circuit boards, sand frigates, elegies, actors, lawyers and bone hunters

[Robin Landseadel]

On May 12, 2009, at 9:34 AM, Joseph Tracy wrote:

> I actually am having a harder time with the re read of CoL 49,  
> though the funny parts do seem funnier this time. I am also trying  
> to understand, relate to, get some satisfying reading of the Duino  
> Elegies, which I don't understand, I  feel like they relate to CoL  
> 49  in important ways that I also don't understand.

One constant subtext in Pynchon is Gnosis—the concept of direct  
transmission of knowledge from the Godhead. Oedipa is waiting for that  
Gnosis, and Gnosis is also related to Pentecost, another big theme in  
CoL49.

Rilke's first line of the Elegies—roughly "Who, if I cried out, would  
hear me among the Angelic Orders?"—was received in a gnostic fashion,  
as words in Rilke's head but not from himself. He heard those words in  
Trieste.

Often Pynchon's connections are mainly on the plane of wordplay. Then  
again, this is the dude that cooked up high magic in low puns and  
often plays with similar sounding words of different but related  
meanings. So it's a quick move from Trieste to Tristero, and TRP makes  
much of that in AtD. Pynchon makes much more of Rilke in GR. There are  
plenty of religious allusions in CoL49, the beast is thick with them.