IVIV (8): An Occasional Certified Zombie

[Robin Landseadel]

On Sep 29, 2009, at 3:49 PM, alice wellintown wrote:

> the "since he is not a Calvinist" argument doesn't make any
> sense.

Seems like Pynchon inserts some family history into the mix from time  
to time. I'd say that ancestor William Pynchon of Springfield  
Massachusetts figures  pretty heavily in the author's thoughts. TRP is  
certainly aware of and comments on the Calvinistic view about  
entitlement and ownership, who's in the club and who's not. William  
Pynchon's public opposition to Calvinist dogma concerning atonement  
resulted in "America's" first book to be publicly burned for heresy—in  
Boston to boot.

And just case case you didn't notice, Pynchon is coo-coo for heresies.

I think that Pynchon's ideas about them's that got and them's that not  
is pretty consistent whether or not he's using any given specific &  
particular one-sided transaction to illuminate a core set of Calvinist  
beliefs or simply to demonstrate Vegas odds.