Introduction 4.5*
The Small Rain 3*
Low-lands 3.5*
Entropy 2*
Under the Rose 4*
The Secret Integration 5*

If there was one thing I gained from reading Slow Learner is that Thomas Pynchon’s unique writing style was the result of trial and error. These five stories document how Pynchon slowly became the literary powerhouse he is known as today. Usually when there are short stories, I try to avoid describing them individually but since there are only five of them plus an introduction, I’ll break my rule.

The introduction by Pynchon himself is worth the price of the book alone, I make it a point to seek out books with his forewords (so far it’s Jim Dodge’s The Stone Junction and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, I still have to find his Richard Farina one) and this is no exception. For someone who is known not to divulge anything about himself, we readers are getting 21 pages about his writing life : the mistakes he regrets in his early work, the circumstances leading to the stories being written, some anecdotes and his writing techniques (which are quite surprising). Funny, warm and charming, it’s everything a Pynchon afficionado would want.

The first story, The Small Rain is about a lazy soldier who has a change of heart when he is placed in the middle of a site where people have perished. Thematically there’s a lot of Pynchonian themes : the futility of war and the inevitability of death. Stylistically this story could have been written by anyone with a strong grasp of the English language and a knack for conventional plot structure. It’s very good but that’s it. Pynchon’s work has a way of transcending itself. That doesn’t happen here.

Next up is Low-lands. This is displays Pynchon’s weirder side but it feels restrained. A man with undesirable friends is kicked out of his house by his wife and goes to a garbage dump, where he is seduced by a little person and has to make a life changing decision. It’s not as zany as v or Gravity’s Rainbow but it is funny and delightfully strange. I was reminded of George Saunder’s early short stories. It is worth noting that Pig Bodine makes his first appearance.

Entropy (the state of chaos and is also the measure of thermal energy) is a turning point. It’s written in the Pynchonian style which is well known and contains themes which are later explored in his novels. Entropy details a three day party which includes discussions about science and physics interspersed with insane goings-on. Cleverly Pynchon incorporates both definitions of the story’s title. A definite stand out.

The story Under the Rose is a complete dog pile. It’s an attempt to create an intellectual spy caper, which serves a commentary on future generations of people but it fails. Think of a long dirge. Strangely enough I don’t mind it when Pynchon will devote ten pages to atmospheric writing but here it just doesn’t work.

The concluding piece, The Secret Integration is a work of genius. It was written on year after V was published and it displays all of Pynchon’s strengths as a writer. In essence this is a story about racism as seen through a gang of children but it’s strange, controversial ( I guess problematic), prescient, non linear and beautifully written. The Secret integration was a pure pleasure to read and can be another reason to own this collection. The story also features Hogan Slothrop, the brother Tyrone reminisces about in Gravity’s Rainbow.

For a Pynchon fan Slow Learner is essential as it displays Pynchon’s slow steps to becoming a writer but it also helps fans understand where his ideas come from. For the casual Pynchon fan, I wouldn’t say it’s a must read but I do think that the introduction and last story should be read by anyone, even with a passing interest in this notoriously hermetic author.

Insomma, io ce l'ho messa tutta. L'ho letto fino alla fine, sperando sempre in un riscatto, che però... niente, non c'è stato!
Non sono riuscita ad entrare in risonanza con la frequenza di Pynchon. Non mi ha preso. La lettura mi sfuggiva di mano. Leggevo, ma i personaggi non mi trattenevano. Mi giravano intorno e non si fermavano.
Sembra che P. sia un grande della letteratura americana. Ma io non l'ho capito.
E così le stelline si sono spente un po' alla volta...
Al racconto 'Entropia', che ho letto per primo, ne avrei forse potute dare tre, per la sua assurda scientificità, attorno a cui ruotano personaggi malati: diversi modi di reagire all'attesa della morte finale dell'Universo.
Ma per il resto...

So as not to reiterate what many reviewers said already, I will just give some very brief notes on Slow Learner.

Most critical is that one read the introduction after (it should absolutely be an afterword). Beyond that, most of the stories feel like test runs with ideas and genres and characters that Pynchon later brought to captivating life later in his career. My favorite, by a long shot, has to be "The Secret Integration," in which we discover that Thomas Pynchon has feelings.

Other fun facts: he hates hegemony, racism, and hypocrites. He loves jazz, math, and all-purpose silliness. He also loves to do his homework. If you're not ready for some serious in-depth education about almost any topic (the Tarot, sea shanties, and European politics come to mind as good examples), then maybe Pynchon is not the guy for you.

This shouldn't be your introduction to Pynchon. I'd recommend Against the Day for the more patient reader or The Crying of Lot 49 for a quicker reading experience. Slow Learner is best read after having read and enjoyed most of his other work.

Borderline juvenilia. Introduction by author dismisses the collection ab initio as “illustrative of typical problems in entry-level fiction” (4). Explains that “when we speak of ‘seriousness’ in fiction ultimately we are talking about an attitude toward death” (5) which I regard as probably philistine. Nevertheless, author suggests “one of the reasons that fantasy and science fiction appeal so much to younger readers is that, when the space and time have been altered to allow characters to travel easily anywhere through the continuum and thus escape physical dangers and timepiece inevitabilities, mortality is so seldom an issue” (id.), which is definitely philistine. Introduction otherwise has thoughtful comments on entropy, author’s influences, and the nifty comment that his reading allowed “World War I in my imagination to assume the shape of that attractive nuisance so dear to adolescent minds, the apocalyptic showdown” (18).

Principal text is five short fictions, all generally haunted by the spectre of the Korean civil war (expressly at 44, 61, 172, and implicitly in the others, it seems)

First short is a military man down on the bayou. Second involves a dude whose wife kicks him out of the house. Third, “Entropy,” seems to be well-regarded, presents a soiree that host-protagonist wants to stop “from deteriorating into total chaos” (97). Fourth is fin de siecle espionage thriller of orientalist interest, but we should read it in the context of the cold war. It’s presented as asymptotic to World War I: “Britain wanted no part of France in the Nile Valley. M. Declasse, Foreign Minister of a newly formed French cabinet, would as soon go to war as not if there were any trouble when the two detachments met. As meet, everyone realized by now, they would. Kitchener had been instructed not to take any offensive and to avoid all provocation. Russia would support France in case of war, while England had a temporary rapprochement with Germany, which of course meant Italy and Austria as well” (106). But: “All he asked was that eventually there be a war. Not just a small incidental skirmish in the race to carve up Africa, but one pip-pip, jolly ho, up-goes-the-balloon Armageddon for Europe” (107). Finale of volume is the longest bit, involves a pack of rotters and race politics.

Recommended for readers in varying stages of abomination, persons in so much rapture over the mongrel gods of Egypt, and those who’d fled the eclipse then falling over Europe and their own hardly real shadow-states sometime back in the middle Thirties.

Esta colección de relatos de Thomas Pynchon me ha sorprendido muy gratamente. Es lo primero que leo del autor y como el propio Pynchon explica en el prólogo estas no son sus mejoras historias.
Pero la verdad es que hay talento en estas páginas.

Encontramos relatos entretenidos como Lluvia ligera o Tierras bajas.

En Tierras bajas, Dennis Flange, un abogado de la firma Wasp y Winsome, llama una mañana a la oficina, diciéndoles que no va a trabajar. Lo que va a hacer en su lugar es sentarse en casa y beber con su amigo Rocco un basurero del barrio. Cuando los dos amigos charlan y beben animadamente, la esposa de Dennis, Cindy, llega a casa y cuando su marido le explica que esa mañana ha decidido quedarse en casa, ella se siente decepcionada y se enfada. Para empeorar las cosas, un viejo amigo de la universidad, un tal Pig Bodine, se presenta de visita en la casa de Dennis con una moto robada. Ante esto, Cindy echa a los tres hombres. La cuadrilla acabe en un vertedero y Dennis despierta a medianoche y oye oye la voz de una mujer. Cuando la ve, Dennis descubre que se trata de la mujer más hermosa que jamás haya visto aunque su talla apenas alcanza el metro de altura. Ella lo lleva a su casa, en mitad del vertedero, y le pide seriamente que se case con ella. Al final Dennis se queda alli porque descubre que la chica tiene todo lo que no tenía Cindy.

Bajo la rosa me pareció una infumable historia detectivesca muy liosa y difícil de seguir.
Mi relato favorito del libro es La integración secreta, es el más largo y narra los problemas que tiene un grupo de niños enfrentandose al mundo de los adultos a base de gamberradas y por la discriminación racial que sufre uno de los chicos de la pandilla. Me ha parecido muy tierno.

2.5 *, grudgingly

Only actually good story the last one ("Secret Integration"). I actually got this because I wanted to see if I got Pynchon early enough whether I could understand him. Have decided it really doesn't matter. His stuff all sounds the same: plodding, pointless and dull. Like so much of that fatuous picaresque '60's crap. Not helped any either by a smirking, posturing intro--wherein he criticizes himself for all sorts of inane trivial egghead reasons. And how can somebody who gets their stuff published in college come off as a slow learner? Unless he's trying to say he's really an even bigger genius than we already give him credit for...what insincerity. And he talks about incorporating the vernacular, but then he turns out to be just another fussy, pedantic stiff.

Finally read all the stories, been at this for ages. Great seeing Pynchon evolve. Plus the foreword in this is the only direct insight we have into his thoughts.

And there we have it, I've now read every Pynchon book. Gonna have to start reading his technical writing for Boeing to get my fix.

2/5 av disse er mer enn gode historier, den andre er på grensen til ræva, den siste er på grensen til fantastisk. Slow Learner er Pynchons eneste novellesamling, ment til å vise fram de 5 novellene han hadde på trykk før han slo gjennom med romanen V. De er i kronologisk rekkefølge, så det blir mye bedre lesning halvveis inn, logisk nok.

Newton's Fourth Law tells us that modesty is just as thoroughly digested as arrogance is. That the line "it was no big deal" is swallowed just as readily as "it's really big deal". In case you find yourself having trouble remembering all of his laws (or heaven forbid, confusing them with Leibniz's theorems), here's a pneumatic pneumonic I use (I came up with it all by myself - yeah it's a big deal):
Obi-Wan Kenobi moves things with the FORCE
While Yoda lectures at the Jedi MASS
Which Luke Skywalker wishes he would ACCELERATE
Because he's got to tell Padme he's OPPOSED
To her dying from being MODEST

Anyways. The introduction to this book was written by Pynchon after (supposedly) looking back on the stories for the first time in years, and he spends a great deal of time critiquing them. Which, by Newton's Fourth Law, made me feel as though they were probably garbage stories. That they were "no big deal". That they were only worth reading to feed an ever growing feeling of superiority I have over everyone else who has never read Pynchon.

But actually, these were rather wonderful stories that were funny and well-written and enjoyable and classic Pynchon (although, perhaps even more enjoyable than classic Pynchon because they actually had a solid ending). Highly recommend. Although not too hard. Cuz I still have to be a snob. Newton really should've had a law about snobs.