GRGR: Re: Blicero

[rj]

millison
> 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.

In the context of the Baby Jesus Con Game played out over and over in
the text (Christianity disguising Western economic imperialism and its
oppression of indigenous peoples), and Enzian's blasphemous dream of
"Him, pierced Jesus ... the white faggot's-dream body, the slender legs
and soft gold European eyes" (324.14-15), the connection here as I see
it is the joint venture between God the Father and Pilate: Their cartel
if you like. Gottfried and Blicero are a world and a religion unto
themselves (722-23) aspiring to transcend this earthly hell, this System
or cycle of death and degradation. Similarly, Slothrop is a "state" of
one, also (291.4), and also transcends.

best