M&D - Tyburn Tree 'resurrections'

[Doug Millison]

At 8:15 AM +1100 9/17/99, rj wrote:
>Yes, it's that subjunctive mood which is being resurrected in *M&D*.
>And, it's not spiritual resurrection per se but the *possibility* of
>such resurrections that Pynchon is representing, at all times.

When creating and presenting characters who clearly occupy an after-life,
unearthly plane of existence (Rebekah; Thanatoids; Lyle Bland; etc.), and
who are as "real" on the page and in the world of the novels as his earthly
characters, it would seem that TRP moves well beyond mere "possibility".
Possibly. Who knows enough about what "Pynchon is representing" to be able
to say so categorically, "at all times"?

The 'resurrection' referred to in the passage I quoted about Tyburn Tree is
physical, not spiritual -- the hanged individuals in question not having
clinically died, their 'resurrection' is metaphorical although their
survival is clearly of the flesh. The after-life characters in TRP's
fiction (examples above) would appear to be ghosts, without corporeal
substance, somehow surviving beyond the boundaries of clinical death.
Crossan quotes the Tyburn Tree material in a discussion of resurrection in
the Bible, noting that, according to one early Christian acount (the
extracanonical Gospel of Peter), Roman guards were sent to watch over
Jesus' tomb for three days to make sure he was completely dead and that his
followers couldn't retrieve the body and revive it; this also would explain
the significance of the miracle of Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life on
the fourth day (if I remember correctly) after Lazarus died and was
entombed -- the time interval would preclude the possibility of the sort of
physical 'resurrection' as is reported to have happened at Tyburn Tree.

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