VLVL 24fps and "the Movement"

Ghetta Life ghetta_outta at hotmail.com
Fri Jan 16 09:06:23 CST 2004


>From: jbor <jbor at bigpond.com>
>I'm not sure about the allegorical, "Underworld" reading. Could you 
>elaborate on what you see as Pynchon's point and provide page refs?

The references to the underworld are overt.  Thanatoids residing in Shade 
Creek?  V&B transfer BV's boneless body acrass some metaphysical border?  
How much more explicit could Pynchon get?

http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/europe/greek/articles.html

Hades is the lord of the dead and ruler of the nether world, which is 
referred to as the domain of Hades or, by transference, as Hades alone.

Hades rules the dead, assisted by various (demonic) helpers, such as 
Thanatos and Hypnos, the ferryman Charon, and the hound Cerberus. Many 
heroes from Greek mythology have descended into the underworld, either to 
question the shades or trying to free them. Although Hades does not allow 
his subjects to leave his domain, on several occasions he has granted 
permission, such as the time Orpheus requested the return of his beloved 
Eurydice.

Hades possesses the riches of the earth, and is referred to as 'the Rich 
One'. Possibly also because, as Sophocles writes, 'the gloomy Hades enriches 
himself with our sighs and our tears'. Of all the gods, Hades is the one who 
is liked less and even the gods themselves have an aversion of him. People 
avoided speaking his name lest they attracted his unwanted attention. With 
their faces averted they sacrificed black sheep, whose blood they let drip 
into pits, and when they prayed to him, they would bang their hands on the 
ground.

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