GRGR(11) - Children learning to die

[Murthy Yenamandra]

andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk writes:
> Murthy Yenamandra writes:
> > I'd change this to read "Children Who Are Realizing That They Are Being
> > Sent To Death". It's not the death itself that's the point of the
> > dawning realization, but the fact that it's the direct result of Their
> > goals and actions.
> No, the important thing is to learn *how* to die, not *why*. [...]

I'm not so sure. *How to die* to a large extent depends on *why* - to
guide whether one goes gentle into that good night. Pynchon doesn't
treat the bigger question of how to die, but explores your reaction when
you realize that your death is determined by Them and that fact takes
all the honor out of death and it's time to rage against the dying of
the light.

A similar point can be made about Pynchon's treatment of the spiritual
and mystical traditions. He's not really saying that much about
spiritualism or mysticism per se, but only about how these traditions
(and many others, including romanticism and cultural mythologies such as
the old west) are used for Their own purposes.

Murthy

-- 
Murthy Yenamandra, Dept of CompSci, U of Minnesota. mailto:yenamand at cs.umn.edu
    "I'm stubborn as those garbage bags that time can not decay
     I'm junk, but I'm holding up this little wild bouquet
     Democracy is coming to the USA" - Leonard Cohen