AtD--How Does it Fit

[pynchonoid]

Corroborating what I heard from somebody who used to
work with Pynchon, as reported here a while back (I
think; I know I mentioned to several folks offlist),
Pynchon is said to have asked to tighten up on the
ARC's.



--- Sean Carroll <vollinator at hotmail.com> wrote:

> 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
> >>
> >>
> >>
> 
>
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