V.V. (12) Pynchon's letter to Thomas F. Hirsch

[jbor]

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>From: CyrusGeo at netscape.net
>

> Christianity is not the only "glaring exception". This applies to all three
> major monotheistic religions of today, namely Judaism, Christianity and
> Islam (in order of appearance). All three promote the idea of expansion and
> through conquest and of man's supremacy over the natural world. Pynchon
> reacts this way to the system of Protestant Christianity because this is
> his own background ? after all, one can only go against one's *own*
> tradition. Joyce did the same with Catholicism, and Rushdie with Islam. By
> the way, given the expansion of those three religions all over the world,
> one can hardly call them "exceptions". They seem more like the norm.

Yes, I agree, but I think Pynchon was making more of a distinction between
Western and non-Western religions, although Islam doesn't fit really into
that construct. And, actually, I'm not so sure about total numbers,
expansion etc. I'd say there are still a lot of Buddhists &c, a lot of
non-Christian, non-Islamic people in Africa, in India etc. And, in the
leisure classes of the West there are increasing numbers who are either
atheistic/agnostic/hypocritical I think. Though I agree with you that it
lacks precision I can understand the general observation Pynchon is making,
what he means etc in the letter when he talks about a "clash between the
west and non-west, clashes that are still going on".

best