M&D - Tyburn Tree 'resurrections'

[rj]

Mark Wright wrote:
> My memory of the earlier exchanges which prompted me to interject (more
> fool me) 

I'm sorry, is there a problem? You are under no obligation.

> My memory of the earlier exchanges which prompted me to interject (more
> fool me) is hazy now, forgive me but I recall that you were making a
> comparison between the 'belief system' you seek or seem to find
> expressed in P's fiction and "orthodox Christianity". 

Well then, you were quite wrong, weren't you. This is as close as I came
to what you accused me of, (i.e. that I "seek or seem to find" a
particular "'belief system'" expressed in Pynchon's fiction), which
you'll find is not only not close, but the absolute antithesis of what
you've invented:

"I agree that there are many instances of
otherworldly experience represented in Pynchon's fiction, however, as
they are drawn from a vast range of different and quite distinct belief
systems which (mostly) claim exclusive purchase on such afterworldly
experience, then I'm quite confident in saying that he is merely
representing the possibility of such resurrections "at all times"."

> To try and figure out what HE BELIEVES based on the books is (IMO) a
> waste of your time.  It doesn't matter; you can't know; and he is
> almost certainly (IMO) laughing through his hat.  Relax.  

This was *exactly* my point as well. But I can do without the
condescension.

>   His
> CHARACTERS might hold opinions, or believe in this or that.  His
> NARRATOR(S), slippery dudes and dudettes that they are, might seem to
> believe this or that.  The patterns and relationships set up in the
> work belong to the work itself, and cannot be assigned to the author. 
> The authors attitudes about things might be suggestive, but nothing
> more.

Indubitably. (I believe "suggested" rather than "suggestive", is what
you meant to write.)

> > So, they weren't Bible *stories* after all?
> 
> Not in the same way that "Puss'n'Boots" or "How the Elephant Got His
> Trunk" or "Love Story" or "Gravity's Rainbow" are.  

That's how they were *read* to most of us as children, though, wasn't
it?

Your characterisation of Pynchon's attitude as that of some smirking
book merchant "laughing through his hat" at the beliefs and faiths of
his readers actually ascribes a "belief system" to the man (by inference
at least), about the potentialities of fiction if nothing else.

best