Who ya gonna call...?

[jporter]

 Sitting here sipping latte, savoring the final days of capitalism, and
wondering how  genetic is the personality, several questions coalesce in my
datasphere: 1) If telepathy is as real as it seems, does accepting the
presence of the dead enhance transmission, increase the "telepathic gain?"
2) Through his current writings thus far, is Mr Pynchon silent on such
issues, or are the numerous examples of commerce with The Other in GR and
Vineland indicative of more than just a literary interest?

It seems that the prevailing sense in COL49 is one of agnosticism toward
ESP, where the question is linked to that of the reality of Tristero. But
in GR, beginning with Pirate's management of the fantasies of The Leaders,
the tone has changed.

The appearance of the many restless spirits in Vineland might be
representative only of the unreconciled issues of The Times with which the
novel deals. However, the absence of terror associated with the presence of
the dead seems to signal something more, if only the withering away of the
obsolete fears of an older paradigm.

jp

"No ideas except in things..."  William Carlos Williams