pynchon-l-digest V2 #1704

Doug Millison millison at online-journalist.com
Tue Mar 13 18:12:46 CST 2001


It doesn't remain confined to traditional religious movements, either 
-- in China in the Great Cultural Proletarian Revolution of 1968-69, 
for example, some Red Guards defaced or destroyed temples, statues 
therein, and just about anything else (secular art, books, etc.) that 
they saw within the frame of the "Four Olds" against which they 
struggled as revolutionaries. Rebels did this, perhaps to a lesser 
degree, in France in their revolution (some statuary at Notre Dame de 
Paris and the cathederal at Chartres, if I remember correctly). It's 
probably safe to say this is a hallmark of revolutions in general, to 
deface the icons of the pre-existing regime.

We can shake our heads at the misguided Taliban and their reactionary 
religion, but why not put this back in Pynchon's ballpark:  the 
Enlightenment's disfiguring or effacement of the pre-existing order, 
especially that Line running roughshod over the Earth's ley lines in 
M&D, the Grid suppressing nature's green profusion in GR -- the world 
of faith and magic that the Enlightenment trashed, a thread that runs 
throughout Pynchon's works.

>Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 11:15:47 -0500
>From: "davemarc" <davemarc at panix.com>
>Subject: NP Taliban Iconoclasm
>
>I believe that Islam has a longstanding anti-figurative tradition.  There
>seem to be relatively few (perhaps scant) examples of figurative art in
>Islamic cultures.  I also recall seeing, about 15 years ago, examples of
>figurative art that were defaced (literally) in the name of Islam.
>
>Disfigurement isn't unique to Islam, of course.  Apparently many icons were
>desexualized under the direction of Christian missionaries.
>
>d.
>
>
-- 
d  o  u  g    m  i  l  l  i  s  o  n  <http://www.online-journalist.com>



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