what to read before the Read?

[Paul Mackin]

Back in '97 a popular favorite was Longitude by Sobel.  Hard to find that
St Helena without a chronometer.
On Oct 31, 2017 9:55 AM, "da kid" <peterock86 at live.com> wrote:

> Maybe brush up on UFO lore? Read some weekly world news or something like
> that.
>
> A Tale of a Tub? Or the tale of the tub in the Golden Ass? I have not read
> either that or Jonathon Swift's but there is some kind of alluding or
> punning toing on there.
>
> What does Cherrycoke say to study, celestial mathematics or something?
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* owner-pynchon-l at waste.org <owner-pynchon-l at waste.org> on behalf
> of Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Monday, October 30, 2017 4:31:25 PM
> *To:* Gene DA
> *Cc:* Pynchon List
> *Subject:* Re: what to read before the Read?
>
> My post simply meant: Think about the foundation of the US. Read the
> founding documents if you haven't
> and have time.
>
> maybe fewer buried allusions in M & D than in other big books. .Would like
> other Golden/Silver Agers to weigh in here.
>
> So, don't worry what you haven't read. Read M & D maybe and then reread it
> agin. There is no reading only rereading--Nabokov......
> Check the wiki.
>
> Franklin's autobiography and a bio.
>
> Democracy in America.
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 30, 2017 at 2:40 PM, Gene DA <genevievej.da at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Having not yet read M&D, what other literature is alluded to? If there
>> are recurring ones or major ones, that would be helpful.
>>
>> Also, I have read a number of the essential articles of Federalist
>> Papers, but there's a lot, any specific ones you suggest? Or are the key
>> ones good enough for a primer?
>>
>> Any such suggestions are appreciated.
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 30, 2017 at 12:17 PM, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> There is a wonderful book by Henry Miller about the books in his life
>>> where
>>> he says something like: you shouldn't read more, you should read less.
>>>
>>> 2017-10-30 17:32 GMT+01:00 Arthur Fuller <fuller.artful at gmail.com>:
>>>
>>>> Last thing I binged was Sons of Anarchy; I watched seven seasons in one
>>>> week, a season a day. I remember saying to a friend of mine, this is not a
>>>> biker story, this is Shakespeare on wheels, and I was proved correct in the
>>>> credits of the last episode, a quote from King Lear, the best play ever
>>>> penned.
>>>>
>>>> I read a shocking stat last week, and it made me realize how little I
>>>> know and how uneducated I am. Last year, 180,000 books were publlished in
>>>> England alone. At 3 per week, and sometimes it's slower going, depending on
>>>> the depth. Let's calculate this; 3 per week time 52 weeks equals 156 books
>>>> per annum, which is a miniscule fraction of the books published in England,
>>>> let alone the USA, Canada, etc. In other words, I am just slightly better
>>>> than illiterate. I've read every word from Thomas Pynchon and William
>>>> Gaddis and a few others, including J.S. Mill, Jeremy Bentham and Werner
>>>> Heisenberg. But there remain the couple of hundred thousand books per year
>>>> that I have not read.
>>>>
>>>> Arthur
>>>> ​
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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