We were all right....Mason & Dixon

Wed Jul 22 12:35:43 CDT 2015

I think you did a fine job.  If I recall correctly, the person who was to follow you didn't report for duty, and we never took up the slack.  I agree that it was fun while it lasted.

On Jul 21, 2015, at 12:51 AM have a nice day, violet wrote this message:), Elisabeth Romberg wrote:

> As mine was the last chapters before the big silence I felt it was my fault people lost interest in the group read - I simply wasn't up to par. When the ensuing Norwegian Angst kicked in I had to put M&D down to lick wounds lol. 
> You were brilliant though! Enjoyed myself throughout in your company. So happy and chuffed to have found the p-list.
> 
> I'd be well up for a group watch of IV. A live stream with a chat function would be great!
> 
> Best
> Elisabeth 
> 
> Sendt fra min iPhone
>> 21. jul. 2015 kl. 09.36 skrev Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>:
>> 
>> 
>>> Seriously, why isn't someone selling our data
>> here? We're nothing! <
>> 
>> "We are ugly but we have the music" (Leonard Cohen)
>> 
>> I do not want our data to be sold.
>> 
>> And I don't want to be 'someone' in terms of the digital economy.
>> 
>> Group reads are overrated. You don't need them to post something substantial on Pynchon. The most interesting threads are those evolving spontaneously.
>> 
>> And it's always "Now!" and you can start from where you are ...
>> 
>> On 21.07.2015 01:04, John Bailey wrote:
>>> There were lots of successful group reads in the past.
>>> 
>>> I blame the changing culture of the internet. Back then there just
>>> wasn't that much to do online, so more people could spend an hour or
>>> three with a book and a browser and a leisurely mind.
>>> 
>>> Of course I'm romanticising but in the global shopping mall that the
>>> Deep Archer and most of the web has become, the P-List is a rag and
>>> bone shop. If we had more funny quizzes, lists like the Six Most
>>> Amazing Ways Pynchon Will Improve Your Sex Life, ways to tag each
>>> other in emails, ability to autogenerate our favourite P characters as
>>> avatars, some kind of dedicated app, a gamified reward system that
>>> gave us badges for posting more, a font of our own, a Game of Thrones
>>> crossover week, a photo feed and sold advertising space that can be
>>> blocked so users think that the real product isn't our data, maybe
>>> we'd have a chance? Seriously, why isn't someone selling our data
>>> here? We're nothing!
>>> 
>>> On Tue, Jul 21, 2015 at 6:36 AM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> I blame myself.  I was simply in no condition to participate on a
>>>> regular basis @ the time.
>>>> 
>>>> Meanwhile, some day, the Inherent Vice group watch?
>>>> 
>>>> http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/awards2014/pdf/iv.pdf
>>>> 
>>>> On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 1:46 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> When enough are not newly reading and responding, the silence is loud.
>>>>> And one needs to be following the bouncing ball
>>>>> when one posts who is, otherwise it is not new.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Too many too busy or otherwise out of the Group Read. Life in late
>>>>> capitalism ain't easy.
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 2:34 PM, David Ewers <dsewers at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>>>> I believe you're on to something with why the group read fizzled, Mark T.,
>>>>>> although I think we had it going pretty good for a while there.  I'm not
>>>>>> sure it's impossible to maintain that managed flow-through you describe, but
>>>>>> (speaking for myself) it does seem to require some obsessing to do the
>>>>>> discussion justice.  It's tough to be obsessed for several months straight.
>>>>>> Maybe we should have built some time-outs into the schedule?
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Out of curiosity, is anyone still giving M-&D- the deep reading treatment?
>>>>>> If so, where are you?
>>>>>> I've slowed down a lot in my M-&D- reading, lightened up some, picked up
>>>>>> other books, etc., but I've got notes up to chapter 35.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I hope everyone (in the Northern Hemisphere...) is having a bitchin' summer!
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Jul 19, 2015, at 11:44 AM have a nice day, violet wrote this message:),
>>>>>> Mark Thibodeau wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I think the reason why group reads of Pynchon tend to break down (and I say
>>>>>> this with a guilty conscience at my own part in the unraveling of the last
>>>>>> M&D group read attempt) is that his work is SO RICH and full of constant,
>>>>>> almost fractal levels of allusion and multi-contextual referencing (moreso
>>>>>> perhaps than any writer aside from Joyce) that trying to maintain some kind
>>>>>> of managed flow-through is literally impossible to do.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Any reader takes from a work of art only that which he or she is capable of
>>>>>> taking. We all bring our own personal contexts into some kind of
>>>>>> intermeshing with the context of the work that we're approaching. Someone
>>>>>> steeped in pre-Revolutionary American history will have a different reading
>>>>>> experience from someone who knows a lot about, say, the history of science.
>>>>>> Both will find it a masterwork, but for different reasons.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> For that reason, I think Pynchon slots in with those writers who are both
>>>>>> difficult AND rewarding.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> MT
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Sun, Jul 19, 2015 at 2:33 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> Misc.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> just read an interesting essay by Stanley Greenblatt, Shakespeare and
>>>>>>> Beyond
>>>>>>> Scholar---this essay is on Milton, however---that applies to many a great
>>>>>>> writer
>>>>>>> including our writer from Long Island.......
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Thesis: The depth of full scholarship analysis of such as Milton, say
>>>>>>> another
>>>>>>> long book on all the subtleties and breadth and depth of his politics
>>>>>>> explored thru
>>>>>>> his major poems......tends to kill why he is great.....
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> The poetry on the page.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Discuss.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On Sun, Jul 19, 2015 at 2:07 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>> is an incredible book....
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Throw out more stuff about....
>>>>>>> -
>>>>>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>> -
>>>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>>> -
>>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
> 

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