/lit/ - Literature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y3CMlvrkN0

I'm never going to take LSD because I've read Gravity's rainbow. Getting through this novel was one of the most painful experiences of my life. I had to read it in an undergrad class (stupid, stupid professor) and we literally got nothing out of it. We all just kept reading snippets from the book and kept saying, "what the fuck?!" over and over again. It's sexist, penis worshipping, and has no place on any classics list. I'm glad Thomas Pynchon is a recluse, otherwise I would throw the book at him and ask, "WHY?!"

>900 pages
no way whatever is written in there needs more prose than the brothers karamazov fuck off

sooo uhhhhh Slothrop was the rocket?

Is this a good start to Pynchon? What's /lit/'s opinion on the book overall?

What does /lit/ think about Gravity's Rainbow and what is Pynchon's best work? Or is he just a meme?

What does /lit/ think about Gravity's Rainbow and what is Pynchon's best work? Or is he just a meme?

Do you take notes while reading? Do you think it's necessary? It worthwhile doing it for fiction as well as non fiction? I'm thinking of starting to do this more in the hopes of improving my memory and retaining more of the book? What do you think lads?
Pic Related, starting it today.

Was thinking of picking a book from Lits top 100 2019. I'm drawn towards ( no pun intended) gravity's rainbow.

Anyone else read this book and can share what you felt about it? Or if theres a different book altogether from the list that you can recommend? I've read Dostoyevsky, moby dick, and blood meridian already.

Are there more books like this one that are as fun to deconstruct as they are to read straightforwardly?

pretty obvious choice

opinions?

This is utter shite.

Who (or what) was the electric voice Oberst Enzian was talking to by the end of his conversation with Achtfaden?

Why does Ned Pointsman eat poo?

>>11638561
read Gravity's Rainbow and find out

What should i read before letting this beast swallow me?

I just finished this novel, looking to discuss themes and try to piece together the "narrative".
I get that Slothrop symbolizes the fetishization of death, but what happens to him in the end? I don't quite get what Pynchon means by his "persona falling apart".
I also get the feeling that the Zone is some kind of purgatory, in between death and rebirth. This is hinted at in the end, when the act of Gottfried being put in the rocket is compared to a womb , and also with the general, dreamlike, absurd happenings in the third part of the book. What do you guys think about this?
What about the incident with Katje and the octopus? Why did They set that up? Was it to place Katje and Slothrop together? Why would that be necessary?
Finally, what do you guys think about Them? What is everyone so paranoid about? Some kind of undercover government in the Zone? Some kind of cosmic puppet master? Pynchon himself??
Thank you in advance for your contributions

Maybe the real A4 was the friends they made along the way

>>11466542

Every time I start to make sense of what's happening and what Pynchon is trying to say in this book I get the rug pulled out from under me with something even more confusing and impenetrable. Convince me to stick with this, /lit/.

What?

>>11268692
>>11268799
the point of gravity's rainbow is that there is no point. it is, in fact, perhaps the most pointlessly pointed novel which comes to mind. i challenge anyone to come up with a pointed synopsis and/or thesis for GR and i dare say it cannot be done. that is the very essence of what makes it so notably great and memorable. there is no climax, the entire book is one big cartoonish, surreal, abstract kind of fragmented climax. i suppose you could argue that the point at which Slothrop disintegrates and 'can no longer be found' is the climax, but for that to be the climax, you would have to be able to argue that he was real in the first place, and I would find that an impossible argument to make.
TL:DR - fucking love this book, it's my favorite beside Don Quixote

>>11170240
no, Gravity's Rainbow is, and it's better than Don Quixote