V--2nd, Chap 9, after Robin's post with a short lead-off digression (for Robin)

[alice wellintown]

>
> meanwhile, "The Bondelswaartz believe in ghosts, the sferics frighten
> them."....once again,
> modern electronics drive out ancient religious beliefs......

Not exactly, at least not in Pynchon's novels; science does not drive
out or destroy or extinguish religion or religious beliefs in Pynchon
novels. Modern technologies, electronics, do not replace the spirit or
drive it out. The bond, a spiritual or religious bond, is never
broken. Mothers are still mothers, but like fathers, they are sick and
produce sick offspring. But nothing, nothing, can drive out the
ancient religious beliefs. Men may worship bombs or engage in rituals
that would break the cycle of life and death if they worked, but of
course, they don't work. At least not as designed, for scatterbrained
mother earth and the songs of men, even in a wasteland, even where it
is impossible to say just what we mean or where words are no longer
spoken, are never extinguished.

After escaping, Brent and Nova hide in an unnatural-looking cave which
Brent soon recognizes was formerly the Queensboro Plaza station of the
New York City Subway, and he begins to realize where he actually is.
Brent and Nova go deeper into the tunnels, following a humming sound.
Brent hears voices that compel him to kill Nova, but he resists them.
Entering the remains of St. Patrick's Cathedral, he finds a
still-intelligent and parapsychically endowed human kneeling before
the high altar and reciting a hymn. However, the object of worship
fills Brent with horror - an intact nuclear intercontinental ballistic
missile.