Melville and Pynchon

[Joe Allonby]

Welcome to the wonderful world of....

On 4/8/06, Glenn Scheper <glenn_scheper at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> I planned to write this young man (I hope it's college, not High School)
> how both Melville
> and Pynchon have re-discovered the abject taboo christic realm of
> autofellatio, so, like all
> the classic poet/prophets (and me), they have delved into mapping the
> religious metaphors,
> and use this knowledge of relationships to produce isomorphisms of
> religion in their works.
>
> If modernism, based on Cartesian doubt and individual freedom had not
> excluded such
> unrepeatable "gnostic" knowledge of these very few, and concommittant
> responsibilities,
> these topics would not be post-modern at all, but ground a very sexual
> monadic religion.
>
>  The reason I delay is that I only listened to the first 32 of 136 or so
> chapters of Moby Dick.
> The reason I write finally is actually due to the Judas thread:
> When Ishmael met Quake-Quake, a sort of mage-Jesus type, with idolatrous
> habits,
> QQ divided his 30 pieces of silver with Ishmael, sort of a demi-? half the
> price of Jesus.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Alex Anderson <alexdavidanderson at gmail.com>
> *To:* pynchon-l at waste.org
> *Sent:* Monday, March 27, 2006 8:49 PM
> *Subject:* Melville and Pynchon
>
> I am hoping to write, for my senior seminar, a paper outlining the
> influences Moby-Dick has had on the postmodern novel, especially
> structurally.  I was considering doing a parallel reading of Melville's text
> alongside a text written by an exemplary postmodern author and, naturally,
> Pynchon comes to mind.  I know that my parameters are quite broad, but if
> anyone could point me to any examples that they see in Pynchon's works that
> parallel, directly or indirectly, Moby-Dick, I would greatly appreciate it.
> I've considered using Mason & Dixon, as the travel narrative and chapter
> arrangement seem to suggest some influences, but I think it would be quite
> difficult to argue for the influence of a novel written after the fictional
> timeframe of Pynchon's.  But I am certainly open to any suggestions or
> comments.  Thanks.
>
> -Alex-
>
>
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