V---2nd Epilogue

[Mark Kohut]

As in CofL49, the Paraclete, the Spirit, is First among Equals---
the Direct Word............

And, TRP sez anarchism is anti-Christian and 
Christiainity is violence? yes?....(away from my copy)

One sees here a young writer fictionalizing the process of developing
his historic/religious/life vision..........................


----- Original Message ----
From: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wed, March 16, 2011 3:01:36 AM
Subject: Re: V---2nd Epilogue

On page 524 ------

each of the finger points has a solution - investigate the bread
profiteering and/or set prices; reform civil service practices;
correct the tax structure - win huge smiles with a partial rebate;
allow free discussion (free discussion and open meetings would disarm
the Bolshevists, a crowd which can't usually get through an agenda
without splinter groups emerging); win the loyalties of
anti-colonialists with sinecures and/or isolate them with benevolent
rule; encourage constitutional reform with clear limits; make
arrangements directly with Italy that will undercut Mizzi's base there
(trade concessions, so forth)...

...and the Church, well,
"...here perhaps Stencil's C. of E. stuffiness colored an otherwise
objective view"

for example, "In political terms, the Father....had degenerated to the
Son, genius of the liberal love-feast which had produced 1848 and
lately the overthrow of the Czars." -- eh?  come again?

I mean to say, Sidney, 1848 was promulgated by anyone but the Church,
and the Czars ruled over a country with minimal Catholic presence!

In the Spanish Civil War, e.g. - dare I say in general (until
liberation theology?) - the R.C. position would never be confused with
a leftist popular movement of any sort; clerics were among those
blamed in most socialist, communist and anarchist literature, weren't
they?

I suppose that Stencil's C. of E., explicitly subordinate to the
Crown, disapproved of an independent religious hierarchy?  So to lump
it in with other upstarts and pretenders to authority is natural,
ignoring differences which would seem fundamental to members of the
R.C. brigade or dancers in the Bolshevik chorus line.  It doesn't seem
to affect his ability later to meet with Father Fairing, though.

Perhaps his reflections here help him to get ready for such a meeting?

"The matter of a Paraclete's coming, the comforter, the dove, the
tongues of flame, the gift of tongues: Pentecost.  Third Person of the
Trinity.  None of it was implausible to Stencil."

the application of religious principles to statecraft and
theory-of-history (two faces of the same thing?)(make a real leap - 3
faces of the same thing!)

ideas of deific power and nature and force and methodology having
burgeoned forth from observations of human activity, perhaps -
and then (tautologically?) applying them back as principles imbuing
human activity - so that the

Father principle would be the charismatic leader
(and Stencil from observation seems to think this quality gone from the earth)

and the Son principle - didn't Blake say something about how the
Father fetches you a whack, and then the Son comes and applies healing
balm? - but Stencil somehow confutes the Christ with socialism (very
interesting...) which for him only implies rack and ruin
- he works the Last Supper in there too with the term "liberal love-feast"

(departing significantly from the Christian understanding of the
Trinity, isn't he?)

and then the Paraclete - this is what he is thinking that the Roman
church, in the person of Father Fairing, is looking for?

Pynchon has distanced the narrator from Stencil's point of view.  We
already know that Stencil is a genial fellow and his thinking is
wildly imaginative: "The Situation as an N-Dimensional Mishmash"

but this is great, don't you see?  because his thinking is rhizomatic,
his actions are not going to be dogmatic...


essentially, with its attention diverted by the recent War, its
Exchequer no doubt depleted, and (let's be honest) the nature of
Empire being such that just and fair and equitable solutions to the
problems of the people are rarely the primary concern of the ruling
classes...

...the Situation has deteriorated...

...and they've sent old Stencil to see if he can't wangle some kind of
detente without either invoking heavy-handed military might (which
would be expensive and produce unpleasant headlines) or actually
engaging in good governance (which could set a precedent that nobody
in Whitehall wants to have to live up to)