M&D: Reading and rereading - no spoilers

[andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk]

Foax,

I have been taking M&D very slowly, so far having proceeded no further
than about 90 pages. In part this is down to circumstance - other
books and people keep popping up between me and M&D. And in part it is
my own fault - after reaching page 90 I decided to go back to page 1
and reread everything slowly and painfully with the aid of an Atlas,
my Shorter OED and whatever other reference books came in useful. My
purpose in doing so was i) to curb my eagerness to know the full story
in order that I might enjoy the telling more ii) to make sure I read
the *full* story as opposed to the half-baked version that a race to
the finish would produce.

So, I started reading and asking questions and making notes and
looking up references and drawing up hypotheses and discerning trends
and so on and so on until I began to feel like I was in group reading
mode yet again. M&D, like GR, is a good book to take a slow pace with,
to read and reread in small snippets and to do a lot of background
research and thinking about. The second reading made a lot more sense,
the language flowed more easily, I became far more aware of the way
the narrative and dialogue are constructed. And I began to start
seeing what potentially look like large scale motifs and themes.

Which leads me to wonder if maybe a slow group reading like the one
for GR would not be a bad thing to embark upon. A pace of about 15
pages per fortnight should ensure that the group read does not run
ahead of any individual lister's current high water mark. And a
thorough treatment of such small blocks should unearth lots of little
gems whilst at the same time allowing larger themes to emerge. As per
the GRGR we should be able to minimise inconvenience to listers who do
not wish to participate by suitable labelling of our postings.

So, the question is does anyone want to set sail on the S******* with
Capt G****?  I would be happy to divide the book up and take
responsibility for discussion of at least some of the resulting
sections, posting a list of comments, questions and answers to kick
off discussion. If others want to join in the debate or even take
control for the odd fortnight or two please respond. If there is
enough interest we will go for it.


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