From a reader who blogs...Pynchon's Calm-Paranoid

[alice wellintown]

Pynchon's novels (V. GR, VL, M&D) are read in courses around the
globe. Lot49 may be the standard in non Lit major undergraduate
courses and in survey courses for several reasons, including its
relative brevity, but the notion that P is too difficult to teach or
read is exaggerated. Today's readers are quite adept at reading
postmodern texts.  "Obscenity" is more of an issue for some
instructors.