Back to AtD...p960

[Mark Kohut]

If Cyprian and his decision(s) are some kind of upbeat authorial value embodiment in
AtD, "the Heyschasts, who might as well have been Japanese Buddhists---they sat in their cells,
gazing at their navels, waiting to be enfolded in a glorious light they believed was the same light
Peter, James, and John had witnessed at theTransfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor.......
are not. 

the place where human nature met God---wikipedia describing the theological import of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfiguration_of_Jesus"

"perhaps they asked themselves forms of your question as well, as a sort of koan. What is it that
is born of that light? Oddly, if one reads the Gospel accounts, the emphasis in all three is not on
an excess of light but a deficiency---the Transfiguration occurred at best under a peculiar sort of half-light.
'There came a cloud and overshadowed them", as Luke puts it. Those omphalopsychoi might have
seen a holy light, but its link with the Transfiguration is doubtful.

A little hermenuetical theology from our God-obsessed writer? Knows the Gospel accounts yet, 
gives us another metaphor for agnosticism? Clouds. Or another dissing of religious belief altogether
even if Buddhist. As above, so below?

Certainly a dissing of navel-gazing whether Western or Eastern? Action matters, even if it is Cyprian's
self-reclusive action? Is Cyprian and his monastery decision a metaphor for the reclusive dedication of
our writer? 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20121225/27d98c8e/attachment.html>