ATDTDA fizzling out?

[Tore Rye Andersen]

Is it just me, or does the ATD group read seem to be dying a slow, but 
certain death? Out of the 50 last posts to the p-list, eight or so have been 
related to AtD, and it's getting harder and harder to see that a group read 
of Pynchon's latest masterpiece is in progress.

This is certainly due to no faults of the hosts. Dave, Tim, Monte, Michel 
and John have all done excellent jobs, and have clearly all put a huge 
amount of work into their hosting sessions, but somehow their work hasn't 
elicited the response it deserves, and it's not been hard to sense the 
frustration of the last couple-three hosts as their insightful posts have 
yet again been met by what has mostly been deafening silence.

As it is now, only between five and ten p-listers seem to contribute to the 
group read on any regular basis, and given the number of passionate Pynchon 
lovers on the list, this hardly seems satisfactory.

So my question is: Has this group read of AtD simply been premature? I 
realize that the original group read of M&D began a couple of months after 
publication, just like this group read, and by all accounts it was an 
enjoyable experience, but M&D was in many ways a much easier novel to digest 
than the huge and complex AtD. I'm not sure how to explain the silence this 
time around, but my guess is that AtD has simply been too big a mouthful for 
such an early group read. Most p-listers have probably read AtD one time - 
if that - and if they haven't taken notes as they went along, much of the 
complex novel will already be forgotten again - understandably enough.

So what do you say, fellow p-listers? Should we simply cut our losses here, 
and put this group read out of its misery before it dies of its own accord? 
Or should we try to struggle along? If we decide to struggle along, I think 
we owe it to ourselves and to the hosts to up the participation a notch or 
two - the current level of energy seems way too low to carry us through an 
additional 900 pages. So should we adjourn the ATDTDA and reconvene in a 
year or so, or should we try to continue?

Feel free to disagree with me, by any means. I would certainly prefer the 
group read to continue, but preferably with the active participation of more 
p-listers.

A final note: Bekah has probably already put a big amount of work into her 
hosting session, so if we decide to adjourn the group read for the time 
being, we should probably go through her session first (and the same goes, 
of course, for any subsequent hosts who've already prepared their sessions).

Best,

Tore

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