V. (Ch 3) Impersonations and Dreams

[jbor]

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Monroe:

> One might--or might not (Terrence?) grant that gnostic themes are not
> quite so overt, certainly not so explicitly named as such, in V. (vs.,
> esp., Gravity's Rainbow),

Indeed. This is my point.

> but, again, themes, elements, whatever, need
> not be made explicit, to be named as such, in order nonetheless to be
> present in, quite reasonably read from, any given text

I suppose you can read anything into anything if you really want to. Nothing
I've read, either here or in the criticism, but more particularly in the
text themselves (which should be the proof of the pudding I would imagine),
has convinced me that the fascination with Gnosticism and the occult which
is evident in _GR_ is present in the earlier texts. Certainly, TRP, quite
obviously unenamoured by traditional religions from word go, might have been
ripe for such revelations as Gnosticism later afforded him, and this
readiness might indeed be discerned in the early texts; however, as I wrote,
I see no evidence in _V._ that Pynchon has delved into the specifics of
Gnosticism to any significant degree at this stage of his career. Even the
references to _The White Goddess_ and _The Golden Bough_ strike me as a
little bit . . . opportunistic. A case of "use vs mention", something which
has also been discussed at length here before.

I'm not so sure that we can actually label Henry Adams as a Gnostic.