Shadow Ticket Group Read 2026

[j e l]

I had the same impression...Hicks being an interwar schlemihl of
sorts...with ST being the dance number between AtD and GR.

--jel

On Thu, Jan 8, 2026 at 11:38 AM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> I see Hicks as a Benny Profane type character, bounced around by
> circumstance and higher powers, unlike say Doc or Maxine who follow leads
> and have a bit of agency. His remit keeps changing and is basically lost
> throughout the novel, though he does meet some rather interesting people
> along the way.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 8, 2026 at 4:17 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Is Hicks a Hick?....I read it this way before I looked up any etymology
> for
> > Hicks
> > or Hick....A hick, like Hicks derives from the name Richard.Hick meant
> > commoner
> > like a hansom driver before the 17th Century.....the name/nickname does
> go
> > back to the 14th Century.
> > By the 17th, it was a putdown, meant an unsophisticated country boy, a
> > rustic....
> >
> > Preterite echos, origins.? Shadows of?.....certainly 'organic community'
> > -adjacent origins and meanings...
> >
> > When I got my copy and plunged into the first 35- 50 pages like I used to
> > read young; like I
> > jumped into Against the DAy or Inherent Vice I liked the prose so
> much....a
> > smooth--all those commas like waves, -- distilled wit everywhere...
> > this old man of eighty-eight writing as if it was his first novel,
> > springlike prose and nary a discouraging word....I might even say like
> > Shakepeare's
> > magic comedy at the end of his shorter life: The Tempest......A twitter
> guy
> > and I shared this feeling about it....something different in his style,
> we
> > agreed.
> > Can't describe it better than lamely like this....
> >
> > His name: from grounded here to eternity, so to joke allude.
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>