bstempleton (02/25/83)
This is for a friend who is not on the net: Does anybody know where Pynchon is these days? I think Gravity's Rainbow is one of the very few examples of **true** science fiction in that he uses scientific metaphor (entropy, systems theory) in formulating this work. The same is true of his other works, notably Entropy and The Crying of Lot 49. The reason his stories "peter out" is that the actual form and content of his works reflect his concerns in the scientific and the fantastic. See Tony Tanner's book "Thomas Pynchon" among others for more on this. Jamie Roberts University of Waterloo. reply to bstempleton@watmath.uucp
reiher@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA (08/30/84)
From: Peter Reiher <reiher@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA>
Needless to say, I do not agree with Mr. Duntemann's and Mr. Mclure's
appraisal of "Gravity's Rainbow". I should have mentioned earlier that
"Gravity's Rainbow" is not the sort of book everyone will like. But, if
you do like it, you'll probably *really* like it. Thus, for those with
any interest, I suggest borrowing a copy and reading the first fifty or
one hundred pages. If you don't like it by this point, quit, as the
beginning of the book is representative of the rest. (On one important
point Duntemann is definitely right. "Gravity's Rainbow" is very long,
over 800 pages of small type in my edition. If you dislike long books,
probably you shouldn't bother with it.) Might further discussion of
the literary merits of this book be better carried out in private mail
or net.books?
Peter Reiher
reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher