ATDTDA (5.1) - The Etienne-Louis Malus

[Paul Mackin]

On Mar 19, 2007, at 4:46 PM, David Morris wrote:

> On 3/19/07, Carvill John <johncarvill at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> In response to Mike Bailey:
>>
>> >>In the 'real' world of Against the Day, are there a lot of  
>> airships peopled by daring adventurer crews?
>>
>> >mos' def'!
>>
>> You seem so sure! I know the Chums have their Tetris-playing  
>> Russian counterparts, and there's that Penny Black and her crew...  
>> but is there any evidence that any of these sets of baloonists  
>> 'exists' outside of the Chums' world?
>
> The evidence that the CoC exist in the "real" world of AtD is in their
> interaction with characters on the ground in Chicago and elsewhere
> (Merle, Dahly, Lew, etc.).  And it the CoC exist, what would be the
> obstacle for believing that the other airship crews described exist?
>
> David Morris


Everyone in AtD is real. It's just that AtD isn't real. it's counter- 
factual, fantastic, the conflicts are pure play acting, we never  
really feel people suffering. In actual fact, American history,  
including labor history, was full of suffering--bloody body  parts  
lying around all over. Like we see in  Iraq and the Middle-East on TV  
every evening. AtD shields us from that. Just as GR shielded us from  
the horrors of WWII. Pynchon's style of novel writing  makes things  
and characters better than they really are. Aristotle would call it  
comedy.

Or maybe not. Who's really to say.

Anyway the guy can really write.