Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Website Wednesday: Sort Of
This is going to be a quick posting since I'm really wiped out. This weekend was newsletter prep time and our September issue is our annual list of lists: clubs, committees, municipal contacts, utility contacts, etc. - you get the picture. Making it more stressful was the fact that my staff had other commitments: Paris for one; babysitting for the other. They helped as they could but with the newsletter and two fliers to prep, I was frazzled.
And then...... During a typical reading time with the kids, I picked up Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. I've owned this book for some time. I think I picked it up at a Border's "hurt" sale and it's been eying me for a few years now but I've resisted the urge to pick it up. But I must have been desperate this afternoon and I started reading. Wow!
Gravity's Rainbow has been listed by Penguin Books as one of the best books of the 20th century. I agree. This book is what Ulysses by Joyce should have been for me but wasn't. This book is how literature should be written. I guess you can tell this book has just blown me away.
Now, I've read great literature all my life and I'm particularly addicted to different translations of Homer's two epics. and Russian novels. I'm not a fan of the Oprah lit and that's probably the reason this fairly modern, (1973), 776-page post-modernistic tome has sat unread and unloved on my shelves. I was mistaken, this is not Oprah lit in "feel good, poignant message, easy reading" glory; the only comparison to her choices is that it's a fairly modern book.
It's not an easy read. (It has an active cult following with websites which identify the masses of characters and the situations in which they find themselves.) Originally, I read 11 pages with minimal comprehension except for the fact that I knew I was reading something great. So I plowed back over those pages, even read some sections aloud, and now I'm so hooked I think my days of light reading (and those days were always pretty sparse) are gone for good.
Now, I'm only on page 25 and I can't imagine that Pynchon can keep up this pace through 700 pages but I'm so willing to plow through. I think I have a masterpiece here.
Note: Amazon sells the book. Right after the book listing are two entries for "companions" to the book. However, the Internet is rich with Gravity's Rainbow analysis and that's for free.
Enjoy.
This is going to be a quick posting since I'm really wiped out. This weekend was newsletter prep time and our September issue is our annual list of lists: clubs, committees, municipal contacts, utility contacts, etc. - you get the picture. Making it more stressful was the fact that my staff had other commitments: Paris for one; babysitting for the other. They helped as they could but with the newsletter and two fliers to prep, I was frazzled.
And then...... During a typical reading time with the kids, I picked up Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. I've owned this book for some time. I think I picked it up at a Border's "hurt" sale and it's been eying me for a few years now but I've resisted the urge to pick it up. But I must have been desperate this afternoon and I started reading. Wow!
Gravity's Rainbow has been listed by Penguin Books as one of the best books of the 20th century. I agree. This book is what Ulysses by Joyce should have been for me but wasn't. This book is how literature should be written. I guess you can tell this book has just blown me away.
Now, I've read great literature all my life and I'm particularly addicted to different translations of Homer's two epics. and Russian novels. I'm not a fan of the Oprah lit and that's probably the reason this fairly modern, (1973), 776-page post-modernistic tome has sat unread and unloved on my shelves. I was mistaken, this is not Oprah lit in "feel good, poignant message, easy reading" glory; the only comparison to her choices is that it's a fairly modern book.
It's not an easy read. (It has an active cult following with websites which identify the masses of characters and the situations in which they find themselves.) Originally, I read 11 pages with minimal comprehension except for the fact that I knew I was reading something great. So I plowed back over those pages, even read some sections aloud, and now I'm so hooked I think my days of light reading (and those days were always pretty sparse) are gone for good.
Now, I'm only on page 25 and I can't imagine that Pynchon can keep up this pace through 700 pages but I'm so willing to plow through. I think I have a masterpiece here.
Note: Amazon sells the book. Right after the book listing are two entries for "companions" to the book. However, the Internet is rich with Gravity's Rainbow analysis and that's for free.
Enjoy.
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