Gnostic Pynchon and the Cartels

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

>From The Gnostic Pynchon, Dwight Eddins, Indiana University
Press, 1990.
Pg. 128
The cartel aspires to create an absolutely pervasive system
of connections, a definitive and inescapable nexus that
would usurp nature's orderings and "correct' nature's
randomness with its framework of controlled causality. The
shattering of natural nexuses, the interdiction of organic
renewal, the conscious elaboration of death-orientated
processes are not simply the unfortunate by-products of
ruthless power hunger. Rather they are conscious
desecrations that are integral to satisfying that hunger,
which is ultimately to see Earth nullified and sterilized in
the triumph of the artificial and the mechanical---in other
words, of the purely man-made. As long as nature transcends
man, concealing her ultimate mysteries and sentencing even
the Cartel to preterition sure, there must be a constant
gnostic assault upon this transcendence, spearheaded by
scientists and technologists. The aims are the destruction
of nature's sanctum sanctorum through omniscience and
through mastery over her life processes in a man-made
Kingdom of Death. 

GR.539
"DEVIL"S ADVOCATE'S what the shingle sez, yes inside is a
Jesuit
."

Eddins GP.129
What the Jesuit is making clear is the metaphysical scope of
the usurpation in which They are engaged. 

Eddins GP.111 
Out of this dance of parodic opposites (GP.109 GR is a
daunting intricate web of reciprocities, ironic
correspondences, inversions and unexpected doubleings-ie V-1
and V-2, Outside Inside, Pointy, Spectro GR.144) rises the
basic concept of GR, the religious dialectic that structures
the novel. It is marked by mystical and supernatural
manifestations on both sides, by the presence of fanatical
devotees and by the drive for nothing less than metaphysical
dominance
.the right to define ultimate reality and to
decide what the individuals relation to this reality is to
be.