NP: On "marking time" in The Plague

[Mark Kohut]

This must be it and what I, perhaps with a too-shaped memory, a distorted
memory, remember as
mindlessly commuting.....

Thanks Jochen for finding this; ...I could not find my copy of the book
with that essay and I can't go to
any libraries......

And, as a young man searching for answers, I identified with that "why'
line.. of course. ..

On Fri, Apr 17, 2020 at 3:32 AM Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:

> I didn't find the passage about commuting to work mindlessly (and coming
> home just so) but a similar one where it seems that the author wants to say
> something like the days in the week are exchangeable, beginning with, yes,
> it's not very novel, Monday Tuesday:
>
> Rising, street-car, four hours in the office or the factory, meal,
> street-car, four hours of work, meal, sleep, and Monday Tuesday Wednesday
> Thursday Friday and Saturday according to the same rhythm—this path is
> easily followed most of the time.
> Could be Monday could be Tuesday:
>
> But one day the "why" arises and everything begins in that weariness
> tinged with amazement.
>
> Am Do., 16. Apr. 2020 um 11:30 Uhr schrieb Mark Kohut <
> mark.kohut at gmail.com>:
>
>> Yesterday's lucid writer in the LRoB led me to this
>> reading observation re *The Plague*....
>>
>> One thing Camus does in the early section is to
>> characterize the bourgeoisie of Oran as dull
>> working stiffs interested only in making money.
>> This echoes some unforgettable words in his* Myth of Sisyphus *
>> essay about commuting to work mindlessly and coming home
>> mindlessly, day after day, of course this is sisyphean and in
>> *The Plague *it seems this condition is like "marking time' even
>> before the plague.
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>