MMM / thanks! / NP TR and DFW

[Paul Mackin]

On Mar 12, 2006, at 4:38 AM, Michael Bailey wrote:

> On 3/11/06, Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miraculous_Medal mentioned in  
>>> Vineland as
>>> a nice nod to GR - some of this Catholic lore is Really interesting!
>>> I finally found it in Vineland: p 337 but now, to find it in GR?
>>
>> It's in that  Christmas interlude where Roger and Jessica "come  
>> upon a church." p 135
>>
>> Listed along with other symbols of hope (including Dumbo's magic  
>> feather) in a world mired in War.
>>
>
>  Thanks!  There's a site amm.org, where I signed the guest book and
> apparently will be mailed a free one, they also have upgrades
>
> The medals and Dumbo's feather, and other relics (pieces of bone!)
> clutched in the churchgoers' hands underscore the role of faith and
> hope in wartime...as does their going to church at all,  and that
> Roger and Jessica go there shows their little double-bubble of
> non-War-living trying to unite with other souls who have extra-War
> hopes - "For the moment anyway, no longer who the Caesars say you
> are." (138 in my non-standard PGB GR, probably 136 in the other one)
>
> Tom Robbins in one of his recent books expatiates on the 3 visions of
> St Bernadette, one of which has been kept secret by the Vatican to
> this very day
>
> Ok, so my friend is trying to learn more about German culture, and is
> a WWII buff as well, so I told him, "you ought to read GR" and he says
> ok, I've heard that was good...
> and went out and bought a new copy (couldn't find one used, he said)
> -- "that was easy," I thought
> so we go bike riding today and afterwards chilling at his place, he
> says, "by the way, you might like this"
> and plops a copy of Infinite Jest down on the table
> it's got a bunch of footnotes about drugs, and some previous reader
> left a page of notepaper in it saying "I gave up at page 126"

Quite a challenge introducing Pynchon to new readers, though both GR
and V. should have gained  contemporary appeal from that Knights  
Templar and Grail
craze being so strong.

Re-titling might help.

da V.

da Secret  Lusts in the Sky