Well, I'm done...

[Daniel Harper]

Actually, M&D might be the most "fun" of all of them. Lots of silly
slapstick, lots of bizarre stuff happening around the frame, lots of cameos
by Important People doing off-the-wall things.

ATD strikes me as the _worst_ one to start with, party because of its
length, but also because it's (intentionally) stilted in terms of its
language just plain difficult to wrap the head around.

I've said it before, but now that I've read them all I'll say it again:
start with Vineland. It's long enough to be a full-fledged Pynchon novel
(unlike COL49), but it riffs on fairly modern pop-culture instead of the
literature of the early days of the last century, contains flat-out funny
sequences (including some with ninjas) and encapsulates a lot of the overall
themes that all Pynchon novels deal with.

Hm... Maybe I'll go back to Vineland again before re-tackling ATD.

On 7/16/07, Bryan Snyder <wilsonistrey at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  Since reading AtD, I tell those who ask me which they should read first
> this:
>
>
>
> "GR is better but AtD is more fun."
>
>
>
> And I say that meaning that the average reader will enjoy ATD more during
> the actual act of reading than GR… I didn't I liked GR much more but I think
> I'm weird so…
>
>
>
> But I'm in the same boat… finishing up Vineland which I'm enjoying far
> more than I thought I would, then I get to hit up Slow Learner and Mason and
> Dixon.  Can't WAIT!
>
>
>
> *From:* owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] *On
> Behalf Of *Daniel Harper
> *Sent:* Monday, July 16, 2007 11:26 AM
> *To:* pynchon-l at waste.org
> *Subject:* Well, I'm done...
>
>
>
> That's right. Finished Gravity's Rainbow on Saturday. Have now read all of
> Pynchon's novels at least once.
>
> Guess it's time to start on them again!
>
> I have lots of things to say about GR, especially wrt the relation to ATD,
> but I'm starting ATD again and want to take a few days to let my thoughts on
> the subject digest.
>
> Which book is "better"? Right now I'm leaning towards GR... but not by
> much.
>
> --
> ...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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