BEER Group Read. The looseness, the attitude

[John Bailey]

First sentence gently echoes first sentence of V - a date, a
character, and what they're doing right now (in present tense).

First sentence also mentions a system (and P is one of the great
Systems Novelists according to some and must surely be aware of that).
What system are we talking about? I love the ambiguity of that line -
to 'have something/one in your system' can also mean they're in your
gut, not yet emotionally expelled, and could be applied to Horst (who
definitely hasn't gotten Maxine out of his system yet) or the school
computers (boring) or something more sinister.

Hey also - are we avoiding discussing of later events in the novel
until we get to them? I'm guessing we are for those who haven't
reached the end yet.

On Sun, Oct 13, 2013 at 12:27 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 'It's the first day of spring 2001, and Maxine Tarnow, though some still have her in the system as Loeffler,
> is walking her boys to school. Yes maybe they're past the age where they need an escort, maybe Maxine
> doesn't want to let go just yet, it's only a couple blocks, it's on her way to work, she enjoys it, so?"
>
> I like the voice, the looseness, the easiness. Jelly Roll Morton on stride piano rolling out the phrases comma by comma,
> breath by conversational breath. With attitude, is it New York attitude? We've talked about that linguistic
> style, valley girl new york citified. Defending Maxine's sentimental love of her kids in free indirect discourse. Maxine defending herself.
> "Free indirect discourse can also be described, as a "technique of presenting a character's voice partly mediated by the voice of the author" [below]
>
> This narratorial intrusion---which starts the book!--has echoes to me of some of the narratorial
> intrusions  in, yes, jump on it, Gravity's Rainbow. How off am I?  Only like in Inherent Vice? Not at all?
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_indirect_speech
> -
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