this is my first time really tackling one of these long, sprawling, post modern tomes (other than my failed attempt at reading infinite jest -- i clocked out at the 8 page filmography footnote, sorry IJ bros) and man, what a trip! needless to say, ive never read anything quite like gravity's rainbow; this novel is a towering achievement and has definitely landed a spot among my favorites, even despite the occasional frustration i had reading it.

im not sure where to start with a book like this. what perhaps surprised me the most about the novel was its sense of humor. i guess this book's sheer funniness and its constant teetering on looney tunes logic gets lost in all the talk about it being like, the hardest book you'll ever read -- and while that certainly is true, dont get me wrong, i wish more spotlight was cast on just how fun the book is once you get into its rhythm. i mean this thing has pie throwing slapstick in a hot air balloon, a guy getting sucked into a toilet, a pavlovian scientist getting his foot stuck in a toilet, a toilet with an electric frog that'll shock you if you piss on it, a toilet ship (lots of toilets), i mean i could go on! i feel like this book belongs with moby dick in the category of books who's reputation online often totally misrepresent just how humorous and enjoyable it can be, even at its most tangential. of course, its not all fart and dick jokes, as the book is dealing with a plethora of incredibly high brow concepts that are as impressive in depth as they are in scope. what i was most intrigued by was how profoundly anti capitalist this text is -- there's the obvious links to the military industrial complex and the war being a "celebration of markets" but it also diverges into more abstract concepts, such as the ever looming presence of death encouraging people to play more into the capitalist system, buying what they can and pursuing materialistic pleasures in order to distract themselves from the ever present pull of gravity. the elites, or "They", use death to their advantage -- since there is no cycle of recurrence or rebirth, then there's no harm in selfishly taking and extracting from and exploiting everything in your path until zero is reached, right? that's why the immortal lightbulb, byron, threatens phoebus' order so much -- if a cog can escape its planned obsolescence, it suddenly lands in a place that is both directly outside threatening to the system, and They certainly cant have that.