Pynchon's "knewspeak"

[jbor]

on 22/2/03 5:22 AM, Terrance at lycidas2 at earthlink.net wrote:

> Yes and no. Milton's Satan, as Milton made him (at least on the purely
> Christian level, if no the political level)  is pathetic.

Some critics argue that Satan becomes the "hero" of _Paradise Lost_
precisely because "evil" is always intrinsically a far more interesting
category and prospect for the artist than "goodness". That Satan's character
captured Milton's imagination -- almost unconsciously, despite his devout
faith. The same sorts of arguments crop up in some of the critical
interpretations focusing on Blicero in _GR_, but I don't buy the analogy
because I don't accept that Pynchon's worldview is circumscribed by
Christianity. I know we disagree on this point.

best


> But it's not
> impossible to have sympathy for a an angel that falls because he is not
> content with heavenly bliss and  aspires to equal the most high (an
> oxymoronic thing to consider). His pride, his ambition, lands him in
> hell because God is all powerful. He deceives his horrid crew (like Ahab
> with great rhetoric) and the Mother of mankind, bringing death into the
> world and all our woe with the loss of eden. So begins the history of
> man. He's got to be a hero. Right? A fortunate fall for Adam, the coming
> of Christ, these things are all down to Satan. He is the author of all.
> Blicero, like Satan and Ahab, is a god-man. I like him. I admire him. I
> pity him. He is a beautiful a character, perhaps Pynchon's most
> interesting of all. But he's a Nazi. He's a bad guy. He's a killer. He
> worships Death and negates Life.