P Mysticism: through mirror, all cards on the table

[Joseph Tracy]

One person's idea of "shallow" concerning such topics may well be  
another's fathomless depth, and at a certain level mathematical  
disagreements begin to acquire philosophical aspects that can't be  
resolved mathematically.   Math is a language that can mislead as  
well as inform. Some doubt completely the importance  or connection  
to reality of Tarot Cards or Kabbalistic mysticism, but few will  
close all possibility of powerful trans-rational avenues of  
discourse. In P's postmodern mysticism all the old cards are on the  
table( in the sense of running around shouting "off with their  
heads") plus some new ones in the form of unlikely mashups, new  
technologies, Thanatoids etc.. I agree with David Morris on this that  
these are metaphoric devices.
   I see P using them to show that any discipline, any mystery, can  
be a route to a kind of frightening, dangerous funhouse freedom   
where possible worlds and possible states of consciousness, mastery,  
power and loss all multiply, diverge and remerge: and that these same  
tools   that expand the world  can narrow the world to the saved and  
the lost, or to the eaten and the eaters, entropy appetite and  
digestion.  In my experience P does not present these options just as  
individual choices  but as very large dynamic forces which present in  
a variety of ways:  spiritual paths, Empires and colonial  
enterprises, forces of attraction, paths of rebellion/revolution,  
scientific inquiry, revenge, etc.

I don't know enough Kabbalah to know to any certainty that P's  
knowledge is profound but I know the Bible enough to know that he  
uses BIblical and Christian history concepts with great skill and  
precision and depth of understanding - that a reader can follow a  
reference that seems passing and it will layer and illuminate the  
subject at hand with the same useful connections with which skeleton  
connects to muscle.

Pynchon allows mysticism to function as real,  as doors to alternate  
realities, as a kind of alternate scientific discipline. He  also  
shows the penetration of the mystical into all realms of knowledge  
and action. These things  can be interpreted by the reader as  
delusional imagination, as one more and perhaps deeper layer of  
paranoia, or as veiled but real intersecting  planes of existence.   
Either way these systems of knowledge and practice offer tremendous  
insight to the human condition and the precepts by which we are able  
to know or think about anything.   I would think the P's kabbalistic  
understanding would be best  tested by how he uses these references  
to connect to and illuminate the major themes and narratives.

I







On Jan 22, 2009, at 11:03 AM, David Morris wrote:

> I think he uses these topics as metaphorical frameworks, embodying
> some abstract non-literal concepts wholly separate from math,
> mysticism, etc.  So a cusory understanding is all he needs to employ
> them for his own purposes, sort of like his development most of his
> characters.
>
> On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 9:05 AM, Ray Easton <kraimie at kraimie.net>  
> wrote:
>>
>> 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