what GR means to me

[jill]

Hi. 

I have come out of lurking to say a few things about my impressions of
Gravity's Rainbow. I will describe it to you like I describe it to
colleagues or friends who ask about it. And you know, I have to admit many
of my lightbulbs to go off for me were from teachers and GR veterans like
yourselves, so thanks. 

It is a western classic tome of paradoxes. It makes me realize how history
goes into the literary spinnings of one highly educated American, TRP, and
comes out in gorgeous human expression of sometimes the most wicked
squalor. TRP's trips include the dodo bird phenomenon in its various
badnesses, characters whose whole make up are these legendary protagonists
and antagonists, from ancient myth at times, his treatment of the V2 makes
up the sort of secret high science research that was in business together
internationally at the time of the end of WWII. lengthy prose which must be
read twice at times, three times, fact checking that would drive the best
librarian to find out, or just accept as paranoia. It's offensive to
someone who doesn't like to read about the perverted. It is funny and can
be dicussed endlessly, and has tenticles into real life as well as
tenticles from history.

Anyone who has seen Berlin or Nürnberg can remember by seeing what the
results of a raid looked like. Last time I was in Nurnburg, there was a
great scaffolding and they were counting the masonry and cataloging it.
Beginning to redo the church in 1996. Anyone from Nürnberg? How is the
Frauenkirche?

The contents of the p-list is automated at www.waste.org and can be viewed
there somehow.

The plot, said Byron, is ....? What's the plot of the book? No one really
knows but take it like scripture, as a parable, and you can see what it is
about, it is our own destiny.  ?

The science part of the book is very entertaining too, learning about
famous chemists mathematicians and physiker, and realizing that having an
educated opinion about these subjects adds a whole new dimension of
understanding that is enviable. It is a fun read and can be read as
background noise over other titles. ( I have been reading it very slowly
and so haven't really paid attention to much of what the list was about. ) 

Later
Jill