VL-IV pgs. 98/99: Postmodern Mysticism

[Simon Bryquer]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robin Landseadel"

>The one thing I’ve been tracking in Pynchon right from the get-go was  just 
>how many occult references there are in all of his writing,  usually placed 
>in the text just so’s you understand that the author  knows way more about 
>the subject than he’s going to let on right now— revelation can wait.


That above may true for the most part, but his use of the Kabbalah in GR, 
especially towards the end with the stages of the rocket set against the 
backdrop of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and etc. Pynchon reveals a 
superficial knowledge of the subject.  Reveals that Pynchon knows less than 
he actually let's on.

Though I admit from all my reading that usually Pynchon embraces all issues 
and subjects that he addresses in his fiction with great research and study, 
and yes usually writes about them with profound understanding. But in the 
case of Kabbalah it's as if he had become intrigued by this area of mystic 
knowledge, and like many poets and novelists before him attracted to the 
vast symbolism of Kabbalah used it as sign posts, both inward and outward, 
on the literary geographic maps of his writing, especially in GR and 
somewhat from a different angle in MD. So he did some brief research to 
satisfy the literary moment and bridge of his writing at the time -- anytime 
before 1973.  Since then it is quite possible that his knowledge of the 
subject has grown. He shown a much greater knowledge of the more popular 
mystic fads and fashions of the Sixties and onwards such as Zen, Tao, the 
various aspects of Hindu mystical paths, Christian mysticism gone awry, and 
all the other occult voices rather than of mystic players on the scene in 
the centuries since AD -- but Kabbalah was simply not in the sane realm as 
those and for good reason, and perhaps the true esoteric element of Kabbalah 
is what first attracted him.

Since then and especially in recent times the Kabbalah has been popularized, 
though still totally misunderstood, by the likes of Madonna and company. I'm 
pretty sure that it is not Pynchon's interest in the subject but he might be 
very interested from a point of view of satire and farce regarding the new 
'adherents' of Kabbalah.

BTW The only novel, and a great one at that,  I can think of that used 
Kabbalah with great if not profound understanding and knowledge was Malcolm 
Lowry in 'Under the Volcano'.  In fact a good and interesting study/ book on 
Lowry and Under the Volcano was written by Perle Epstein - The Private 
Labyrinth of Malcolm Lowry/ Under the Volcano and the Cabbala.

But my intention was not to address the subject of Postmodern Mysticism, a 
term which comes close to an oxymoron, but simply the quotes passage above, 
the sense of  which has actually been addressed in various ways quite a few 
times on list in the past, but never at any length.

SCB



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robin Landseadel" <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 11:52 AM
Subject: VL-IV pgs. 98/99: Postmodern Mysticism


> My sense of postmodernism kicked in around 1969. My math/reading  teacher 
> handed me a copy of Catch-22. I loved the book. My main  takeaway was the 
> emerging awareness of how profoundly degenerate war— any war— is, and a 
> nagging sense that corporations were at the corrupt  center of this decay, 
> that they were an innately entropic force. Up  until reading Catch-22 I 
> assumed that the Allies were the Good Guys in  World War II, that what 
> happened in the popular imagination at the  time as represented by movies, 
> paintings, magazine articles/ photographs, Bugs Bunny cartoons—what I 
> sucked up by age 14—was the  true and verifiable history of this legendary 
> global conflagration.   Reading Gravity’s Rainbow kicked it all up a notch 
> or two—you can see  I.G. Farben’s bloody claw on Prescott Bush’s shoulder 
> well before you  get into the Zone.
>
> In part postmodernism is looking at the Modern era through the  mentality 
> of the post-hippie scare, our nation’s collective freak-out  in the wake 
> of acid, duly noted by the post-Count Drugula Mucho Maas  on pages 313 and 
> 314 of Vineland. The us/them divide was pretty clear  and pretty wide at 
> the time, what with straights and freaks and little  in-between, 
> leastaways if you were even a little bit awake the time.  Note that Zoyd 
> and Mucho’s big takeaway from the LSD experience was  profoundly 
> spiritual. The two of them—as did many others did at the  same time—had 
> religious visions.
>
> Something Happened, as Joseph Heller noted, and that particular  Something 
> Happened at a particular time, the era of Vietnam and  Richard Nixon. The 
> current state of trust—our collective lack of trust— in institutions of 
> power and control is the sort of rejection of old  paradigms that I 
> perceive as the condition of Postmodernism.
>
> 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.
>
> The one thing I’ve been tracking in Pynchon right from the get-go was 
> just how many occult references there are in all of his writing,  usually 
> placed in the text just so’s you understand that the author  knows way 
> more about the subject than he’s going to let on right now— revelation can 
> wait. And one of the primary indicators of that  fondness for all things 
> occult can be found in Pynchon’s frequent use  of mirrors.
>
> The mirror scene at the Wayvone wedding is just that sort of scene.  There 
> have been many references to scrying all through Pynchon’s  writing, and 
> mirrors of various types are the screen of psychic  projection when 
> scrying.
>
> So Prairie is in the bathroom of the Wayvone estate:
>
> . . .up the hill a level or two, standing semidistraught in front of
> an ornately framed goldveined mirror, one of a whole row, in a
> powder room or ladies' lounge of stupefying tastelessness. . .
>
> Mirror, mirror on the wall:
>
> Prairie tried bringing her hair forward in long bangs, brushing the
> rest down in front of her shoulders, the surest way she knew, her
> eyes now burning so blue through the fringes and shadows, to
> creep herself out, no matter what time of the day or night, by
> imagining that what she saw was her mother's ghost. And that
> if she looked half a second too long, it would begin to blink while
> her own eyes stayed open, its lips would start to move, and then
> speak to her stuff she was sure she'd rather not hear ....
>
> Or maybe that you've ached all your life to hear but you're still
> scared of? the other face seemed to ask, lifting one eyebrow a
> fraction more than Prairie could feel in her own face. Suddenly,
> then, behind herself, she saw another reflection, one that might've
> been there for a while, one, strangely, that she almost knew. She
> turned quickly, and here was this live solid woman, standing a little
> too close, tall and fair, wearing a green party dress that might have
> gone with her hair but not with the way she carried herself, athletic,
> even warriorlike, watching the girl in a weirdly familiar, defensive
> way, as if they were about to continue a conversation. . .
>
> . . . Prairie’s act of scrying summons up her magical aide, her  warrior 
> and protector, the Genie with magical skills, the ability to  turn 
> invisible and turn back the hands of time. The Ninjette DL will  lead us 
> back to Fenesi Gates. This reminds me more than a little of  the Mirror of 
> Erised in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s  Stone”, where 
> Harry’s deepest wish is to be connected to his [now  deceased] parents.
>
> If Vineland—”my harmless little interrestial scherzo”—seems to end  with a 
> fairy tale, maybe it’s because Vineland is a fairy tale.
>
>