SLSL Death

[Prudencio Aguilar]

If TSR is about Death, it is also about myths and
mysteries of resurrection, rebirth, and God(s). Humans
generate, in their various cultures, some kind of view
of Death, what we might call strategies for handling
the idea of death or ways of "dealing with Death"
(SL.5) In TSR the character deal with death in
"pre-adult ways." In our Postmodern times, we deal
with Death in pre-adult ways because Death has become
vastly secularized-as evidenced by the exalted
scientist, the revered doctor, the venerated devices
and technologies for diagnosis and treatment, the
glorified hospital-the relationship between religion
and Death is rooted in history and continues, for most
of the people in the world, to play an important role
in their attitudes (and their behavior) toward Death.
What is Death? How can we begin to think about Death?
Should we fear it or welcome it? Is Death the Absolute
End? These questions about Death and the strategies
for dealing with Death, are effectively related to or
even functionally dependent on the culture's
religions, philosophies, legal and political
institutions, and social-economic conditions at a
particular period. 

America is wonderful place to study Death and
religion. 
M&D is a beautiful story about America and Death. TSR
is  an apprentice effort to deal with America and
Death.   LA is a marvelous state to begin with. Why
does Pynchon include Eliot's Wasteland and
Hemingways's FWA and all those other old world
European references? To make his story literary? That
seems to be what Pynchon tried to do. But there is
more to it, I think. Those European stories referenced
and alluded to, deal with Death.  

And as Henry Adams sez, things evolve, even the gods.
And, as the gods evolve (see The White Goddess, i.e.,
Pasiphaë) and the pantheons change, so do the concepts
of Death. Some of these concepts are quite durable,
while others are less durable. Some of the less
durable ones may be retained, but often only in
vestigial forms. The evolution of the gods and
perspectives on Death within a major culture can be
illustrated by looking at the difference between the
ways the Greeks (Pasiphaë and Frogs), The Wandering
Jew(s), the early Christians (Parable of Jesus), the
Modern Christians (Hemingway, Eliot-both vestigial
forms of Catholicism) and the "Postmodern Christians"
(pre-adult) deal with Death. 

The Greeks have and after world and an after life. The
Wandering Jews and the Early Christians don't. The
modern Christians do, but it decays and erodes and
they left with only memory and desire.  The
"Postmodern Christians" mix sex and technology and
death. 

"whoopee (YES! & make love) we're all gonna die"

   --Some Cat in the Sixties speaking for an entire
generation of pre-adults dealing with Death 




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