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Anyone else want to share their experiences with this beauty of a book? Ill give you my story
Yeah, I actually read the whole thing because I had to. I was entering a prestigious PhD program and focusing on Pynchon because I loved TCoL49, V, and M&D. To my shame, though, I'd never read Rainbow. I'd never even tried, as hard as that was to admit. It was this huge blind spot and area of vulnerability for me. Whenever it'd come up with my colleagues I'd just smile and nod, smile and nod, hoping they wouldn't ask me anything specific about it. "The musicality of it," somebody would say, and I'd say, "Oh God, yes, it's like Bach." Finally, though, I had to dive into it, and let me tell you it was tough going. Fowler's guide helped a lot. Reading it out loud helped. I listened to other people read it, read online commentaries. Eventually it started to make some sort of sense. It was like I was learning to read for the first time again, and in a way this was enjoyable. I got better at reading the book. Soon I was reading entire paragraphs without trouble, getting the puns, laughing at the dick jokes. I could sort of follow the story, it was like a blurry picture resolving into clarity, or like I was drunk and I was sobering up, I could actually understand it. As I became more and more adept at reading GR, I began putting myself to the test, initiating conversations with my colleagues about it, but specific passages this time, specific parts of the book. You can probably guess what happened. After a number of these conversations it became blindingly obvious that I understood the book a lot better than they did, they who I thought were the experts. It eventually became sort of embarrassing for them and I stopped trying to talk about it. And at the end of the day I would pack my things, catch the bus home, and settle into my apartment to read the GR. It had surpassed all of Pynchon's other works in my estimation. M&D, the book months earlier I would've named as my favorite of all time, the best book ever written, was now #2 to Rainbow. So majestic, so ambitious, so wide-ranging, erudite, glorious, incredible was it that I couldn't believe that it was the work of one man. Best of all, the heart of it isn't complicated at all. What did I get from GR, what are its lessons? First of all, be yourself. Second of all, put one foot in front of the other. And lastly, just do it for crying out loud, time's a wastin'!
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hah! anyone else!?
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>>8007720
I cant' even read the book's title because of the low contrast.
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>>8007720
i really like that cover
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>>8007856
its written in white too but yeah they could have planned it out better
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How about talking about some specific passages, then?
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>>8007720
C o v e r 美学 / / /
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Yeah, I actually read the whole thing because I had to. I was entering a prestigious PhD program and focusing on Toole because I loved The Neon Bible. To my shame, though, I'd never read Confederacy. I'd never even tried, as hard as that was to admit. It was this huge blind spot and area of vulnerability for me. Whenever it'd come up with my colleagues I'd just smile and nod, smile and nod, hoping they wouldn't ask me anything specific about it. "The musicality of it," somebody would say, and I'd say, "Oh God, yes, it's like Bach." Finally, though, I had to dive into it, and let me tell you it was tough going. Louisiana State's guide helped a lot. Reading it out loud helped. I listened to other people read it, read online commentaries. Eventually it started to make some sort of sense. It was like I was learning to read for the first time again, and in a way this was enjoyable. I got better at reading the book. Soon I was reading entire paragraphs without trouble, getting the puns, laughing at the valve jokes. I could sort of follow the story, it was like a blurry picture resolving into clarity, or like I was drunk and I was sobering up, I could actually understand it. As I became more and more adept at reading Confederacy, I began putting myself to the test, initiating conversations with my colleagues about it, but specific passages this time, specific parts of the book. You can probably guess what happened. After a number of these conversations it became blindingly obvious that I understood the book a lot better than they did, they who I thought were the experts. It eventually became sort of embarrassing for them and I stopped trying to talk about it. And at the end of the day I would pack my things, catch the bus home, and settle into my apartment to read about Ignatius. It had surpassed all of Toole's other works in my estimation. The Neon Bible, the book months earlier I would've named as my favorite of all time, the best book ever written, was now #2 to Confederacy. So majestic, so ambitious, so wide-ranging, erudite, glorious, incredible was it that I couldn't believe that it was the work of one man. Best of all, the heart of it isn't complicated at all. What did I get from Ignatius, what are his lessons? First of all, be yourself. Second of all, put one foot in front of the other. And lastly, just do it for crying out loud, time's a wastin'!
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