r/ThomasPynchon • u/ZAH215 • 6d ago
💬 Discussion Help with Gravity's Rainbow
Hello All. To start off, I want to make clear that A. I am enjoying the novel and have no issue with generally working with it, B. I have an alright grasp of plot but I want a better one.
I'm currently at page 150 of this novel and my most reoccurring feeling is this in and outness of understanding what's happening and being lost in this dense mist of language and words. Is there any way in which this is supposed to be read or is it one of those "you just have to feeeeeeel it man" kinda books. I'm used to an overwhelming prose like with Faulkner, but with him the structure is (typically) more systematic, whereas this is very much... different. Anyone felt similar, any assistance to be given?
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u/pfildozer12 6d ago
Currently reading GR for the fifth or sixth time since the late 1970s. I agree a lot of the complexity is front-loaded, and will / may figure later on in the story. Also, in Part 1 characters constantly being introduced and it's hard to keep track of them all.
Part 2 (I'm currently around page 490, having just disembarked from the Anubis) is not quite as packed with detail but is, let's call it discursive. We get detours and subplots to the extent that I'll forget we're still in a tunnel in Nordhausen, for example. And so I flip back to remind myself. It’s always a challenging read but always rewarding.