MMV: Windigo

[Paul Mackin]

On Mon, 2004-08-23 at 10:37, Dave Monroe wrote:
> Again, I've been wondering about Those Pynchonian
> Jesuits and if perhaps Pynchon's apparent lack of
> fondness for them might have something to with the, i
> don't know, lawyerly, evil's Advocate way in which
> they are apparently trained.  Anyway, today will be
> slow-going for me, but it'll pick up soon ...
> 
> --- Otto <ottosell at yahoo.de> wrote:
> 
> > It is Siegel's Jesuit-side not Pynchon who's
> > thinking that "this kind of penance was as good
> > as any other (...)."
> 

I'm having a little trouble with the way the Jesuit references in the
story are being interpreted. It's true that "Jesuit" has the
well-recoginzed meaning of sophistic, deceptive, tricky. However in M&M
in V the term is introduced, clearly it seem to me, with reference to
Stephen Dedalus, whom Buck Mulligan calls "you fearful Jesuit."
Mullligan does not mean Stephen is dishonest. Rather, S is TOO honest. M
is chiding his friend for refusing to kneel down at S's mother's
deathbed and pray with her. S refuses because he himself does not
believe. M, who has a completely materialistic view of death, thinks S's
reticence is a frivolius and heartless waste. He attributes S's attitude
to the fact that S has had the Jesuit Strain injected into him, except
that in Stephen's case it was injected upside down. (both men were
educated in the Catholic religion by Jesuits I think) In other words in
M's view S is still a theological person. Not quite a materialist like
M.

I think there are a number of indications in M&M in V that Siegel is
viewed by Grossman and himself as essentially a theological person.  A
priest of sorts. In an odd way of course.

The denouement of the story is in fact a religious event. Cleanth Siegel
S.J. A crazy kind of Jesuit maybe. Religion turned up side down. Like
Stephen's Jesuit strain left him.  But religious nevertheless.

Anyway we could think about it.