Thanks to everyone for the reading tips. I'll have to get a copy of V. and start there. I don't know if I can get myself to read a copy of literary notes. I'm not sure why, but that has always felt tacky to me. Like those kids in high school who always read the cliff notes instead of the book, or the cliff notes because they could not understand the book. Maybe I need to get over my personal prejudices, there. It will be nice to assign myself some new fiction to read, at any rate. All I have read for a few years, now, is theory.

One person told me that G.R. was written in a style that is supposed to simulate a rocket launch - chaotic at first, then more and more coherent, the devolving into chaos again before the crash. That does seem to make sense.

I've read Finnegans Wake and Gravity's Rainbow (and V, and Crying of Lot 49), and FW was much harder than GR. V is a fun read, too.

I totally agree to what you said "ripping good yarns;" I'm halfway through the book and am just really enjoying the prose, I just love this guy's writing style and am constantly amazed at how creative he is at every turn of the plot! I'm sure I'm not getting every little detail or reference, but then who would with a work of this scope? I know I'll finish it 'cause it's just so enjoyable.
Also, the mood of the book is tinged with that familiar paranoia that people with intuitive powers become accustomed to dealing with from time to time. Just a little too much on the radar.
Plus the text was connected to this case recently where I kind of came "unstuck" from reality for a bit - I was reading the part about the giant adenoid one night, just kind of backtracking to make sure I remembered some of the beginning parts, and the next day I was sitting in a government office right next to the kind of person, who, well, was just uncomfortable being silent - I noticed her right away, she kinda stuck out in my perception. Then after her friends left, she of course got out her cell phone and proceeded to fill her world with sound and connection. That's when I heard her (she was sitting right next to me) arrange an appointment for a family member who needed her ADENOIDS removed! The whole scene at that point was just so bizarre, me and her sitting there, the other people, just poor folk like myself waiting for their number to get called, I got the weirdest Matrixy-like feeling like the whole room and everyone in it was just a scene in my consciousness, nothing more. I looked up quickly and the others noticed, I guess I kinda spooked the herd.
What was cool was that Pynchon's stream-of-consciousness prose led me to this kind of "Waking Life" (ala Richard Linklater) moment.

Maybe all of us who would like to read GV but haven't made it so far should form some sort of book club. We could do all the recommended training techniques discussed here and then go for the kill!!! I've known one person who did manage to tackle GV via a reading group.

60 shoes! My word! I have quite a few completely unnecessary pairs of shoes for my feet, but I think my collection hoovers around 10 or maybe 15. I got this pair at a store called "Restyle" in LA. I'll have to check the label to see who made them. Unfortunately, I've left them at a friend's house for the moment.

Congratulations. You are now one of like thirty who have succeeded. I am encouraged. Perhaps, after my book club finishes Mason and Dixon in April/May, I will come away truly motivated to move GR to the top of the stack over the half finished Ulysses. The Belligerati Reading Club will hoist a pint in honor of your struggles at our next meeting.