ATD and ghosts/thanatoids

[Joseph Tracy]

Karma seems pretty clearly a spiritual and to some degree a moral  
idea. But there is also a logical scientific basis for the idea of  
limits, ratios, and equal and opposite reactions. The social  
outworking of those forces is perhaps less than formulaic, and I may  
be fooling myself, but I see some kind of  Karmic balance at work,  
but I admit to being rooted philosophically in a kind of moral or  
spiritual thinking.   Considering the collective indulgence  in   
deception, violence and greed, a karmic accounting doesn't sound too  
appealing.  Denial is the going solution. I think Pynchon's   
reference to karmic adjustment is really just a way of pointing out  
how out of balance things are economically and in terms of human  
freedom and political power.  The question becomes whether the  
adjustment will be entirely horrific (  nuclear holocaust, eco  
catastrophe, large scale violence ) or by some  kind of positive  
karmic adjustment. ( International new deal, massive move to  
sustainability local productivity, breaking the systemic reliance on   
human and biospheric exploitation and abuse).


On Mar 9, 2010, at 2:24 AM, John Bailey wrote:

> Vineland, Inherent Vice and now AtD have been very free 'n' easy with
> this concept of karmic adjustment. Isn't it a bit like saying
> 'everything'll sort itself out?' Is it an older writer losing the
> fighting flame that fuelled GR? Or is it an enduring legacy of the 60s
> (I wasn't there and I remember that).
>
> Then again, despite a strong affinity for various Eastern
> philosophies, I've always felt the idea of karma was just a way of
> projecting your own revenge instincts onto the universe at large.
>
> On Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 6:04 PM, Gavin Findlay  
> <gavinf at homemail.com.au> wrote:
>> Hi people
>>
>> Have now finished ATD and near the end, where it is very ambiguous  
>> as to
>> what world the protagonists are in, Lew Basnight encounters (p1057  
>> Cape
>> hardback) what is self-evidently a party of what will in Vineland  
>> be called
>> Thanatoids, at Carefree Crescent. They are even presided by  
>> someone called
>> Virgil and discuss the topic of karmic adjustment.
>>
>> I have some rereading of other works to do obviously to more fully
>> understand but that will be a pleasure.
>>
>> Bought my copy of Inherent Vice while travelling on the weekend,  
>> adding to
>> the pleasure.
>>
>> tonebuddha
>>