grgr (34): "the tower" (747)

[Otto Sell]

----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Wright AIA <mwaia at yahoo.com>
To: <lorentzen-nicklaus at t-online.de>
Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2000 2:21 PM
Subject: Re: grgr (34): "the tower" (747)



Howdy

--- Otto Sell <o.sell at telda.net> wrote:

> There is a Hand to turn the time,
> Though thy Glass today be run,
> Till the Light that hath brought the Towers low
> Find the last poor Pret'rite one . . .
> Till the Riders sleep by ev'ry road,
> All through our crippl'd Zone,
> With a face on ev'ry mountainside,
> And a Soul in ev'ry stone. . . . (760)
>
> ....Übergangenen erreichen.
> (When the tower which represents the Elect is destroyed by
> lightning,
> the
> destroying effect is reversed to healing and now the healing light
> can reach
> the Preterite) - what TRP again has is about is the reversal of the
> binary oppositions.

<Oppositions shmoppositions.  This is an extraordinary post.  Buried
<within a beautiful passage I have always read with a sense of despair
<(even unto a sniffle and a tear or two when I'm especially stressed
<that way) bears a seed of hope under this interpretation.  What a
<joyful discovery, Otto!
<
<How confident are you of your translation?  The word "Preterite"
<seems to force a Tarot gloss into Pynchonian territory all-too-neatly.
<Does it really work or are you pushing the language a bit?  Is there
<anything in your source about the Tarot which would give us a clue as
<to who's souls end up imprisoned in those stones?
<
<Wonderful post, Otto.
<Mark

----------- schnipp -----------

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your
country."

The reversed binaries are important, not the Tarot. The tower being a
metaphor for the Elect is very old and goes back to old medieval Europe when
the Castle Tower symbolized the power of Feudalism. The others were living
in huts, or as I said in an earlier post, were sitting in the sump, looking
up to the tower.

I thought the souls of the preterite, "second sheep" (GR, p. 3). If the
Puritan Elect who say of themselves that they are saved (from the beginning)
can be thrown down, if the Tower can be destroyed, then we, from the very
beginning doomed Preterite, can have the hope of being saved.

And of the faces of mountainsides I always thought of Monument Valley, the
giant Presidents' faces. Who are put into stone there? F****ing encarta does
not give the names.

Every human is equally important - this is the "message" (if you got a
message go to Western Telegraph) I'm reading out of it. Using power on other
peoples' lives, manipulating them is immoral, especially if done by people
who claim to be morally superior to others.

But the last lines still are a little secret to me.
Well, and I don't believe that anybody can say that he has a definite
"right"
interpretation. There can only be temporarily solutions.

If there's an overall "meaning" in the novel in question it seems to be to
me: be kind to each other.

Otto