Just finished it. Anybody care to talk about it? As far as the literal events of the book I think I have it mostly figured out, but obviously a lot of what you're supposed to be taking away from it is abstract.
Themes I'm interested in are The Zone, how it sort of represents freedom and chaos, the sexuality of the bomb and what point he's trying to make, the way in which many of the characters derived meaning from the war, like how Slothrop stopped getting erections when the bombs stopped falling, and how Pirate Prentice stopped being able to see others' fantasies when the war ended. Just throwing out fodder for discussion really.
Also, what to read next? I have a plan to read Confederacy of Dunces as a cool down, then Blood Meridian, White Noise, and Lolita, but after some lighter workloads I want to read War and Peace and maybe even some Joyce. How would GR compare in terms of challenge to W&P? Or to Finnegan's Wake or Ulysses?
stop reading memes you terrible fucking pseud
>he literally fell for the meme
>>8020560
Well give me some recs then. Does it make more sense to read some of the most celebrated works that people constantly talk about, or just pick books at random? I'll admit I'm not super well read, but everybody has to start somewhere. I figure the classics are probably the most sensible places to start.
>4 replies
>3 posters
gee i guess what's going on here
>>8020584
Don't worry, they're retards who think that anything popular on /lit/ is bad. Worse than hipsters, really. I think they also fail to realise that Pynchon and all of the other authors they dismiss as "memes" are actually loved and acclaimed and popular outside of /lit/, because they (the retards) only ever go on /lit/.
I don't have much to say to your questions since it's been so long since I read GR, but for where to go next: W&P isn't difficult, just long, with a lot of names to remember. Ulysses is slightly harder than GR, and FW is on another level entirely; I wouldn't read it until reading all of Joyce's other prose works. The rest of the list is good, although I'd maybe mix up the modern/postmodern stuff with some older classics. Maybe read seem shorter Russian works before W&P. And add Mason & Dixon to the list somewhere.
>>8020621
>Maybe read seem shorter Russian works
Like, say, Crime and Punishment? Or what else would you recommend?
>>8020627
me: knock knock
you: who's there?
me: gogol
you: gogol who?
me: gogol back to /r/books
>>8020627
Oops, meant to say "some". Turgenev comes to mind. Maybe try Fathers and Sons or A Sportsman's Sketches.
>>8020621
>Ulysses is slightly harder than GR
really? I think it's the complete opposite.
>>8020523
OP, I don't get why you would read such a complex work before reading something like Dostoyevsky.
Dostoyevsky is basically the best author ever, so just read C&P, Notes, TBK and the Idiot.
They are easy (especially after GR) and delightful.
>>8020674
Idk, I don't mind the challenge and I knew it was considered important by a lot of people. I had read IJ which was relatively easy and I thought very enjoyable, and I've read lots and lots of the sort of entertainment-but-not-literature stuff, but I sort of lost interest at some point in high-school when they sort of force you to read stuff you didn't choose at a pace you can't just set yourself. Now that I'm a bit older I want to get back into reading, but I need something with more substance than, you know, John Grisham or Michael Crichton.
>>8020703
okay, then go start on Dostoyevsky.
according to your preferences you will like it a lot more than War & Peace anyway.
Also, reading modernist fiction (you mentioned Joyce) after realist novels is a lot more interesting than jumping in after Pynchon.
>>8020720
ty anon
>>8020607
Ignore >>8020588 he's new. Summer in the United States is literally starting this week.
Ignore the people calling Infinite Rainbow a meme. I actually discovered that book through a professor in college who loved it, I came and stuck around /lit/ because at the time they were giving it alot of positive attention, unlike most literature boards I go to that want to discuss genre fiction. It is a great book, and enduring. Also, to answer your question: War and Peace is easy to read, it's just long. I mean that in the sense that it has absolutely no challenge to it. It's a really long, comfy book, but well worth it. I'd even say it's easier than Lolita (though I haven't read Lolita since highschool) or Blood Meridian.
>Or to Finnegan's Wake or Ulysses?
It seems comparing the difficulty of Ulysses and GR is hotly debated around here. I found GR to be one of the easiest "challenging" books I've ever read. Ulysses was hard. Maybe because I'm American and I could make sense of GR very easily. I didn't finish Ulysses to be honest. And Finnegans Wake might be the hardest book I've ever even bothered with but from what I read I enjoyed it 1000x more than Ulysses but the effort was just a little overbearing.
