Gravity's Rainbow
by Thomas Pynchon · first published 1973
32% recommend56% neutral11% critical
Why HN recommends it
Dense, encyclopedic postmodern novel about paranoia, technology and the forces of history, with vivid imagery and bawdy slapstick humor. Suits readers who want a demanding, rewarding long read.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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What Hacker News says
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The British worried about the accuracy of these aerial drones. Were they falling haphazardly over the city, or were they hitting their intended targets? This is the seed of Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel Gravity's Rainbow -- a masterful, if difficult, novel about (among other things) paranoia.
on “What does randomness look like? (2012)” ↗Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. I feel like it left me subtly but permanently changed, as if seeing through new differently tinted lenses.
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗Gravity's Rainbow
on “Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?” ↗Pynchon writes two distinct types of novels. V., Gravity's Rainbow, Mason & Dixon, and Against the Day are is big (literally) complexly plotted novels that frequently involve hundreds of characters and huge forces of history. They are my favorites, but they require…
on “From Thomas Pynchon, a novel of the dot-com era and the end of history” ↗…Jeffery Ford - Surrealist novellas best described as about the protagonist living and achieving agency within the constructs, dreams, and nightmares of a "Great Man's" mind. Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson. Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon. Dhalgren - Samuel L. "Chip" Delany.
on “Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?” ↗…I feel like they’re all pretty well known, but maybe they’re not actually read. Like, known bc people have heard the name, but are not read as much anymore. * Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson * Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon * Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy Actually unknown (but super good) domestic: * Stuff by Larry McMurtry (only famous for lonesome dove)
on “Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?” ↗Zen mind beginner’s mind: Highly recommended to anyone interested in meditation. Helped me understand the non-goal aspect of the practice. Gravity’s rainbow: Not the easiest read but immensely rewarding. For better or worse some of Pynchon’s vivid descriptions are burned into my soul. Crime and punishment: I’m not into literature but this one is worth it.…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗Gravity's Rainbow (Pynchon) The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (Rilke) The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991 (Hobsbawm) Bhagavad Gita Upanishads Crimes Against Logic: Exposing the Bogus Arguments…
on “Ask HN: Good books?” ↗…being to read even one tenth of the great, all-time classic books. There just isn't enough time. My advice would be to read at least a few books that have reputations for being difficult. War and Peace, Gravity's Rainbow, In Search of Lost Time, Ulysses, etc. (The reason I'm only listing near-undisputed classics here is because these books are difficult, and in some cases very, very long [looking at you, Proust], and…
on “Ask HN: What do you read?” ↗…well; while we might think that anyone can become an expert in anything the opportunity cost and the amount of information immediately relevant to our fields isolates us from being broad renaissance men. Gravity's Rainbow was more than a pleasure. I wish Pynchon had written more of these short critical lens essays.
on “Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite? (1984)” ↗…reading the second one because I didn’t have the time to do so at the time. I remember it as long but easy reading however. War and Peace definitely is entertaining. > I somehow got through Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow but don't recommend anyone do that, I was just too stubborn to let it get the better of me Strangely I think everyone should do that. It’s an insanely fun book once you have accepted you are not supposed…
on “8-Part Film Adaptation of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina Is Free Online” ↗If you want to like Pynchon but are daunted or put off by Gravity's Rainbow, start with Bleeding Edge (2013)
on “Read “Gravity’s Rainbow” fifty years later” ↗also many shades of this in the Pynchon classic Gravity's Rainbow
on “Jack Parsons and the Occult Roots of JPL” ↗Ulysses by James Joyce Code Complete by Steve McConnell Walden by Henry David Thoreau Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan Murphy by Samuel Beckett Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
on “Articles, Ideas, Books and/or Concepts that have changed your life” ↗Some authors and a rec or two for each. DFW - Infinite Jest Pynchon - Really anything, but in particular Against the Day, V, and Gravity's Rainbow. Rushdie - Shame and Satanic Verses, a lot of good other ones. Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon Gaddis - JR, hence my name. Heller - Catch-22
on “Ask HN: What are some good books?” ↗