AtDTDA: [38] p. 1085 They fly towards grace.

[Dave Monroe]

On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 12:12 PM,  <robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:

> The final sentence of Against the Day—"They fly towards
> Grace"—contains an unresolvable paradox or two.
>
> Grace has a number of meanings ...

Main Entry: grace
Pronunciation: \ˈgrās\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin gratia favor,
charm, thanks, from gratus pleasing, grateful; akin to Sanskrit
gṛṇāti he praises
Date: 12th century
1 a: unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration
or sanctification b: a virtue coming from God c: a state of
sanctification enjoyed through divine grace
2 a: approval, favor <stayed in his good graces> barchaic : mercy,
pardon c: a special favor : privilege <each in his place, by right,
not grace, shall rule his heritage — Rudyard Kipling> d: disposition
to or an act or instance of kindness, courtesy, or clemency e: a
temporary exemption : reprieve
3 a: a charming or attractive trait or characteristic b: a pleasing
appearance or effect : charm <all the grace of youth — John Buchan> c:
ease and suppleness of movement or bearing
4—used as a title of address or reference for a duke, a duchess, or an
archbishop
5: a short prayer at a meal asking a blessing or giving thanks
6plural capitalized : three sister goddesses in Greek mythology who
are the givers of charm and beauty
7: a musical trill, turn, or appoggiatura
8 a: sense of propriety or right <had the grace not to run for
elective office — Calvin Trillin> b: the quality or state of being
considerate or thoughtful

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary

> ... though local context in the tale's final page nearly
> singles this line into a specific Christian meaning.
> This review from "The American Prospect" points to
> primary puritan meanings of "Grace":
>
>          From his Puritan ancestors Pynchon learned that grace
>          comes to some of us and not others according to God's
>          inscrutable wishes. What we do does not affect our salvation.
>          We who believe in a gospel of success cannot easily imagine
>          a people convinced of its irrelevance. But suppose corruption
>          had thoroughly rotted a society: a God indifferent to worldly
>          opinion might grow in popularity. If officially virtuous people
>          were really villains, maybe publicly despised people were
>          really saints. If everything you heard was a lie, perhaps
>          only God could winnow truth.
>
>          Early in Against the Day Pynchon reminds us of this idea and
>          expresses it graphically: "Many people believe that there is
>          a mathematical correlation between sin, penance, and
>          redemption. More sin, more penance, and so forth...
>          [But t]here is no connection.... You are redeemed not through
>          doing penance but because it happens. Or doesn't happen."
>          The salvation story we might like -- we do good and we get
>          rewarded -- implies a line whose equation we could plot. But
>          the arbitrary Puritan God robs us of plottable lines. Grace
>          comes when He pleases and at no predictable moment.
>
> http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=12356

In the last pages of the book, the polarities seem to come together in
a "Covenant" as The Inconvenience, like some latter-day Noah's ark,
defeats gravity, accepts the sky, will, one day, escape the storm, and
will, finally, have good more accessible to them. The end of Gravity's
Rainbow, in contrast, is an ascent betrayed to gravity by an
apocalyptic descent. Whereas the end of ATD is much more a visionary
ascent: "They will put on smoked goggles for the glory of what is
coming to part the sky. They fly toward grace"

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Cricket_in_Against_the_Day

Does this ending seem to imply, at least, an uncharcteristic
transcendence here?  Certainly, those Pynchonian demnouments have
(seemingly, at any rate) been rather more upbeat (perhaps even less
equivocal) since Gravity's Rainbow, but ...

>          Soon they will see the pressure-gauge begin to fall.
>          They will feel the turn in the wind. They will put on
>          smoked goggles for the glory of what is coming to
>          part the sky. They fly toward grace
>
> If I plug "the glory of what is coming to part the sky" into Google,
> the very first thing to come up is an article on the "Second Coming",
> the Rapture. Of course, there's also a review of Against the Day as well:

Or have they?  Dogs seem to fare pretty well in thos Pynchonian texts;
less so, however, technological utopias, and this one already has it's
admitted (and very real-life) flaws ...

> from: Thomas Pynchon and the myth of invisibility
> by Sophie Ratcliffe
>
>          The Chums are the most important characters for Pynchon,
>          for two reasons. First, they have ultimate faith in invisibility
>           their own existence in the narrative depends on their state—
>          of perceived, altruistic absence from the world. The second
>          reason becomes evident in the closing pages of the novel,
>          when the Inconvenience, "once a vehicle of sky-pilgrimage",
>          is transformed into its own destination. It is a place "where
>          any wish that can be made is at least addressed, if not always
>          granted" . . . .
>
>          This sounds like classic Pynchon, but there is something newly
>          visible. The cadences are so lulling that it would be easy to see
>          this as, if not celebration, an endearing closing sentimentality.
>          But on a closer look, the final scene has disturbing resonances,
>          as if a crew of Boy's Own suicide bombers were setting out on
>          a self-effacing mission to destruct. Of all the attempted explosions
>          in the book, this is the biggest. It is Thomas Pynchon's attempt
>          to explode the myth of invisibility. It speaks of now, as well as
>          then.
>
> http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25339-2477997,00.html

Indeed ...

> Touched as I am by the sense of the story lines "singling up", I am
> also aware where exclusion of options ultimately leads.

Again, before we rush into anything else here, the ending @ hand alone
should keep us occupied for some time to come ...