, and previously used ideas come up (such as Central Asian mysticism ala the Soviet officer in GR), but I wouldn't say it is in some way the key to the rest. Just kinda a distinct entity that, if you're a Pynchon fan, you will love for it's Pynchon-ness.

>> No.6532791

Like others have said, I think it's just that not many people have read it. I've posted about it several times when it comes up, but that isn't very often.

I liked it quite a lot and definitely think it's worth reading. It has some great shit but also has its flaws, such as the length and how diffuse the narrative is, even for Pynchon. Although thematically it's very cohesive and easy to follow; perhaps too easy, it's not exactly subtle with its main themes.

Personally I place it slightly below Mason & Dixon.
GR > V > M&D > ATD > TCOL49

>> No.6532959

As a whole I didn't find it very enjoyable, but there were parts I absolutely loved. The early photography/film sections, the pre-WW1 stuff like the English/German boat that split into two in the event of war and that one Franz Ferdinand bar scene, probably the hardest I've ever laughed at a single joke in a book.

>> No.6532992

50 pages from the end of this book currently, I really liked the first 400 pages or so and then there's 500 pages of people traipsing around Europe doing boring shit that nobody cares about.

>> No.6533046

>>6532992
Well, considering its 760 pages in length that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

>> No.6533059

>>6533046
PB is like 1100.

Also, translations, mine is 1300 pp

>> No.6533062

>>6533059
Weird. So speaking more specifically then, is your problem mostly just with Part 3?

>> No.6533209

>>6533062
Yeah. Bilocations. Wasn't a whole lot in there I found real entertaining. Like, there's all this setup where you think it's gonna be this big Traverse vs Vibe family smashup and then it's anything but. I'm struggling to remember what even happens. I don't really remember anything that happened with Lew Basnight and the TWIT, or anything Yashmeen Halfcourt does on her own, and I don't really remember anything Cyprian Latewood does before he meets up with Reef Traverse. There's just a lot of boring nonsense to trudge through to get to the good parts

>> No.6533258

I just finished it. It's one of his most gorgeous thematically and symbolically... the ending definitely made me emotional. I think it pairs well with Gravity's Rainbow. It's much more of a fantasy than GR - more straightforward in its prose, the characters and plotlines are more optimistic overall. There's still similar current running through the two, but AtD reflects a sort of innocence lost with the advent of modern warfare, and the beginning of 20th century capitalism. Interesting that GR is both more complex but also more nightmarishly primitive. AtD happily uses Verne and Wells while GR harkens back to German fairytales and early Christian pain. The Tarot and Kabbalah runs deep in both.

I agree that it's a matter of AtD not being widely read. It's kind of a pain to recommend to people because it doesn't have the reputation of M&D or GR, but it's five to ten times longer than his shorter stuff.

>> No.6533344

>>6532281
I have it and many other things by Pinecone (almost everything actually, all I'm missing is Mason & Dixon I think). It's just that after reading V. and Gravity's Rainbow one after the other, I'm taking a break from Pinecone to read other authors.

I think most people on /lit/ haven't gone that deep into Pinecone yet and there's so much other shit to read too that going through his whole catalog is going to take a while.

After V. and Gravity's Rainbow I'm definitely hooked but I don't like to read more than 2-3 things by one author in a row, especially if they're long.

>> No.6533681

>>6533209
I'm retarded. At the time I posted in this thread I thought we were discussing Gravity's Rainbow. Funnily enough both comments still apply.

>> No.6535056

Does anyone have that guide to Pynchon JPEG?

>> No.6535219
File: 273 KB, 920x662, 1426955645926.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6535219

>>6532567
>The Crying of Lot 49 better than Mason and Dixon

>> No.6535230

>>6535219
It's my favorite novella of all time. I read it very often. Whole lot of fun and surprisingly dense for its length.

>> No.6535297

>>6532992
Hah. I'm about 600 pages in, and this is exactly the fucking thing. It doesn't seems thematically necessary, more like he's just doing whatever he likes then throwing in the odd passage as a callback to the main theme. I think the profusion of impossible events thing emerged more naturally in M&D and GR.

>> No.6535397

>>6535230
How is it better than Mason and Dixon, though?

>> No.6536728

This was really a mix of highs and lows. I don't think it did enough to get a reader to want to stick through it on its own, and its more the Pynchon hype keeping most going, imho.

>>6532959
I loved those parts that really spoke to the history fans of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, like the Russian Chums' airship named the great game, and how they turned Battleship Potemkin style.

>>6533209
I was disappointed how little Lew did. And the Traverse vs Vibe makes sense; the whole novel had a naive view of the rightness of socialism, but when it got to the line at the big clash in Venice when there was the attempted murder of Scarsdale, but all his agents like popped out of flowerpots and the ceilings or whatever, I don't remember, and he looks at Kit with the 'who the fuck did you think I am' look, it really went to show how dismal and one sided revolution can appear.

>>6533258
Yeah, the size is intimidating. It was my third Pynchon because I only read the ones at the library. It was the first one though I really enjoyed and got lost in, until the Balkans episode when the fighting breaks out. Then it started to lose my attention.