Pynchon as propaganda

[Terrance]

> 
> Oh, THAT nothingness.

What? What "Nothingness" is taboo for a Christian? 
Nothing after death? Nothing in heaven? Nothing in hell? Nothing but
flesh? Nothing but dust? 

Seems to me that if you take the phrase out of the book it looks like a
common list of big-time theological concepts. These are taken up
together everyday by priests and their flock, by theologians, by
students of religion and philosophy and so on. Being and god and
nothingness and redemption and grace...nothingness...these are concepts
that Pynchon explores in his very first novel and in his last novel too.
I can't quite see how "nothingness" is the cockroach on the wedding cake
here. In fact, if god is the sore thumb, the other terms fit like four
fingers in a glove. Or a fist if you've been studying brazilian
catholicism. 

A crazy christian? What on earth or in heaven is a crazy christian?
Thomas Merton? How about Aquinas? "Nothingness" is as important to crazy
christian theology as it is to crazy zen buddhism. So, maybe Pynchon is
a crazy zen-christian? Who the hell knows? 

I think, Robert, you must have other reasons for suggesting that
"nothingness" sticks out here. Even if it doesn't, it's still worth
talking about. What about "nothingness" in GR? I guess Sartre or
Kierkegaard or Merton or Nishida Kitaro or Nietzsche or Faucault or
Hegel or Schelling or Plato or Aristotle or Taoism, Buddhism, etc... can
serve as well as others...