Thomas Pynchon - V.

[IdleRich]

I just read this book and I want to know what it was about. When I read his stuff I enjoy individual passages (though not all of them), some bits make me laugh, some bits amaze me with their cleverness, some fascinate me etc but on every page I feel that I am missing loads of references and on finishing it I somehow feel that the overall point or theme or whatever has escaped my grasp.
I guess I would really like it if someone could give me some insight in to what I might have missed or maybe just tell me what they see in it or whatever. I do get pleasure from his books and I would like to give Gravity's Rainbow a go next but I feel that I ought to equip myself to get more from what is there before I embark on it.
Any tips anyone?

 

[Numbers]

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/

Not on V, but they mention there will be one soon. So better watch that space.

 

[IdleRich]

Cheers. Just my luck that they would have all the ones I haven't read and none of the ones I have.

 

[jenks]

I haven't read V but have read all of his other stuff. He can be head spinningly clever and he can seem to be gesturing to a whole heap of arcane knowledge that i don't have the key to. However, he is also a really funny story teller and whilst he has longuers - bits of both Mason and Dixon and Gravity's rainbow do drag - i think he is still always well worth the effort.

Vineland is very approachable - essentially a story of left wing dissent in America. As is Slow Learner - his collection of short stories.

I think, though that the Crying of Lot 49 may be his best work as it seems to distill all of his preoccupations into an incredibly tight story. i remember the first time i read it i was entirely spooked and convinced that the world was being run by a secret cabal.

 

[IdleRich]

I've read Vineland and The Crying of Lot 49, both of which I greatly enjoyed. In fact the bit where they see that play in "The Crying" had me quite literally in tears of laughter, it even brings a smile to my face when I think about it now. That book seems to be easier (if just because it's shorter) than his others but I enjoyed Vineland a lot as well.
I guess that you hit the nail on the head with this bit

"he can seem to be gesturing to a whole heap of arcane knowledge that i don't have the key to"

And I suppose I'm lazily asking for that key before I embark on Gravity's Rainbow so that I can the very most out of it.

 

[thraiped]

There's a lot of Pynchon material here.

This is the V page.

 

[luka]

I just found a cooy of v free at the traun station i"ll foist on edmund tho he"ll resist. Anyone inclined to make an argument for it? Ive read it twice but remember nothing at all about it. I doubt i enjoyed it

 

[version]

I just found a cooy of v free at the traun station i"ll foist on edmund tho he"ll resist. Anyone inclined to make an argument for it? Ive read it twice but remember nothing at all about it. I doubt i enjoyed it

I really like it. It's a bit disjointed, but I've read it a couple of times and I'll probably read it again. I don't think he knew quite what he wanted to say with it as it's perhaps the murkiest of all his novels, but the mystery's something I enjoy. The chapter in Namibia dealing with the Herero genocide is absolutely fucked, a very early look at something which wasn't even officially acknowledged as a genocide until decades after he published the book.

One of the big themes is animate vs. inanimate and how technology's making people more like machines. There's a bit where one of the characters has a sort of imaginary or telepathic conversation with a test dummy who tells him one day we'll all be like them, it's already begun.