I was too intimidated to read it for many years after I'd enjoyed V. and COL49. I finally got started by bringing it along when I was called in for jury duty. Nothing to do but read while languishing, uncalled, unwanted, in the jury selection pool.
Laura
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Berg
Sent: Jul 23, 2015 2:39 PM
To: kelber at mindspring.com, Monte Davis , Mark Kohut
Cc: John Bailey , David Morris , Bruce Appelbaum
, James Robertson , Conor McDade , Chris v , jochen stremmel , pynchon -l , Heikki R
Subject: Re: A Ranking of Pynchon's Novels
Thank you, Laura. My first forays into GR and AtD were waylaid by
life and other variables. I interpret your enthusiasm as a gentle
invitation to keep trying!
V. was more of a 'damn the torpedoes and keep reading' exercise for
me (as was Ulysses, which took a total of more than a year to
finish) than I would have liked it to be. I have only vague and
mist-laden recollections of Benny and the crew. When I got bogged
down in both GR and then AtD, the group read for M&D came along
at a time when I could enjoy a second and much deeper read. Thanks
to all who helped me get so deeply into .
bob
On 7/23/15 12:30 PM,
kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
Lucky guy! You still have Gravity's Rainbow
to look forward to!
Laura
-----Original
Message-----
From: Bob Berg
Sent: Jul 23, 2015 12:46 PM
To: Monte Davis , Mark Kohut
Cc: John Bailey , David Morris ,
Bruce Appelbaum
, James
Robertson , Conor
McDade , Chris v ,
jochen stremmel ,
pynchon -l ,
Heikki R
Subject: Re: A Ranking of Pynchon's
Novels
I am basically a
lurker here, and haven't yet
read all of the oeuvre. I am a
Slow Reader. I am thankful for
the (hopefully only temporarily)
aborted group read giving me the
impetus to be well into a second
reading of M&D. I am
offering this link as an
indication to why I put M&D
at the top of the list of TRP's
novels that I have read.
http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1/essays/pynchon/mason1.html
bob
my list so far...
1.Mason & Dixon
2.Inherent Vice
3.V.
4.CoL49
5.Vineland
6.Bleeding Edge
ps. I don't consider this a
hierarchical list of quality at
all... just sharing with you how
much I enjoyed reading each one
relative to the others. And I
enjoyed the last on my list (BE)
much more than half of all other
authors I've read.
On
7/23/15 10:03 AM, Monte Davis
wrote:
1.
Mason & Dixon
2.
Gravity's Rainbow
3.
Against the Day
4.
Crying of Lot 49
5
/ 6. V. / Bleeding Edge
7.
Vineland
8.
Inherent Vice
Obviously
the weight and spread of
history informing the
"big" books is important
to me. CoL49 is a gem
(I've never agreed with
Pynchon's deprecation in
the Slow Learner intro),
with substantial
stretches of his
best-worked surface, and
lacks only that deep web
of connections to tie
with AtD or even be #3.
I anticipate that I'll
keep growing into
Against the Day, based
on how much more it gave
me on rereading.
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l