A Pynchonian perspective on faith in the Resurrection

[jbor]

> At night down here, very often lately, Enzian will wake for no reason. Was
> it really Him, pierced Jesus, who came to lean over you? The white
> faggot's-dream body, the slender legs and soft gold European eyes . . . did
> you catch a glimpse of olive cock under the ragged loincloth, did you want
> to reach to lick at the sweat of his rough, his wooden bondage? Where is he,
> what part of our Zone tonight, damn him to the knob of that nervous imperial
> staff. . . . (GR 324)

It strikes me now that these are Weissmann's taunts which Enzian is
remembering, is haunted by. Even though he'd let Weissmann "think what he'd
wanted to", that he'd "seduced Enzian away from religion" (323), Enzian's
faith seems to have been extinguished already by the events he experienced
as a child: "a positive coming on of cold, a bitter taste growing across the
palate of love's first hopes." (324)

best