The Postmodern Thread -- Pynchon, DeLillo, Barthelme, Gaddis, DFW, etc.

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The Postmodern Thread -- Pynchon, DeLillo, Barthelme, Gaddis, DFW, etc.

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

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I finished Gravity's Rainbow last week and meant to post a retrospective, but the forums crash threw me off.

Wow. What a loving book. Infinite Jest is still my favorite novel because it is more relateable and the characters are much stronger, but never in my life have I read something like Gravity's Rainbow: so chock full of style, bursting from every sentence like a rocket. I don't even know what to say here that would do it justice other than that it is the most unique (excluding gimmick books, albeit still with some merit, such as House of Leaves or S.) novel I've ever come across. I strongly recommend it to anyone, but with the oft-repeated caveat that you have to simply accept that you will not come close to understanding all of it, or perhaps even most of it. The last 100 pages completely baffled me, but I was enamored with Pynchon's style that I kept going and loved it. I wanted to post a more in-depth examination to stimulate discussion of the book, but frankly, I don't think I'm qualified even for that. I know that I will return to the book soon and go through it with Weisenburger's companion, as my university has a copy in the library.

I am glad to read this. I'm about 100 pages into my most recent attempt on this book--I tried it before when I was probably far too young and cocky. So far it is mostly making sense--as long as I don't try to understand every damned thing being said. Instead, I'm reading each section as a movie scene being crafted by Pynchon in my head and it is working really well for me so far. I'm actually engaged with it for the first time

# ¿ Nov 29, 2014 21:40

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# ¿ May 4, 2024 22:06

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

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I'm glad I could help. It's a really rewarding book, ESPECIALLY when you get to section two. Section two is a little more straight-forward.

Cool. That said I have read few book scenes quite as funny as the attempt to capture that dog right at the beginning

# ¿ Dec 1, 2014 03:07

Bilirubin: Feb 16, 2014; The sanctioned action is to CHUG

Lutha Mahtin posted:

I'm commenting more on the academic side of postmodernism, which isn't entirely separable from pomo lit since it's often academics who write about it. It's kind of a derail though, so maybe never mind.

Have you ever read this book? I recommend it. I got interested because as a "hard scientist" our impressions of post modernism comes from things like the Alan Sokol affair, but my wife's legal theory made good use of Foucault and Derrida's work so I wanted a better idea what it was actually about. It gives a pretty interesting perspective on how French Theory spread in the US

# ¿ Dec 9, 2014 06:12

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > The Postmodern Thread -- Pynchon, DeLillo, Barthelme, Gaddis, DFW, etc.