ATDTDA (5.1) - The Etienne-Louis Malus

[bekah]

Incredible post,  Robin.  Thanks.  I particularly appreciated the 
discussion of Biblical and  Christian allusions as satire.

Bekah


At 4:39 PM +0000 3/28/07, robinlandseadel at comcast.net wrote:
>There's a word that needs to be close by when reading Pynchon: Satire.
>That's the true foundation of his massive diatribes, so remember that his
>style of satire is extraordinarly inclusive, and that satire is, after all, a
>development out of the old Greek cynic philosophy/lifestyle:
>
>          If Antisthenes was not the first Cynic by name,
>          then the origin of the appellation falls to
>          Diogenes of Sinope, an individual well known
>          for dog-like behavior. As such, the term may
>          have begun as an insult referring to Diogenesí
>          style of life, especially his proclivity to perform
>          all of his activities in public. Shamelessness,
>          which allowed Diogenes to use any space for
>          any purpose, was primary in the invention of
>          ìDiogenes the Dog.î
>
>          The precise source of the term ìCynicî is,
>          however, less important than the wholehearted
>          appropriation of it. The first Cynics, beginning
>          most clearly with Diogenes of Sinope, embraced
>          their title: they barked at those who displeased
>          them, spurned Athenian etiquette, and lived from
>          nature. In other words, what may have originated
>          as a disparaging label became the designation of
>          a philosophical vocation.
>
>          Within political philosophy, the Cynics can be seen
>          as originators of anarchism. Since humans are both
>          rational and able to be guided by nature, it follows
>          that humans have little need for legal codes or
>          political affiliations. Indeed, political associations at
>          times require one to be vicious for the sake of the
>          polis. Diogenesí cosmopolitanism represents, then,
>          a first suggestion that human affiliation ought to be
>          to humanity rather than a single state.
>
>http://www.iep.utm.edu/c/cynics.htm
>
>          Roman literature began as an imitation of the Greek
>          literary forms, from heroic epic and tragedy to the
>          epigram. It was only in satire that the Romans could
>          claim originality, since the Greeks never split satire
>          off into its own genre.
>
>          Satire, as invented by the Romans had a tendency
>          from the beginning towards social criticism, but its
>          defining characteristic was that it was a medley,
>          like a modern revue.
>
>          The Romans produced two types of satire. Menippean
>          satire was frequently a parody blending prose and verse.
>          The first use of this was the Syrian Cynic philosopher
>          Menippus of Gadara (fl. 290 B.C.). Varro (116-27 B.C.)
>          brought it into Latin. The Apocolocyntosis
>          (Pumpkinification of Claudius), attributed to Seneca,
>          a parody of the deification of the drooling emperor, is
>          the only extant Menippean satire. We also have large
>          segments of the Epicurean satire/novel, Satyricon, by
>          Petronius. The second, and more important type of satire
>          was the verse satire in epic (dactylic hexameter) meter.
>          The founder of this Roman genre is Lucilius, of
>          whom we have only fragments. Horace, Persius,
>          and Juvenal followed, leaving us many complete
>          satires about the life, vice, and moral decay they
>          saw around them.
>
>          Attacking the foolish, a component of ancient or
>          modern satire, is found in Athenian Old Comedy
>          whose sole extant representative is Aristophanes.
>          The Romans also borrowed attention-grabbing
>          techniques from the Cynic and Skeptic preachers.
>          Their extemporaneous sermons called diatribes
>          could be embellished with anecdotes, character
>          sketches, fables, obscene jokes, parodies of
>          serious poetry, and other elements also found in
>          Roman satire.
>
>http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/bb.htm
>
>          A good example of this fact is Martianus Capella's
>          The Marriage of Philology and Mercury. All I really
>          ever knew about this text is that it was an important
>          compendium for later generations in the middle
>          ages. What a surprise to discover that it has a
>          self-parodic framework that undermines the whole
>          encyclopedic effort! Relihan reads this work not as
>          part of late antiquity's salvage operation on classical
>          culture, but as a critique of the very effort to
>          synthesize learning. He reads Fulgentius' Mythologies,
>          Ennodius's "Educational Address," and Boethius's
>          Consolation of Philosophy in a similar vein: not as
>          syntheses of Christian and pagan learning, but as
>          failed syntheses that use Menippean devices to
>          undermine in the name of Christian faith the very
>          project that they seem to propose. With Ennodius in
>          particular Relihan makes a convincing case from the
>          use of prose and verse for his view of this text as
>          Menippean.
>
>http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1994/94.01.13.html
>
>          We noted in passing that a number of historians
>          of Christian origins have concluded that other,
>          more or less important aspects of Paulís ideas,
>          methods and life-style, may also have had links
>          of one kind or another with Cynic tradition.
>
>http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=103832974
>
>          My interpretation: Q1 (the bold) is what Biblical scholars
>          are putting as the very earliest writings of the followers
>          of Jesus of Nazareth. As can be seen from this collection,
>          the original members of this following did not view Jesus
>          as a Christ or a Messiah, and definitely not as the
>          celestially begotten Son of God. These people saw Jesus
>          as a very wise teacher. A cynic/sage, teaching a morality
>          and practicality that suited the people of that day. Mr. Mack
>          puts Q1 in the mid 50's of the first century of the common
>          era, though at least some of the sayings had more than
>          likely been handed down directly from Jesus.
>
>http://www.cygnus-study.com/pageq.html
>
>          One reason that this scenario remains attractive
>          is that it seems more plausible, within the dominant
>          paradigm of imagining Christian origins, to imagine
>          that an apocalyptic prophetís proclamation of the
>          (eschatological) kingdom of God began the Christian
>          religion than it does to imagine that a Cynic
>          philosopherís tongue-in‚cheek observations about
>          the kingdom of God could have started that same religion.
>
>http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/axismundi/2005/Mack_Review_Parrish.pdf
>
>          David Morris:
>          What Keith says here makes sense to me.  If there
>          is any "Christian"grace in AtD it's man's (not God's)
>          potential grace toward other men.Pynchon is much
>          more interested in the concept of Karma, where actions
>          have consequences, and, in paranoid fashion, everyone
>          is connected to everyone else in Karma's web.
>
>          Keith:
>          I really don't think Pynchon is offering up Christian grace
>          in AtD. That is not a Christian seal (arf) on the book cover.
>          IMO, the Eastern concept of grace (illumination or en-light-
>          enment) is more in keeping with the themes (darkness/light,
>          invisible/visible, unconscious/conscious) of the novel than a
>          Judicial-Christian view. Or maybe even saying "Eastern" is
>          too limiting. There is a common structure underlying all the
>          slag piles - beyond any one cultural form. Carvill is right that
>          Pynchon is more universal than "American." More universal
>          than "Christian," too.
>
>          John BAILE:
>          Can't recall if this has been covered already, but the whole idea
>          of grace in AtD - isn't the Christian version of grace kind of a
>          get-out-of-jail-free card for the preterite?
>
>Anyway, for those remaining considering the satiric potential of 
>"Grace" within
>the Christian Context, consider the following example of "Christian Grace":
>
>          It is because of Christ's death in our place that we
>          do not experience the wrath of God which we so
>          richly deserve. Jesus satisfied God's justice and
>          turned away God's wrath from us by bearing it
>          Himself on our behalf. Now God can extend mercy
>          to us without subverting His justice. Mercy and
>          justice meet together at the cross.
>
>          When I was a boy growing up in East Texas, we
>          lived near some railroad tracks. In those days,
>          homeless men (whom we called hoboes) often
>          rode the rail cars from town to town. Occasionally,
>          one of those men would show up at our front door
>          and ask my mother for a meal. Without asking any
>          questions, Mother would go to the kitchen and
>          prepare a plate of food for him. She gave it freely,
>          without requiring any "work for food" on his part.
>          She didn't ask him to mow the grass, trim the
>          hedges, or wash the windows. She gave freely
>          without any consideration or conditions.
>
>          Was my mother's kindness an act of grace? It
>          was certainly a gracious, benevolent act, but it
>          hardly qualified as an act of grace in the biblical
>          sense. We often define grace as God's unmerited
>          favor and set grace in opposition to works, as in
>          "We are saved by grace, not by works." If we hold
>          to the simple definition of unmerited favor, though,
>          my mother's gift of a plate of a food would qualify
>          as grace. The hobo did nothing to earn it. The
>          food was entirely unmerited on his part. So why
>          do I say that mother's kindness was not grace?
>         
>http://www.rts.edu/quarterly/fall98/grace.html
>
>There is a great deal of satire in Against the Day wrapped around
>that ". . . .whole foreign phrase book just on what Republicans have to say."