GR 'Streets'

[Terrance]

Paul Mackin wrote:

S~Z wrote, 
> >
> > My initial interaction regarding the term 'nothingness' was accepting the
> > challenge to find one Christian theologian who uses the term. I am quite
> > knowledgeable about Christian theology, and I had to search texts on and off
> > line to find them. They were easy to find, but I had to look. They didn't
> > spring to mind, and yes, the term 'nothingness' indeed stands out in the
> > list, and is not a term I heard used by ministers in my extensive exposure
> > to such from ages 0-25.
> >
> 
> No dispute here.

I have to admit that my exposure to Catholic theology as a kid, was,
well...very intense. As an alter boy I attended more funerals by the
time I was 7 than most people will if they live to be 100. At funerals,
priests talk about nothingness. But that's really not the point. 

The Text defines nothingness as a theological term. Readers of GR can
expect to be challenged with arcane and esoteric theological concepts
and allusions to obscure and recondite religious texts. Nothingness may
be considered as such, but it is a fundamental theological concept of
Christianity and everywhere it is discussed ( St. Paul,  Augustine,
Aquinas, St. Thomas...on and on....) it discussed  as it pertains to God
and the creation, to Death and Sin and Christ and
Redemption/Salvation.   It is a theological term and it spoken by a man
ministering to soldiers, we can assume they are for the most part,
Christians,  who are in the middle of of war and who are seeing death
and facing death. 

This Fragmented Episode and this section ("Streets") of it can quite
easily fit into another part of the text. In fact, as S~Z has
demonstrated it can be dovetailed into the rocket/cross/tree sections. I
want to look at two other possibilities. Since Slothrop discovers
"Critical Mass" (Pynchon  puns on the Christian Mass) in this episode,
in this particular section (Streets"), I think that a closer look at
Episode 24 (GR.537) might prove nothingness or nothing or whatever. 

This episode opens with: 

"Dear Mom, I put a couple of few people in Hell today ...."  

                    --Fragment, thought to be from
                      the Gospel of Thomas
                      (Oxyrhynchus papyrus number classified) 


The words "a couple few people" sounds like the implied author to me. 
This papyrus exists (1905), but of course this sentence is Pynchon's
own. He does this all the time. We can look it up or not. In the Gospel
of St. Thomas, nothingness is one of the principle themes. 

So, were in a kind of Hell. Providence is a city (another Pun) and we
Questions of Heresy and then we get to Father Rapier's preaching against
Return. We get another allusion, this time it is Teilhard de Chardin.
Return is is Teilhard's concept. It is a response to Nothingness and
"critical mass." 

TBC