Time to vote. Where should Amir spend his testing resources?

[Astoneroad]

Speaking of the Second Law...
I preached a sermon on thermodynamics one Sunday this past summer when our pastor & family were on summer vacation.
Which is not as weird theologically as it might seem.

I'm guessing that was a Unitarian gathering that is ok with heretic members? Did you tell of Maxwell's Demon from the pulpit? Be careful, our soon to be theocracy is considering a Dept. of Inquisition in the DOJ.

 

[Astoneroad]

Makes me want to quote Bob Dylan:

Well my heart's in the highlands, with the horses and hounds
Way up in the border country, far from the towns
With the twang of the arrow and a snap of the bow
My heart's in the highlands
Can't see any other way to go

 

[mhardy6647]

When their muse decides to hitch-hike out of town.

I did indeed fail to appreciate this (artistic Philistine that I am); my apologies to you @Astoneroad

PS Nope, I am way Trinitarian -- and come from pretty mainstream/mainline Protestant stock, too. On the other hand, this is New England.

 

[mhardy6647]

Oh. J.D. Salinger has popped up in this thread! He lived for much of his ("reclusive") life in the next town over -- hiding in plain sight.
This is a very interesting little part of the world.

 

[Astoneroad]

Oh. J.D. Salinger has popped up in this thread! He lived for much of his ("reclusive") life in the next town over -- hiding in plain sight.
This is a very interesting little part of the world.

Cornish RFD

 

[Robin L]

I'm guessing that was a Unitarian gathering that is ok with heretic members? Did you tell of Maxwell's Demon from the pulpit? Be careful, our soon to be theocracy is considering a Dept. of Inquisition in the DOJ.

My favorite Maxwell's Demon reference is in "The Crying of Lot 49" (my favorite book).

Entropy and Maxwell's Demon in The Crying of Lot 49 | Shmoop

Why should you care about Entropy and Maxwell's Demon in Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49? We have the answers here, in a quick and easy way.

www.shmoop.com

 

[Astoneroad]

My favorite Maxwell's Demon reference is in "The Crying of Lot 49" (my favorite book).

Entropy and Maxwell's Demon in The Crying of Lot 49 | Shmoop

Why should you care about Entropy and Maxwell's Demon in Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49? We have the answers here, in a quick and easy way.

www.shmoop.com

Q. What do Salinger, Pynchon and myself have in common? A. All recluses who didn't want anyone to have the authority to change even a comma of their work.

 

[mhardy6647]

I think The Crying of Lot 49 where I learned about Maxwell's Demon -- read it in a course called Contemporary American Letters as a college freshperson.
Big Pynchon fan (we've had this conversation, methinks).
I think that Gravity's Rainbow is one of the best novels ever written in English... but that's probably more a topic for that Beatles thread than this one!

PS Commas. Very important!

 

[Astoneroad]

I think The Crying of Lot 49 where I learned about Maxwell's Demon -- read it in a course called Contemporary American Letters as a college freshperson.
Big Pynchon fan (we've had this conversation, methinks).
I think that Gravity's Rainbow is one of the best novels ever written in English... but that's probably more a topic for that Beatles thread than this one!

I think you're right... and since you're a stones throw away from Cornish, could you go and persuade Matt Salinger to publish some of those 50 years of dad's work... before the generation of assassins that carried "Catcher" in their back pocket die of old age. There ya go... now we tied the Beatles to Salinger and Pynchon... Maybe we should take a poll

 

[Robin L]

I think you're right... and since you're a stones throw away from Cornish, could you go and persuade Matt Salinger to publish some of those 50 years of dad's work... before the generation of assassins that carried "Catcher" in their back pocket die of old age. There ya go... now we tied the Beatles to Salinger and Pynchon... Maybe we should take a poll

 

[Astoneroad]

PS Commas. Very important!

James Joyce would argue that it's the LACK of commas that's important... lol. "Gravity's Rainbow" and "Ulysses"... two books that I never was able to get entirely through... try and try as I did... lol.

 

[Robin L]

James Joyce would argue that it's the LACK of commas that's important... lol. "Gravity's Rainbow" and "Ulysses"... two books that I never was able to get entirely through... try and try as I did... lol.

Managed to destroy several copies of GR - I swear the first QP edition was deliberately boobie-trapped, designed to fall apart in one's hands as soon as one got half-way through. Even the "Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century" edition splits along the seams midway.

 

[Astoneroad]

edition splits along the seams midway.

... midway... that's like at page 7936... right... lol.

 

[Robin L]

... midway... that's like at page 7936... right... lol.

In the copy I just got from the Library (destined for the $1 book sale) it splits 294/295, just as Geli Tripping (my favorite character, an apprentice witch who could have emerged from Laurel Canyon in 1969) shows up.

You must be thinking of "Infinite Jest", now there's a total slog.

 

[Astoneroad]

In the copy I just got from the Library (destined for the $1 book sale) it splits 294/295, just as Geli Tripping (my favorite character, an apprentice witch who could have emerged from Laurel Canyon in 1969) shows up.

You must be thinking of "Infinite Jest", now there's a total slog.

In the plume of fog since the 70's when I last attempted... it only seems like it was 14,000+ pages... lol.

 

[Astoneroad]

Managed to destroy several copies of GR - I swear the first QP edition was deliberately boobie-trapped, designed to fall apart in one's hands as soon as one got half-way through. Even the "Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century" edition splits along the seams midway.

 

[Robin L]

Great moments in western literature.
Thomas Pynchon claims that he went on the show because his son Jackson insisted, but we all know better.
Pynchon stated that Homer is his role model and so he won’t ever speak ill of him.

 

[mhardy6647]

... midway... that's like at page 7936... right... lol.

I just LOLd. I find Pynchon much easier going than Joyce.

I have a cut-out copy (no front cover) from the Johns Hopkins bookstore which I acquired in 1976. They used to put unsold paperbacks (sans cover, as the covers went back to the publisher or their middleman for credit, as I reckon y'all know) in cardboard boxes on their loading platform at lunch time now and again. Once I learned that, I would often stop by and check. Picked up a number of very fine books.

It probably goes without saying, but the agreement between publisher & bookseller was that those copies were supposed to be destroyed.
It was the '70s, and respect for authority (not to mention legal obligations) wasn't particularly fashionable.

I was ahem going to share my favorite lines from the book -- but the bookmark has apparently evaporated somewhere in the ensuing 48-plus years.
It's a bit difficult to find a couple of sentences by skimming Gravity's Rainbow.

 

[Robin L]

I just LOLd. I find Pynchon much easier going than Joyce.

View attachment 414743

I have a cut-out copy (no front cover) from the Johns Hopkins bookstore which I acquired in 1976. They used to put unsold paperbacks (sans cover, as the covers went back to the publisher or their middleman for credit, as I reckon y'all know) in cardboard boxes on their loading platform at lunch time now and again. Once I learned that, I would often stop by and check. Picked up a number of very fine books.

It probably goes without saying, but the agreement between publisher & bookseller was that those copies were supposed to be destroyed.
It was the '70s, and respect for authority (not to mention legal obligations) wasn't particularly fashionable.

I was ahem going to share my favorite lines from the book -- but the bookmark has apparently evaporated somewhere in the ensuing 48-plus years.
It's a bit difficult to find a couple of sentences by skimming Gravity's Rainbow.

"Proverbs for paranoids # 3:

If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers."

Back in 1979 my second job in Berkeley (my first was at Odyssey records, which folded within two months of my arrival) was at Campus Textbook Exchange, right across the street from U.C. Berkeley. I didn't know it was a seasonal job when I signed up. Couldn't help but notice that "The Crying of Lot 49" was a very popular book in English 1A classes (the other textbook stores had stacks of them), all in the 95¢ Bantam Pocketbook edition. Towards the end of my time at Campus Textbook Exchange I was assigned the job of stripping all the copies of The Crying of Lot 49, dumping the books into a recycling bin and having the covers sent back to the publisher. I asked If I could take a copy home, they said yes. I proceeded to spend the next month reading and re-reading this very slim volume. It's a mystery that never resolves. One of the elements of the book is an alternate, underground, postal system that (among other things, like killing official mail carriers) uses bins marked "W.A.S.T.E." and look like garbage cans for mail collection.

So, you might see the attraction.

BTW, a substantial amount of the story is set in Berkeley and environs.

 

[mhardy6647]

She’s still with you, though harder to see these days, nearly invisible as a glass of gray lemonade in a twilit room... still she is there, cool and acid and sweet, waiting to be swallowed down to touch your deepest cells, to work among your saddest dreams.