Reddit to Group Read Gravity's Rainbow

Lemuel Underwing luunderwing at gmail.com
Fri May 24 00:42:03 CDT 2013 

I spent over a year reading *Mason & Dixon* back and forth, it practically
became a bible to me... there ain't a page that I don't know.

*Gravity's Rainbow* less so but it still took me over a month, and *Against
the Day* took about the same. Granted I go back to them again and again.

I'll never forget being seventeen and reading GR for the first time, the
last harry potter book came out that summer and I thought "What the hell, I
read the rest of the series when I was a kid might as well finish it".... I
read it in a single night and went straight back to The Zone. Not sure if I
remember a damn thing that happened in that abominable book. The Bad Guy
died & Everyone lived happily ever after The End.
It was practically a master's course in Creative Writing going from one to
the other.

I'm looking forward to *Bleeding Edge *but I have a hunch it'll be more
like *IV *than anything else... and, yknow, I'm totally fine with that.


On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 10:24 PM, Christopher Simon <
kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:

>  I enjoy your hunger for great books.  The "bigs" of Pynchon took me a
> month each, but I am the type to underline and write notes in margins,
> reread beautiful passages, and really mull over stuff. The shorter ones
> took about a week each, I think I would be cool with a structured reading
> over a few days with the list when BE comes out. The sheer novelty of a new
> Pynchon novel will be enough.
>  ------------------------------
> From: Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> Sent: 5/23/2013 8:57 PM
> To: craigd at control-z.com
> Cc: Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>; Antonin Scriabin<kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>;
> Lemuel Underwing <luunderwing at gmail.com>; David Morris<fqmorris at gmail.com>;
> Prashant Kumar <siva.prashant.kumar at gmail.com>; pynchon -l<pynchon-l at waste.org>
>
> Subject: Re: Reddit to Group Read Gravity's Rainbow
>
> I'm just going by Against the Day which took me 4 (full!) days,  being off
> work for the holidays.  Now I'm retired - (and I miss 3-day weekends).
>
>   If Bleeding Edge reads like AtD I can do it,  if it reads like GR you're
> right -  I can't and likely wouldn't want to.   I've read GR twice and I
> think it took me a couple weeks the first time,  a bit faster the second -
> maybe 8 days?  (on vacation in Portland - a good reading town). Inherent
> Vice took me about 3 or 4 days - normal speed - 3 or 4 hours a day
> probably,  maybe a bit more.
>
> Some narratives are just far more dense and need more time.  And I'm not
> talking about any kind of careful reading - I'm talking about getting the
> main characters straight,  plot comprehension, the rhythms of the narrative
> and any really overt themes.   This helps for a second reading which,
> unless it's a dud,  I know I will do  -  I don't think I can understand a
> really good book with one reading - I kind of need the overview or big
> picture before I get into the details and how they fit.
>
> But I just thought of this - there are some books I just feed on - like I
> want to gobble them in and chew on them and digest them all in one swoop
> (omg).  This is not so much fast as it is seriously intense.  Blood
> Meridian was like that,  so was Foucault's Pendulum.   Those books just
> take what they take - but I go at them for several hours at a stretch,
> break, and then back into them - AtD was a lot like that *for me.*    The
> first page sample of Bleeding Edge seemed about normal - I might get
> intense about it but I might not  - just have to see how it goes.   I can
> bet you that I finish,  and with fair comprehension,  within 4 or 5 days.
> (But I'll also bet I'll want to read it again.)
>
> Bekah
>
>
> On May 23, 2013, at 4:36 PM, "Duckett, Craig" <craigd at control-z.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I've read Gravity's Rainbow TWICE in the past, and I really don't
> > know how anyone could possibly read it in three days. It just
> > doesn't read/flow like "traditional" literature, imho. Three
> > weeks, maybe, and that's pushing it, but certainly not in three
> > days.
> >
> > Best!
> >
> > Craig
> >
> >
> > On Thu May 23 11:31:32 CDT 2013, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> And I think I'll do a really quick read of the whole thing  (3
> >> days?)  to get the spoilers out of the way for myself but be very
> >> careful not to post big spoilers for a week or so - or until I
> >> see other folks coming up for air.  (heh)   Bekah
> >>
> >> On May 23, 2013, at 9:03 AM, Antonin Scriabin
> >> <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> I think I am going to just be careful which P-list threads I
> >>> open until I finish, to avoid spoilers.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 12:02 PM, Bekah
> >>> <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> >>> Yup  -  I read Against the Day the Thanksgiving weekend it came
> >>> out,  but the "official" group read was a couple months later
> >>> (and I reread it!)  I think lots of folks did that or close.
> >>>
> >>> The only problem I see is the possibility of spoilers - the book
> >>> is set for nearly 500 pages - this needs a couple days for some
> >>> readers,  weeks for others.   I'd say an informal survey read
> >>> the remaining month of September (with spoilers be damned -
> >>> pretty much what you said, Antonin) and a ore careful reading
> >>> going from  October through December (approx.  25 pages per week
> >>> -  but who knows where that would break? bleeding all over the
> >>> place.)   This is what would likely happen anyway - (heh).
> >>>
> >>> Bekah
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On May 23, 2013, at 7:56 AM, Antonin Scriabin
> >>> <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> I think we might have success with a Bleeding Edge group read
> >>> since it will be current and new.  That said, I think the entire
> >>> P-list will morph into a giant, 37-thread group read overnight
> >>> anyways, which suffices!
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 11:39 PM, Lemuel Underwing
> >>> <luunderwing at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>> Let's just pretend like Reddit never happened. That's what I'm
> >>> doing. It's been such a time-sink for me the past year these
> >>> last three months being Reddit-Free have been Bliss. Like that
> >>> one fellow said "Hell is other people".
> >>>>
> >>>> The List is enough for me, thanks.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 4:03 PM, David Morris
> >>> <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>> P-list group reads have been very fruitful, however erratic
> >>> and stumbling. The few that dedicate themselves to participating
> >>> make it rewarding. They always have limped to finish, loosing
> >>> most participants along the way.  But we've always taken them at
> >>> a snails pace, GR takes about a year @ P-list speed.  So it's no
> >>> wonder they finish weak.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Wednesday, May 22, 2013, Bekah wrote:
> >>>> How sad for you to have missed some excellent group reads here
> >>> and other places.
> >>>>
> >>>> Bekah
> >>>>
> >>>> On May 21, 2013, at 6:01 PM, Prashant Kumar
> >>> <siva.prashant.kumar at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> I don't see the point of this. General tone seems to view
> >>> G'sR as a badge, a pin, a commendation and a ticket to smugness
> >>> for looking at words on a page...now in a group! Every group
> >>> read I've been part of has either disintegrated or been rather
> >>> more than a little pointless, usually eventually, sometimes at
> >>> the outset. I'm betting the latter, here.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> P.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On 22 May 2013 02:08, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>> Good one, Mark.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 11:29 AM, Markekohut
> >>> <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >>>>> LIKE....
> >>>>> a progressive unknotting into and out of....
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Sent from my iPad
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On May 21, 2013, at 11:20 AM, "Monte Davis"
> >>> <montedavis at verizon.net> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> Do you mean "what could go wrong that the P-list hasn't
> >>> exemplified for
> >>>>>> twenty years"..?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Sure, that sounds demanding, but creativity knows no
> >>> limits.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>>>> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org
> >>> [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
> >>>>>> Of Joe Allonby
> >>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 10:44 AM
> >>>>>> To: Mark Woollams
> >>>>>> Cc: pynchon -l
> >>>>>> Subject: Re: Reddit to Group Read Gravity's Rainbow
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> What could go wrong?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 9:33 AM, Mark Woollams
> >>> <woollams812 at yahoo.com>
> >>>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>
> http://www.reddit.com/r/bookclub/comments/1eqi9f/the_next_big_read_will_be_g
> >>>>>> ravitys_rainbow_by/
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> --
> >>>>> www.innergroovemusic.com
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
>
>
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