GR 'Streets' (death and/or afterlife)

[jbor]

on 19/4/03 4:07 AM, pynchonoid at pynchonoid at yahoo.com wrote:

> The
> fictional world he creates includes an afterlife,
> personalities that continue to exist after death,
> realms of consciousness beyond what science can
> account for.  And lots of other stuff, too.

Rebekah in _M&D_ would seem to support this. Then again, she's only ever
apparent to Mason, but there are other things, as you note: the dream-dagger
which materialises, the Golem etc. I think we can mostly agree that
organised religion cops a bad rap in Pynchon's work, irrespective of
personal beliefs. And perhaps, as Terrance might be arguing, it is just the
bureaucratisation of belief or process which is condemned (eg. the
Counterforce).

My original point had nothing to do with whether or not Pynchon believed in
a god or gods, or whether or not readers believe or don't believe. I don't
think that beginning one's arguments with "I'm not a Christian but ... " or
"I don't support the war but ... " is anything more than a rhetorical ploy,
particularly when the correspondent then goes on to give 25 justifications
for the war or a lopsided pro-Christian rant about the text. Likewise,
accusing people of projecting their own beliefs onto the text is just
another form of ad hominem.

And I do agree that Pynchon's texts allow the possibilities of afterlife and
supernatural phenomena, in different shapes and forms. Of course, these are
not confined to the sorts of things which a Christian worldview would always
agree with. And, at times, as in the chaplains paragraph or the earlier
"Miraculous Medal ... carcasses" passage, the text also allows or uses the
possibility that there is no afterlife: it also allows the possibility that
a god or gods do not exist. This is where "both/and, not either/or" comes
into play, as one of the identifying features of postmodern fiction.
Different, purportedly mutually exclusive, ontological systems coexist as
possibilities within the text. And, in my opinion, this type of pluralism
and respect for what different people and different peoples do and don't
believe is a healthy thing for human society in general.

best