(no subject)

[Dave Monroe]

Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean the Demiurge is NOT out to
get you ... no, very good, you're a(t least a) step ahead of me there
... and, of course, gnosticism is only one of many, many threads woven
into Pynchon's text, but it is an interesting one, Pynchon's indeed
syncretic use of religion (and science, and literature, and history, and
...) and my interest in it here was to point out how Pynchon, how
Gravity's Rainbow, can NOT be easily claimed for some sort of gnostic
tradition, as I got the impression some might attempt here (a tradition,
by the way, I'd long assumed Robert Anton Wilson was actually satirizing
as well in those Illuminatus books, but, well, who knows, maybe he takes
it all seriously.  A significant faction of his fans appear to, or at
least work very hard to give the appearance of taking such things
seriously).  Gnosticism, paranoia, conspiracy theories (and one might
suggest that there's a certain sense in which both religion and
science--at least what, say, Gilles Deleuze calls "royal science"--are
conspiracy theories of a sort ... hm, maybe throw in that Cartesian
"evil genius" as well ...), indeed ...

Muchasmasgracias at cs.com wrote:

> Gnosticism and Paranoia?  Hm, hm?