GRGR(12) LSD, for good and evil

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

Richard Romeo wrote:
> 
> >
> >Now we can say that the government's war on drugs, the
> >planting of drugs in Zoyd's home, the campus odor that
> >brings in the thugs, the doctors and scam artists that take
> >advantage of users,  all support the idea that Pynchon is
> >concerned that the government is high and dangerous, that
> >little guys getting high with a few friends are being boned
> >by the state, and yes Rockefella makes it, Richard Nixon
> >takes it, why can't we,  but can we extend this to the
> >notion that drugs are a positive or a life affirming force
> >in Pynchon's novels?
> -----------
> As with anything in Pynchon, nothing is stated as so positive or negative,
> even drugs.  

I don't agree with this, though I know this is a very
popular reading of Pynchon. 


My favorite scene related to mind-alteration is Tchitcherine
> drooling in the desert whilst viewing the Kirghiz Light--he's at the edge of
> revelation, but he will always be deemed unworthy--surely, a fine statement
> on psychedlics, in that, passed a certain point, there's no place to move
> forward to, you get as much out of them as anything else, but they leave you
> wanting.
> 
> Rich


Beautiful, this is Pynchon's apocalyptic, at the edge of
revelation, wanting, unworthy? Why?