MDMD(5): Biblical References (2)

[Michel Ryckx]

The white settlers are living in a Hell.  Their ideological frame is old
testamentic.  This may explain the numerous references to the Book,
considered Good by many.  Most of them are indirect, others come from
Genesis and the Book of Job.  It was (is?) very natural for a Calvinist
to refer to the Bible with everything they did.  This is mr. Pynchon's
trick in the Cape chapters, he once again being an author in the literal
sense of the word (lat.: augere: to augment). Some examples.

(1) the Heren 17 are being "rul'd by the Eighteenth Lord, whose
existence must never be acknowledg'd in any way" (58.16-14).  Why is
that?  They are a Company under god.  E pluribus [oppidis ac navibus]
Unum [fortunae]?  I think Max Weber may be helpful here.  Anyone has a
copy at hand?

(2) that nasty character Bonk points out that, at the Cape, there's no
'hope of Salvation' (59.7).  But isn't salvation the thing religious
people hope for?  Why else would religion make sense?

(3) then there's Jethro's tent.<space><space>Maybe there are in the
bible better brothels to be found:  the harem of King David, or
Solomon's; the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha.  Bible-readers surely must
know more.  Besides, a brothel is not about erotic, sensual atmosphere,
it is about sex --so I'm told (ha ha).
There must be another explanation.  Two things are for certain:
- "Now Moses was shepherding the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the
priest of Midian [. . .].";
- Mozes married in that tent, perhaps their matrimony was consumed for
the first time, the 'happy no' turning into a 'happy yes'.
I think the tent was small, and just very crowded.  And so is the
dining-room: 2 parents, 3 children, 2 Brits, perhaps Austra to serve.
Anyone?

(4) the reference  at 67.16 " [. . . ] all but occasionally in vain." of
which I think it's paraphrasing the latin translation of the first words
of the Book of Job: "Vanitas vanitatum". (yes, even pagans like European
humanists discuss Bibles, Qu'ran surats and the like)

At the end of this chapter, having returned to Philadelphia, the
exchange on History, with its 'secular Consequences' we turn to the New
Testament.  But no jokes on it are allowed.

Michel.
PS: Has anyone noticed: (74.11) "By the eleventh of September [. . .]
the Assignments are changed [. . .] "  Like Ethelmer, I bow,
'Temporarily out of touch with my Brain". (76.10).