Spiritualism v. Secularism

[Chris Broderick]

> >But it's not merely Christian, or
> >for that matter, monotheist, or even specifically
> >religious.

> Definitely none of the above.

Well, I'm not willing to dismiss any of those things
whole cloth just yet.  What about the last (or is it?)
appearance of Slothrop? "And now, in the Zone, later
in the day he became a crossroad."  That seems like
pretty blatant Christian symbolism to me.  Though true
to form, it's a symbol that also admits its opposite,
since crossroads are where one goes to meet and
bargain with the devil, at least according to Robert
Johnson.  And to be fair, he follows this with a
passage about a "rainbow cock" that is about as pagan
as one can imagine.

But what are we to make of this?

"6:43:16 BDST - in the sky right now here is the same
unfolding, just about to break through, his face
deepening with its light, everything about to rush
away and he to lose himself, just as the countryside
has ever proclaimed... slender church steeples poised
up and down all these autumn hillsides, white rockets
about to fire, only seconds of countdown away, rose
windows taking in Sunday light, elevating and washing
the faces above the pulpits defining grace, swearing
this is how it does happen- yes the great bright hand
reaching out of the cloud..."

(I'd give you page numbers, but I don't have a copy of
the Penguin edition.)

Now let me finish with the caveat that I'm not saying
that GR is some kind of (shudder) religious allegory,
or Slothrop some sort of Christ figure (though I do
enjoy the irony that such a figure could spend a good
chunk of the novel chasing skirts and hashish.)  Just
that Pynchon seems to focus a lot of attention on
these kinds of oppositions: Christianity v. Paganism,
Religion v. Science, phallus v. rocket.  And though
his characters may stand on one side or another, I'd
submit that the narrator stays right in the middle. 
In the v period, as it were.

-Chris


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