does AtD rock?

[Daniel Harper]

Sorry, had a bit more to add but I clicked the wrong button.

On 7/13/07, Daniel Harper <daniel.e.harper at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I read ATD first. Not quite finished with GR. I saved GR for last
> specifically because it was supposed to be P's best, and I'm glad I did so
> -- it took me over two thousand pages of Pynchon reading (and about four
> months) before I could really "get" the way Pynchon used language, before it
> became even somewhat natural in my head. Pynchon writes like no one else,
> and the primary challenge for a new reader is just being able to follow him
> where he goes, and to accept that there are a lot of things you're simply
> going to have to bull through and come back to later.
>
> That said... GR is a much better book to me reading it now than when I
> read the first few pages back in 1997 or so. Granted, I was only seventeen
> at the time, and so was completely out of my depth to even attempt such a
> read, but I think GR grabs the reader from the first in a way that no other
> Pynchon novel does, and it never lets go.
>
> I


I think that ATD is a more intellectually satisfying work, one that better
rewards deep contemplation, simply because there's "more book" there. The
intersecting storylines and the breadth of knowledge required to write it
are simply mammoth, and the overall achievement is astonishing. GR is huge
and wide-ranging... but in that sense even it doesn't hold a candle to ATD.

(I am going to re-read ATD as soon as I finish GR and take a week or two
off. I'm sure I'll have more on this topic as I take a second trip through
Pynchon's latest.)

On 7/10/07, Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I hope everything's fine now, Bekah.
> >
> > My first reading of GR not only blew my mind, but also showed how
> > pathetic,
> > ignorant and narrow-minded I was (maybe I'm still is, but Pynchon showed
> > me
> > some ways to improve myself). If simply becoming a Pynchon reader
> > requires
> > such an effort (I had read Ulysses before and thought so high of
> > myself),
> > then what does it take to write like Pynchon? I hope he didn't sell his
> > soul
> > to the Devil.
> >
> > BTW, there are folks around who first read AtD and then GR, so I think
> > it
> > would be interesting to learn about their opinion of GR after AtD and
> > not
> > the other way round. If I'm not mistaken, Mark is one of those.
> >
> >
> >
> > >
> > >I only got around to reading GR a few years ago, when I was a
> > middle-aged,
> > >unemployed
> > >pathetic failure with no illusions about anything.  Yes, it totally
> > rocked,
> > >blew my mind, etc.
> > >ATD is good to read if you love Pynchon, but it's not the life-altering
> > >experience that GR was.
> > >
> > >Laura
> > >
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE!
> > http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> ...the insanely, endlessly diddling play of a chemist whose molecules are
> words...
> --Daniel Harper




-- 
...the insanely, endlessly diddling play of a chemist whose molecules are
words...
--Daniel Harper
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