Morally Neutral Knowledge

[Joseph Tracy]

> [Original Message]
> From: David Morris <fqmorris at yahoo.com>
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>; <fqmorris at hotmail.com>; <Bandwraith at aol.com>
 > Date: 10/3/2002 12:39:18 PM
> Subject: Re: Morally Neutral Knowledge (was: Fraynâs âCopenhagenâ
>
> sending from this adress beacuse my hotmail is down at the moment:
> 
> >From: Bandwraith at aol.com
> >
> >David Morris wrote:
> >>In GR Pynchon calls the scientific method (with the stand-in for that
concept
> being film/calculus dissection of life's continuous flow) a
"pornography," a
> term that is clearly not neutral.  But what are the implications of that
> judgmental term on the nature of man and knowledge
> 
> Slothrop has shut down Analysis.  For him it has become “pornography.” 
But for
> the rest of us such a finding that off-switch  is nearly impossible, at
least
> in the waking state.  The most annoying and endless round of questions a
child
> asks begins with a “why” and continues with another “why” in response to
each
> answer.  Every child has done it.
> 
> Has Slothrop surpassed Kute Korrespondences?  Has he gotten past
Paranoia? 
> Contrary to “a knotting into,” Slothrop’s path in the Zone seems to have
been a
> progressive disentanglement from all plots and allegiances.  His
allegiance to
> his own “identity,” especially that of his nationality, has been hard to
break,
> but that too seems to be waning.
> 
> So, is Slothrop moving past Analysis into another mode, and if so, what
is it? 
> Anti-paranoia?  I’m not sure if that’s it.  I’d call it the “Unfiltered
> Experience,” which might be akin to “Nirvana,” if one can handle it.  Is
> Slothrop approaching the Buddha?
> 

> Try not to think about it.
> David Morris
> _______________________________________________________________________

> For me as a relatively new Pynchon reader,(Vineland, V, Lot 49,some Slow
Learner,and Vineland)  the most troubling passages so far are the
descriptions in utterly neutral language of the  psycho-sexual-physical
abuse of the Herero, and its corollary in the "impalement(sacrifice) of the
virgin" scene. But despite this "neutral" language, indeed intimately bound
to the notion of neutrality is the progressive corruption and "self"
destruction of the abusers, amusers, and amoral excusers.
 It seems to be in the later works, ( for me Lot 49, and Vineland)that I
see human connections and an affinity with life/nature( Gates and his
daughter, Oedipa and the rightful inheritors) giving us a glimpse of what
David is calling another mode of knowing and making decisions. Burned by
the vastness of the conspiracies against freedom, they demonstate the vital
surviving power of this force. I find this quality a direct contrast to
Benny Profane who after vast experience claims to have learned nothing,
leaving out the fact that he never opened the best gifts life offered him-
Paola, Rachel, Fina- because he never accepted the risks involved in love(
the loss of neutrality).  In the end he is the same schlemiel as at the
beginning, just as V is the same "neutral" self amusing intersection of
conspiracies and the  "required" replacement of the biological with the
mechanized that characterizes our current notions of wisdom.
> 
> 
> 
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--- Joseph Tracy
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