Pynchon's Faith

[rj]

Thanks to davemarc for saying simply and clearly what I was trying to
get at. I concur entirely with all his (and MalignD's earlier)
observations. I've agreed all along that the paragraphs Doug cited
represented Pynchon's thoughts. "I can see that it is a meditation on
... " was my opening remark on the subject. What I took issue with,
however, was the notion that the passage (and the essay) disclose
Pynchon's "beliefs", but I must admit that I didn't take into
consideration the possibility that Doug's phrase "Mr P's own thoughts
and beliefs" was a tautology, as it now appears. Like davemarc, I had
assumed Doug meant to imply that Pynchon discloses his own "beliefs",
i.e. that he discloses his faith, in the cited paragraphs. Apparently
this was not the case and I do apologise to Doug.

My position is that the Times article on Sloth, though interesting in
and of itself, does not disclose Pynchon's personal beliefs, about God
and religion and time and technology in particular, nor about much of
anything. By this I mean to say specifically that Pynchon *does not* say
whether or not he believes in God or the Holy Ghost in the cited
passages, nor anywhere in the essay. He doesn't say whether he believes
the world was a better place before the Industrial Revolution or since.
To be honest, I can't even get a clear line on his opinion one way or
the other about 'sloth' itself. And, it seems to me that such an air of
ambivalence is the one sought by the author in this essay.

Pre-empting the last word, I admit some folks consider this reading
"absurd". But that's ... well, you know the rest.

Anyway, I'm glad Doug is calmer now. It *is* good having him round,
sorta like a big brother, dontcha know.

best

davemarc wrote:
> 
> If I understand Doug correctly, he's stating that Pynchon believes that the
> Holy Ghost once interacted with humans.
> 
> I have trouble feeling that that's the meaning of Pynchon's statement in
> that essay.  I tend to interpret it more as meaning that there was a time
> when it was believed much more than now that the Holy Ghost was
> interacting.
> 
> On the other hand, I do sense a strong degree of faith in Pynchon's later
> writings.
> 
> d.