Ken Wilber WAS Re: blame it on PoMo

[Dave Monroe]

Always willing to give just about anybody a second chance, will look into
it, although I'm not one to be sympathetic to defenses of mysticism, much
less to mystics (on which, perhaps, see Michel de Certeau, his "Mystic
Speech" in Heterologies, as well as his The Mystic Fable).  The mention of
"systems theory" does remind me, though, of just how much Pynchon manages to
pack into the figure, the trope of that Rocket, all taht's already packed
into it by that nascent "military-industrial" (and one might add,
"-technical-scientific") complex ((c) Dwight David Eisenhower) that is
perhaps the subject of Gravity's Rainbow: cybernetics (developed initially,
as I recall, to improve antiaircraft artillery), information theory,
ballistics, classical mechanics, thermodynamics, causation (and Nietsche is,
indeed, of interest here, compare his, I don't know, "deconstruction" of the
causation of pain--in Beyond Good and Evil?--to that seeming causation
reversal of the V-2, how it explodes before you hear it coming, Pynchon's
use of that causation-revesring trope of hysteron-proteron [which critic
developed that discussion? don't have the library at hand here]) ...

Doug Millison wrote:

> Dave, I suggest you read Wilber's 1995 book, Sex, Ecology,
> Spirituality, before you dismiss him as a "New Age mystic". Wilber
> offers one of the sharpest critiques of the weaknesses of "New Age"
> thinking you'll find anywhere; he also offers a convincing defense of
> mysticism (spiritual practices that lead to primary religious
> experience) against all of the criticisms that are commonly directed
> against mysticism. His critique of systems theory in particular can
> illuminate a reading of Pynchon, especially GR; his discussion of the
> evolution of religion also offers insight that can enrich a reading
> of Pynchon's novels.
> --
>
> d  o  u  g    m  i  l  l  i  s  o  n  <http://www.online-journalist.com>