M & D Group Read (cont)

[Joseph Tracy]

Very interesting  about German; I didn’t know, and never noticed about the different use of capitals; it's so easy to see only what you are looking for.  
  As is indicated here, neither  rules of capitalization nor standard spellings were in place in M&D’s time. There is a voice to Cherrycoke, sort of sermonlike with saucy bits thrown in. I find it helps me to try to read a sentence out loud occasionally and listen for the shift of tone, the aside, the potential humorous jab. When I really hear this voice  it slows down my reading pace  but seems to facilitate understanding.  In my view Ccoke is pretty much Pynchon grounded in his own private religion doing stand-up story telling in the 18th Century, but with sly references to his audience in the 20th C.  
 I would be interested to hear how others hear or listen for Ccoke’s voice.

> On Jan 10, 2018, at 2:05 AM, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> A-and surely not "common".
> 
> 2018-01-09 22:39 GMT+01:00 Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>:
> realm is not a place. not an 'important noun".
> 
> Hart recommended his readers to use a capital letter at the beginning of every sentence, proper name, and important common noun. By the 17th century, the practice had extended to titles (Sir, Lady), forms of address (Father, Mistris), and personified nouns (Nature). Emphasized words and phrases would also attract a capital. By the beginning of the 18th century, the influence of Continental books had caused this practice to be extended still further (e.g. to the names of the branches of knowledge), and it was not long before some writers began using a capital for any noun that they felt to be important. Books appeared in which all or most nouns were given an initial capital (as is done systematically in modern German) - perhaps for aesthetic reasons, or perhaps because printers were uncertain about which nouns to capitalize, and so capitalized them all.
> 
> On Tue, Jan 9, 2018 at 3:55 PM, Gene DA <genevievej.da at gmail.com> wrote:
> Which Speculation am I all ears for! One of my questions thus far being a curiosity about the capitalization; rhyme, reason, or madness? There seemed to be a drop-off in capitalization frequency after the first couple of chapters. At first, I assumed it was only a time period custom and left speculation on patterns for later. I was pronouncing sentences as I read with so much alternating emphasis that it was much too distracting.
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jan 9, 2018 at 4:03 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> yes, the early LED chapter is VERY IMPORTANT 
> in setting out major themes of M & D, as Smoke said. 
> 
> Notice it is the LED---this true historical charlatan of
> the time, this dog who is like humans, who
> "Somehow the Learned dog has led him [Mason] to presume
> there exist safe-conduct Procedures for the realm
> of Death." [Why is realm not capped?, I ask, having a Speculation to Hand]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 

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