AtD: Lew's experience of grace

[Robin Landseadel]

On Dec 1, 2010, at 4:40 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen wrote:

> We know the novel ends with the word "grace", thereby giving it, the  
> word, a special meaning.
> All theological discussions aside for the moment, let me ask how  
> "grace" is defined inside the
> novel itself.

Can't discuss "grace" In AtD without discussing the theological  
implications of "grace." Seems like Pynchon's concept of "grace" has  
everything to do with Christianity and Karma. Pynchon makes a clear  
distinction between "Christian" and what Andrew Sullivan [and others]  
now calls "Christianist." Sarah Palin and "W." are "Christianist" as  
is Scarsdale Vibe. Cyprian and Lew act "Christian" without proclaiming  
themselves to be Christians-- least until Cyprian adopts the habit.  
"Against the Day" is loaded with characters who do not claim to be  
Christians who nonetheless do onto others and folks who Claim to be  
Christians who don't. For Pynchon, the notion of "Karma" is something  
akin to one of Newton's formulations, the distribution of equal and  
opposing forces, like—"If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind,"  
which is more or less describes what happened with the Vibe-funded  
Vormance expedition.

Although I realize that experts on the subject will point out that  
this is a typical foggy-minded hippy attitude to the concept of  
"Karma," I reiterate that Doc Sportello offers us a little window to  
the mental machinations and standard operating procedure of Our  
Beloved Author, the one so over-fetished by his cult as to obliterate  
the human and personal in his texts in favor of theories that  
eradicate all traces of his presence. It's like I said a long time ago  
about "Vineland" -- it's all so reminiscent of Bugs Bunny ripping the  
turtle helmet off his head and screaming "But I'm the rabbit!!!"

http://www.220.ro/desene-animate/Bugs-Bunny-Tortoise-Wins-By-A-Hare/Fk55UzFcRy/

If anybody's a "wabbit" it's TRP.

> I do so, because very early on, as I now realize during my regular  
> re-read, an
> important character, Lew Basnight, has his personal experience of  
> "grace" which is, if I
> didn't miss anything, the first concept of the term the novel has to  
> offer us.

Consider, if you will, how Lew is first positioned as absolute  
preterite --

		He was not in the detective business out of political belief.
	He had just sort of wandered into it, by way of a sin he was
	supposed once to have committed. As to the specifics of this
	lapse, well, good luck. Lew couldn't remember what he'd done,
	or hadn't done, or even when. Those who didn't know either still
	acted puzzled, as if he were sending out rays of iniquity. Those
	who did claim to remember, all too well, kept giving him sad looks
	which soon -- it being Illinois -- soured into what was known as
	moral horror.

		He was denounced in the local newspapers. Newsboys
	made up lurid headlines about him, which they shouted all
	through the civic mobilities morning and evening, making a
	point of pronouncing his name disrespectfully. Women in
	intimidating hats glared at him with revulsion.

		He became known as the Upstate-Downstate Beast.

		It would've helped if he could remember, but all he could
	produce was this peculiar haze. The experts he went to for
	advice had little to tell him. "Past lives," some assured him.
	"Future lives," said other confident swamis. "Spontaneous
	Hallucination," diagnosed the more scientific among them.
	"Perhaps," one beaming Oriental suggested, "it was
	hallucinating you."

		"Very helpful, thanks," Lew murmured, and tried to leave,
	only to find that the door would not open.

		"A formality. Too many bank drafts have come back unhonored."

		"Here's cash. Can I go?"

	AtD 37

Note as well that it is as if Lew has gone "Underground" in the  
process of being derided. Lew is the intersection -- the crossroads --  
for so many of the characters in the book and he is the outsider who  
goes the furthest "in". Through his explosion into the land of the  
T.W.I.T.S., Lew becomes our private eye into the inner workings of the  
inner circles of the occult. At the same time, he is recognized as one  
who naturally belongs within those circles, as is noted very early on:

		Occasionally a street would open up into a small plaza, or a
	 convergence with other streets, where pitches had been set up by
	 puppeteers, music and dance acts, and vendors of everything--
	divination books, grilled squabs on toast, ocarinas and kazoos,
	roast ears of corn, summer caps and straw hats, lemonade and
	lemon ice, something new everyplace he turned to look. In a small
	courtyard within a courtyard, he came upon a group of men and
	women, engaged in slow ritual movement, a country dance, almost-
	though Lew, pausing to watch, was not sure what country. Soon
	they were gazing back, as if in some way they knew him, and all
	about his troubles. When their business was done, they invited
	him over to a table under an awning, where all at once, over root
	beer and Saratoga chips, Lew found himself confessing "everything,"
	which in fact wasn't much-"What I need is some way to atone for
	whatever it is I've done. I can't keep on with this life .... "

		"We can teach you," said one of them, who seemed to be in
	charge, introducing himself only as Drave.

[RL: "Drave" is an foreshortening of "Naz Drave" or "Good Health" in  
Bulgarian. Remember this as the novel eventually lands upon Bulgaria  
and remember the actions within that particular episode.]

		"Even if-"

		"Remorse without an object is a doorway to deliverance."

		"Sure, but I can't pay you for it, I don't even have a place to
	live."

		"Pay for it!" The tableful of adepts was amused at this. "Pay!
	Of course you can pay! Everyone can!"

		"You will have to remain not only until you learn the procedure,"
	Lew was informed, "but until we are sure of you as well. There is a
	hotel close to here, the Esthonia, which penitents who come to us
	often make use of. Mention us, they will give you a good discount."

		Lew went to register at the tall, rickety Esthonia Hotel. The lobby
	 clerks and the bellmen on duty all acted like they'd been expecting
	him.
	AtD 39

Lew passes through this underground with his soul intact. He is one of  
the book's characters who does good without anticipation of reward,  
which is one of Pynchon's most important concepts that relates to  
"Grace."

Note also that "Lew Basnight" echos "Lew Archer," the Ross Macdonald  
sleuth modeled after Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, yet another  
dark knight.

> "One mild and ordinary work-morning in Chicago, Lew happened to find  
> himself on a public
> conveyance, head and eyes inclined nowhere in particular ["soft  
> eyes", as they call it in The
> Wire.kfl], when he entered, all too briefly, a condition he had no  
> memory of having sought
> [As A.C. has it: "Don't lust after results!".kfl],

Who's "A.C." -- a character on "The Wire"?

> which he later came to think of as grace. (...)
> Lew found himself surrounded by a luminosity new to him, not even  
> observed in dreams,
> nor easily attributed to the smoke-inflected sun beginning to light  
> Chicago." (p. 42)
>
> How representative is Lew's experience for AtD's overall concept of  
> "grace"?
>
> Kai

I'd say "very," as there is a definite sense that "Doing the Right  
thing" is correlative to "Grace" in this novel.