Darwin and Pynchon's objective perspective

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

Nothing at first can appear more difficult to believe than that the more
complex organs and instincts have been perfected, not by means superior
to, though analogous with, human reason, but by the accumulation of
innumerable slight variations, each good for the individual possessor.
     -C.D. T.O.S.-
Note Darwin’s careful analogy. Following the long tradition of
astounding objectivity in the English Scientific mind, Darwin struggles
to assert, without prejudice, the truth of the universal struggle for
life:

Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal
struggle for life, or more difficult-at least I have found it so-than
constantly to bear this conclusion in mind. Yet, unless it be thoroughly
engrained in the mind, I am convinced that the whole economy of nature,
with every fact on distribution, rarity, abundance, extinction, and
variation, will be dimly seen or quite misunderstood. We behold the face
of nature bright with gladness, we often see superabundance of food; we
do not see, or we forget, that the birds that are idly singing round us
mostly live on insects or seeds, and are thus constantly destroying
life; or we forget how largely these songsters, or their eggs, or their
nestling, are destroyed by birds and beasts of prey; we do not always
bear in mind, that though food may be now superabundant, it is not so at
all seasons of each recurring year.
     -C.D. T.O.S.-

The mind is objective, but the language communicates a Christian
heritage: “We behold the face of nature, will be dimly seen, the birds
that are idly singing.”

 Darwin seeks to eliminate all that is merely subjective and personal,
in order to see the world objectively, as the world presents itself in
itself. His view is an impersonal or objective one. This view of the
world is often associated with science, for it is thought that to be
scientific is to eliminate all bias or prejudice and all things
personal. However, Darwin’s objectivity is characteristic of HIS mind
and not of all scientific thinkers. Nor are geniuses of the arts, often
associated with idiosyncratic subjectivity, necessarily subjective.
Shakespeare, for example, holding a mirror to nature, is himself, an
enigma. His personal subjectivity has been enveloped by and hidden in
the objectivity of his works. Protagoras, in contrast, claims that, “Man
is the measure of all things.” Francis Bacon agrees with Darwin and
Shakespeare when in New Organon he writes, “I am building,” he states,
“in human understanding a true model of the world, such as it is in
fact, not such as man’s own reason would have it to be.”
 Darwin’s struggle was not easily won, but for him there was no other
way. He saw the world objectively, and his works reflect his view of the
world. How does Pynchon see the world? IMHO, Pynchon’s perspective, like
Shakespeare’s, is objective.