Cricket in ATD

Sun Dec 10 08:31:08 CST 2006

Hi Dave (and thanks also to everyone who responded both on and off-list),

Thanks for your e-mail and your kind words of welcome. I'm glad a number of
people seem to have found this interesting or at least illuminating. I
considered a spoiler alert but I was careful to do no more than mention the
title "the Doosra" with nothing about the context. But I'm new here and if I
did breach etiquette in any way then I apologise most profusely - I suspect
it'll take me at least one lifetime to catch up. I wasn't aware that there
was a group read - I'd be grateful if someone could point me to information
on this and then I'll certainly watch out at the appropriate time and if
there's any help I can offer I'll be only too pleased to do so. 

I've already signed up to the Wiki you mention and am awaiting confirmation.
I'll certainly add info on any subjects I can. I've already found many of
the articles there very useful as I'll admit that, during my time at school
at least, the British educational system was strangely silent on matters
such as labour relations and anarchism in the pre-WWI US mining industry. I
expect Mr Blair has rectified this by now. 

I suppose I probably do have a different perspective from the more seasoned
readers amongst you so be gentle with me, won't you? Am I the only person
who feels that ATD simply LOOKS accessible in purely physical terms?
Somehow, well, "airy" is the word that comes to my mind, as though the
reader is free to take it however s/he may choose. I'd been building up to
reading one of Pynchon's novels for a while, the balance was tipped by a
number of things: the Scottish crime writer Ian
<http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,,1950558,00.
html>  Rankin's article in The Guardian on 18/11/06, i.e. a piece by a
non-highbrow author (I mean that as a compliment!) suggesting that there was
much FUN to be had - and he was dead right about that - a couple of reviews
in the UK press generally opining that this was fine stuff but probably not
as "great" as the other novels (a bit of critical sniffiness is often a good
sign, isn't it?) and then I came across the book itself in a shop and it
spoke to me. Oh and I'd finished a book the previous evening so I needed to
start a new one and there it was.  

I'm certainly not finding it at all inaccessible. I suspect that it'd offer
different points of entry for different people. In my own case clearly
there's the cricket, also the wonderfully Dickensian way with character
names and the liberties (not to mention equalities and fraternities) taken
with certain European languages. I get my own daily bread as a translator so
this appeals to me. On the other hand much of the scientific stuff goes over
(or takes other tangential routes around) my head and there I have to ask
for help - the Pynchon Wiki is invaluable in that respect. I can't say
whether it's more accessible than any of the others because I've not read
them - yet. All I can say is that it's proved a wonderful place to start for
me personally. 

Anyway, as soon as my account on the Wiki is confirmed I'll certainly see
about adding what information I can. Once again, thanks to everyone who
wrote to welcome me to this world. 

Nick

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Monroe [mailto:monropolitan at yahoo.com] 
Sent: 09 December 2006 21:29
To: Nick Halliwell; pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: Cricket in ATD

Welcome!  Thanks!  This will prove invaluable info, do

think at least about signing on/annotating @ ...

http://pynchonwiki.com/

... as well.  But keep in mind, while I doubt this has

ruined any plotlines for anyone still in progress

(like myself, but then again, I skipped ahead to the

last line first thing, so ...), you might want to add

a "spoiler alert" or somesuch to yr subject when

skipping so far ahead (esp. as we'll be [re]starting

in earnest as a group Jan. 22nd).  E.g. "ATD 756

Spoiler" or somesuch (though, again, this isn't an

issue to me personally).  Anyway ...

--- Nick Halliwell <nick.halliwell at btclick.com> wrote:

> 

> I've just joined this list today as I'm now around

> 770 pages into Against The Day. This is the first

> of Mr Pynchon's books I've read, I'm ashamed to

> say, but I am absolutely captivated and it won't be

> the last. 

Can ANYONE else here say that?  Do keep posting, 'cos

you're likley going to have a persepctive that no one

else here canm possibly have anymore.  Plus, I knew

this might prove one of his most accessible novels,

page/character/plotlin counts be damned ...

> More than anything I'm astonished that Mr Pynchon,

> an American author, is clearly so well-versed in

> the game of cricket.

The acary thing is, Pynchon at least seems (though he

has at times revealed the skeletal research on which

the flesh of his facts and the musculatures of his

histories hang) well-versed in EVERYTHING.  Peruse,

for example, that wiki linked above.  But everything

from physics to philately, from the instrumentaion of

New World exploration to the economics of the

artificial dye industry to the politics of Central

Asian transliteration to ...

> I should probably start by declaring an interest:

> as an Englishman the game of cricket is an important

> part of my own cultural make-up. It seems to crop

> up very regularly in ATD and I'm curious as to how

> on earth Mr Pynchon comes to know so much about our

> summer game?

THAT, however, might be his crowning achievement. 

Again, thanks for the rest here, do remind of us of

all of it plus any ensuing discussion when we hit that

section again in the group read (in fact, think

seriously about hosting that section when it comes

up--oh, Tim ...).  Again, welcome and thanks!

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