The Chumps of Choice

A Congenial Spot for the Discussion of Against the Day, by Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Cornell '59, and Any Other Damned Thing That Comes Into Our Heads. Warning: Grad Students and Willie-Wavers will be mocked.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Administrivia III

Comment Moderation Set to "Off." Let's see what happens...

15 Comments:

At Monday, December 11, 2006 2:52:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great. Comment moderation is terrible for discussion. If we continue having problems with comments, perhaps we should consider everyone joining the blog and setting comments to members only.

Can't wait until tomorrow.

 
At Monday, December 11, 2006 7:21:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ready to roll, diurnal discussion moderator.

 
At Monday, December 11, 2006 7:23:00 AM, Blogger Neddie said...

Shush. I'm writing as fast as I can...

 
At Monday, December 11, 2006 11:10:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Er, just saying hello.

I'm new to Pynchon but was pleasantly surprised that the first 25 pages weren't as frightening as his reputation had led me to believe.

We'll see.

 
At Monday, December 11, 2006 11:59:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

no, those first 25 weren't bad. surprisingly... linear. downright conventional, even. tease.

 
At Monday, December 11, 2006 12:19:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pre-launch thought: is the plan to read the 25 and stop right there? I'm wondering how a group like this can handle the read-aheads v. haven't read-aheads "wait'll you see what happens" v. "don't tell me what happens" situation.

 
At Monday, December 11, 2006 12:30:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

just a note in light of Ol' Pal D's comment: my "tease" up there was an assumption based on what i know about Pynchon in general, not a statement of fact about this book. in other words - i haven't read past p25 either.

 
At Monday, December 11, 2006 12:48:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

...I'm wondering how a group like this can handle the read-aheads v. haven't read-aheads...

Those of us who have read ahead (like by 560 pp) will be trying to be restrained in our contributions. We promise. We'll either be very restrained, or very trying. (Personally, I'm wondering how we'll handle the red-heads.)

 
At Monday, December 11, 2006 1:46:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Decency's Jigsaw brings up a good point there. From what they say of red-heads, they aren't very restrained.

Though I've never tried one.

I guess that makes me a haven't red-head.

 
At Monday, December 11, 2006 1:48:00 PM, Blogger Kevin Wolf said...

Mr Decent: Marvelous comment.

I'm new to Pynchon and will try (my plan, anyway) to read ahead so as not to get lost when the Neddies and Wills and other smart guys overtake me.

But I think comments should be kept on point (on page).

 
At Monday, December 11, 2006 2:12:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Please, no misunderstanding - I'm askin', not tellin'.

If the plan is for everyone to read the whole tome and then base discussions on the target pages, coolness - as would be the 25-Per-Week concept - I'll plan accordingly.

Those of you who know me know I'm really only interested in myself.

 
At Monday, December 11, 2006 6:09:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

25-pages per week ? is that what we're aiming for ?

cause... that's a lot of weeks.

 
At Monday, December 11, 2006 6:26:00 PM, Blogger Neddie said...

Read-Aheads vs: 25-a Weekers:

I'm not sure how really possible it is to issue a Pynchon Spoiler -- we're not going to be trying to guess who did for Mrs. Peacock in the Drawing Room...

In offline conversation with Decency's J, I said this: "I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't assume anybody's read past our current section. "Darby Suckling dies on page 400" would be unacceptable; "I see a theme developing here that will aid our future understanding of the book" would be absolutely cool. I trust your judgment."

(I don't *think* Darby Suckling dies on p. 400, btw. Just an example.)

25-pages per week ? is that what we're aiming for ?

cause... that's a lot of weeks.


I'm going by the book divisions given at the Pynchon Wiki -- just as a preliminary guideline to hang our hats on. They've divided it up into 28 sections through Part Three, with the rest to come. A quick guesstimate gets us to the end of the book just about this time next year. (What -- you don't think there's enough to talk about for a year in here?)

I had planned to poll you folks a few session in, see if we're going too fast, too slow, just about right.

 
At Tuesday, December 12, 2006 9:20:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

What -- you don't think there's enough to talk about for a year in here?

oh, i'm sure there is. :)

and probably i should wait more than 24 hours to come to my conclusion about the pace. i'll wait till you ask :)

 
At Tuesday, December 12, 2006 2:43:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Seems to me, if one wanted to consider a slightly larger departure, one could open up each new section of 25 pp. as rapidly as possible, but keep a stipulation that comments should never refer to anything beyond what is discussed in the current section. Pro: we'd all get to comment as we went, writing about what was freshest in our own minds; con: this might hamper discussion as the community as a whole would be less focused on an individual section. Just an idea for your consideration, O members of the academy.

 

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