atdtda:31 pgs 887-888 Reef's dream

[Michael Bailey]

Bekah ventilated this section very nicely, making me want to
add some addenda (may the words of my mouth, and the meditations
of my heart be such as shall be acceptable):

> On pages 887 and 888 Reef's father comes to him in a dream:

"it was Reef's turn" - Frank and Kit already have had theirs of course

> 887.26   "with an unmappable operational endlessless to its streets, the
> same ancient disquieting pictures engraved on its walls as back in the
> McElmo,

so who was McElmo anyway?  I have to find out.

> spelling out a story whose pitiless truths couldn't be admitted

That's history isn't it? or evolution, in a longer view?

> *  so "unmappable endlessness"    - typical Pynchon since M&D ?  and imo,  a
> part of a larger theme - in M&D it was mapping the unmappable,  in AtD it's
> getting away from the mappable.

and even when mappable, playing games with scale as
we've just seen Theign doing with Cyprian and Bevis,
and even weirder things with A. Meatman's map and the
"map of the Congo" upcoming...

> * What is the "operational"  about?

I was looking for something I glanced at one time, a no-doubt
leftist theorist proposing "operations theory" in which people
become so involved in carrying out an intricate task that
they ignore considerations extraneous to the task (such as ethics)
--- couldn't find that, but "operational" shows up a lot on this page
http://www.au.af.mil/info-ops/theory.htm

> the union struggle has become almost like a religion?

no doubt there's a lot of truth in what you cite.  Something
else tugs my sleeve, though, here...

>"Small victories," Webb greeted him. "Just to come away with one
> or two. To praise and to honor the small victories where and however they
> happen."

despite "Not talking about yours, you numbskull,"
the victories most evident to me are Reef approaching
Yashmeen and Cyprian in a more genuine way than he's hitherto
known, and the coming baby.
victory as in a poker game (like Kit's dream, and Webb's
capsulization of the family as a poker hand - so that any success
of his family members would be his victory actually - typical
patriarchal attitude,
but sometimes life-affirming anyway)

(or as in "victorious tennis" as Buddy wanted to see Seymour after having)