Slothrop's deconstruction, beginning on p.231 (Bantam)

[David Morris]

Sorry for the late response on this.  Somehow I'd missed reading this
thread until now.

I think these posts of mine sent last month are directly related to
your thoughts about Slothrop's disapearance (and I think your relating
it to the breaking down of the soldier's ego are related, but not
equal):

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0902&msg=132974&sort=thread

Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:26:37 -0600
Subject: Re: Pynchon/Roth/Bellow/Updike on the 1960s
From: David Morris <fqmorris@[omitted]>
To: Mark Kohut <markekohut@[omitted]>
Cc: Carvill John <johncarvill@[omitted]>, pynchon-l@[omitted]

I'm not sure what you mean by "Pynchon embedding his vision of lost
humanity."  I've never thought of Slothrops fading away in GR as
negative per se.  Slothop becomes Mr. Natural, naked and bearded, and
he becomes the cross, a mandala.   In essence Slothrop achieves
nirvana, transcendence, and he literally becomes spread across the
Universe.  It's a happy ending for him.  The sadness is that those
around him lose sight of him, and forget him.

At least that's one take on it.

David Morris

And:

Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:59:53 -0600
Subject: Re: Pynchon/Roth/Bellow/Updike on the 1960s
From: David Morris <fqmorris@[omitted]>
To: Mark Kohut <markekohut@[omitted]>
Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l@[omitted]>

Yes, sort of.  Remember the laboratory rats that do an extended Busby
Berkeley dance about leaving their cages?  One of their messages is
"If only man could forget that he is going to die!"  It's sort of a
"living in the now" kind of thing, sort of Buddhist consciousness.
Not that I know what that really means.

But GR is a lot about N.O. Brown's take on Freud, death-wish, reality
principle (denied gratification), etc.  And Slothrop's transcendence
is an escape from typical human consciousness.

David Morris

On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 9:47 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut@[omitted]> wrote:
>
> We must lose ourselves to find ourselves, as the religious phrase goes?
>
>



On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 4:35 PM, D. Patty <revd.76 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> (Full disclosure:  I'm working from the bias of my own read on things, that the dissolution of Slothrop's personality is in fact the only way for him to completely escape Their grasp, akin to the idea of a Completely Ascended master of meditative discipline disappearing; cf. Crowley's conception of Samadhi as being freedom from ego.  Not that Little Tyrone was ever that big into philosophy--  he probably figures if you're intangible there's nothing to hold on to.)
>