History YMMV / GravitysRainbow

** The UsefulNotes/PulitzerPrize committee awarded the book a prize in 1974, but were overruled by the Pulitzer board, who called it "[[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible turgid and overwritten]]."

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: In terms of scope, chapters skipping across time and space, and the general weirdness.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: Justified in that...well...um...what?
** Pynchon apparently once commented that he himself couldn't understand some bits of the book, which was, in fact, (at least partially) written on drugs.

* TrueArtIsAngsty: The only coherent unifying themes are death and paranoia.

-->''There was a young fellow named Hector,''
-->''Who was fond of a launcher-erector.''
-->''But the squishes and pops''

* [[FauxSymbolism What Do You Mean That Comma on Page 642 Is Not Symbolic?]]: More in the case of the WildMassGuessing around elements of the book than the author himself (see "Rule of Symbolism").

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: "There's never much talk but touches and looks, smiles together, curses for parting. It is marginal, hungry, chilly — most times they're too paranoid to risk a fire — but it's something they want to keep, so much that to keep it they will take on more than propaganda has ever asked them for. They are in love. Fuck the war."

* {{Lolicon}}: ''Twice!'' Although both times are played for tragedy for both the adult and the child in question.

* LoveItOrHateIt: One of the most polarizing works in literature.

* FreudWasRight: Barely a page goes by without a mention of penises, breasts or vaginas, either symbolically or straight out. Probably one of the most Freudian novels in existence.

* CompleteMonster: In a cast full of knuckleheads, hooligans, perverts, and hopeless romantics, Blicero comes off as the only recurring character who is truly ''evil''. So evil in fact that the man, despite being in the background for most of the novel, has a sort of mythical reputation among other characters for just how much of an utter bastard he is.

** The love triangle with Roger Mexico, Jessica, and Jeremy is one that works better than it should, with profound results. It can pull at one's heartstrings to see Roger realizing he'll lose Jessica once the War is over, [[spoiler:and in the end he does.]]

* FreudWasRight: Barely a page goes by without a mention of penises, breasts or vaginas, either symbolically or straight out.

* LoveItOrHateIt

** The Creator/PulitzerPrize committee awarded the book a prize in 1974, but were overruled by the Pulitzer board, who called it "[[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible turgid and overwritten]]."

* AwardSnub: The PulitzerPrize committee awarded the book a prize in 1974, but were overruled by the Pulitzer board, who called it "[[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible turgid and overwritten]]."

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Freeing Der Springer from a German prison by ''crashing an ocean liner'' into it.

* AwardSnub: The Pulitzer Prize committee awarded the book a prize in 1974, but were overruled by the Pulitzer board, who called it "[[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible turgid and overwritten]]."

* {{Squick}}: Where to start? [[spoiler: Slothrop's adventures in a nightclub toilet bowl; the early sexual experiments on infant Slothrop involving Imipolex G; Pudding's coprophagia; Blicero's threesomes with Gottfried and Katje; the possibility that Franz's girl may be his long lost daughter; Gottfried being built into a rocket.]]

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: In terms of scope, chapters skipping across time and place and the general weirdness
* ViewersAreGeniuses: Arguably even more so than with Pynchon's other novels.

* TrueArtIsOffensive: See {{Squick}}, and add many, many others.
* TrueArtSticksItToTheMan

* AwardSnub: The Pulitzer Prize committee awarded the book a prize in 1974, but were overruled by the Pulitzer board.