Atdtda22: [42.2ii] The empty suburban lamplight, 614

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

                 Mark Kohut:
                 Once again, I'll risk reductionism by suggesting:
 
                 Natural light is almost always a positive in AtD.
                 Electric light is almost always not. 

Local Electrical/Gas companies were an important part of the Pynchco 
portfolio along with Edison. George Mallory Pynchon invested in high-tech 
developments and had been a keen enthusiast of the ongoing 'ray-race'

                 Laura;
                 . . . .in GR, Byron the Bulb haplessly struggling to give 
                 electricity over to the people by making it unprofitable f
                 or the powers that be. . . .

Byron's problem is that he's 'illuminated.'

Let me hear you say "Web[b] Traverse'. . . .

It's what my mom would call a Yea!/BOO!

                 . . . .The other day in the street I heard a city policeman in 
                 a police car, requesting over his car that a civilian car 
                 blocking his way move aside and let him past, all the while 
                 addressing the driver of the car PERSONALLY, BY NAME 
                 [1]. I was amazed at this, though people I tried to share it 
                 with only shrugged, assuming that of course the driver's 
                 name (along with height, weight and date of birth) had been 
                 obtained from the Mortor Vehicle Department via satellite, 
                 as soon as the offending car's license number had been 
                 tapped into the terminal---so what? 
                 EFT [2], Introduction to 'Stone Junction

On the other hand, if it weren't for the Web, I wouldn't have found you folks, 
so . . . .

1. The original had italics, my web faux pas of all caps'll have to do.
2. "Everybody's Friend Tom" Pronounced ' "F"-ed'

"Why do they call it 'ineffable'?
'Cause ya can't "F" it. . . ."

  Jill:
 Can we reflect on this for a moment. I've been experiencing anxiety about
"the system" of digital technologies. The digital content people who are
evil want to see us pay-- alot-- for each time we hear a song, read an
article, talk to one another, while the social level playing field
democratic people want us to be able to find these things without obstacles
too high for anyone to overcome cheaply. The evil ruling class of digital
technologies makes us have to buy a lot of gadgets to hook together an
experience that exists almost for free in the analogue or public form,
a-and click on a cart and whip out our credit card to download it to a
device we'll have to view with a viewer. Buy the cord, the set, the cable,
the storage medium, the container.. No matter that it can be distributed
far from it's shelf in the Patent office or Microfilm box.. I'm interested
in the implication of making it unprofitable for the powers that be. I
think this and the posts earlier on the loss of the disapearing free
treasure trove of digital content on M&D make me want to say thank you to
all the list for distributing free treasures. May it continue . . .