IVIV (8): An Occasional Certified Zombie

[Robin Landseadel]

On Sep 30, 2009, at 6:17 AM, Dave Monroe wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 5:49 PM, alice wellintown
> <alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> see, as You will recall, Monroe, Dwight Eddins' Gnostic Pynchon

Selected selection:

> http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0303&msg=77343

Selected quote:

. . .of course, eddins' voegelinesque notion of 'gnosticism' is not in  
touch with
the actual ancient sources (see, if you're interested, James M.  
Robinson, ed.,
The Nag Hammadi Library) and also leaves the gnostic elements in  
christianity
itself - "my kingdom is not of this world" (the gospel of john) -  
completely
out. furthermore, the rather schematic distinction of 'gnostic' vs.  
'orphic' is
highly problematic when seen in the late rilke's light. dwight eddins,  
however,
comes with his approach to presentable results, and he is among the  
very few
who seriously address the spiritual dimension in pynchon's work.

> ... don't know if those'll be of any help, but ...

I used to live with a person who published a quarterly entitled: "New  
Gnostics." She was well versed in Gnosticism, the Rosicrucians,  
B.O.T.A., O.T.O., and suchlike—all concerns of Pynchon particularly in  
Gravity's Rainbow and Against the Day. So my take on Gnosticism is  
quite different than that of Dwight Eddins. I've got a copy of "The  
Gnostic Pynchon", have known about it since it came out in 1990. I  
keep running into the same problems with Eddins' "take" on Gnosticism— 
I guess I've been exposed to too much concerning heresies to find  
Eddins narrow gauge approach and dense language all that helpful.  
Eddins may very well be one of the few commentators to seriously  
address the spiritual dimension in Pynchon's work. But considering  
just how many heresies fly about in Pynchon's work, such an exclusive  
area of focus really doesn't capture Pynchon's expansive rendering of  
"nonscheduled theologies." I would say the spiritual key to Pynchon is  
not "Gnosticism" but "Heresy." Gnosticism is but one of many heresies  
in Pynchon's writing.