rubrics (I like that word), wrecking crews and hugfests

[Carvill, John]

I think there's a big difference, or let's put it this way, I think there *may well be* a significant difference between how 'seriously' pynchon takes (a) fully whacked-out stuff like Lemuria or hollow Earth, and (b) standard-issue 1960s hippy semi-beliefs such as astrology, Tarot, etc. Again, I'm only pondering, just thinking in an incoherent way, of how some members that latter category crop up in GR, enough to suggest that pynchon thinks of them in some ways which are not entirely dismissive, and this may have its roots in the time and place in which he wrote GR. And then there's that story about him doing a tarot reading on Richard Farina, etc. I mean, it just seems as though pynchon may at least *consider* some of these supernatural ideas. I know that stands in opposition to our idea of pynchon as a rational-minded genius, but.... Ok, if we take the opposite view, and decide that, like us, pynchon doesn't take any of this hocus pocus stuff in any way seriously, then you'd have to admit that there sure is a *lot* of it in his books, and not just as background colour, or as the target of satire.