Et Resurrexit

[Andrew Dinn]

Foax,

Glad to be back after 6 weeks away - a missed connection necessitated
an extra week lounging on a Sri Lankan beach - which was hell given
how I was missing all you foax so much, but somehow I survived. Had a
great time in India too, lots of reading etc. but the highlight of
which has to be locating not one but *two* (count them) copies of
Steven Moore's fine companion, `A reader's guide to William Gaddis'
The Recognitions' in Strand Bookstall, Bombay. One filed under
Computer Science, the other augmenting the jumble which constitutes
their eclectic and rather haphazardly arranged literature section.
Sweetest of all was the price - 180 rupees, which is roughly $5.00
(that's about L3.00 in old money).

Reading highlights included a second traversal of Gaddis' JR - as luck
would have it I decided to take it rather than The Recognitions, space
considerations requiriong a choice to be made - and a first dip into
Swift with his Tale of a Tub and related works (Battle of the Books
etc). Also began reading up on Buddhism and found lots of food for
thought wrt our boy Tom.

Anyway, I have been back long enough to have fetched the latest
correspondence from the server, installed Nov/Dec in the archive and
had a quick browse to see how y'all have been doing. Joe, Chris and
John seem to have kept the discussion well fuelled - what with over
800 notes in November/December and over 500 by mid-January we are a
prolix lot, are we not.

I won't attempt to post comments on the sections I missed although my
battered GR was adorned with many a scrawl as I followed the relevant
sections from the other side of the world to most of you. But I will
be picking up the discussion with a posting for section 9 this
Friday. Unless anyone else wants to take a turn, that is - if so send
me a post real soon and I'll be happy to let someone else hold the
reins. Ok, ok, the only comment I will make for now - cannot resist
this one - is to point out a lovely phrase in the section of GRGR(8)
which links from Roger's bathroom paranoia to the Baby Jeeter (oops,
wrong book) Jesus scene. It's page 130, line 15 where Pynchon talks of
toothpaste `leaving white spots across the quicksilver mirrors from
Harrow to Gravesend ... ' a perfect, crystal reflection on maculate
mortality and the immaculate redeemer.  Now that's what I call a
segway . . .


Andrew Dinn
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And though Earthliness forget you,
To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
To the rushing water speak:  I am.