TR Gaddis tears into Dale Carnegie Pt 2 ch 1

[Mark Kohut]

C. F. Abel writes: 
Perhaps stopped seeking "Self" alone, as though self were something by
itself? 

yeah, that's what I'm thinking, in a way: 
Self capped (like Doubt), thanks David, and those book titles in that whopper
of a sentence might mean Gaddis is writing of how we, the modern American
world, have reified the concept of self which, alone, we simply inhabited, so to 
speak...
and as if the Self existed outside of the social world which constitutes all our 
selves? 


Or, to allude and use that famous philosopher Wittgenstein: There is no Private 
Self, only,
as G. H. Mead and other social psychologists are always saying, a 
socially-created self existing 

with others and becasue of others...

C. F. Abel
Chair
Department of Government
Stephen F. Austin State University
Nacogdoches, Texas 75962
(936) 468-3903




-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of Mark Kohut
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2011 2:37 PM
To: David Payne; Paul Mackin; Michael Bailey; Pynchon-l
Subject: Re: TR Gaddis tears into Dale Carnegie Pt 2 ch 1

Why does Gaddis cap "Self"?....must play into whatever is/are the
meaning(s)...???



----- Original Message ----
From: David Payne <dpayne1912 at hotmail.com>
To: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>; Michael Bailey 
<michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>; Pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thu, June 2, 2011 3:18:47 PM
Subject: RE: TR Gaddis tears into Dale Carnegie Pt 2 ch 1


Maybe I read it wrong or am forgetting the context, but I recall taking this
as 
a comment on the irony of mass-marketed means toward individualization.

Like reading a best seller for guidance on how to become a rising star at
work, 
or wearing customized cufflinks, because you know my cufflinks are different

than yours, there're so totally me.

A forged self.

But I think that there's also something going on here about how trying to be

original, to create new things, is a fool's game, so I donno...

> On 6/2/2011 12:39 PM, Michael Bailey wrote:
> >> What I don't quite get is the meaning of the ". . . . the Self which
had
> >> ceased to exist the day they stopped seeking it alone."              
    
>