GR translation: at the annual Roasts

[Mike Jing]

Thanks, Mike.


On Thu, Dec 18, 2025 at 7:12 AM Mike Weaver <mike.weaver at zen.co.uk> wrote:

> A feature of annual gatherings is announcements of deaths of members in
> the previous 12 months, sterile tenderness might be a way of saying
> formally solemn. Endless mindgaming = pointed banter of such occasions,
> mentions of deaths being a shocking interruption of the game playing.
> On 17/12/2025 14:18, Mike Jing wrote:
>
> 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
>>>
>>