Krishna, who will have the final word?

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Joseph, that's a great summing up of what makes Pynchon so fascinating.  He has no smug answers to the questions he raises,
but gives us lots of intriguing hints at where to look.

LK

-----Original Message-----
>From: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>

>I don't see much real argument or disagreement here. P allows  
>multiple interpretations and IMO  leaves doors open rather than  
>closing them. If part of what is called the post-modern perspective  
>is to approach all narratives skeptically, paying attention to  
>cultural, linguistic and personal bias and limits, TRP goes one  
>better by allowing both skepticism and credible alternative ways of  
>seeing history, religious experience, natural events, human inner  
>life and action. A kind of highly thoughtful multivalent agnosticism  
>with  a few definite moral consistencies. An agnosticism that allows  
>for supernatural and extra terrestrial possibilities.
>
>He does favor the peaceable over the violent, a movement toward  
>sympathy/empathy/respect rather than toward orthodoxy.  He is  
>skeptical about progress/engineering/ scientific triumphalism all  
>forms of imperialism/colonialism. He pretty much admits he is a  
>Luddite and explains why.. He is sympathetic to conconforming  
>communities  and individuals and smart ass outlaw cultures,to lovers,  
>to seekers of truth, to local mysteries, alternative histories. Where  
>moral consistencies come from is a tough question. I think TRP gives  
>readers a choice rather than a why. But he points out the flaws and  
>difficulties of any choice revealing the undermining power of desire,  
>entropy, large historic forces.
>
>I think the appeal for a lot of readers is this wild rollicking  
>complexity and lack of simple resolution that reflects our real  
>experience but doesn't dry it out into dust in the wind; research  
>without academic pomp, alternate interpretations without orthodox  
>purity, classicism with Thanatoids and factories filling with mayo .  
>A world infinitely detailed and digressive and amusing. High druggy   
>buddhist comedy ya just don't come across every day.
>