RC in TRP WAS RE: Hitler's Pope

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

Doug Millison wrote:
> 
> Speaking of disintermediation, one of my favorite moments in M&D is when
> Quaker Dixon teaches Mason how they meditate in church, sitting quiet and
> still, waiting for the Spirit to descend. When Mason tries it, he just
> falls asleep. But it would seem that the method works for Dixon. TRP is
> rather rough on the Catholic church in M&D -- the Jesuits are bad guys,
> aren't they? -- and he further develops his elite/preterite issue out of
> the Protestant tradition. 

Is Pynchon rough on them? On one level YES he is. He is a
satirist and no one escapes his satire.  Being rough on the
Jesuits is part of the history that M&D covers. Pynchon in a
way can be said to love the Jesuits, they are so damned
interesting as subject for Pynchon, makes perfect sense I
think. In V. Pynchon has a RC priest down in the sewer
converting rats to christianity. He is probably mad and it's
only a story Benny has been told, but we see the
inscriptions on the wall as the sewer is transformed, as we
know when Pynchon begins one of these historical journeys
the allusions become quite important. FAIRING's artifacts
end up at the vatican. On one level, it's perfect symbolism,
Benny--the son of Job is hunting below street level through
the blessed waters of the parish with a dude named angel who
carries the light. Angel gets drunk and Benny has to carry
his own flashlight and a shotgun and being a son of Job he
screws up. Earlier Benny pretends he is god the creator and
attempts to change one person into an angel, he fails. Down
in the sewer, the rats--the major church fathers and mothers
discuss marx--this being the depression and father fairing
has been sowing up ripped souls at street level, but has
decided to teach the rats--the inheritors of the world from
his baltimore catechism. They discuss the creed--the
superabundances/indulgences of the saints and mary and argue
about this.  The jesuits have had a very rocky history with
the RCC. Pynchon knows this.


 He's taken great pains to make Rev. Cherrycoke a
> pretty likeable guy, not surprisingly since we're going to be spending
> quite a bit of time in his company as we read the novel, although Mason and
> Dixon don't seem to be terribly fond of the Rev. I still haven't read _The
> Gnostic Pynchon_ but I've heard that it discusses in some detail the way
> TRP deals with religion in his writing.

I read the gnostic pynchon and richard romeo has read it and
I think we both agree it is a tough read, but well worth it.

TF