Pynchon's politics again

[MARSHA A. SURAD - CC Intern]

Pardon my ignorance - this is the first day that I have been lurking
around the list -  I haven't read anything by Pynchon in quite some
time...don't remember which book is "GR".  Please explain to me...
Thanks In Advance,

Marsha Surad

In your message of 10 Jul 1995 at 0923 MDT, you write:
>
> to: Bonnie--you see, we were all here, just disembodied presences!
>
> Oh well.  Jan sez:
> "Whilst I'm pleased to see Pynchon's metaphysics being aired again, I'm not
> sure that I would call "paranoia" in the above sense metaphysical.  (If I've
> misunderstood, profuse apologies.)  The kind of Pynchonian metaphysics that
> I think is worthy of a far fuller exploration is, for instance, his attitude
> towards and artistic use of the Golden Dawn's magickal System in GR.  The
> point about the degree of understanding of these "secret politics" that the
> individual can have is well made, but we're still often talking about the
> exposure of real economic connections.  For instance, the General Electric
> Global Empire is still going strong - and, as an individual, I can apprehend
> it in a way which I would not categorize as metaphysical."
>
>
> I'd say there are metaphysics and metaphysics.  In V., the Conspiracy that
> Stencil imagines (and which is reinforced by P's imagery) is of some malign
> Otherworldly Presence whose mission on earth is to enhance the eventual
> triumph of entropy--the movement toward inanimation.
> 
> In GR, on the other hand, there may be also malign otherworldly presences, but
> their mission is entrusted to real (or at least fictively real) characters
> with real ends on This World of suppressing others.
> 
> 
> COL49 falls somewhere inbetween--the Tristero has a grounding in some kind 
> of social reality (all the more so when one discovers that Thurn and Taxis
> was a real entity) but is ambiguous in what it represents.
> 
> GR, as Jan points out, is much more overtly concerned with the social,
> economic and political activities of real people in real places--but the
> metaphysical is always there too.
> 
> 
> One thing that may be a source of confusion is what we mean by "political."
> When I use the term, I assume it to encompass just about anything that
> involves the social interactions of human beings.  Other people seem to be
> using the term much more narrowly.
> 
> 
> Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)
>