Pynchon as propaganda

[jbor]

>> 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.

on 5/4/03 11:40 AM, Paul Mackin at paul.mackin at verizon.net wrote:

> Does this mean Pynchon is some kind of crazy Christian? Dunno, but certainly
> his chaplains' list touches important bases in the Christian outlook.

My point is more that "nothingness" sticks out like a sore thumb in that
list of Christian touchstones, and seems to refer directly to Sartre and
atheistic existentialism. Don't know that death is necessarily a negative in
the Christian ethos (or any religious ethos), which is where the
motivational aspects of faith and baptism and martyrdom and the like come
into play in wartime, but the concept of "nothingness" is a definite taboo.

best

> 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.