von braun on immortality

[alfredjprufrock at club-internet.fr]

Hello Paul,

Monday, July 29, 2002, 5:39:09 AM, you wrote:

PM> Bandwraith at aol.com wrote:

>> In a message dated 7/28/02 8:20:24 PM, paul.mackin at verizon.net writes:
>>
>> << Yeah, back. The dinners here are interminable.
>>
>> The point I  wanted to make it that, yes Pynchon is full of what I consider
>> rather
>> unremarkable Hindo, Budhist and other nonChristian stuff but that's purely dog
>> bites man. The man bites dog possibility that Pynchon could be some kind of
>> crazy
>> Chirstian is however interesting to me. It's not that I am a Christian nor do
>> I
>> suppose that many of you are.  But the possibility  of such a thing is what I
>> live
>> for. Don't think there is much chance of course.
>>
>> P. (abiding and enduring) >>
>>
>> If he is I have not seen any indication of it so far.

PM> For Quasi Eastern thought  check the epigraph to GR part 1.  Or are you talking
PM> about something else?

it's not that eastern really. it is von braun's take on immortality,
but it's very christian, even catholic:

Lateran Council of 1513

"Whereas some have dared to assert concerning the nature of the reasonable soul
 that it is mortal, we, with the approbation of the sacred council do condemn
 and reprobate all those who assert that the intellectual soul is mortal,
 seeing, according to the canon of Pope Clement V, that the soul is [...]
immortal [...] and we decree that all who adhere to like erroneous assertions
 shall be shunned and punished as heretics."

 for a longer excerpt of von braun's text:
 http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/extra/von-braun.html

 in this case i think he just takes lavoisier's principle to its limit
 anyway: nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is
 transformed.
 
 so here we go again, science/mysticism, mixing together. the rocket?
 i don't know what pynchon's view on it is and do we really care?
 isn't it more what his characters' views are anyway?


 greg