IV Scene Upstate

[Elaine Bell]

So I decided to go get my Barnes&Noble copy of IV after noon yesterday,
hoping to catch the Pynchon fanatica gathering round the Starbucks fires
during their lunch hours.  Also, concerned for my safety should the crush
get too rough, I suited up for battle: Jimmy Choo stilettos, LBD, shades, a
parasol and my copy of ATD for a shield or cudgel as necessary. On arrival,
there it was:  DIRECTLY in front of the entrance doors in all of its green
and magenta glory, smackdabcenter of a table bannered:  SUMMER READING!
What hardy reader could have ever envisioned such a Pynchon placement.
(Yeh, right there with the latest Charlene Harris, Dead Until Dawn and a
cute little mini-beach-chair that could hold your book cleverly in place
while your hands remained free to coppertone yourself and sip at your banana
colada.)  I strode purposefully forward and spoke to a B&N associate who was
busy moving undershelf IVs to the premier topshelf spot.  "How is it
selling?" I asked her.  "Has there been a big rush?"  She looked at me with
a mixture of, I think, pity and sympathy, the way one gazes upon slightly
deranged people.  "Well, I guess it's doing fine.  Another person bought one
earlier today."  "Is that person still in the store?" I eagerly queried,
hoping to meet a live Pynchonoid without having to travel to NYC or Boston.
"Oh I don't think so; it was hours ago."  I lingered by the display,
thinking I might yet catch a Pynchonoid in the wild, but no such luck.  I
did, however, witness three different teenaged girls (one Goth, one punk,
one preppy) each grab her copy of Dead Until Dawn.

On 8/4/09, Rich Clavey <antizoyd at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> So.
> I go to Bookshop Santa Cruz today (8/3) and lo and behold I find Imperial
> by W.T.Vollman on the shelf (and I thought it was supposed to be out a few
> days after IV) and so I have to buy it cause I rilly like Bill and so I ask
> them at BSC will you sell me Pynchons latest today and of course they say no
> we cant do that....sigh....
> So now I have Imperial which looks really good and I know I cant read it
> for a long time cause Im gonna have to read IV twice and and...shit....
> Life is good.....
> Z.
>
>
>
>


-- 
Elaine M.M. Bell, Writer
585.218.9583
Have Laptop/Will Travel
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