aw., RE: aw.-o, RE: Von Braun in the News

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

"And on this farm, he had some pigs. . . ."

Monte Davis sez:

          Kai sez:
  
           > Did anybody else realize that Pynchon --- on his 
          myspace profile --- names von Braun, along
           > with Scott Fitzgerald, as his "hero"?  
 
          Don't be silly. Setting aside the more-than dubious 
          provenance of that MySpace page... Wernher von 
          Braun was a Bad Man, pure and simple, who (1) 
          was associated with the only slave-labor enterprise 
          in the Third Reich, (2) sneaked into the US under 
          false pretenses and spent billions on ICBMs nobody 
          here wanted, and (3) could receive a complex or 
          multivalent judgment only from physicists,  
          historians, and other moral dullards.
 
          Any other view might be hazardous to our 
          comfortable little pieties, and since Pynchon is in 
          the business of making us comfortable, he couldn't 
          possibly think that way.  .
 
 
Consider this a jam, and send your complaints to Eris or your pineal gland.
Gravity's Rainbow kicks off with a quote from Dr. von Braun, concerning 
the Transmigration of Souls, a topic that consumes Our Beloved Author 
like no other. This exploration of the "Spirit World" culminates in Against 
the Day, but the sense of the presence of a descending Angel of Death
accounts for many moments of dread in Gravity's Rainbow. From Vineland 
on, OBA seems to be on better terms with these spirits, but the disquiet he 
felt in the sudden absence of Richard Farina can also be witnessed in the 
broader implications found in the combination of the dedication for the 
novel and the seemingly paradoxical [for some, anti-scientific] quotation of 
Mad Scientist von Braun. Of course, the White Visitation, P.I.S.C.E.S., 
quotes from the Duino Elegies all add upto ritual conjuration of Spirits 
derived from practices of the Golden Dawn and other, older Gnostic routes 
of communication with the spirit world. The notion of "death from above", 
of a descending Angel of Death pervades Gravity's Rainbow and is offered
in an interesting variation in Vineland. Much Enochian/Gnostic material gets 
repurposed in Against the Day, where Pynchon's comedic sense overtakes 
his earlier grim vision of decline. At the same time, the scale of devastation 
is greater---Tunguska represents the ultimate "Anarchist Miracle." As Mr. 
Davis points out, we are very purposely made to feel uncomfortable. "God"
may not be on our side.

Our continuing exploration of the author's family history has led me to
observe a constant in TRPV's concerns: heresy is at the very foundation 
of the Pynchon legacy, William Pynchon is the historical stand-out. The
heresy of inclusion also admits all other heresies, like "the set of all sets".
That "Now everybody---" that ends GR really means "everybody."

Gnosticism naturally comes to mind. The forces that Uber-Creep von 
Braun assembles suggest the demiurge's awful agenda, the work of an 
anti-god. Von Braun is a very compelling preacher for this cult,
as inspired a "Mad Scientist" as you're ever going to find.