"exhausted by Mark Z Danielewski's dense and overly-complicated tome"

[kelber at mindspring.com]

I'd read V and COL49 way back in my college days, but had been put off from reading GR because I believed the reports that it was impossible to read.  I finally read it about a year and a half ago, and was astounded by it.  Considered it a life-altering experience.  The anxiety of not always understanding who was speaking or what was happening added to the whole experience, though I also got a lot from a closer re-read, supplemented by essays, etc.  The hardest thing for me was not finding anyone I knew who had read the book.  Which is what led me, and, I suspect, others to this list. 

I think the mythology surrounding the book prevents too many people from reading it.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: ruudsaurins at aol.com
>Sent: Sep 24, 2006 3:47 PM
>To: torerye at hotmail.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
>Cc: pynchonoid at yahoo.com
>Subject: Re: "exhausted by Mark Z Danielewski's dense and overly-complicated tome" 
>
>Hoy! Hoy!
>       Ditto!  Ditto!  Ditto!
>                    truly,
>                    ruud 
> 
> 
>-----Original Message-----
>From: torerye at hotmail.com
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Cc: pynchonoid at yahoo.com
>Sent: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 1:03 PM
>Subject: RE:"exhausted by Mark Z Danielewski's dense and overly-complicated tome" 
>
>
>Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 08:26:52 -0700 (PDT) 
>From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@[omitted]> 
> 
>>I read and enjoyed GR long before I got into a closer 
>>reading with research, which added new levels of 
>>enjoyment. "requires decoding" and "autistic" are 
>>unreasonably harsh assessments of GR, seems to me. 
> 
>I absolutely agree. When I first read GR, I'd hardly heard of Pynchon before and didn't really know what to expect, but the novel just blew me out of my socks. Of course I didn't get half of it, but here was this amazing voice grabbing hold of me like no literary voice before or since. Many subsequent rereadings and tons of research have of course uncovered the incredible depth and richness of GR, but that first innocent reading remains precious to me, and it is the main reason why I can only shake my head resignedly (or shake my fist in anger) when people make such easy claims. In all likelihood, 90% of such claims come from people who've never finished (or, in fact, begun) the novel. 
>That being said, GR is of course not for everyone. I suspect one has to be wired in a certain way to appreciate GR. 
> 
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