pynchon-l-digest V2 #2054

[luther blissett]

  I did in fact realise, after I sent that message, that it was sort of 
unfair of me to be a silent observer for a year, then leap from behind the 
anonymity of email to criticize (although without naming names) and 
bad-mouth the lack of focus on the list.
  So here is the only bit of even perepherally relevant data I can add to 
the M&D read- since I'm in the middle of another book and have a stack I 
swore I would finish before I went back to read more Pynchon (or Gaddis).
  Peter C. Newman's fine tome on the history of the Hudson Bay Company, 
_Empire of the Bay_ had a footnote that reminded me of Mssrs' M and D, on 
page 222:
  "*(William) Wales sailed around the world as chief astronomer on Captain 
James Cook's second expedition and later became mathamatical master at 
Christ's Hospital, where he numbered among his students Charles Lamb, Leigh 
Hunt and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  Because of the scheduals of supply ships, 
Wales had to spend a full year (Sept. 1768 to Sept. 1769) at Churchill (a 
frozen inhospitiable Hudson Bay fort) to record a celestial event that 
lasted only seven hours- most of it invisible because of cloud cover."
  Must have sucked, eh?
ben

>Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 20:50:57 -0500
>From: "argirios zias" <argirioszias at hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: weighing in
>
>Why don't you weigh in with a M&D post.
>There are not a few that are in the middle of
>discussing chapter one. Lots and lots to say about it
>that hasn't been said. It will take a little more effort
>than standing up to shut everyone else up  by
>only reminding us of what we know better than you, that we have  a very
>pluralistic bunch here at Pynchon-l and it's frustrating for all of us from
>time to time, but we do manage, as someone recently said, to read and
>discuss Pynchon's novels here, all of them have
>beenn read and discussed here, but we have some people that feel they need
>to or want  to say something to this list about current events.
>This is also welcome. It's simple, really, post on what it is you would 
>like
>to see discussed. If it's on M&D or GR or any P novel, you won't have to
>read but the ones that follow your thread to get a lot out of the good
>people here.
>
>Gary


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