rubrics (I like that word), wrecking crews and hugfests

[malignd at aol.com]

<<What about Graham Greene? Was he only in it for the pageantry too?>>

I think not, unfortunately for him.  But it has nothing to do with the 
point I'm making.


-----Original Message-----
From: Carvill, John <john.carvill at sap.com>
To: malignd at aol.com <malignd at aol.com>; pynchon-l at waste.org 
<pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thu, Nov 26, 2009 5:25 am
Subject: RE: rubrics (I like that word), wrecking crews and hugfests


Hey, malign - some of your email is missing, I think. I mean, where's 
the gratuitously insulting segment?<<<<I've often wondered how 
seriously Pynchon takes that sort of thing. Tarot in GR, ferrinstance. 
But writing occult-informed/inflected works, and satirising occultism, 
well, it's that sort of duality that makes Pynchon Pynchon.>>I don't 
know if this is a rhetorical question or not but isn't it a given that 
Pynchon doesn't--couldn't possibly--take this stuff seriously?  That 
Pynchon's belief system includes card reading and Madame Blavatsky and 
the Rosecrusians, et al?  Does anyone--leave alone Pynchon--in his 
right mind, with a proper education, with no emotional issues, believe 
in this stuff?>>Well, what about that biographical article re. Pynchon 
living in Manhattan Beach, the one on Modern World, where he's referred 
to as Ervin...oh hell...let me look it up... 
here:http://www.themodernword.com/Pynchon/pynchon_biography.htmlHere's 
the section I mean:"Once, on a rainy day at Ervin's pad, we sat 
crossed-legged and did a Tarot reading for our deceased friend Raven. 
This was during the time when Ervin was still working diligently on a 
massive novel in which he said the plot was like that of an octopus, 
the tentacles going off in every direction. Ervin might have learned 
how to do a Tarot reading from his live-in girl friend, Veronica, or it 
might have had to do with a working knowledge of the cards that he 
would insert in his massive new work in progress. Veronica was a very 
attractive: petite with long black hair and sizzling dark eyes, playing 
with the occult magic that permeated Southern California in the 70's. 
She was probably in her early 20's because I met Ervin when I was 
approximately that age. He was 33 years old when he was finishing off 
his third massive novel, after all. He spread the cards out in front of 
us and then said he wanted to see where Raven was at that time. He 
slipped a card from the deck and placed it face up on another card face 
down. The card from the deck was The Hanged Man. Ervin turned to me and 
said Raven must be hung-up on the other side. As we sat, the rain 
pelted the windows, but we were nice and cozy. Ervin's eyes had a 
quizzical look to them when he said this about Raven. I looked down and 
pondered the odd picture on the card: a man dangling upside down with 
his feet tied as he hung from some wooden scaffold. Down below Ervin's 
perch, the Pacific lashed in its fury at the shoreline."Yes, there are 
a couple of provisos here - we can't be sure this 'biographical sketch' 
is genuine. But it seems so. And even if we accept it as genuine, we 
still can't say it 'proves' anything. But it seems to suggest an 
attitude towards Tarot, on Pynchon's part, which is not relentlessly 
skeptical.<< Hemingway said he liked Catholicism because the pageantry 
it reminded him of bullfights. >>What about Graham Greene? Was he only 
in it for the pageantry too?CheersJ