Category: Archived DMs

Today it begins — our first few steps on “The Gravity’s Rainbow Deathmarch.” And I will admit the obvious — that I’m a little intimidated by this old book. But I can share this as well: the last two days, I went off on a little scouting mission — read the first few pages — read them aloud to my better half, in fact, while she tried to sleep. And dang if they weren’t entertaining. At least to me. I had no idea there were so many ways to prepare a banana.
Let’s make the target for this week a touch shy of 50 pages — we’ll make camp at page 47 and the line “time for home.” [update: this is page 54 in the Bantam edition]
If any of youse have any other words orf wisdom regarding the first handful of pages, or good natured advice for your fellow marchers, please use this entry as an open thread fer shoutin’ out.
Thanks and gulp and see you next Tuesday and…here we go,
-Cecil
(For those hearing about this for the first time, you can find all the details — the gameplan, the prizes, the whole sheebang, by going to “The Gravity’s Rainbow Deathmarch” category page. In short, around 20-30 of us are going to try to read this thing in roughly 50 page chunks/week. And for them that make it through and drop a comment here most weeks, there will be glory, and yes, the possibility of a free Pat Benatar CD and/or a mug. All are welcome — Gravity’s Rainbow loves company.)

We’re right around 30 people strong and launch is next week. If you haven’t yet purchased a copy of Gravity’s Rainbow, and you intend to deathmarch, now’s a great time to pick one up. One thing you don’t want to do is show up for a Gravity’s Rainbow Deathmarch without Gravity’s Rainbow.
See you back here next week for the starting line….
-Cecil

You may be wondering: How will you, as an active participant in the GRDM, be rewarded for your considerable pain and suffering? It’s a question as old as The Book of Job. And once again, as with Job, the answer involves Pat Benatar.
To incent group participation (in the form of weekly posting to the GRDM thread), we’ve developed devised a cunningly complex 3-tier program. Here’s how it works:
GRDMer the Third Level (aka Poobah): Post all but four weeks and you’ll receive a copy of Pat Benatar’s 11th studio release: Gravity’s Rainbow.
GRDMer the Second Level (aka Big Poobah): Post all but two weeks and you’ll earn a copy of Richard Brautigan’s underappreciated, and extremely easy to read The Tokyo-Montana Express. (Think of it as a cool down after GR.) As an added bonus, Big Poobahs will also *not* receive a copy of Pat Benatar’s 11th studio release: Gravity’s Rainbow.
GRDMer the First Level (aka Grand Poobah): Post to the GRDM thread each and every week, starting on Jan 11, and you’ll be rewarded with a copy of the Tokyo-Montana Express. plus — and here’s where it gets exciting — a genuine Monkey Vortex brand “I survived the Gravity’s Rainbow Deathmarch” mug. GP’s will also not receive a copy of Pat Benatar’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Unless they really want to. In which case, oh, sure, what the hell.
Quasi-legaleso: Needless to say, prizes will be limited to folks what finish the book in the course of the Deathmarch. All books and CDs will probably be secondhand, though serviceable. And I’ll set an arbitrary max of 30 winners. Because, much as in real life, there can only be 30 winners. (On the off-chance we break 30, I’ll pull names from a beret or somesuch. At this point, we have around 28 people signed on, so…) Also, what is a qualifying post? Glad you asked. A qualifying post can be as simple as: “still here, still suffering” or: “owie” or even just: “ow.” Really, any old post will do. The goal is just to keep us all engaged and pushing each other along.
That’s it. I hope you’re enjoying the holidays. Now’s a great time to watch a lot of TV. Go outside. Look at some puppies. For soon your eyes will be filled with rainbow.
-Cecil

27 people have now signed up for the Deathmarch. And I think it’s safe to say that this little idea has now morphed from an amusing notion into a full-fledged movement — a movement that may well change the way people think about reading books and talking about them on blogs forever.
Here’s the rough plan: Tuesday will be GRDM day here on cecilvortex.com. For the next couple of weeks, that will mean short updates as folks holidize, stretch their legs, wash their socks, that sort of thing. But starting on the morning of Jan. 4, we’ll have a post indicating how far we aim to travel on the first week. Each week’s journey will be roughly 50 pages. Since editions may vary and numbers can’t be trusted, the marker will be “read up to X” rather than “read to page Y.”
Starting on the 11th I’ll post short entries here every Tuesday morning that will be meant as open threads — a spot to drop comments. I’m encouraging everyone to chime in, if only with “oh my lord, this is awful, what have I done?” More than anything, this is a GR support group.
Although a paragraph or three of pithy analysis will always be welcome, I’m going to discourage folks from giving in to old habits and churning out a 6-page paper each week. (If 27 people wrote 6 pages each week of the GRDM we’d end up with 2,430 pages of critical analysis. And that, I’m pretty sure, would make my head blow up.)
Prizes? Oh yes, there will be prizes. More on that next week….
It’s not to late to sign yourself (or several loved ones) up for the march. All are welcome. Just add a comment to this link, or drop me an email.
Merry Tuesday and watch the skies, -Cecil

So I was talking to one of my brothers last night, and we agreed that this Pynchon book has bedeviled us long enough. Me, I’ve started Gravity’s Rainbow at least 3 times. And let’s just say I’m very familiar with the first 30 pages. OK, sentences. OK, consonants. Hell, I’ve never even finished The Crying of Lot 49 and that’s a damn pamphlet.
So we made a pact. We made a death pact. You know, minus the death. 50 pages a week, starting the first week in January. No stopping till we reach the other side. Then we thought: hey! There must be other folks out there who’ve been similarly confounded. Let’s see if we can gather together a tribe of like-minded long-suffers and tackle this beast en masse. Thus was born The Gravity’s Rainbow Deathmarch.
We’d like to use this site as a forum, post an open thread once a week for shared thoughts, comfort. Mebbe I’ll even spring for some exciting incredibly cheap end-of-journey prizes for them what make it all the way through, and manage to check in each week, all depending on how many people are interested.
So that’s the shpiel. All are welcome — friends, foes, strangers, passersby. If you’re reading this, and if you’re interested in joining, drop a comment here, or send me an email. We’ll work out the details in the next couple of weeks.
I hear the clamor of boots, the clatter of coffee cups, the straightening of glasses. Today we order paperbacks and shuffle through dusty shelves for old unread college copies. For tomorrow we ride!
-Cecil
update: if you’re buying a copy, I’m told one handsome option is this swank Penguin edition. That’s the one I’ll be picking up, fwiw.