T. S. Eliot's "Ash Wednesday" and The Crying of Lot 49

[m.]

I would have to say that the use of Ash Wednesday is very likely in COL49. I
wrote a paper on it a few years ago. I'll try to dig it up. There were an
obscene number of overlaps and root meaning linguistic parallels.


Considering the parallels that exist (structurally) between Entropy (& the
thermodynamic usage in the early 20th century coming from the german
tradition) GR (& the grafting pagan/christian calendars onto each other),
M&D (& the tarot), and possibly COL49 and ELIOT's AshW., i find it harder
and harder to understand what Pynchon meant in the intro of Slow Learner
when he wrote:

"The problem here is like the problem with "Entropy": beginning with
something abstract - thermodynamic coinage or the data in a guidebook - and
only then going on to try to develop plot and characters. This is simply, as
we say in the profession, ass backwards. Without some grounding in human
reality, you are apt to be left only with another apprentice exercise, which
is what this unfomfortably resembles."

I can understand that in one or two instances he was working through the
characters and plot and narrative of the work and realized he was leaning in
one of these directions, but if this is indeed the fourth time that a
structural guide that has resulted, i find it hard to believe that he didn't
just begin with it as a guide.

I'm not up for a discussion on how the author doesn't know what he means
lit.crit.speak here.

He is conscious that he has violated that rule with the story "Entropy"...
so is he violating the rule with most if not all of his works?



> 
> 
> Hello. I was reading T. S. Eliot's "Ash Wednesday" and noticed some common
> elements between it and Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49".  At first I had no
> intention of comparing the two, but when Eliot uses the same double meaning of
> 'lot' in the poem, I started to think. At the end of II (sorry, no line
> numbers) "Ash Wednesday" reads, "This is the land which ye\ Shall divide by
> lot." Referring of course to the Biblical Lot. Of course I didn't think TCoL49
> is derivative of the poem, but as other similarities emerged, I thought the
> idea worthy of serious contemplation. There are several odd 'coincidences' as
> a skeptical friend put it; for example, Eliot uses the word 'Word' numerous
> times, just as Pynchon does. Also, structurally, both have six divisions.
> Anyways, my question: What are your ideas, could there be a connection?
> 
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