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

[Robin Landseadel]

On Dec 3, 2009, at 9:37 AM, Joseph Tracy wrote:
> On Dec 3, 2009, at 9:11 AM, Michael Bailey wrote:

>> I'm inclined to think maybe Mr Pynchon is
>> more of a cynic - in the sense of the article that Robin posted  
>> some time
>> back about Jesus-as-portrayed-in-many-of-the-gospels was.
>> (not this onehttp://www.medmalexperts.com/POCM/pagan_origins_cynic_philosophy.html
>> but something with a lot of small print)

> I guess I should read this article, but the core idea is from the  
> writings of John Crossan , with which I am quite familiar.

For what it's worth, I got the idea from Burton L, Mack's "The  
Christian Myth." As I recall, Mack cited Crossan repeatedly in "The  
Christian Myth."

> A cynic in this sense is a philosophical and particularly in Jesus  
> case  an  ethical and spiritual practice rather than the cynic in  
> the modern sense of a dismissive skeptic.

Very close to the Diggers/early Hippies.

> They rejected the pursuit of money and status and the definitions of  
> authorities,  pursued a liberated mental state and harmony with  
> nature.

Not to mention the Beats and the rise of Zen in the west.

> Jesus was clearly not a straight-up cynic because he included the  
> communal sharing of food and shelter as central to his way and  
> incorporated elements of Jewish ethics and mysticism.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there is a Digger anarchist element to  
the early Cynics. Or should that be vice versa? Pynchon's idee fixe of  
heretics and heresy may be based on the Cynics in addition to family  
history—"Meritorious Price" anyone? Remember as well that the victors  
write the histories. Mack's books are very interesting in giving us  
some timelines to work with, along with backstories and background.  
Mack suggests that "Paulists" [or maybe Paul] co-joined Cynic myth  
with Jewish myth, creating the Frankenstein's monster of Christianity  
in the process.

I posted this back in March of 2007, many links have died since:

	There's a word that needs to be close by when reading
	Pynchon: Satire. That's the true foundation of his massive
	diatribes, so remember that his style of satire is extraordinarily
	inclusive, and that satire is, after all, a development out of the
	old Greek cynic philosophy/lifestyle . . .

Much More:

http://tinyurl.com/2cpuvy

> I see, in ATD especially, a very strong case for something like a  
> meld of Jesus's Christianity/Buddhism/Cynicism/lefty organizing as  
> what genuine resistance to empire would look like.

I'm seeing the roots of modern Boho culture.

> The problem is that it can't seem to stop wars. But is anything else  
> on the table?

Makes for one hell of a Travelogue.

>> The knowledge of a great number of spiritual variants
>> the willingness to even try some of them (Robin calls this
>> an interest in heresy, but the only time we see the H word much
>> is in GR referring specifically to William Slothrop's writings)

Pynchon has a habit of using certain words only a few times. But all  
of Pynchon's books are full of heresies and heretics.

>> and the unwillingness to adopt a particular system and stop thinking
>> square with this to some extent...

> I think Hippies and lefties and various melds of lefty resistance  
> and heretical religious ideas appear constantly and all are heresies  
> against the dominant paradigms. Pynchon satirizes them but only in  
> the sense of mourning their diversion from the liberation they offer.

All those distractions, all those "Mindless Pleasures."