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

[Mark Kohut]

Thesis: Yes, the Chums are Us; We are the Chums. Like the Stupendica, which was a luxury cruise ship AND a destroyer, I think TRP may be indicting almost ALL of us....— bour·geois·ifi·ca·tion  \ˌbu̇(r)zh-ˌwä-zə-fə-ˈkā-shən\ noun.....the wide (by definition) middle class which gives assent to the military industrial complex.......which is so pervasive, we can't see it.....it is all around us,as above, so below, so is invisible as TRP writes twice here.


That the Airship becomes a city, a destination in itself, [Yes, love Manifest Destiny connection]---modernity has 'projected a world', so to speak,--- 
and that they are now a Military High Command Org...an early military-industrial complex, as Laura indicates]...Notice it is 'the third dimension" [not any putative fourth] that is used to 'deliver explosives'.
Space.

Sidebar: The great Max Weber, whom we know TRP learned from, had more insights and words than just the "rationalization of charisma" and the singling/narowing of human options in modernity. He wrote about the professionalism and efficiency of modern institutions......I hardly know his ideas---I know there are experts on the p-list---but the change of the Chums' organizational lives, reminds me of Weber's notions.

The Chums are fictions, the daylit fiction that is America at the Great optimistic World's Fair. They lived within those fictions right to (and beyond--the kids) GR.

The Airship/city is a "frigate" is the metaphor, the Boys have the "illusion of executive power"---- they are caught in a System they think they control? (things are in the saddle and ride mankind.)-- Emerson, 1800s

The Girls leave the ship AT RIGHT ANGLES----Cf. TRP on other right angles in AtD---bad linearity shit---to do the 'adventuring'.....TRP features "female' values as adventurous---as we see with many of the female happenings in AtD---within the Linear High Military Commmand---which will end in Death for all in this generation. (But the kids will be
back on earth, yes, showing Hope to get to a new future) 

Accepting 'things as they are' can be too passive {as has been said about this aspect of Buddhism, by many]. Necessary for some kind of happiness when living peacefully in the day, maybe, but no help at all in History, in effecting change in History.

So, History's evils repeat as a step-function [V.] because the majority 
of people in the world have not found a non-excluded middle way to live with [accept], yet work to change things??   
Or, as used to be said by the Garcons of 1971: if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Much less 'optimistic' ending we are arguing, than many, most seem to be seeing.  

--- On Fri, 8/15/08, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> From: kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com>
> Subject: Re: AtDTDA: [38] p. 1085 They fly towards grace.
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Friday, August 15, 2008, 3:00 PM
> Great, thought-provoking wrap-up to this section and the
> entire ATDTDA, Robin.
> 
> Some thoughts on the Chums:
> 
> They're the Elect, not the preterite.  They have a
> mysterious higher-up controlling them (at first), they look
> down (literally, anyway) at the masses, above all, they have
> a sense of purpose/entitlement that's certainly lacking
> from the aimless characters below.  We've been used to
> identifying with Pynchon's preterite, assuming the Elect
> to be bad guys - from a religious standpoint, they
> didn't choose to be Elect, it just happened.  From the
> earthly political standpoint, of course, the bad guys (rich,
> powerful) made up te concept of the Elect, thereby giving
> the Elect their bad-guy status.  But the Chums aren't
> bad guys (though they're not necessarily good guys
> either).  As the Elect, they naturally fly towards grace. 
> It's not that they've earned or deserve grace, they
> merely have it because they're the (amoral) Elect.
> 
> What do the Chums represent?
> 
> 1.  As Robin writes, they're the embodiment of Fiction
> -- "fictitiousness."  In some ways, they're
> also a stand-in for We the Readers.  They're the
> omniscient view of the narrator/reader.  We, like them,
> travel through space and time.  By virtue of being readers,
> we can watch Frank in Mexico and Kit in Siberia almost
> simultaneously.  Like Miles, we're prescient about the
> future.  We see WWII, Hiroshima, et al.  We see things
> exactly as they are, putting us in the same state of grace
> as the Chums.
> 
> 2.  The Chums could also be seen as a stand-in for America.
>  They start out at the turn of the century with a gosh-golly
> naive boys-fiction, can-do enthusiasm, aloof (protectionist)
> from the rest of the world.  By the end of WWI, the naivete
> is gone.  They've privatized (they no longer take orders
> from above), make their own (business)deals, expanded
> (parks, slums, urban blight - the end of the Small Town
> era).  The frontiers are closed, they're no longer a
> means of transit -- they're a Destination (Manifest
> Destiny).  Was it Robin who pointed out that their
> relationship to the girl-aetherists has a governmental/CIA/
> militarist aspect to it?  As real-politik 20th Century
> military-industrialist America, they put on their goggles to
> protect themselves from the thing that parts the sky (and we
> know what that is, from GR).  They fly towards grace
> (manifest destiny, global hegemony, seeing things exactly as
> they intend to shape them).
> 
> Laura
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: robinlandseadel at comcast.net
> >Sent: Aug 15, 2008 12:27 PM
> >To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >Subject: Re: AtDTDA: [38] p. 1085 They fly towards
> grace.
> >
> >This is gonna be off the top of my head. A great deal
> of my 
> >postings have featured other people's opinions and
> no matter how 
> >misguided my exegesis might be, it does come out of
> reading 
> >everything publicly available from the author. A
> linch-pin for 
> >Against the Day is "The Secret Integration",
> a story I read just 
> >once, one I resisted for decades in spite of "Slow
> Learner" being 
> >in my collection for decades. "The Secret
> Integration" concerns
> >itself with a small band of young adventuring buddies.
> It's concerned
> >with various degrees of the fictitious.
> >
> >The Chums of Chance come from the land of pure fiction,
> their
> >fictions are used by that overarching "Them"
> that kindly offers
> >up themselves as the bad guys in all of Pynchon's
> books. The
> >Dues ex mechina actions the Chums provide serve in part
> to
> >offer up the fiction that a "God" is
> overseeing the Chums
> >comings and goings. And in this fiction, he very might
> well be.
> >But again and again and again Against the Day concerns
> itself
> >with fictionsthe wonderful phrase "The Exact
> Degree of 
> >Fictitiousness" is very much the point of Against
> the Day,
> >with its constantly shifting tone, multiplicity of
> narratorial
> >and character voices. Even more to the point is the
> widespread 
> >display of "Imaginary" numbers and number
> relations, the 
> >Quartenions in particular. 
> >
> >Pynchon is tracking and mapping varieties of fiction
> emergent
> >in the era twixt Victoria and the so-called
> "Modern Age." Lew
> >Basnight's narrative moves from Sherlock Holmes to
> Ross
> >McDonald. The Traverse narratives are all over the map.
> The 
> >only narratives that maintain the same Exact Degree of 
> >Fictitiousness are the Chums, and why not? These
> "Swift" 
> >adventure stories doubtless point to a life-long love
> of serials
> >and other open-ended narratives. The Chums are as
> eternal
> >[and 'real'] as Bugs Bunny.
> >
> >"Flying towards grace", like "Imaginary
> Numbers" is an
> >unresolveable paradox, along with being a heresya
> >particular area of interest for the author, doubtless
> in 
> >part due to family history. Protestant grace is purest
> >unobtainium, one cannot reach for grace, works
> don't 
> >count in Calvinist grace, it just happens [but only if
> you 
> >have the right, the true, the only "way".]
> Buddhist grace
> >comes out of compassion, one can steer one's craft
> in 
> >that direction. But Pynchon's first ideas on grace
> must
> >have been shaped by his forebearers, like William 
> >Pynchon, founder of Springfield Mass. 
> >
> >So a fictional craft, run by a fictional crew has a 
> >hyper-fictional trajectory, one of those resolutions
> that
> >can only happen in fairy tales and suchlike.
> >
> >"But wait, there's more!" As someone
> pointed out, Pynchon
> >really does qualify as a Rocket Scientist and a lot of
> Pynchon's
> >writings concern themselves with the sciences of
> aviation 
> >and chemistry and physics. A lot of Gravity's
> Rainbow
> >concerned itself with good old fashioned calculus.
> Against
> >the Day is concerned with scientific thought occupying
> the 
> >fringes of reason, but now in regular, practical use in
> our 
> >quotidian lives. Quartenions, complex combos of complex
> 
> >numbers are all over the book. And the notion of the
> Multiverse
> >pops up regularly in AtD, particularly when the Chums
> are 
> >around. Yesterday, while rummaging around for material
> >on string theory and the the multiverses I found a
> reference
> >to Giordano Bruno as one of the first to conceive of an
> >"Infinite Universe." He was rewarded for his
> efforts  with
> >a particularly grisly public execution. I noted that
> Bruno
> >was a Dominican Monk. A buzzer went off in my head,
> >I turned to The Crying of Lot 49 for the relevant
> passage
> >and noted that the name of that unfortunate soul whose 
> >tongue was torn out for his heresies was named
> Dominico.
> >
> >The central heresy of the multiverse is that scarcity
> is a
> >fiction. Which brings us back to anarchy.
> >
> >Perhaps the most important "word" in
> Pynchon's fictions
> >is "&" [probably followed by
> ","] The Chums Fly Towards
> >Grace and they are blinded by the light, wait, no
> they've
> >got goggles on, but they are drawn towards light and
> certain
> >annihilation, no . . . .
> >
> >          . . . .As the sails of her destiny can be
> reefed 
> >          against too much light, so they may also be
> spread 
> >          to catch a favorable darkness. Her ascents
> are 
> >          effortless now. It is no longer a matter of
> gravityit 
> >          is an acceptance of sky. . . .
> >
> >All praise to Scheherazade, the Stupendica sails at
> dawn.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >