Came to this sub to ask about reading order or how hard GR is but this post could suffice:

Can I skip reading Gravity's Rainbow and just read your posts like a SparkNotes, possibly in conjunction with a few articles and posts by other users here? Would I really miss all that much if I just want to "get" it? I've researched Pynchon quite extensively, and I'm a little wary over investing so much time into GR. Very intimidated by it, but I find it on nearly every Greatest Books list; the lists aren't even that helpful though because I can't find a strong consensus over whether or not it adeptly addresses the problems we face in the 21st century! The problem is that life is too short to read really dense literature that, although it might contain great ideas, is overwritten for no one's pleasure but the author's, and I read on goodreads that Pynchon is basically that.

I'm sure his popularity was warranted at one point, but I think we need to support more youthful, newer artists, especially ones who are truly cognizant of the dire situation we live in today, and how technology, love, and voting democrat will progress us into a brighter future (I'm a big, big fan of sci-fi). Not to mention that he's a little outdated at this point, writing about millennials, 9/11, and the internet at the age of 70-something (!?), when there are much younger writers out there who have less toxic ways of presenting their thoughts (I heard what Truman Capote said of GR). Like, I listened to The Corrections on a break in college, so I think I'm already pretty much aware of a lot of the Pynchon themes. In fact, I think I understand a lot about Pynchon already from some personal research, and I have my theories about his reclusive behavior that I would love to write about one day. The only reason I really read anymore is to get ideas for my novel.

Working title: The Troll Poll: An Exercise in the Futility, Grammar and Tone of America's Upcoming Idiots.