Thomas Pynchon Bookclub

For anyone who has struggled with Gravity’s Rainbow but willing to make another attempt, I strenuously recommend picking up this:

It has chapter summaries, along with loads of annotations. It made a world of difference when I first read the book, and it’s something I refer back to frequently on my numerous revisits over the years.

Sadly, nothing similar seems to exist for Against the Day.

Maybe this might be helpful in dividing up the book?

https://thomaspynchon.com/plot-grid-of-against-the-day/

Uh, given my name I suspect I have little choice in joining.

I like this here. Can we try to have part one (what’s listed as through 80) done by next Tuesday and discuss what we see along the way?

Works for me! I’ll be reading the hardcover, which I believe is what those page numbers are from.

Whoa, over a thousand pages - plus it being Pynchon - I am a bit intimidated. Not backing out, just a little concerned.

Some random notes after reading the first chapter (10 pages or so):

-The Chums of Chance names seem to be based on jazz musicians?
-Something strange is going on with the depiction of race in that first chapter. The “writer” tries to be race-blind while at the same time being extremely condescending. Seems to be an early crack on the ideals behind the Chums, likely one of many to come.
-Man, this feels even more like Bioshock Infinite than I remembered.

One thing I appreciate about the book, which may not be apparent from the jump, is the way in which the tone and maybe not voice but certainly accent of the writing changes as the “genre” does between sets of characters. The Chums of Chance sequences are very pulpy, which is fitting as in the book, the characters are subjects of pulp novels written about their exploits.

I’m up to (re)read Against the Day too!

It’s really pretty manageable if you just focus on the individual chapter or segment. The writing itself is pretty approachable. It’s only when you try to zoom out and take it as a whole that it becomes intimidating. A little like a marathon… just focus on the next step and don’t worry about how many miles you have to the finish line.

Also, if anyone is so inclined, the audiobook version is fantastic. Pynchon’s writing lends itself extraordinarily well to that format, and the narrator (Dick Hill) does a truly wonderful job of bringing the tonal shifts (not to mention the songs) to life.

As a big Neal Stephenson and Umberto Eco fan, I should like Pynchon, but seems Stephenson is as far as I can like Pynchon, heh.
I’ll try tho.

You need to throw Melville in there to round it up!

That’s kind of funny, I’m a huge Pynchon and Eco fan but don’t really care for Stephenson.

Did you mean Melville or Mievelle?

I think there’s a lot of Moby Dick in Pynchon.

One piece of advice I’d offer to anyone new to Pynchon, or especially to someone struggling with his works: so far as you’re able, please read through each episode in one go. There’s a kind of momentum or groove to his writing, and if you get interrupted, it can be difficult to get back into it in the middle. The natural break points are pretty frequent, though.

There is indeed. I was making a stealth recommendation.

Yes, the density of the prose (not hard to read, but full of plot) makes finding stop points mid-chapter really difficult. Each chapter is it’s own little entity, with a clear narrative beat and a lot detail and expansion on themes.

Just got over to the end of the first 80 page section we are reading. The Merle and Dally chapter (final one) is the kind of chapter that makes this novel one of my favorites. In 25 pages you get to know a lot about them, including the very Pynchonian Skip episode, which is a single page long.