Pornography & Technics & Death

[Paul Mackin]

Lycidas at worldnet.att.net wrote:

>
> Are these folks aboard a spectre ship doomed to sail
> forever; has some captain, Vanderdecken, gambled his
> salvation on a rash pledge to round the
> Cape of Good Hope during a storm and so condemned his
> crew to a course for eternity?
>
> Or is this a journey of the soul, brought after death by the
> jackal-headed god Anubis into the Hall of Truth, where the
> dead man's heart is
> weighed against a feather. If the heart, made light by
> goodness, does not outweigh the feather, then the soul is
> brought before Osiris and granted immortality?

It'd be nice to be able to say the latter. However,  is anyone in GR
conceivably  ever going to achieve immortality through forgiveness and
redemption? In order for redemption to take place the characters must
have learned from their experience. Have come to recognize that
something they did or didn't do is not right and  have resolved not to
repeat the same mistakes. Unlike most  traditional novels I'd say GR
characters never really learn anything that transforms then.  In this
sense GR is more like Tragedy. Not much classic heroism of course.
Suffering  yes but  to suffer, as Pokler does over the loss of wife and
daughter, or when he meets up with the concentration camp victim, is not
necessarily to learn or to gain insight. Of course even small touches of
human kindness should count for something.  But not the grant of
immortality.

In other words I think the ship of the doomed idea is accurate. But,
hey, Pynchon knows what he's doing. We need a reminder now and then of
our fallen state.



                                                           P.