VL-IV pgs. 98/99: Postmodern Mysticism

[kelber at mindspring.com]

-----Original Message-----
>From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>

>This loss of faith goes right to the heart of established religion,  
>inevitably leading to heretical impulses. I would gather that Thomas  
>Ruggles Pynchon has an intense personal interest in heresy, being that  
>his most famous ancestor is famous primarily as a heretic.  For  
>whatever reason, people throughout the world have always had these  
>“deep nudges from forces unseen”, and from Oedipa Mass and the  
>Nefastis Box that sends Oed reeling into the night to the comely  
>Ecstatica Madam Natalia Eskimoff and the rest of the T.W.I.T.s that  
>populate “Against the Day”, Pynchon pays particular attention to the  
>modes of communication with the invisible empire that these various  
>and sundry interested parties deploy in their magickal operations.
>

If Pynchon's a heretic in terms of established religion, isn't he also somewhat of a heretic in terms of "magickal operations"?  In ATD, at any rate, he takes the conductors of seances with a grain of salt.  I'd say he's willing to embrace the Spirit World, but not spiritualists, who, like any priests, are part of a hierarchical Elect.

Laura