4 ms·

> If Pynchon apparently claimed to have written much of GR while taking psychedelics, well, it doesn’t show. What?! GR is very clearly an acid inspired book.

> If Pynchon apparently claimed to have written much of GR while taking psychedelics, well, it doesn’t show. What?! GR is very clearly an acid inspired book. Lots of wild ideas and very visual scenes, but I found it tedious to read.

viscanti 4y ago
There are some hilarious and memorable scenes that make it a classic for me. Things like the Banana Breakfast were laugh out loud moments for me. As for being influenced by psychedelics, it seems plausible. Lots of scenes are portrayed in a way where you can't distinguish what is reality and what is a dream/hallucination/whatever else it might be that Pynchon has in mind. The shifting perspectives across characters within a scene and the continuous struggle to figure out what's happening, what's really happening, and what's a dream can make for a challenging read. Overall I found it an enjoyable read but I can understand it's not for everyone (but that's Pynchon in general - you either love him or his books are an unpleasant slog).
cossatot 4y ago
I tried re-reading Sometimes a Great Notion by Kesey when I moved to Oregon a few years ago. I had read it 20 years ago and loved it, at a time when I plowed through fiction. This time, though, the passages that were clearly written when the acid kicked in were so terrible that I had to move on. Scenes from the dog's perspective (that were also clearly unreasonable, such as the dog associating the feeling of a snake bite with fire, which most dogs have never felt, vs. getting cut or some other feeling that dogs have actually experienced), etc. Cool story, with topical themes in the 2020s, but... we have the internet, we aren't so bored around the house that the opportunity cost to reading this shit is low enough to make it worth it.
notahacker 4y ago
And the only thing that might have influenced it more than actual drugs were the drug-infused subcultures of the sixties and early seventies. It's a book nominally about WWII and its immediate aftermath which devotes more time to a subplot where one of the characters going on a road trip to look for a big bag of weed for the cool Germans he's been hanging out with than the resolution of the war...

viscanti 4y ago

There are some hilarious and memorable scenes that make it a classic for me. Things like the Banana Breakfast were laugh out loud moments for me. As for being influenced by psychedelics, it seems plausible. Lots of scenes are portrayed in a way where you can't distinguish what is reality and what is a dream/hallucination/whatever else it might be that Pynchon has in mind. The shifting perspectives across characters within a scene and the continuous struggle to figure out what's happening, what's really happening, and what's a dream can make for a challenging read. Overall I found it an enjoyable read but I can understand it's not for everyone (but that's Pynchon in general - you either love him or his books are an unpleasant slog).

cossatot 4y ago

I tried re-reading Sometimes a Great Notion by Kesey when I moved to Oregon a few years ago. I had read it 20 years ago and loved it, at a time when I plowed through fiction. This time, though, the passages that were clearly written when the acid kicked in were so terrible that I had to move on. Scenes from the dog's perspective (that were also clearly unreasonable, such as the dog associating the feeling of a snake bite with fire, which most dogs have never felt, vs. getting cut or some other feeling that dogs have actually experienced), etc. Cool story, with topical themes in the 2020s, but... we have the internet, we aren't so bored around the house that the opportunity cost to reading this shit is low enough to make it worth it.

notahacker 4y ago

And the only thing that might have influenced it more than actual drugs were the drug-infused subcultures of the sixties and early seventies. It's a book nominally about WWII and its immediate aftermath which devotes more time to a subplot where one of the characters going on a road trip to look for a big bag of weed for the cool Germans he's been hanging out with than the resolution of the war...