Gravity’s Rainbow: Grin and Bear it
by kenny.wong ~ October 13th, 2010First off, I don’t want to make it sound like this is an easy text to read. It isn’t.
That being said, I’ve read other “stream of consciousness” prose, Faulkner comes to mind (As I Lay Dying), and a tip I have, other than being frustrated, is this:
Sit back and enjoy. Don’t read too much into what is going on where and by whom. There is robust imagery and subtext being told within the lines. If you gloss over what the hell is going on, you’re going to miss out on what is being said. Try and find themes or images being repeated, subtext over context.
Also, on a very different approach, look at the text in a humanistic way. Since a part (or majority) of the text revolves around stream of consciousness, imagine that the narrator, whoever it might be at the time, is thinking out loud. Now try to imagine yourself thinking (not out loud, just thinking). Do you actively filter what you’re thinking about? Or does your mind just race off into different ideas, thoughts, images, words, etc.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but at times, if I’m really being active about regarding what I think about at times, I am completely, off the wall, insane. Synesthesia comes to mind. Well, a lot comes to mind, but I’m filtering what I’m thinking in this post.
I think that is a part of what Pynchon is trying to do, create that “experience”, take us out of the spectator (objective) viewpoint, and put us directly into the mind, animate or inanimate, of war.
As far as what I got out of As I Lay Dying, I can honestly say it is something far different from the actual story being presented. Perhaps Gravity’s Rainbow is just as vague, and probably not a “Truth” about some ideal, with a capital T. Maybe just truths, a lot of different little truths to be said.