<rearr.'d for more-or-less sequence>
> > "David or Robin" <beattyd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> > news:bbd70m$568$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > >
> > > >> Happy
> > > >>hunting; happy reading. (Then come back and tell me why I just
> couldn't
> > > hack
> > > >>M&D enough to get thru it ... or why I didn't like Vineland as
much
as
> I
> > > >>thought I would, although it was fun on one reading, too.)
> > > >>
> > > >>Dave
> > > >
> > > Humongojugomango wrote in message
> > > <20030601055550.15705.00000549@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>...
> > > >you betcha, thanks, i loved vineland, cause im kind of a hippy
> > > >
> > > >i understand about the archaic typefacing, and in the first 15
pages
or
> > so,
> > > i
> > > >found it quite fun, but i hate myself and love weird challenges, i
> > > snickered at
> > > >every rev^d cherrycoke,,
> > > >
> > > >this man is a genius, and im gonna wait for gravity..
> > > >hes still alive i assume..?
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > > I think so, don't know for sure, but am pretty sure he is.
> > >
> > > Dave
> > >
> "Randy Belong" <rjbelong@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:51KEa.151962$ro6.4445144@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Still kicking,he is just very private,no interviews.He like to stay
below
> > the public radar.
> > >
"JD" <posNOTTHISPARThaste2001@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:1056600111.750658@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> I've read the first half of GR twice now, once in University, and once
> since, but I think I need to do something really awful and get sent away
to
> solitary confinement for a really long time to get much further.
>
> It's as if the difficulty of the read increases as you get into it,
> destroying inertia. I have had exactly the same experience with the
> Brothers Karamazov, Ulysses and Moby Dick.
>
> But thanks for the Pynchon tips, I'll start out with something a little
less
> obtuse and see if I can work up a little more enthusiasm. You say The
Slow
> Learner is a better introduction?
> > >
> >
Slow Learner is one of two things to me: years after getting established
as
a 'respected' author, it's a brave issuing of all his early stuff, some of
which you can find in lengthy, lengthy development here and there in some
of
the other books, later on. And (I'm recalling all this badly:) as he says
in
the intro to S.L. "Hey. Here it is. It's young and it's early. But it's
me.
So take it for what it is." So they're mostly unrelated, smaller pieces in
one book. (It's can be hard to follow the 'plots' in the later books, but
don't look for 'plot' here to unify the book -- they're all 'separates.')
Either that OR with S.L. he just needed the money, as an author, at that
point in his career. (Really doesn't matter, but don't discount 'starving
artists' ...)
The one that stuck in my mind from S.L. is one basically just describing a
very long party, on the edges of getting out of control, but never quite
getting there, just continuing to plug along, seemingly forever. You can
see
a very close relative to that in one section of "V", where such a party
takes place: both in New York City, IIRC, so it seems even closer. But to
me, there's a distorted, more painful echo of 'endless party' -- more
orgy -- in a section of GR that takes place in S.W. Africa (as it was then
called), once a German colonial possession.
By all means, read S.L. But it's not a 'unified' book, which the rest are
(though they try their hardest to be 'un-unified' most of the time,
between
two covers... that's part of the man's vision : ) I'll repeat myself to
say
all the same stuff again: If you haven't read any, Crying of Lot 49 is
really seductive, and easiest to start with. After that, IMHO only, I had
a
great time with "V" and GR can be a slog at times.
Sometimes, with some books, solitary is just about the only way to read
one
(or maybe write one, too). Funny that I had almost the same reactions to
the
3 others you mentioned: wouldn't have done Moby at all if I hadn't had it
in
a college course, Ulysses I read before college, but it really took guided
instruction in college to dig those depths (worth it). My wife and I both
called Bros. K. our "insomnia book" -- 3 pages anywhere and it would be on
the nightstand and the light would be clicking off. Finally made it thru
that one, but it took 2 decades.
Dave
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