COL49: The beginning is the beginning is the end

[Otto]

This is what I have posted on June 6, 2000:

We all know what TRP has said about CL 49, but nonetheless I still think
that it´s a good way into Pynchon. All these over-deteminated signs,
entropy, information theory stuff, conspiracies, paranoia, the language. All
those different 49s from the Gold Rush to the I Ching, the 49 days in the
Bardo Thödol, 49 days between Easter and Whitsunday (at the end of the book
the miracle of whitsunday doesn´t happen), LSD, San Francisco 49ers. He
really got into dictionary work like Gertrude Stein to put every "lot" into
his story he could find. Maybe it´s all too much in a short text, but this
is generally the way TRP works in his longer novels too. So CL 49 is a good
way getting students of Anglistik into it cuz it´s short and no student got
the time to read V., GR or M&D during the semester. But you can send them
into the dictionaries.

Otto

"Forty-nine Clive as well forty-nine Clive as well forty-nine sixty-nine
seventy-nine eighty-nine one hundred and nine Clive as well forty-nine Clive
as well which is that it presses it to be or to be stay or to be twenty a
day or to be next to be or to be twenty to stay or to be which never
separates two more two women. (...) Wishing for Patriarchal Poetry."
Gertrude Stein <The Yale Gertrude Stein >


----- Original Message -----
From: Saioued Al-Zaioued <chicagoist at hotmail.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2001 9:17 PM
Subject: COL49: The beginning is the beginning is the end


> Dear loyal 49ers, and you not so loyal types
>
> Today we will start an excersize in futility. We will begin reading a book
> that its very own author considers flawed. We will begin reading the book
> that certain people force themselves to read in order to say that they
have
> read pynchon, forever boosting their ego and intellectual credibility into
> the ranks of 'Pynchon Readers.' It is safe to say that most people who
have
> read Pynchon have only really read COL49, that flawed work which is to me
> more a symbol of vanity than a great work of a great mind. In this sense
> what we are doing is futile, we are pushing for the vanity that so plagues
> the field of intellectual pursuit, further inoculating it into this little
> culture of cultures, this field that is more like damnation than the
> salvation it claims to be; yes buddy, you guessed it, the field of Art.
>
> But there is something special about this book. Most people discover
Pynchon
> in a very serendipitous manner; searching for an author of certain
> complexity and depth, someone smart, young and adventurous, wierd and
geeky,
> heck maybe even avant garde. That search continues until one day someone
> casually drops into a conversation his name, or even his adjective
> 'Pynchonesque', and if we are willing to admit our ignorance we ask this
> person forthright about this pynchon, or we go look it up in our little
> encyclopedias or via our search engines.  Our curiosity has been pricked,
> and it will be in flames the more we look into this pynchon dude, this man
> like the wizard of Oz behind his curtain. And the special thing about
COL49
> (other than the ravishing Mrs. Maas)  is that  it is the vial of crack
that
> gets you started on a very powerful  addiction that could last a lifetime.
> its something you can't quite shake, you become (like a crack ho') jaded,
> wiser, and a more intelligent living aficiando of life, not because of the
> things you do see, but because of the things you CAN see if you read into
> things with the intensity and seriousness that Pynchon wants you to read
> them in his work and in life in general.  The complexity can also be quite
> hilarious, and that is after all why we are all here, its because we enjoy
> it. I think Joyce coined the term Jocoserious, but Pynchon is the one who
> seemed to engrain it in nearly every sentence he ever writes.  So kids,
get
> ready to be crack-heads, and veterans I raise my 40 to you and spill some
> for the homies who are no longer with us.
>
>
> Here is the format and the list, I will send my stuff later today.
>
> August 1 Chapter 1 Saud S. Al-Zaid
> August 4 Chapter 2 cj hurtt
> August 7 Chapter 3 pp. 44-64 Meg Larson
> August 10 Chapter 3 pp. 65-80 cfa, calbert (I will help if you need it)
> August 13 Chapter 4 Patrik Lynch
> August 16 Chapter 5 pp. 100-124 John Bailey
> August 19 Chapter 5 pp. 124 -145 Soren Balslev
> August 21 Chapter 6 pp. 146-165 Dave Monroe
> August 24 Chapter 6 pp. 166-183 Sam Moyer
>
>
>
>
> 1.Quick summary of the section (Summary)
> 2.Important detail(s) that the person finds interesting, with perhaps a
> little bit of research (Juicy Bits)
> 3.Raise an issue in the text, take a stance, and then run for cover.
> (Dialectic Dynamo)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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