Posts tagged 'Gravity's Rainbow'

• Day 34 - completion - June 3, 2007

  This morning, I woke up early and finished Gravity’s Rainbow. The rest of the book left me confused, amazed, and bewildered. In contrast, the ending left me feeling empty and disappointed. The story just ends, with the main character vanished (dead? insane? dissolved into the universe?) and a chapter from hundreds of pages prior retold from a different perspective to its conclusion. Other characters who seemed extremely important in the first part of the book only to disappear for 400 pages reappear, then also mysteriously vanish with no real conclusion. Then there’s the story of the Schwartzcommando who are preparing to fire their rocket but are never heard from again. Characters just disappear from the story entirely. Whole subplots that seemed so important never come to a conclusion. Then, the ending itself describes events that happened chronologically before lots of other parts in the book. Slothrop (more or less the main character), from interacting with other characters, must have known that the thing he was looking for had already happened. So what is he really looking for?

• Day 31 - May 31, 2007

  Here it is, the beginning of day 31 and the last day of the month. I’m still way back at page 601 which is the very beginning of section four. I haven’t made much progress in the last week and a half due to Sarah’s visit and my rafting trip. Were it not for those things I would probably be done by now. But I’ll still finish. It might just take into the first week of June.

  After running around in a pig costume for a couple chapters, Slothrop is really starting to lose it. He can’t concentrate on what he’s doing anymore and is losing touch with what’s real vs. what’s fantasy. Another reader brought up the point that the chronology is screwed up. I agree. I don’t understand why he’s looking for the 00000 when from what all the other characters say, it seems like it’s already been launched. So what’s he really searching for? Perhaps the final section will make these things clear.

• Day 17 - May 17, 2007

  I’m now at page 527. Slothrop sure does keep getting into trouble somehow. It also looks like he’s really starting to lose it - he keeps forgetting where he is or what he’s supposed to be doing there, even when it’s just been explained to him. He’s never going to find the S-Gerat at this rate.

  Sarah’s coming into town tomorrow night. This might mean that I update this thing less frequently, though hopefully my updates will be more interesting than my slow progress in this book.

• Day 15 - winners - May 15, 2007

  Today is day 15 of the Gravity’s Rainbow Death Pact. I’m at page 457, having quit last night after a really wonderful section involving Poekler and Ilse and then doing a little more reading today.

• Day 12 - May 12, 2007

  Just a quick note on my progress, since it’s been several days. I am sitting just past the middle of my copy, on page 389. It’s all downhill from here. If I keep this pace up, I’m sure to finish before the end of the month though I’m positive there are lots of people ahead of me.

  And now it’s off to bed early so I can hike in the Sandwich Range Wilderness tomorrow.

• Day 8 - May 8, 2007

  I’ve finished section 2, putting me on page 282 in my copy. The story’s really moving now, to the point where I wonder whether I should go back and re-read some of the past couple chapters. The last couple pages of section 2 revealed quite a bit that seems like it’s going to be very important later and I must admit I kind of skimmed over it because I knew my goal for the night was in sight.

• Day 7 - May 7, 2007

  I lied. I was going to post an entry about my knee hurting and missing the hike I wanted to do this weekend, but it suddenly got late and I don’t feel like writing all that much tonight. Instead, have another update on the reading.

• Day 4 - May 4, 2007

  I’m now up to page 122. Yesterday’s reading was really tough - I can only remember two major things from it, and everything in between those two has already left my memory. Today’s reading was much easier, though the material itself was pretty disturbing. We’ve had some more plot points show up along with a couple more big characters. The organization of the book is interesting. Pynchon seems to keep adding on more and more seemingly unrelated stories with their own main characters, but these do eventually start to tie together in some way. It’s a bit difficult to keep it all together in my head. I feel like I should be taking notes or making a big chart of characters.

• Day 2 - May 3, 2007

  I got to the boxes on page 61 of my edition, which is right before the letters back and forth start. While I’m not having too much trouble understanding individual sections of text, I’m having a hard time piecing them together into a complete story. It feels like at least half the text is flashback or dream or someone else’s memories. Which of them are relevant to the story, and which are just little half-paragraph diversions thrown in to keep my on my toes?

  Anyway, certain parts of the plot are beginning to emerge. I’m enjoying it well enough but it’s taking a lot of concentration to get that enjoyment out of it. Who knows what tomorrow’s reading holds.

• GR death pact now open - May 1, 2007

  It’s now May 1 where I am, so I’m going to go ahead and declare that the previously mentioned Gravity’s Rainbow death pact is up and running. If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, you still have time. Don’t worry about getting started immediately since I don’t think a couple hours isn’t going to make all that much difference anyway. I’m not planning on getting started until after work.

• Day 1 - May 1, 2007

  I got to the top of page 30 today, where there’s a big row of boxes (which will henceforth be called Pynchon Narrative Discontinuity Boxes). It seemed like a pretty good place to stop. My mind was starting to wander those last couple pages and for some reason I would like to get something out of this book. The sentence structure (or total lack of it) is going to take some getting used to but it’s not impossible. So far, I do like a lot of the humor and absurdity in the story. The giant adenoid diversion is a particular favorite. No real sign of a story yet, and only brief mentions of the person I’m assuming is the main character judging by the summaries I have read elsewere.

  Tomorrow, I promise to write about something else.

• Gravity's Rainbow Death Pact - April 27, 2007

  It’s a widely believed fact that Gravity’s Rainbow is impossible to read. No humans are known to have ever finished this book due to its huge number of characters, pages upon pages of tangential subplots, obscure cultural references, and maze of randomly assembled paragraphs. I myself have attempted to read this book several times, but have never managed to get past the first 60 pages. I’m not sure what the plot really is, or even if there are main characters at all.