GRGR (15): Good & Evil (was Enzian...)

[Paul Mackin]

Good discussion. I've got another question however. What would the result
be if we changed the subject of the thread from "Good & Evil" to
"Pleasure & Pain?" Evil and good are such theological and philosophical
notions. Pleasure and pain are more down to earth. So, under the
new scheme MORALITY would consist in trying to promote pleasure and
trying to prevent pain (an optimizing problem, but no matter). Thus I
would I have to rephrase my previously expressed contention as follow: In
reading _Gravity's Rainbow_ I do not  find myself really BELIEVING very
firmly in the PAIN that is purportedly taking place. And the way I KNOW I
do not believe in the pain is that I never find myself WANTING IT TO STOP.
Though I won't go so far a to say I experience the sadistic events as
pleasurable--this might not be all that far from the truth either.
Shocking! you might say, but remember this IS Pynchon  after all. Of
course I must say that I don't know if my reaction to reading novels is at
all typical. The fact of the matter is that when something
painful--reeely painful--is going on in a book I truly do not want that
pain to continue. I want it to stop. Need an example. Ok here's one. Take
another book of comparable literary merit, _American Pastoral_, Philip
Roth's recent 60s novel. In that book Swede's (the hero, usually referred
to as "the Swede") daughter's self destructive behavior (though based on
some kind of extreme idealism it may be argued) was painful to Swede in
the worst possible way. It was killing him. And because Roth is a superb
novelist the pain was also killing ME. I didn't want it to continue. I
truly experienced it as EVIL (to return to earlier terminology). I wanted
it to stop. I wanted the girl to tell her revolutionary confreres to go
fuck themselves and return home to her suffering father. This is what I
mean by BELIEVING in fictional reality.

			Loving it all, P.