AtD (37) pp.1040 ff. Thoughts on Lew Basnight, detective.

[Ian Livingston]

I have to do a couple of things here I've got used to disliking.   First I
have to backpedal a little on the discussion of flat and round characters.
It occurred to me that it just may be  that my identification of the
relative roundness of Pynchon's characters is largely projection.  I see
them as quite round because I identify them as aspects of the psyche,
therefore they are familiar to me as neighbors, friends, lovers and
enemies.  I know them all intimately and therefore see them as round even
though that may not hold up under textual scrutiny.  That said, I have to
repeat myself concerning the significance of alchemy in TRP's entire opus.
Now half through Jung's *Mysterium Coniunctionis*, and having burned through
*Alchemy and Psychology*, as well as a pair of works on alchemy by Mircea
Eliade it is clear to me that our boy not only read but internalized much of
Jung's work on alchemy.  I see alchemy anchored in *V.* and running as a
strong current throughout Pynchon's works.

That current is a swollen delta merging into the sea in AtD.  It is
unmistakable and inescapable.  In fact I think the book is nearly impossible
to understand without a working apprehension of Jung's work.  With a little
knowledge it goes from impossible to difficult.  I can't guess what a rich
understanding of alchemy might bear on the work.  This reflects on the
character of Lew Basnight in just what you suggest here, Mark, though
perhaps slightly mediated.  If AtD is, as I suspect, a big, fat
consciousness, an observing perspective engaged in the mystery of being,
then it must have a dominant monad, a central, unifying self identity, aka,
ego.  I think Web Traverse may be that ego and Lew Basnight is his
minister.  Consider the nature of Basnight's employment: a spiritual
detective in search of the mysterious bomber.  What does the self do in
reality?  It blasts reality into digestible pieces and lovingly devours
those pieces.  Sorry I can't recollect who it was among you suggested that
the Traverse siblings were elements of Web.  I do heartily agree.  In the
section "The Personification of the Opposites" in the *Mysterium*, Jung
suggests that draco might be identified with Osiris who is cut up and strewn
around the world for Isis to gather together, reconstruct and revivify.  He
is the god of the ebb and flow of the Nile, thus he is associated with the
sea, which is chaos.  Does anyone else sense an association between chaos
and anarchy, or am I alone in this?  One is a condition, the other a
conviction, but both reflect similar virtues.  The role of chaos is
fundamental in alchemy.  It is the dark night in which salvation gestates.
The sea is the primordial chaos.  Think of Kit's crossing.  Then, what does
Lew eventually accomplish?  I'll remain silent on that until the time is
right, but for those who have read ahead, Lew's significance seems great.

I know this is an incomplete offering, but I have to go work for a while.
Someone is waiting on me.  Perhaps I can carve out some more time later.

On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 8:00 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Against the Day, p. 1040ff
>
>  Why is he in AtD? He threads through from the beginning in Chicago. I
> suggest he is the major anchor of reality/search for truth in AtD.
>
> As in any novel, we have to get the author's perspective on the various
> characters, their actions and utterances. In a satiric work, as is (most of)
> TRPs, and in AtD, where so much is "mediated' reality, often not Reality,
> the author needs to ground us through his satiric vision (I offer much o the
> maths stuff as the best example of difficulty in 'getting' how TRP means
> much of it).
>
> The Detective: Overview
>
> The detective in fiction (largely) started in the 19th Century a bit before
> the time when ATD begins. E. A. Poe is often credited with its origins, as
> well as a Frenchman I'm too lazy to look up. Sherlock Holmes is, maybe, the
> first touchstone of achievement in detective fiction. He figures everything
> out amidst all the confusions of life.
>
> When the writer is TRP exploring, among so much else, the meaning of
> History, 20th Century America, modernity, is he[TRP} like the detective
> figure? From a recent Guardian blog---which is similarly expressed
> elsewhere:
>
> "The detective is a metaphor for the writer: the isolated figure trying to
> comprehend a disordered world, constructing a narrative that makes sense,
> and trying to persuade others to believe in his or her account."
>
> We know TRP has used the detective-like form before---V. and especially C
> of Lot 49, usually to frustrate any solving of "the mystery"...
>
> Is it the same in AtD, or in this work are we given some/more answers?
>
>
>
>
>
>
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