Taste the 'Rainbow'

It's a bird!  It's a plane!  Fuck, it's a V2 rocket!

Gravity’s Rainbow, Pynchon’s opus and my determined literary slog for about the last four months, finally completed last week.

For those that are unfamiliar, here is a handy equation:

Gravity’s Rainbow =

Catch-22(Dhalgren x Ulysses)^hardcore pornography
William S. Burroughs + Kafka

It is nearly 900 pages. There are over 400 named characters, many of whom appear only once, while others might be introduced early and then left for hundreds of pages, only to become integral near the close. Dozens of distinct voices providing narration. Whiplash-inducing tonality changes; from technical engineering or mathematical discussion, to philosophical digressions, to mythology/analogy, to horror, to comedy, to some truly hardcore, straight-up porn, and back again.  It encompasses an enormous pile of themes- free will vs destiny (celestial/divine and man-made), Pavlovian conditioning (sexually murderous octopi!), science and the limits of human control, sacrifice, psychology, extinction, sexuality and transgression, paranoia, insanity and self, obsession, mythical pig-heroes, immortal light-bulbs, kazoos...

The narrative of the main character, such as it was, ended over 100 pages before the novel did. Those last 100 pages provide total disintegration of plot, character, structure, hell, reality and the English language (I will grant you that these two things are not unrelated- those last 100 pages reflect the complete dissolution of that main character, among other things). The climactic action to which the main plotline was building is presumed to occur beyond the final page. Or not.

I will admit that this was at times an infuriating slog. However, however. Frequently you emerge from an eye-crossing passage of stream-of-consciousness or technical digression into episodes of pure brilliance. Laugh-out-loud screwball comedies, thrilling action pieces, beautiful instances of poignancy, bizarre wtf essays that still manage to be enthralling…and yes, some of those sex scenes were pretty damn titillating. 

I can’t even imagine what its editors thought when they read this thing- where even to begin? The consensus is that 99% of the original manuscript ended up published. Reviews were decidedly mixed. The Pullitzer fiction committee recommended it unanimously, but the full selection board opted instead to award it to…nobody. But there was also fervent praise like this, from the NYT’s reviewer: "If I were banished to the moon tomorrow and could take only five books along, this would have to be one of them."

Um…no. But I'm glad I read it.

AZ hearts DL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BOYFRIEND!

I know your birthday is tomorrow, but you usually see these when they come to your email the morning after I post them- this way, it'll be sitting in your inbox all happy-like for your b-day.

I posted this picture, from the top of Gokyo Ri, because even when you're not with me, you're always in my heart (even if the reason you're not with me because it was cold and early so you wussed out and went back to your sleeping bag).  I love you boyfriend.  I think you are one of the most giving and generous people I've ever met, and I'm proud to share my life with you. :)

Enough sappy, let's go find you some steak frites!

The international language

Prepping for for KATHMANDU FOOTIE SMACKDOWN 2010: MONKS VS. LOCALS.  Sad to say, I do not know who emerged victorious from this cage match of death, as boyfriend and I just caught a lot of sitting about and desultory passes before we moved on.  But I can say with confidence that all parties were having a great time, cause duh, it's soccer.

Huntresses also rock the quarry

 

These two ladies both had their first-ever lead climb, inside or out, on this trip.  One of these firsts is depicted on the left side of this very image!

Unfortunately we are stuck inside this weekend, but there are no doubt more trips to be had before it gets all coldy.

The hunter and his quarry

From last weekend's excursion to Birdsboro.  Top, my usual climbing partner on a 5.9.  Below, a new acquaintance on a 5.10.  Or maybe 11?  I can't remember.

This was my first trip to Birdsboro, a disused section of a still-active quarry about an hour from Philly.  It had a nice range of climbs for scrubs like me (5.9s), and a big-boy wall (5.10+ to, I think, 5.14). My second time climbing outside, my first time leading outside, and all in all, a very relaxed, enjoyable day in perfect pre-fall weather.  The nicest thing about climbing outside?  My hands didn't seem to get as sweaty- maybe cause of all of that naturally occurring chalk ("dirt").  I was, however, much more conscious of taking a fall on lead- those rocks are shaaaarp!

From the wuthering heights

From low on the shoulder of Mt. Bierstadt.  If you subtracted about 10,000 feet, this could almost be the Scottish heath.

A wing and a prayer...

Back again.  More computer problems and silly Adobe left me with sans editing software yet again.

But here's some prayer flags, from atop Gokyo Ri.  May they keep me photo-bloggable evermore.