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

[Curtis Rawling-Endicott]

Some random thought along the televisual lines (apologies for any
incoherency, I need more coffee)

<potential spoilers?>














And now the old primary sources (The NYT, the evening news) are
brought into question by the more ubiquitous digital media that is
just starting to come into its own around this time- to set the stage
for BE, I remember the internet being a real source of alternate
information in both the Seattle WTO protests and the Bush/Gore
election. And then once 9/11 happened, there were immediately people
fact checking the "official" story. The downside being that the
noise/signal ratio goes all to hell, and the unofficial narratives are
often just as suspect as the official.

So, as a savvy consumer of media, you go a little crazy trying to
parse what is real. Obviously, "they" are lying. But why? And who are
"they"?

Maxine, with her forensic skills, knows she should be wary, not played
for a fool. But there are so many disparate threads, so many false
leads, what truth can she possibly find? Even assuming everyone
intentions are pure, all the counter-narratives don't add up. I think
history shows that not everyone's intentions are pure; this is
certainly the case in BE.  There is also deliberate disinformation to
contend with. Not too mention, taking care of daily life- there is
food to eat, kids to get to school, maybe even a little shopping and
sex. And only 24 hours in the day.

And on top of that, the torrent of "televisual" distraction: pop
music, video games, tv shows and movies being the most obvious, but
also the deeper immersion of virtual reality (remember that?) and
Deep-Archer-like world of chat rooms, Second Life and other
internet-based goodness.  Which is why I think Pynchon's use of pop
iconography is intentional, even intentionally banal. I too was
raising a kid around this time, splitting my focus between a grownup
sense of "ach, the world is going to hell" and a more playful but
clearly consumer driven world of Pokeman and Ninja Turtles.

Walking kids to school feels like the perfect opening to me. Being a
parent is such a balancing act. And if you are at a thinking person,
there is that looming desire to shield your kids from the "grim
meathook reality" as long as you can.



On Sun, Oct 13, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> The more I meditate on mediate, the more I think your phrase
> "the televisual" is right on......w movies, TV, video games, and
> virtual reality online......
>
> it is all visually-based and certainly how we live ain't no oral culture
> nor no Moses' tablet culture---now the Ipad and smartphone tablets...
> which did not exist in 2001 but only makes TRP's perceptions more true.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Cc:
> Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2013 11:24 AM
> Subject: Re: BEER Group Read. "How is this day different from any other day?
>
> That's what it means to me.
>
> One of the BIG themes in BE is how so much of quotidian life, Upper
> West Side, 2001, is mediated by Televisual Experience. How the talk
> and look is saturated with the televisual, so much so that we cease to
> notice, This novel becomes glib "telefare" to those who think
> themselves "Above that", immune to the seductions of popcult.
> Bleeding Edge has all content of the other "Big" novels but, like the
> culturally preterite "Tubeular" novels it is situated in the age of
> Television, just before TV mutated into the Interwebs.
>
>
> On Oct 13, 2013, at 9:10 AM, Keith Davis wrote:
>
>> This idea of mediated reality seems like an important idea. To be
>> clear, are we using it here in the sense of how our view of the
>> world around us,  and our participation in it, is shaped by how it's
>> presented to us in the media? Seems like there could be a few
>> different ways this word could be used, and I want to be clear about
>> it.
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l