GR Heresy

[jbor]

on 22/4/03 9:23 PM, Terrance at lycidas2 at earthlink.net wrote:

> The fragment from Thomas is bogus.

Of course it's bogus. I'm not suggesting otherwise. But the Gospel of Thomas
isn't bogus, and the reason why it isn't accepted as part of the Gospels is
relevant. That's why it's there in Pynchon's text as a motto. It
encapsulates the contradiction at the heart of Jesus's preaching, which
becomes a theme in Fr Rapier's sermon and Katje's meditations on her work
for the Resistance.

> I think this section is very playful.
> And I think it's an ideal episode for academics and Pyn-heads. I mean,
> how do I know the fragment is bogus? Well, look at it. Easy enough.
> right?  Look it up. No, no, no, don't look it up. Well, you could look
> it up. I think that road to Providence goes to Brown University and I
> think one of the layers (circles)  here is an academic one.
> 
> "Who would of thought so many would be here?"
> 
> This is a double allusion. Dante/Eliot. Inferno/Wasteland.

It also goes back to the end of the previous section, were Pirate is
"scouting up some transportation" to take he and Katje on this journey:

    Dialectically, sooner or later, some counterforce would
    have had to arise . . . (536)

best