Vineland East

[Patrick P. Lynch]

 My advice is to get Weisenburger's Notes and Fowler's Reader's Guide to 
G.R. and work through 25 to 50 pp a day.  It is worth it oce you are 
done.  I was fortunate enough to receive an NEH grant to read it, but it 
(and Joyce's Ulysses) has changed how I read things.  It's a whole new 
way of reading and of comprehending.  You gotta trust and distrust 
Pynchon the whole time you read.  If you haven't read it, Crying of Lot 
49 is a warm up, but we're talking a marathon in G.R. and a hamstring 
stetch in Crying.  You do get used to the pacing and rhythm, though.  
good luck and query for any help along the way.

Be like Bo, though, and Just Do It.

On Tue, 23 Nov 1993 gilbert at sfu.ca wrote:

> > 
> > Well, as long as the Pynchon list's getting a little more active, I was
> > wondering if anybody could give me some good tips on how to work my way
> > through _Gravity's Rainbow_ for the first time. I'm about 50 pages in, and
> > have found it really tough sledding. Would one of the readers' guides
> > help, or just bog me down further? Should I be trying to follow everything
> > closely as I go along, or just let it wash over me and figure some time
> > I'll read it again and figure out what was really happening? 
> > 
> > -- Ted Friedman
> > 
> > 
> It took me 3 years of false starts to get through the first 50 pages.
> Now it's my favourite book in known space.  I've read it 9 times.  I'd
> advise just reading it and don't worry about it making *sense* the first time.
> 
> ==============================================================================
> 
> John (Jody) K. Gilbert
> Department of English
> Simon Fraser University
> Burnaby, B.C. Canada
> office phone (604) 291-3220
> dept. phone  (604) 291-3136
> internet     gilbert at sfu.ca
> 
>