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

[Robin Landseadel]

On Dec 3, 2009, at 12:01 PM, Robin Landseadel wrote:

> 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 . . .

This link, fortunately, survived:

	Within political philosophy, the Cynics can be seen as
	originators of anarchism. Since humans are both rational and
	able to be guided by nature, it follows that humans have little
	need for legal codes or political affiliations. Indeed, political
	associations at times require one to be vicious for the sake of
	the polis. Diogenes’ cosmopolitanism represents, then, a first
	suggestion that human affiliation ought to be to humanity rather
	than a single state.

	The impact of Cynicism is also felt in Christian, Medieval, and
	Renaissance thought, though not without a good deal of
	ambivalence. Christian authors, for example, praise the Cynics
	for their self-discipline, independence, and mendicant lifestyle,
	but rebuke the bawdy aspects of Cynic shamelessness.

	Finally, the mark of the Cynic is found throughout the texts of
	literature and philosophy. Menippean Satire has a clear debt,
	and Diogenes of Sinope in particular appears as a character in
	literary and philosophical contexts; Dante, for example, situates
	Diogenes with other virtuous but pagan philosophers in the first
	level of hell and Nietzsche is especially fond of both Diogenes
	and the Cynic attitude. One striking example occurs in section
	125 of The Gay Science. Here Nietzsche alludes to the
	anecdote wherein Diogenes searches for a human being with a
	lit lamp in daylight (D.L. 6.41). In his own rendition, Nietzsche
	tells the story of the madman who entered the marketplace with
	a lit lamp on a bright morning seeking God. It is this same
	madman who pronounces that God is dead.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/cynics/