GRGR: Re: Blicero

[Doug Millison]

rj argues that "It is not death -- murder, suicide, extinction, genocide
etc -- but transcendence which Blicero seeks through and for Gottfried" and
that this is "No more Satanic or sadistic than the Christian myth, really."

Well, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, after all.

In the Christian view, one person does not achieve "transcendence" (it's
difficult to know exactly what rj means by this vague term) through the
abuse or exploitation of another person, but instead enjoys the potential
for grace (union with God, in this lifetime or the next) by virtue of
existence (you don't have to do anything to earn grace, although you can
reject the gift).  Indeed, Jesus' appeal, both during his lifetime and down
through the centuries, is due in large part to his message of blessing to
those who have been broken by earthly authority (expressed most directly in
the Beatitudes).  Even the earthly lords who have done the abusing and the
exploiting (as Weissmann/Blicero has) can enjoy this grace if they turn
away from their evil oppression of their fellow humans and institute
justice instead. Jesus also taught that Christians can enjoy God's kingdom
here on earth through such simple practices as treating each other with
dignity and social justice ("Love your neighbor as yourself"), table
fellowship, healing, prayer, and undergoing a psychological change
("rebirth") that permits one to see the world through a child's eyes again.

If by "sadistic myth" rj refers to the Passion story (Jesus' crucifixion by
Roman authorities), recall that Jesus' trials on the cross lead to Jesus'
own apotheosis, not to the "transcendence" of those who torture and execute
him.  As the officer in charge (paralleling the role Blicero plays in
sacrificing Gottfried) Pontius Pilate is not pursuing "transcendence".

Perhaps rj wishes us to see God's sacrifice of Jesus as parallel to
Blicero's sacrifice of Gottfried. But that analogy doesn't work, either. In
Christian theology, God and Jesus are one person.  God takes on human form
and sacrifices himself in an act of cosmic salvation (see Matthew Fox, _The
Coming of the Cosmic Christ_).

Given the care with which Pynchon plays with Christian symbols, lore, and
theology in GR, it would appear that he has consciously set up this
parallel -- Blicero/Pilate -- as well as the perhaps more obvious parallels
of Blicero with the Satans of Milton and Dante.

I agree, in part, with rj -- Blicero, pathetic to the end, sees the
infliction of pain on others, and human sacrifice, as the path to his own
"transcendence". In thus making Blicero's story an inversion of the
Christian story, we see, perhaps, Pynchon's ultimate judgement of the Nazis
for their crimes against humanity -- the Nazis, too, appear to have
believed that they could "transcend" and achieve an earthly apotheosis
through the submission, exploitation,  infliction of pain, and murder of
their fellow humans.  In this reading, Pynchon's judgement would apply also
to those he allies to the Nazis in GR.

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