GRAVITY'S RAINBOW by Thomas Pynchon

[@angusorvid8840]

I read Gravity's Rainbow as an English major at UCLA in the mid 90s. I loved it. But I had to disavow everything our professor told us about the book. It really has to be experienced on an individual level. I had classmates who were reading the Weisberg guide on GR. A big mistake. They held too many preconceived notions. You just have to dive in and enjoy it. If something makes you scratch your head, mark the page, underline, and do some research. But keep trucking. It was one of the greatest reading experiences I ever had. After I finished, I gave my copy to my grandfather, a very big reader and the most brilliant man I've ever known. Like me, it also took him two weeks to get through it. We arrived at different conclusions but we both loved the book. It was a subject of frequent discussion between us for the rest of his life. It's a very special book to me.

[@MoreTrenMoreMen69]

Two weeks to get through??!!!! That’s how long it took me to get through Crying of Lot 49 hahah! I’ve read the first 50 pages and oh boy, what a book. Currently on Vineland, perhaps onto Mason & Dixon for my next read. I love the practice of not seeking much guidance on your first read through with pynchon. He’s definitely meant to be read over and over

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

Could you comment more on the Weisenburg guide? I’ve been told by many that it’s a necessity to penetrate the book. For context, I read Ulysses and used the Gifford “Ulysses Annotated” and found it requisite to get through Ulysses and really understand a lot of the slang and allusions. Is Gravity’s Rainbow similar, or would you say it’s less guide-dependent than Ulysses and could stand alone in a reading experience?

[@gryffonsi]

@@gavinyoung-philosophyhello! having read no pynchon i was able to read gravity’s rainbow on my own, even with a guide you would forget so much afterwards you might as well just own a copy and mark the pages to come back to with your own little research i think it so much fun to work through a text without assistance, i always mark the exact places i had to look up and write little factoids in the margins : ) i can’t imagine reading it in two weeks though, it is way too dense…

[@georgepantzikis7988]

​@@gavinyoung-philosophy I really see no point in a guide. If you are at least vaguely familiar with the history of European literature, then you will understand a good 85% of the references. The remaining 15% are subtle in-jokes and obscure allusions that are nice to know, but offer no additional insight into the work. The most important "guide" you need to have while reading Ulysses is a dictionary. If you have that, you'll be fine. A lot of the difficulty with books like Ulysses or Gravity's Rainbow, as far as references are concerned, is mostly epidermic. Here's an example passage I just came up with that includes many literary and cultural references. "When I heard of Gregor's death, it was one forty at night. Novalis's night at the Bella Vista Hotel. That night, though sodden with Arabian perfume, metaphysical niceties, and courteous farewells, could not conceal the sin, progenitor to progeny, that passes through this valley of tears." Please ignore how cringey the actual text is, and focus on the references. We have, in order: 1) German Poetry 2) Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano 3) Macbeth 4) Marx 5) The Bible Did you need to know any of these references to understand what I was saying? No. Maybe you wouldn't quite get what "Novalis's night" refers to, but there is no substantial meaning lost, even if you don't get the references

[@xgryphenx]

Appreciate the length of this review Chris! My dad and I did a group read this past spring (his third read, my first), and spent a long time talking about it. He passed away about four days ago, but would have loved this video. It was his favorite book, one he talked about since I was a kid, and it brought him great joy to be able to get into the nitty gritty of it with me-happy we were able to, as at that time his health showed no real sign of decline, and so I feel lucky to have gotten it done serendipitously when we did.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

What an intimate and beautiful vignette of your relationship with your father. My condolences on your loss, and I wish you and your family the best. And yet, as you said, how grateful we should be for such moments when art can create a bridge between two people that transcends mortality. I appreciate you sharing this with me. It is rather moving and gives me another view of what can be done with making videos about books I love.

[@fuzzydunlop4513]

thats really powerful man, thanks for sharing that

[@ewolffman]

thats amazing. I'm sorry for your loss, yet feel joyous that you were able to share that experience with your father... my dad read me lord of the rings as a bedtime story as a child, and as we have both grown older, a shared love of literature has remained a touchstone in our relationship. I felt your comment deep down within me, and it makes me reflect on my own relationship with my father and my son, i need to read more with both. Thank you

[@jeremyhopkins577]

I'm kind of curious about how detailed your discussions of the sex scenes were. Sorry for your loss

[@xgryphenx]

@@jeremyhopkins577 fair question! He was not a squeamish guy and we spoke very openly about a lot of wild stuff. As far as GR goes, we mostly talked about the shit eating major (or was he a colonel?) and how great it was truthfully, especially when he forgot to take his antibiotic and died of ecoli-the Blicero stuff just all dovetails nicely (we agreed) into the thesis of the anarcho-sadists as its complement. Where for Katya (was that her name?) it is a means of survival, a play enactment of domination outside the real world of war’s domination over life, for Blicero and Siegfried it is really just a rehearsal for the cosmic orgasm of total destruction tied up with the 00000 and the imipolex chamber within it. I mean if you are gonna read and discuss a book so obviously concerned with the phallus and the libido, I don’t know how you think you could get out of it without talkin about it. We both knew as much going in. Its reputation precedes it.

[@toddmaclean7444]

"A screaming comes across the sky..." Not a V-2 but in fact it's Santa's sleigh as Christmas has apparently come early! Over three hours on Gravity's Rainbow! What a gift! Cheers!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Hahaha! Merry Christmas, Todd!

[@Snardbafulator]

@@LeafbyLeaf I'm sure you noted how the first sentence of Mason & Dixon recapitulates the beginning of that sentence: Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs ...

[@travelthroughstories]

Good lord. You're changing the game as to what booktube can be.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

That's massively kind of you to say!

[@michaelmasiello6752]

I’ve just discovered your channel. I’m a Renaissance literature scholar (and I think I see a NYRB edition of Burton’s Anatomy on your shelves!), but I have generalist tastes, and you’ve done videos on a host of my favorite books (this one very much included). Last year I read Pynchon’s woefully underrated Against the Day for the second time-I lived in it for months, and loved it (though the math is brain-wilting), and found, just as you so rightly say in this video and others I've seen so far, that latent connections emerge, and the frisson of excitement that comes with such recognitions is wonderful. When I was younger I used to tell my students that "you haven't read a book once until you've read it twice"; now in middle age, I think that's too hyperbolic, though the goal was always to urge students to believe that the deepest relationships we can have with books (as with great art of any kind) take time to develop (and develop over time). I’m hoping you might be planning to do a discussion of Against the Day: I’d love to see what you have to say about it, especially given your love of maximalist fictions and the rather shabby treatment Pynchon's longest novel has received. On a vaguely related note (because maximalism, encyclopedism, etc.), Olga Tokarczuk’s The Books of Jacob will be available in English in the US in January-hope you’re as excited for that as I am, or that it's on your radar. She's a writer of immense gifts, and this is said to be her chef d'oeuvre. Anyway, thanks for the existence of this channel! It does my heart good to see someone doing the proverbial Lord's work this way. Teaching Gen Z kids each semester, I’m sad to see the extent to which we are losing deep reading to the culture of wikis and memes. Literature needs all the friends it can get--and those kids need the kind of nourishment a sustaining relationship to great literature brings, the kind that illumines our solitude (and can even make us hoard it, as I have a tendency to do). Anyway, keep it up. And happy holidays!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

-Welcome! Glad you found me. -Yep, that's the NYRB Melancholy. What a year of reading that was (2017, I think)! -If I remember correctly, Gass said that you read a book once to prepare to read it (or something like that). -I will definitely be doing a video on AtR at some point; agreed that it's a fascinating and brilliant work! -So far I've only read some of Olga's short pieces, but I do plan to get to her novels. -Your kind words and thoughts are much appreciated. We sound cut from the same cloth. I think Bloom said that deep reading teaches us how to be alone with ourselves. It is possible that the multiple quarantines are exacerbating this need. I've had many, many subscribers tell me that they started reading during the initial quarantine. -All my very best to you in 2022!

[@CrimeFighterFrog]

This video was what made me decide to take the plunge and read Gravity's Rainbow-really your whole channel inspired me to take on reading seriously-and I just finished it today. It was an unforgettable experience and, though I can't say I understood more than 50% of it, I can't wait to re-read it in a year or two. Thank you for making these videos. Your passion is infectious. Greetings from Austria!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thank you so very much for the kind words! On the first read of a book like this, I'd say grasping even 25% is extraordinary. The best books are never-ending: you can read them again and again like an all-you-can-eat buffet. All my best to your beautiful land!

[@GomezAddams422]

“If there is something comforting - religious, if you want - about paranoia, there is still also anti-paranoia, where nothing is connected to anything, a condition not many of us can bear for long.” - my favorite Gravity's Rainbow quote and an essential one for understanding this novel. I actually found a box of wine jellies at my local grocery store. They were less than exciting to eat.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Matter, antimatter. 1 + -1 = 0. Newton's Third Law. Boy, there are so many fascinating ideas! I would love to try some of these notorious wine jellies!

[@GomezAddams422]

@@LeafbyLeaf Eating wine jellies are like eating gum drops that are 10 years past the expiration date. It's kind of like eating candy you found on the floor underneath your seat in a movie theater..

[@LeafbyLeaf]

🤢🤢🤢

[@uniquechannelnames]

Haha the wine jellies scene is hilarious

[@Mooseman327]

@@LeafbyLeaf As a kid (I'm 72 now) I ate a couple of these. Just awful, both in taste and texture. This scene brought it all back.

[@burke9497]

This video is astounding. I have had Gravity’s Rainbow on my shelf for years. This video is causing me to say that 2022 is the year I have to read this book.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks so much, Jeffrey! Glad I’ve inspired you!

[@human.yoohoo4646]

This video will be watched for years and years and years. Leaf by Leaf is a miracle!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

🙌🙌🙌

[@JohnPatt]

Much like how Gravity’s Rainbow is an upheaval of expectations, I was seriously shocked to see this video be over three hours long! Truly spectacular. Thank you for your-and I don’t say this lightly-service. Your entire channel, especially videos of this ilk, played a significant role in ripping me away from a shameful reading drought of nearly four years (!!!). I now have a fierce appetite for literature that has, and continues to, truly change my life in both my professional and leisurely endeavours. Can’t wait to dive back into Gravity’s Rainbow more (only 50 pages in). Happy and healthy holidays to you and yours.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

My friend-hearing that these videos have inspired your reading life is the greatest compliment you could share with me. I really appreciate your kindness. All my very best to you and yours!

[@tboss8157]

This book is a ride like no other and one of the main reasons I’m still into literary fiction today. Could go on for hours (as you do, awesome!) but I’ll just say the final section completely blew my gourd off in a way I still haven’t gotten over. The disintegration of everything felt like I was on high dose LSD trying to fight my way to the end. Def need to re read in 2022!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Oh, man--yes--the ending! With a book of this stature and ambition, I kept thinking (during my first read of it): how can Pynchon possibly wrap something like this up and leave us satisfied? Well--he did it.

[@Find-Your-Bliss-]

In a perverse yet exciting change from life imitating art, there is literature imitating hallucinogens. I could not be more intrigued.

[@bjwnashe5589]

Just want to say think you for this in-depth, thoughtful presentation. As a long-time Pynchon admirer, I feel rejuvenated in my admiration.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Really appreciate that! Rejuvenating literary admiration is my number one goal!

[@OttoIncandenza]

I love what you read at 1:45:30!! That’s my exact experience with Gravity’s Rainbow. So many working class people have read and loved it. Academics sometimes underestimate the working class’ aesthetic appreciation.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

🙌

[@gardenvariety9957]

I'm a working class. Maybe 2022.

[@joseph-zoramcbride4029]

Mm. Haven't read GR yet, but I'm ob-b-sessed with Samuel Beckett and I find the same thing to be true. Academics are assholes. People don't have to know what canto of Dante he's referencing to appreciate his themes/work. Not to deny the cerebral elements of course, but to focus solely on that stuff is to become elitist and myopic and miss the forest for the trees. And that crap. :)

[@dylanclymer1145]

Good God man, a 3.5 hour video on Gravity's Rainbow? This is a treat. This was my first Pynchon novel and it changed everything for me. I'm looking forward to what you have to say.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I didn't choose to do a video of this length, of course; Pynchon demanded it. Hope you enjoy!

[@Stoney-Jacksman]

How has it changed 'everything' for you?

[@MrMikkyn]

@@Stoney-Jacksman Good question

[@alexanderwang2632]

Just discovered your channel. Shocked that you made this right around when I finished GR; it changed me unlike any book because the aesthetic way Pynchon oscillates between the casual and causal relationships as well as recursions of reality for me was this deep feeling, or frequency for lack of better term, most my life but translated directly into novel format. I became one of those people who was obsessing over the book so I try to not go down its rabbit holes, but sometimes during the day or when I wake up the little songs in the book are playing in my head. I'm glad you made this video and REALLY HOPE YOU GO ABOUT TO MAKE MORE OF THE SAME LENGTH; your genuine dives into the esoteric and no-boundaries to literature is exactly the type of channel/podcast I want. Maybe down the road you interview authors in the future as well. Seriously, I think you could podcast with Pynchon.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks for your comments! What a moment of serendipity! And thanks for all your suggestions: longform videos; author interviews; a podcast--you never know what the future holds! :) All my best to you!

[@heckicusdoomicuswizardus1382]

Gravity's Rainbow is my favourite book ever. Not only is it unique, hilarious, imaginative and MONSTROUSLY encyclopedic, it's also probably the most vividly written novel I've ever read. The descriptions of every environment, foodstuff, schedule, map, film, weapon or cloud formation is beautifully (and often grotesquely) worded; Casino Hermann Goering will likely stay in my head until I die. It utterly defies convention and expectation. There is no book like it and there will be no book like it ever again.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

You know-I really could’ve saved us all a lot of time and just said exactly what you guys said. 😁

[@heckicusdoomicuswizardus1382]

@@LeafbyLeaf Ah hell no man, you did an absolutely spectacular job. I've probably watched this video three times by listening to it during work and it's still brilliant. I'm hoping to do the same at some point myself haha

[@LeafbyLeaf]

🙌🙌🙌

[@arch_dornan6066]

I recognize you from Instragram I'm pretty sure. Have you read Ulysses? It's very similar in depth but much more life-affirming than Gravity's Rainbow

[@christopherlove4188]

I'm currently on my second read of this fantastic book after almost 30 years. Thank you for this enthusiastic and exhaustive review. Everything I learn about it enhances my reading.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

My pleasure! Enjoy the journey!

[@TheAngelofThrash]

Just finished this two days ago, definitely feels like it will be one of the seminal linguistic experiences for the rest of my life. So thankful to have a resource like this to help contextualise many of the parts of the book, and also can't wait to read it again (in like, five years haha)

[@LeafbyLeaf]

So glad you found the video useful! I waited 10 years to return to this one!

[@davidolsen9129]

Leaf by Leaf: The Motion Picture. Where can I pre-order the Blue Ray with directors commentary?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

😆😆😆

[@brentjohnson8878]

I had great fun reading Gravity's Rainbow for the first time after it hovered like a ghost over myself and a few friends over the past years. My first pynchon as well. I'll admit that while cruising through the novel I felt like I was missing out on quite a bit of the subtleties and that I was going to need a re-read despite my enjoyment. Of course that is absolutely still the case (needing a re-read that is), but your video was an excellent follow-up exercise and an incredible help in my absorbing of the novel. Helped me realize I picked up on a lot more than I had initially thought and allowed me to contextualize other parts I had missed the significance of. Thanks! Continue making great content!

[@_PanchoVilla]

What would you recommend to read first from Pynchon?

[@LeScenariste]

Excellent analysis, my congratulations, and thanks for the bibliography references! To me, Pynchon is the Cervantes of the XXst century. Just like the spanish author encapsulated in Don Quixote the literature of its time, and even future genres, Pynchon does the same, and with a similar use of irony, for our ages. GR has everything: comedy, love, sex, war, History, science, politics, esoterism, spy stories, fear and paranoia, death... Also like Cervantes, I admire how Pynchon "depressurizes" his most deep passages with touches of comic relief. Astounding how a writer on his thirties can have such control of his craft.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks so much! And--great points here. I, too, am so blown away that someone in their 30s could achieve this. It's like what Vollmann achieved in his 20s with You Bright and Risen Angels!

[@jamespinkston7946]

Perfect timing for this video. Planning on beginning my first reading of Gravity’s Rainbow this coming weekend. So far I have read Inherent Vice and The Crying Lot 49 and can’t wait experience more of Pynchon’s writing. Thanks Chris for inspiring me to pursue more demanding and richer reading experiences.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

It’s a pleasure to share my passion and inspire reading! Have fun!

[@PaoloRS1]

How did you get on? Did you enjoy it?

[@jamespinkston7946]

@@PaoloRS1 GR was a very challenging reading experience, but I really enjoyed it. Since, reading GR, I have also read, Bleeding Edge, Mason & Dixon and just picked up a copy of Against the Day. I plan on re-reading GR later this year. It is without a doubt a book I will re-read every few years.

[@foothillelement]

You have done an excellent job of presenting your thoughts and opinions of Gravity's Rainbow. I first read this when the Bantam paperback came out in 1974. It still sits right here in my library along with David Foster Wallace and William T. Vollmann. You have, indeed, inspired a re-read, but with something with a little larger type, like the Penguin Classic edition you're holding in your video. Thank you for all the videos you present, they have led to many new book discoveries.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

What a cool treasure to have! I’m thrilled to hear the video has inspired a return to GR! I understand about needing bigger type. My copy of Vilnius Poker has microscopic type!

[@shannonm.townsend1232]

@@LeafbyLeafUnbelievably, I used to be able to read that micro text fluently, at disk or w/a Kerosene lantern.

[@harrison_williams]

What an important and well-researched video essay on an important and well-researched triumph of the 20th century. Thank you for all your research and production hours.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Very, very kind of you to say, Harrison, and I thank you so much!

[@CulainRuledByVenus]

Regarding one major theme discussed in this video, I recommend to all here "From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film" by Siegfried Kracauer. First published in 1947, it's about how German culture throughout time led to German Expressionism and the collective mood and mindset of early 20th century Germany.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks so much for this recommendation!

[@dg-yq9gl]

you have a real talent for introducing monumental books in comprehensive ways, and I especially appreciate the gusto to make a 3 hour video to get what needs to be said about the book across. If you continue making these definitive videos (this video being impossible to top) of great works you'll grow into an invaluable resource for not only literary education, but also enjoyment. thanks chris you're a cool guy

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I really, sincerely appreciate your kind words. It is truly a pleasure to share my passion for reading. All my very best to you! Happy holidays!

[@odytimesthree]

Got the book plus the companion plus a notebook to take notes, for my second read. Currently 150 pages in. Thank you for the video!!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Ahhhh, yes, the pilgrim’s tool set! Enjoy!

[@ryandudley3616]

Thanks for this Chris! Must have been a big effort putting it all together - really appreciate it!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

My pleasure! It was quite a bit of work-not something I will do again anytime soon. All my best to you!

[@evannece3856]

Wow. A 3.5 hour video on Gravity’s Rainbow. This is going to be a good one. Thanks for making this.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@loljoker127]

didn't expect to but watched the whole thing haha, brilliant and really engaging, thank you so much! can't get enough of gravitys rainbow and feel a lil lost since finishing it

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Wow! I really should give out prizes for people who complete this video. :) Coincidentally, I've started getting the itch to take this one on again.

[@loljoker127]

@@LeafbyLeaf have fun with it man! you’re awesome :)

[@LeafbyLeaf]

🙏

[@Snardbafulator]

A point about who Pirate's first fantasy was surrogating for: I don't think it's Blicero. I don't think Blicero would trouble himself about being Elect. I think it's Brigadier Pudding's fantasy. The iconography is pure London. And Pudding has a fantasy life that's quite of interest to The Firm, cf. Domina Nocturna, Shining Mother and Last Love.

[@29whiteout]

Unlocking this video feels like a huge accomplishment. Thank you for projecting a world.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks so much! :)

[@timkjazz]

Along with Blood Meridian, The Recognitions, Moby Dick and Huck Finn, the apex of U. S. Literature. Absolutely one of my favorite books, an absolute masterpiece that needs to be read and re-read.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Hear! Hear!

[@LittlemasterL]

Thank you very much for this great video! Having read GR fairly recently for the first time, there were so many enlightening discoveries to be made listening to your video. By the way, as difficult as it was, I don't regret reading the book in English, since, being German, that gave an extra layer to it to enjoy (Slothrop sprinting over the Avus with his coat flapping made me laugh, having driven on that part many times in the past.) One thing I was suprised about being addressed in GR (and you mentioned it briefly in your video) was the rumours (conspiracy?) about Them planning to divide up Germany after the end of the war, if I remember that part correctly. Fiction, be it books or movies, tend to make a clear cut: the war is over and by that everything is solved, with a brighter future lying ahead - while in reality history of course never stops but is an ongoing process. An American writer addressing that, especially the economical dimension which is often tossed aside for a more morally ideal picture reduced to the good/evil dichotomy, less than 30 years after the war I find a quite fascinating.

[@zanepeterkovic9553]

It's so difficult to do a book of such magnitude and encyclopaedic breadth justice but you do it miraculously well in this lovely feature-length video. I'm thinking about GR again and feel the pressure building inside my skull, it's just that kind of book. So congratulations to you for rekindling the feeling of reading this behemoth. To me, Gravity's Rainbow possesses an uncanny psychedelic quality. The roving, parenthetical, digressive, schizophrenic style, along with the broad emotional range, the comedy, the paranoia, and the vivid bright colours, all point to pure psychedelia to me. And that's just stylistically; when you consider Pynchon's links to the mid-20th century counterculture, his later engagement with the topic of drugs in Inherent Vice, and some alleged references to the as of yet undisclosed MKultra project, to me a picture begins to emerge of Pynchon as he's sat at his desk in Manhattan beach churning out this monster on his graph paper. With his reference to the 'Nixonian reaction' in Vineland, I can imagine Pynchon as an embittered half-hippie writing the Rainbow in a drug-fuelled haze, assimilating his political radicalism, scientific knowledge, and occult imagery all in a kaleidoscopic maze. Maybe this serves to explain his almost two-decade hiatus after publishing GR, one might be tempted to call it recovery. This also explains later Pynchon to me---an older, wiser, more sentimental and family-focused one, who still never lost his biting criticism of Them. How accurate is this picture of him? No clue. He remains an enigma, and hopefully will forever. Regardless, this image remains Pynchon to me.

[@rishabhaniket1952]

Respect! You have pulled out the unthinkable. I don’t think any book but GR deserved it.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks! Hope you enjoy the video!

[@RockBridgeIsland]

GR gets mentioned with Infinite Jest a lot, but they are such different different types of prose. DFW can go on long esoteric rants, but he generally includes everything you need to know within the text itself. With Gravity's Rainbow, if you don't put the book down and do your own research on the physical layout of Ivan Pavlov's lab, African military campaigns, Welsh choral traditions, rocket logo designs, etc... the prose just goes over your head. But the thing with Pynchon is that the research ALWAYS pays off.

[@MaximTendu]

with Pynchon, you write your own footnotes :)

[@bjwnashe5589]

Wallace is no match for Pynchon.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Indeed, Wallace loved Pynchon and wrote Broom of the System with Pynchon as afflatus. With IJ, however, I feel that DFW wanted to try to break from the Pynchon influence and find his own path.

[@marinellamaccagni6951]

Oh my goooddd!! Three hours for reviewing gravity's rainbow???? There will be an outstanding amount of thoughts and informations in which I' ll dive as soon as possible. Thanks for this enormous Christmas' gift. I' ve only read once and I didn't enjoy It. Now your video gives me the opportunity to give It another shot for sure!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Very, very kind of you, as always! I hope the video lives up to your expectations!

[@PB-fi1qh]

You made me get back into reading literature. Thanks.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

What an honor--truly! Happy reading!

[@isaacnakone8357]

To make a gross oversimplification of Gravity’s Rainbow, the novel seems to explore the tension between control and disorder. As a quick aside, I’ll unpack the concept of entropy roughly: While entropy seems like a mystical concept, it is formulated in physics (specifically thermodynamics and statistical mechanics) as a relationship between macroscopic dynamics and microscopic particle states of systems of a huge number of particles. It also has similar but distinct formulations in information theory, for example. As an analogy, imagine a wave of salutes progressing through a crowd at a stadium. The wave itself is like the macrostate because it’s a function of the way the whole crowd is shaped on aggregate. The microstate, in this trite example, would be every individual’s waving/not-waving status listed out. In the case of a gas contained in a box, the most likely macrostate is the one with the greatest amount of entropy. But what is entropy? Entropy, in the case of a closed system (one that does not exchange energy and mass with the external environment), is given by the formula S = k ln (Omega), where k = Boltzmann constant ~ 1.4 × 10-23 J K-1, and Omega = the number of microstates associated with the macrostate with total energy E, volume V, number of particles N and temperature T (for example, in an ideal gas). What is a microstate in this case? A microstate is the configuration in terms of position and momentum of all the particles of a system i.e. a list of the positions (xi,yi,zi) and momenta (pxi,pyi,pzi) of every particle constitutes the microstate, there are 6N numbers and note that the number of particles in an average system is huge! (for a finite box, there are infinitely many positions and momenta, we alleviate this by dividing the phase space into a finite number of sub-boxes, the size of which is found in quantum mechanics and seeing which box is occupied in phase space). What is a macrostate in this case? The macrostate is simply the list of the macroscopic variables i.e. the numbers (E,V,N,T). So there is only four numbers in the case of an ideal gas. So, equilibrium is reached when the systems macrostate becomes the one with the largest number of microstates, and hence Omega is maximised, and so is S, the entropy! It’s worth pointing out, the microstates can fluctuate in an isolated system with maximal entropy, so long as they call correspond to this one macrostate. If we are to interpret GR as a political novel, then the “particles” of GR could be the people, and a nonequilibrium macrostate could be one in which there is complete control…? But, perhaps Pynchon is telling us that the principle of increasing entropy will always save the world from tyrannical systems of control (which somehow have zero entropy, at least in the metaphor) or what you call “the death drive” inherent in humanity. The drive towards the zero! It’s hard to know what entropy is for Pynchon but I thought it might be useful to explain what it is in the case of statistical physics.

[@davidlean1060]

I haven't managed to finish the book yet, but GR is easily one of the funniest books I've ever read. The passage about Pointsman pleasuring himself while fantasizing about winning a Nobel prize for his work on Slothrope, climaxing on the word 'Stockholm' is comedy gold, not to mention devilishly satirical. Pynchon is such a jester. He writes a book packed with cinematic references, but makes sure the book itself could never be filmed!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Hahah! Well put! How about that "decoding" process for the incoming mail to Bloat?!

[@davidlean1060]

@@LeafbyLeaf I wish it were entirely my reflection on the book. I saw a super little video on the link between GR and film. As you point out at the start, the book shouldn't be 'read' in the traditional sense, it should be seen. ps, the book is so dense, I forgot already who Bloat is! lol

[@frankiegumdrops8532]

I usually enjoy your videos while I’m getting ready for work in morning. This should keep me covered for a couple weeks. Thanks, man!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

My pleasure! Hope you enjoy!

[@johnsteffney2229]

Superb explication, baring the blueprints of Pynchon’s dense scaffolding. Brimming with profundities. Bedazzling synthesis of science and metaphysics. Laced with inextricable antinomies, intimating that Reality is quintessentially paradoxical. Best Pynchon commentary on the internet. Bravissimo!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Grazie mille!

[@cr33py51]

Just bought it and it's coming home for 2022 (I still have to wait some days) and you upload this, certainly it's christmas time for miracles! Abrazos desde Colombia :)

[@LeafbyLeaf]

🙌🙌🙌

[@mikepayne2816]

Just finished GR for the first time today and immediately watched this video in it’s entirety afterwards. Really helped me put things in context and helped me understand some things I didn’t initially pick up on. Agree that it’s hard to imagine somebody’s brain operating at the level to even come up with this story. Thanks for the video!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

What great luck! Thrilled to hear you found value in the video. What a book!

[@santiagoaguirre2438]

What a delight is always to watch your videos.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

🙏🙏🙏

[@ajw99a]

I love this so much. 3 hours of reflection, smh. Please do more of this. At first I thought your youtube had been hacked because I couldn't figure out the beginning along with the length. But this is great stuff. Just what I'm looking for in an analysis. I love how you review sources and then dive in. Again, this should be the standard for exposition. Thank you.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks so much! I try to do a literature review with some of these more complex books, as I did with Recognitions, JR, Infinite Jest, and most of the Western Core books so far. Really appreciate your affirming my labor of love!

[@OttoIncandenza]

YES 44:35-45:12 is exactly why I love GR and why I consider it the blueprint for the novel's place in post-modernity. It becomes more relevant with each passing year of environmental destruction and reemerging fascism.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I totally agree. As regards emergences of fascism, this book and Gass's Tunnel are so crucial.

[@CugnoBrasso]

The video we were all waiting for! I finished reading it for the first time on December 9th, so I'm still fresh!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Perfect timing!

[@donniedewitt9878]

You completed 2/3 of the meme trilogy. All you need to do now is Ulysses and you’ll be officially the king of /lit/

[@fuzzydunlop4513]

correct

[@hfjdksalable]

whats the other one? IJ? or some gaddis?

[@donniedewitt9878]

@@hfjdksalable IJ of course

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I can’t wait to read Ulysses again. It’ll be my third time with it. This will come as part of my Western Core series. Cheers!

[@donniedewitt9878]

@@LeafbyLeaf I love your western core series so far

[@ItsTooLatetoApologize]

I’m so glad to have this video. I have this book on my shelf but am leery to read it. Thank you for this.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

My pleasure!

[@makalu877]

I read the book in the late seventies; I didn't know what I was in for. But the way you describe it as; "every sentence is a research project", I would agree with wholeheartedly. The pages in the copy I have are all yellow now, but the circling's of words that I wanted to add to my vocabulary are still there, and there are many. The print in the book looks microscopic, I am seventy years old now and my eyes have never recovered from reading the book. I will be on the hunt for a larger print copy so I can read it again. Looking forward to watching your video and thank you for posting.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

It is such a treat to look back on our own commentary of yore! Just another dimension of a personal library as extensive of our soul. Hope you enjoy the video!

[@julieandrews7558]

Get the Penguin Kindle version ..any size font you want :)

[@makalu877]

@@julieandrews7558 Simple as that, thanx

[@viljamtheninja]

Damn. This is one of my favourite books, but I don't know when I'll have time to actually watch this whole thing. Will put it on my "watch later" list though. I love that there's a channel doing stuff like this.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Glad you found me! The video will be here waiting for the right time. All my best to you!

[@Nuance88]

Awesome! I added this to my Watch Later queue. Can't wait for three hours of your thoughts! Thank you for this!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks! Hope you enjoy it!

[@dylanmcmahon4902]

You are ABSOLUTELY right that this book is best read multiple times. I have just started a reread myself when I saw this video pop up (perhaps ACHTUNG has a hand in this?) and have been in awe of how carefully constructed and controlled the novel is. For all of its maximalist splendor, there is not a wasted word or a meaningless digression in the novel. What you also said about each sentence being a research project really struck me. Take, for instance, the beach scene where Tyrone fights off Grigori the octopus. Katje is described as having a "blond hood" of hair. At first glance, it's a clever and apt descriptor; but, when taking into account her being an agent of the White Visitation, and their hooded ceremonies in the woods, AND the fact that the Octopus fight is staged BY the White Visitation... God, and that's just ONE example. This book is bottomless. Incredible breakdown as always. Thank you for all that you do here with this fantastic channel.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Nice morsel there, Dylan! It does seem ACHTUNG has a hand in things of late…

[@dirtybombshelter]

I read this in tandem with Anti-Oedipus! Wonderfully complimentary works. This video has given me the push to go back and reread GR, something I have been meaning to do since the moment I finished it. Also, this is the first of your videos I've seen! Well done, thoroughly enjoyable and your enthusiasm shines through :)

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks do much! That does sound like an intriguing pairing!

[@nbyrd2579]

Whoa 97k views. I guess im happy so many people wanted to hear a deep dive on it. To be honest there isn’t a lot of Pynchon deep dives on KZbin so there seems to be an audience for it.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Yeah, these views and comments (and emails, DMs, etc.) have really taken me by surprise. For one thing the video is an absurd length. But the vigor for Pynchon obviously runs DEEP!

[@mrchrisbuck7806]

Bravo! Bravo! I just read GR for the first time (3rd try) and just listened to this video while coming & going in my car over the last week. And pow! You list a bunch of the references. That’s huge. Really nicely done. 👍

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks so much!

[@cymbolic_space1832]

i read this book the summer before attending college for a second time (this time studying the drums and music production) and while helping my father manage his raging alcoholism. needless to say by the end of it i walked around with a black baseball cap that had the equation for a parabola on one side and "paranoid" written under the upturned brim. that book changed me. my gosh dang brain chemistry. and it is debated whether it was for better or worse 🤤🦊🤙

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks for sharing this striking vignette! (I play drums, too!)

[@cymbolic_space1832]

@@LeafbyLeaf you are welcome! its a defining moment in my character arc and one that is inseperable from GR haha

[@davidlean1060]

@@LeafbyLeaf May I share the best drummer joke ever with you? When the jokes are flying around, hit them with this one. What's the difference between a drummer and a toilet seat? A toilet seat only has to deal with one a**hole at a time'. You're welcome!

[@nickcalabrese4829]

One thing I noticed now as I’m watching your video around 22:40: the Poisson distribution *isnt* a mathematical pattern, really. So the fact that the V2’s follow this “pattern” isn’t what’s interesting. A poisson is essentially a lack of *any* pattern. What’s interesting is that Slothrop’s erections follow the *exact same* Poisson distribution. It’s like flipping two coins one after the other a bunch of times; they follow a Bernoulli distribution, but this isn’t really a pattern or interesting. What’s interesting is if the second coin gets exactly the same heads/tails as the first every time you flip. This is what’s happening in the novel.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

🤯Right, yes!-two “disconnected” objects exhibiting isomorphic poison distributions. Crazy! Of course, we realize this is the power of Imipolex-G! 😁

[@tommydejosiafilms]

I just started reading Gravity’s Rainbow. And my goodness, the breadth of Pynchon’s use of language is mind blowing.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I know!

[@TheNerdStorm]

This video was excellent (I stopped midway because I have not read Gravity's Rainbow, I think I tried when I was a voracious reader in high school but found it a bit too dense, or just not subject matter that interested me) Thank you for such an in-depth look at the novel. I just watched a "Your Questions Answered" video as well, and it was nice to learn a little more about you, and your interests. --- Cheers!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks so much, Michael!

[@fadista7063]

This is so appreciated that I will indeed buy you a coffee. Looking forward to watching your other vids. I don't have GR but I have Mason & Dixon which I intend to begin this year. Never having read any of his work, this background and analysis is very helpful.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Very, very generous of you! So glad the videos are useful. All my best to you!

[@AleksandarBloom]

Couple of years ago, I've read The Novel: A Biography by Michael Schmidt. He attacks Pynchon there, along the lines of 'only for the Academics'. I almost threw the book. James Wood has been anti-Pynchon from the very beginning, Mason and Dixon review and famous - and notorious, Hysterical Realism text. In The Cambridge History of American Literature 1940-1990, late Pynchon is also totally dismissed. Just putting it out there. What is dearly missing from Pynchon secondary literature is close comparison between Naked Lunch and GR - that book anticipates GR as much as Sot-Weed Factor anticipates M&D. Everything I love about Pynch is what reminds me of Burroughs; their interest in science + literature synthesis, Rabelasian-transgressive humor, episodic-fragmented narrative, subculture, conspiracy, science-fiction, pastiches of Film and popular culture... and so on and on.

[@shannonm.townsend1232]

If you are talking about everything except their writing styles, then I definitely agree

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Just goes to show that Schmidt and Wood (much as I admire them both) are still critically fallible. :)

[@bengoodwin2988]

This is absolutely wonderful, thank you so much.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@theheadytimetraveler3864]

Now this is what I'm talking about! This definitely beat my expectation when you first announced you were doing this review....Can't wait to listen while I drive!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks! I hope the video's content lives up to its length.

[@theheadytimetraveler3864]

@@LeafbyLeaf I was definitely impressed and honestly, some of it went way over my head lol I'll definitely be referring to this video when I get back into Gravity's Rainbow....Also your ability to dissect a text and bring out all these meanings within it is astounding! ✌

[@LeafbyLeaf]

🙏🙏🙏

[@pufyshoes]

Finally finished. Loved the vid. One of the great experiences of my life was moving to Los Angeles and reading gravity’s rainbow on the subway to and from work every day. I didn’t know anyone, didn’t know anything about the book other than director Paul Thomas Anderson had cheekily said he hadn’t read it, and upon finishing the novel, I slipped into a kind of self study scholarship on the novel, reading every article and essay and deep dive posted on the r/ThomasPynchon subreddit. It stands (next to Infinite Jest and Book of the New Sun) as my favorite novel of all time. There really is nothing else like it. I was surprised you didn’t talk about the scene between Slothrop and Bianca on the Anubis, which I think contains within it every symbol, theme, and resonate metaphor of the novel in microscopic and intricately layered form. There’s also so much to dive into with the bananas that Pirate is growing. They’re phallic, they grow in “dark, fecund ground” (black being life), they’re symbols of the banana republics, imperial outposts, they’re cooked into everything the way the systems reaches into everything, and on and on. Overall, an incredible time with this video. I wait with baited breath for when you tackle Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake, though I do hold out hope you’ll do Against the Day at some point too.

[@shannonm.townsend1232]

Your comments were insightful

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks for this comment, pufyshoes! Alas, this episode and many others were indeed regretfully left out of the video despite its original length of 5 hours. But you've made a solid case for the worthiness of the episode's inclusion (perhaps a future GR redux video). As for Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, and Against the Day--stick around! :)

[@jamespinkston7946]

Just finished reading this book for the first time. An incredible novel that really pushes a brain to the limits. Can’t wait to re-read in a year or so. Thanks Chris for directing my attention to this book and keep up the great work with your excellent content.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I love that feeling: mind expansion. Glad you got some value out of the video!

[@marioknoll469]

this is my chrismas present. you are an inspiration. since month i'm fighting with against the day, in german 1600 pages. i will try harder to find more time for reading in 2022 beside family, kids and work.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Very, very kind of you to say! It can be challenging finding the time-but it’s there! All my best to you and yours.

[@andrewglasson592]

Just finished re-reading Gravity's Rainbow. Hoping to read Vineland, V and Mason and Dixon some time this year.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Lofty but admirable goals!

[@lalitborabooks]

This will be the first 3+ hour video I’ll watch on KZbin. Thanks!

[@AleksandarBloom]

Try videos by Tim Rogers. As good as video essays/review can be (not counting Leaf of course); even if you don't care about vidya, it' more of sociological probing into the culture surrounding that medium. Pynchonian in many ways.

[@lalitborabooks]

@@AleksandarBloom I will surely. Thanks.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Lalit Bora: Same for me! :)

[@LeafbyLeaf]

H. Bloom: thanks for the recommendation!

[@lalitborabooks]

@@LeafbyLeaf 😁

[@harrison_williams]

The mark of high art is that it exceeds itself with each encounter. I forget who says this, but it’s become my litmus test.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

It sounds like something that could have come from Mortimer Adler, Clifton Fadiman, Harold Bloom, Alberto Manguel, or William H. Gass--in short, from great readers.

[@ice9snowflake187]

I first read this book back around 1973 when it came out. I found it somewhat confusing, but full of fun little stories, episodes, and action [and fascinating characters]- I decided that it was written with "fade-ins and fade-outs" like a movie, instead of being a "linear" story/novel. I don't know if that was an accurate way to think about it, but it helped me get through it and I was kept entertained. I've re-read the book a couple more times, and I get really different increased understanding about what's going on in the book. It's really fun to read, and it's too bad it could never be made into a coherent movie- because so many scenes would look really great on film!

[@Juggler4071]

I have no idea how or why this landed in my recommendations, but I'm pulling my copy off the shelf now. I didn't get through it first time, but I've got to go back now.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Glad to hear the video inspired you! Godspeed!

[@mosebachsbibleblessings9148]

I would love to read Bottoms Dream in a group setting over a year, do you think that would be feasible or doable? I would love to do it in 2023! Tell me your thoughts on this?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I’m been toying with various approaches to a systematic reading of BD. We shall see…

[@jonathanmosebach2921]

I think Reading it ''communally'' and discussing what we are reading, especially with something this big and dense would be a big help. Maybe as a group we could complete the beast and conceptually, communally, comprehend the tome!

[@pranga9]

I’d do that!

[@TractorCountdown]

I love Molly Hite's anecdote about discovering some of GR's most ardent fans being a weigthtlifter, a short order cook, and a pizza delivery man, and that it's not just a book to be taught. I've read Lot 49 a couple of times, many years ago, and had skirted round GR. Your wonderful video has convinced me to read it, so thank you! - Ian

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Awesome! Hope you enjoy the adventure!

[@TractorCountdown]

@@LeafbyLeaf Thank you!

[@ironcurtainsteve]

i read about 3/4 of the book in '73 before being saturated by confusion. reading it felt like being in a mad dream. it seemed so multimedia. it would make a great surreal movie series with musical interludes. i'd like to add that the book seemed like an aftermath of psychedelia.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

It would definitely have to be a musical!

[@Shelley00999]

Thank you so much for this! I am ready for a second attempt at GR. ❤

[@jhamler1]

Guess I gotta try again. I tried and failed to conquer Gravity's Rainbow and Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale and David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas twenty years ago. I gave up because of the sheer density but maybe I'm ready now. Probably not.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

"But maybe I'm ready now. Probably not."

[@philosophy_schilling]

I'm planning to read this as one of my 52 books for 2022. It's in my January book haul. Fantastic review.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Sounds like 2022 is set to be quite a great year for you! Thanks for your kind words. All my best to you!

[@pallasathena1555]

It was when Pynchon mentioned the town I live in that my paranoia really kicked in with GR

[@one_man_community]

The video length is the postal code for Broward County in Florida.....

[@LeafbyLeaf]

The conspiracies continue...

[@BuckyHuxley]

@@LeafbyLeaf Just to add another layer: I first read GR in 1991 in Broward County---mostly at the beach in Pompano. "At the seashore you can do many things that you can't do in town . . ."

[@BuckyHuxley]

I meant to reply to Lambda. Sorry.

[@uniquechannelnames]

In the re-reading merits section, I definitely agree with the general feeling of reading GR. The first read through for me was a real trudge, not in a bad way but it was very dense and as a result I missed a lot of things like subtle changes in narrative perspective or missing jokes or whatever. Pynchon is very sneaky with some things. Like jumping from a real life conversation into remembering a memory from the past in one of their heads. The 1st read was quite a challenge. It still had a great impact on me, but when I finished it the first time I felt kinda like my head had been hammered in lol. But the 2nd read was glorious. It's true you feel much more at ease, you can go with the flow of the constant weirdness/craziness and lock on to a lot more humor and themes. The 2nd read through was heavenly. I'm at page 600 rn in my 3rd read-thru and it's been great. Even though you know most of what's gonna happen (it's hard to remember *everything* that occurs in the book), there's still so much to dig up and look at, angles to dissect, characters to examine. It's an endlessly rich book!

[@catadromous1]

Favorite book of all time, thank you : )

[@Snardbafulator]

Been my favorite postwar American novel since '76. And I've read all of Gaddis, DF Wallace and goodly chunks of Don DeLillo. No other novelist to this day has captured the essence of the 20th-century West more powerfully, IMHO.

[@kieselguhrkid3940]

Tommorow is my birthday and this video couldnt have better timing! Thanks for this 3 hour delight and may the banana gods bless this!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Haha! Happy (Early) Birthday! (Is your name a nod to Vonnegut?)

[@kieselguhrkid3940]

@@LeafbyLeaf Yes it is,I recently reread Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-5" and "Player Piano" so couldn't resist.

[@michael83479]

I saw this video but watched maybe only the first 30 min, then in English our final was to pick whatever book we wanted and do a report on it and I chose GR. Such a good choice this video got me to read such an amazing book

[@LeafbyLeaf]

That's great! So glad you enjoyed its peculiar pleasures!

[@redo88]

Great video. You explain the novel as nobody else. I really enjoyed it. Great novel by the way!!!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks so much! Glad you found it of use!

[@deepfriedliterature8496]

This is some insane dedication and craft. Haven't watched the whole thing as I have not read it, but maybe this will be my light at the end of the tunnel if I pick it up off my shelf.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Yeah, Pynchon is a beast! You'll feel when the time is right to pick the book up. And my video will be here waiting so long as the massive data centers around the world continue buzzing.

[@TheSalMaris]

These companion books weren't available when I first read GR, but I did enjoy the limericks. Not likely to reread this tome as there are just too many other books I must get to the first time through. Thanks for this as always and Happy Holidays.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

My pleasure! No shame in reading others books. Happy holidays to you and yours!

[@20secondcentury22]

Leaf by Leaf nah, read GR, not the other ones. GR is the best

[@LeafbyLeaf]

😆

[@TRUEiMPROrecords]

My copy arrived today, thank you for an inspiring introduction! I was looking for a challenging book to take on as a kind of exercise regimen for my attention span. No pain - no gain :D

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@RockBridgeIsland]

Just now realizing that before movies, the term "blockbuster" referred to a very large bomb.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Kind of makes its use in the movies rather dark.

[@khondokerishrak3561]

Very thorough and insightful analysis.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks so much!

[@superokapi5950]

Regarding what GR is about… I read somewhere of Pynchon commenting that he didn’t know what the hell he was attempting with that book. Kind of an derogatory, off-the-cuff summary of the book. At least that’s how I interpreted it at the time. Does anyone know where that was from? I’m confident that it wasn’t something I dreamt.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

You know, I vaguely remember something about that. Pynchon saying something like: "What kind of drugs was I taking?" Or something similar. I'll go back through my notes.

[@mangul_l]

man, this is simply amazing. thank you so much

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Very kind of you to say. It's my pleasure.

[@mangul_l]

@@LeafbyLeaf Gravity Rainbow’s translation has just been republished in Russia, gonna read it through with your help)

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Excellent!

[@gomezgomez7759]

Ur a madman for this upload. Three hrs. Good job n thnks

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I can't disagree. Thanks and you're welcome!

[@z4ckhyd3]

Bailing from this video at 9:10. The video has not yet said a single thing about the contents of the book.

[@chris-hj2qd]

The John David Ebert Channel has an interesting series of videos on GR.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks!

[@chris-hj2qd]

@@LeafbyLeaf love your stuff. I just want to thank you; I consider my reading newly blooming, and you've introduced me to so many fascinating books and authors.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Very, very kind of you to say. The reading like is such an incredible journey. All my very best to you!

[@johnduda7504]

(Commented before watching) I picked up Gravity’s Rainbow in 2009 to read while at my grandmother’s house for the summer. i’d just finished Infinite Jest and didn’t know anything about it other than DFW was a fan; I thought it would be a good experience to go in blind. Needless to say, I didn’t finish it that summer. Nor did I finish it that fall. It took me 8 months. Including all the foot and end notes, Infinite Jest was twice as long and took me 4 months. It was such an unpleasant experience that at one point I threw Gravity’s Rainbow across the room. Still, I was determined to read first and look up later. When I finally read the last line, exasperated, and started research, it was clear I understood practically nothing I’d read. Maybe, like, 10%. A couple years later I tried again, just out of curiosity, to find out if I was just fundamentally unable to understand it. On the second pass, after having also read a Wikipedia level of plot description and analysis, I found I understood (or felt I understood) more like 90%. It was still a lot of hard work and I ran out of gas somewhere after the taffy/boardwalk/hell sequence. One thing I remember from that summer in 2009, before I’d firmly decided I was going it alone, was looking something up on my iPhone-probably “who is Pavlov?”-using the little-to-no 4G coverage deep in the upper Ohio Valley. I found a blog post addressing, not the plot, but the difficulty. It said something akin to: “It’s like climbing a Costa Rican jungle mountain; it’s painful, difficult, and you wonder if you can even continue. You’re covered, head to toe, in scratches, hacking away at poisonous vines while mosquitos drain you while wondering, ‘Why am I even doing this?’ But then you hit a clearing and you take a step out to you look down on a scene of sublime, existence-validating beauty; something approximating truth.” …or something like that, I just remember the sentiment. I had this experience, early on. I don’t recall which passage it was, but I remember-after 100 pages of line by line rereading everything, not understanding the juxtaposition of any two words, feeling like I was drifting through some dissociative state-coming to a point of clarity. Everything somehow fit together perfectly, like a pile of shell and egg yolk that had slowly slurped back together before snapping back into a perfectly formed egg. Even so, I questioned whether or not the reward warranted the effort. The answer is different for everyone, but I can say for myself that reward and effort can’t be decoupled; without the work, the passage in question is nothing more than pretty prose. The story of how you got there is what makes it important.

[@Nemo37K]

As Gene Wolfe said: A good book is one which is better on re-read. Gravity's Rainbow certainly fits the bill. I'm in the process of watching this lovely analysis. Thank you for indulging me with your largesse. If you want to make GR an even more wild ride, I recommend reading it within Pynchon's larger body of work as the analeptic endpoint to a cycle I call the V-Rabola. Start with V in Post-war America and the world, open in New York to get an overture of Pynchon's style, and the structure of this sequencing of his texts as two chronological tines moving in parallel at a termination point that is at the chronological center. After V move chronologically forward with The Crying of Lot 49 and start the there Californian texts following Crying with Inherent Vice in the 70s and the death of Hippie Culture finally nailed in by Brock Vond and reaganomics in Vineland. Each of these books obliquely or explicitly reference each other, and feature the classic noir structure married to Pynchon's paranoid uncertainties that give the appearance of a meta-fictional conspiracy. Thurn and Taxis, The Golden Fang, and Brock Vond all mirroring each other, suggesting a greater conspiracy. End the first Tine by circling back to New York in the chronological extremity of 9/11 discourse with Bleeding Edge, in which Gabriel Ice and Political machinations become the conspiratorial focal point, no longer vagaries at the edge of consciousness or drug induced altered-consiousness. the spine of a conspiracy forms in your head, which you can choose to read into further as you find connections between Maxine Tarnow and Oedipa Maas, Kurt Mondaugen and Pig Bodine,. Once you finish Bleeding Edge, travel back to the chronological start point of Pynchon's writing with Mason & Dixon on your own metpahorical rocket, tracing a parabolic arc to the beginning and midpoints of the V structure. , with the birth of America, and entrance into Pynchon's encyclopedic novels. Watch as the Conspiracy you have thus far built in your head unravel spool by spool as our heroes Mason & Dixon divide the North and South and presage America's darknes to come, while enjoying the flights of fancy including Giant Cheese Wheels, a Robotic Goose, and the invention of Pizza. Then, onto Against the Day in which WW1's milieu and Pynchon's love of pulp fray your conspiracy even further. Characters from his entire oeuver historical and invented pop in and out of the anarchist fever dream fo vectors, dark, light, and the descent into ultimate darkness. And finally, terminate and return to the center with Gravity's rainbow in which teh conspiracy that might be present becomes the Ur-Cosnpiracy of Tyrone Slothrop. the conspiracy of the counterforce referred to simply as "They" no one, and everyone. A total destruction of narrative reality. A total decohoerence as death in teh shape of a V-2 rocket destroys everything. Achieve apotheosis as a metafictional Pynchon character. Lose your mind. End before the beginning of the cycle that starts in the post-war of V. And now everybody--

[@LeafbyLeaf]

This is an extraordinary and well-wrought recommendation! Thanks so much for sharing! Happy New Year!

[@martingarcia3360]

You promised me Pynchon on Monday and by God you delivered! I really want to watch this video but I feel like I must read GR (second time) first. When you released your review on Infinite Jest I did the same. I have only read GR once and I feel like most everything went over my head but I still had an amazing time. Don’t worry I liked and favorited the video! This Christmas I bought myself “You Bright and Risen Angels” because of your recommendations. You have opened many beautiful, crazy, mind bending doors for me and you have my eternal gratitude. Would you recommend I watch this anyway? With the way GR is I can see how this video could only enhance my second reading experience. Thank you for everything!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I live to give, my friend! Thanks for the kind words. As I share in my opening assertions, I don’t think GR can be spoiled or diminished no matter what I could say the the video. Still, it’s up to you, of course. All my very best to you!