Gentlemen, start your flamethrowers

[John Doe]

well....I can't see any reason why anybody would flame
you, Ivan...I have read GR twice, cover to cover, the
second time with the Companion...and ya gotta realize
I am one of those Pynchon devotees; a real culty -
have a tattoo of the post horn on my left arm
even...but that being said..sure,...as much as I
admire his writing and maintain the hyperbolic opinion
that he is THE,- or at least in the top three - most
talented living novelists on the planet; in terms of
sheer raw ability - verbal pyrotechnics I call
it...but also in terms of compellingly quirky
imagery...I can still see where getting through the
book can feel like more work and less reward...and
yeah, I have caught myself often feeling: "
Jeeezz...Enough about Slothrop! I wanna know more
about Enzian"...or " Man, this episode has terrific
excursions into the outback of the surreal, and cool
cartoon capers, but I wanna know what Pynchon REALLY
thinks about Roger Mexico's perspective...etc"...then
of course I catch myself again and smirk realizing
that all this is probably intentional in his scheme;
to yank and tease and pull the reader's conditioned
expectations, sometimes grossly, sometimes subtly, to
the point where a tedium registers due to the sort of
accumulation he's doing- WHY exactly he chooses to
accumulate the details of THIS crisis as opposed to
THAT Character interaction is of course part of the
deliciously frustrating effect of his narrative...he
knows all the rules....he fucks with them, obviously,
for a peculiar effect...I Haven't come to an easy
summarization of what that effect is, but I like it
that way...even though the conditioned part of me
wants closure, neat conclusions,
non-open-endedness...but because another part of me
relishes the ambiguity, I dig it on the whole...yeah,
I even got the feeling sometimes Pynchon lost some
gumption, or trailed off the original febrile
passionate vision he bagan with... that could just be
my missing the point...if point is even the right idea
here...I think one can say sure, it's an "uneven"
novel in that sense, but he wasn't trying to imitate
the equipoise of Madame Bovary...I find the notion
that the novel is "like" a movie, a filmic construct,
very usefull in "amking sense" of it...the idea could
be dead wrong, but I doubt it...I wouldn't fault
yourself for finding much of it dull...it's a kind of
reading that is not going to scintillate all the time,
or erupt with epiphanal gems about human nature...but
there IS something very...suggestive going on in
there....it is not merely the steaming slag-heap many
detractors have made it out to be...or is it?  ;  )


--- Ivan Ackerman <thedidsburyman at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi folks
>  
> Now I know I'm potentially letting myself in for a
> real flame-fest here, but what the hell.
>  
> I've been running through Gravity's Rainbow again,
> nearly finished Part III (In The Zone). And my
> question is this: Am I the only one who finds GR
> significantly decreases, in terms of being an
> enjoyable read, as it goes on?
>  
> I'm not claiming the quality of the writing
> declines, or that there aren't any stunning scenes,
> ideas, phrases etc. in later episodes. Rather, I
> find Part I (Beyond The Zero) by far the most
> enjoyable, atmospheric, evocative, and emotionally
> involving section. Although there are some truly
> memorable phrases in later parts, I find all my
> favourite scenes, phrases, and passages are bunched
> together in Part I. I find the Casino Herman Goering
> section less enjoyable, though still great, and to
> be honest I feel the narrative starts to get bogged
> down, with the number of phrases or sentences that
> stop you in your tracks, markedly less frequent. By
> the time we get into The Zone, the book becomes for
> me just a (very superior) picaresque adventure.
>  
> Now I don't mind being flamed for this, but that's
> not my intention. I'd welcome any other views on the
> relative merits of GR's four sections. And I haven't
> commented on Part IV  (The Counterforce) because I
> haven't got that far in this reading.
>  
> Thanks all
>  
> Ivan
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
> 
> 		
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