Pynchon & The Occult

[John Carvill]

> Laura:
>
> In GR, there are explicit scenes of occultism, i.e. the seance scenes, but there are also scenes that involve the overlap of the occult and the spiritual: thinking specifically of Pirate's channeling of other people's thoughts.  Then there's brigadier Pudding's tome [excuse me if I don't have it quite right], "Things That May Happen In European Politics," and the uncertainty of exactly where those V-2s will land.  What all of these aspects have in common, whether based on silliness, spirituality or the scientific method, is that they're desperate, failed attempts to predict what will happen in the future.  The one tried and true, always right predictor is Slothrop's libido -- no wonder THEY're after him.
>
> Seances, mental sensitivity, historical analysis, the laws of physics (based on probability, not certainty) -- it all reads like a catalog of our failure to fully understand where we're headed.  I don't take it, though, that Pynchon's laughing at Pirate -- aren't we meant to take his abilities at face value? - or downplaying the ability of rockets to inflict mass destruction.  By extrapolation, is he really laughing at the seances or even Pudding's attempts at prediction [even the latter's eating habits are connected to the war he's lived through]?
>

Indeed.

Thinking about it, I'd say that there's less  evidence, in the texts
(especially GR), that Pynchon seeks to ridicule occult beliefs, than
there is evidence that he does, if not 'believe' exactly in occult
phenomena, then he at least remains hesitantly open to teh idea that
there may be something 'real' to the supernatural.

Which is what got me wondering about it in the first place, since I
have a pretty string sense of scepticism about supernatural phenomena.
So if I thought Pynchon was just unambivalently satirising it, then
that wouldn't have given me pause.

I's sort of like this: I basically assume that all forms of occult,
religion, spiritualism, tarot, astrology, etc. are a load of mumbo
jumbo bullshit. BUt, sometimes it seems that Pynchon takes some of
those things seriously, which would at least lead me to consider
rethinking my position.......