pynchon-l-digest V2 #4605

Michael Bailey michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com
Sun Dec 11 00:32:40 CST 2005


> From: Glenn Scheper <glenn_scheper at earthlink.net>
>  Svenska Akademien
>  dead people body united states truth american world man true blood
>  government death military god nicaragua course force happened
>

In Bergman's Wild Strawberries, the guy I think gets some kind of
medal for inventing a good sedative; it'd be fun to win a Nobel and
then go traipsing around Sweden.  Hope Pinter is enjoying it.

It would be really cool if some powerful august personage heard the
speech, and goes, "damn, we ARE killing people all over the world -
WTF - we could save money by not doing that" or something ( - :
slaps forehead, orders nuke plant to be converted into giant cookie
factory, orders Marine Corps to be turned into aerobics instruction
centers, reviews mission statement and retools for peace

> Great page! It suggests the art of writing is first, to obtain
> a prophetic-style of insight, then to just report, not concoct.
> Also reminds me that U.S.A. is as the fourth kingdom of Daniel.

hmmm, did he do some prophesying after he got out of the fiery
furnace?  Been awhile since I taught Sunday School (non-rigourously) -
what has stayed better in my mind is there was a Nabokov character
named "Menetek el-Upharsin"

>
> These would seem to me to align the Elect with the ruling
> majority, who assign the duty they are falling away from,
> and the Preterite with the abject minority.
> I would suggest oppositely, that the spiritual Elect are
> numbered in the abject minority, the majority Preterite.
>

the Protestant ethic was to equate worldly success with spiritual
election; but the "last shall be first" statements of Jesus, and the
Beatitudes, seem to indicate the opposite
within the hierarchical structures of business, government, and even
heaven, the rulers who assign the duty are usually the minority

Elect/Preterite
doing/suffering
Is how I tend to break it down, with an old-fashioned sense of
"suffering" as "feeling" -- so the decision-makers (or, even the
aspects of an individual mind making decision) have to thread the
needle of considering the aspects of how decisions will make
themselves and others feel...or suffer the consequences...(like having
Pig Bodine show up at their parties)


> From: John Doe
> Seymor-Smith is on acid...

let's not give acid a bad name
Seymor-Smith in 1985 said Pynchon was not a great writer, but again,
that was before Vineland and M&D, he may have easily missed as many of
the virtues of GR as I'm realizing I have heretofore
now this Keesey has written a response to Seymor-Smith and chosen
"Entropy" as his vehicle...is he defending Pynchon or buttressing SS
I'm curious, Jody will you please send me the PDF?

> be engrossing themes perhaps, but it is not to GR what
> "The Dead" is to Ulysses

Ooh, there's a thought...somebody big and famous cast his beautiful
daughter in a movie of that and it worked out pretty well

David Casseres
> Subject: Re: Mel Gibson's latest passion?
>
> I have a little song about Mel Gibson.

what could possibly rhyme with Gibson?

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"Acceptance, forgiveness, love - now that's a philosophy of life!"
-Woody Allen, as Broadway Danny Rose




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