Missing parts

[jporter]

Jules:

>>       Pynchon appears more interested in preserving the human element,
>> thereby leaving immortality to the artists who chance upon it, not by will
>> or programme but by gift and circumstance.
>

P. Mackin:

>All quite in keeping with the practical consideration that none of
>the various attempted fixes on human problems, especially that of
>mortality, ever seems to succeed. Mankind is simply inherently screwed.
>
>Adams had it right though about the basic instinct not to give up
>on immortality despite all discouraging evidence to the contrary. (I
>assume he said something to this effect somewhere--if he didn't, he should
>have)
>
>I know there are folks who prefer see pynchonian reachings for beyond zero
>and death as more than  mere instances of human hubris and failure.
>

Me (before the bough breaks):

I think both Adams and the pynch had/have an inkling that the human form,
especially the human form of self-consciousness, was/is transitional, a way
station, if you will, along the cloudpressed lane.... Some place to work
out the kinks involved with becoming aware of the stupendous responsibility
for the evolving form's form: in charge of our own evolution, or at least,
what it signifies.

Is there any reason not to regard the scientists on both sides of The War
as heroes? The holocaust is a red herring, and Pynchon is wise merely to
provide context and allow it (whatever it was/is) to define itself in any
given reader's field of view. The knowledge obtained through the scientific
method is neutral, and so, it seems, are the evolutionary forces which have
lead to us. History is just a parlor-time story re-told to give
encouragement to those that follow, to find a time and space and cluster of
eager ears for their own tales. What could be more important?

Von Braun can be seen as one of those who saw reaching for "beyond the zero
and death" as more than "mere instances of human hubris and failure." We
are standing on the shoulders of failures. Whatever follows us will have
the right to judge.

jody