xx-temp-files

Got my book this week. I’m all excited, and who can blame me? I’m fighting the urge to dive in. I have read the quote that opens the book, and I have read the first line, and I can report that they are both excellent. The second sentence will have to wait till next Tuesday.
Today’s post is another spot for chiming in if you’re planning on joining the ‘march, or for just saying hey to other ‘march-types. Based on the response to the launch post, I’m guessing we’ll start with something like 20 folks on the trail. A nice number to tackle such a mighty tome.
In last week’s post, I mentioned prizes. A few folks are first-timers, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to explain how that works.
Tell me more about these so-called “prizes”
OK. Read and finish the book and comment every week (starting next week), and the AtDDM prize mechanism will release a deathmarch mug or a magnet, your choice, like a mother hen dropping a mug or magnet-shaped egg. (note: prizes capped at 30 winners.)
Here’s a look at a couple of past prizes (note: len flares not included):

The “I Survived the ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ Deathmarch” mug
As you can see, the molecular structure of the GRDM mug is solid enough that all these many months later it can still securely contain a beverage such as milk, or chocolate milk, or orange juice. It calls to you, yes?

The “I Survived the ‘To the Lighthouse’ Deathmarch” magnet
The TtLHDM prizes should be going out to lucky winners shortly. While you can’t tell this from the picture, please take my word when I say that the magnetic pull of these beauties is so powerful that I had to have them delivered to me in sealed lead boxes to avoid adversely impacting the local tides.
Alright then — I hope the stakes are clear now and your collective mouths are watering as much as mouths can water in response to non-edible objects like mugs and magnets. See you back here next week, when we “single up all lines” and let boots and dust collide….
-Cecil

Back in January aught 5 a hardy band of pioneer types set forth on what some say was the very first blog-based literary deathmarch — the so-called “Gravity’s Rainbow Deathmarch,” in which a crew of modern day Lewis and Clark types banded together and managed, over five months, to read an extremely difficult book.
Two years later, we’ve read Pale Fire by Nabokov At Swim Two Birds, by Flann O’Brien, Don Quixote by Cervantes, and To the Lighthouse by Woolf. And now it’s time for perhaps our greatest feat yet. Not only will we read a difficult book, but it will be a difficult book that was published in this century. Specifically: Against the Day, Pynchon’s recently released behemoth.
But when’s it start?
The spines crack Tuesday January 30th. All are welcome. We’ll probably need a thousand people to join this time to get three people through, which seems unlikely, but, ya know, tell a friend. If you’d like to join up, this would be a great time to pick up a copy. But try if you can to hold off on starting it till January 30th so we can all leap onto the trail in synch. The dust cloud’s purtier that way.
Dare I ask…prizes?
As ever, we’ll be tackling around 50 pages a week. And yep, there will be the nigh magical lure of mug prizes for up to 30 people who finish and comment every week.
So what now?
Well, right here on this very thread would be an excellent place for you to sound off if you plan on marching, with your excitement, your fear, your loathing, all your strongest emotions. We’ll need to put that behind us soon. For on the ‘march we can only afford ourselves steely resolve. And the occasional donut.
See you on the dirt,
-Cecil

Congrats to the many who’ve made it through or are on the verge of crossing the finish line! (oh math, from hell’s heart, we stab at thee. For hate’s sake, we spit our last breath at thee.)
If you haven’t already shouted out, or you have last thoughts to share that you were holding back for fear of spoiling endings and such, you’ve come to exactly the right spot. Thanks to all for an excellent ‘march and most especially thanks for your high patience with me, and my, well, let’s just say imprecise posting habits this time around. I should be much more on the dime when we tackle The Monster aka Thomas Pynchon’s brand-new book, Against the Day. Deathmarch to start in mid-January. And may God have mercy on our souls.
Next week: Can you hear it? That sound? The whirring of machines, the gathering of magnetism? Watch this spot for…a magnet preview….
-Cecil

Never let it be said that I didn’t post the thread for Week 3 before midnight on Wednesday.
Never!
Still, this is really just a placeholder. Life — what with elections , Halloween, and all the time I’ve had to spend anticipating the release of the Borat movie — has overflowed into my Deathmarching time a tad, so this will be an unacceptably thin soup of an entry, hopefully replaced tomorrow with heartier fare. I will say this: loving the book. And this: digging the conversation this week — especially the back and forth re Mr. Ramsay.
Next Wednesday: Let’s meet at the end of Part I, where rumor has it she’s triumphed again.