AtD--How Does it Fit

[Ya Sam]

Just for a brief moment I regretted: Oh Lord, why am I not a reviewer?


>From: "Sean Carroll" <vollinator at hotmail.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: AtD--How Does it Fit
>Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 10:46:02 -0400
>
>According to my contact at Penguin ARC's will only be distributed to 
>reviewers.  From what he told me there is a very tight lid on them.  
>Apparently, the author fears the book, or large portions of it, being 
>leaked.  Maybe that is why he wrote the blurb and allowd the one page 
>excerpt for the Penguin Press catalogue.  Perhaps he thought this 
>information would sate the reading public.
>
>
>>From: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
>>To: "Jason Helms" <helmstreet at hotmail.com>
>>CC: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>Subject: Re: AtD--How Does it Fit
>>Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 16:55:32 -0400
>>
>>I'm thinking within a month at the latest, the publisher would best start
>>distributing so reviewers have a month to read the thing in time for
>>publication. if it's as dense as GR, god help'em
>>
>>p.s. I get the feeling electricity will be an actual character in AtD,
>>caressing and tormenting. we're all so insulated today from the raw power 
>>of
>>the thing. not so, tesla and company and the folks gaping at the 
>>exposition
>>in 1893. i've read definitions but I still scratch me head--what the heck 
>>is
>>electricity really?
>>__________
>>
>>from current issue of NY Review of Books. interesting take on systems,
>>marxism, and parallels to end of 19th C today
>>http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19302 (tony judt's review of polish
>>philosopher, Leszek Kolakowsk.)
>>
>>"the attraction of one or another version of Marxism to intellectuals and
>>radical politicians in Latin America, for example, or in the Middle East,
>>never really faded; as a plausible account of local experience Marxism in
>>such places retains much of its appeal, just as it does to contemporary
>>anti-globalizers everywhere. The latter see in the tensions and 
>>shortcomings
>>of today's international capitalist economy precisely the same injustices
>>and opportunities that led observers of the first economic "globalization"
>>of the 1890s to apply Marx's critique of capitalism to new theories of
>>"imperialism."
>>
>>And since no one else seems to have anything very convincing to offer by 
>>way
>>of a strategy for rectifying the inequities of modern capitalism, the 
>>field
>>is once again left to those with the tidiest story to tell and the 
>>angriest
>>prescription to offer. Recall Heine's prophetic observations about Marx 
>>and
>>his friends at the midpoint of the nineteenth century, in the high years 
>>of
>>Victorian growth and prosperity: "These revolutionary doctors and their
>>pitilessly determined disciples are the only men in Germany who have any
>>life; and it is to them, I fear, that the future
>>belongs."[19]<http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19302#fn19>
>>------------------------------
>>
>>
>>
>>... that moribund, system-building explanations of the left may indeed be
>>due for revival—if only as a counterpoint to the irritating overconfidence
>>of contemporary free-marketeers of the right—In the early years of this 
>>new
>>century we thus find ourselves facing two opposite and yet curiously 
>>similar
>>fantasies. The first fantasy, most familiar to Americans but on offer in
>>every advanced country, is the smug, irenic insistence by commentators,
>>politicians, and experts that today's policy consensus—lacking any clear
>>alternative—is the condition of every well-managed modern democracy and 
>>will
>>last indefinitely; that those who oppose it are either misinformed or else
>>malevolent and in either case doomed to irrelevance. The second fantasy is
>>the belief that Marxism has an intellectual and political future: not 
>>merely
>>in spite of communism's collapse but because of it. Hitherto found only at
>>the international "periphery" and in the margins of academia, this renewed
>>faith in Marxism—at least as an analytical tool if not a political
>>prognostication—is now once again, largely for want of competition, the
>>common currency of international protest movements.
>>
>>The similarity, of course, consists in a common failure to learn from the
>>past—and a symbiotic interdependence, since it is the myopia of the first
>>that lends spurious credibility to the arguments of the second. Those who
>>cheer the triumph of the market and the retreat of the state, who would 
>>have
>>us celebrate the unregulated scope for economic initiative in today's 
>>"flat"
>>world, have forgotten what happened the last time we passed this way. They
>>are in for a rude shock (though, if the past is a reliable guide, probably
>>at someone else's expense). As for those who dream of rerunning the 
>>Marxist
>>tape, digitally remastered and free of irritating Communist scratches, 
>>they
>>would be well-advised to ask sooner rather than later just what it is 
>>about
>>all-embracing "systems" of thought that leads inexorably to all-embracing
>>"systems" of rule. On this, as we have seen, Leszek Kolakowski can be read
>>with much profit. But history records that there is nothing so powerful as 
>>a
>>fantasy whose time has come.'--tony judt
>>rich
>>
>>
>>On 9/15/06, Jason Helms <helmstreet at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>OOH, rich.  That's hot shit.  I really dig this reading.  At the same
>>>time,
>>>I realize that maybe I should wait to construct all my grand narratives
>>>until the book has actually come out.  Speaking of which, are there any
>>>ARCs
>>>out there?  Will there be?
>>>-Helms
>>>
>>>
>>> >HI all--
>>>
>>>just speculating here but AtD would seem (based on pynchon's own
>>>description) to be the the third installment along with V., and GR of a
>>>huge
>>>mediation on modern culture, imperialism, technology, war, and
>>>apocalypse--from a global perspective.
>>>
>>>I would argue that Lot49, Vineland, and M&D hang together as its main
>>>concerns are with America--it's late potential for bad shit in the 1st;
>>>it's
>>>specific betrayals in the 2nd; and its promising beginnings, if you will.
>>>
>>>I like Doug's idea that Pynchon may have been writing this for a long
>>>time.
>>>AtD could represent the fullfillment of Pynchon's dream of finishing the
>>>books he had in his head back in the early 1960s. but as three large
>>>novels,
>>>not four as he stated at the time.
>>>
>>>of course, it could be something completely different
>>>
>>>rich
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
>Call friends with PC-to-PC calling -- FREE   
>http://imagine-msn.com/messenger/launch80/default.aspx?locale=en-us&source=wlmailtagline
>

_________________________________________________________________
FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar - get it now! 
http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/