metaphysical club

[bandwraith at aol.com]

Interesting, thought provoking. There is probably
much that dovetails with ATD. Speaking of the
James bros., specifically, I am reminded of
"The Princess Casamassima,' which is planted
in ATD much the way a sponsored product is
planted in a modern action movie (or artistically,
like COL49 in The Mad Men...), a book (TPC)
very much concerned with class warfare.

The anti-Hero of TPC, Hyacinth Robinson, the
bastard son of a peasant woman and a rapa-
cious English lord, is raised in near poverty, and
becomes a bookbinder. Although probably all
coincidence, the p-list discussion of ATD, if
memory serves, speculated on the two hard-
cover versions of ATD- one with a green spine,
the other batch, red (not quite the psychedelic
versions of IV- more muted, steampunk hues),
but not as tie-in with Hyacinth and his trade.

The question of book covers and judging did
come up, given the implied fraudulence of the
rest of the ATD cover, with its "counterfeit"
Tuvo-ian stamp floating across the bottom, and
the offset, double-imaged title- presumably
mimicking the effect of Iceland Spar. All of which,
I think, points to the same sort of distrust of
Imperative or pre-determined paradigms that
the Pragmatists Menand discusses were
bored with, but not able to totally escape, and
still "make sense."

Besides, Hyacinth, for all his wimpatude,
reminds me a good deal of Cyprian, who
also sacrifices himself, in many ways, and
for the presumed benefit of others, who are
maybe less than appreciative. The sect that
Cyprian joins, however, led by the dude with
the tetractys tattooed on his forehead- could
be the cover of a book- Anthropodermic Bibliopegy-
how should we judge?

Or, maybe, it's to remind novitiates not to
judge by preconceived patterns- all the
received wisdom of the past, from the pytha-
gorean-platonic, to the judeo-christian-
half of it all canned- but, instead, to look at
the way things are in a "loose and baggy"
and less than certain or presumptious style-
open to all possibilities, especially the
pragmatic, if not the convenient.




-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
To: P-list List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wed, May 9, 2012 4:24 am
Subject: metaphysical club

I  recently finished Menand's The Metaphysical Club....