A Note on Genre

[Can't Wait]

Mr. Sell inquires:

"If God is dead he once has been alive - how do atheists cope with
that?"


Um, can I answer that one?

Many tears, lots of sleepless nights.  It's heartbreaking.


cw



--- Otto Sell <o.sell at telda.net> wrote:
> Terence,
> Is *Towing Jehovah" by Jim Morrow an anti-religious novel? Strong
> believers
> surely would claim that but I don't think so. If God is dead he
> once has
> been alive - how do atheists cope with that?
> 
> Pynchon writes in my opinion not specifically anti religious, but
> anti-religious in the sense that as a postmodern novel it is
> necessarily
> deconstructing the basics of any "Meta-Erzählung" like a Religion
> that tells
> us there's someone out there watching and judging, controlling our
> lives.
> Some reference point outside our world of binaries.
> Like he is deconstructing an understanding of History that claims
> to tell
> the Truth of what has happened in the past.
> There are lot references to religion in his novels, and they all
> "turn down"
> in a way the concept of religion, looking for all the binaries in
> it. Is
> this anti religious? I don't know if this can be said as it sends
> us off
> into reading all that stuff, reading Bunyan, re-reading the Bible,
> even
> getting familiar with Puritanism and the Quabalah.
> 
> There's William Slothrop in episode 54 with his turning of the
> binaries of
> Jesus vs Judas.
> 
> There's John Bunyan referenced in the fourth episode -Slothrop's
> Progress-
> from This World to That Which Is to Come, how the original long
> title of
> Bunyan's book is - one is to have this in mind when thinking of
> Bunyan in
> the fourth chapter. The beautiful binary opposition in the title is
> of
> course lost in the German translation, but it's available at
> http://www.bibliomania.com/Poetry/Bunyan/Progress/index.html
> "I am for certain informed that this our city will be burned with
> fire from
> heaven;" is said on the first page already.
> "London the secular city..." (GR 25) - the German translation tells
> in a
> footnote that 'city' here stands for the 'world' - so London
> terrorized by
> the German Rocket is Pynchon's metaphor for our world threatened by
> the
> American and Russian ICBM's.
> 
> The missionaries that *corrupted* Enzian (100) and the Hereros with
> the
> 'Christian sickness of death' (episode 32).
> We've talked about that.
> 
> The dodo-story in episode 14 (Frans van der Groov, p. 111).
> "Indeed, if they save us from hunger in this world, then beyond, in
> Christ's
> kingdom, our salvations must be, in like measure, inextricable.
> Otherwise
> the dodoes would only be what they appear as in the world's
> illusory
> light-only our prey. God could not be that cruel.
> Frans can look at both versions, the miracle and the hunt of more
> years than
> he can remember now, as real, equal opportunities. In both,
> eventually, the
> dodoes die. But as for faith . . . he can believe only in the one
> steel
> reality of the firearm he carries."
> and so on...for what is religion being used here - for justifying
> the
> extinction of a race. But this only works if there's a reference
> point
> outside the binary of us (Frans) and them (dodoes), "Otherwise
> (...)"
> 
> No, definitely not anti-religious but "intended" to makes us think
> about our
> concepts of religion.
> 
> Otto
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Terence <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
> Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2000 4:17 PM
> Subject: Re: A Note on Genre
> >
> > PS Otto, why do you suggest that TRP writes anti religious
> > fiction?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


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