Pynchon as propaganda

[Terrance]

Paul Mackin wrote:

>Belief here is a complete non-issue. Not the point of the passage at all.The point of the passage is frightened men dying.

Again, I don't see that "nothingness" stick out here, but 

1. "Nothingness"  is not a concept that Heidegger or Sartre or
Kierkegaard or even Plato introduced to the Christian world. 

2. "Nothingness" is a concept that is as important to the Christian
doctrine as it is to the Buddhist doctrine. See, for an important
example, Aquinas.  



Moreover, I don't think that there is any evidence that Pynchon read
Sartre or Heidegegger or Kiergegaard and there is no reason (none that I
can see) to attribute the concept of "nothingness" in the sentence being
discussed to Sartre. Note too, Sartre is a dialectician and the
narrative of GR is critical of dialectic and dialecticians (i.e., Marx,
Norman O. Brown, Plato) and endorses agon and agonists (i.e., verbal
contests and other types of conflicts that are no resolved). But, the
emphasis that Sartre puts on Humanity (Sartre's complaint about modern
Marxism) is endorsed by the text, 

"But in each of these streets, some vestige of humanity, of Earth, has
to remain. No matter what has been done to it, no matter what its been
used for...."

And the Earth must remain. This is not a Christian vision. Moreover,
it's quite clear that the novel does not endorse teleological dialectic
(essential to Christianity) and this very clear when a  narrator
satirizes THEIR de Chardin and his "critical mass." 

Also, I agree with Paul here and support for what Paul is saying can
read at  GR.81 -- the Rev. Dr. Paul de la Nuit

Peace & Nothingness

T