Reddit to Group Read Gravity's Rainbow

eburns at gmail.com eburns at gmail.com
Fri May 24 11:21:53 CDT 2013 

It's that one read by George Guidall. I am less ethical than the writer of that article, especially for things that exist but can't be bought.

Guidall is a very good reader of GR.



Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

-----Original Message-----
From: "Monte Davis" <montedavis at verizon.net>
Date: Fri, 24 May 2013 12:18:29 
To: 'Bekah'<bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>; <eburns at gmail.com>
Cc: 'pynchon -l'<pynchon-l at waste.org>
Subject: RE: Reddit to Group Read Gravity's Rainbow

Maybe this, or a bootleg of same?
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/pageviews/2012/09/gravitys-rainbow-the-miss
ing-audiobook-it-was-recorded-in-1986-but-good-luck-findi

As noted in a long [ago thread, I recorded it for Recording for the Blind c.
1975, but that seems to be even more long gone.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of Bekah
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2013 11:47 AM
To: eburns at gmail.com
Cc: pynchon -l
Subject: Re: Reddit to Group Read Gravity's Rainbow

Where did you find GR in audio format?  Who reads it? 

Bekah

On May 24, 2013, at 1:18 AM, eburns at gmail.com wrote:

> I'm about a third of the way through the unabridged audio book of GR,
thinking that after many readings of it myself it would be interesting to do
it at someone else's pace. And it is, especially since the scratchy quality
of the thing (it seems to have been digitalized from cassette tapes) makes
it feel like I've tuned in to a wartime broadcast from the other side.
> Sent from my BlackBerryR wireless device
> From: Lemuel Underwing <luunderwing at gmail.com>
> Sender: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Fri, 24 May 2013 00:42:03 -0500
> To: Christopher Simon<kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>
> Cc: Bekah<bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>; 
> craigd at control-z.com<craigd at control-z.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 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
> Sent: 5/23/2013 8:57 PM
> To: craigd at control-z.com
> Cc: Bekah; Antonin Scriabin; Lemuel Underwing; David Morris; Prashant 
> Kumar; pynchon -l
> 
> 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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