MDMD(8) Silence

[Doug Millison]

>231.24  "the long sorry Silence"  To what does Emerson refer here?

I interpret this to mean the long period of not hearing anything from the
Jesuits that might suggest they have first-hand knowledge of Transcendence,
by which I think  I think Emerson means a direct experience of Christ's
presence. This leads into another attack on the priesthood as Emerson calls
the Jesuits "the latest instance of a true Christian passion evaporated
away, leaving no more than the usual hollow desires for Authority and
mindless O-bedience."

This also fits in with a more general 18th century belief that Jesuits were
more involved in worldly empire, politics, trade than in otherworldly
pursuits. In France and England in North America (written in the mid
1800s), Francis Parkman distinguishes the Jesuits who came to North America
in the earlier part of17th century fired with missionary zeal and the
desire to save Indian souls, from the Jesuits who came in the latter part
of the 17th century and were more heavily involved in politics, empire,
trade, the kind of behind the scenes machinations they are credited with in
M&D a century later.

It's also interesting to see the name Emerson and the word Transcendence in
the same sentence, Pynchon may be playing here with allusions to the
American Transcendental, too.


D O U G  M I L L I S O N ||||||||||| millison at online-journalist.com