Gaddis in TR unleashes on Dale Carnegie (What do we worship?) recall's DFW's "this is water" imo

[Mark Kohut]

________________________________
From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: Ed <edmoorester at gmail.com>
Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thu, June 2, 2011 8:10:42 AM
Subject: Re: Gaddis in TR unleashes on Dale Carnegie (What do we worship?) 
recall's DFW's "this is water" imo


gaddis's timeless America...

The bestselling books on AbeBooks.com in May:

1. Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky
2. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
3. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger 




________________________________
From: Ed <edmoorester at gmail.com>
Sent: Wed, June 1, 2011 12:50:58 PM
Subject: Gaddis in TR unleashes on Dale Carnegie (What do we worship?) recall's 
DFW's "this is water" imo


p285-6

"Behind was a veneered secretary  





of anonymous century and unavowed design, holding protected behind glass an 
assortment of books published by the hundred-thousand, 

treatises on the cultivation of the individual self, 

prescriptions of superficial alterations in vulgarity read with excruciating 
eagerness by men alone in big chairs, 




the three-way lamp turned to its wildest brilliance as they fingered those 
desperate blazons of individuality tied in mean knots at their throats, 

fastened monogrammed tie-clasps the more firmly, 

swung keys on gold-plated monogram-bearing ("Individualized") key-chains, 

tightened their arms against wallets in inside pockets which held the papers 
proving their identity beyond doubt to others and in moments of Doubt to 
themselves, 

papers in such variety that the bearer himself became their appurtenance, 

each one contemplating over words in a book (which had sold four million 
copies: 

How to Speak Effectively; 

Conquer Fear; 

Increase Your Income; 

Develop Self-Confidence; 

"Sell" Yourself and Your Ideas; 

Improve Your Memory; 

Increase Your Ability to Handle People; 

Win More Friends; 

Improve Your Personality; 

Prepare for Leadership) 

the Self which had ceased to exist the day they stopped seeking it alone."

ed
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