Pynchon's Preterite

[jbor]

on 20/10/04 10:37 PM, Ghetta Life wrote:

> Calvanism also obviously applies because it preaches that there is a
> “select” people (just as Judaism preached that the Jews were G-d’s “chosen”)
> foreknown by God to be saved.  All others are predestined to damnation.

Yes, predestination: "the Preterite, the many God passes over when he
chooses a few for salvation" (GR 555).

I've always understood Preterition in the context of the Calvinist doctrine
which states that God only positively determined the Elect. Those that
weren't designated as Elect become "Preterite" (or "passed over") by
default, and are thus damned. The American Puritans considered themselves to
be God's Elect; they burnt witches and exorcised evil spirits in order to
ensure the purity of their society.

In the novel Pynchon plays around with many different meanings and notions
of the term, applies it to many different contexts (i.e. he *deconstructs*
it), as in the passage about the 17th C. Dutch missionaries:

      But if they were chosen to come to Mauritius, why had they also
    been chosen to fail, and leave? Is that a choosing, or is it a
    passing-over? Are they Elect, or are they Preterite, and doomed as
    dodoes? (110)

The prisoners in Dora are described as part of "the Humility, the multitudes
who are passed over by God and history." (299) If there is an ironic
allusion to the Jewish Passover it's right there.

best