Comments on: "Fickt nicht mit der Raketemensch!"

"Fickt nicht mit der Raketemensch!"

trondant — Sun, 14 Dec 2003 22:28:13 -0800

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.

By: ashbury

ashbury — Sun, 14 Dec 2003 22:35:24 -0800

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.

By: gd779

gd779 — Sun, 14 Dec 2003 23:06:29 -0800

[this is good]

By: shoepal

shoepal — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 06:21:24 -0800

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

By: josh

josh — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 06:38:27 -0800

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.

By: rocketman

rocketman — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 07:14:45 -0800

I will defeat Captain Blicero yet.

By: Voivod

Voivod — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 08:48:44 -0800

Why do all this work, and then make the user read all that text through tiny little scrollable text boxes? Classic flash interface. Unusable.

By: kaibutsu

kaibutsu — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 14:54:51 -0800

somehow, i don't think the illustrated flash version of Ulysses would be nearly as much fun...

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 15:45:10 -0800

Slothrop uber alles!

By: .kobayashi.

.kobayashi. — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 20:33:24 -0800

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?

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 22:53:14 -0800

Fickt nicht mit der Raketemensch!

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 22:55:19 -0800

Oh. Well, crap. trondant already put that in the title :P

By: urban greeting

urban greeting — Tue, 16 Dec 2003 05:00:46 -0800

.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.

By: TheChump

TheChump — Tue, 16 Dec 2003 07:16:19 -0800

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.

By: .kobayashi.

.kobayashi. — Tue, 16 Dec 2003 17:16:46 -0800

Thanks for the recommendations, urban greeting and TheChump. The link TC gives ain't nowhere as pretty, but it's really really useful.

By: urban greeting

urban greeting — Thu, 18 Dec 2003 08:30:04 -0800

.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".