ATDDTA (8) Towers of Silence (209:26)

[David Morris]

On 5/2/07, Charles Albert <cfalbert at gmail.com> wrote:
> Doesn't Pynchon suggest that those who adorn the tower in Jeshimon are assigned their places by a "judgement" which is inconsistent & unpredictable?
>
> Why do those who live there stay and subject themselves to it, rather than the far more "transparent" authority of the other religious polities in Utah?

Not only do people stay there, "evil doers from hundreds of miles
around" are "attracted"  to it.  It is a "soul processing" place, but
given the choice I can't understand why anyone would want their soul
processed there:

            So Reef passed beneath enormous wing-shadows,
      down the grim colonnade, which, judging by the numbers,
      hadn't been that much of a deterrent. "No, quite the
      contrary," cheerfully admitted the Reverend Lube Carnal
      of the Second Lutheran (Missouri Synod) Church, "we
      attract evildoers from hundreds of miles around---not to
      mention clergy too o' course, like you wouldn't believe.
      You'll notice there's more churches here than saloons,
      making us unique in the Territory. Kind of professional
      challenge, get to their souls before the Governor gets to
      their necks."
             "The what?"
             "It's how he likes to be addressed. Thinks of this as
      his little state within a state. Whose main business you
      could say is the processing of souls."

So it "attracts evildoers" (and clergy), so I'd say it is a place
meant for harsh judgement that can't be resisted by those who "belong"
there.   Yet Webb didn't belong there, nor was judgement passed on him
from the "Governor."  In fact, how is it that Duece & Sloat commit
murder & torture there but escape their own punishment?

David Morris