Parallax of another sort

[jporter]

This post is partly about food. Two obs made a great distance apart of the
same meal: Leonardo's and Dali's, "The Last Supper". Not the Table Vroom,
this, but the Western God's table.

Early in chapter 10, the Rev'd explains that the solar parallax is: "The
size of the Earth, in seconds of Arc, as seen by an observer upon the
surface of the Sun." Or, in the spirit of one of his "Unpublished Sermons:"
God's view of earth. But, how must we seem (if seem is the right word ) to
such a magnanimous Host? Can science and logic give us a feeling for that
impression, beyond just "seconds of Arc"? Without slipping completely into
deism here, can measurement alone give us a "feel" for the tug of gravity
as experienced from the sun?

Art can provide a different sort of *solar parallax* by which to gage our
stature in the eyes of its Lord, ruler of the subjective realm; hence my
earlier suggestion of Leonardo v. Dali.  Not being an art historian, I'll
offer only a few of my usual impressionistic (if not Miltonic)
speculations. The scale of Leonardo's Supper is that of the human and the
local, where Judas has chosen freely and the apostles, shocked to learn of
treachery. are distinctive and individually recognizable. Christ is all too
human, and it is certain that he must suffer a human death, to achieve his
glory. There is a blessed assymmetry, with Christ, central and presiding,
and Judas to the observer's far left, at the very end of the table. The
observer is free to find reflection anywhere between them.

The post-surrealist Dali, however, offers another Supper. Christ has become
a mathematical expression of perfection, a derivative of a more general
Truth. The apostles, heads all bowed, are anonymous. This is the triumph of
form over detail, the general over the specific- the local has been reduced
to a derived experience, with only one way out. The role of Judas has been
consigned, inescapably, to the measuring eye of the observer, unable to
locate a specific reflection in the symmetry of this image, while Dali, its
creator, has signed himself (or his stand in) as Christ. God is hovering,
headless, pure form replacing thought, a done meal.

Between the two obs of Leonardo and Dali is another type of parallax to
help us appreciate our position and our place with respect to God. [And
rest assured scholars, my interpretations are purely personal. I am making
no claims for them being *right*. I merely offer them to provke thought.]
Seconds of Arc and evidence of Gravity's tug are here replaced by our
enduring appreciation of artistic expression, surely another way to
appraise our changing image from God's perspective. From where else come
works of great art?

Just Desserts: The list's own Andrew Dinn has commented, "I believe that in
the end we (collectively) get the pynchon list we (collectively) deserve."
I am not sure what I have  done to deserve some of the pleasure I've gotten
out of the list over the past  years, but it has been a great source of
escape for me, flames and all.  And God knows, we all need escape from time
to time. Where would I be today without the withering fire of those earlier
days? For the cognoscenti, a well written flame can perform a valuable
service, as well as be a source of stinging pleasure. Ketjap, anyone?

jody