Pynchon as propaganda

[Terrance]

Correction: Pynchon does allude to Sartre in the novel V. 


Pynchon uses religious terms and hieratic language not simply as a set
of
metaphors from which to hang his narrative, not merely as a scaffolding
(as Joyce,
for example, uses Christian symbols in Ulysses). The religious meaning
of the
book does not reduce to metaphor or myth, because religious meaning is
itself the
central issue of the plot. This creates difficulties for criticism.

Edward Mendelson, The Sacred, the Profane, and The Crying of Lot 49

When the last trumpet blows, ye shall be changed....