V.V.(1) Benny Oedipus

[Otto Sell]

----- Original Message -----
From: David Morris <fqmorris at hotmail.com>
To: <keith at pfmentum.com>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 4:46 AM
Subject: Re: V.V.(1) Benny Oedipus

>The right hand is the hand of blessing.  It is the clean hand,
>the one eaten from (as opposed to the left, the one used
>to wipe the anus).  The right is the hand extended in good
>will.  This phrase, 'the son of my right hand,' does not
>carry the meaning of the Father's control, its primary
>message is blessing, from the elect father to the elect son.

Die gute Hand, die böse Hand
Let's not forget that many religious ideas and rules originally are based
upon very practical reasons.
The foundations of our big four religions Judaism, Catholicism, Islam and
Protestantism lie in some desert tribes and kettle breeders. Without leaves
or grass and no water to waste it's useful to decide which hand to take for
what for hygienically reasons.
I never took a shit in the desert but if I ever do I will remember this.
But this example shows that the definition of what is the higher pole in a
binary opposition is artificial, just a convention. No magic behind.

Los Alemanos Terriblos Hit the Road
(dedicated to Fat Freddy, Phineas and Freewheelin Franklin)
When I was in Spain in '85 doing the *Freak-Brothers-Eight-Journey*
in a blue VW-microbus with three friends the car had been broken up
one night downtown Torremolinos.
Back to the camping site (from the police office) the car-owner Hans
decided to try to repair the locks. So we sat down next to our Islamic
West-African neighbors who were selling African clothing and arts to
the tourists all day long and cooking their traditional chicken at night.
While the chicken was boiling we were telling what had happened and
the guys invited us to join the dinner.
Hans is a left-handed person and was unaware of the rule of the
good hand and the bad hand.
So our friends showed some estranged faces.
We asked, they told us, we all laughed and Hans, the manic
mechanic, had to eat with his right hand.

As the saying goes:
Left is right and right is wrong, better decide which side you're on.

Otto