Sorry

[Michael Bailey]

so, the game is afoot?

weighing the comments, I have been impressed by some of the misgivings
people have expressed.

However, that sentiment has an uphill climb in my mind for several reasons:

1) first, over the years an accumulation of positive comments about TR
on this list has led me to purchase and actually start the book - but
haven't been able to sustain the effort to read it alone

2) second, the enthusiasm of Mr Burns is contagious

3) third, we have covered together since 2005 when I became active on
this list all Mr Pynchon's novels except Gravity's Rainbow (Toby's
MD3PAD not quite a full-blown group read, but very helpful; Vineland
and V, CofL49, and especially AGTD) - and because I was involved in
the abortive attempt at GR, I'm wary of rallying anyone to another
try, although I strongly think it needs to be done eventually.  I have
a similar attraction/avoidance dilemma with the idea of doing another
AgTD read so soon.  A digression sometimes is the best way to get
where you want to go when you don't see a direct route...so...perhaps
at the end of all our journeyings we will find ourselves screaming
across the sky and singling up all our lines (with a little bit of
bloomin' luck)

4) fourth, like Pluto or Uranus or one of those outer planets, I have
a notion that TR is exerting a far-out, little-known or -appreciated
influence, knowledge of which could be helpful in grokking Mr
Pynchon's work in greater fullness than hitherto, and indeed in
mapping the literary universe with better granularity!

5) fifth, that "Brenda inside/outside" reference showing up in V. if
intentional buttresses point 4, and even if not intentional (though
I'm inclined to think it is), it is still an example of the kind of
writing that I've been groomed by reading the Pynchon canon and
suchlike works to cherish and savor - and TR, as I already know from
the first hundred or so pages, is rich in such use of the language


 Mark Kohut wrote:
> Maybe that's what we can call the Group Read:
> Desecrating The Recognitions. or Anarchic Pynchon cultists desecrate The
> Recognitions.

dictionary.com has a nice alternate meaning:

Word Origin & History

desecrate
1674, formed from de-  "do the opposite of" + (con)secrate.  O.Fr. had
dessacrer  "to profane," and there is a similar formation in It.; but
L. desecrare  meant "to make holy," with de-  in this case having a
completive sense.


Jed Kelestron wrote:
>
> But I'm just checking to make sure this is all working so I can enjoy the
> desecration of The Recognitions in this venue.
>
>

it's all working about as well as it ever has...
glad to see you!