A Ranking of Pynchon's Novels

[Mike Weaver]

Quick break from Corbyn cheering.  You in the US have got Bernie 
Sanders, we've got Jeremy Corbyn, interesting socialist activity going 
on. Our main liberal paper, The Guardian has been headlining attack 
after attack for the last few days, it feels like civil war. But one 
side is using doom as ammunition and the other using hope.

Meanwhile,  in another world

GR, because it told me it was okay to be an intellectual politico 
dopefreak, (and because of all the stuff everyone else has said). But 
it's the only one I've read many times. So the rest are less measured 
placings, more indicative of my mood than anything

1. GR
2. CoL
3. Vineland
4. M&D
5. V
6. AtD
7. IV
8. BE


On 23/07/2015 21:12, Heikki R wrote:
>
> Here's a Dropbox link to the updated ranking table. Should be openable 
> for anyone here. The race is getting tighter. Enjoy!
>
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/j3ncwr59itywy7f/RankingPynchNovels.pdf?dl=0
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 23, 2015 at 6:46 PM, Bob Berg <robertberg5125 at comcast.net 
> <mailto:robertberg5125 at comcast.net>> wrote:
>
>     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.
>>
>
>

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