Pynchon as propaganda

[Paul Mackin]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2003 5:43 PM
Subject: Re: Pynchon as propaganda


> on 4/4/03 5:26 AM, Paul Mackin at paul.mackin at verizon.net wrote:
>
> > The question now is surviving the war. Surviving it
> > either in the sense of surviving it alive, or very possibly "surviving"
> > it dead. Either is a difficult burden. Religion may ease this burden for
> > some. A key phrase in the passage is "[h]olding on to what they could."
>
> The other interesting phrase is that list of concepts which the clergymen
> talk to the soldiers about:
>
>     " ... God, death, nothingness, redemption, salvation ... "
>
> I could imagine that the chaplains might have broached the idea of
> "nothingness" after death as a scarifying tactic to win over the agnostics
> amongst the doomed flock, but Pynchon's text doesn't really spell that out
> at all, and so the term and concept remains somewhat anomalous and
> conspicuous in the list. The fact that it's there (and thus admitted as a
> possibility by the text, if not by some of Pynchon's readers) is
> significant, I think. In fact, it might be taken as implying that
> "nothingness" is central to Pynchon's religious vision after all.


Does this mean Pynchon is some kind of crazy Christian? Dunno, but certainly
his chaplains' list touches important bases in the Christian outlook.. Death
and nothingness (to which we could add preterition) are the Negatives of
natural, mortal existence. (in the Christian context the three are more or
less snynomous) God, redemption, and salvation are the Positives of
IMmortal, SUPERnatural existence

Of course, one can KNOW Chirstianity without believing in it.


P.




>
>     There were men called "army chaplains." They preached
>     inside some of these buildings. There were actually
>     soldiers, dead now, who sat or stood, and listened.
>     Holding on to what they could. Then they went out, and
>     some died before they got back inside a
>     garrison-church again. Clergymen, working for the
>     army, stood up and talked to the men who were going to
>     die about God, death, nothingness, redemption,
>     salvation. It really happened. It was quite common.
>                                         (GR 693)
>
> best
>
> PS Loving MalignD's parody of the p-list spam-peddlars. Bravo!
>
>