Going boom

[John Bailey]

Ahhhhhh... if you include real names dropped in but not given any
presence as "characters" then perhaps it does reach the 400 mark.

On Sat, Sep 5, 2015 at 9:00 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think I have it. Interesting. goes back to the great early appreciator Tony Tanner from his early book in 1974.....HOWEVER, he wrote, " there are over 400 characters--or I should say names--in Gravity's Rainbow"....Harold Bloom said/ repeated it very early as well...
>
> Tanner meant Names! ..all those name-check allusions !
>
> Put " 400 characters.. gravity's Rainbow" into Google Books and see.
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
>> On Sep 4, 2015, at 6:28 PM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Where did the mythical "there are around 400 characters in Gravity's
>> Rainbow" come from? I counted once and got 237. I'm probably off by a
>> few but overlooking 170 characters would require a serious blow to the
>> head.
>>
>> Would be interested to discover which piece of writing first conjured
>> the figure that so many have taken at face value since. Those kinds of
>> perpetuated factoids (even if wrong) are fascinating.
>>
>>> On Sat, Sep 5, 2015 at 1:02 AM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> "Seven hundred and sixty pages of linguistic wizardry, Thomas
>>> Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a life-changing book."
>>>
>>> http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/read/going-boom/article7611853.ece
>>>
>>> Thanks, Doug Millison!
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l