r/ThomasPynchon

Like title.

Ofc, I don't understand the math, but I am curious why some number patterns are regarded so highly"

Just finished Gravity’s Rainbow. Throughout the book I had long moments of wondering if I’m enjoying reading this book. BUT after finishing it I feel like it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read (so far). Is that part of the magic of Pynchon? And has anyone else felt completely different about the book after having finished it? It’s impossible to talk about this book with people in my real life who haven’t read it lol.

Gravity’s Rainbow is the necessary book for our times. Published in 1973 and set at the conclusion of World War Two, it foresees the totalitarian, technocratic, transhumanist forces unleashed during Covid. In Thomas Pynchon’s great book, characters struggle for freedom in world that places ultimate hope in the Rocket. Your struggle for freedom in a world that places ultimate hope in the Needle is reflected in that story.

Key to reading the text is taking seriously its spiritual and esoteric themes. Gravity’s Rainbow rejects the two foundations of Western thought: Scientific rationalism and religious dogmatism. It invites us instead into a world of magical, paranormal, and divine forces. To accept that invitation is both to gain a deeper appreciation of the book as literature and to advance along one’s own spiritual journey.

“Those like Slothrop, with the greatest interest in discovering the truth, were thrown back on dreams, psychic flashes, omens, cryptographies, drug-epistemologies, all dancing on a ground of terror, contradiction, absurdity.” (Pt. 3, ep. 30)

The Esoteric Gravity’s Rainbow Group Read (EGReGoRe) starts August 26, 2026 (on Dreamwidth).

***I encourage everyone to check out the GR reading group that u/Wild_Pitch_4781 is organizing: https://www.reddit.com/r/ThomasPynchon/comments/1vrosqx/2_weeks_until_gravitys_fall_2026/ . Some of us are just too-old-for-Discord and I've been working on this since my last post on GR in the spring: https://www.reddit.com/r/ThomasPynchon/comments/1sknt6o/gr_and_the_source_of_the_name_grigori_crossposted/

I'm not promising Gravity's Rainbow themed arts and crafts, but this is an idea for a rocket mandala

> Numerous recent commentators have pointed out the advantages of using the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin to read the works of Thomas Pynchon, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett, though, as far as I know, no one has attempted to read all three simultaneously in this way. But viewing all three of these writers through the common optic of Bakhtin reveals certain family resemblances among them, in particular their participation in the Menippean tradition privileged by Bakhtin. Such a reading strategy also highlights the intensely political vision that informs the works of these three writers, all of whom mount fierce assaults on authoritarian ideologies of all kinds. Since a full study of the political similarities among Pynchon, Joyce, and Beckett is obviously beyond the scope of any single essay, I will concentrate here on the ways these writers use organized religion as a central instance of the authoritarian ideologies they oppose, particularly the ways they carnivalize religion by juxtaposing the high-minded idealistic claims of the Church with images of the mortality and physicality Christianity attempts to repress. One specific image cluster reappears in the work of all three authors. Pynchon, Joyce, and Beckett all use rats as images of abject physicality to subvert the spiritual/physical hierarchy maintained in traditional Christian thought.

Does anyone have any input on the audiobooks? I don’t have the time to read anymore but drive for hours a day because of work. I’ve resisted listening to any of his work because it just feels like it wouldn’t translate well to audio form. It’s been a while since I’ve read one of his novels but I remember having to reread sentences and passages constantly. Kind of feels like this would happen even more frequently if I were to listen to it instead. Thanks!

Currently about 220 pages into Mason & Dixon, and I'm really struck by how warm and playful the chapters focusing on Mason's relationship with Rebekah are. Of course there's so much sadness and melancholy and longing there too...but when Mason is telling Dixon about how they met, or recounting their picnic date upon the hilltop, there's just so much depth of feeling between them that I can't help but want to stay up there with them, and then a few passages later, hold Mason close, and mourn her, too.

Perhaps it's their banter, and the homey way they tease each other and kind of disappear into their own world, the way she calls him 'Heart...or the way both of their inner worlds rest in the others'. I'm sure there's more I'm not seeing or understanding here (and maybe it will develop in a way that's not so heartwarming later on), but at least right now, I just want to cry with Mason, and listen to him talk about Rebekah, and the inner world they created and shared together. It's the same type of gentle warmth and rhythm that I love from Bloom and Molly's introduction in "Calypso" in Ulysses (how she calls him Poldy!), despite any sadness or distance that's latently there.

I mean, does it get more lovely than this? (from pages 208-209):

"They found a Hill-Top and pick-nick'd. Mason, she had already notic'd, search'd ever in the smoky distance, beyond the Observatory, and the winding of the River, for the East India Docks. 'Do you dream of the far Indies?' she ask'd finally. 'I do. I wish we might go.'

He'd been in fact just about to tell her. It delighted him, this wordless Transgression of Cause and Effect. Aloud, 'So we might.' And her face turn'd to him. 'What are you doing on the sixth of June 1761?'

Innocently expectant, 'Oh, I'd have to look in my Calendar of Engagements...Are you inviting me off to the Indies, then?'

'Sumatra, if we're lucky.'
'If we're not?'
'Dunno. Hounslow Heath?'
'I meant,--would you go alone? Leave me here?'
'Twould have to be together.'"

Howdy Weirdos,

It's Sunday again, and I assume you know what the means? Another thread of "What Are You Into This Week"?

Our weekly thread dedicated to discussing what we've been reading, watching, listening to, and playing the past week.

Have you:

• Been reading a good book? A few good books?
• Did you watch an exceptional stage production?
• Listen to an amazing new album or song or band? Discovered an amazing old album/song/band?
• Watch a mind-blowing film or tv show?
• Immerse yourself in an incredible video game? Board game? RPG?

We want to hear about it, every Sunday.

Please, tell us all about it. Recommend and suggest what you've been reading/watching/playing/listening to. Talk to others about what they've been into.

Tell us:

What Are You Into This Week?

- r/ThomasPynchon Moderator Team

I have read ONLY the first 100 pages of Gravity’s Rainbow and I have some paranoid ramblings to get off my chest.

So I wouldn’t say the only thing I read is romantasy, I’ve actually branched out quite a bit these last few years. However, I won’t deny that I was rejuvenated by the romantasy genre like many women in their 30s who religiously read fanfiction as a teen.

Despite my passionate encounters with countless shadow daddies, I’ve found myself quite bored, nothing really hits anymore. Since then I’ve been desperately looking for my next epic, long winded, melodramatic read.

Gravity’s Rainbow appeared on my radar when I was thirsting over TikTok’s of Jacob Elordi during his press tour of Frankenstein (Read that as well, it was perfect). I thought, since we both love reading and have so much in common I should take his recommendation and read Pynchon.

So I’m 100 pages in and… um…. It’s good. I mean it’s great, but also… um… what? Excuse me? Hello?

Here are my thoughts, spoiler alert for this book I do not understand:

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

Like most decent books the whole point is generally in those first few sentences and Pynchon’s opening is fantastic. “A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.” So there I am locked in… for a whole two pages…. Then I’m reading about bananas…

Now I’ve read enough about dicks to put two and two together. I can understand euphemisms, romantasy is full of them, so I figured I was a smarty pants and could handle what I was reading but I was wrong. I didn’t understand anything. Then aha! Here comes a guy who gets boners for bombs and I was locked back in.

Now that I’m 100 pages in I feel like maybe I’m understanding the structure or the novel. There’s a constant zooming in of this… encyclopedia of characters, digging around in their memories and thoughts and even their backgrounds and ancestor, so much so I can rarely tell where I am or who is talking or what we’re even going on about. But what’s most standing out to me through all the confusing ramblings is how Pynchon is implanting ideas and concepts before really ever arriving at “the point”. He’s mentioning dogs and experiments and scientists and then in the next scene we’re really discussing Pavlovian methodology. Bananas and dicks… it’s complex but also… satirical. If I try to tell someone about this I start talking about semen and I’m cooked. At this point it’s worse than trying to describe romantasy to people without blushing.

And then I remember the opening line, and the concept of the V2 bomb travelling so fast it hits before there’s any warning. The sound comes after the bomb… cause and effect all out of order. Kinda like this freaking book. I know foreshadowing isn’t very revolutionary but it’s more than just foreshadowing, some would say it’s conditioning. It’s also making me paranoid, delusional… Instead of anticipating what’s coming next I’m wondering if we talked about this already. Déjà vu…

I could probably count the number of characters thus far but I can tell there will be many more. Some not even real characters, but… ideas of characters? Archetypes I suppose… Something about a cowboy wanting to fuck a snake… America is that you? And more dick references…

There seemed to be a chapter about… disorder… creating disorder… I’m not sure really. Purposeful disorder to confuse and confound the enemy? I feel like there’s a connection to all the different programs and the repurposing of hospitals and buildings for the war, but I’m not sure yet.

And finally ending at around page 100, I’m left in this insane chapter about some freaky weirdos engaging in Hansel and Gretel sex play… something about propaganda, maybe filming propaganda. And I think the octopus came back!

I am wondering if anyone has any tips at deciphering or if I’m just supposed to go with the flow. My only method seems to be imagining this book like an anime, so…. Help?

What’s the most difficult book you’ve read? Is this one really a masterpiece? How about Pynchon’s other novels? Are they are as cracked as this one? Any and all paranoid ramblings are welcome.

Please no spoilers for the rest of the book!

Months ago while reading V, my mom and i went to Walmart. I was carrying my paperback copy of V. around (which I enjoyed, receiving Zero Performative Male allegations. and I don’t remember if i was always having Ubermensch reading spaces in the passenger seat of the car or if i was having the other glaringly awkward reading positions, but in both cases booktime is better than scrolling phone).

When I jabbered about the book to a smiling fellow patron of Wal-Mart upon eye contact and psychiatric mania flying under the radar, the book came up and we shared what was the pleasure of a wild book report.

There must be some sort of universal recognition of what’s Pynchon and what’s not because after i gave my spiel about V she recommended that i watch One Battle after Another and also threw in a recommendation for a show called Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. I ended up watching that one. Been a minute since I’d already watched the DiCaprio movie.

Three days ago I learned that the film One Battle After Another was based on Vineland by Pynchon.

it’s a small world after all.

I came across this video earlier today and I couldn't stop thinking about how it reminded me of Pynchon. Like, this is a rant I could easily imagine reading in a Pynchon novel, even the guy himself with the weird haircut somehow seems perfectly pynchonesque.

This got me thinking about a broader question: What do I think is pynchonesque? How would I define the aesthetic? Is it the playfully weird names? Is it a particular flavor of surrealism and Americana that only Pynchon can properly tap into?

So, my question to you is exactly that: To you, what is pynchonesque?

Bonus comment: That one time Rudy Giuliani gave a press conference in a place that was not a hotel but was indeed called Four Seasons, and this place happened to be located between a crematorium and sex shop, that hit me as extremely pynchonesque.

I’ve been working my way through Against the Day, specifically the Iceland Spar section (Fleetwood Vibe’s arctic journals and the aftermath), and a movie connection hit me that I wanted to run by you all.
While reading about the expedition, the sheer scale of the crystal formation, and that weird optical horror haunting the ice around Skerryvore, I kept thinking of Forbidden Planet (1956).
Since Forbidden Planet is famously a sci-fi riff on The Tempest, the monster on the planet isn't a physical alien beast. It's the "Monster from the Id," a subconscious projection of Morbius's mind brought into reality by the ancient Krel tech.
It feels like Pynchon is playing in the exact same world here.
The Arctic functions almost identically to Prospero’s isolated island, a boundary space where natural law starts to bend.
The Iceland Spar acts a lot like the Krel machine. It double-refracts light, but symbolically it doubles vision and amplifies the men's internal shadows, greed, and paranoia.
The actual "presence" causing havoc out on the ice isn't a polar monster in the traditional sense, but the psychic projection of the expedition party itself. Their own imperial hubris and mental decay are being brought to life by the crystal's properties.
Pynchon is always weaving cinema and classic stage tropes into his stuff, so this clicked for me. Did anyone else pick up on a Forbidden Planet / Tempest dynamic during this part, or am I pulling at threads here?