u/landomonium

I’m a first-timer for Pynchon and I’m wrapping up part 3 of Gravity’s Rainbow. I’m loving this experience. Pynchon is my 78 y/o uncle’s favorite author and he believes GR is not just Pynchon’s Magnum Opus, but the definitive Great American Novel.

For some added context on my uncle— he was a public high school teacher in east la for several decades and also was a public servant for LA County such as working on the Water Control Board and similar agencies. He’s a Leftist who has now moved down to Colombia to study the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez lol.

He has been encouraging me to read GR for a long time and I often call him after I’ve read a handful of chapters so we can discuss. During a very long chapter in the middle of part 3 I texted him about how Pokler, Blicero, and some other’s ’rocket mysticism’ reminds me of our technocrats almost religious connection to both AI and transhumansim.

I really enjoyed his response so figured I’d share that here!

Added it this way because this passage is the last few lines of one page and the first few of the next. The pages are for my British version of the book.

The change to the second person may be what really threw me off but I was in the library reading this out loud trying to comprehend what I was actually reading here, probably took me 6 reads before getting the cadence right.

I posted 2 weeks ago about how I finally felt in the ‘flow’ of reading GR and it may be because part 2 is just easier than the rest of the book, part 3 became pretty difficult again but at least I am really enjoying reading it, unlike my experience when I first started part 1.

Currently on page 433 of 760 and having a blast. At one point it felt like I was getting close to finishing it and it truly was a bummer, so realizing I still have 300+ pages left was very good news.

Thanks for reading and if you have any thoughts on the passage I shared- I’d love to hear it!

Long time listener, first time caller. Also wanted to note that this is my first Pynchon novel.

So for the first maybe 80 or so pages, reading GR was like pulling teeth and then suddenly, probably from just getting used to the style and density of the book… it became very enjoyable and much easier to read. Went on to read another 50 pages or so and then decided to go back and re-read the first 83 pages / first 13 episodes of the book and that was much more enjoyable on the re-read. Of course I’ve had experiences with novels where it starts to click and become both easier and enjoyable for me but it has never been to this degree.

Now I am half way through part 2 which, so far at least, has been both much lighter in tone and much easier to read overall. Part 2 is also a lot funnier so far, although Part 1 had plenty of great goofs throughout.

Anyways- I’m sure other people have had experiences like this when reading GR for their first time so I doubt I’m alone in this but it’s my experience, dammit!

Sorry to any snobs for what I’m about to say.. I don’t know if this comparison has been made before in this subreddit but the reading experience so far has reminded me of the times I’ve watched the Nolan movie Tenet. If you’re trying to figure out exactly what is going on the whole time… you’re going to have a horrible time, at least on your first read / watch.

Anyways thanks for reading my post, I’m very excited to continue on with this book and the attached photos are two passages from part 1 that really stood out to me.

That’s all :)