MDDM Ch.49 "Christ went away" (480.6)

[jbor]

What I find interesting is that we meet Peter R. in person for the first
time here, and he is telling Luise not about the moment Christ appeared to
him (i.e. "to Peter", with the obvious New Testament overtones), but how
Christ "went away" from him.

The "Motto in German embroider'd fine as could be in Gold Threads, upon the
back" of "His Robe" (480.21), and which is left unwritten in the text, is a
typically tantalising Pynchonesque touch, too. It's very deliberately
presented as Peter Redzinger's idiosyncratic vision of Christ, and it's as
if Pynchon is letting the reader fill in the blank Motto with whatever
snippet of text they like. ("Lookin' for love, in all the wrong places", or
whatever that translates to in German, is as good as any, is my guess. Or,
"Keep cool but care.")

Peter's despair (480.17-28) is as much due to the fact that he hadn't even
realised that this vision of Christ was teaching him something, let alone
what the lesson was, as it is that the vision has left him.

The passage from Wicks's 'Day-Book' on p. 481 again reveals his
condescending attitude towards religious denominations and manifestations of
faith other than his own.

best