GR translation: at the annual Roasts

[Mike Jing]

What does "when bad news is passed" refer to then? How is it related to
"when the endless mind-gaming catches a colleague unprepared"?

I thought "when the endless mind-gaming catches a colleague unprepared"
refers to something that happened prior to the Roast, and that's the bad
news that was passed at the Roast.

On Mon, Dec 15, 2025 at 11:52 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> Seems Roasts evolved out of toasts at events so I think Mike got it....
>
> On Mon, Dec 15, 2025 at 10:42 AM Mike Weaver via Pynchon-l <
> pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
>
>> Maybe just an annual dinner. But maybe, given the mention of mindgames,
>> a celebrity roast type event, but celebratory rather than celebrity.
>>
>> On 15/12/2025 15:11, Mike Jing wrote:
>> > V697.20-24, P711.8-12   They speak of taking So-and-So and “putting him
>> on
>> > the Dream.” They use the phrase for each other too, in sterile
>> tenderness,
>> > when bad news is passed, at the annual Roasts, when the endless
>> mind-gaming
>> > catches a colleague unprepared—“Boy, did we put him on the Dream.” You
>> > know, don’t you?
>> >
>> > What does "Roasts" mean here? The published translation interpreted it
>> in
>> > the sense of a celebrity roast, which doesn't seem right to me.
>> > --
>> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>