For anyone who gets frustrated with the book:
http://www.rinkworks.com/bookaminute/b/pynchon.rainbow.shtml
Mind you, I see value in reading this book (at the moment, at least). No disrespect is intended...it was just funny.
Going nuts?
By potted plant - Posted on 27 January 2007 - 5:32pm.
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I loved this, thanks for finding that :)
It seems that this is a book that is either regarded as brilliant or ridiculously hard to read and excessively cryptic. According to Wikipedia the Pulitzer Price panel called GR "unreadable", "turgid", "overwritten", and "obscene". Sometimes I have to agree with them (especially when I'm reading) but when I have time to digest I tend to recognize the brilliance more. We're not the only ones struggling through, I guess....
I think one has to have a pretty good wealth of intelligence to truly understand this book. I know I haven't, but I really did appreciate the double integral section in the early 300's. Having just taken another calculus class, I could truly appreciate this expert tidbit and I thought it really added another layer to the reading! It was interesting, informative, and a nice change in pace. I know this sounds weird, but I think I am starting to really enjoy his sophisticated, scientific passages.
Yeah, I imagine that very few, if any, people can truly understand ALL of what Pynchon refers to. When you actually understand the obscure references, the reading can be pretty rewarding. I wish that I had the time or patience to look everything up, but that's one of the disadvantages of such a long book-- it seems like you end up either a) getting a pretty good idea of what is generally going on or b) spend all of your time trying to get a firmer grasp on the material, resulting in a loss of patience/interest/enjoyment. And it seems like this is the type of book you'd (or I'd, anyway) like to read twice, but again...its big.