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

[Charles Albert]

Does this possibly shed any light on the tower question?

Given the polyglot of faiths in the area, could it be a kind of Tower of
Religious Babel? Where the potency of the judgments of more "orthodox"
authorities has lost its discreet "signal strength"? Kind of like a
collective "Ah, fuck it! Whatever."

neither Webb, Deuce nor Sloat are there to subject themselves to the
judgment everyone else in town appears to be sitting around waiting to
become the victims of....there has been no loss of signal strength in their
discreet universe.

love,
cfa


On 5/2/07, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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
>
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