Pynchon's "knewspeak"

[Richard Ryan]

The most convincing argument I've come across that Milton's Satan is NOT a
hero is in the work of that archetypal Christian critic, C.S. Lewis.   In
his "Preface to Paradise Lost" (still in print, I'm glad to see), Lewis
argues that Milton's epic is -- among other things -- a coherent theological
document in which Satan's essential evil and multiple moral failings are
compellingly documented (Lewis has a wonderful catalogue of all the lies
Satan tells, for instance).

The Christian analysis holds that when a reader encounters Satan "embedded"
in the cosmos of "Paradise Lost" it's impossible not to recognize his
villainy -- we only find him heroic in those disassociated contexts in which
his charm (an aspect of his malice, after all) makes us forget the
accumulated record of his evil acts.

I read Lewis's apologetic gloss *after* reading PL, and found it dazzling
and persuasive.  Then I went back and looked at some of the individual
scenes in which Satan truly shines -- the exhortation on the lake of fire,
the confrontation with the patrol of angels in Eden -- and, damn, it's hard
not to root for Lucifer.   Like a lot of great books, "Paradise Lost" is at
war with itself.


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195003454/qid=1045914950/sr=8
-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-1585344-5300959?v=glance&s=books&n=507846


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org]On
> Behalf Of jbor
> Sent: Saturday, February 22, 2003 5:11 AM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: Pynchon's "knewspeak"
>
>
> 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.
>
>