Deaths in GR

[andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk]

Thomas Vieth writes:

> And thus it goes with the rest of everything in his writings that
> would on the surface require a dualistic stand point. . . .

`dualistic'. That's two right? Like Beethoven and Rossini, say? So is
it only superficial details which separate this duo?

> take, again, the issue of death. TRP has his narrator in GR say
> things like "moved to the other side"; when I remember correctly he
> even talks about something that he names "interface", in my view not
> referring to the computer term but to that interface that keeps
> ordinary consciousness from looking all the way through every day
> world's appearances. But when the narrator talks about "the other
> side", it seems clear that there is a transcendence at work, a
> lifting over and beyond duality.

Which `narrator' says this? Are you sure it is not actually one of the
characters - perhaps even a dead one such as Peter Sachsa, the
Control, or a possessed one like Carrol Eventyr, the Medium? The
changes of voice from narrator to character to another narrator to
chorus (ambiguity intended) to inner monologue to massed Dodo
conscisouness to whatever . . . imply a multitude of characters
telling us this story from a multitude of perspectives. To suggest
that one particular belief is common to all (or even most of) these
voices (let alone Pynchon's own opinion) is to presume continuity
where it probably does not exist.


Andrew Dinn
-----------
And though Earthliness forget you,
To the stilled Earth say:  I flow.
To the rushing water speak:  I am.