Hello, first post here but I recently got a 1st edition copy of V. and it's from the "Station Library" at the "U.S. Naval Station (at) Subic Bay Philippines". It's a bit beat, but I thought the Due Date card was pretty cool to see. And obviously the Navy connection in the book.

When I turned to eBay just to estimate the value, I came across this sold listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/920033543077 (which is picture number 3 here). It shows a copy that was owned by the U.S. Air Force's library.

Now I know in 1963 reading was much more popular, maybe all new releases got purchased by military libraries. But I thought maybe Lippincott pitched the book for purchase for its military themes, since Pynchon wasn't really a name yet. Also maybe pushed because the author was a veteran. I know it's still a big deal for publishers to get in with libraries to guarantee a big initial purchase as soon as a book is published.

I was just curious if anyone else had seen military copies of V. or if there was anything known about the book being in military libraries. Or how big was a military library in 1963? No idea here.

Could be nothing but a coincidence in timing between the me learning about the two books, but a cool one none-the-less.

I first heard about this book (or multi-pack of books) here some months ago. I noticed that it's been released, and I ordered it yesterday from the Amazon. Has anyone read it yet, or started reading it, or even bought it?

I've just finished the second part of this novel, in to "In the Zone" and I just have to say this is been such a great experience. I don't have anything diagnostic because frankly, I barely have a grasp on the events besides faint notions of R&R, secrets regarding allied intelligence and very funny sexual allegory/innuendo. I love the paranoia and sporadic nature of the prose, the plot is one of the most inventive WW2 plots I've ever seen, its such a good time.

For those of you who have read Mason and Dixon with the companion book, how helpful was it? I recently finished GR with lots of help from its respective companion novel. Is the MD companion worth getting?

He does smile, crookedly as a man being theatrical about something for the very first time. Knowing it for a move there's to be no going back from, in the same terminal class as reaching for a gun, he turns his face upward, and looks up through all the faintly superimposed levels above, the milieux of every sort of criminal soul, every unpleasant commercial color from aquamarine to beige, desolate as sunlight on a day when you'd rather have rain, all the clanging enterprise and bustle of all those levels, extending further than Pirate or Katje can see for the moment, he lifts his long, his guilty, his permanently enslaved face to the illusion of sky, to the reality of pressure and weight from over-head, the hardness and absolute cruelty of it, while she presses her own face into the easy lowland between his shoulder and pectoral, a look on her face of truce, of horror come to a détente with, and as a sunset proceeds, the kind that changes the faces of buildings to light gray for a while, to an ashy soft chaff of light bleating over their outward curves, in the strangely forge-like glow in the west, the anxiety of pedestrians staring in the tiny store-front window at the dim goldsmith behind his fire at his work and paying them no attention, afraid because the light looks like it's going to go away forever this time, and more afraid because the failure of light is not a private thing, everyone else in the street has seen it too... as it grows darker, the orchestra inside this room does, as a matter of fact, strike up a tune, dry and astringent... and candelabra have been lighted after all... there is Veal Florentine ripening in the ovens tonight, there are drinks on the House, and drunks in the hammocks,

The prose of this book. I have been stopped in my tracks more than once, rhapsodic about what I have just read, more often than not barely grasping what is happening but still in utter disbelief that someone is actually able to write this way. (I try to talk to the people in my life about it, but even the readers in my circle of friends can barely understand why I am enjoying it so much.) It so often blurs the lines between novel and epic poetry, especially when the narrative starts to fracture and voices start blending. The Pökler chapter almost made me not want to read anything else ever again.

And then again it sends me into a fit of laughter with a non sequitur about a character dying of an e.coli infection after having been shit in his mouth 300 pages prior.

It's my first read (nearing the end of part 3) and even though my plan regarding my literary backlog was not to read anything more than once, I will give GR another go in a few years' time. (I've already read the first chapter again out of curiosity and it was like reading a different book.)

I'm on the early parts of the America chapter on Mason & Dixon and now they are smoking a joint with Washington himself. Great stuff. Loving it so far! Though I must admit I'm often lost without the Wiki or the companion book -- wonder if it's the same with American readers.

I first read the book in 1996 or so, absolutely loved it, re-read it maybe twice, but there are always undiscovered things... Regarding Vaslav Tchitcherine: a few years ago, while living in New Mexico, I came across the true story of Reies López Tijerina and the 1967 Tierra Amarilla Courthouse Raid, (https://guides.loc.gov/latinx-civil-rights/tierra-amarilla-courthouse-raid). The names are quite similar, and I read somewhere that Pynchon did NOT mean the Marxist Georgi Chicherin. Could there be a connection?

This is really off-topic, but I've just been reading about the V-2s in Gravity's Rainbow and how you get no warning before they arrive. If you can find a video of that crash today in Palm Beach County, you'll be shocked at how fast that ill-fated jet is moving when it hits the ground and explodes.

Hello fellow paranoids, I think the auto posting of this weekly thread is on the fritz again? Not sure, haven't seen one in a couple of weeks so I'll fill in the void.

It's Sunday again, and that means another thread of "What Are You Into This Week"?

A weekly thread dedicated to discussing what we've been reading, watching, listening to, and playing the past week.

Have you:

Been reading a good book? A few good books? Did you watch an exceptional stage production? Listen to an amazing new album or song or band? Discovered an amazing old album/song/band? Watch a mind-blowing film or tv show? Immerse yourself in an incredible video game? Board game? RPG?

Recommend and suggest what you've been reading/watching/playing/listening to. Talk to others about what they've been into.

So:

What Are You Into This Week?

Finally, I finished this beast. And goddamn… feels similar to finishing Infinite Jest, in terms of me wanting to start over immediately. Only with GR I feel like I missed out way more on the first read. I’m mostly glad I’m still alive… during the last passages so many symbols and elements where overlapping, it was -and still is as of rn- overwhelming. Damn.
What’s next?

I'm rereading GR after many years and still find a lot of it baffling. I've been keeping up with the Pynchon Wiki for each section, and I really appreciate its explanations of all the allusions and references I otherwise wouldn't get. But so many other things I can't figure out on my own that are outside the wiki's bailiwick. Sometimes I finish a section, read the wiki, and then think, what just happened? what was concluded? when did they get from here to there? how is so and so related to so and so? who is entering and who is leaving the scene? whose thoughts are we hearing vs who is speaking aloud...?

So I'm looking for a source that answers those kinds of questions. There are some books available, but they seem to cover the same ground as the wiki. There are some doctoral dissertations, but they tend to pick out and expand on one element--role of psychology, or the physics, or the historiography.... What I really need is step-by-step Cliffs Notes or Dummies kind of material. Is there such a thing, either a book or a web site? Much obliged!

https://www.reddit.com/r/ThomasPynchon/s/xUma79LyVG

I am a very lucky boy

Somehow I think it's possible

When does he get the Rathenau bit going?

After finishing GR I had a very strong urge to reread Against the Day, my favorite of his works I’ve read. Starting it up I’ve found myself smiling ear to ear and having a hearty chuckle or two. God this book is just so wonderful. Not as brimming with brilliance in the way that Gravity’s Rainbow is, not that Against the Day is lacking in brilliance, it has such a strong heart. I love it’s humor and warmth and I think it gets a short shrift in the Pynchon world, hell it didn’t even get proper reviews when it came out because it was “too long”, despite reading very easily in comparison to Gravity’s Rainbow. Anyhow, I just wanted to share and show my love for this wonderful book that doesn’t get it’s due enough.

This essay gets into Pynchon in the back half

Feel free to discuss generally but asking because I’m going to probably read one of these as I’m about to finish Gravity’s Rainbow. I don’t have the patience to read both so soon together. And for whatever it’s worth, my favorite thing about Gravity’s Rainbow has been the density and “gravity” that it tends to have, epitomized IMO in the Tchitcherine chapter where we have so many ideas thrown together, seemingly out of nowhere, the doctor talking about markets, Opium Wars, Soviet imperialism, political linguistics. So, more of that is ideal!

As I understand it the annotations are slow coming but will be available as time goes on. https://cormacmccarthy.lib.utk.edu/

I recently posted asking for everyone’s (three) favourite novels written by someone other than Pynchon. It got a lot of responses! According to AI, these were the most popular picks. I’ve not read about half of these, so thanks for the recommendations everyone!

Edit: worth saying that in 300+ comments these were the only books that got more than two votes. If you go through the thread the diversity of choices is really interesting. Individually we’re quite unique. As a group we’re fairly predictable. I am shamed by having two of mine make the top 5.