MDMD(3)--commentary

[Steven Maas (CUTR)]

Well I won't call you a fool.  But I will say that in the passage in GR
the waterbugs' "savior" is an earthly phenomenon:  "the crying of the
infant reached you, perhaps, as bursts of energy from the invisible
distance. . . ."  This sounds like P. may be saying that what people sense
as evidence of god could be an earthly force which we don't have the
ability to properly assess--nothing supernatural about it at all.  I guess
you could still call such a force god if you want to. . . .  The fact that
the infant is Jesus adds other possible interpretations to the fantastic
image that P.  paints, layer on layer in that amazing impasto. 

	Steve Maas

On Sat, 5 Jul 1997, Doug Millison wrote:
> Call me a fool, but this passage from M&D, when I first encountered it, and
> what it points to back in GR, suggests that Pynchon comes down firmly on
> the side of a higher power, spirit, God, as the motivating force in the
> universe. Andrew does a wonderful job of tracing this M&D passage back
> through an extremely relevant and important GR passage. I think Pynchon's
> serious about this -- although he serves it up with all the contradiction
> and paradox and eclectic knowledge and wisdom that his childhood Catholic
> Church typically leaves out in its fervor to offer exclusively the one true
> way to salvation -- the wonder and the terror of living in such a universe,
> with such a power at its center, "Your saviour, you see..."
> -Doug