I read Thomas Pynchon for the first time | V. review + discussion (Project Pynchon episode 1) 

You bear a remarkable resemblance to a young Pynchon himself… You’ll appreciate V a lot more after you’ve read the rest of his books. It was his first novel, incredibly ambitious but he was still developing his style and themes. Gravity’s Rainbow is the masterpiece where he came into his own. Good video, I enjoyed your perspective.

V is one of my favorite novels of all time. It’s the type of work that lends itself to multiple readings. Give it another shot after you’ve read more Pynchon. You might like it better the second or third time around. Happy reading!

Interesting video and series idea. Crying Of Lot 49 and Gravity’s Rainbow both explore paranoia as well. It has been many years since I’ve read Pynchon.

I'm currently reading this and I am very underwhelmed, thankfully this is not my first pynchon, or I would be hesitant to continue with him :)

You gave some sharp thoughts on the book. I would say you need to read this a second time. You can't really get it the first time even if you take notes and draw diagrams. The book could get very confusing, and Pynchon does not help a reader along. The details have a tendency to turn around and mean something else a second time. Details could be misconstrued or even switched. For example, you mentioned Stencil the father in the South African chapter, but it was not him. It was Hugh Godolphin, the British explorer, who had turned up in the Florence chapter with his son, who also shows up in two other chapters in very different roles. It is not a book that relies on plot in the technical sense, and so it might feel disappointing in the end. But that was what the book needed to be because that is what it is about. It is a novel that actually shows you the world, like I think any great novel should. In V.'s case,, you get several worlds struggling at tenuous connection points, and it is only funny when you don't think about all the horror that is all around it.