Kids

[Terrance]

Dave Monroe wrote:  But it is undeniable that Pynchon--who
seems to have
> actually written the book at hand (which is Gravity's Rainbow, right?), I'm
> not much of one to grant claims to the complete autonomy of texts from their
> authors, an author, no matter how "dead" s/he may be, "The System" is not an
> autonomous entity "out there," no matter how convincing that thought might be,
> but, rather, a fictional construction of Pynchon's--does indeed place his
> child characters (at least ...) in some very unusual situations.  Which is not
> to say that, say, some sort of Humbertian nymphetmania (or worse), or some
> sort of cruel intent towards children, can be attributed TO Pynchon, but it IS
> notable, and recurrent, in his texts.  

Yes, it is noticeable and recurrent in Dostoevsky too, in
fact I think V. and perhaps GR too is indebted to Book V of
the Brother's K. That children are given more than simply
sympathetic treatment or put in cruel predicaments in GR is
an important thing to establish. What kind of world do they
live in? They live in Their gnostic world. Perhaps the most
convincing episodes is the Roger and Jessica Christmas, 
"what do you think it's a children's story? There aren't
any. The children are away dreaming, but the Empire has no
place for dreams and it's Adults Only in here tonight
Listen
to the mock-angel singing
" [GR.135]. 

The system, the evil gnostic world has no soul. Soul of
Byron the Bulb? An evil Jewish woman that kills children? A
Gnostic that dreams of a death kingdom on the moon? An
animistic culture infected by the rationalization and
individualization of Modern Christianity? What did the
pre-Christian Herero believe?  The attribution of conscious
life to natural objects or to nature itself or the belief in
the existence of spiritual beings that are separable or
separate from bodies or the hypothesis holding that an
immaterial force animates the universe, from Latin anima,
soul. Is Fragmentation PoMo or is it Modernism's Alienation
with an "Anti-Paranoid" ("where nothing is connected to
anything, a condition not many of us can bear for long"
GR.434) Soul? Has Pynchon taken Modernism's "existential"
impressions/concepts (existential in terms of the primacy of
the individual, and of individual choices, over systems and
concepts, which attempt to explain the individual; the
absurdity of the universe; a reality that evades adequate
explanation, and remains radically contingent and
disordered; anxiety caused by absurdity, but also freedom
caused by absurdity, since actions cannot be causally
explained or predicted) and shackled it with mind forged
post-modern manacles? The animistic sensation of being at
home in the projected world is analogous to the comfort,
something religious if you want, that young children and the
historical questers (i.e. the Knights/Grail that Pynchon's
profaned characters parody), maintain, affirm, and have
faith in. Pynchon demonstrates more than sympathy for
children and animistic cultures. Children have wisdom and
they wisely accept the inevitabilities of life, often
demonstrating their unflagging confidence in better times
and their adeptness at living in the nonce with humor. Aries
is only part of the story and those "few" passage in the New
Testament (Luke in particular), Freud, Rilke, Blake,
Rousseau. A good way to approach this issue is to examine
Children's myths, dreams, and games in GR, which are
directly contrasted with the "gnostic" world of the Empire's
"dreamless version of the real." [GR.129] Slothrop as Pig
Hero episode. In Cuxhaven the children play Himmel and
Holle. Simple mythical version of the world belong to the
children and THEY are not able to live with simple mythical
versions of the world. Children must be kept out, their
dreams crushed, their smiles and tears, their  humor and
good will must be conditioned to be  captured on film and
sold as pornography. Follow that Shirley Temple Paul noted.
GR is a celebration of children and the child's wisdom,
humor, and simple mythical projections, something religious
if you want, of the world.