Appreciate the length of this review Chris! My dad and I did a group read this past spring (his third read, my first), and spent a long time talking about it. He passed away about four days ago, but would have loved this video. It was his favorite book, one he talked about since I was a kid, and it brought him great joy to be able to get into the nitty gritty of it with me-happy we were able to, as at that time his health showed no real sign of decline, and so I feel lucky to have gotten it done serendipitously when we did.
What an intimate and beautiful vignette of your relationship with your father. My condolences on your loss, and I wish you and your family the best. And yet, as you said, how grateful we should be for such moments when art can create a bridge between two people that transcends mortality. I appreciate you sharing this with me. It is rather moving and gives me another view of what can be done with making videos about books I love.
thats amazing. I'm sorry for your loss, yet feel joyous that you were able to share that experience with your father... my dad read me lord of the rings as a bedtime story as a child, and as we have both grown older, a shared love of literature has remained a touchstone in our relationship. I felt your comment deep down within me, and it makes me reflect on my own relationship with my father and my son, i need to read more with both. Thank you
@@jeremyhopkins577 fair question! He was not a squeamish guy and we spoke very openly about a lot of wild stuff. As far as GR goes, we mostly talked about the shit eating major (or was he a colonel?) and how great it was truthfully, especially when he forgot to take his antibiotic and died of ecoli-the Blicero stuff just all dovetails nicely (we agreed) into the thesis of the anarcho-sadists as its complement. Where for Katya (was that her name?) it is a means of survival, a play enactment of domination outside the real world of war’s domination over life, for Blicero and Siegfried it is really just a rehearsal for the cosmic orgasm of total destruction tied up with the 00000 and the imipolex chamber within it. I mean if you are gonna read and discuss a book so obviously concerned with the phallus and the libido, I don’t know how you think you could get out of it without talkin about it. We both knew as much going in. Its reputation precedes it.
I read Gravity's Rainbow as an English major at UCLA in the mid 90s. I loved it. But I had to disavow everything our professor told us about the book. It really has to be experienced on an individual level. I had classmates who were reading the Weisberg guide on GR. A big mistake. They held too many preconceived notions. You just have to dive in and enjoy it. If something makes you scratch your head, mark the page, underline, and do some research. But keep trucking. It was one of the greatest reading experiences I ever had. After I finished, I gave my copy to my grandfather, a very big reader and the most brilliant man I've ever known. Like me, it also took him two weeks to get through it. We arrived at different conclusions but we both loved the book. It was a subject of frequent discussion between us for the rest of his life. It's a very special book to me.
Two weeks to get through??!!!! That’s how long it took me to get through Crying of Lot 49 hahah! I’ve read the first 50 pages and oh boy, what a book. Currently on Vineland, perhaps onto Mason & Dixon for my next read. I love the practice of not seeking much guidance on your first read through with pynchon. He’s definitely meant to be read over and over
Could you comment more on the Weisenburg guide? I’ve been told by many that it’s a necessity to penetrate the book. For context, I read Ulysses and used the Gifford “Ulysses Annotated” and found it requisite to get through Ulysses and really understand a lot of the slang and allusions. Is Gravity’s Rainbow similar, or would you say it’s less guide-dependent than Ulysses and could stand alone in a reading experience?
@@gavinyoung-philosophyhello! having read no pynchon i was able to read gravity’s rainbow on my own, even with a guide you would forget so much afterwards you might as well just own a copy and mark the pages to come back to with your own little research i think it so much fun to work through a text without assistance, i always mark the exact places i had to look up and write little factoids in the margins : ) i can’t imagine reading it in two weeks though, it is way too dense…
"A screaming comes across the sky..." Not a V-2 but in fact it's Santa's sleigh as Christmas has apparently come early! Over three hours on Gravity's Rainbow! What a gift! Cheers!
@@LeafbyLeaf I'm sure you noted how the first sentence of Mason & Dixon recapitulates the beginning of that sentence: Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs ...
I’ve just discovered your channel. I’m a Renaissance literature scholar (and I think I see a NYRB edition of Burton’s Anatomy on your shelves!), but I have generalist tastes, and you’ve done videos on a host of my favorite books (this one very much included). Last year I read Pynchon’s woefully underrated Against the Day for the second time-I lived in it for months, and loved it (though the math is brain-wilting), and found, just as you so rightly say in this video and others I've seen so far, that latent connections emerge, and the frisson of excitement that comes with such recognitions is wonderful. When I was younger I used to tell my students that "you haven't read a book once until you've read it twice"; now in middle age, I think that's too hyperbolic, though the goal was always to urge students to believe that the deepest relationships we can have with books (as with great art of any kind) take time to develop (and develop over time). I’m hoping you might be planning to do a discussion of Against the Day: I’d love to see what you have to say about it, especially given your love of maximalist fictions and the rather shabby treatment Pynchon's longest novel has received. On a vaguely related note (because maximalism, encyclopedism, etc.), Olga Tokarczuk’s The Books of Jacob will be available in English in the US in January-hope you’re as excited for that as I am, or that it's on your radar. She's a writer of immense gifts, and this is said to be her chef d'oeuvre. Anyway, thanks for the existence of this channel! It does my heart good to see someone doing the proverbial Lord's work this way. Teaching Gen Z kids each semester, I’m sad to see the extent to which we are losing deep reading to the culture of wikis and memes. Literature needs all the friends it can get--and those kids need the kind of nourishment a sustaining relationship to great literature brings, the kind that illumines our solitude (and can even make us hoard it, as I have a tendency to do). Anyway, keep it up. And happy holidays!
-Welcome! Glad you found me. -Yep, that's the NYRB Melancholy. What a year of reading that was (2017, I think)! -If I remember correctly, Gass said that you read a book once to prepare to read it (or something like that). -I will definitely be doing a video on AtR at some point; agreed that it's a fascinating and brilliant work! -So far I've only read some of Olga's short pieces, but I do plan to get to her novels. -Your kind words and thoughts are much appreciated. We sound cut from the same cloth. I think Bloom said that deep reading teaches us how to be alone with ourselves. It is possible that the multiple quarantines are exacerbating this need. I've had many, many subscribers tell me that they started reading during the initial quarantine. -All my very best to you in 2022!
“If there is something comforting - religious, if you want - about paranoia, there is still also anti-paranoia, where nothing is connected to anything, a condition not many of us can bear for long.” - my favorite Gravity's Rainbow quote and an essential one for understanding this novel. I actually found a box of wine jellies at my local grocery store. They were less than exciting to eat.
Matter, antimatter. 1 + -1 = 0. Newton's Third Law. Boy, there are so many fascinating ideas! I would love to try some of these notorious wine jellies!
@@LeafbyLeaf Eating wine jellies are like eating gum drops that are 10 years past the expiration date. It's kind of like eating candy you found on the floor underneath your seat in a movie theater..
This video is astounding. I have had Gravity’s Rainbow on my shelf for years. This video is causing me to say that 2022 is the year I have to read this book.
This book is a ride like no other and one of the main reasons I’m still into literary fiction today. Could go on for hours (as you do, awesome!) but I’ll just say the final section completely blew my gourd off in a way I still haven’t gotten over. The disintegration of everything felt like I was on high dose LSD trying to fight my way to the end. Def need to re read in 2022!
Oh, man--yes--the ending! With a book of this stature and ambition, I kept thinking (during my first read of it): how can Pynchon possibly wrap something like this up and leave us satisfied? Well--he did it.
Much like how Gravity’s Rainbow is an upheaval of expectations, I was seriously shocked to see this video be over three hours long! Truly spectacular. Thank you for your-and I don’t say this lightly-service. Your entire channel, especially videos of this ilk, played a significant role in ripping me away from a shameful reading drought of nearly four years (!!!). I now have a fierce appetite for literature that has, and continues to, truly change my life in both my professional and leisurely endeavours. Can’t wait to dive back into Gravity’s Rainbow more (only 50 pages in). Happy and healthy holidays to you and yours.
My friend-hearing that these videos have inspired your reading life is the greatest compliment you could share with me. I really appreciate your kindness. All my very best to you and yours!
Good God man, a 3.5 hour video on Gravity's Rainbow? This is a treat. This was my first Pynchon novel and it changed everything for me. I'm looking forward to what you have to say.
Couple of years ago, I've read The Novel: A Biography by Michael Schmidt. He attacks Pynchon there, along the lines of 'only for the Academics'. I almost threw the book. James Wood has been anti-Pynchon from the very beginning, Mason and Dixon review and famous - and notorious, Hysterical Realism text. In The Cambridge History of American Literature 1940-1990, late Pynchon is also totally dismissed. Just putting it out there. What is dearly missing from Pynchon secondary literature is close comparison between Naked Lunch and GR - that book anticipates GR as much as Sot-Weed Factor anticipates M&D. Everything I love about Pynch is what reminds me of Burroughs; their interest in science + literature synthesis, Rabelasian-transgressive humor, episodic-fragmented narrative, subculture, conspiracy, science-fiction, pastiches of Film and popular culture... and so on and on.
I love what you read at 1:45:30!! That’s my exact experience with Gravity’s Rainbow. So many working class people have read and loved it. Academics sometimes underestimate the working class’ aesthetic appreciation.
Mm. Haven't read GR yet, but I'm ob-b-sessed with Samuel Beckett and I find the same thing to be true. Academics are assholes. People don't have to know what canto of Dante he's referencing to appreciate his themes/work. Not to deny the cerebral elements of course, but to focus solely on that stuff is to become elitist and myopic and miss the forest for the trees. And that crap. :)
Along with Blood Meridian, The Recognitions, Moby Dick and Huck Finn, the apex of U. S. Literature. Absolutely one of my favorite books, an absolute masterpiece that needs to be read and re-read.
Regarding one major theme discussed in this video, I recommend to all here "From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film" by Siegfried Kracauer. First published in 1947, it's about how German culture throughout time led to German Expressionism and the collective mood and mindset of early 20th century Germany.
Just finished this two days ago, definitely feels like it will be one of the seminal linguistic experiences for the rest of my life. So thankful to have a resource like this to help contextualise many of the parts of the book, and also can't wait to read it again (in like, five years haha)
Whoa 97k views. I guess im happy so many people wanted to hear a deep dive on it. To be honest there isn’t a lot of Pynchon deep dives on RU-vid so there seems to be an audience for it.
Yeah, these views and comments (and emails, DMs, etc.) have really taken me by surprise. For one thing the video is an absurd length. But the vigor for Pynchon obviously runs DEEP!
Oh my goooddd!! Three hours for reviewing gravity's rainbow???? There will be an outstanding amount of thoughts and informations in which I' ll dive as soon as possible. Thanks for this enormous Christmas' gift. I' ve only read once and I didn't enjoy It. Now your video gives me the opportunity to give It another shot for sure!
I would say that the material's quality determines if it diminishes overtime or not. Take a typical advanced mathematics book. Each time one reads it they will understand more and more, not less and less. Hence multiple readings produce a better understanding of the subject. While one could say this is true of a typical movie, since almost all movies revolve around the same plot and it is an emotional rather than intellectual effect, such movies are really about the "shock" value(the emotional shock value as there is no such thing as an intellectual shock value since understanding is progressive rather than immediate). With emotion there is a diminishing of sensitivity, with intellect there is a growing of sensitivity. Most movies appeal to the masses, which by definition, are extremely ignorant and hence emotionally driven. You don't have movie written for the 1% top intellectuals because it is not profitable. Hence movies(and some/most books, although books require a higher level of intelligence to process) function more as a drug.
You promised me Pynchon on Monday and by God you delivered! I really want to watch this video but I feel like I must read GR (second time) first. When you released your review on Infinite Jest I did the same. I have only read GR once and I feel like most everything went over my head but I still had an amazing time. Don’t worry I liked and favorited the video! This Christmas I bought myself “You Bright and Risen Angels” because of your recommendations. You have opened many beautiful, crazy, mind bending doors for me and you have my eternal gratitude. Would you recommend I watch this anyway? With the way GR is I can see how this video could only enhance my second reading experience. Thank you for everything!
I live to give, my friend! Thanks for the kind words. As I share in my opening assertions, I don’t think GR can be spoiled or diminished no matter what I could say the the video. Still, it’s up to you, of course. All my very best to you!
Perfect timing for this video. Planning on beginning my first reading of Gravity’s Rainbow this coming weekend. So far I have read Inherent Vice and The Crying Lot 49 and can’t wait experience more of Pynchon’s writing. Thanks Chris for inspiring me to pursue more demanding and richer reading experiences.
@@PaoloRS1 GR was a very challenging reading experience, but I really enjoyed it. Since, reading GR, I have also read, Bleeding Edge, Mason & Dixon and just picked up a copy of Against the Day. I plan on re-reading GR later this year. It is without a doubt a book I will re-read every few years.
YES 44:35-45:12 is exactly why I love GR and why I consider it the blueprint for the novel's place in post-modernity. It becomes more relevant with each passing year of environmental destruction and reemerging fascism.
Gravity's Rainbow is my favourite book ever. Not only is it unique, hilarious, imaginative and MONSTROUSLY encyclopedic, it's also probably the most vividly written novel I've ever read. The descriptions of every environment, foodstuff, schedule, map, film, weapon or cloud formation is beautifully (and often grotesquely) worded; Casino Hermann Goering will likely stay in my head until I die. It utterly defies convention and expectation. There is no book like it and there will be no book like it ever again.
@@LeafbyLeaf Ah hell no man, you did an absolutely spectacular job. I've probably watched this video three times by listening to it during work and it's still brilliant. I'm hoping to do the same at some point myself haha
@@LeafbyLeaf love your stuff. I just want to thank you; I consider my reading newly blooming, and you've introduced me to so many fascinating books and authors.
i read this book the summer before attending college for a second time (this time studying the drums and music production) and while helping my father manage his raging alcoholism. needless to say by the end of it i walked around with a black baseball cap that had the equation for a parabola on one side and "paranoid" written under the upturned brim. that book changed me. my gosh dang brain chemistry. and it is debated whether it was for better or worse 🤤🦊🤙
@@LeafbyLeaf May I share the best drummer joke ever with you? When the jokes are flying around, hit them with this one. What's the difference between a drummer and a toilet seat? A toilet seat only has to deal with one a**hole at a time'. You're welcome!
i read about 3/4 of the book in '73 before being saturated by confusion. reading it felt like being in a mad dream. it seemed so multimedia. it would make a great surreal movie series with musical interludes. i'd like to add that the book seemed like an aftermath of psychedelia.
You have done an excellent job of presenting your thoughts and opinions of Gravity's Rainbow. I first read this when the Bantam paperback came out in 1974. It still sits right here in my library along with David Foster Wallace and William T. Vollmann. You have, indeed, inspired a re-read, but with something with a little larger type, like the Penguin Classic edition you're holding in your video. Thank you for all the videos you present, they have led to many new book discoveries.
What a cool treasure to have! I’m thrilled to hear the video has inspired a return to GR! I understand about needing bigger type. My copy of Vilnius Poker has microscopic type!
A point about who Pirate's first fantasy was surrogating for: I don't think it's Blicero. I don't think Blicero would trouble himself about being Elect. I think it's Brigadier Pudding's fantasy. The iconography is pure London. And Pudding has a fantasy life that's quite of interest to The Firm, cf. Domina Nocturna, Shining Mother and Last Love.
I haven't managed to finish the book yet, but GR is easily one of the funniest books I've ever read. The passage about Pointsman pleasuring himself while fantasizing about winning a Nobel prize for his work on Slothrope, climaxing on the word 'Stockholm' is comedy gold, not to mention devilishly satirical. Pynchon is such a jester. He writes a book packed with cinematic references, but makes sure the book itself could never be filmed!
@@LeafbyLeaf I wish it were entirely my reflection on the book. I saw a super little video on the link between GR and film. As you point out at the start, the book shouldn't be 'read' in the traditional sense, it should be seen. ps, the book is so dense, I forgot already who Bloat is! lol
GR gets mentioned with Infinite Jest a lot, but they are such different different types of prose. DFW can go on long esoteric rants, but he generally includes everything you need to know within the text itself. With Gravity's Rainbow, if you don't put the book down and do your own research on the physical layout of Ivan Pavlov's lab, African military campaigns, Welsh choral traditions, rocket logo designs, etc... the prose just goes over your head. But the thing with Pynchon is that the research ALWAYS pays off.
Indeed, Wallace loved Pynchon and wrote Broom of the System with Pynchon as afflatus. With IJ, however, I feel that DFW wanted to try to break from the Pynchon influence and find his own path.
It sounds like something that could have come from Mortimer Adler, Clifton Fadiman, Harold Bloom, Alberto Manguel, or William H. Gass--in short, from great readers.
I'm currently on my second read of this fantastic book after almost 30 years. Thank you for this enthusiastic and exhaustive review. Everything I learn about it enhances my reading.
Thank you very much for this great video! Having read GR fairly recently for the first time, there were so many enlightening discoveries to be made listening to your video. By the way, as difficult as it was, I don't regret reading the book in English, since, being German, that gave an extra layer to it to enjoy (Slothrop sprinting over the Avus with his coat flapping made me laugh, having driven on that part many times in the past.) One thing I was suprised about being addressed in GR (and you mentioned it briefly in your video) was the rumours (conspiracy?) about Them planning to divide up Germany after the end of the war, if I remember that part correctly. Fiction, be it books or movies, tend to make a clear cut: the war is over and by that everything is solved, with a brighter future lying ahead - while in reality history of course never stops but is an ongoing process. An American writer addressing that, especially the economical dimension which is often tossed aside for a more morally ideal picture reduced to the good/evil dichotomy, less than 30 years after the war I find a quite fascinating.
I first read this book back around 1973 when it came out. I found it somewhat confusing, but full of fun little stories, episodes, and action [and fascinating characters]- I decided that it was written with "fade-ins and fade-outs" like a movie, instead of being a "linear" story/novel. I don't know if that was an accurate way to think about it, but it helped me get through it and I was kept entertained. I've re-read the book a couple more times, and I get really different increased understanding about what's going on in the book. It's really fun to read, and it's too bad it could never be made into a coherent movie- because so many scenes would look really great on film!
Guess I gotta try again. I tried and failed to conquer Gravity's Rainbow and Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale and David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas twenty years ago. I gave up because of the sheer density but maybe I'm ready now. Probably not.
One thing I noticed now as I’m watching your video around 22:40: the Poisson distribution *isnt* a mathematical pattern, really. So the fact that the V2’s follow this “pattern” isn’t what’s interesting. A poisson is essentially a lack of *any* pattern. What’s interesting is that Slothrop’s erections follow the *exact same* Poisson distribution. It’s like flipping two coins one after the other a bunch of times; they follow a Bernoulli distribution, but this isn’t really a pattern or interesting. What’s interesting is if the second coin gets exactly the same heads/tails as the first every time you flip. This is what’s happening in the novel.
To make a gross oversimplification of Gravity’s Rainbow, the novel seems to explore the tension between control and disorder. As a quick aside, I’ll unpack the concept of entropy roughly: While entropy seems like a mystical concept, it is formulated in physics (specifically thermodynamics and statistical mechanics) as a relationship between macroscopic dynamics and microscopic particle states of systems of a huge number of particles. It also has similar but distinct formulations in information theory, for example. As an analogy, imagine a wave of salutes progressing through a crowd at a stadium. The wave itself is like the macrostate because it’s a function of the way the whole crowd is shaped on aggregate. The microstate, in this trite example, would be every individual’s waving/not-waving status listed out. In the case of a gas contained in a box, the most likely macrostate is the one with the greatest amount of entropy. But what is entropy? Entropy, in the case of a closed system (one that does not exchange energy and mass with the external environment), is given by the formula S = k ln (Omega), where k = Boltzmann constant ~ 1.4 × 10-23 J K-1, and Omega = the number of microstates associated with the macrostate with total energy E, volume V, number of particles N and temperature T (for example, in an ideal gas). What is a microstate in this case? A microstate is the configuration in terms of position and momentum of all the particles of a system i.e. a list of the positions (xi,yi,zi) and momenta (pxi,pyi,pzi) of every particle constitutes the microstate, there are 6N numbers and note that the number of particles in an average system is huge! (for a finite box, there are infinitely many positions and momenta, we alleviate this by dividing the phase space into a finite number of sub-boxes, the size of which is found in quantum mechanics and seeing which box is occupied in phase space). What is a macrostate in this case? The macrostate is simply the list of the macroscopic variables i.e. the numbers (E,V,N,T). So there is only four numbers in the case of an ideal gas. So, equilibrium is reached when the systems macrostate becomes the one with the largest number of microstates, and hence Omega is maximised, and so is S, the entropy! It’s worth pointing out, the microstates can fluctuate in an isolated system with maximal entropy, so long as they call correspond to this one macrostate. If we are to interpret GR as a political novel, then the “particles” of GR could be the people, and a nonequilibrium macrostate could be one in which there is complete control…? But, perhaps Pynchon is telling us that the principle of increasing entropy will always save the world from tyrannical systems of control (which somehow have zero entropy, at least in the metaphor) or what you call “the death drive” inherent in humanity. The drive towards the zero! It’s hard to know what entropy is for Pynchon but I thought it might be useful to explain what it is in the case of statistical physics.
Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr’d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins, carried Hats away into the brisk Wind off Delaware,- the Sleds are brought in and their Runners carefully dried and greased, shoes deposited in the back Hall, a stocking’d-foot Descent made upon the great Kitchen, in a purposeful Dither since Morning, punctuated by the ringing Lids of various Boilers and Stewing-Pots, fragrant with Pie-Spices, peel’d Fruits, Suet, heated Sugar,- the Children, having all upon the Fly, among rhythmic slaps of Batter and Spoon, coax’d and stolen what they might, proceed, as upon each afternoon all this snowy Advent, to a comfortable Room at the rear of the House, years since given over to their carefree Assaults. Merry Christmas!
These companion books weren't available when I first read GR, but I did enjoy the limericks. Not likely to reread this tome as there are just too many other books I must get to the first time through. Thanks for this as always and Happy Holidays.
It's so difficult to do a book of such magnitude and encyclopaedic breadth justice but you do it miraculously well in this lovely feature-length video. I'm thinking about GR again and feel the pressure building inside my skull, it's just that kind of book. So congratulations to you for rekindling the feeling of reading this behemoth. To me, Gravity's Rainbow possesses an uncanny psychedelic quality. The roving, parenthetical, digressive, schizophrenic style, along with the broad emotional range, the comedy, the paranoia, and the vivid bright colours, all point to pure psychedelia to me. And that's just stylistically; when you consider Pynchon's links to the mid-20th century counterculture, his later engagement with the topic of drugs in Inherent Vice, and some alleged references to the as of yet undisclosed MKultra project, to me a picture begins to emerge of Pynchon as he's sat at his desk in Manhattan beach churning out this monster on his graph paper. With his reference to the 'Nixonian reaction' in Vineland, I can imagine Pynchon as an embittered half-hippie writing the Rainbow in a drug-fuelled haze, assimilating his political radicalism, scientific knowledge, and occult imagery all in a kaleidoscopic maze. Maybe this serves to explain his almost two-decade hiatus after publishing GR, one might be tempted to call it recovery. This also explains later Pynchon to me---an older, wiser, more sentimental and family-focused one, who still never lost his biting criticism of Them. How accurate is this picture of him? No clue. He remains an enigma, and hopefully will forever. Regardless, this image remains Pynchon to me.
What an important and well-researched video essay on an important and well-researched triumph of the 20th century. Thank you for all your research and production hours.
I first read at 16 couldn't read it past 10 pages. Again read at 19 after reading ij, brothers karamazov, war and peace and other biggies....this is the greatest novel ever written. I just don't find anything comparable to this book. The most unique writer.
In the re-reading merits section, I definitely agree with the general feeling of reading GR. The first read through for me was a real trudge, not in a bad way but it was very dense and as a result I missed a lot of things like subtle changes in narrative perspective or missing jokes or whatever. Pynchon is very sneaky with some things. Like jumping from a real life conversation into remembering a memory from the past in one of their heads. The 1st read was quite a challenge. It still had a great impact on me, but when I finished it the first time I felt kinda like my head had been hammered in lol. But the 2nd read was glorious. It's true you feel much more at ease, you can go with the flow of the constant weirdness/craziness and lock on to a lot more humor and themes. The 2nd read through was heavenly. I'm at page 600 rn in my 3rd read-thru and it's been great. Even though you know most of what's gonna happen (it's hard to remember *everything* that occurs in the book), there's still so much to dig up and look at, angles to dissect, characters to examine. It's an endlessly rich book!
Helpful tip here: for blind readers and/or people listening to this book on Audible, you can use the "End Of Chapter" sleep timer function for every chapter and it really really REALLY helps when you're trying to parse this book. I know the book has a tendency to just ride down the line with no definitive pit stops or conclusions and it's very punishing if you're not focusing on the person reading it. Also I'm not sure if there's more than one reader, but if so I VERY STRONGLY prefer the reading by George Guidall. He has a nice warm tone which is very soothing and easy to go to bed to; BUT he balances that out by really getting into the various characters and bits and hilarious limericks and exciting gratuitous sex. It's a fantastic reading if my ears were hungry they would go nom-nom-nom the whole time he was talking 😍😍. Anyways, sorry for vomiting out a verbose mountain of (Probably mostly useless) text, hope i could be helpful to at least one person 💜 Also, to the content creator: thank you so so much for taking the time to be this thorough, you honor Mr. Pynchon by doing so, and I quite enjoyed listening thank you
I have no idea how or why this landed in my recommendations, but I'm pulling my copy off the shelf now. I didn't get through it first time, but I've got to go back now.
@@LeafbyLeaf Just to add another layer: I first read GR in 1991 in Broward County---mostly at the beach in Pompano. "At the seashore you can do many things that you can't do in town . . ."
Excellent analysis, my congratulations, and thanks for the bibliography references! To me, Pynchon is the Cervantes of the XXst century. Just like the spanish author encapsulated in Don Quixote the literature of its time, and even future genres, Pynchon does the same, and with a similar use of irony, for our ages. GR has everything: comedy, love, sex, war, History, science, politics, esoterism, spy stories, fear and paranoia, death... Also like Cervantes, I admire how Pynchon "depressurizes" his most deep passages with touches of comic relief. Astounding how a writer on his thirties can have such control of his craft.
Thanks so much! And--great points here. I, too, am so blown away that someone in their 30s could achieve this. It's like what Vollmann achieved in his 20s with You Bright and Risen Angels!
Damn. This is one of my favourite books, but I don't know when I'll have time to actually watch this whole thing. Will put it on my "watch later" list though. I love that there's a channel doing stuff like this.
Yeah, a few years back I gave it sixty or seventy pages before deciding life was too short. I don't mind heavy IDEAS, or symbolism or subtext you find yourself thinking about later, only then getting a hint of the real weight of what the author was trying to impart. I love stuff like that, actually. But when the PROSE ITSELF is inscrutable, that just seems like bad writing to me. Idk, I get he's a genius and all, but he's not for me. I'm fine with being the guy rereading Demian or the Glass Family stories for the tenth time rather than trying to understand Gravity's friggin Rainbow. Fuck that noise.
A totally valid position. In my opinion, GR isn’t an essential book à la The Odyssey and Hamlet, unless one is studying postmodernism specifically. No shame in moving on to a book that speaks to you.
I hated it (well, most of it, there were a few great moments in there) 😂 Maybe when I have three and a half hours to spare I'll watch this video in its entirety and try it again. God knows why Google put this in my feed, their AI must think I need educating!
Was introduced to this book by a wonderful internet character who called himself sideburns Geoff - shoutout to him if his reading this. He described it being like a jazz piece, you could dive into any page an just enjoy the ride. Spellbinding writing
Sideburns Geoff has a good point there, though I don't see GR as a sort of Burroughs cut-up (there is a thread that leads through the pages and builds like iron bars collecting pollutants from water).
Do you plan on reading or reviewing Against the Day [if you haven't read it already]? Some Pynchon fans don't like it but it's not only my favorite Pynchon novel but it's my favorite work of fiction of all time. Pure masterpiece. Would love to see what you think.
didn't expect to but watched the whole thing haha, brilliant and really engaging, thank you so much! can't get enough of gravitys rainbow and feel a lil lost since finishing it
This video was excellent (I stopped midway because I have not read Gravity's Rainbow, I think I tried when I was a voracious reader in high school but found it a bit too dense, or just not subject matter that interested me) Thank you for such an in-depth look at the novel. I just watched a "Your Questions Answered" video as well, and it was nice to learn a little more about you, and your interests. --- Cheers!
I have the feeling this will demolish anything ever posted about Gravity’s Rainbow - a part the Bookchemist. Do you make aware when you start with giant spoilers? Or roughly would you be bale to tell us?
I really need to spend some time watching Book Chemist. As I say on my opening assertions, I really don't think this book can be spoiled for potential readers.
Big fan of Pynchon. Not so much one book in particular (I've read 5). For me the allure is his overall prose style and ability to make me believe the most outlandish things (a mechanical love-sick duck or Russian aeronauts traversing earth's core). I don't know another writer that pulls me in like that... Thanks for the video, I read G'sR twice and it was a challenge both times. Appreciate the suggestions for commentary on the book.
Just bought it and it's coming home for 2022 (I still have to wait some days) and you upload this, certainly it's christmas time for miracles! Abrazos desde Colombia :)
The books an extreme over compensation, in jungle foliage of language. Old Saying, "enemy of the best is good enough!" Gravities Rainbow is definitely attempts to put the best as a medium choice. LoL
I totally get your implication, but, of course, we're dealing with an unconventional genre here. I believe that, with some books, they cannot be read by a single person; and they force us into community.
Just discovered your channel. Shocked that you made this right around when I finished GR; it changed me unlike any book because the aesthetic way Pynchon oscillates between the casual and causal relationships as well as recursions of reality for me was this deep feeling, or frequency for lack of better term, most my life but translated directly into novel format. I became one of those people who was obsessing over the book so I try to not go down its rabbit holes, but sometimes during the day or when I wake up the little songs in the book are playing in my head. I'm glad you made this video and REALLY HOPE YOU GO ABOUT TO MAKE MORE OF THE SAME LENGTH; your genuine dives into the esoteric and no-boundaries to literature is exactly the type of channel/podcast I want. Maybe down the road you interview authors in the future as well. Seriously, I think you could podcast with Pynchon.
Thanks for your comments! What a moment of serendipity! And thanks for all your suggestions: longform videos; author interviews; a podcast--you never know what the future holds! :) All my best to you!
Just finished reading this book for the first time. An incredible novel that really pushes a brain to the limits. Can’t wait to re-read in a year or so. Thanks Chris for directing my attention to this book and keep up the great work with your excellent content.
Been my favorite postwar American novel since '76. And I've read all of Gaddis, DF Wallace and goodly chunks of Don DeLillo. No other novelist to this day has captured the essence of the 20th-century West more powerfully, IMHO.
Fucking fantastic exhaustive review! Please consider expounding on "The Crying Out of Lot 49" sometime! A book I've so far found no kinship with, but it's brevity and enigmatic nature (for me) still fascinates.
Thanks so much! I feel certain there will be a video for each Pynchon work within a reasonable amount of time. Lot 49 and "Entropy" were my entryways to Pynchon's universe.
@@LeafbyLeaf Entropy? I have to check it out, I've only run across GR, M&D, and the afore-mentioned lot 49. Oh and I have Vineland. I'm also curious about his largest book which I was unaware of until your content, ty
I would love to read Bottoms Dream in a group setting over a year, do you think that would be feasible or doable? I would love to do it in 2023! Tell me your thoughts on this?
I think Reading it ''communally'' and discussing what we are reading, especially with something this big and dense would be a big help. Maybe as a group we could complete the beast and conceptually, communally, comprehend the tome!
Chris, because of your channel and this excellent video, I've decided to read a novel for the first time in about ten years. I want to read Pynchon and think it might be best to start with The Crying of Lot 49. Do you agree? I've just watched a Yale lecture by Professor Amy Hungerford about this book and it was excellent. Gravity's Rainbow seems too much of a challenge to start with. So Inherent Vice is another I was thinking about? I know Paul Thomas Anderson adapted it into a highly rated film. What would you suggest? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks again for inspiring me to get back into reading fiction again. 👍
I always suggest the short story "Entropy" and The Crying of Lot 49 as entryways to Pynchon's cosmos. Inherent Vice is a lot of fun and way more accessible than the typical Pynchon. I tried to watch the PTA adaptation but couldn't get into it--for now, I've put it aside, but I will revisit it. Saying that I've inspired you to get back into reading fiction again is the biggest compliment you could give me! Thanks so much, and happy reading!
I read this in tandem with Anti-Oedipus! Wonderfully complimentary works. This video has given me the push to go back and reread GR, something I have been meaning to do since the moment I finished it. Also, this is the first of your videos I've seen! Well done, thoroughly enjoyable and your enthusiasm shines through :)
You are ABSOLUTELY right that this book is best read multiple times. I have just started a reread myself when I saw this video pop up (perhaps ACHTUNG has a hand in this?) and have been in awe of how carefully constructed and controlled the novel is. For all of its maximalist splendor, there is not a wasted word or a meaningless digression in the novel. What you also said about each sentence being a research project really struck me. Take, for instance, the beach scene where Tyrone fights off Grigori the octopus. Katje is described as having a "blond hood" of hair. At first glance, it's a clever and apt descriptor; but, when taking into account her being an agent of the White Visitation, and their hooded ceremonies in the woods, AND the fact that the Octopus fight is staged BY the White Visitation... God, and that's just ONE example. This book is bottomless. Incredible breakdown as always. Thank you for all that you do here with this fantastic channel.
I saw this video but watched maybe only the first 30 min, then in English our final was to pick whatever book we wanted and do a report on it and I chose GR. Such a good choice this video got me to read such an amazing book
We have the same edition of GR with the Frank Miller cover! I didn't want that at first (I favored the one with the cover by Yuko Kondo) but then it grew on me and hey life can't be perfect.
My feelings exactly--I, too, didn't like the Miller cover at first. I also have the older Penguin edition with the blueprint cover. That Kondo is gorgeous!
