More Against the Days

[kelber at mindspring.com]

It's a mega-profitable purveyor of bad coffee at hugely inflated prices. It's become a cultural icon, loosely connoting dot.commers and yuppies.  It was actually an easy kind of cultural jab for Pynchon to make.  I preferred his teenage girl, who punctuated every sentence with the word "as,"  instead of "like."

Due to unfortunate financial circumstances, I actually applied for an $8.75/hour job at Starbucks a couple of days ago. My  interviewer said "Here at Starbucks, we believe in providing each customer with a legendary experience.  Do you feel you can provide a legendary experience to each client you serve?"  I said yeah.  Don't think I'm getting a callback, because I couldn't come up with three professional references who could swear that I was capable of pouring coffee into a paper cup.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com>
>Sent: Oct 17, 2006 5:48 PM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: More Against the Days
>
>Which reminded me. Some reviewers have noticed that there are references to 
>Starbucks cafe in Mason & Dixon. When I was reading the book I hadn't yet 
>seen one (anyway when I finally went to one in London it turned out pretty 
>bloody expensive). My question is: what are these references, and why 
>specifically Starbucks? I'm not sure he has used this word, although 
>anything is possible...
>
>
>>From: kelber at mindspring.com
>>Reply-To: kelber at mindspring.com
>>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>Subject: Re: More Against the Days
>>Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 17:30:36 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
>>
>>I doubt Pynchon's going to rigidly lock himself into the mindset of the 
>>early 20th century.  Anything Pynchon is aware of now is fair game.
>>
>>Laura
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>> >From: Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net>
>> >Sent: Oct 17, 2006 4:12 PM
>> >To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> >Subject: Re: More Against the Days
>> >
>> >
>> >I sort of like the ideas kicking around this morning about the
>> >calamitous (post 1914) 20th century being in some way a focus of the
>> >book
>> >
>> >How aware were the people of what was to come?
>> >
>> >There were indications I'm sure.
>> >
>> >Pynchon isn't  going to settle for any dry old rationalistic theory
>> >of history approach--marxian, toynbeen, spenglerian,  vigoniian what
>> >have you
>> >
>> >Anyone remember that Blavatskian wing of psi section?
>> >
>> >Madam Blavatsky is said to have predicted the cataclysms Our Time
>> >time using esoteric methods
>> >
>> >Pynchon is the ideal person to  do a complete reworking along these
>> >lines
>> >
>> >Doesn't everyone think?
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>
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