Single up all lines, lads, lasses and landlubbers who transcend such things:
Here be your weekly announcements!
General Announcements
- All's quiet on the Pynchon front.
Against the Day Reading Group Announcements
- All the slots for leading discussions are filled, but there is always room for Standby discussion leaders for when folks inevitably have to alter their schedules or drop out. See the schedule and volunteer here if you want to put yourself down for a standby position or take a gander at what is forthcoming.
- Points of contact for the reading group will be u/ayanamidreamsequence and u/KieselguhrKid13, so if you want to volunteer to lead a discussion, to be put on the standby roster, or to make arrangements to cancel or switch your commitment, contact one or both of them.
- This past Friday, 14 January, u/bardflight led our group through Sections 27-31 rounding off our discussion of Part II: Iceland Spar.
- This Friday, 21 January we'll be diving into Part III: Bilocations. Taking us through Sections 32-37 will be u/morphosintax.
Weekly Reminders
- If you are new to the sub, read our Introductory Post! It is chock-full of everything you need to get up to speed on our subreddit's activities.
- Did you know the subreddit has an official Discord server? Click here to join!
Keep cool, but care.
- Bloom
I feel like an idiot. The first part of this book ("The Light Over the Ranges") was fun, weird, and at the same time accessible. I've spent the last couple days reading about 40 pages of the second part, "Iceland Spar." I'm not sure what the fuck is happening. I'm cool with surreal, absurd, but this may be almost too high brow for me? Am I the only one who felt like they were losing their minds between the first and second parts of this book?
Pynchon uses Iceland spar to directly and most concretely point us towards a doubling and thus an existence that parallels and corresponds to our immediate waking one. Even without this, we know that he used WW2 to address the war in SE Asia in GR, and consistently uses the genre of "historical fiction" to present a double of another era.
It is said that AtD addresses the post 9/11 war on terror. After reading half the novel I returned to the beginning and am now on page 350. I would like to hear what's to be said about the parallels between 1900 and 2000. It's actually very difficult to search-engine this info even within reddit.
Also what is the deeper meaning behind Iceland spar? I have to say that I am having more of a challenging time with AtD than I did with GR.
Went to the Museo del Instituto de GeologΓa de la UNAM in Mexico City today and looked for Against The Day's famous refracting mineral and this is almost it I think. It's a calcite rock like Iceland Spar, though not from Iceland, but the name "calcita optica" does certainly imply it has visually interesting properties. Hope you fellow Pynchonites enjoy!
https://preview.redd.it/esn4t0tg00e41.jpg?width=2448&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=577714988d5b2b232d8e2fae389144a7e5c4e4cf
I do lots of resin casting and was wondering if I could apply a thick coat of resin to my iceland spar to protect it. Hey chemists! Would it adhere? What are other ways of protecting your stone?
Single up all lines, lads, lasses and landlubbers who transcend such things:
Here be your weekly announcements!
General Announcements
- All's quiet on the Pynchon front.
Against the Day Reading Group Announcements
- All the slots for leading discussions are filled, but there is always room for Standby discussion leaders for when folks inevitably have to alter their schedules or drop out. See the schedule and volunteer here if you want to put yourself down for a standby position or take a gander at what is forthcoming.
- Points of contact for the reading group will be u/ayanamidreamsequence and u/KieselguhrKid13, so if you want to volunteer to lead a discussion, to be put on the standby roster, or to make arrangements to cancel or switch your commitment, contact one or both of them.
- u/EmpireOfChairs delivered us a rousing discussion of Sections 11-16 of the novel this past Friday.
- Look out this Friday, 24 December (Christmas Eve!) for discussion of Sections 17-22 from u/SofaKingIrish!
Weekly Reminders
- If you are new to the sub, read our Introductory Post! It is chock-full of everything you need to get up to speed on our subreddit's activities.
- Did you know the subreddit has an official Discord server? Click here to join!
Keep cool, but care.
- Bloom
