Saved?

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

About Pynchon & Redemption--
While I agree with hg that TRP's notion of redemption is not "religious" in
any Christian-right sense, it *is* deeply informed by his Catholic and
Puritan backgrounds.  Just look at the terminology he uses all the way
from "Mortality and Mercy in Vienna" to COL49.

In GR, in particular, one "religious" allusion that strikes again and again
is the Old Testament notion of the Saving Remnant.  From Lot in Sodom
through the Babylonian exile and on, the OT prophets continue to prophesy
that even if Israel is destroyed, a small remnant will remain that will
allow a new beginning.  

That theme is exemplified in GR by the Herero manta, "M'ba kyere" ("
I am passed over") which--in a typical paradox--exemplifies Preterition
(as in being "passed over" for election, promotion or whatever) but also
Salvation from destruction (as in the Feast of Passover).

Little pockets of salvation spring up throughout GR, though their victories
are often by chance and rarely more than provisional--the One Lemming is found
and saved, Geli stops Tchitcherine's death urge, u.s.w.


Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)