GRGR such as never?

[Cometman]

What is a home without Plumtree's potted meat?
Incomplete.
With it an abode of bliss.

------------------------------------------------------
all these details in 1,4 like acupuncture points, places that affect my
heart and mind (for that manner earlier ones too, as Mr Scheper and/or
Mr McMullen mentioned, the soldiers ENJOY being assimilated into the
Adenoid, that's gotta be worth more consideration) 

but I really want to use a day on a goopy post like this:


If I were a Pynchon character, I'd want to be:

Osbie Feel - good hallucinogens

Paola - she is sexy, but also sweet and innocent

Pierce Inverarity - dead, but left a heckuva legacy

the guy in M&D who gets married

Lloyd Nipple - just because

Zoyd Wheeler (of course)

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been taking a look at Denise Levertov's poetry the last few days.  She
participated in the People's Park activism.  Good stuff.

Also like Kinky Friedman's detective stories, and I did like that other
one about the guy who found a copy of Tears of a Clown

----------------------- 

never introduced myself properly:
i'm cometman, my buddy Bartholomew gave me the nickname because my last
name, Bailey, rhymes with Halley. 
We used to ride Nortons together - we've fallen out of touch though.
There was already a cometman on yahoo when I signed up in 98, hence the
98.  The Norton was back in 1974 though - Bartholomew is a good
mechanic, but I had as much trouble keeping mine running as Dumpster
Villard had with differential equations.  

cometman
"There are a few things in life that make it worth living.  Among those
I count the work of Thomas Pynchon." - cometman


PS   Gave a copy of V. to my friend Dan back in high school, he said it
was the best book he ever read.

Gravity's Rainbow I mostly read leaning against the wall of my parents'
front porch in 1973 in Michigan sitting on the concrete.  Don't
remember being uncomfortable.  Just kept thinking, "this is really
great stuff!"  Was kind of bummed at the ending, but the song makes up
for a lot.  

I read V. out loud to my ladyfriend (now my wife) sitting in Krystal's
hamburger joint in Florida when we were courting - hadn't ever got the
"decky-dance" pun before that.  She liked it.

When Vineland came out, I read it sitting in my car under an orange
tree, and when I finished it the first time, told my friends and family
"there are a few things that make life worth living; one of them is the
novels of Thomas Pynchon!"  Problem with number agreement in that, but
the sentiment still remains.

Bought Slow Learner in a bookstore, obviously, I have this vivid
eidetic image of the shelf, and my spouse used to have an Afghan hound
named Etienne.  That was before I met her.

Gave Vineland to a friend, a redheaded lady, who also devoured it.  She
liked the bit about males interacting with each other through the
woman.  She was disappointed that Crying of Lot 49 was so short, but
realized, like I did, that the message had been conveyed.

Was working through the personal changes involved with finally getting
married when Mason & Dixon came out, haven't assimilated its messages
very well yet (M&D, though I'm sure that marriage has a lot more to
teach me as well.)  The guy in the bookstore told me I needed to read
it again - he could tell by looking at me, I guess.  My favorite bit at
present is where the guy decides to get married (of course) and what a
great decision it turned out to be!  Though we are "child-free", and
probably will remain so due to age - I'm 50 - and simply not getting
around to certain optional things like that - you know how it is -
still we have built together some things in our 7 years married (this
Wednesday) and 27 years together (more or less in line, to quote from
"Truckin'" - Marie likes the line about the Doo Dah Man).  Whomped
together a few good times. ewrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr89 (that was my cat -
he chimes in sometimes by walking on the keyboard...his name is Orion,
he's gray longhair and a cuddler; the other one sits on my other
computer, the laptop, and can turn on a music CD sometimes.  Her name
is Olympia.  Then we've got the 3-legged Lab, Mau-Mau.  
If she were a boy, she could be named Desmond)

Anyway, I'm really excited about the group read of Gravity's Rainbow;
I've already learned a lot.  Other projects going on, of course, such
as insulating the house (it leaks heat like a sieve); getting CCNA and
further networking certification for my career (minor functionary in
big telco), but also for fun; and somehow learning linear algebra as
Glenn Scheper suggested (I'm off this week - just till Friday night,
which certainly won't be enough time to learn linear algebra, but will
probably give me time to read Wingstrokes, I hope) 

Since there is a word about of a possible new novel, now I have (even
more) reason to live!  I'm totally bland, though, (blander than Lyle
Bland even) so enough about me.  Really.  Too fuckin perky by half.

The reason I think of Vineland as his Masterpiece is that according to
my knowledge, that was the piece one submitted to go up from journeyman
to Master, in the old medieval Guilds.  
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe GR is his Masterpiece, (by most standards, I
would have confidently said a few weeks ago, "a" masterpiece, but "his"
-- for this guy, fuck, dude -pffff - you expect more) - heck, already
I've had my coattail pulled to any number of things I missed.  I'm
rethinking it all over the place.  

Something about the emotions a literary work can inspire - Vineland
made me feel more sublime.  "Lawrence, of Arabia" - I'm still high on
that.  And I got glimpses during Mason & Dixon of better stuff yet,
which I may not exactly be ready for even.

"Emotions and such" as the man said on the Saturday Night Live skit a
few years back
----------
from a Kinky Friedman book: answering the phone
"Rear Admiral Rumphumper, how may I hump you -I mean, help you?"
"Do me a favor - never answer the phone that way again!"
he's got a Reichenbach Falls thing going on now off the Brooklyn Bridge
- could this be the end of Kinky the detective, or just a pause while
he runs for governor of Texas?