Saved?

[Mr Craig Clark]

Don Larsson writes:

> 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.

I have to agree whole-heartedly with Don here, and I'll go further. IMHO, there 
is nothing in Pynchon to suggest that he repudiates Christianity (or 
any other religious faith) in its entirety, and rather a lot to suggest otherwise.
Think for example of some of the sympathetic Catholic figures in _V._: Fathers 
Fairing and Avalanche, Fina, etc. 

I suspect that Pynchon has little sympathy for the bigoted Christianity of a
Pat Buchanan, and he is strong in his condemnation of V's fetishistic, thanatic
Catholicism (as the Bad Priest), as well as of the arrogance of the Puritan belief
that They are the Elect (strongly evidenced in _GR_). A sincere and 
humble and tolerant Christianity - rather like that advocated by 
Jesus Christ - would appear to be another matter.

I'm showing my own bias here, I admit, as one of those liberal 
Catholics who believes that abortion should be made a sacrament of 
the Catholic Church. Interested to hear what others on this list have 
to say - about TRP's beliefs, not my own... ;-)

Craig Clark

"Living inside the system is like driving across
the countryside in a bus driven by a maniac bent
on suicide."
   - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"