Holy Translation! (RV: cross-eyed Sabastian and headless Mary)

[Terrance]

Important to Pynchon too are the dates the Christian Fathers
adopted from other festivals and holy days of obligation.
What pagans were obliged to do on these days was not always
adopted. But these things end up influencing the christmas
tree market and the price of oil.  The scene in Farina's
Been Down So Long, where  Heffalump and Gnossos steal the
Virgin and she loses her Head is very funny, but I love the
scene when Hef calls the priest who "anoints/heals" the sick
Gnossos. Actually, it's Miles Davis that cures him. Anyway,
like Pynchon,  Farina demonstrates a keen knowledge of
things Catholic. He includes jokes, puns, and parodies that
only a knowledge of the changes instituted after Vatican
Council II, for example, that the rite was called "extreme
unction" or last anointing and referred principally to the
anointing which took place
when a believer was close to death, prior to Vat II, but,
changed as the priest says. The sacrament was restored to
the role it had in the Apostolic Church. 

One of Joseph Campbell's best lectures (see also Mythic
Image) deals with Virgin Births. 

In one story, can't remember, it could be Iroquois, the god
avoids the birth canal by being delivered through the Virgin
Mother's arm pit. Or maybe I made this up? 

"Whoever drinks from my mouth shall become as I am...."

GGAT 98:28-30


Paul Mackin wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 19 Jun 2000, Saurio wrote:
> 
> >
> > -----Mensaje original-----
> > De: Terrance <Lycidas at worldnet.att.net>
> > Para: pynchon-l at waste.org <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> > Fecha: Jueves 15 de Junio de 2000 12:08 PM
> > Asunto: Re: cross-eyed Sabastian and headless Mary
> >
> >
> > >(...)
> > >
> > >Even without Luke Catholics would venerate the Blessed
> > >Virgin Mary I think. Because she is the Mother of Jesus,
> > >whom they believe to be God incarnate,
> > >(...)
> > >She is loaded with pagan holdovers, she is the queen, the
> > >morning star, venus,  St. Bernard venerates  Mary as the
> > >(...)
> > >motherly nurturer, to whom they turned for sanctification.
> >
> > Mary´s virginity is another case of mistranslation: the original (arameic?
> > hebrew?) word to describe her was something that could be more accurately
> > translated as "maiden", "young woman", even "teenager" (although that
> > concept didn´t exist by that times), but, well, in the passage from
> > hebrew(?) to greek and then to latin she became a virgin.
> > And then, from giving a virgin birth (quite a task, enough for earning
> > Heaven) she became a life-long virgin (poor Joseph!)
> 
> Seems like Aramaic had taken over from Hebrew. But once again I
> can't help demonstating the fact that I was a good little boy
> and paid attention to my religion teachers (as I'm sure Terrance
> did as well)--my point being that Mary's claim to fame and bodily
> assumption (without ever dying) into heaven has nothing to do with her
> virginity  before during and after Jesus' conception but is due solely
> to Mary's own conception which somehow occurred without her "catching"
> Original Sin, the so called Immaculate Conception, a dispensation only
> fitting for one chosen to be mother of God.
> 
> The virgin mother idea is one of the pagan holdovers Terrance refers to.
> Saviors were supposed to be miraculously conceived by virgin mothers and
> god fathers. Persephone and Dionysis by Zeus. The virgin mother idea was
> accepted almost without question from the beginning because it was such a
> traditional and obvious idea. There was no reason to contest it even
> though in a very pedestrian way it doesn't make literal sense.  The
> Immaculate Conception on the other hand took a millenium to take form and
> wasn't defined as dogma until the 19th Century.
> 
> Sorry to be such a bore about this.
> 
>                         P.