Christian ideas refracted thru AtD: 1) Forgiveness (spoilers galore)

[bekah]

Oh I loved it,  Mike.  It's a keeper for me - even if I may not go 
along with ascribing "forgiveness" (or the futility of revenge?) 
solely to a "Christian"  use,  I certainly appreciate the thematic 
ideas.

Bekah

At 10:08 AM +0000 12/23/06, mikebailey at speakeasy.net wrote:
>sorry to post again so soon, but I can't wait to see how this one 
>gets mangled.  how can i get rid of all that &nbsp dreck but keep 80 
>character lines?
>
>Central Christian virtue: forgiveness
>
>AtD contains an extended meditation on revenge.  As the guy said in 
>Fight Club, "How's that working for you?"
>It's not just a patriarchal phallologocentric thing: Mayva's into it too.
>
>For Webb, it messes up his family life (he even mentions that 
>post-mortem, channeled through Reef.)  Also, he never has time to 
>think.
>This means he doesn't have time to develop his utopian ideas, but 
>instead develops destructive talents more in keeping with the 
>capitalism he's fighting -- and maybe has never figured out that his 
>violent actions provoke and are used to excuse the escalations of 
>the capitalists.  He's shocked when he learns that they use his 
>chosen weapon.
>
>As for the rest of the family it seems to me they are given time to 
>think things over, and prosper to the extent that they give up on 
>revenge.
>
>"Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord" and for once, I 
>find this Old Testament precept complements nicely the New Testament 
>commandment to forgive.  It will be taken care of (as also per 
>Jesse's Emerson quote in Vineland) -- meanwhile, if we can interact 
>kindly we may even make of our enemy a friend and find a way for 
>them to clear their karma, which in turn may help us to avoid our 
>own bad karma...contrast that with creating more bad karma by 
>insisting on revenge -- Jesus was a genius!
>
>Lake's sexual connection to Deuce sidesteps the issue of 
>forgiveness, though her actions walk pretty far along the path of 
>forgiveness.  In the end his own actions (refracted as they may be 
>from the mysterious crime Lew Basnight committed way back in 
>Chicago?) lead to his downfall.
>
>Frank doesn't derive any particular satisfaction from killing Sloat, 
>or for that matter from blowing up the train.  When he breaks with 
>the revolutionists, it only means "a few more beans for somebody 
>else" -- the flat affect emanating from that interpretation 
>indicates he's moved on, that continuing these hostilities just 
>doesn't make emotional sense to him.
>
>Reef's notion of revenge is too diffuse, and defused by his own 
>proficiency in sex, gambling and style, to become a way of life. 
>That he should end up with Yashmeen is in a way a travesty - her 
>mathematical talent passed over -- and in some pseudo-psychological 
>way I'm tempted to see the Goettingen scenes as a way for Pynchon to 
>glance down the road of math that he didn't take.  I wouldn't think 
>he'd have a lot of regrets, as what he turned his hand to has 
>thriven mightily.  But I'd have liked to see Kit & Yashmeen hook 
>up...(my own jealousy of Reef, who is cooler and gets more action 
>than I, comes into play here)  However, some semblance of stability 
>and gaining of emotional depth for Reef, and the (for me anyway) 
>very affecting triangle with Cyprian does compensate.
>
>Poor Cyprian internalizes forgiveness -- turning the other (butt) 
>cheek, enjoying the pain, sexualizing the humiliation, all that 
>stuff.  I'm not really into that, but I'm close enough to being into 
>it that I really enjoyed the description.  That is, I've tasted 
>enough abuse in my life that I've wondered whether I do have a taste 
>for it, for it to happen to me so much - though by most standards 
>I've had it pretty easy...but anyway...
>
>Kit - I haven't begun to assimilate what all happens to him at the 
>end.  However, Foley Walker's eventual disposal of Scarsdale Vibe is 
>another instantiation of the principle that victims needn't 
>retaliate.  And moreover, Kit's math genius dwindles after his final 
>interview with Vibe.  I see that as, he can't get beyond the tainted 
>nature of the arrangement, and since he's preoccupied with that he 
>doesn't have time to think.  Also I think that in Vibe's office, he 
>thinks he's totally concealing his resolution to get even, but I got 
>the distinct feeling that he wasn't...I wonder if anything in the 
>text supports that...
>
>  Mayva's desire for revenge really comes from loyalty to Webb.  But 
>in her own right, she's been a Bible-thumper all along (like DL's 
>mom in Vineland) and makes her own accommodation with the 
>bourgeoisie.  I suspect but have no textual evidence that the ice 
>cream parlor might have been a victim of her occasionally NOT 
>swallowing retorts and eating crow...but it may have been that a 
>maid gig just is less wearisome than owning a small business.  She 
>knows her desire for revenge is a sin, but she doesn't turn from 
>what she considers to be the source of forgiveness...
>
>Foley Walker and Scarsdale Vibe: wow!  There's your Iceland Spar 
>effect...   Vibe reflects the intransigence of the Rockefellers -- 
>those bastids actually ruined or co-opted the mine owners who had 
>settled with the union, and brought the militant arm of the 
>government in on something that should have been settled in 
>courtrooms and meetings.  (so in a way Webb's implacable hatred 
>reflects Vibe's implacable bastardly greed)
>
>But Foley Walker's assuming Vibe's identity -- and really it is he 
>who does practice Christian outreach, since the scholarship for Kit 
>and the prescient stock tips are his ideas, which stem from voices 
>he hears rather than logical analysis -- being as one might say a 
>forgiving victim, since he bore for Vibe numerous pains and cared 
>for him, a friend closer than a brother.  Forgiving 70 times 7.  And 
>perhaps Walker is like the imaginary dude in Fight 
>Club...hmmmm......but in any case, he saves Frank from blood-guilt, 
>and (perhaps) assumes the rest of Vibe's identity...
>
>Is how it lines up for me...