Recently I have been reading Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. And by recently I mean on and off over an extended period of time, but also recently as well. I often read more than one book at once and big, 900 page bricks like Gravity’s Rainbow tend to last a while. I have read eight other books since I started, and I still have a lot of it to go.
The reason I started to read it is because of a guy called Jonathan Blow. Jonathan Blow is a programmer and video game designer who has made a couple of games that I really loved. The first, Braid, came out about ten years ago, and the second, The Witness came out last year and I spent a lot of time playing it. I could go on about The Witness for ages, and occasionally do, but suffice it to say that that game has a lot of the qualities that I admire. It is interesting and intelligent, gentle and quiet. A lot of video games are these days, if you know where to look, but The Witness really struck a chord with me.
After playing The Witness I spent a lot of time watching videos on You Tube of Jonathan blow at seminars and conferences talking about game design. A lot of those videos are very specifically about game design and the games industry, but he also talks about the importance of art that is deep, interesting and difficult, because that is where the most profound effects can be had. And somewhere in those hundreds of hours of You Tube videos he mentioned Gravity’s Rainbow.
He talked about wanting to make a game that was like Gravity’s Rainbow. Not like it in the usual way we might think of, like as an adaptation. He wasn’t interesting in the setting or the plot; for want of a better word he wanted its feel. Its grandeur and its seriousness. I think this is a magnificent approach. There is an ambition to wanting to make the most challenging and serious work you can that I really admire. Sticking to your core principals and making a game (or writing a book) that by its own obsession with seriousness will likely mean some people hate it isn’t an easy decision to make.
The Witness ended up being something of a spiritual guide for the book I am trying to write. The Witness is a slow paced, quietly spoken game, and in the hours I was playing it the ideas and themes and tones that I want to capture in my writing started to emerge. And now when I am struggling to keep hold of what this book is I dip back in and remind myself of what it is I am aiming at. And when I am worrying about the ending I have planned (and I do) I remember this idea of committed seriousness and I relax a little.
So reading Gravity’s Rainbow has been an interesting exercise in reading the book that inspired the game that inspired my book. There is a barely a thread that connects them, you might never know it was even there. It would be hard enough to see the connection between Gravity’s Rainbow and The Witness. Gravity’s Rainbow is raucous and loud and chaotic and – in places – filthy. Nothing like The Witness. But inspiration isn’t always obvious. Sometimes the connection is just a feeling. Just a sense of the thing.
toby wallis 
Nothing quite like revisiting the thing in your life that ultimately was a life changer and gave your life purpose or more clarity!
Yeah, I think you’re right. I don’t make enough time for going back to old books that had a big impact on me. There are a handful of books that I really ought to find time to re-read.
What about seeing if there are audio books? you could just listen to them whilst you’re out and about, running errands\work\waiting in line etc, might help find those extra sneaky hours to go back down memory lane.
Audiobooks are a great idea. I used to have an Audible account but I stopped using it a while ago. I might go back and have a look for some those old favourites. I know I shouldn’t but whenever I sit down to read I always feel like I should be reading something I haven’t read before because there is so little time and so many books.
It is good to widen our horizons but by the same token there’s nothing wrong with going back to old favourites either. I’m sure if there is a burning desire to go back to old books you’ll find a way.
Gravity’s Rainbow taught me to read several books at once. I found that there were time when I just wasn’t prepared to go down the rabbit hole of Pynchon’s mind.