Atdtda23: [45.2] The other one, 647

[Michael Bailey]

On 12/6/07, Michael Bailey wrote:

> but for me, the people to foreground
> are the Traverses.
>

the other speculations I put around this one were pretty
lame - I have the worst cold I've had in years - but
this still seems like an entry point to AtD that I've only
begun to use:
the legacy of Webb
the Traverse position in the social spectrum
each Traverse's individual reactions and personality
the implications of the changing partnerships
would attributions to elements (ie Tarot suits) rather than Tarot trumps
   be more apt for the T-siblings?
looking for particular orderings of narrative - does the
   story follow "Lake, Reef, Frank, Kit" in any repeating order?

not for a moment saying that the "family" theme is so
predominant as to render other viewpoints unimportant
or to effortlessly sum up the book...
there's lots of other great stuff that I really like, such as the
Chums episodes,
the language, and the flashes of "yeah, that's how it is/was/could be"
and reading things that "oft were thought but ne'er so well expressed"

-- all the "uniquely-Pynchon" stuff in fact -- and teasing
out a notion of what exactly that is & what makes it so great
as everybody has been doing...
not to mention all the details and references from the read that
I never would have caught on my own...

from a mass of sniffles, then, speaking just for me -
at the halfway point, this so far has been a very great group read.
On a par with some classes I've had, in fact.

However, we still have a long way to go: have to capture all the
nuances, references, and propound (as well as prove) the
Grand Unified Theory of Pynchon...

thanks everybody so far, and -- non-sectarianly,
ecumenically, and very blue-stateishly, not to mention
early -- "Happy Holidays"  --

there's snow, finally, out here in Kansas, but I insulated
around the door (finally) so why the heck do I have this cold?
everybody I know seems to be using Zicam, but I have
developed a fondness for Chloraseptic...
(cough sniffle wheeze)