IVIV (11) 180-1

[Joseph Tracy]

On Oct 28, 2009, at 5:35 AM, Clément Lévy wrote:

>
> Le 28 oct. 09 à 06:22, Joseph Tracy a écrit :
>
>> Titus is also the name of the Greek  gentile evangelist who  
>> traveled with Paul (Galatians 2 1-3)
>> 	1Then fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem with  
>> Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.
>>     	 2And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them  
>> that Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to  
>> those who were 	of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or  
>> had run, in vain.
>>    	 3But neither was Titus, who was with me, being a Greek,  
>> compelled to be circumcised;
>>
>> Titus was later  appointed to be a kind of Bishop in Crete, where  
>> Paul wrote him a letter.
>> So his name is loaded with Christian significance.
>>
>> The resurrection of the body was Paul's big thing and became the  
>> central doctrine by which "heresy"  was removed and the New  
>> Testament  canon chosen by the early church. ( If there be no  
>> resurrection , then your faith is in vain.)
> great!
>>
>> So we go from  Japonica's journey through the the wold of the  
>> "Beast"  in which it seems that they were saved from some  
>> radically insane driving by the Police,
> yes
>> to Blanoyds gated and moated house,
> we don't know yet if it really is his house
good point, when it comes to certain kind of power clusters, access  
does not imply ownership.  Dennis 's role in the police stop followed  
by the moat is funny stuff, still laughing the 3rd time around.
>> to a garage called  Resurrection of the Body where Doc's wounded  
>> vehicle is being worked on. Here  Doc meets a friend with his own  
>> injured vehicle.  The image here seems reminiscent of disciples  
>> racing to the tomb. Perhaps a contrast is being set up between the  
>> false resurrection of the Beast/ Golden Fang raised out of the  
>> Vietnam-like hell hole to another kind of rebirth. As Clement  
>> points out with regard to Coy we are somewhere after the death ,  
>> and after sightings of the risen Coy , but before the the nature  
>> of that resurrection is clear.
>>
>> I know I'm  stretching here, but  because of the context , when  
>> Japonica asks her aren't you the guy question, it reminds me of  
>> Peter being asked aren't you one of his disciples.
> it would be even better in this case if Doc denied he knows her,  
> three times!
Yea, defensive isn't quite the same , but after Nuremberg the "just  
doing my job" defense does have a  tainted quality, not denial , but  
the denial of personal responsibility.

>> This death and resurrection motif was pretty central to ATD with  
>> the crucifixion-like killing of Webb Traverse and the subsequent  
>> life of his 4 children ( with textually  embedded references to  
>> the 4 gospels and the 4 directions)
>>
>> Mayhap there is a reference here to the death and questionable  
>> resurrection of the auto industry/ the economy/ the soul/ the  
>> constitution  of America?
> good idea for sure!
> Clement
>
Thanks for the friendly feedback.

Japonica Fenway has serious psychological problems but is seeing a  
kind of gnostic truth that Blatnoyd can't see.  She sees that the  
DemiGod rules in this region of LA and his eyes are everywhere. Later  
we find out Crocker Fenway( the Prince of Palos Verdes) is a lot like  
John Huston(Noah Cross)  in  the great 70's noir Chinatown( directed  
by Roman Polanski, who ties into our story becauseS Tate was Manson's  
victim). He is murderously and sexually obsessed with Japonica. Freud  
was taken down a notch when it was seen that a high percentage of his  
psychotically troubled female clients were the victims of sexual  
abuse, and he seemed to have known this tie but suppressed it in  
favor of his more indirect psychosexual theories.

By making Japonica, the relatively weak and fucked over but feisty  
victim of the Golden Fang and her own Father, a central figure in  
this detective drama, and having her turn towards a delusional   
apocalypticism, Pynchon is exploring the mindset of the current batch  
of end time apocalyptics who dismiss the real power conspiracies in  
favor of a good guys vs bad guys Armageddon.  Part of what disables  
this group is their delusional sense that America is their Daddy,  
their protector, their noble forefather ordained by God.