How do I read this?

How do I read this?
>inb4 you don't

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you don't

You don’t get to say this

with your eye

one word at a time bro even nignogs can do it

left to right bro this ain't your mangos

Right, but I assume it's very convoluted and references a lot of things I know nothing about. How do I figure out what's going on? I'm looking for a difficult book that will keep me busy for a while, so I don't mind if it takes long.

get the commentary by john mignon

There’s a chapter by chapter guide that outlines what happens in each scene of the book. That should be more than enough to help you out when you need it.

If you're not just doing this for the memes, the general rule of thumb is to just go with it. You might realize you don't know what the fuck just happened for the past hundred pages, and that's fine, keep going. You can digest the nuances and 'deeper' meanings on a second read if you really want, but the first read should be natural. I've heard it described as feeling like a dream, and I've always liked that comparison

I hate to be that person but I think the book is rather straightforward but I'll try to explain it to make it even more clear. In the first major section of the book the third person POV keeps changing, from a scene of people evacuating to some u.s army guys waking up in England (the first major section of the book takes place in England). It goes from person to person and some of them are connected and some aren't. A LOT of names are mentioned--this is the only part of reading Pynchon that isn't straight forward. Consider writing them down on a piece of paper... their names and what page thy first appear and a very short description of the character so you don't have to flip back to remember what minute details sets them apart (mr. john doe page xx plays saxophone in pub). So the first section of the book keeps jumping around like a bunch of vignettes. When you get to part two a narrative really starts to pick up with the main character. Part three continues the adventures of the main character and also becomes sidetracked at times to mention what other characters are doing. Then the last part of the book is from what I can remember is more like the first part (in other words a lot less plot-driven and more random). I hope this helps.

I'm almost on part 4 and so far this guy's post is spot on, OP

thank you
I want to elaborate more on my post. You could totally not write down the names of people and then not remember who they are when the re-appear but this would be a bit like skim reading. For a book this big you might as well read it once and correctly. I would have my paper with the characters names tucked in the pages of the book in a different spot than my bookmark though you can use the page as your bookmark too. Don't lose that paper! You'll have to write it all over again. Yes, you could write it on your phone or something but to me it just seems easier to have a paper. Oh college-ruled line paper should work good. I had to write more than one name per row though to fit all the names I think. Write small!

I just want to say that I didn't think it was worth the hype/effort but it was still fine. I give GR a 3/5 or a 6/10. Hopefully you'll like it more than I did.

>I assume
You haven't even started? Why the fuck are you even reading this book? Because the internet told you to?

Think for yourself you fucking drone.

Thanks for the insight user. I'll keep the paper thing in mind.

>Why the fuck are you even reading this book? Because the internet told you to?
What's wrong with reading things based on people's recommendations? You might as well live in a fucking bubble otherwise.

From right to left you fucking retard. The incomprehensibility thing is a meme. It's silly and surreal but it's much more coherent than something like Finnegans Wake or Naked Lunch.

naked lanch was incomprehensible on purpose because of the cut up technique, gr IS hard to follow if you've never read anything but airport fiction before, speaking from experience

GR is easy to understand you just need to've read it first

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You look at the page, parse the letter groupings in to words, then sequentially parse the words and punctuation into clauses. At this point you should be comprehending what is on the page.

Slowly

It's not at all straightforward. It's a jarring, dense and at times convoluted book. You will be dumped into scenes much like during a movie, but with much less assistance in figuring things out.

Part one isn't random like four at all, it's just a lot of scene setting.

>In the first major section of the book the third person POV keeps changing, from a scene of people evacuating to some u.s army guys waking up in England
uh-oh misread. POV never changes, the evacuation is Pirate's dream

I didn't have any problems keeping track of the characters. I think the wacky names helped.

Thank you Sony.

i read this when i was 16 OP

lol that makes sense haha aren't i dumb, thanks tho

good thing he didn't write plain ones then

Spot on. I wish more people would do this, especially with Ulysses.