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Thomas Pynchon - Against The Day

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 11:04:49 No.7289727 View Reply Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7289816 >>7289939 >>7290033 >>7290257 >>7291881 >>7292214

I am on page 300 and I am already bored of this book. Am I missing something? Does it get any better? This was my second Pynchon after Inherent Vice, which I barely finished, and I don't get the hype. Should I try with V. or Mason - Dixon?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 11:27:36 No.7289792 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7289803 >>7289821

So one one has read Against the Day? I had guessed after a few days on this site pretty much everybody had Pynchon's dick on his/her mouth

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 11:30:43 No.7289803 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7289792
>Thinking people on here read.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 11:34:17 No.7289816 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7289727
How the hell does someone end up reading only Inherent Vice and Against the Day? After Vineland, those two are probably the least cared about of all his novels.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 11:35:34 No.7289821 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7290082 >>7290135

>>7289792
For me Agains the Day is better than Gravity's Rainbow. The setting and the writing itself.

But I read against the day before gavity's rainbow and read gravity's in portuguese, so...

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 11:40:44 No.7289842 Report Delete

Quoted By:

Can't help you, it's the one I haven't read. I love Inherent Vice though so maybe he's just not for you. I don't know why you would start an 1100 page book with decidedly mixed reviews by an author you don't care for though.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 11:43:02 No.7289851 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7289962

I have no idea. They were in the bookstore and I picked them up because everybody kept talking about how good Pynchon is. Now I don't know if I should pick V. or what.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 12:04:00 No.7289939 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7289727
If you don't like Against the Day, don't bother reading anything else by him: you won't like any of his other books.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 12:07:03 No.7289957 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>barely finished Inherent Vice
>decides to read his longest book

ayy

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 12:08:36 No.7289962 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7289851

I've only read V but I found it entertaining and easy to follow (as in not get bored, not really easy to actually follow his crazy-ass story)

Quite liked it, but maybe he just isn't your cup of tea? Fairly sure you went for the wrong ones though

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 12:22:24 No.7290033 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7289727
Honestly, its probably best to start with The Crying of Lot 49. Its his shortest and you get a rough idea of his style/key elements. After that read Mason & Dixon, its easily his best (having not read GR)

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 12:31:41 No.7290082 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7289821

Why in the world wouldn't you read GR in its native language if you can read English?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 12:35:10 No.7290099 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7290108 >>7290118

the middle is dry as fuck (especially the western stuff) push through, the last 200 pages are pure fucking brilliance that made me hold this book higher than gravity's rainbow

inherent vice is crap. pynchon writes serious and funny books, IV being in the latter (which are all generally avoided) V is alright, Mason & Dixon is beautiful but heavily reminiscent of the sot weed factor (which I believe came out around the same time?) still a great book though.

The cats

The cats Tue 27 Oct 2015 12:39:00 No.7290108 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7290120

>>7290099
The sot weed factor is like 35 years older than M&D. Although rumor is he may have begun M&D in the 70s

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 12:41:59 No.7290118 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7290436 >>7290524

>>7290099

pynchon writes serious and funny books

ALL his books are funny, usually with black comedy and a playful sense of humour. Where the hell have you been?

And I liked ATD, and consider Inherent Vice his best book...I've read it half a dozen times. There's nothing wrong with Pynchon Lite, it's just very underrated.

I wonder if anyone has really read Bleeding Edge yet?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 12:42:39 No.7290120 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7290108
shit that was it, they were written not published around the same time. bastard pensioner pinching pynchon wasted decades of my life waiting

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 12:45:18 No.7290135 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7290236 >>7292039

>>7289821

I bought V on portuguese and almost instantly regreted my decision.

It's just so hard to find good pt po-mo authors after you've read Saramago...

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 13:16:46 No.7290236 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7290327

>>7290135
Have u ever tried reading Antonio Lobo Antunes?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 13:23:13 No.7290257 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7289727

I've said since I finished Against the Day it's already in the 21st c. canon. It's a miracle of a book. Not everything in it is at a fever pitch and he has moments where he has to develop later points. I'm not confident I got all the references (obviously) but the accumulation of points culminates in a profound last third.

No really, push through it. He rewards you.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 13:40:50 No.7290298 Report Delete

Quoted By:

I've read all of Pynchon's books except Slow Learner (getting to it). I do have a question, though about Pynchon's bio? I haven't really looked into it, but (Eminem's "Lose Yourself" beat starts playing...) Look, how can, one man, be so fucking epic, to send a character down the toilet in a book? Is it magic, or is it literary genius? Yo, his prose is heady, themes bleak, bombs are steady, please get the awards ready, this author ain't deaddy, he's furthest, from the pop-culture armageddon, he's a recluse with a purpose that you're far from gettin'.

Get the awards ready

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 13:43:08 No.7290302 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7290364 >>7290397

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 13:53:46 No.7290327 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7290336

>>7290236

Nope, but I really disliked the passages I've read. Also, I took a neurology class with him and thoroughly dispised his character. I honestly think he is not worth reading, but I might be terribly wrong.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 13:55:42 No.7290336 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7290327

Wait, I think I mistook him for his brother, is his books worth reading then?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 14:04:25 No.7290364 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7290398

>>7290302
Fuck off, memeposter cunt.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 14:12:24 No.7290397 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7290302
>to send a character down the toilet in a book

You mean Irvine Welsh right?

:^)

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 14:13:08 No.7290398 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7290364
What he wrote down, the whole sky screams so loud, he opens his mouth but the turd won't go down, he's chokin' now, the whole book's broken now, his cock's gone up, seek cover, explosion, Pow!

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 14:25:53 No.7290436 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7290524

>>7290118
>I wonder if anyone has really read Bleeding Edge yet?

I read it the week it came out. I really liked it, although the story is pretty linear and "pulpy" - as is Inherent Vice's.

But I'm about to read BE again to crystalize a deeper opinion.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 14:44:18 No.7290524 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7290118
>>7290436
I read BE too. I really liked it, Pynchon's internet (despite being 100% incorrect) is pretty interesting. I thought, going in, 9/11 was going to be a large point or relate to everything, but it doesn't really, which is p cool.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 20:11:22 No.7291881 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7289727
>This was my second Pynchon after Inherent Vice
Literally why?

You're supposed to read V., Lot 49, and maybe Gravity's Rainbow, if you liked those you read the rest, if not don't bother.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 20:34:11 No.7291971 Report Delete

Quoted By:

I've read Inherent Vice, Crying of Lot 49, Against the Day, Got ankle-deep in Mason & Dixon, and am ~3/4ths through Gravity's Rainbow.

I think the lengthier books require a second read. I started GR before all of the others I noted, but stopped and re-started after knocking out the rest of said list.

Upon a second reading, I caught much more and enjoyed the flow of events. In uncharted territory, Pynchon can throw a lot all at once... that is why /lit/ gushes over him-- he puts details in books like so many clowns in a tiny car.

Spouse read Against the Day twice and told me similar opinions-- loved it the second time through.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 20:46:15 No.7292014 Report Delete

Quoted By:

Against the Day is probably his most uneven book, which is to be expected due to the length. There are many bits of sheer brilliance, both on the serious and the funny side (I think it's hilarious trying to separate the two in a Pynchon book), but quite a bit of it I found to be dry and uninteresting. Were these bits to be a different book on their own, it would still be a read-worthy book, but compared to the absolute amazing bits in ATD, they seem off-putting.

That being said, reading ATD before reading his other stuff is a bizarre decision. COL49 and Inherent Vice are probably the best introductions to his work, depending what your literary background is.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 20:54:21 No.7292039 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7290135
The problem is with V.'s translation (if you're brazilian and reading the Paz e Terra edition).

The rest of the translations are actually p. good, and the guys responsible for Papa Pynch's work are the same ones who did a beautiful translation of Ulysses some time ago

Anonymous

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Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 21:30:12 No.7292185 Report Delete

Quoted By:

I'd also reckon it's probably one of if not the absolute hardest of Pynchon's books.

Gravity's Rainbow, to an experienced reader or someone going through the book a second time, makes a fair bit of sense, has clear moral statements, and has most of its difficulty centralized in the question of "what's going on?"
Once you know how to follow Pynchon's dreamlike tangents (especially in Part 4) things become quite manageable.

ATD never gets as surreal as GR, but it's just got so fucking much going on, so many characters and ideas, and so little spelled out. It's definetely amongst the hardest books I've ever read.

I guess the question is whether or not you deem it something worth your time to figure out.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 21:34:56 No.7292214 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7289727
I would call myself a die-hard fan of Pynchon's early stuff, V, Lot 49, and GR are all among my favorite books, hell artworks in general, of all time.

There's a clear dividing line though, I think, between Pynchon's first three novels and his works which followed. I've enjoyed his later works but to nowhere near the same amount. A lot of the praise you hear about Pynchon is probably aimed at GR or the GR era. So I'd try those before writing Pynchon off.

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