Chapter 45: Angels

Tue Apr 9 23:43:36 CDT 2002

Good things, points, pointers Dave.

I think that this particular Angel track is possibly the more fruitful one 
to follow, if only in this chapter. I don't have time to read the whole 
thing these days but I wouldn't be surprised if the Bible says Angels Can 
Marry and then later suggests that they Can't. And why should the Bible be 
the last word on these things? Cherrycoke rarely follows the letter, 
preferring to reinterpret in his own sometimes inconsistent way.

But think of what leads to this discussion on Angels: the Duck, or more 
specifically the imaginary figure of the duck in the folk mind. This 
imaginary Duck thus jumps up alongside Angels, who already occupy this 
sphere of fantastic celebrity, and the 'up' metaphor is being examined 
closely here. The question being debated isn't 'what can angels do?' but 
'what do angels do?' What do they do for us? Why wouldn't we want them to do 
certain things? What does that say about us?

Of course priests and other clergy can often drink, smoke, and (I'm guessing 
here) fart. Depends on the person, and the specific denomination, but I've 
met men of the cloth who enjoy a good pint (as long as it's good, and not 
the other).

>From: Dave Monroe <davidmmonroe at yahoo.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: Chapter 45: Angels
>Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 21:01:44 -0700 (PDT)
>
>"... now the Duck is a Fugitive, flying where it
>wishes,-- often indeed visiting the Academy of
>Sciences, where they have learn'd that the greater its
>speed, the less visible it grows, until at around a
>Thousand Toises per Minute, it vanishes entirely,--
>but one of many newly-acquir'd Powers, bringing added
>Urgency to finding it as quickly as possible, before
>this 'Morphosis carries it beyond our Control.'" (M&D,
>Ch. 37, 373-4)
>
>http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0202&msg=65205&sort=date
>
>Main Entry: -fuge
>Function: noun combining form
>Etymology: French, from Late Latin -fuga, from Latin
>fugare to put to flight, from fuga
>
>http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary
>
>"...beneath it her Iron Confidence in the power
>conferr'd by her Inedibility...being artificial and
>deathless, as I was meat, and of the Earth...my only
>hope was that her 'Morphosis would somehow carry her
>quite beyond me, and soon." (M&D, Ch. 37, p. 380)
>
>    "As to the Duck's actual Presence, Opinions among
>the Pary continue to vary.[...] those more succeptible
>to the shifts of Breeze between the Worlds, notably at
>Twilight, claim to've seen the actual Duck, shimmering
>into Visibility, for a few moments, then out again."
>(M&D, Ch. 45, p. 448)
>
>    "'Very well,-- could it be, that in the Years since
>the Duck vanish'd, and despite the constant presence
>of the Duplicate the World knows, Monsieur Vaucanson,
>in his perusals of the Sky, has come to seek there
>wonders more than merely Astronomickal?  For, having
>no idea of where or how far his Creature's 'Morphosis
>may've taken it, where look for Word of its Condition
>with more hope of success than among the incorruptibly
>divided Rings of Heaven?'
>    "'Hold, hold,' Dixon with exagerrated gentleness,
>'Mason, he...believes his Duck to've become a Planet,
>'s what tha're saying?'" (M&D, Ch. 45, p. 450)
>
>    "Such is the Duck's Influence in the Camp, that
>several Axmen approach the Revd upon the Topick of
>Angels in general.  'For instnace,' carols young Nathe
>McClean [...], 'tho' we know the Duck has been
>transform'd by Love, what of the Angels,--'" (M&D, Ch.
>45, p. 451)
>
>From Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies, trans. J.B.
>Leishman and Stephen Spender (New York: Norton, 1939
>[1923]).  Rilke ...
>
>"The Angel of the Elegies is the creature in whom that
>transformation of the visible into the invisible we
>are performing already appears complete ....  The
>Anegl of the Elegies is the being who vouches for the
>recogniation of a higher degree of reality in the
>invisible.--Therefore 'terrible' to us, because we,
>its lovers and transformers, atill depend on the
>visible." (P. 87)
>
>Leishman and Spender ...
>
>    "The Angel may be described as the hypostatization
>of the idea of a perfect conscousness--of a being in
>whom the limitations and contradictions of present
>human nature have been transcended, a being in whom
>thought and action, insgight and achievement, will and
>capability, the actual and the ideal, are one.  He is
>both an inspiration and a rebuke, a source of
>consolation and also a source of terror; for, while he
>guarantess the validity of Man's highest apirations
>and gives what Rilke would call a 'direction' to his
>heart, he is at the same time a perpetual reminder of
>man's immeasurable remoteness from his goal." (pp.
>87-8)
>
>As cited in ...
>
>McLaughlin, Robert L.  "Pynchon's Angels and
>    Supernatural Systems in Gravity's Rainbow."
>    Pynchon Notes 22-23 (1988): 25-33.
>
>"This is the edition of the Elegies Pynchon
>acknowledges on his [GR's] copyright page" (p. 32, n.
>3).  McLaughlin's contention, however, is that "The
>Rilkean interpretation, however, is not the only
>possible explanation for the angels" (p. 27).  Fair
>enough, though, vis a vis The Duck, it does seem to
>come into play here, albeit perhaps somewhat
>parodically, parodying as well scientific/SF/cyberpunk
>aspirations toward artificial intelligence, e.g. ...
>
>Kurzweil, Ray.  In the Age of Spiritual Machines:
>    When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence.
>    New York: Viking, 1998.
>
>http://www.penguinputnam.com/static/packages/us/kurzweil/excerpts/prologue/prologue.htm
>
>http://www.penguinputnam.com/static/packages/us/kurzweil/excerpts/exmain.htm
>
>Or ...
>
>"Wintermute was hive mind, decision maker, effecting
>change in the world outside.  Neuromancer was
>personality.  Neuromancer was immortality.
>Marie-France must have built something into
>Wintermute, the compulsion that had driven the thing
>to free itself, to unite with Neuromancer."
>
>William Gibson, Neuromancer (New York: Ace, 1984), p.
>269 ...
>
>http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0203&msg=65478&sort=date
>
>http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0202&msg=65202&sort=date
>
>And, as always ...
>
>"If our world survives, the next great challenge to
>watch out for will come - you heard it here first -
>when the curves of research and development in
>artificial intelligence, molecular biology and
>robotics all converge. Oboy. It will be amazing and
>unpredictable, and even the biggest of brass, let us
>devoutly hope, are going to be caught flat-footed. It
>is certainly something for all good Luddites to look
>forward to if, God willing, we should live so long."
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-luddite.html
>
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