SLSL Intro "Our Common Nightmare"

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In a message dated 11/19/02 11:23:52 AM, davidmmonroe at yahoo.com writes:

<< "... we are often unaware of the scope of and
structure of our ignorance.  Ignorance is not just a
blank space on a person's mental map.  It has contours
and coherence, and for all I know rules of operation
as well." (SL, "Intro," pp. 15-6)
 >>

So much for ignorance but what about evil? Is ignorance
a defense- perhaps for Adam and Eve, but what about
in these post-Edenic times? Is Evil, in the cosmic sense,
a real palpable manifestation, or, is it merely the absence
of goodness, as the philosophers would have it?

Better yet, does Evil have Agency? If, ultimately, there
is no such thing as an Evil Agent roaming freely throughout
the universe, is there any such thing as free will, in any
way, shape or form?

These "absence questions-" of The Holocaust in GR, of the
holocaust of HIV in Vineland- that haunt Pynchon's works,
seem to be alluding to a larger question about the nature
of reality. We, individually and collectively (personally and
statistically, if you prefer), are permitted ignorance, which
gives reality to our separate limited identities. But if the
universe is a whole, and, is not devoid of a plan- Ignorance
and Evil become very problematic. It is easy enough to
indict the Nazis, or, "the succession of criminally insane" 
since then, for certain historical ills, but what about God?

King Joax, anyone?

respectfully