MDMD(1) - Comments: china

[Doug Millison]

Dennis adds a lot of good detail and insight.

I know there was an enormous curiosity about China in Europe during this
period (Jonathan Spence's "The Question of Hu" or "The Memory Palace of
Matteo Ricci" are two good, general reader accounts that illuminate some
aspects); I don't know to what degree Chinese philosophy, literature,
religion, science, were actually understood with any depth in Europe at
this time. Chinoiserie celebrated the decorative, exotic aspects that could
be readily grasped and rapidly incorporated into graphic plastic arts and
crafts.

"The Awakening of the West : The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture"
by Stephen Batchelor covers some of the early history of contacts between
Europe and Buddhism, I believe -- I haven't read the book but heard
Batchelor talk in some depth about the subject on the radio (KPFA in
Berekely) sometime in the last few months, in connection with a new book
he's recently published ( Buddhism Without Beliefs : A Contemporary Guide
to Awakening).

Re: Dennis' comment:
>In this light--i.e., the old God is dead, and
>the new God doesn't give a rat's ass about us--far Cathay offers a whole new
>array of philosophies.  Of course, the real irony here is that Buddhism
>ultimately offers only disolution and Nirvana--so we're back to Lucretius.

The "old God is dead" may be a bit anachronistic, more of a late 19th-early
20th century formulation than an Englightenment idea, but then I'm not a
specialist and may be badly mistaken.

In addition to mysticism, Buddhism offers a rich ethical guide for living,
perhaps more finely tuned than the 10 Commandments to the practicalities of
life on this planet and with each other. One of the points Batchelor made
in the interview was something like (I paraphrase, crudely) that a major
opportunity was lost to more fully integrate Buddhist and European thought
at the time of the early encounters between Buddhism and the West.

In particular, consider Buddhism's more integrated view of humankind as
just another expression of consciousness in the cosmos (and the way this
fundamental precept can lead to more "humane" treatment of each other,
other species, the planet, etc.), compared with Christianity, which, in one
interpretation, gives man dominion over nature, which can lead to the
exploitative practices that Pynchon savages throughout his fiction. (It's
also true that there's a school of Christian thought which interprets
scripture and doctrine to support a deep ecological view of the world and
of man's place within it --  William Slothrop's "Soul in every stone" --
only this view hasn't predominated throughout the Christian epoque).

Cordially,
Doug


At 12:57 PM 6/14/97, dennis grace wrote:
>Doug 'splains:
>
>>China became the object of colonial interest, intrigue, and exploitation by
>>the British and other great powers, of course, in a history that culminates
>>in British importation of opium to China in the last century, and this
>>month's return of Hong Kong to the PRC -- given Pynchon's recurring
>>treatment of colonial and imperial themes, China certainly represents more
>>than "color" or something "cool" to throw in the book. There's also a rich
>>vein to mine in the "chinoiserie" craze of the 18th century, when Chinese
>>art and architecture motifs invaded and inspired Europe, along with spices
>>and coffee and other exotics.
>
>Yeah, but there's more to the chinoiserie of M&D than mere mimickry of
>Enlightenment fads.  I know some of this has already been discussed more or
>less in other contexts but here's some random thoughts (more on this later):
>
>1.  Both the Transit of Venus and the M&D line represent connections of a
>sort of East with West.
>
>2.  "'Tis the Age of Reason, rrf?" the L.E.D. reminds us (22) on the same
>page that he introduces Mason to the concept of Mu, koans, and the divine
>Buddha.  The Age of Reason was a rather uneasy time, what with Hume _et al_
>laying the groundwork for the death of God and all.  With the Age of Reason,
>Europe and the colonies were being dragged by the heels into an era in which
>science supplants religion and relegates the old rationales to the realm of
>superstition. It was, no doubt, enough to make any rational human being
>paranoid or--in the parlance of the age--melancholy.  This, I think, is a
>good deal of the source of Mason's malaise with respect to the late missus;
>as a man of science, he's been taught that he should essentially consider
>the old girl a memory and some scattered atoms and go on with his life.  In
>spite of Lucretius' admirable effort to the contrary, it isn't exactly a
>comforting view of mortality.  In this light--i.e., the old God is dead, and
>the new God doesn't give a rat's ass about us--far Cathay offers a whole new
>array of philosophies.  Of course, the real irony here is that Buddhism
>ultimately offers only disolution and Nirvana--so we're back to Lucretius.
>
>3.  I've been taking my sweet time about reading through M&D (I've also had
>a dozen other novels I need to finish before the summer's out, but excuses
>excuses), but I think the Feng Shui consideration also comes into play
>partly for the same reason that all the Chinese stuff is introduced so
>early--alternate philosophies untainted by the Age of Reason/Church
>conflict.  Plus, of course, all that stuff about trying to impose an
>inappropriate construct (fat straight line) on a naturally non-linear setting.
>
>4.  The interplay alternate philosophies have long been a concern of TRP's,
>thus the imposition of the Advent calendar, the Tarot, the White Visitation,
>and the Khirgiz Lights onto a plot so heavy with Wien bridge amplifiers and
>V2s and Pavlovian conditioning and plastics.
>
>dgg
>_____________________________
>Dennis Grace
>University of Texas at Austin
>English Department
>Recovering Medievalist
>
>That's right, you're not from Texas, but Texas wants you anyway.
>                                                  --Lyle Lovett

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