GR 'Streets' (death and/or afterlife)

[Terrance]

Paul Mackin wrote:
> 
> I suspect, since Terrance has been telling us to read Father Rapier,
> this reference relates in part at least to de Chardin's idea of
> convergence of matter toward a final unity (omega point), which for
> Rapier rather comically becomes the reaching of "Critical Mass" where
> technology has reached the point of development where there in no longer
> the possibility for freedom. Also Rapier injects the unorthodox idea
> that "they" may never die,. with the unfortunate consequence that the
> despoiling of the earth and nature will go on unchecked, which is
> equivalent to Pynchonian "no return" or "no way back." However Rapier
> adds a "disclaimer" to the effect that perhaps it is still possible to
> make "them" die if not in their beds but by violence. That's my
> understanding of what Father Rapier is preaching in the Pynchonian Hell
> scene.


Don't you just love the way Pirate Prentice is introduced as a stranger
there and given a taffy-tour of the City? Maybe a student/teacher on his
way to Brown to see an old chum arrives at a convention, where the
Heresy Question is threatening to dominate the discussion. Can you
imagine?