VLVL "the old Yurok story" (379-80)

[Tim Strzechowski]

One must also keep in mind that most accounts of the Land of the Dead across
the centuries and throughout cultures tend(ed) to include a "river" that the
Dead must cross (often with the help of a "boatman").  The word "descent" is
easily applicable to *any* such journey, which is termed "descent narrative"
anyway, and Pynchon surely knew the connotations of this.  The fact that
Brock's descent involves a river with boatmen makes it consistent enough
with virtually any traditional descent narrative, whether European or Native
American.

Perhaps what makes the Brock episode a slight inversion of the Dantean
account is the fact that Dante the Pilgrim must first descend through Hell
before ascending (of his own accord) through the spheres of Heaven.  In
contrast, Brock (dangling from the helicopter) is winched up and away
(Solomon would argue that this "ascent" is a result of Brock's God -- 
Reagan -- who "had officially ended the 'exercise' known as REX 84" [376])
before being ferried to his descent by Blood and Vato.

If anything gives Brock's actual descent a Native American flavor, it's the
focus on nature as he makes his descent (379).  Whereas most western
accounts of the underworld portray the landscape in otherworldly or barren
or malevolent terms, Native American tradition focuses on the richness of
soil and fertility of land.  As Brock descends, he is aware of the walls of
earth around him, the tallness of the trees, the "roots twisted overhead,"
and the smell of the mud.  Once he sees the inhabitants they are "drumming"
and "dancing" amid "smoking torch- and firelight," surrounded by "thickly
crowded dwellings, heaped one on the other."  These details are specific to
Native American accounts, which perceive death as a rebirth within a
cyclical universe, as opposed to western accounts, which perceive death as
the "next" phase, usually replete with punishment for sins.

But remember: just because it has a Native American flavor, doesn't mean it
excludes the western tradition entirely.  Vato tells Brock that they'll
"take out your bones," so there is consequence to Brock's arrival there.
And the fact that Brock must now be surrounded by third-worlders (Vato even
assures Brock to "give [them] a chance, you know, they can be a lotta fun")
suggests a contrapasso or sorts for Brock (American government man), who
must now spend his eternity "adjusting" to being boneless amid these
dancing, torch-bearing folks.

Divine retribution, indeed.

Tim

>
> I don't agree that the Yurok story was influenced by Dante, the Orpheus
> myth, or T.S. Eliot, is all, and I don't agree that Pynchon was
necessarily
> pointing to Dante or Eliot in his appropriation ("ransacking", in your
> words) of the Yurok myth. It's the reader who is doing the conflating here
> and, as I pointed out, parallels could as easily be drawn to the Egyptian
> Book of the Dead or the Epic of Gilgamesh as to these others.
>
> If we're talking about authorial intention, I think it more likely that
> Pynchon saw the Yurok myth standing in its own right (it is Yurok country
he
> has set the episode in, after all, and there are quite a few references to
> Native American history and culture elsewhere in the novel, though none to
> Dante or Eliot), rather than as a screen for a European classical or
> literary allusion, or a Biblical allusion for that matter.
>
> best
>
>