SLSL(Intro): Forever Young

[pynchonoid]

--- Keith McMullen <keithsz at concentric.net> wrote:
> Puer Papers, edited by James Hillman. Dallas: Spring
> Publications, 1979p
> (246, incl. 8-p. index, end-chapter ref. notes).

An excellent book, I bought it on Keith's
recommendation some time ago and haven't been sorry I
did. I've gone on to read other Hillman books, too. 
_Re-visioning Psychology_ contains much wisdom, imo,
as well.

On another topic:

Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 19:00:59 +0100
From: "Otto" <ottosell at yahoo.de>
Subject: Re: SLSL Intro: "if...I were...him"

[snip an insightful post on Pynchon -- I can't find a
word in there with which to disagree. Thanks, Otto.]

>"Somewhere on this spectrum of impotence is writing
>fiction about it"
>(19) -- a good reason to write.

Agreed. Writing os also, in Pynchon's case, imo, a way
to help the work of, to the degree that he can, the
scales of justice, as indicated, perhaps, in that
Emerson quote Pynchon chose to make Jess's "annual
reading" in Vineland:  " 'Secret Retributions are
always restoring the level, when disturbed, of the
divine justice. It is impossible to tilt the beam. All
the tyrants and proprietors and monopolists of the
world in vain set their shoulders to heave the bar.
Settles forever more the ponderous to its line, and
man and mote, and star and sun, must range to it, or
be pulverized by the recoil.' "  While that work
proceeds, Pynchon writes -- arguably -- books that
don't refrain from naming the various institutions and
individuals prominent among "the tyrants and
proprietors and monopolists of the world."

The book Jess takes this quote from, William James's
_The Varieties of Religious Experience_, links to at
least one other Pynchon work, containing as it does an
account of the spiritual illumination of George Fox,
founder of the religious movement often called
Quakers, of which Dixon has been a member, in M&D.  

re those rumors about Pynchon that Toby mentioned
earlier:  In addition to being found behind the bars
of a jailhouse (as mentioned here in Vineland), _The
Varieties of Religious Experience_ is also widely
quoted in AA meetings all across the U.S., that book
being a favorite of Bill W, founder of Alcoholics
Anonymous.  Coincidence, perhaps.  But I have heard
some Pynchon readers make a plausible case for an AA
subtext in Vineland, focusing on Takeshi's cure, and
taking into account some other elements in the novel.
Your mileage will vary, of course -- with Pynchon it's
"multiple perspectives" after all, not "either/or".  

-Doug




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