MDDM Ch. 75 Job, 26:5 through 7

[jbor]

The questions which the Hollow Earthers put to Dixon throw doubt on the
accuracy and relevance of empirical observation, or "the daily Harvest your
Sensorium brings in". Their points are that as humans age our
faculties/senses are in decline, and that the "Variety" of sensations and
experiences we bear witness to also decreases the longer we are alive to
look, hear, smell, taste etc.

That Dixon goes back to read those specific three lines from the Bible is
immensely ironic. The lines from Job (sometimes attributed to Bildad the
Shuhite), which are reproduced in the text, affirm the existence of Hell and
the spirits of the dead underneath the earth. Dixon turns to the Bible, and
the Book of Job where one man's faith in God is severely tested, in order to
counteract the doubts about *Science* which the Hollow Earthers have seeded
in his mind. Jere wants to believe that he has experienced a vision of Hell
rather than a supernatural (or extra-terrestrial) encounter.

best


John wrote:

>> Question is, what's the conection betwixt the
>> Sensorium and Job here?  Let me know ...
> 
> I'd say the connection is between Job and the 'wager' being referred to. The
> Job story would be one very appealing to Pynchon, I think, with God & the
> D___l placing bets on the poor unwitting guy behind his back. Betting on his
> faith - even more relevant.
> 
> More interesting in this context, I think, is that it's being compared to
> some wager over the body/sensorium. Is this bet something to do with an
> Enlightenment moment of, well, enlightenment? This burgeoning man of science
> is being confronted with the choice we'll all have to live with down the
> track, ie, are we going to put our faith in the material, rational world?
> Big question for scientists, and one which, I think, is mostly given the
> same answer: 'we left it in abeyance".