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Hi all,
As previously intimated, the Don Quixote Deathmarch does in fact loometh. In fact, it so loometh that we even have a start date: Wednesday, March 22 (meaning we aim to open the cover that day).
Looks like we may well have a good-sized group, including several first-timers. Should be fun (and grueling, but also fun). If you’re interested and looking to pick up a copy, most of us will be reading the new translation by Edith Grossman, and that’s what page references will refer back to.
For them what are new to the DM world, here’s basically how it works:
Every Wednesday I’ll post something right here on your computer screen laying out how far we’ll be marching that week (usually around 50 or 60 pages). Over the next 7 days, folks drop by and leave comments ranging from “owie” and “this hurts” to slightly more erudite analysis. And that’s pretty much the whole idear. Week by week and nibble by nibble, we make our way through. And by the end, this weary band of wanders will have another of The Great Books flashing sparks deep within our brains.
Anyways, we’d love to have you along. In fact, consider yourself personally exhorted. And of course, feel free to bring a friend. The more, the marchier….
See you on the trail,
-Cecil

Just a quick heads-up for them what follow such things, that the Don Quixote Deathmarch is now officially looming on the horizon. The exact start date hasn’t been selected yet, but it’ll most likely be right around the beginning of March. Probably a Tuesday.
Me, I’ve got a little work to do before we kicking the DQDM off — like, finishing the last one (At Swim-Two-Birds), which I jumped back into yesterday. And ordering those dang Gravity’s Rainbow Deathmarch mugs! Must get mugs!
OK…watch this space for more news…..
-Cecil

Pale Fire Peoples!
Welcome to Week 3. It’s very special week for me, because this is the first week when I’m officially a little bit behind, which means we’re really rollin’ now. I’ve been savouring it a bit too much methinks.
But enough about me — how are you doing out there? And more to the point, have you checked out the Palefire Deathmarch Wiki yet, for the demystification of tricky vocab? (Created some say by “Cort,” others say by “DavidG.” But in such murky matters can the truth ere truly be known?)
Speaking of “Cort,” don’t miss his exhortation to write frothy heroic bather-verse (wiki-style, no less) at the tail end of the thread for Week 2. I could be wrong here, but I think he’s talking to you.
Next week: Let’s meet back up just past “the adjacent position of these rhymes,” which is to say, right after the commentary on Lines 367-370, also known as page 149 in the Everyman’s Library.

Pale Fire Peoples!
Looks like we’re off to an excellent start. Lotsa folks on the march, with fully 20 posts so far on last week’s thread, including an excellent bit o’ background on the Zemlya of it all, filed just last night by so-called “Cort.” Good stuff!
This week is a bit of a paradox. We’ve now read the poem, so this would be an appropriate week for commentary on the poem before we read the, er, commmentary. On the poem. It’s sorta like a thin crack into which our world may whisper out. So, you know, stay frosty out there.
Me, I was surprised by how flat-out funny the foreword was — with occasional fore-shades of my beloved “Cruel Shoes” — and then again at how sad the poem sometimes dips, especially Canto 2, as Other Dan noted in last week’s thread. It’s a regular Pale Fire Emotional Death Roller Coaster March is what it is.
What’d you think?
Next week: Let’s dive into to the madness of King Kinbote and then meet up at page 105 in the Everyman’s Library, which is to say, the end of the comentary on Lines 130, in other words somewheres round about a passing reference to “the interesting note to Line 149.”

A few weeks back, we wrapped “The Gravity’s Rainbow Deathmarch,” in which some 13 or 14 of us went screaming across Pynchon’s notoriously challenging uber-book.
Mark yer calendars. Two weeks from today — on May 31st — tanned, rested, and ready, we’ll be starting up Deathmarch 2. This time out, we’re tackling something a wee bit lighter and a whole lot shorter. By its rep, Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire is a wild, one-of-a-kind read. Anthony Burgess says it’s a “brilliant confection.” Mary McCarthy, never one to be out done by Anthony Burgess, says: “This centaur work, half-poem, half-prose . . . is a creation of perfect beauty, symmetry, strangeness, originality and moral truth. Pretending to be a curio, it cannot disguise the fact that it is one of the great works of art of this century.” And various folks I know who’ve already read it say: “Great stuff!”
Here’s how the PFDM works: every Tuesday, I’ll leave a short post here on the site. If you’re reading along, drop by and post a comment — something insightful or erudite, random blather, or just a quick “hey now!” That’s it — that’s the whole deal. The book looks like a great ride. And the whole adventure should take around 7 weeks or so.
All are welcome — good friends, new acquaintances, and outright strangers. And yes, my old enemy, my nemesis: The Man with Five Hands: you are welcome too. The Big Idear is to use the momentum of the pack to get into books we might otherwise miss.
There are two main bargain editions online — The Everyman’s Library edition (an inexpensive hardcover) and the Vintage paperback. Either will work — I’ll include page references for both when we set our weekly targets.
And say, if you’re thinking of marching along, why not be here now and practice commenting at this very moment, by leaving one on this very thread. As an added bonus, it’ll help us get a rough head count so we know how much food and water to pack in. Metaphorically speaking.
See you out on that winding road…. -CV