AtDTDA (16) 434 +

[Tim Strzechowski]

What about entropy?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Lee Bailey" <mikebailey at speakeasy.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2007 1:15 AM
Subject: Re: AtDTDA (16) 434 +


>        25 WORDS ON RECURRING THEMES IN PYNCHON
>
>        Traditions' genesis: in Chums of Chance, Navy men, Weissman and his
>        minions, et al. Preterition and election. Murphy's Law and Goedel's
>        Theorem. Whole Sick Crews.
>
>>Mark wondered:
>>...got 25 words on Deserts/spirituality/light....
>
>
> how about 10 brief points?
>
> 1) the theory of pilgrimages devolving into crusades.
> as if to say, and this will happen to us too
>
> 2) spirituality vs worldliness -
> Chums maintain a pretense of "of course preferring"
> the un-raved-about spiritual rewards
> to the lavishly-detailed-description of the worldly rewards
>
> 3) crops up again in the discussion of Manichaeanism
>
> 4) which also deals with light
>
> 5) light more prevalent, unfiltered in the desert
>
> 6) total devotion to the Light
> causes a rejection of worldly pleasures
>
> 7) therefore as Darby and Chick note -- the
> unsatisfying nature of Light/Dark as a
> metaphor for Good/Bad (I've always thought that too,
> love the rainy nights...)
>
> 8) Are there spiritual rewards which in fact do
> "outshine" materialistic rewards?
> ...yes, lots of them...
>
> 1st & foremost, the knowledge of acting ethically...
> a sine qua non for enjoying material things, but
> doesn't _replace_ the enjoyment of them...
>
> but also lots of other things, especially if you
> tentatively define spirituality as not some mysterious force
> coming from an unknown direction which has to be faked...
> but as, more or less, mental activity ie thought.
>
> 9) is Darby's "No pussy?" similar to Dixon's "No fucking?" when
> invited to the Jesuits?  Of course!
>
> 10) Is the renunciation required of Catholic religious
> equivalent to the Manichaeans?
> eehnyh...maybe... Is Pynchon suggesting that there are
> no valid celibate spiritualities?  --- naah, but Darby is...
>
>
>
>