Pynchon as propaganda

[Paul Mackin]

On Sat, 2003-04-05 at 23:34, Paul Mackin wrote:

> > 
> > The term "nothingness" derives from Sartre and Heidegger and not from
> > Christian theology, and it is not the same thing as Preterition at all. If
> > Preterition was what was meant then that would have been the term used. It
> > isn't. (Preterition wouldn't sit happily in that list either, by the way.)
> 
> Yes, of course there is the existential thing. But nothingness also
> means the non-existence of the person one once was, which Christians
> seem to want to avoid and hope they can through the resurrection of the
> body. . Preterition is the frustration of that hope. The fate of being
> passed over. It's a neat little bundle of metaphysical thinking but
> there you are. 

I sound here like I'm might be saying that Sartrean or Heideggerian
Nothingness (or No-thingness) is not consequential to the passage. I
don't want to suggest this. It's just that I don't (or didn't)  think of
it as something the chaplains would be discussing. I saw only the
nothingness (non-being) of ceasing to be as a result of death in battle.


P.