AtDTDA [38] Day of Transfiguration

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Around 6:00 am last Wednesday—August 6—I got all the way 
through Against the Day for the third time. This finale of this 
book produces a reaction unlike my reaction to any other novel 
by Pynchon.

I am deeply moved and filled with joy.

This "Grace" the Chums are being lifted towards, it is "The LIght", 
it is the great Illumination that is sought by monks, mystics, 
members of the Order of the Golden Dawn, that lovely estatica 
Madame Eskimov and Good Christians everywhere. 

"DER TAG"—The Day we are all up Against. 

And at the same time and always in Pynchon the seduction of 
being "Drawn into the light" is accompanied with every conceivable 
warning of possible traps, the sure knowledge that the Illumination 
with overtake the supplicant bowing before it, erase him, blow him 
away. . . .like those soon-to-be skin cells in Gravity's Rainbow, 
discussing what it means to "go epidermal", touch the light and
become a shell.

And yet, and yet, and. . . .

Thank You Dave Monroe.

. . . . and please allow me to apologize in advance for what's 
about to happen:


   "Do you suppose somthing has exploded somehwere?  Really--somehwere
in the East?  Another Krakatoa?  Another name at least that exotic
..." (GR, Pt. IV, p. 642)

           A heavenward blast of light.
          AtD, p. 779

  "At the instant it happened, the pale Virgin was rising in the east,
head, shoulders, breasts, 17°, 36' down to her maidenhead at the.
horizon.  A few doomed Japanese knew of her as some Western deity.
She loomed in the eastern sky gazing down at the city about to be
sacrificed.  The sun was in Leo.  The fireburts came roaring and
sovereign ..." (GR, Pt. IV, p. 684)

           "Shambhala," cried Miles, and there was no need to ask 
          how he knew—they all knew. For centuries the sacred 
          City had lain invisible, cloaked in everyday light, sun-, 
          star-, and moonlght, the campfires and electric torches of 
          desert explorers, until the Event over Stoney Tunguska, 
          as if those precise light-frequencies which would allow 
          human eyes to see the City had finally been released.
          AtD, p. 793

".. a scrap of newspaper headline, with a wirephoto of a giant white
cock, dangling in the sky straight downward out of a white pubic
bush.The letters

MB DRO
ROSHI

appear above with the logo of some occupation newspaper ..." (GR, Pt.
IV, p. 693)

          HIC EST FILIVS MEVS DILECTVS , IN QVO MIHI COMPLACVI , 
          IPSVM AVDITE. -Mt 17: 5

Enola Gay, Miss

http://www.theenolagay.com/

588; The Enola Gay, a B-29 built by Pynchon's previous employer Boeing
Aircraft, dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/e.html
http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=E


          . . . .Pugnax was on the bridge, looking east, still 
          as stone, when the Event in the sky occurred, 
          the early deepening past orange, too general in 
          space or memory to know where to look till the 
          sound arrived, ripping apart the firmament over 
          western China—by which time time the terrible 
          pulse had already faded. . . .
          AtD, p. 792

Hiroshima

480; "a city on Honshu, the Inland Sea" in Japan, where Ensign
Morituri & family live; "Do you suppose something has exploded
somewhere? Really--somewhere in the East" 642; "MB DRO ROSHI" 693

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/h.html
http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=H

          . . . .everything, faces, sky, trees, the distant turn of river, went
          red. Sound itself, the wind, what wind there was, all gone red 
          as a living heart. . . .
          AtD,p. 782

"Part 3: In the Zone" comprises 32 episodes, a number some speculate
is related to the gravitational acceleration of 32 feet per second per
second and also bearing significance to the Kabbalistic tradition. The
action of Part 3 is set during the summer of 1945 with some
analepses to the time period of Part 2 with most events taking place
between May 18 and August 6; the day of the first atomic bomb attack
and also the Feast of the Transfiguration. The epigraph is taken from
The Wizard of Oz, spoken by Dorothy as she arrives in Oz and shows her
disorientation with the new environment: "Toto, I have a feeling we're
not in Kansas any more..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity's_Rainbow

          In the pale blue aftermath, the first thing they noticed 
          was that the city below was not the same as the one 
          they had arrived at the night before. The streets were 
          all visible now, Fountains sparkled everywhere. Each 
          dwelling had its own garden inside. Markets seethed 
          in cheerful commotion, caravans came and went 
          through the city gates, tiled and gilded domes shone 
          in the sun, towers soared like song, the desert was 
          renounced. AtD, p. 793

August 6 is the Feast of the Transfiguration, the celebration of the
day when Jesus revealed his divinity to Peter, John, and James on the
top of Mount Tabor. (Matthew 17:2 and Mark 9:2.) It has been called
"the culminating point of His public life, as His baptism is its
starting point and His ascension its end." As an actual holiday, the
Feast of the Transfiguration had its origins in the forth century. It
is believed that it was substituted for an early pagan feast called
Vatavarh, or Roseflame, held in honor of Aphrodite. In an ironic
pairing typical of Gravity's Rainbow, this feast coincides with
another event on August 6, 1945: the dropping of the atomic bomb on
Hiroshima.

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_granalysis.html

The Transfiguration
 
          Feast Day: August 6 
          The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us about the 
          wonderful event of the Lord's Transfiguration. Before he 
          suffered and died, he let three of his apostles see him 
          hining with great glory. He did this to make their belief in 
          him stronger.

          Jesus took Peter, James and John with him up Mount 
          Tabor which stands in the middle of Galilee. When they 
          were alone, suddenly the Lord's face began to shine bright 
          like the sun. His robes became white as snow. The apostles 
          were speechless. As they watched, two famous prophets who 
          had died a long time ago, Elijah and Moses, appeared. They 
          were talking with Jesus. Imagine the joy those apostles felt.

          "Lord," said St. Peter, "it is good for us to be here. If you wish, 
          we could set up three tents here - one for you, one for Moses 
          and one for Elijah." Peter really did not know what he was saying, 
          because he was trembling with wonder and fear. As he was 
          talking, a bright cloud overshadowed them. From the cloud 
          they heard the voice of God the Father, saying, "This is my 
          beloved Son; listen to him."

          When they heard that, the apostles were so frightened that 
          they fell on their faces. Then Jesus came close and touched 
          them. "Arise," he said. "Do not be afraid." When they looked 
          up, they saw no one but Jesus.

          As they came down the mountain, Jesus told them not to tell 
          anyone what they had seen until he had risen from the dead 
          but they did not understand what Jesus meant. Only after his 
          glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday, would they understand 
          what Jesus had really meant.

http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net/kids/saints/0806_transfiguration.asp

Through the clever placement of ironic transformations and satirical
inversions, there are several focal points throughout the work where
two opposing images exist simultaneously, setting up an ironic
dissonance -- the fact that Hiroshima occurs on the Feast of the
Transfiguration, for example, or that Easter Sunday corresponds to
April Fool's Day. Is there a message in such a dissonance? Which image
contains the greater truth, or is the truth to be found in the
juxtaposition itself? Or do we truly dwell in an observer-created
reality, where the only meaning we are allowed is what we create from
the primal chaos, where all connections we see are fictions, imposed
by us upon the universe in order to maintain an illusion of
understanding, a ghost of control....

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_grintro.html

          . . . .the bright, flowerlike heart of a perfect hyper-hyperboloid 
          that only Miles can see in its entirety.
          AtD, p. 1085

http://www.elica.net/site/museum/Hyperhyperboloid.jpg

http://www.trinayan.org/LotusFlower.jpg