MDDM World-as-text

[jbor]

on 13/8/02 2:16 AM, Terrance at lycidas2 at earthlink.net wrote:

> So why not say the world is a painting or a dance?

These forms of "text" are certainly used metonymically in Pynchon's novels.
Botticelli's painting and Mélanie's dance in _V._, Varo's painting and the
children's dance in _Lot 49_ (Oedipa's dance with the deaf mute could be
another moment when the possibility of getting beyond human perception is
represented), or Slothrop's dance with the little girl outside the fire in
_GR_.

And:

    [...] At length, the last of the Farmers, new-bought pots and pans
    a-clank, goes riding off into a dusk render'd in copper-plate, gray and
    black, the Hatching too crowded to allow for any reversal, or return....
                                                            (682.14)

The idea of world-as-text (here, an etching) is very important in Pynchon's
fiction, and is a constant theme running through it from beginning to end.

> What is the argument?

The argument is that, yes, Christianity is important in Pynchon's fiction,
just as important as giant vegetables or "the Dragon or *Shan* within"
(542.15) are, but that, no, Christianity is not more important than, or
regarded as superior to, pagan or atheist belief-systems.

In fact, I'd say that in _M&D_ it's the non-Christian "texts" of the world
(Zhang's, the Native Americans') which are shown to be more potent and more
valid than those of Christianity.

best

ps. It seems to me that flame-bait and ad hominem attacks are the tactics
Doug and Terrance most commonly use. Just for the record.