jewel block / Dance the Eagle to Sleep / blurbs

[kent mueller]

I look at that list of blurbs P has written and wonder how many of those
books Candida D. (his agent) had a hand in. Danato? Imagine they sent the
mss. through her...Generous on his part, though. Don't think Gaddis -- her
other class act -- blurbed except for friends...

Kent Mueller


> From: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 22:10:23 -0600
> To: Pynchon Liste <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Subject: Re: jewel block / Dance the Eagle to Sleep / blurbs
> 
> On 1/22/06, Toby G Levy <tobylevy at juno.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Seaman Bodine is spending his time in obscene amusement
> 
> had to know what a jewel block is:
> 
> {Jewel block} (Naut.), block at the extremity of a yard,
> through which the halyard of a studding sail is rove.
> 
> so Bodine would be sitting astride the yardarm to get close to this thing?
> ---------------------------------
> Just read "Dance the Eagle to Sleep" - possible influence on some of
> the College of the Surf scenes in Vineland.  However unlikely that
> I'll be spoiling it for anybody, still I'll skip a few lines
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> She takes 3 main guy characters, and 2 main girl characters, maybe
> chooses the most susceptible to the revolutionary ethos: the
> lower-class dreamer with a visionary gift (Corey), the smart kid too
> early to profit from the Revenge of the Nerds mentality (Billy), the
> pampered artist type (Shawn) / Jill/Joanna rebellious Army brat and
> Ginny, sweet girl who's misconstrued as a dumb slut....
> the chemistry of the guys (and girls, because at first they are happy
> to release their energy more freely) at first gels to produce a
> movement and a commune, the girls get oppressed by the new regime but
> in reality supply its reality
> 
> then things get heavy, the temptation of militarism is yielded to
> 
> and there is mass carnage as the System asserts control (who was saved?)
> 
> also a 4th guy character (Marcus) emerges, when a group of black urban
> youths first "takes over" a national forest area, and then is picked
> off one by one till only he remains - Piercy anticipates the "reality
> show" by having TV crews follow the National Guard around in this
> police action
> 
> Ginny picks up Marcus at the meetpoint and trucks him to safety, Billy
> gets offed in hopeless battle against the Man, Corey gets bulldozed
> after impregnating Ginny, Joanna gets captured and re-programmed by
> shock and insulin therapy, Shawn gets half-blinded
> 
> (the group called themselves "Indians" and Ghost Dancing was part of
> Corey's early vision - there were lots of them for awhile)
> 
> after limping away, Shawn and Marcus see Ginny thru labor, in a cabin
> on a road not on the map, and they still think that the system needs
> to change -- and that's where she leaves it
> 
> anyway - cautionary tale, for those who remember how very serious some
> of us were about "the Revolution" -- these were real outcomes for
> people I knew (not close friends, mostly, since I was a bit young for
> all that) - the book came out in 1970 and hopefully scared some kids
> into staying out of the worst of it...
> 
> analysis of the Youth Movement through emotional and sympathetic eyes,
> carrying things a step further than they mostly actually went here
> (thank goodness)
> 
> She makes so clear how many things were missing from the revolutionary
> worldview, yet how compelling the feelings were
> 
> ----------- Pynchon blurbs
> I didn't know he had blurbed so many: I do have some reading to do!
> from a Keith McMullen post in 2002 there are
> 
>> Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me
>> Richard Fariña
> 
>> My Escape from the CIA (And Other Improbable Events)
>> Hughes Rudd
> 
>> Looking for Baby Paradise
>> John Speicher
> 
>> DeFord
>> David Shetzline
>> 
>> Nog
>> Rudolph Wurlitzer
>> 
>> Dance the Eagle to Sleep
>> Marge Piercy
>> 
>> Ayisha
>> Helen Noga
>> 
>> SDS: Ten Years Toward a Revolution
>> Kirkpatrick Sale
>> 
>> Amazon One
>> Mary F. Beal
>> 
>> Far Tortuga
>> Peter Matthiessen
>> 
>> Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
>> Tom Robbins
>> 
>> Pagan Blessing
>> Phyllis Gebauer
>> 
>> Sounding the Territory
>> Laurel Goldman
>> 
>> Days Between Stations
>> Steve Erickson
>> 
>> Lion at the Door
>> David Attoe
>> 
>> Destiny Express
>> Howard A. Rodman
>> 
>> Stone Junction: An Alchemical Potboiler
>> Jim Dodge
>> 
>> Mao II
>> Don DeLillo
>> 
>> Mad Dog
>> Jack Kelly
>> 
>> We've Had A Hundred Years of Psychotherapy And The
>> World's Getting Worse
>> James Hillman and Michael Ventura
>> 
>> Arc d'X
>> Steven Erickson
>> 
>> Evolove (Poems)
>> John Berenzy
>> 
>> CivilWarLand in Bad Decline: Stories and a Novella
>> George Saunders
>> 
>> Sewer, Gas & Electric: The Public Works Trilogy
>> Matt Ruff
>> 
>> Dreamland: Travels Inside the Secret World of
>> Roswell and Area 51
>> Phil Patton
>> 
>> The Restraint of Beasts
>> Magnus Mills
>> 
>> Slackjaw
>> Jim Knipfel
>> 
>> The Testament of Yves Gundron
>> Emily Barton
>> 
>> A confraria dos espadas
>> Rubem Fonseca
>> 
>> The Verificationist
>> Donald Antrim
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
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