"Fickt nicht mit der Raketemensch!"
December 14, 2003 10:28 PM   Subscribe

A Flash-heavy "Illustrated Complete Summary of Gravity's Rainbow". Includes an Episode Guide and a gallery of related art. See also the Wikipedia entry if you want some background, including a link to an online concordance.
posted by trondant (15 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
The book is so convoluted and heavy that I'm scared to look with any depth at the website. I know I will anyway. Thanks for this, trondant.
posted by ashbury at 10:35 PM on December 14, 2003


[this is good]
posted by gd779 at 11:06 PM on December 14, 2003


Flash is the new cliff/spark notes?! I wonder if there's a flash version of Ulysses, or Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. Thanks for the link, trondant. I've been meaning to read/watch Gravity's Rainbow for years.

more pynchon @ mefi
posted by shoepal at 6:21 AM on December 15, 2003


I dunno -- this seems really cool and kind of uninformative the same way that the Flash 'explanation' of 2001 -- remember that? -- was. I can't say that this increased my understanding of the novel in any particular way.

The Flash, however, is awesome, and the collage art is GREAT.
posted by josh at 6:38 AM on December 15, 2003


I will defeat Captain Blicero yet.
posted by rocketman at 7:14 AM on December 15, 2003 [1 favorite]


Why do all this work, and then make the user read all that text through tiny little scrollable text boxes? Classic flash interface. Unusable.
posted by Voivod at 8:48 AM on December 15, 2003


somehow, i don't think the illustrated flash version of Ulysses would be nearly as much fun...
posted by kaibutsu at 2:54 PM on December 15, 2003


Slothrop uber alles!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 3:45 PM on December 15, 2003


Somehow this makes my brain hurt even more than GR ever did. And I still don't understand what was going on with the Story of Byron the Bulb. Can anyone recommend a good GR companion-- preferably one that stands on it's own, and won't require an endless scramble back to the text?
posted by .kobayashi. at 8:33 PM on December 15, 2003


Fickt nicht mit der Raketemensch!
posted by sonofsamiam at 10:53 PM on December 15, 2003


Oh. Well, crap. trondant already put that in the title :P
posted by sonofsamiam at 10:55 PM on December 15, 2003


.kobayashi. I haven't read any of the companion books, but I have done a bit of random reading about GR on the web and the only book (still in print) that I recall seeing recommendations for is this one by Stephen Weisenburger.
posted by urban greeting at 5:00 AM on December 16, 2003


This flash thing is pretty slim in insight to the novel. I found the collages to be only parenthetically relevant to the chapters. Anyway, the best on-line resource I've found is "Some Things that "Happen" (more or less) in Gravity's Rainbow", by Michael Davitt Bell. It's an episode-by-episode summary of the book. It gives you a global perspective to the many, many events and characters in the novel. Weisenberger's companion, and a very unabridged dictionary are also indispensible resources. Once you've slogged through the novel the first time (it took me six years and countless attempts). Read it again. The second reading goes MUCH faster and is far more enjoyable.
posted by TheChump at 7:16 AM on December 16, 2003


Thanks for the recommendations, urban greeting and TheChump. The link TC gives ain't nowhere as pretty, but it's really really useful.
posted by .kobayashi. at 5:16 PM on December 16, 2003


.kobayashi. No problems - you might also want to read the The NY Times review of the book.

and just in case you end up reading the Weiseneburger book there is a Companions Companion website: "Illustrated Additions and Corrections to Steven Weisenburger’s A Gravity’s Rainbow Companion".
posted by urban greeting at 8:30 AM on December 18, 2003


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