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Slow Learner: Early Stories Free FREE SLOW LEARNER: EARLY STORIES PDF Thomas Pynchon | 208 pages | 03 Jan 1998 | Vintage Publishing | 9780099532514 | English | London, United Kingdom Slow Learner: Early Stories by Thomas Pynchon Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Slow Learner by Thomas Pynchon. Slow Learner is a compilation of early stories written between andbefore Slow Learner: Early Stories achieved recognition as a prominent writer for his novel, V and containing a revelatory essay on his early influences and writing. The collection consists of five short stories: 'The Small Rain', 'Lowlands', 'Entropy', 'Under the Rose', and 'The Secret Integration', as well as Slow Learner is a compilation of early stories written between andbefore Pynchon achieved recognition as a prominent writer for his novel, V and containing a revelatory essay on his early influences and writing. The collection consists of five short stories: 'The Small Rain', 'Lowlands', 'Entropy', 'Under the Rose', and 'The Secret Integration', as well as an introduction written by Pynchon himself for the publication. The five stories were originally published individually in various literary magazines but inafter Pynchon had achieved greater recognition, Slow Learner was published to collect and copyright the stories into one volume. The introduction also offers a rare insight into Pynchon's own views on his work and influences. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. Published February 16th by Vintage Classics first published More Details Original Title. Other Slow Learner: Early Stories Friend Reviews. To Slow Learner: Early Stories what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Slow Learner Slow Learner: Early Stories, please sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Slow Slow Learner: Early Stories Early Stories. Aug 15, Michael Finocchiaro rated it liked it Shelves: fictionshort-storiespost-modernamericanth-cnovels. While not essential to the Pynchon canon, these stories provide insight into how Pynchon started created his stories and his universes. We even get to see a few characters that appear in Gravity's Rainbow and Against the Day Slow Learner: Early Stories on. I would say this is for the Pynchon-addicts like myself who are waiting impatiently for yet another Pynchon masterpiece. View all 4 comments. Oct 18, Mattia Ravasi rated it it was amazing. Worth its price for the introduction alone, the five stories in Slow Learner show a writer trying his hand at different things. Paradoxically enough, the least Pynchonian stories in the collection 1st and 5th are also the most effective if you ask me, but Slow Learner: Early Stories in the less elegant middle stories one can find sparks of true genius. Must read. This one is definitely for the die-hards and completionists, Slow Learner: Early Stories is probably most intriguing to Pynchonites merely for the introductory material where we learn a lot about Pynchon's fictioneer-ing process and progress from the man himself. When the intro Slow Learner: Early Stories with the author warning of the "juvenalia" that lurks in Slow Learner: Early Stories stories in the collection, he's kind of Slow Learner: Early Stories himself into a defensive position. Sometimes this is a rhetorical move, but in Pynchon's case, turns out tha This one is definitely for the die-hards and completionists, Slow Learner: Early Stories is probably most intriguing to Pynchonites merely for the introductory material where we learn a lot about Pynchon's fictioneer-ing process and progress from the man himself. Sometimes this Slow Learner: Early Stories a rhetorical move, but in Pynchon's case, turns out that there's fair reason for the reader to be warned. At least 3 of these stories are mediocre, one is good, and the other is clearly superior. Even the better stories here offer only the slimmest glimmer of Pynchon's heights across all of his fictions. So the real value here for the Pynchonite is to see the progress Slow Learner: Early Stories a genius in growth. There's a reassuring thing to see The Master struggling with mediocre short stories early in his career, as if to remind you that greatness can be a process. There is no more new Pynchon for me. This is profoundly sad. Re-reading Pynchon is always a delight, but if Mr. Paranoid's listening, throw us a bone, man! Sep 27, E. View 1 comment. Shelves: My first reaction, rereading these stories, was oh my Godaccompanied by physical symptoms we shouldn't dwell upon. This, from the opening paragraph of Thomas Pynchon's introduction to his earliest published stories, appears at first to be a self-conscious oversell of false modesty. Even after watching him pick apart the stories for the first 25 pages, one by one and with an assiduous efficiency, you still don't believe they are going to be bad. Slow Learner: Early Stories then you read the first story, and you start t My first reaction, rereading these stories, was oh my Godaccompanied by physical symptoms we shouldn't dwell upon. Young Pynchon doesn't come off as a dick or even mostly unlikeable, but he doesn't come across as very interesting either. Or, perhaps most surprisingly, as very talented. And here's the silver lining: these stories firmly place the virtuosic talents Pynchon later developed into the realm of possibility for the modestly talented but ambitious would-be writer. Granted, all but one of these stories were written in college, but even so, any previously tempting apotheosis of the man will be permanently erased upon reading these. So that's the good news I guess. But they aren't much fun to read, and I struggled to remain engaged through each one of them. I'm not going to go into detail about the problems here, mainly because Pynchon does such a damn good job of it in his introduction. It probably goes without saying, however, that any book that peaks with the introduction is in pretty serious trouble. View 2 comments. Thomas Pynchon is no different in his perspective on the five short stories in this collection which were originally published between and Some of the text is common to both works, although they stand separately. Thus, to criticise the short story is to be equally critical of at least part of the novel. I think the characters are a little better, no longer just lying there on the slab but beginning at least to twitch some and blink their eyes open, although their dialogue still suffers from my perennial Bad Ear Today we expect a complexity of plot Slow Learner: Early Stories depth of character which are missing from my effort here. It features a company of army men of different levels of responsibility and intelligence. The Introduction certainly provides plenty of fodder for this opinion. It was actually OK to write like this! Who knew? The effect was exciting, liberating, strongly positive. One reason was the presence of real, invisible class force fields in the way of communication between the two groups. Worth it for the introduction alone. This was my 4th Pynchon, and probably a good time for it. Would probably be a bit anticlimactic if I had saved this for last. Highlights: "Entropy" and "Under the Rose". Also, a Slothrop relative, wart Doctor makes an appearance. Good enough writing, but experience enhanced if you're all-in with Pynchon, natch. I read Pynchon's intro weeks ago on a sample. That's pretty Slow Learner: Early Stories the best thing in this book; still it's interesting to watch development in style and motifs Slow Learner: Early Stories these stories, which were first published The Small Rain A lot of this is a pretty conventional short story, not a bad one though, about an army battalion sent to clear up after a natural disaster. An amazing few sentences almost summarise why I like Pynchon, as well as being an idea close to my own heart. What I mean is something like a closed circuit. Everybody on the same frequency. And after a while you forget about the rest of the spectrum and start believing that this is the only frequency that counts or is real. While outside, all up and down the land, there are these wonderful colors and x-rays and ultraviolets going on. Most books feel to me like they're stuck in that one place. Reading Pynchon is being on the road and seeing all the other spectacular stuff, - though with someone who seems to share some of the same opinions and neuroses, and apparently contains much of one's Slow Learner: Early Stories general knowledge plus that of a few friends with different specialties. Low-lands Another fairly conventional story, about an ex-Navy guy and his drinking partners one with the fabulous name Rocco Squamuglia, Squamuglia later making an appearance in Lot 49 as a fictional Italian city-state — though it's more anarchic than 'The Small Rain' and in the last few pages spills into a fantasy section reminiscent of a children's book. Slow Learner: Early Stories by Thomas Pynchon, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® When you buy a book, we donate a book. Sign in. The Biggest Books of the Month. Category: Literary Fiction. Jun 13, ISBN Available from:. Ebook —. Also by Thomas Pynchon. See all books by Thomas Pynchon.
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