TMOP Chapter 9 - Nechaev

[Mark Kohut]

D. sees thru his desires and his Christianity darkly. Feels desire. Coetzee stresses erotic polymorphousness of the group?. Sees Nechaev's [atheistic] Party as a Christianity substitute--N., the righteous Christ. Rejects 'vengeance'--eye for an eye---as not in his [Christian] Bible. 
Says that to be founded on assasination is to be self-condemned in meaning/goal. 

Coetzee's anti-violence beliefs, as Bekah educated us, in full evidence here? 




--- On Wed, 10/22/08, Bekah <Bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> From: Bekah <Bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: TMOP Chapter 9 - Nechaev
> To: "David Morris" <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> Cc: "P-list" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2008, 9:30 PM
> Yes,   wrestling came to my mind, too.   As in Jacob
> wrestling with  
> the angel.  Jacob defrauded his brother,  Esau and felt
> profoundly  
> guilty and afraid.   An angel came to him (Esau perhaps)
> and Jacob  
> grabbed him,  would not let him go, even when Jacob was
> badly  
> wounded,  until he was given a blessing.   Jacob recounted
> that he  
> had seen the face of God.
> 
> 0nly in this case, D. is fighting Pavel - He won't let
> Pavel go until  
> Pavel (or someone/something) blesses him.   (I won't go
> on due to  
> spoilers and besides I don't think this is a very good
> analogy but I  
> just kept thinking of a wounded D. wrestling with an angel
> until he  
> got a blessing.
> 
> Bekah
> 
> 
> On Oct 22, 2008, at 6:22 AM, David Morris wrote:
> 
> > TMOP Chapter 9 - Nechaev
> >
> > In the apartment before the tall woman's identity
> is discovered, D.
> > reasons with the Finn and warns her that her soul is
> in peril should
> > she follow through with murdering someone from the
> Vengeance List.
> > Then, after these words, "I have a duty toward my
> son that I cannot
> > evade," a "heavy silence" befalls him. 
> His part in this dialogue
> > halts, and then:
> >
> > "From far away comes a scream that must be his
> own.   _There will be a
> > gnashing of teeth_ - the words flash before him, then
> there is an end.
> >
> > This Biblical quote is from Matthew 13: 49-50 in which
> after speaking
> > hidden wisdom in parables to the multitudes, the
> parable of the wheat
> > and the tares,  later in private explains their
> meaning.  It is
> > meaningful that D. refers to the explanation of a
> parable because D is
> > constantly inventing and wrestling with metaphor, and
> a parable is
> > described as an extended metaphor.
> >
> > "So shall it be at the end of the world: the
> angels shall come forth,
> > and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall
> cast them into the
> > furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing
> of teeth."
> >
> > It unclear to whom this scream is aimed, the
> People's Vengeance or D
> > himself in failing the "duty he cannot
> evade."
> >
> > These voices D hears, which seem to be coming from
> within himself, are
> > a part of a pattern in which all of D's words seem
> to "come" to him
> > without his volition.  Somewhere in the book he says
> he "trusts" this
> > flow of words emanating from him, and lets them flow
> without resisting
> > any of them.  He sees them as a source of truth.  In
> this regard D is
> > a kind of shaman/mystic who receives revelations via
> possession.
> >
> > More later…
> >