Im glad to see a women review this book, I've only seen men review it and I've been really curious how this book feels from a feminine perspective. Started it two days ago I'm only 80 pages in but based on all I see I'm scared for the reading ahead of me
lol have you… or haven’t you seen the women review it?… they literally can not get past the first chapter. All the women shit on this book while the men… well i can understand why it’s a right of passage for men. And it opens you up to some scary ideas and concepts…. Let’s spoil them!!!! Werhner Von Braun is a Nazi whose ideas are taken by NASA. There’s ideas of Pavlov’s dogs, which the question is not how but why we do the things we do in search of science!!! An octopus attacks a woman in which faye Wray in which… poor Wray what is with her and animals. Also paranoia and psychological soliders. In which psalms for paranoid psychotics. Limericks here, music there. A sympathetic story about a scientist who worked on the rocket, whose daughter was taken to camp Dora. Also yes coprophagia (yum). Going through the sewers, (SEWER SURFING!!!!) Also racism here and there, filipino civil war, African civil war, Kyrgyzstan civil war!! Hah “don’t you see Kyrgyz light.” Illuminati is behind everything including a Phoebus conspiracy in which your lightbulbs purposefully last only for 6 months. More pedophilia, more beastality, more fart jokes. Also you talk shit you get your balls cut off by MPs, or were they Mi6s? I forget doesn’t matter. Did I mention a girl destroys a movie theater in a panzer tank? But shut up and snort this ether and then take some meth: ww1 meth, Hitlers meth. Also you know Hitler was a tarus, you can’t trust tarus, I consulted my horoscope! Dammit! Also yes lab rats… hey rat 1, can you test the cheese for me? Just to be safe: sure why no-- there goes rat 2. Well we know the cheese is laced. Also eulogy’s, limerick, jokes, dressing as a pig and having sex with pigs. The ending counterforce: everyone dies. Each person experiences their own death and sees their life flash before their eyes, and we get a hymn from slothrup… Stfu now read infinite jest. You’re ready: Run Spot Run.
Yours is one of the most interesting, thoughtful and honest takes on GR I've seen on youtube. Thank you. About the humor tho: I was, too, surprised how much not simply jokes but straight up buffoonery happens in this book. Characters not only recite poems and songs on the regular but many scenes morph into entire music numbers, with labrat cabaret shows and whatnot bursting out of the page at you. And... all of it feels JOYLESS. As if existing in constant fear with war and death everpresent in the background of everyday vacuums life out of Life itself making ghosts of us all.
@@writtenbymurphy I meant every word I said 😄. Sifting through videos about GR as an appetizer. I get the feeling people read it to wear as a badge, like a personal trophy (and there's some merit to that I guess?). More of a Mount Everest sort of challenge indulged for the difficulty, the turgidness of the material rather than the beauty of it.
I really like Gravity’s Rainbow, and it is common to have an unpleasant experience on the first read. But I found your review to be unique, honest, and highly insightful. I Thank you.
Your ability to articulate thoroughly why you disliked the novel but why you also found it prescient in the world we live in today I'd imagine was Pynchons intent, regardless of how clearly nihilistic he was at this point in his career. Thank you for a great review of a novel I personally adore!
What a great review! I think you understood the book better than many “experts”, you really are an insightful and intelligent reader. You got yourself a new subscriber!
I’m currently reading GR for the 3rd time in the last year and a half (clearly a fan). I understand the dislike but I will say in Pynchon’s defense - there are several instances of optimism I didn’t catch on the first read. Also on the 2nd/3rd read I am finding there are several characters I do care about. (Roger Mexico’s doomed love for Jessica is beautifully written.) It is one of those books (like Ulysses) that you get a lot more out of on the re-read.
'All of the possibilities were pre-selected by institutional non-personal systems'. That's very interesting, since your interpretation corroborates my not-so-popular theory that the paranoid Tyrone Slothrop may in fact be the _only_ character in the book, or worse still be a V-2 rocket himself.
GR is indeed a masterpiece of the comic and only semi-tragic collapse of all structures. I read it in 1974 and revisit it about every 10 years. Its themes are highly reminiscent of its true predecessor, Moby Dick, THE great novel of total deconstruction.
@@tylersquanto8938 Thank you for clearing up what is meant by that term "total deconstruction". Can you recommend a resource or author commentary or book of literary criticism that analyses/explains how and why Moby Dick is such a stand out departure for what a novel is, and what ideas and symbols the book is communicating throughout the story?
No characters acting on their own volition. (Individual depersonalised, reduced to consumable material) Tyrone Slothrop - entropy/sloth as anagram I for one found it funny Haha craziness of institutions - Pulitzer annihilated itself in appreciation for the book The wider craziness is that slothrop might just have been paranoid
I've been reading nothing but Pynchon all year. Started with a second read through Mason & Dixon, then V, now I'm in the middle of Against the Day. I'm wondering if this will ever end. By the time I get done one novel I'm thinking about revisiting another.
Great to hear your review! Although Gravity’s Rainbow is the undisputed world champion of boy books, one could argue that it’s actually a feminist satire which critiques the masculine drive to death inherent in the systems and institutions of control which dominate and divide our world while longing for a return to a pre-historical time when the sacred feminine principles of wholeness and fecundity immanent from the earth still governed societies and consciousness.
Interesting proposition… I don’t see anything in the book or in the author’s bio that would support a feminist intent though A desire for wholeness and fecundity was not expressed in the text. Seems like something a reader brings to the story
Thank you for reviewing this book so honestly. for me Gravity's Rainbow describes our present condition in which we worship corporations and the military industrial complex. I do believe that there's a spirituality implicit in the book, but only implicit, as the world where it takes place is pure nihilism. Against the Day seems like Gravity's Rainbow's conjugate, and moreover a book written for the future, and here you'll find hope and characters with volition, despite the obvious evil in the world.
The *scoff* after the quote about this being the most masculine book the reviewer has read (8:29) made me literally laugh out loud. Good review! Nice to hear a woman review this one - I’ve only heard dudes review
I would suggest the review read ‘V’ by Pynchon - GR is meant to be hyper-masculine. I found the book hilarious, to be honest. I think we disagree, there. It’s quite rich in symbolism, and I would’ve liked for the reviewer to go into some of that, since it is sooooo rich. Question for the reviewer: did you read any outside sources alongside the work? I wonder if reading Weissenburger’s companion would’ve provided a better reading experience.
@@Michial90 I had heard weisseburger was worth checking out. In general I try to read and review from my own impressions…I do like to pay attention to the history surrounding a book. But I want the text to stand on its own
@@writtenbymurphy that makes sense! To each their own - with this text, I knew I was missing much at the beginning, so I picked up the companion (nerd, here). Anyway, I appreciated the respective and look forward to more book reviews!
I've read plenty of Pynchon(including one of the hard ones: Mason and Dixon). But I have yet to tackle this beast. I am very much looking foward to, since Pynchon is one of my favorite writers, but this one has been on my shelf for a while. I've been a bit scared of it, honestly lol.
This book may not contain "likable characters" but you yourself are one. This is a mature, engaging and light-hearted review of a complex and divisive book that doesn't reduce it to, or pander to Lowest-Common-Denominator readings. And that's refreshing.
Thank you for that feedback! I believe in freedom and accessibility of ideas. I love books and I want to encourage the same in others This channel is a way to express that and encourage some conversation about the books
This is on our book club list and I am 50 pages in. Your summary, and listening to others speak on it, makes me feel like putting it down. Instead I can pick up great Buddhists texts and stories. I get this book is genius. But is reading it going to help me? I have recently read Milton's Paradise Lost, The Invisible Man and Hamlet twice . But what I want is hope. Ulysses, War and Peace, TBK offer hope. Other books too. I thought reading the greatest literary works solidly for two years would be more rewarding. But recently I have felt there is a lack of positivity in too many books. We are conditioned, so to couteract that we need conditioning that encourages positive free will choices and world views. Your right about the characters in GR. They all appear flat and devoid of spirit as spirit has to include love an empathy. Should I carry on? There is more enlightning stuff to read. As the bombs pound Gaza the machine is allowing this to continue. Time for the Machine to Stop (EM Forster).
If this book is not giving you what you need right now, I think it’s fine to put it down, If you are interested in Buddhist texts, I can recommend Journey to the West or the monkey King. That book is so much fun and Buddha is an important character Don’t force it if it’s not the right book right now I am intrigued and kind of confused by your three book choices paradise lost, the insisibke Man and hamlet. Those very different stories.
Those books are the schedule for the reading club: Hard Core Literature Book Club. And this book. 20 pages from the end of section 1. I still cant see the point though I realise that the book intends for the reader to not be able to square the myriad cicles being crafted. Maybe as I am a Buddhist and pretty poltically aware it just seems to be contrived. The constant sexual illusions just purile. There seems to be no important valid message past that we are being played around with. By the way I have lived in China 16 years and outside of western countries 22 years. This is so culturally a western book, and a western male "geek" type book. Maybe that also is creating my alienation from this work even though I have a science background..
Nice review. To me,Gravity's rainbow is a masterpiece of modern literature,and it is written 50 years ago!I agreed with your epilogue just before listening to it.I may add that the characters are not there to be liked,or even judged,it is just that they are mainly pawns in chess.
Nice review. Unlike you I'm a fan of the book but I appreciated hearing your intelligent perspective. I agree with the commenter earlier who said Moby-Dick is more the spiritual forebear of this book than Ulysses, but I se the point about both. Thanks for this!
I would have to say i AM a fan of the book, because by the end it was clear it was masterpiece. NOT an easy read,, but still amazing. I did do a review of Moby dick as well ruclips.net/video/62op0GUyr5E/видео.html
I stumbled across your video because - while in the process of reading the novel for a third time - I had been looking around for relevant content. I do enjoy your perspective. And, of course, there's a few things I don't quite agree with. Sorry for the long read, I guess it must be those damn 1000+ pages... 1. One commentator mentioned that Pynchon's protagonists are not there to be liked. I totally agree with that, and I'd go even one step further: they're not there to be envied either. When concentrating on all the sexual content, on a very superficial level one could get to view Slothrop as something one wants to be him(!)self: sleeps with many women, and, Pynchon goes into length not to leave any doubt, satisfies all of them. Remembering that we're not talking about pornographic material one will probably notice that along the novel that this is really more of a parody. I don't think Pynchon made this up just for fun (although I can't help but think that he must have been stoned while writing at least parts of the novel). Slothrop is not in control of his life. He was sent into the "zone" while still being constantly observed. Just the same he is controlled by his sexuality. Hence, all his traits boil down to the same thing: he is a creature struggling for self-determination but always failing to achieve this. 2. Of course, Pynchon is a man. But, though being a man myself, I don't agree with your point of this being a very "male" novel. "Masculinity" is not what the novel is but rather what it is about (and that in a pretty critical way). The rocket as a phallus symbol is of course a choice that was made very deliberately (culminating brilliantly in the novel's end with Weissmann's lover shot into the sky in a gigantic penis). It symbolises male quest for dominance, both sexually and in society with technology being one of the tools employed in this. And yes, all these years and lots of sociologic-feminist papers later we may not find this particularly innovative anymore, but consider the time it was written. 3. Beside sexuality, atrocities are another main concept. In Gravity's Rainbow there are a few references to the genocide commited by Germans in their African colonies from "V". In "V" this is described from an observer's perspective (who, when looking closely is not that much an observer but rather an accomplice). The atrocities shown in "V" are described seemingly without any compassion (by the way, just like the episode on the "bad priest" dying trapped while being ripped apart by children). However, when reading more of Pynchon's novels we understand that compassion is actually one of his central themes. But activating one's moral compass remains up to the reader. Similar ideas can be found in Gravity's Rainbow, think of the Africans' collective suicide for example. To me this all seems rather consistent: look what our "civilisation" has done (and keeps doing). 4. Shock. People are forced to eat excrements, incest, etc. - the world has come to a point where all structure, all values are lost (hey, this is what your ambitions and your innovativeness have brought us, man!). 5. Finally, back to the novel's (alleged) "maleness". Of course, I have only my own perspective. Between the lines I seem to hear that you feel distant from what is described in the novel, probably even alienated. I am pretty sure that the same is the case for most readers. Could it be, that we tend to be alienated in different ways but pretty much end up at the same point anyway?
Thanks fir your comment. You are reading this for the third time? It is a masterpiece and it stays with me. I still think About it a lot. Your objection to my review seems to be that I call it a boy book.. you imply that the topic is masculinity, but it’s a book for everyone. Have any of your female acquaintances read the book? My and my book club companion did, but I would be amazed to find another woman who had read it. Not just because the characters are not likable. I’ve read other books without likable characters- great gatsby springs to mind-but this book is so finely tuned to the male mind, it takes a climb- mt-Everest kind of determination for a woman to scale it. Maybe it SHOULDNT be a boy book, but I think it is. As brilliant as it is, there are a lot of books I would re read before going back to this one
@@writtenbymurphy Actually Pynchon was recommended to me by my female, American flatmate (who I had bombarded with probably not exactly suble objections I as a European had about the USA, and that kindof was her reaction to these comments). I can't exactly recall the conversations we had on Pynchon and his books, but since your perspective was quite surprising to me I will have to assume that hers was different back then ;) And of course everyone of us percieves the book in probably entirely differnt ways, so there's of course no "right" or "wrong". But having been surprised by some of what you said in your review, while taking a long Sunday morning walk with my headphones on, I thought I'd write you a few lines when back home...
Thank you very much! Your review is helpful...and yet somewhat perplexing because you spend about 24 minutes explaining in detail why the book is "cringe" [well not only], and then one minute concluding the book is sublime. You're saying all the cringing will be worth it at the end and the cheese will be transubstantiated into gold? This year I read Blood Meridian which re-inspired me to read great books, but following the Blood Meridian thread they have been quite MALE, e.g. the Iliad; and male authors like Faulkner and Shakespeare. They have female characters but... Right now I'm trying to balance things out with Middlemarch and some Chaucer.
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I am saying the book is gold..it’s a complicated book. Part of the payoff is how well the author takes on the subject matter is an extraordinarily layered way. Blood meridian is in a similar category or reprehensible characters and actions. I hadn’t thought about that one as male (or as a boy book in my parlance), but it makes sense that it would be Your comment makes me want to buckle down and do some more reviews
@@writtenbymurphy Thanks for your response! I don't want to value comments according to whom they are coming from, but it definitely helps to know that a woman can also think GR is a great book!
I think the book is funny, entertaining, historical, informative, philosophical and thoughtful and is one big fat invitation to start learning more about our world, whether that personal education be in math, physics, history, music, art, philosophy, spirituality or all of the above. Pynchon, especially GR, is all about connecting dots to try to discern patterns that, hopefully, form some kind of picture of reality. The more dots you have to connect, the clearer the picture that emerges. It encourages us to look beneath the surface of things, and challenges all of our assumptions, ...all of them, including the nature of our consciousness and the notion of free will. It's a mistake, I think, to read GR as some sort of artful, dreadful hallucination rather than as a kind of sober journalism reporting on the state of the world at the end of WWII and the state of Humanity in modern times. This is what we're up against, folks. And things haven't gotten better or easier over the 50 years since the publishing of this book. We're being forced to be born into a higher state of consciousness. We can be born kicking and screaming into this new world, resisting every inch of the way, or we can embrace the challenge of radically changing how we see and experience everything, losing ourselves to gain ourselves.
I think people need to remember that Pynchon was only in his twenties, and early thirties, when he wrote GR. I think that is why it is so gross and juvenile. When a typical male is in his twenties, his "inputs" are testosterone, strip clubs, alcohol, testosterone, drugs, testosterone, and one-night-stands. His "outputs" are empty beer bottles and vomit. With a genius like Pynchon, his "output" was GR. You should read Mason & Dixon and Against The Day (if you have not) to see the mature author. The man is shockingly smart. I think it's better to refer to him as "maximalist" rather than "post-modern" because he just knows so much about so much. If you are a "geek" who wants to know everything, and see the English language at its apex, you will like his "encyclopedic" novels. Also, check out Wisenburger's Companion to GR. It's excellent. It's hard to believe a 20-something year old knew so much. James Joyce, William Gaddis, Thomas Pynchon, China Mieville, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Powers, David Foster Wallace. Yup.
@@zamiadams4343 that’s a fine way to Start on this book. It is a monolith of a novel If you are enjoying reading it you could keep going with it that way If you want you could get some cliff notes, etc I hope you found my review helpful.
To anyone curious about gravity’s rainbow I’m sorry, but I found the quote that sums up best why I like it and other books that have a common motif structured around morality in which we can’t just paint people good or bad.. you essentially are a bad person for reading a book like this. You purposely put yourself through the things you read just to get something out of it. You are no different from a Pavlov dog in which you enjoy sweet drops of water sprinkled on your tongue everytime you hear the ringing of that good little lucky yellow bell… to which I have to ask why are you reading? Are you just reading for fun or do you actually want to think?. But that’s not the quote I want to leave you but here’s a quote I need to leave you. From a video game in which I promise you… no one will play: pathologic or plague utopia……………. Video games come in such a variety of forms that it is almost impossible to perceive them as a single phenomenon. We are fascinated by games that not only entertain, but also provide food for thought and encourage the player to change for the better. That is why our favorite genre is survival, and our method of choice is a challenge. Perception is on its peak when the situation is critical, it is most acute on the edge. That is why we put the players in the dire circumstances and allow them to find the solution themselves. We don’t like preaching. We’d rather ask questions than give answers. To us, a game as a dialogue between its developers and the players, and a player is a co-author. Our job is to set the stage, redefine the laws of the world, introduce the problem, and point out how its core connects with everyday reality. The players do the rest, completing the act by virtue of their unique interpretations. Each game of ours is an experiment. In most cases they lead to unexpected results - meaning they’re successful.
Fantastic review. I disagree a bit that the book has no soul. It can definitely be very grim a lot of the time. But the book 1) Is poetically vulgar and very funny (in my opinion), which doesn't suggest soul-lessness. 2) Is a beautiful defence and championing of the "preterite"
You Amy Hungerford look alikes….. I just want to say………. Thank you for actually giving this an honest review. Most women do not take the time to read this book, and most men explain why: you are not supposed to enjoy this book. It’s not like taking a bite out of a Toblerone and getting satisfaction like from some product that we know is going to bring us joy. We read to make us think, and to better understand somewhat different aspects of ourselves and others and I will openly and honestly tell you this. I have a fart fetish in which it was from this book I came up with the best fart joke ever. But I’m not going to tell you it. It’s my joke and no one else’s. But this book has given me new charisma, new courage to were even I heard myself quoting some parts from the book in which I didn’t even read it before… “I am gravity in which the bomb goes against.” I forgot which character said that in which i ruined Puyallup state fair by screaming on the rides… “I am the atom bomb in which gravity is attracted to me. Not the other way around!” The woman told me to shut up on the ride and i couldn’t contain myself. I will argue however, there is soul in the book. Just not our soul.
Now read infinite jest. Read it in 8 days like me!!! Come on you Amy hungerford look alike!!! You dam literary teachers! Come on! Come get some! I don’t want to be happy! I love pain! Come get some! Let’s read foundation and atlas shrugged!!! Yes….. I can relate to slothrup in a way because reading is pointless. It just gets you asking questions which don’t adequately need answers but rather: “psalms for paranoid psychotics 3. If you are asking the wrong questions it doesn’t matter if you give them the right answers.” I’m trans gendered by the way, and when I read the coprophagia I puked in my mouth. Yeah it’s disgusting… but like a pow or pac or whatever… you need to keep moving, and you need to keep reading and just push through if to were you realize like Job, how much further are you willing to go just to survive? To this much far, and not much farther? Thank you for reading my rant Amy Hungerford look alike. If you’ve made it this far I just want to say: good night and good luck.
Thank you! I tried and I think I'm getting sick of nihilism, dystopia, I dislike saying it...but feels like a lost guys book... I think I would like to be third in your book club...except I couldn't force my way through 🙄😒
I might now have been able to finish it without my book club to hold me accountable…I encourage you to keep trying… it is a masterpiece and I think about it a lot
I understand, I also can’t tolerate “girl” books, jokes about fashion sense, the looks of their boyfriends, and the banality of their menstrual cycle. Seems like a very superficial reading and a bit of a weird takeaway to call this book “hyper-masculine”.
@@battygirlrachelit’s literally a classic, this is like the equivalent of Woolf calling Joyce “ a self-taught working man… egotistic, insistent, raw, striking, & ultimately nauseating.”- the person who reviews this novel is overtly myopic, reductive and glancing over the actual substance of the book, in a way similar to Woolf who was in more ways than one, really jealous of Joyce and if anything tried to incorporate his own style into hers. I think you should actually read the book and not listen to someone who seemingly has nothing of substance to say other than- “ they are having sex, it’s written by a man, and his erections correlate to V2 rocket launches.
It's an objectively bad book, but people insist on hyping it up. There's a great video of 2 guys comparing it to Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut, and they expose how poorly written and lacking GR is in comparison. What I find fascinating is why everyone feels the need to be in the club of those who "like" this sludge pile. I think there's something psychologically interesting there, in the cult mentality and how people bullshit their way through reviews of it. Like, as far as the characters, your point is a good one, but this just shows how reductive and lacking in any depth Pynchon was. He didn't understand people at all. He didn't understand society. Even if you have a kernel of truth (which was already explored by John Steinbeck with far more nuance decades earlier), to have such a flat, 1 dimensional world with such flat, 1 dimensional characters is bad writing.
I appreciate your comment. I can see that a case could be made for your point of view: “GR is a sludge pile” And I sincerely admire the book. There is a lot here, and I know I would see even greater depths if I read it again I’m not one to BS about books
So life isn't full enough of sad and desperate complexities that we need to spend our days reading books like this one? I, for one, will not. I guess some people have called this an "important" book. Leave out the "r" in that description and I will agree.
Sad and desperate complexities indeed. Sometimes it’s helpful to read those in fiction to give me perspective on what is happening in real life Don’t read this book if you aren’t drawn to It.
"Boy-book"? "Hyper-masculine"? Is it possible you're missing that the author is satirizing those things? And the humor is "gross-sex fart-joke silly limericky humor"? Some. But there are moments -- passages -- of gentle, delicate, and hilarious humor too, as when he describes eating horrible-tasting British wartime candy with his girlfriend and her landlord. And at other times, there is simply beautiful writing, which arrives in such an offhand manner that you almost miss it, like the description of a view of a city at dawn: "Crystals growing in the morning's beaker." You missed so much. Too bad.
Im glad to see a women review this book, I've only seen men review it and I've been really curious how this book feels from a feminine perspective. Started it two days ago I'm only 80 pages in but based on all I see I'm scared for the reading ahead of me
Thanks fir your comment! The book really is amazing, but it’s daunting for sure
lol have you… or haven’t you seen the women review it?… they literally can not get past the first chapter. All the women shit on this book while the men… well i can understand why it’s a right of passage for men. And it opens you up to some scary ideas and concepts…. Let’s spoil them!!!!
Werhner Von Braun is a Nazi whose ideas are taken by NASA.
There’s ideas of Pavlov’s dogs, which the question is not how but why we do the things we do in search of science!!!
An octopus attacks a woman in which faye Wray in which… poor Wray what is with her and animals.
Also paranoia and psychological soliders. In which psalms for paranoid psychotics.
Limericks here, music there.
A sympathetic story about a scientist who worked on the rocket, whose daughter was taken to camp Dora.
Also yes coprophagia (yum). Going through the sewers, (SEWER SURFING!!!!)
Also racism here and there, filipino civil war, African civil war, Kyrgyzstan civil war!! Hah “don’t you see Kyrgyz light.”
Illuminati is behind everything including a Phoebus conspiracy in which your lightbulbs purposefully last only for 6 months.
More pedophilia, more beastality, more fart jokes. Also you talk shit you get your balls cut off by MPs, or were they Mi6s? I forget doesn’t matter.
Did I mention a girl destroys a movie theater in a panzer tank? But shut up and snort this ether and then take some meth: ww1 meth, Hitlers meth. Also you know Hitler was a tarus, you can’t trust tarus, I consulted my horoscope! Dammit!
Also yes lab rats… hey rat 1, can you test the cheese for me? Just to be safe: sure why no-- there goes rat 2. Well we know the cheese is laced.
Also eulogy’s, limerick, jokes, dressing as a pig and having sex with pigs.
The ending counterforce: everyone dies. Each person experiences their own death and sees their life flash before their eyes, and we get a hymn from slothrup…
Stfu now read infinite jest. You’re ready: Run Spot Run.
Yours is one of the most interesting, thoughtful and honest takes on GR I've seen on youtube. Thank you.
About the humor tho: I was, too, surprised how much not simply jokes but straight up buffoonery happens in this book. Characters not only recite poems and songs on the regular but many scenes morph into entire music numbers, with labrat cabaret shows and whatnot bursting out of the page at you. And... all of it feels JOYLESS. As if existing in constant fear with war and death everpresent in the background of everyday vacuums life out of Life itself making ghosts of us all.
Thank you so much! I’m honored by your comment
Honestly, this is one of the best reviews of GR I've come across on RUclips that's engaging, critical, brutally sincere and accessible
Thank you! Gravity’s rainbow is quite a book
@@writtenbymurphy I meant every word I said 😄. Sifting through videos about GR as an appetizer. I get the feeling people read it to wear as a badge, like a personal trophy (and there's some merit to that I guess?). More of a Mount Everest sort of challenge indulged for the difficulty, the turgidness of the material rather than the beauty of it.
I really like Gravity’s Rainbow, and it is common to have an unpleasant experience on the first read. But I found your review to be unique, honest, and highly insightful. I Thank you.
Thanks so much!
Your ability to articulate thoroughly why you disliked the novel but why you also found it prescient in the world we live in today I'd imagine was Pynchons intent, regardless of how clearly nihilistic he was at this point in his career. Thank you for a great review of a novel I personally adore!
@@mikescott4195 thank you so much
What a great review! I think you understood the book better than many “experts”, you really are an insightful and intelligent reader. You got yourself a new subscriber!
I’m currently reading GR for the 3rd time in the last year and a half (clearly a fan). I understand the dislike but I will say in Pynchon’s defense - there are several instances of optimism I didn’t catch on the first read. Also on the 2nd/3rd read I am finding there are several characters I do care about. (Roger Mexico’s doomed love for Jessica is beautifully written.) It is one of those books (like Ulysses) that you get a lot more out of on the re-read.
I could see that the book would bear multiple readings.it is certainly layered
'All of the possibilities were pre-selected by institutional non-personal systems'. That's very interesting, since your interpretation corroborates my not-so-popular theory that the paranoid Tyrone Slothrop may in fact be the _only_ character in the book, or worse still be a V-2 rocket himself.
Whoa! That’s an interesting theory
I’m thinking that could be proven with some analysis
Maybe the best book review I've ever watched on RUclips.
Thank you so much!
Excellent review. Insightful.
Thanks for listening
GR is indeed a masterpiece of the comic and only semi-tragic collapse of all structures. I read it in 1974 and revisit it about every 10 years. Its themes are highly reminiscent of its true predecessor, Moby Dick, THE great novel of total deconstruction.
Moby Dick: the novel of total deconstruction. What do you mean by total deconstruction? Deconstruction of what?
@@ClearOutSamskarasThe novel form. Both are highly unconventional and bend the rules of how write a book
@@tylersquanto8938 Thank you for clearing up what is meant by that term "total deconstruction".
Can you recommend a resource or author commentary or book of literary criticism that analyses/explains how and why Moby Dick is such a stand out departure for what a novel is, and what ideas and symbols the book is communicating throughout the story?
No characters acting on their own volition. (Individual depersonalised, reduced to consumable material)
Tyrone Slothrop - entropy/sloth as anagram
I for one found it funny
Haha craziness of institutions - Pulitzer annihilated itself in appreciation for the book
The wider craziness is that slothrop might just have been paranoid
I will revisit this when I am done with the book. Threw my 2023 plans out the window and will make it a PYNCHON ONLY YEAR !!!!
I've been reading nothing but Pynchon all year. Started with a second read through Mason & Dixon, then V, now I'm in the middle of Against the Day. I'm wondering if this will ever end. By the time I get done one novel I'm thinking about revisiting another.
@@jeremyhopkins577 same! We might possibly be doomed to be reading Pynchon exclusively until .... uhm ... THE END?
Great to hear your review! Although Gravity’s Rainbow is the undisputed world champion of boy books, one could argue that it’s actually a feminist satire which critiques the masculine drive to death inherent in the systems and institutions of control which dominate and divide our world while longing for a return to a pre-historical time when the sacred feminine principles of wholeness and fecundity immanent from the earth still governed societies and consciousness.
Interesting proposition… I don’t see anything in the book or in the author’s bio that would support a feminist intent though
A desire for wholeness and fecundity was not expressed in the text.
Seems like something a reader brings to the story
Thank you for reviewing this book so honestly. for me Gravity's Rainbow describes our present condition in which we worship corporations and the military industrial complex. I do believe that there's a spirituality implicit in the book, but only implicit, as the world where it takes place is pure nihilism. Against the Day seems like Gravity's Rainbow's conjugate, and moreover a book written for the future, and here you'll find hope and characters with volition, despite the obvious evil in the world.
The *scoff* after the quote about this being the most masculine book the reviewer has read (8:29) made me literally laugh out loud.
Good review! Nice to hear a woman review this one - I’ve only heard dudes review
I would suggest the review read ‘V’ by Pynchon - GR is meant to be hyper-masculine. I found the book hilarious, to be honest. I think we disagree, there. It’s quite rich in symbolism, and I would’ve liked for the reviewer to go into some of that, since it is sooooo rich.
Question for the reviewer: did you read any outside sources alongside the work? I wonder if reading Weissenburger’s companion would’ve provided a better reading experience.
@@Michial90 I had heard weisseburger was worth checking out.
In general I try to read and review from my own impressions…I do like to pay attention to the history surrounding a book. But I want the text to stand on its own
@@writtenbymurphy that makes sense! To each their own - with this text, I knew I was missing much at the beginning, so I picked up the companion (nerd, here).
Anyway, I appreciated the respective and look forward to more book reviews!
I've read plenty of Pynchon(including one of the hard ones: Mason and Dixon). But I have yet to tackle this beast. I am very much looking foward to, since Pynchon is one of my favorite writers, but this one has been on my shelf for a while. I've been a bit scared of it, honestly lol.
Thanks so much for your comment!! I think you should tackle it, since you actually LIKE Pynchon…I’m not sure I like him, but I for sure admire him
On my fourth read (and one listen) since 1973. Love it as much as ever.
Over there is something new to discover every time you read it
Love your honesty. Now I have to read this difficult book too. I will be woman #4.
Ah! Welcome to the elite community of women reading GR. Come back and leave your impressions when you finish it!
This book may not contain "likable characters" but you yourself are one. This is a mature, engaging and light-hearted review of a complex and divisive book that doesn't reduce it to, or pander to Lowest-Common-Denominator readings. And that's refreshing.
Thank you for that feedback!
I believe in freedom and accessibility of ideas.
I love books and I want to encourage the same in others
This channel is a way to express that and encourage some conversation about the books
This is on our book club list and I am 50 pages in. Your summary, and listening to others speak on it, makes me feel like putting it down. Instead I can pick up great Buddhists texts and stories. I get this book is genius. But is reading it going to help me? I have recently read Milton's Paradise Lost, The Invisible Man and Hamlet twice . But what I want is hope. Ulysses, War and Peace, TBK offer hope. Other books too. I thought reading the greatest literary works solidly for two years would be more rewarding. But recently I have felt there is a lack of positivity in too many books. We are conditioned, so to couteract that we need conditioning that encourages positive free will choices and world views. Your right about the characters in GR. They all appear flat and devoid of spirit as spirit has to include love an empathy. Should I carry on? There is more enlightning stuff to read. As the bombs pound Gaza the machine is allowing this to continue. Time for the Machine to Stop (EM Forster).
If this book is not giving you what you need right now, I think it’s fine to put it down,
If you are interested in Buddhist texts, I can recommend Journey to the West or the monkey King. That book is so much fun and Buddha is an important character
Don’t force it if it’s not the right book right now
I am intrigued and kind of confused by your three book choices paradise lost, the insisibke Man and hamlet. Those very different stories.
Those books are the schedule for the reading club: Hard Core Literature Book Club. And this book.
20 pages from the end of section 1. I still cant see the point though I realise that the book intends for the reader to not be able to square the myriad cicles being crafted. Maybe as I am a Buddhist and pretty poltically aware it just seems to be contrived. The constant sexual illusions just purile. There seems to be no important valid message past that we are being played around with. By the way I have lived in China 16 years and outside of western countries 22 years. This is so culturally a western book, and a western male "geek" type book. Maybe that also is creating my alienation from this work even though I have a science background..
Nice review. To me,Gravity's rainbow is a masterpiece of modern literature,and it is written 50 years ago!I agreed with your epilogue just before listening to it.I may add that the characters are not there to be liked,or even judged,it is just that they are mainly pawns in chess.
That is an excellent point…the characters are not there to be liked
@@writtenbymurphy But it is easy for a dude to like Slothrop.And I did feel for Gottfried and Brigadier Pudding.I hope I got the names correctly.
Nice review. Unlike you I'm a fan of the book but I appreciated hearing your intelligent perspective. I agree with the commenter earlier who said Moby-Dick is more the spiritual forebear of this book than Ulysses, but I se the point about both. Thanks for this!
I would have to say i AM a fan of the book, because by the end it was clear it was masterpiece.
NOT an easy read,, but still amazing.
I did do a review of Moby dick as well ruclips.net/video/62op0GUyr5E/видео.html
I stumbled across your video because - while in the process of reading the novel for a third time - I had been looking around for relevant content. I do enjoy your perspective. And, of course, there's a few things I don't quite agree with. Sorry for the long read, I guess it must be those damn 1000+ pages...
1. One commentator mentioned that Pynchon's protagonists are not there to be liked. I totally agree with that, and I'd go even one step further: they're not there to be envied either. When concentrating on all the sexual content, on a very superficial level one could get to view Slothrop as something one wants to be him(!)self: sleeps with many women, and, Pynchon goes into length not to leave any doubt, satisfies all of them. Remembering that we're not talking about pornographic material one will probably notice that along the novel that this is really more of a parody. I don't think Pynchon made this up just for fun (although I can't help but think that he must have been stoned while writing at least parts of the novel). Slothrop is not in control of his life. He was sent into the "zone" while still being constantly observed. Just the same he is controlled by his sexuality. Hence, all his traits boil down to the same thing: he is a creature struggling for self-determination but always failing to achieve this.
2. Of course, Pynchon is a man. But, though being a man myself, I don't agree with your point of this being a very "male" novel. "Masculinity" is not what the novel is but rather what it is about (and that in a pretty critical way). The rocket as a phallus symbol is of course a choice that was made very deliberately (culminating brilliantly in the novel's end with Weissmann's lover shot into the sky in a gigantic penis). It symbolises male quest for dominance, both sexually and in society with technology being one of the tools employed in this. And yes, all these years and lots of sociologic-feminist papers later we may not find this particularly innovative anymore, but consider the time it was written.
3. Beside sexuality, atrocities are another main concept. In Gravity's Rainbow there are a few references to the genocide commited by Germans in their African colonies from "V". In "V" this is described from an observer's perspective (who, when looking closely is not that much an observer but rather an accomplice). The atrocities shown in "V" are described seemingly without any compassion (by the way, just like the episode on the "bad priest" dying trapped while being ripped apart by children). However, when reading more of Pynchon's novels we understand that compassion is actually one of his central themes. But activating one's moral compass remains up to the reader. Similar ideas can be found in Gravity's Rainbow, think of the Africans' collective suicide for example. To me this all seems rather consistent: look what our "civilisation" has done (and keeps doing).
4. Shock. People are forced to eat excrements, incest, etc. - the world has come to a point where all structure, all values are lost (hey, this is what your ambitions and your innovativeness have brought us, man!).
5. Finally, back to the novel's (alleged) "maleness". Of course, I have only my own perspective. Between the lines I seem to hear that you feel distant from what is described in the novel, probably even alienated. I am pretty sure that the same is the case for most readers. Could it be, that we tend to be alienated in different ways but pretty much end up at the same point anyway?
Thanks fir your comment. You are reading this for the third time?
It is a masterpiece and it stays with me. I still think About it a lot.
Your objection to my review seems to be that I call it a boy book.. you imply that the topic is masculinity, but it’s a book for everyone.
Have any of your female acquaintances read the book? My and my book club companion did, but I would be amazed to find another woman who had read it.
Not just because the characters are not likable. I’ve read other books without likable characters- great gatsby springs to mind-but this book is so finely tuned to the male mind, it takes a climb- mt-Everest kind of determination for a woman to scale it.
Maybe it SHOULDNT be a boy book, but I think it is. As brilliant as it is, there are a lot of books I would re read before going back to this one
@@writtenbymurphy Actually Pynchon was recommended to me by my female, American flatmate (who I had bombarded with probably not exactly suble objections I as a European had about the USA, and that kindof was her reaction to these comments). I can't exactly recall the conversations we had on Pynchon and his books, but since your perspective was quite surprising to me I will have to assume that hers was different back then ;)
And of course everyone of us percieves the book in probably entirely differnt ways, so there's of course no "right" or "wrong". But having been surprised by some of what you said in your review, while taking a long Sunday morning walk with my headphones on, I thought I'd write you a few lines when back home...
Thank you very much! Your review is helpful...and yet somewhat perplexing because you spend about 24 minutes explaining in detail why the book is "cringe" [well not only], and then one minute concluding the book is sublime. You're saying all the cringing will be worth it at the end and the cheese will be transubstantiated into gold?
This year I read Blood Meridian which re-inspired me to read great books, but following the Blood Meridian thread they have been quite MALE, e.g. the Iliad; and male authors like Faulkner and Shakespeare. They have female characters but... Right now I'm trying to balance things out with Middlemarch and some Chaucer.
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I am saying the book is gold..it’s a complicated book. Part of the payoff is how well the author takes on the subject matter is an extraordinarily layered way.
Blood meridian is in a similar category or reprehensible characters and actions. I hadn’t thought about that one as male (or as a boy book in my parlance), but it makes sense that it would be
Your comment makes me want to buckle down and do some more reviews
@@writtenbymurphy Thanks for your response! I don't want to value comments according to whom they are coming from, but it definitely helps to know that a woman can also think GR is a great book!
Have you read Vineland?
Great chat about a very unhinged novel
I think the book is funny, entertaining, historical, informative, philosophical and thoughtful and is one big fat invitation to start learning more about our world, whether that personal education be in math, physics, history, music, art, philosophy, spirituality or all of the above. Pynchon, especially GR, is all about connecting dots to try to discern patterns that, hopefully, form some kind of picture of reality. The more dots you have to connect, the clearer the picture that emerges. It encourages us to look beneath the surface of things, and challenges all of our assumptions, ...all of them, including the nature of our consciousness and the notion of free will. It's a mistake, I think, to read GR as some sort of artful, dreadful hallucination rather than as a kind of sober journalism reporting on the state of the world at the end of WWII and the state of Humanity in modern times. This is what we're up against, folks. And things haven't gotten better or easier over the 50 years since the publishing of this book. We're being forced to be born into a higher state of consciousness. We can be born kicking and screaming into this new world, resisting every inch of the way, or we can embrace the challenge of radically changing how we see and experience everything, losing ourselves to gain ourselves.
Thanks for watching! IGravitys Rainbow is an extraordinary book
I think people need to remember that Pynchon was only in his twenties, and early thirties, when he wrote GR. I think that is why it is so gross and juvenile. When a typical male is in his twenties, his "inputs" are testosterone, strip clubs, alcohol, testosterone, drugs, testosterone, and one-night-stands. His "outputs" are empty beer bottles and vomit. With a genius like Pynchon, his "output" was GR.
You should read Mason & Dixon and Against The Day (if you have not) to see the mature author. The man is shockingly smart. I think it's better to refer to him as "maximalist" rather than "post-modern" because he just knows so much about so much. If you are a "geek" who wants to know everything, and see the English language at its apex, you will like his "encyclopedic" novels. Also, check out Wisenburger's Companion to GR. It's excellent.
It's hard to believe a 20-something year old knew so much.
James Joyce, William Gaddis, Thomas Pynchon, China Mieville, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Powers, David Foster Wallace. Yup.
Thank you Michael…I think I would enjoy a companion book if I read GR again…
I love this review. The first one I saw that explained the disgusting stuff.
i'm glad to give my take. Thanks so much for coming through and checking it out.
Relistened to your book review. Very informative. Thanks 📚
A repeat listen! I’m so happy
I'm 229 pages into it and I don't have a clue about plot, characters or what the hell is going on. I'm just reading it and letting it "wash over me".
@@zamiadams4343 that’s a fine way to
Start on this book. It is a monolith of a novel
If you are enjoying reading it you could keep going with it that way
If you want you could get some cliff notes, etc
I hope you found my review helpful.
To anyone curious about gravity’s rainbow I’m sorry, but I found the quote that sums up best why I like it and other books that have a common motif structured around morality in which we can’t just paint people good or bad.. you essentially are a bad person for reading a book like this. You purposely put yourself through the things you read just to get something out of it. You are no different from a Pavlov dog in which you enjoy sweet drops of water sprinkled on your tongue everytime you hear the ringing of that good little lucky yellow bell… to which I have to ask why are you reading? Are you just reading for fun or do you actually want to think?. But that’s not the quote I want to leave you but here’s a quote I need to leave you. From a video game in which I promise you… no one will play: pathologic or plague utopia…………….
Video games come in such a variety of forms that it is almost impossible to perceive them as a single phenomenon. We are fascinated by games that not only entertain, but also provide food for thought and encourage the player to change for the better.
That is why our favorite genre is survival, and our method of choice is a challenge.
Perception is on its peak when the situation is critical, it is most acute on the edge. That is why we put the players in the dire circumstances and allow them to find the solution themselves.
We don’t like preaching. We’d rather ask questions than give answers.
To us, a game as a dialogue between its developers and the players, and a player is a co-author.
Our job is to set the stage, redefine the laws of the world, introduce the problem, and point out how its core connects with everyday reality. The players do the rest, completing the act by virtue of their unique interpretations.
Each game of ours is an experiment. In most cases they lead to unexpected results - meaning they’re successful.
Fantastic review. I disagree a bit that the book has no soul. It can definitely be very grim a lot of the time. But the book 1) Is poetically vulgar and very funny (in my opinion), which doesn't suggest soul-lessness. 2) Is a beautiful defence and championing of the "preterite"
You Amy Hungerford look alikes….. I just want to say………. Thank you for actually giving this an honest review. Most women do not take the time to read this book, and most men explain why: you are not supposed to enjoy this book. It’s not like taking a bite out of a Toblerone and getting satisfaction like from some product that we know is going to bring us joy. We read to make us think, and to better understand somewhat different aspects of ourselves and others and I will openly and honestly tell you this. I have a fart fetish in which it was from this book I came up with the best fart joke ever. But I’m not going to tell you it. It’s my joke and no one else’s. But this book has given me new charisma, new courage to were even I heard myself quoting some parts from the book in which I didn’t even read it before…
“I am gravity in which the bomb goes against.” I forgot which character said that in which i ruined Puyallup state fair by screaming on the rides… “I am the atom bomb in which gravity is attracted to me. Not the other way around!”
The woman told me to shut up on the ride and i couldn’t contain myself.
I will argue however, there is soul in the book. Just not our soul.
Now read infinite jest. Read it in 8 days like me!!! Come on you Amy hungerford look alike!!! You dam literary teachers! Come on! Come get some! I don’t want to be happy! I love pain! Come get some! Let’s read foundation and atlas shrugged!!! Yes…..
I can relate to slothrup in a way because reading is pointless. It just gets you asking questions which don’t adequately need answers but rather: “psalms for paranoid psychotics 3. If you are asking the wrong questions it doesn’t matter if you give them the right answers.”
I’m trans gendered by the way, and when I read the coprophagia I puked in my mouth. Yeah it’s disgusting… but like a pow or pac or whatever… you need to keep moving, and you need to keep reading and just push through if to were you realize like Job, how much further are you willing to go just to survive? To this much far, and not much farther?
Thank you for reading my rant Amy Hungerford look alike. If you’ve made it this far I just want to say: good night and good luck.
You look like a real life pynchon character
Interesting
Infinite jest review soon?
@@fabiancalderon6729 definitely not soon…eventually
Keep it up
Thank you! I tried and I think I'm getting sick of nihilism, dystopia, I dislike saying it...but feels like a lost guys book...
I think I would like to be third in your book club...except I couldn't force my way through 🙄😒
I might now have been able to finish it without my book club to hold me accountable…I encourage you to keep trying… it is a masterpiece and I think about it a lot
I understand, I also can’t tolerate “girl” books, jokes about fashion sense, the looks of their boyfriends, and the banality of their menstrual cycle. Seems like a very superficial reading and a bit of a weird takeaway to call this book “hyper-masculine”.
Gravity's rainbow is the world we live in. You gotta find your own optimism. It's mostly built up layers of shit.
Thanks for your comment
This wasn't on my list... and now it won't be lol that is the craziest plot line I've ever heard.
Hey Jenny…I read the tough stuff so you don’t have to.
@@writtenbymurphy much appreciated lol I generally stick to classics... if ppl still rave about it 100 yrs later, I might he worth reading 😆
@@battygirlrachelit’s literally a classic, this is like the equivalent of Woolf calling Joyce “ a self-taught working man… egotistic, insistent, raw, striking, & ultimately nauseating.”- the person who reviews this novel is overtly myopic, reductive and glancing over the actual substance of the book, in a way similar to Woolf who was in more ways than one, really jealous of Joyce and if anything tried to incorporate his own style into hers. I think you should actually read the book and not listen to someone who seemingly has nothing of substance to say other than- “ they are having sex, it’s written by a man, and his erections correlate to V2 rocket launches.
It's an objectively bad book, but people insist on hyping it up. There's a great video of 2 guys comparing it to Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut, and they expose how poorly written and lacking GR is in comparison. What I find fascinating is why everyone feels the need to be in the club of those who "like" this sludge pile. I think there's something psychologically interesting there, in the cult mentality and how people bullshit their way through reviews of it.
Like, as far as the characters, your point is a good one, but this just shows how reductive and lacking in any depth Pynchon was. He didn't understand people at all. He didn't understand society. Even if you have a kernel of truth (which was already explored by John Steinbeck with far more nuance decades earlier), to have such a flat, 1 dimensional world with such flat, 1 dimensional characters is bad writing.
I appreciate your comment. I can see that a case could be made for your point of view: “GR is a sludge pile”
And I sincerely admire the book.
There is a lot here, and I know I would see even greater depths if I read it again
I’m not one to BS about books
So life isn't full enough of sad and desperate complexities that we need to spend our days reading books like this one? I, for one, will not. I guess some people have called this an "important" book. Leave out the "r" in that description and I will agree.
Sad and desperate complexities indeed. Sometimes it’s helpful to read those in fiction to give me perspective on what is happening in real life
Don’t read this book if you aren’t drawn to
It.
@@writtenbymurphy Real life? Pynchon? God, I hope not!
Have you read Blood Meridian? If you haven't, I recommend not reading it.
I have!! So funny you would say that. Yes, I still feel scarred from that book
It’s a work of art but of my God
"Boy-book"? "Hyper-masculine"? Is it possible you're missing that the author is satirizing those things? And the humor is "gross-sex fart-joke silly limericky humor"? Some. But there are moments -- passages -- of gentle, delicate, and hilarious humor too, as when he describes eating horrible-tasting British wartime candy with his girlfriend and her landlord. And at other times, there is simply beautiful writing, which arrives in such an offhand manner that you almost miss it, like the description of a view of a city at dawn: "Crystals growing in the morning's beaker." You missed so much. Too bad.
It is truly a book of many depths.
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