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I'm chasing a tangled ball of yarn, I am -- still a little bit behind, not quite a week's worth. Seems like most folks who were likewise lagging have now caught up, which is kind of exciting. Infuriating, too. But mainly exciting.
I count 13 of us still in this thing. 13! Could 13 of us really finish? That's an awful lotta mugs. Exciting! Infuriating! (But mainly exciting.) By contrast, I think 8 of us finished the Gravity's Rainbow Deathmarch and 7 folks wrapped up Don Quixote. So 13 would be a mighty crowd at the finish line.
Let's hang tight shall we? And more to the point....
Tuesday 5/15: ...let's meet up at the bottom of page 792, where there's some danger that our yarn may blow away, "as if taken by the wind."
(which is to say.... please use this thread to comment on anything up to page 792. Aim to finish reading that part of the book and to comment on it here by end o' day next Monday)
(I miss) Pugnax!
-Cecil
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Exciting, yes. Infuriating, yes. But don't forget "inconceivable!"
On the subject of the book, I enjoyed this week's reading maybe slightly less. I miss the Chums of Chance, I guess. Still, on the whole, pretty phenomenal reading experience. As I said to Cecil, it's like trying to absorb 10,000 great paintings all at once. It's just too, too much. I feel like the ideal way to read AtD would be a page a day for three years--now there would be a Deathmarch for the ages.
I'm finding the book increasingly scattered. This isn't necessarily bad - in fact, I often enjoy that. But it makes it so much harder for me to organize my thoughts and make an intelligent comment.
no progress this week. i´am doing another things in barcelona.
does it seem that, if there is any general geographic pattern here, it is that the story tends ever more eastward? Shambhala, after all, I suppose. Hassan is like Venice. he’s there. he’s gone. he’s been there all along? or am I imagining this? perhaps it was the cuts back in time, but I think Pynchon’s trying to be confusing (like that’s a eureka discovery). same goes for Yashmeen – there’s this iffiness, right, about whether she’s there with Kit and her pop, or not. am I reading too fast? I did like the opening passage of this segment, the letter from her to her dad, and the mood as that segues into the travels east. also, is this some of the most straightforward proselytizing we’ve seen: Dwight Prance’s easy argument of America’s state religion? probably not. and which way is Japan again? everyone is a little dis-Oriented – a joke that actually becomes funny (not ha-ha) if you think about broad generalizations by idiots with regard to geographic location=ethnicity=guilt assumed in times of war. also, did anyone look up the connection of “Tchernobyl” with wormwood and the apocalypse? a flaming bouquet of references, this brick. and now talking reindeer, of course. and another kaboom (of course). with all its frustrations, there’s still plenty of pleasure to be had in the actual reading of the pages. onward/against!
Behind, reading a little, but posting.
Happy Mother's Day, Erlys and Mayva!
Hey Del - I noted the eastward movement about two weeks back. I don't believe the pattern is occidental.
I'm still a little (75 pages or so) behind, but I must say that although he isn't my favorite character, Cyprian's appearance actually introduced the first real suspense into the tale in a long while. Not that I'm a sucker for narrative action, but it was a bit of a break from the lengthy expositions. Absorbing the "10,000 great paintings at once" (great image from So-Called Bill, thanks) can produce a bit of a headache, delightful and rewarding though that headache might be. Hope to catch up soon!
Favorite lines of the week -
Could be heard, "a laughter whose loudness and constancy did not quite make up for an all-but-complete absence of merriment."
"These bloody shamans tell the people anything, no matter how insane, and the people believe them, its like Americans, only different."
Favorite holiday of the week -
Yes, hail to the mothers!
Whoa. Is that the week already? Then I have fallen behind again. A week without Pugnax is like a week without sunshine...
Goodness, it's Tuesday already. Guess I can't depend on Cecil being tardy every week...
Playing catchup again. Dreaming of Vienna, where "local baked goods were kept within his easy reach in piles far exceeding normal angles of repose." But then the conversation turns to regarding "the history of civilization as distinguished by the asymptotic approach of industrial production tolerances, with time, to some mythical, never-attained Zero."
Pynchon is pushing this reader's tolerances close to zero too.
kitschy goodness: "Reindeer discovered again their ancient powers of flight....Some were stimulated by the accompanying radiation into an epidermal luminescence at the red end of the spectrum, particularly around the nasal area" [784]
oh rudolph!
but also, this section was very full of beautiful things, from the "unwished-for depths of blue" [767] to "the heart of the earth" [786]. and too there's this journey from the west to the east--kit and dally--traversing and riding out--from the undisciplined land of their childhoods. both letting go of their original quests (the math, the mother), for landscapes that are compelling (but compelling what? only that they grow up?). kit has been so passive; maybe that makes him a more receptive pilgrim. he's taking shape, as a vessel--preparing? his dreams portend a physical test and the "unmeasurable drop at his back" and finally, just the last time, there's a whisper: "You are released" [771].
well, so, a pause here at the bend of the road for dylan:
I see my light come shining
from the west unto the east.
Any day now, any day now,
I shall be released.
Almost apace: at 778 this afternoon, with hopes of being to this week's finish line before I fall asleep tonight.
Like e., my marginalia at 771 reads: "Any day now...."
Appreciated the chance to size up Auberon (Shakespearean pun intended?) at first hand, after all the rumors in earlier chapters.
And "Dwight Prance" sounds like some describable (by linguistics show off TP) mispronunciation of "Tight Pants"?
I'm off to seek some "shelter in the trivial" (778)--knowing that "A heavenwide blast of light" awaits on the next page.
Ramón Etienne Heurtebise, or
S.
I held up my comment hoping I’d get less cranky by p. 800, but no, it’s the same sets whizzing by, Venice to Turkwhateverstan, with the identical stylistic aplomb that they did 500 pages back; the same suggestion of dark forces that will someday, you know, (itals.) be revealed (itals.), still waiting interminably in the wings (this story’s badly in need of a Blicero); the same muddled & tongue-tied Kit; the same easy laughs at the movie-imperial Brits; and the same occasional gems lodged in the deepening narrative asphalt with my will to stoop over and pick them up badly on the fade.
I heard David Remnick on the radio saying that as authors get older, it’s not the writing that fails but their ability to shape it into larger structures, build out the connections over the course of a long novel. Not to be ageist—O.K. I’m being ageist—but I wonder if something like that’s happening here. I remember Gravity’s Rainbow being anarchic and confusing, but never slight.
Here endeth the crank. Fellow marchers, set me straight!
Trying to catch up. I spent the week in DC with my kiddo & got to read up to the start of part 4 on the plane. Now I'm waiting for the Travese boys to actually do something (shoot Vibe) rather than just contemplate it. I hadn't thought Kit was such a layabout.
The whole bit with Lew & the gas broadcasts was interesting, but It feels like the bits between the bomber, Renfrew, TWIT, was getting out of Punchon's control. And I hate the idea that N&N are just pretending to be idiots.
I feel like I need to re-read this book when I'm done with the AtD wiki open and comment on each little bit.
Cookie wrote: "Goodness, it's Tuesday already. Guess I can't depend on Cecil being tardy every week..."
I don't want to get into a flamewar or anything, but I strongly disagree. You can absolutely depend on me being tardy every week....
-Cecil
I'm on your side, brother Cecil--after page 500, I can't seem to have made any more progress than 50 pages a week. In the mid-700's now, I am starting to dread actually looking at the book. It has a mind of its own, and I've once seen it develop a cyclops eye as it looked back at me. One time, I actually covered it up with a dishcloth for two reasons: a) because I spilled coffee on it, and 2) because I couldn't stand to look at it! In some ways, it's like my tattered Bible--I know there's good stuff in there, but sometimes I can't bring myself to be "good" enough to actually pick it up. Sorry to be my whiney self this week again. But I'll never give up--Pugnax just has to show up soon!