Jeshimon, Dualism, Zen Anarchy

[Joseph T]

First wanted to respond to robin's contention that the killing of  
Webb and the Jeshimon scene are not purely a Christian archetype. A  
big part of what I am saying  and what I believe the author is saying  
in various ways is that Christianity itself is not purely Christian  
or Judaic or Mystic Gnostic or social justice communitarian etc., nor  
is it a unique event, but that it represents both the birth of a new  
story in which many old stories are refashioned and revisited, and  
that it is constantly being retold and relived, is as common as death  
squads and those with the courage to stand for justice. The story is  
focal to world history as we receive it and Pynchon has never shied  
from it anymore than he does from Kabbalah, Imperialism, entropy,  
Fascism, Shamanism, sex, physics  or any other big topic.

  Dualism. When the sheriff wears a reverse star, and the preachers  
are like vultures delighting in carrion, and the the Government is in  
the hands of idiot monkeys who delight in degradation, mass killing  
and torture, then the world takes on a pretty dualistic tone. When  
your father is the victim of this violence that duality come into  
sharp focus and the tools of resistance become the promise of a  
better world.

How easy though to mistake  other forms of power (dynamite)for the  
power of we see in the life of an itinerant preacher and healer who  
taught people to share food, to heal, forgive, and be fearless in the  
face of religious or political intimidation. How easy for the  
revolution to become the new empire with flags and slaves and secret  
prisons. The violence and slavery we find in the world are not out  
there somewhere, living in the Whitehouse or a cave in afghanistan.  
It is an aspect of human nature, but still these large forces must be  
faced ,  and resisted. I think Pynchon respectfully includes  
Anarchism, science, Art, Shamanism, humor, sex of all kinds,  
Christianity in its aspect of liberation and redemptive love, all  
forms of kindness, friendship, entrancemant with the universe,  
Buddhism... all as valid paths of resistance to the dark tendencies  
of organized greed represented so well in his novels.

Kurt Vonnegut was no Christian in the sense of believe and be saved  
or any other sense but he once said if it wasn't for the sermon on  
the mount he would just as soon be a snake.