Determinism & Apocalypse: the Grim Irony of Our Fortunate Fall

[Robin Landseadel]

I've been poking at TGP and all I have to say is: simplify, simplify.

Eddins plows a rather tight furrow with Gnosticism, one far more  
limited than Pynchon's uncammed vision of "Non-scheduled theologies."  
The term "Gnostic", in addition to referring to an early Christian  
sect with decidedly antinomian tendencies is also a general term for  
directly received visions. In either case, Gnosticism is a P.O.V. that  
led [inevitably] to a declaration by the powers that be that the sect  
[and concept] was heretical. Kinda like what happened to LSD circa  
1966 and closely related to Doc's musings on the Arpanet, where the  
Gumsandal is wondering why the "net" isn't already illegal.

As far as I can tell it is heresy itself that is Pynchon's main  
course. TRP all but directly mentions famously heretical ancestor  
William Pynchon by name in GR. Folks having visions—that direct,  
unfiltered word of God—are regularly touted in all of Pynchon's  
writings. Inherent Vice is no exception. Of course the paranoid  
aspects of the demiurge are explored in Pynchon's writing, that larger  
sense that the God that declares "I am"—the official state-sponsored  
God— is no God at all.

This article by J.P. Arendzen points out just how confused and  
confusing the history & definition of Gnosticism—or at least our  
current revisionist history of Gnosticism—really is:

	The doctrine of salvation by knowledge. This definition, based
	on the etymology of the word (gnosis "knowledge", gnostikos,
	"good at knowing"), is correct as far as it goes, but it gives only
	one, though perhaps the predominant, characteristic of Gnostic
	systems of thought. Whereas Judaism and Christianity, and
	almost all pagan systems, hold that the soul attains its proper
	end by obedience of mind and will to the Supreme Power, i.e.
	by faith and works, it is markedly peculiar to Gnosticism that it
	places the salvation of the soul merely in the possession of a
	quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and
	of magic formulae indicative of that knowledge. Gnostics were
	"people who knew", and their knowledge at once constituted
	them a superior class of beings, whose present and future
	status was essentially different from that of those who, for
	whatever reason, did not know. A more complete and historical
	definition of Gnosticism would be:

		A collective name for a large number of greatly-varying and
		pantheistic-idealistic sects, which flourished from some
		time before the Christian Era down to the fifth century, and
		which, while borrowing the phraseology and some of the
		tenets of the chief religions of the day, and especially of
		Christianity, held matter to be a deterioration of spirit, and
		the whole universe a depravation of the Deity, and taught
		the ultimate end of all being to be the overcoming of the
		grossness of matter and the return to the Parent-Spirit,
		which return they held to be inaugurated and facilitated by
		the appearance of some God-sent Savior.

	However unsatisfactory this definition may be, the obscurity,
	multiplicity, and wild confusion of Gnostic systems will hardly
	allow of wild confusion of Gnostic systems will hardly allow of
	another. Many scholars, moreover, would hold that every
	attempt to give a generic description of Gnostic sects is labor
	lost.

http://www.ourladyswarriors.org/dissent/defgnost.htm

One can easily scrye how Puritanism/Calvinism is related to Gnosticism— 
that whole "up with spirit, down with flesh" thing, for example—but  
that relation is not as close as the relation between Pynchon's  
concept of Gnosis and a couple of tabs of Orange Sunshine. More to the  
point, Pynchon works with the notion that there is an "out there"  
there and many of Pynchon's characters have the talent to access some  
of these unauthorized channels to other worlds. Those other worlds and  
modes of access to other worlds are not consistent with the early  
"Christian" sect of Gnosticism. The American Heritage Dictionary  
definition of Gnosticism points directly to early "Christian" sects  
[J.P. Arendzen points out how much more Gnosticism owes to earlier  
Oriental traditions] but the terms Gnosis & Gnostic are more  
generically concerned with the direct reception of spiritual visions.

In any case, Pynchon is the Magister Ludi of word-games and the way  
his memes reproduce and mutate expand potential meaning. Exegetes like  
Dwight Eddins and his disciples are intent on narrowing Pynchon's  
potential meanings into something more consistent with their world  
view. Such is the predictable fate of the heretic when later declared  
to be a saint.

Having said all that, I am going to take a closer look at Eddins' "The  
Gnostic Pynchon." It's no Beach Read, but it is clearly the work of  
someone who knows and cares about Pynchon's writing, even his mode of  
communication is verbose well past the point of overload.

On Oct 2, 2009, at 7:31 AM, Joseph Tracy wrote:

> I can  see Pynchon's gnosticism or how that tradition could be  
> applied to him( it's not a tight fit as for P Dick or Elrond  
> Hubbard), but I don't see much correlation of gnosticism to  
> Calvinism. Calvinism is identity based and Gnosticism is knowledge  
> based. Calvinism is aggressively proselytizing, Gnosticism more like  
> a secret club of those who know. Clavinism sees history and  
> authorities as ordained by God, Gnosticim sees history and  
> authorities as under the control of the demiGod. What you are left  
> with is the spirit/flesh division. The philosophy there is similar,  
> but plays out differently with Calvinists seeking to repress and  
> control the flesh through judgemental institutions and harsh law and  
> gnostics making it a matter of personal discipline and spiritual  
> advancement.