Keep Pynchon Me

Welcome to the new space. Come in, spread out, dig the minimalist décor. White; like a wedding dress of fresh union, a virgin’s proverbial clean mind and just like a real life A4 page. I’m always doing a lot of reading but, lately, I’ve mostly been flicking through odd chapters in books that I already know very well, picking out select moments or passages that I always enjoy (or currently feel like) reading. I was looking forward to sinking into my new – and first – Thomas Pynchon purchase in the last week. I’ve had a fairly persistent head cold, though, and I was reluctant to start anything as thick and complex as Gravity’s Rainbow without the full command of my attention. So, unfortunately, I’ve only read about 7 pages, so far, of this 900 page beast but what I will say about this is, despite the hype of intellectual intimidation that surrounds books such as this, I’m actually really looking forward to the whole piece already.



Wikipedia has this to say about it: 'Frequently digressive, the novel subverts many of the traditional elements of plot and character development, traverses detailed, specialist knowledge drawn from a wide range of disciplines, and has earned a reputation as a "difficult" book.'

And a little further down the page: 'The plot of the novel is complex, containing over 400 characters and involving many different threads of narrative which intersect and weave around one another.'

Wow. Tell me that doesn’t make you just want to gamble your entire future on this novel. When the intellectual, literary community readily labels something as a difficult book to read, you know it’s going to be a piece of work that tests your mental capacity and patience. Honestly, I’m really jazzed about it. You know why? Because I don’t know what’s going to happen or how. It’s occurred to me that, however many authors I’ve read, it’s been rare for me to be completely immersed solely in the characters or plot of a novel. As a fellow writer I tut and niggle at lines, phrases or rhythms. I’m aware of the machinery behind the style and sometimes – even in a first reading – I can’t help but “correct” the odd word/metaphor/poetic device to my liking. I’ve done it with elite class writers and I’ve done it to riffraff class writers and that shouldn’t be happening anywhere. I might be aware of stylistic choices but I shouldn’t be able to take time to fixate on them. As a reader, I should be made to want to desperately know what happens. Characters and plot should be my mind’s focus. I should be swept along.

I like a lot of great writers and I adore their work for various reasons but I now realise that it’s been extremely rare for me to read anything without any preconceived ideas or desires. I might be busy making stylistic judgements/adjustments in my head, I might foresee the plot’s direction and decide what I expect or want, I might understand the book’s genre or the writer’s intentions and start predicting/second-guessing based on those, I might wait/look for certain content based on what I’ve heard/read or know is there, etc. I can’t do any of that in Gravity’s Rainbow. I’ve got 400 characters to look forward to meeting; themes of nuclear apocalypse, nature, psychology, sexuality to pick out; as well as technological references, historical references, war-time pop culture references, mathematical references and literary references to try to understand. I don’t even know if Gravity’s Rainbow even technically has a genre to name; you know, other than, “Read This: It’ll Make You Trip Balls.”

I’m impressed that, for the length of this book, I’m only a reader and not a writer. For perhaps the first time truly in my adult life, I’m beginning to read a book like I first did as a child. I put my mind completely in Thomas Pynchon’s arms, allow him to throw me around, spin me, drop me, confuse me, lead me, manipulate me – whatever he wishes – and just trust that, in the end, I’ll be fine and it’ll be a great ride.

Now, having said that, my enjoyment and lack of fear about this book so far may be significant; maybe my hubris-laden arse is setting itself up to be another soul for the mighty Gravity’s Rainbow demon to conquer.