ATD the norse/nunatak/serpent/odialesque thing

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

I suppose what my wife tells me when we're watching some CGI
enhanced Cinematic roller coaster applies here: "This is not a
documentary." Pynchon is a poetic and allusive writer, one who 
readily creates metaphors that split off into multiple directions.
Referencing Dante serves multiple purposes, first as marker for 
hell in a general way, and as a pointer for one of the author's
literary models.

>From "Pynchon's Inferno" By Charles Hollander:

"Pynchon’s writings have much in common with Jonathan Swift’s and Dante 
Alighieri’s. Both these men were involved in the politics of their day. Dante 
was eventually banished from Florence, having thrown his lot in with the losing 
political gang, the White Guelphs. While in exile Dante wrote his Divine Comedy, 
in which we are given a structure leading us down to hell, up through purgatory, 
and finally into heaven. Along the way we meet mythical and historical figures 
who allegorically stand for various religious doctrines and dogmas.

At the same time, many of these figures recognizably mimic living figures of 
the day, the winners of the political conflict. Under the camouflage of 
his most lofty poetry, his most theological writings, Dante was sticking it to 
many of his contemporaries. Throughout the nine circles of Hell stand real 
historical figures indicted as panderers and seducers, evil counselors, 
falsifiers, traitors, murderers."

http://www.ottosell.de/pynchon/inferno.htm

Another thing to be noted is that the Multiverse model of quantum physics, one 
can wander back in time. I think the Vormance Expedition, in addition to quite a 
few other things, delivered something from deep in the past into NYC, circa 
1900. 

One more thing worth noting here is the use of the arch as a 
symbol for passage into a magical realm, a use you might recall from 
"Pan's Labyrinth." This applies in an even more telling way as Kit passes 
through that arch deep in Central Asia, on his way into Shambhala.


Tore:
The theme is of course also predominant in AtD. The Dante arch, e.g., is 
mirrored by the giant Arch Kit passes through on his way into "shamanic 
Asia". His passing through that arch (see pp. 768-771) is one of my 
favourite passages in AtD. After passing through/making the transition, Kit 
has a dream/vision, where he himself becomes "the bridge, the arch, the 
crossing-over" (771).

If the Dante arch is indeed a portal, what exactly is it a portal into, 
though? Another dimension, or another time? Of course, the line between 
dimensions and time is a fluid one in AtD, but it seems to me that the 
emphasis in the description of the Dante arch on p. 401 is on time: "They 
approached a memorial arch, gray and time-corroded, seeming to date from 
some ancient catastrophe, far older than the city." This seems puzzling, ne? 
The catastrophe is caused by the ancient force of the Figure, but the 
catastrophe itself is surely not ancient. Or is it?