VL-IV pgs. 98/99: Postmodern Mysticism

[rich]

that's pretty interesting. John Banville once said his ideal reader
was someone who knew a little about a topic but not too much--maybe
Joyce was really good at knowing where that line b/w informed and
pretentious met. as you said, it's someone else's battle.

What also intrigues about the Kabbalah is artistic/spiritual strivings
which essentially divorce it from its Jewish roots. i.e., can one
really understand enough of it to "use" without a strong immersion in
Jewish cultural traditions (however you may like to define that)

Before the war, Elie Wiesel said he was among three students studying
it in Poland--the two other students Wiesel added eventually went mad
in the process.

I guess what I'm getting at is without that immersion can anyone even
know where that line seperating informed and pretentious lay.

as a friend once said--"those who know are not saying"

rich

On 1/22/09, Simon Bryquer <sbryquer at nyc.rr.com> wrote:
> > Of course Joyce fan will fight like hell and never admit that Joyce could
> ever be intellectually pretension. But its their fight not mine.
>
> Simon
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ray Easton" <kraimie at kraimie.net>
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 10:05 AM
> Subject: Re: VL-IV pgs. 98/99: Postmodern Mysticism
>
>
>> Robin Landseadel wrote:
>>>
>>> My point is not hinging on how superficial or deep Pynchon's knowledge of
>>>
>>> these matters is. His knowledge may well be superficial, as you [both]
>>> are saying. My knowledge is superficial, as you both have pointed out.
>>> Pynchon may well be skimming the surface of these topics, but that does
>>> not eliminate the presence of these topics in his books.
>>
>> I've no idea, of course, what Pynchon's actual knowledge of any subject
>> matter is.  But his knowledge of mathematics as displayed in AtD is
>> certainly superficial.  In the case of the math, I've concluded that the
>> details of the mathematics present in AtD have in fact no meaning at
>> all -- that all that actually matters is that the characters are wrapped
>> up in this activity.
>> I lack the knowledge to have a good basis to draw the same conclusion
>> about his use of the occult, but I wonder if this case is not similar.
>>
>> Ray
>
>