VL-IV pgs. 98/99: Postmodern Mysticism

[bandwraith at aol.com]

Robin:

"If you can come up with a better descriptive term
for the presence of these themes in Pynchon's writing
-the exhaustive and repeated presence of magical
realism, ghosts, seances, visionary experiences,
gnostic experiences and their ilk in Pynchon's writing,
then please show me the term."


It would have to include science/technology, which
seems to be an equivalent axis of belief which he uses
to balance the mysticism, and with equal ambivilance.

Something a little more than Mondaugen's "electro-
mysticism" and a little less than Pointsman's
drooling zeal for cause and effect, maybe: techno-
mysticism?

It wasn't science and technology that killed the beast
of postmodernism, though, more like a realization that
beauty itself, while often deadly, sometimes feels
good enough to die for- and if you can't die for
something, what's the sense of living, anyway?

The appropriate term remains elusive. I'll keep thinking
on it. Until then, enjoy The Staple Sisters, and God
Bless America on this historic day!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKj72gJrROY