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

[Paul Mackin]

Assuming some Buddhist element at work here,  is it possible to accept 
Pynchon just as he is--AtD just as it it?

Could any of us p-listers "fly toward grace" in this respect and in this 
sense?

We would have to be completely non-judgemental regarding what he/it means, 
or even whether the book is any good or not.

Just a thought.

P.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Kohut" <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
Cc: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 7:37 AM
Subject: Re: AtDTDA: [38] p. 1085 They fly towards grace.


> What great stuff, Robin. Thanks and more Thanx.
>
> Pynchon exfoliates, meanings are layered, as we are always saying. But 
> some meanings are more equal than others, to allude.
>
> I see the ending most like this from my reading---with my goggles off:
> TRP has given us, in AtD, a definition of Grace that is, yes, religious, 
> but is distinctly contrasted with the Western Christian Protestant 
> (Puritan) understanding of grace. TRP gave us (thru Lew B.) a new, more
> Buddhist-influenced definition: an acceptance of things as they are.
>
> I see TRP embedding this paradox in the ending: we have to accept "things 
> as they are" to have any grace, those things including Death and the evils
> of History. Here, in a book that ends in historical time after WW1, 
> shortly after Fascism entered Time, but while peace reigned among the 
> major Powers, but before the V-2s of GR and WW2 are launched (but the 
> contamination of the air corridor fills AtD), is when the Chums and 
> families 'fly into grace'.
>
> Later,
> Mark
>
>
>
>
> --- On Wed, 8/13/08, robinlandseadel at comcast.net 
> <robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>> From: robinlandseadel at comcast.net <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
>> Subject: AtDTDA: [38] p. 1085 They fly towards grace.
>> To: "P-list" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Date: Wednesday, August 13, 2008, 1:12 PM
>> The final sentence of Against the Day—"They fly
>> towards
>> Grace"—contains an unresolvable paradox or two.
>>
>> Grace has a number of meanings, 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
>>
>> But the Buddhist concept of Grace seems to apply
>> here as well, Karmic awareness that lets the light in.
>>
>> From:
>> Buddhism and Christianity: Interpreting A New Testament
>> Passage
>>
>> by Alfred Bloom Emeritus Professor of Religion University
>> of Hawaii
>>
>>           The principle of grace which permeates the New
>> Testament
>>           was singled out as the  singular focal point for
>> Christian
>>           theology by the German reformer Martin Luther
>> (1483-1546).
>>           Sola Fide, faith alone, was proclaimed as the
>> witness to the
>>           acceptance and trust in God’s grace.
>>
>>           However, 200 years before Luther, Shinran
>> established the
>>           paradigm of true  entrusting endowed through the
>> gift of
>>           Amida Buddha’s compassion and wisdom as  the
>> paradigm
>>           for salvation in Pure Land Buddhism. Where
>> Christianity
>>           taught that  salvation is not by works but by
>> faith and grace,
>>           described as God’s unmerited  favor, Shinran
>> taught that we
>>           cannot attain enlightenment through
>> self-inspired,  self-striving
>>           practices. Rather, we can attain salvation only
>> through trust and
>>           reliance on Amida’s unconditional compassion
>> expressed in
>>           his Primal Vow.  Consequently, trust in God’s
>> grace or trust
>>           (shinjin) in Amida’s unconditional  compassion
>> became
>>           watchwords in the respective traditions.
>>
>>           Shin Buddhists can look upon the principle of
>> grace in Christianity
>>           and Shin  Buddhism as significant evidence for
>> the universality
>>           of trust in human  experience. Faith is the basis
>> for living and
>>           meaning in everyday human  existence. A measure
>> of trust and
>>           faith is involved in every dimension of life,
>> especially in human
>>           relations. Religious faith and symbolism opens
>> our eyes to
>>           the fact that our everyday life rests on the gift
>> of love and
>>           compassion shared  by family, friendships and
>> community.
>>
>>           Nevertheless, this parable, so influential in
>> Christianity, is
>>           essentially  Buddhist in character. The sheep did
>> not rebel
>>           against the master or shepherd.  Rather, it
>> wandered off
>>           from the flock and lost its way. It was, by
>> implication,  in
>>           error and ignorant, but not sinful which is
>> viewed in the
>>           Bible as rebellion against God.
>>
>> http://www.shindharmanet.com/writings/b&c.htm
>>
>> . . . .or the abattoir. . . .
>>
>>           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:
>>
>> 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
>>
>> Like Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach
>> Zarathustra", Against the Day
>> ends Bi-Tonally:
>>
>>           One of the major compositional themes of the
>> piece is the contrast
>>           between the keys of B major, representing
>> humanity, and C major,
>>           representing the universe. Although B and C are
>> adjacent notes,
>>           these keys are tonally dissimilar: B major uses
>> five sharps, while
>>           C major has none.
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Also_sprach_Zarathustra_(Richard_Strauss)
>>
>> Touched as I am by the sense of the story lines
>> "singling up", I am
>> also aware where exclusion of options ultimately leads.
>
>
>
>
>
>