Gottfried & Blicero

[MichaelB]

In answering the question of Pynchon's being beyond good and evil,
you say he doesn't see himself as an ubermensch. --But I don't think
that an ubermensch, in Nietzsche's sense, is one that is merely
beyond good and evil.  One must certainly be beyond good and evil,
but that awareness is the necessary groundwork for what the
ubermensch primarily does: revaluates old tables of values, or
better, revaluates existing tables of values.  To be merely beyond
good and evil but to fail to create new values in the nothingness
that resides 'beyond good and evil' is to further that aspect of
modernity that the ubermensch overcomes--nihilism.  I obviously am
none too swift in my knowledge of Pynchon, but I would guess that in
this sense--in recognizing the nothingness that permeates
'reality'--he is certainly beyond good and evil.  The question would
be, then, does Pynchon create, and continue to create, ever new
tables of values.  Has Pynchon overcome the nothingness?  I for one,
am unabashed about admitting I have not yet been able to grasp that
most crucial overcoming, that essential creating.

m


--- Paul Mackin <pmackin at clark.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> On Fri, 18 Aug 2000, Dave Monroe wrote:
> 
> > So you guys ARENT going to answer my questions?  Jeez, I hope you
> two aren't in
> > the business.  Won't answer questions from the class, which you
> run anyway like
> > it's the McLaughlin Group or something ("Wrong!").  You'd make
> lousy professors
> 
> 
> The questions I could decern are, is Pynchon beyond good and evil, 
> and why is it important they both be men tonight. Let me give quick
> off the top of my head answers and think about it some more.
> 
> No, P does not see himself as an Ubermensch. However he must see
> the
> forces that drive the planet as beyond good and evil.
> 
> I read "important they both be men" to mean that at this critical
> point Blicero does not wish to use Gottfried for a girl (image him
> as a
> girl or woman), the implication being that at other times such
> might be
> the case. Perhaps the seriousness and finality of the present
> occasion
> require that Gottfried be allowed his true biological male
> identity. Also
> it will accommodate a father/son relation. But I'm no sexpert.
> 
> 				P.
> 




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