Secondary Text: Ecce Homo

I've started reading secondary texts.  My first text is Ecce Homo.  I have really enjoyed this text so far, but at times have found it a bit haunting.  Even the titles are a bit curious, they all seem to employ a great sense of ego, and narcissism.  Nietzsche wrote this text only weeks before he descended into madness, and that madness is clear from reading it.  I do see a lot of value in reading this though and how it will supplement my reading of Gravity's Rainbow well, but only time shall tell.

"My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be other than it is, not in the future, not in the past, not in all eternity" (Nietzsche, 2004, 37).

Supplemental Reading

Up next, I plan to read

Ecce Homo by Nietzche
The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of the Zero by Robert Kaplan
The White Goddess by Robert Graves

Just When You Think You're Done

I was convinced I was done with this whole GR thing since well I have an affective filter built up to it for a little bit, but then the other day I was at the amazing used bookstore in San Jose and found a book on the history of the ZERO.  Fantastic!!!! and so I will begin again.

351 Days Later

So I started reading this novel 351 days ago, and tonight at 8:11 pm, I finally finished it.  I can stay that this reading experience has been one of the most involved and difficult reading experiences of my life, but that I am glad I made it through all 776 pages of this text.  And while I can't say that I understand every single part of this book, well I did feel I have gained something even if my thoughts are still formulating.  While reading this book as many of you know I have been in graduate school for my credential and Master's degree.  I originally started this blog as a way to record my own struggle to develop comprehension, and I definitely feel having to write about this book, even in sparse distant spurts along the way has helped some.  I will continue to write about this text in this blog as I look back and passages and work to make some meaning of this text.  To all of those people out there still struggling to finish, well all I can say is that it is worth it, because the truly beautiful passages Pynchon is able to create throughout the novel are worth the confusion.

The Eternal Return

So the worst semester of grad school is finally over and I can return to this.  I have been really trying as I finish the last 100 pages this month to really think thematically what might I draw out of this post-modern novel.  It has definitely been a struggle along the way to piece the text together.  But as I've been compiling a note book with my annotations and my book notes in one place to look for themes I have realized there is so much play with temporality in the text, that it is meant to be utterly dis concerning and very hard to pin point time, history, characters through the multiplicity of narratives.  I think that this is done to really allow for a plurality of story lines, characters and ideas to flourish.  There is so much play between type of text, i.e plays, poems, and prose, that I believe this also helps to play with this concept.  I have really been enjoying the end of the text so far and I am slowly working towards actually writing what one might be able to consider an academic paper soon, but it is still slow going and a struggle.

Myth and Monsters

As I read the text, I am constantly struck by the parallels I see to Greek and Roman mythology especially through Pynchon's use of creatures and monsters within the text.  I am rather embarrassed to admit this, but classics is by far the area of literature I lack the most prowess in and I will need to do a bit more re-reading and research before I can draw any distinct connections.  I won't have time to read "The White Goddess" by Robert Graves until December, but I hope to read this book and see how it connects.  The wonderful Jack told me that Pynchon was reading it when he wrote "Gravity's Rainbow."  So I'll have to go for now, but I will definitely pick up this topic later.

I'm Back and Hopeful

Sorry to my dear two subscribers who follow this blog, I have unfortunately been too long absent from posting.  But graduate school, and my master's project on the acculturation of new immigrants and the development of citizenship in Title I schools has taken over my life. But much to my joy, I finally have a week off to continue my journey and writings about Gravity's Rainbow, and although I may have been absent all these months, Gravity's Rainbow has never left my heart or the back of my consciousness.  New posts soon!

~ G