MDMD (4) Denial of Mortality

[tommasopincio]

33.31 One reason Human remains young so long, compares'd to other Creatures, is that the young are useful in many ways, among them in providing daily, by way the evil Creatures and Slaughter they love, a Denial of Mortality clamorius enough to allow their Eleders release, if only for moments at a time, from Its Claims upon the Attention.

In the passage above Pynchon reveals clearly his "human" idea of literature.
Denial of Mortality is the crucial challange of the narrative. There are a lot of references to death in the first chapters of MD and narration (the novel itself) is the way to escape or elude mortality. 
Obviously death is also to be metaphorically intended as manifestation of power, and control .  (cfr.: 7.5 "Herodotic Web of Adventures and Curiosities selected for their moral usefulness, whilst avoiding others not as suitable in the Hearing of Youth. The Youth, not being consulted in this.")
 
Also, Denial of Mortality passage recalls the following from Slow Learner:
"When we speak of "seriousness" in fiction ultimately we are talking about an attitude towards death-- I suspect one of the reason that fantasy and science fiction appeal so much to younger readers in that, when the space and time have been altered to allow characters to travel easily anywhere through the continuum and escape physical dangers and timespiece inevitabilities, mortalitu is so seldom an issue.)"

The key-word is escape. 
    
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