MDMD schedule

[Dave Monroe]

Despite my propensity to procrastinate, I'm all for
the   perhaps Procrustean, er, bed of the one week per
hsoting stint schedule myself, esp. as Mason & Dixon
consists of many, many often short chapters.  And from
the looks of things, we'll be on 'til next summer or
so, so ...

--- Samuel Moyer <smoyer at satx.rr.com> wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michel Ryckx" <michel.ryckx at freebel.net>
>
> > Thanks rj for posting an initial schedule.
> >
> > But I seem to remember a GR section took us two
> > weeks.  Isn't the pace a bit too fast?  I'd favour
> > the same rythm as we had while the GRGR. Two weeks
> > isn't too much.  As Dave Monroe said in his
> > prolegomena: "a genuine research project" --which
> > takes time.
> >
> > Michel.

And I began scouting and noting and reserving and
ordering and even pulling, from my very own Merton
College Library, titles this morning.  Might even read
a few of 'em.  But I'm excited already, definitely,
Chs. 2 & 3 for me, please, and I'll be glad to pick up
the odd stray thereafter (not to mention the
Vaucanson's Duck bit) ...

> Having been through VV and now COL49 - extremes in
> pace... we might try to learn something...  VV at
> two weeks for a section seemed too long.  Hosts
> drop off and no one picks up... the group read would
> die for weeks at a time.  Now with the 3 day read...

> which is way too fast for me, most of us aren't
> contributing as we would like, sections get skipped,
> or lightly covered...

Yeah, V. was pretty ragged, and we neglected esp. that
very interesting indeed "Epilogue."  Hoing for a solid
finale to the Crying of Lot 49, will do what I can to
assist to that end.  Of course, this is NOT all on
Sam's shoulders, so if y'all have anything to say ...

But my problem has been, I expend no small effort
preparing to host, I burn myself out over a few days'
manic, frantic readin' & typin' & postin', and then
I'm just not prepared from what comes next.  And I've
been waiting a year on some of this stuff ...

Again, hope I didn't step on any toes, I was under the
impression we'd stretched the schedule a bit near the
end, so I held off 'til it seemed that Soren was done,
and there was a lull in the action ...
 
> On the other hand, I would agree that we can't do "a
> genuine research project" at that pace... nor at a
> two week pace,  as a chapter by chapter review
> leaves out substantial areas of discussion....
> perhaps after a chapter by chapter discussion...
> we can continue with a discussion of various
> themes...

Well, what I miss is the sheer density of
participation there was even when I first signed on,
ca. last summer.    Even background research seemed,
if not quite always a collaborative effort, to be
carried on nonetheless by just about everybody
posting.  Ditto ongoing thematic diuscussions ...
 
> The tendency is to not jump ahead of the section you
> are in... so this puts you in a bind... for
> instance... it was difficult to speak of Sydney
> Stencil without a desire to point out events in the
> final chapter... then when the final chapter came...
> we were finished without a wrap up and onto COL49.

Well, I don't think we have to worry about "spoilers"
here, but there are advantages to discussing the texts
both as if you're reading along in them for the first
time and from the perspective of having read them. 
Again, I think the important think here is pluralism,
participation ...  

We could probably do with a little more focus,
sticking at least largely to the Pynchon text at hand,
but there are also advanatges to reading any given
text in light of the entire ouevre, esp. as they share
various elements (e.g., characters), themes, what have
you.  Mason & Dixon's gonna be old home week, in that
regard, so ...
 
> So I would suggest that we keep the one week
> calendar as suggested and use it to review each
> chapter as well as we can... then at the novel's
> conclusion, gather themes from the audience and deal
> with them also for a week or two at a time... just
> an idea from someone who still feels that we
> left V. incomplete.

And here's what we really could use, that review
session.  I wouldn't say, let's delay Mason & Dixon,
as there's already a tentative schedule, and it's a
LONG novel, but ... but it's what perhaps should have
been done after V., we ought to do what we can in that
regard after Lot 49 (the final run of which will prove
an excellent lead-in to M&D, I think), and we should
definitely plan on doing so after M&D.  Perhaps a
project for our Host of Hosts?  Excellent idea ...


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with Yahoo! Messenger
http://im.yahoo.com