OK 2b Luddite?

[Paul Mackin]

On Mon, 2004-10-18 at 14:30, Joseph Tracy wrote:
>  
>   Still there are some remarkable consistencies in his writing and one
> is an attempt to set the historic record straight, or properly
> crooked. An accurate historical account which works hard to include
> and respect the "preterite"( I don't know why he chooses this term and
> am not that crazy about it*) , the marginal,  the outsiders and losers
> in historic conflicts is perhaps the most consistent aspect of what he
> does in both fiction and non-fiction.  Even his book review of Farina
> focuses on shaping an honest if deeply friendly look at the writer,
> and also reveals Pynchon's apprecaition and fondness for the culture
> and experiences of the outsiders of his generation. But  while in some
> ways critical of the dominance of sci-tec culture, the  essay can be
> read as conservative  if one were to take Snow's point of view, the
> writers TP admires are looking back fondly  to earlier times and
> beckoning literary badasses from their ! dream life, and from the
> darker possibilities of science itself  to trouble the godlike powers
> sought by  the scientific culture. Anyway it is this balancing of
> forces which leaves the reader more informed, imaginatively and
> logically stretched, wrung through the heart of the world, without
> easy answers, but deeply humored  that attracts me to Pynchon.
>  
> The dictionary defines the word to mean past but Pynchon seems to use
> it to mean lost or mrginalized the objects rather than the makers of
> history.  I would love to hear others insights on this odd use of the
> word.
>  

Pynchon appropriated the grammatical and general term "preterite"
meaning past or past tense to apply to the poor and wretched of the
earth, by analogy with those who are passed over, not Elected for
Salvation, under the theological doctrine of Preterition.