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

[Robin Landseadel]

On Oct 11, 2010, at 8:55 PM, alice wellintown wrote:

>> 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.

When I was a radio DJ at KPFA I had access to mountains of African  
music and played CDs and LPs of Soukous, Township Jive, other  
varieties of Afro-Pop and field recordings, attempted Pop Radio hits  
and attempted summoning of the Loa. Electricity and water are  
associative in African systems. There is a love of pure distortion  
that can be found in unexpected places in the music of Africa,  
particularly Southern Africa, Zimbabwe, the Capes, Nambia. Used to  
have a Harmonia Mundi CD of South African wedding music, consisting of  
a Mbira attached to a guitar pickup and plugged into and amplifier  
jacked up to eleven -- pure, raw clipping. And you can dance to it.  
And nothing else, no drums, no rhythm section. But lots of rhythm.

As far as I can tell, for the most part, the indigenous folk of the  
southern tip of Africa would negotiate with their ancestors. The dead  
are never really dead . We have different systems for that sort of  
thing in the west. The original colonists carried their own baggage  
concerning death and unloaded it all in Africa, wherever they could.

But Sferics wouldn't scare the locals nearly as much as the overseers  
would hope. Stay out late on the Veldt long enough, you'll hear  
scarier sounds -- perhaps you'll learn the sound of your death  
approaching. The sounds of Earth's Magnetic Field were not that of  
death. They were copied and mocked on the pennywhistle as Mondaugen  
abandons his post and gathers his equipment.

	Dr. Filth, he keeps his world
	Inside of a leather cup
	But all his sexless patients
	They’re trying to blow it up
	Now his nurse, some local loser
	She’s in charge of the cyanide hole
	And she also keeps the cards that read
	“Have Mercy on His Soul”
	They all play on pennywhistles
	You can hear them blow
	If you lean your head out far enough
	From Desolation Row

http://www.ezakwantu.com/Gallery%20African%20Musical%20Instruments.htm


	But we have no paranoia, and Mr. Pynchon has attained,
	and has created for himself serenity, and it is only the
	insanity that has kept him alive in his paranoia.
	We speak of the organ...of the orgasm...
	Who the hell wrote this?