BEER Group Read. "How is this day different from any other day?

[Mark Kohut]

knowing BE was Pynchon's 9/11 (in time) novel, I could not help but feel this beautiful
spring morning as akin to the beautiful fall morning in NYC, which was 9/11. 


----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>; "pynchon-l at waste.org" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Cc: 
Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2013 7:41 AM
Subject: Re: BEER Group Read. "How is this day different from any other day?

I've always seen a bush as a little tree but I like the tree (of life) symbology
even more. Yes. The lit by the sun bit reminded me of the Biblical bush but i had a too-Catholic
upbringing perhaps like Pynchon's.

Robin fixes this:
That "So?" will be a constant "What's it to you?" embedded in the 
local culture. as if we didn't already know.  

Again, I'll say, NY attitude. 

----- Original Message -----
From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Cc: 
Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2013 7:27 AM
Subject: Re: BEER Group Read. "How is this day different from any other day?

First page, first impressions.

Fixing dates is very important in "The Crying of Lot 49", the most  
obviously analogous of the author's other works. G-d figures in both,  
but in radically different ways. Oedipa—just a cover story for the  
author, of course, detailing weird scenes in Berkeley, San Francisco,  
Menlo Park, Stanford and regions south, up close and personal with the  
butchers of the TV industry and Military Industrial çomplex. Maxine/ 
Maxi is of fixed address, who want's to know? The dead eye of the TV  
and the word God—that's your classic existential nightmare, circa  
1964. Upper West Side, first day of spring, Maxi's no Oedipa, Maxi's a  
Mother. Earlier, in the trailer for the book of the [hopefully] the  
movie [so's the author can still afford his Upper West Side flat]  
movie, Slezeus informs us she's a MILF and available. So if were one  
of those panting fans of the invisible one, we already Know.

We know that "Oedipus" informs us of Psychotherapy, and the use of LSD  
as Psychotherapeutic aid is central to Lot 49. Maxine is Hebrew for  
"Enchanted", which now that I'm looking at, makes a whole lotta sense.  
It can also be the Feminine form of Maximus, the Latin term for "The  
Greatest".  As Nicholas Nookshaft & the author that dare not show his  
face would tell you, the act of Naming is critical for a Magical  
enterprise to spring to life.

"In the system"—TV cop talk for "Yeah, we already know we're dealin'  
wid a crook here, so?" But of course "In the system" insinuates the  
presence of a computer. "Tarnow" is a family name that mostly points  
to Poland, It also points to a Dentist! In the forefront of Dental  
Implant Research! His Mother is doubtless Kvelling at the very  
thought!  All this a few clicks away on the computer! Do you think the  
author intended for me to do that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_P._Tarnow

And Loeffler points to the Laffer Curve.

That "So?" will be a constant "What's it to you?" embedded in the  
local culture. as if we didn't already know.

A tree is not a Bush. If ever if an obvious symbol appeared— jeez . . .

" . . . (after you get a little time in—whatever that means over here— 
one of these archetypes gets to look pretty much like any other, oh  
you hear some of these new hires, the seersucker crowd come in the  
first day, "Wow! Hey—that's th-th' Tree o' Creation! Huh? Ain't it! Je- 
eepers!" but they calm down fast enough, pick up the reflexes for  
Intent to Gawk, you know self-criticism's an amazing technique, it  
shouldn't work but it does. . " GR, 417 in my copy.

And as Trees of Life go, this is both a mighty one, what with  
production values that are beyond the scope of the virtual world—Like  
the kids say, it doesn't suck—and a pretty obvious one, being coupled  
to the first day of spring and as a Local event as well, seeing as  
those Pear Trees are an Upper West side phenom, like the Plum Trees of  
Berkeley that burst into bloom on Imbolc. Unlike the opening passages  
of the very immature CoL49, we have a Mother who Knows here, possibly  
the first wise protagonist in a Pynchon novel. One thing that  
separates Maxi from the rest—she ain't the Preterite. She's only  
temporarily displaced. 



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