The Quest and the Grail (or Logocentrism)

[Terrance]

Thomas Eckhardt wrote:
> 
> I would be rather naive if I thought that it is Pynchon's attitude - more
> precisely: the attitude I find expressed in Pynchon's writings - towards
> Calvinistic Determinism etc. which makes his novels as good as I think they
> are. Evaluation of literary fiction was not the topic. But one develops some
> basic assumptions about the "Weltanschauung" which finds expression in the
> fiction one reads. One such assumption very common among readers of
> Pynchon's works is that they express a negative attitude towards Calvinistic
> Determinism. I just remounted this well-flogged horse because you quite
> surprised me by arguing the portrayal of Puritans in GR was sympathetic, as
> if this was self-evident.


Yes, And I am sorry Thomas, really. The horse that has been
flogged may not be a horse at all.  In fact, I think that it
is not self-evident that GR is a satire of the West that
targets Western rationalization, the ontological repression
of mortality---symbolized by the V-2, and analytical science
and deterministic Calvinism, the repression of death that is
also a repression of Life, a disdain for the Earth, for the
Other, expressed by psychological/cultural and political
systems anal and racist. Could it be that Weber is more a
source for critics than Pynchon? Could this be the case for
so much of Pynchon criticism? Although this is now such a
common description of the book that it almost seems
self-evident, can it be that somehow GR, as it celebrates
Earth, Murphy's Law, Love, Music, Spontaneity, Comedy,
Metaphor, Magic, Anarchy, Middles, Transformations, also, if
only paradoxically, and appropriately so I might add,
celebrates heresies of Christianity and maybe even
Catholicism? 

It's not self-evident, but Pynchon's sympathies for the
early Puritans is present nonetheless.  Nothing in GR, in my
opinion, is self-evident, least of all anything having to do
with Pynchon's complex use of Religions. What I was
responding to were the generalizations about Christianity,
Puritans, Catholics, and the mixing and confusing of these
religions, their belief systems, and the total disregard for
their histories, and the complex and incredibly subtle and
astoundingly erudite depiction's we find in Pynchon's
fiction. Paul suggests we dig deeper. I think he's right.
What of the Ulter Scots in M&D? I posted the pages. Why this
smashing of Religion, Christianity in particular, and
Catholicism at a level that if it were not so ignorant would
draw more than my left handed compliments and irony. No one
is picking on Buddhism. Why not? Jewish Mysticism? I don't
think GR is Freud. It's not a condemnation of christian
thought. These attacks on religion, ostensibly discussions
of GR, minus any support from any Pynchon text, are what I
was replying to when you entered the discussion. I know it's
not fair to you, Thomas. I welcomed your comments and I have
yet to answer your questions, but I am writing a reply. It
takes time. 

As you well know, Pynchon's religion is very complicated. I
think it is as complicated as almost any other American
novelist. The book opens with a complex of ironic twistings
and allusions and knots in to one of the most complex
comments on Religion in fiction.  Let me give an example: 

On page 24 of GR ,Slothrop is describes as, "A Saint George
after the fact, going out to poke about for droppings of the
Beast, fragments of German hardware that wouldn't exist,
writing empty summaries into his notebooks---work-therapy."

St. George? Well I don't think there are many American
Saints and most of them are woman, but St. George? Is
Slothrop English already? Yes, Saint George after the fact.
What's happening to time and history here? And just consider
how this one statement explodes all over the text. 


Feast day April 23, Shakespeare's day, early Christian
martyr who during the Middle Ages became an ideal of martial
valour and selflessness. He is the patron saint of England.

Notes: Britannica

 Nothing of George's life or deeds can be established, but
legends about him as a warrior-saint, dating from the 6th 
century, became popular and increasingly extravagant. Jacob
de Voragine's Legenda aurea (1265-66; Golden  Legend)
repeats the story of his rescuing a Libyan king's daughter
from a dragon and then slaying the monster in  return for a
promise by the king's subjects to be baptized. George's
slaying of the dragon may be a Christian  version of the
legend of Perseus, who was said to have rescued Andromeda
from a sea monster near Lydda. It is a  theme much
represented in art, the saint frequently being depicted as a
youth wearing knight's armour with a
 scarlet cross. George was known in England by at least the
8th century. Returning crusaders likely popularized his cult
(he was  said to have been seen helping the Franks at the
Battle of Antioch in 1098), but he was probably not
recognized as
 England's patron saint until after King Edward III (reigned
1327-77) made him the patron of the newly founded  Order of
the Garter. He was also adopted as protector of several
other medieval powers, including Portugal,  Genoa, and
Venice. With the passing of the chivalric age and finally
the Protestant Reformation, the cult of Saint
 George dwindled. His feast is given a lesser status in the
calendar of the Church of England; a holy day of  obligation
for English Roman Catholics until the late 18th century, it
is now an optional memorial for local  observance.

Slothrop, "no knightly hero [364] is an after the fact(s)
schlemiel in one of GR's stories wherein Pynchon parodies
the picaresque and the romance quest. He is another profane
hero; his dragon is the rocket. He is too late to battle it
and can only jot down empty summaries. The collected parts,
fragments, droppings of the beast, do not exist.  Why not?
Later, more droppings of the beast will lay scattered over
the realm where Blicero was a local deity and where Thantz
and Gretel are described by Ensign Morituri (those
interested in Jewish Mysticism in GR could re-read the
Anibus episodes) and in the zone the faithful collect
fragments of the rocket as Words. At this point, Slothrop is
not going to be baptized, we learn that he has stopped
praying, Conventionally, to God. 

Pynchon's use of religion is incredibly elaborate and
convoluted. With the exception of Steven Weisenburger's
Companion and the extraordinary discovery he made about GR
in writing it and Eddins' Gnostic Pynchon, what we have of
Pynchon criticism, on Religion, while excellent, is very
limited when we bear in mind that Religion is so important
to understanding the book. New essays, as Doug notes, are
being published monthly. Some of these new essays are
correcting older essays. Some are augmenting older essays.
Nothing is self-evident, but as time permits, deeper, more
focused studies, arrive. So, while Edward Medelson's or
Harold Bloom's essays may be wonderful (I pick on these
Giants intentionally), both slight Pynchon's use of
Gnosticism and Jewish Mysticism.     

Sympathy for the Puritan coming up....I shouted out who
killed the Kennedy....