GR 'Streets' (death and/or afterlife)

[Terrance]

jbor wrote:
> 
> >> I think we can mostly agree that
> >> organised religion cops a bad rap in Pynchon's work, irrespective of
> >> personal beliefs.
> 
> on 19/4/03 9:35 AM, Terrance at lycidas2 at earthlink.net wrote:
> 
> > An example?
> 
> Sure. Christian chaplains, "working for the army", preaching about salvation
> and redemption and sending soldiers out to their deaths. It's grotesque.

And he works for the army. So is the army the organized religion is this
example? 


> 
> > The Herero religion is organized. Does it cop a bad rap?
> 
> Tribal suicide? The Empty Ones? Deifying Enzian as the Saviour?

Yes, but you're examples are manifestations of the deterioration of the
Herero religious organization. 

Moreover, I've been hinting a lot about the concept RETURN in GR. There
is a Return for young Enzian. 

See GR 322-23

At the bottom of page 322, we  read that Enzian, at one time in his
life, could not imagine a life without return. His mother gave birth to 
him out of wedlock, his father a Russian sailor whose name she could not
pronounce,  she broke the law and she would have been banished, but the
Germans were a bigger problem and they could no longer worry about
enforcing the laws that held them together. Things fall apart. This is
exactly what happens in that great novel. Anyway, the circle village,
the mandella is broken. 

Notice the respect that the nomadic tribe (Ovatjimba)  have for his
religion and his traditions, they RETURN him to his mother's village
after they care for him. Return. 

Not what the Germans will do at all. 

No return. 60% were exterminated. 323

Weissmann, insatiable for guilt (colonial white guilt) believes that He
has taken Enzian away from religion. Enzian loves him and lets him have
his guilt, but the truth is that the gods left, the religion fell apart,
its organization broke. 



> 
> > How about the Anabaptists? They were organized.
> 
> Didn't they murder Amy Sprue? Change the subject line, post some text, offer
> an interpretation, and demonstrate where and how organised religion gets a
> good rap in Pynchon's texts.

Sure, I'll come back to this example, a good one....