TMoP, Chap 15

[braam van bruggen]

The chinese word "li" originally meant the natural patterns of tree-bark, 
beachsand, rocks etc.
Later this word also came to mean "law", the laws of the patterns of nature 
extended into the realm
of human relations, tribal and customary law being seen as evolving from 
natural patterns...

Braam

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Kohut" <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 5:09 AM
Subject: TMoP, Chap 15


> P. 185 "when I look up into the heavens I see only the stars that watched 
> over us when we were born and will watch over us when we die"....
>
> allusion to Immanuel Kant's famous line about natural law?...(natural law 
> which is a backdrop to most Christian theology): "What we know is the 
> starry skies above and the moral order within.".....?
>
> D. (and Dostoevesky) would say this over any materialist understanding of 
> the way of the world.
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