Thomas Pynchon: Where NOT to start (+where to start!)

I read Infinite Jest first and it was fine. If Gravity's rainhow is say 7 on the difficulty scale infinite jest is a 3 at the most so seems like an off example.

I can really tell you have a passion for pynchon i feel like you have the urge to just tell the books’ entire stories in this video lol. Ill be starting with Lot 49 and i like short stories so ill probably read his short story collection after that! Great video! 17 minutes felt like nothing

Infinite Jest is a great start for David Foster Wallace

It took me 3 false starts over the span of 3 years to finally crack into Gravity's Rainbow. It's my first Pynchon book, and on my final attempt I told myself "it doesn't matter if you understand it, just keep going." Eventually I was able to get to a point where I could actually digest the writing style he chose, and I ended up enjoying it immensely. It's definitely possible to start with GR, but be prepared for the initial hurdle and if you really want to read it, just keep moving.

My mother picked up Gravity's rainbow after hearing about it in another book and seeing it the next week in a library (a new edition just appeared in romanian) and bought it. Now after a month she is still reading and enjoying it

Incredible video!! Fast and informative! Hugs from Brazil (don’t have a bunch of media about Pynhcon’s works in Portuguese, unfortunately…).

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Gravity's Rainbow as your first Pynchon. For many it would be pretty damn hard to get through, but maybe you already read some Joyce, Woolf or Faulkner and would have absolutely no problem reading GR.
Let's not pretend like we can ignore what the reader has read.

Liked this video, man. I read inherent vice first because I’m a big fan of Paul Thomas Anderson and wanted to read it after seeing the movie. I’ve ordered gravity’s rainbow and might wait a while before starting it haha. I think reading some more of his work first could be pretty beneficial to understanding gravity’s rainbow a fair bit better.

GR was my first real dig into Pynchon and tbh I love it.

Thanks. I have tried Gravities Rainbow thrice…have never made it past page 80 on any try. After try one I jumped over to The Crying of Lot 49-I had a false start-meaning about 90 pages deep I realized I had started out on the wrong foot(this is more than two decades ago, is there not a character or characters who are actively tripping on acid throughout the entire course of the book?? I remember that realization being a revelation and starting over haha!) went back, the book contained enough stunning passages to make the prospects of a do over pleasurable, nobody composes a stand alone paragraph with as much shimmering beauty and in this case menace as Pynchon.
Still have to bang out GR, until that stops feeling like a fucking death March you’ve given me a few options for book two, thank you so much!
Oh…btw it’s pronounced “Oov-rah”.

Too late. I started with Gravity's Rainbow. Made two false starts.

Start wherever you want. I took "Don't start with Gravity's Rainbow" as a challenge, and it became my favorite book of all times. And I say that as an avid reader, in his late 40's. After that, I read everything he wrote. Is it difficult sometimes ? Yes. But I couldn't stop reading, because it's so funny and full of brilliant Ideas, that I never felt overwhelmed.

I like how this pops up in my feed as I’m 200 pages into Gravity’s Rainbow (my first Pynchon novel) 😂 I agree though. I shouldn’t have started here!

I started with Gravity’s Rainbow and binged it. I believe it to be the greatest work of art ever created. But the rest of his novels feel like they were trying to just barely match the coke-fueled whistblowing satire GR gave us. They’re still damn good novels though.

M&D is one of the very few books that have moved me to tears by the end.

coming here after failing to get through Gravity's Rainbow but just finishing Vineland as my first Pynchon novel haha

Thank you. This was informative, fun, funny and interesting!

I return to The Crying of Lot 49 every few years and always enjoy it. Its brevity is one of its most attractive features - how richly resonant a world he creates in so few pages.

Thank you for the very good overview, I'm now definitely taking a crack at Pynchon. And I'm very grateful to you for including the several BookTube links in your description box, I never saw these before and have a lot to look forward to!

Just finished Bleeding Edge. Absolutely loved it! Checking out V now.

thank god he’s more relatable than James Joyce

I fell in love with Mason & Dickson, my first book of his. I was able to adjust to the olde english in the work by page 30. I loved Lot 49 and felt so surprised at the end

Never heard of Pynchon… surfing around the internet and I found you. I found your video convincing and I am going to start the adventure, excited about what is to come, thanks!

I think that this decision about where to start with Pynchon really depends upon the reader, their experience and reading skill. I will read Gravity's Rainbow first. I love 1000+ page books with complex structure. I may need to read this twice, but I typically read 100pages per day without difficulty. I am waiting for this book to arrive from an ebay seller next week even though I have a long reading list in front of it. If I like it I will more of his books in the future.

I hear your point but I started DFW with IJ and TP with GR and no regrets whatsoever!

My first DFW was Infinite Jest. I did read it with two other people though.

I enjoyed V. & Bleeding Edge. I loved the propulsive hyper ness of the tone in Bleeding Edge. I had difficulty with Inherent Vice so I put it aside. I couldn’t make heads or tails of The Crying…I think cuz I was too young. I’m trepidatiously stalling tackling Gravity’s Rainbow, it will be a tough slog at first, but I know that later it’ll be rewarding.

I’m starting with gravity’s rainbow , life’s too short

Love this dudes accent

I haven’t read a lot of Pynchon and the one I read most recently was Inherent Vice. I recall a fairly unkind review of Against the Day that claimed that its page count was due to the limitations of book binding technology rather than the requirements of the story but I am yet to test this theory. (Slightly worryingly, I can’t remember whether I bought it).

Gravity’s Rainbow is, for me, totally inaccessible and likely to remain so. It’s on one of the lowest shelves of my book case for fiction, and obscured by piles of other books and paraphernalia I can barely reach.

Well 40 years ago back in the early ‘80’s I did exactly the wrong thing. I started with Gravity’s Rainbow. I loved it but it was emotionally and mentally exhausting. At the time it was the height of the Cold War and I was experiencing what Pirate Prentice fears…thinking the missile is going to drop right on his head…

I started with Inherent Vice (liked it pretty well) and afterwards did TCL49, Vineland, and Bleeding Edge. Just started V and I like it so far

I started with Mason & Dixon and absolutely loved it. 10/10. I don't think I have ever laughed that much reading a book. I'm going to try and tackle Gravity's Rainbow next.

Mason & Dixon has a permanent place on my nightstand. I can flick to any spot in the plot and read myself off to sleep.
That damb duck!

Fun and wryly considered video to match the subject of Pynchon

W. A. S. T. E.

I started with pkd backwards, reading the exegesis with no prior knowledge; which was a mistake because he kept referencing his older works. i had to go back and read everything from before to come back to his magnum opus. Order of operations matter, folks.

I started with Against the Day and found out Gravity's Rainbow was erotica a few pages in. Would recommend. 👍

Go chronological including early stories with Pyncon's critique. Ideas explored in Bleeding Edge are right there in V. Gravitys Rainbow might be a bit rough but Vineland will be a piece of cake.

I finished The Crying of Lot 49 earlier this week, which was my first Pynchon book. Absolutely loved it and picked up Vineland from the library today right before coming home and seeing this video in my feed, can't wait to dive in!

I started with GR. Good times.

Hey there!!!! Really enjoy the channel, great stuff on here man!!!! Unrelated but have you read Peter Matthiessen’s “Shadow Country”? If you haven’t, PLEASE DO!!!! That’s a Great American Novel, it’s so brilliant!!!! Trying to get some Lit-Tubers on here to read it bc this book deserves waaaaayyyyy more coverage!!!!

Is there anyone writing today other than Pynchon close to P in terms of quality of the work?

This whole video can be summed up by saying "do as I say, not as I do"

I started with Inherent Vice and now I’m 400 pages into Gravity’s rainbow. Very interesting book

I began with Against the Day, I found it dazzling and delightful, a real page turner. I have read all his novels, but most people who try one of his light books gets turned off pretty quick. It's his style, take it or leave it.

Perhaps the strongest take i can make about this novelist is that of all the things he teaches in his works the most fundamental one is that each novel of Pynchon teaches one how to read Pynchon. Having said this, i urge readers to seek refuge in MASON & DIXON, but not before reading Shakespeare’s Henry IV 1 & 2 diligently, Cervantes’ Don Quixote deeply, and 18th Cent English picaresque novels absorbingly. Having read TP’s novels chronologically from V to Vineland was also my strategy in approaching this magnificent creature of a book that is both daunting to meet and a breeze to befriend.

Warn them about the pedophile sex scene 100 hrs into Gravity's Rainbow. I hated the ending of the Crying of Lot 49, too. Easily the most upset I've ever been made by the ending of a book besides Hemingway but for very different reasons. Pynchons ending was deeply unfulfilling and I was angry I spent so much time on the book rather than overwhelmed with sorrow from Hemingways tragedy. Fuck Hemmingway too, for doing all that shit to his characters though.

I've started with The Crying of Lot 49 in italian ( my first language ) then the short stories, V, Vineland , Inherent Vice and then I read again Lot 49 in english. I still have to read Gravity's Rainbow and the others, im not in a hurry i will be obsessed with this author for many years... i just needed to take a break because i was reading only him for 2 years straight. The same happened with Borges and Burroughs a few years ago. Great video, subscribed