AtD translation: the irregular of spirit

[Joseph Tracy]

I was definitely reading it as though the statue was being frequented rather than the park, but that is not necessarily true, so maybe Michael has a better take on this.The analogy should apply to Khautsch’s current status, which is clearly being demeaned.

> On Feb 4, 2022, at 1:11 AM, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Parks frequented by the irregular of spirit -
> 
> What this makes me think of is the memoirs of Kenneth Rexroth and how he
> and many other budding anarchists etc would frequent public parks.
> 
> A lot of places would have literal soapbox speakers animadverting on their
> political theories, autodidacts sharing quaint and curious lore.
> 
> No tv back then.
> 
> I’m pretty sure somewhere in Saul Bellow’s books there also are
> descriptions of public orators in parks speaking from the sheer desire to
> speak, to orate, to rabblerouse.
> 
> Chicago is the setting for these parks in both Rexroth and Bellow - a
> continuation of anarchist contingent Lew Basnight observed?
> 
> These folks I think could easily be among those whom Pynchon would call
> “irregular of spirit”
> 
> Not “establishment” speakers, not think tankers or professors or
> politicians - thus, “irregular”
> 
> Public parks often have statues that most everybody ignores.
> 
> Thankfully here a lot of the worst ones, like those of our US Confederate
> creeps, as bad as Khäutsch, are coming down.
> 
> But also in general, people who frequent public parks are likely to be
> “irregular” in terms of less monied, less connected, more eccentric -
> aren’t they? And the places around statues especially, because there might
> be a good patch of grass to set up your soapbox on?
> --
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