Back to AtD...p960

[Keith Davis]

Yes, good.


On Tue, Dec 25, 2012 at 6:12 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Like.
> One way of reading of AtD seems clearly to be: all theological
> preconceptions, ideas, etc. are inadequate for whatever
> is the case.
>
>   *From:* Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
> *To:* Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> *Cc:* pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, December 25, 2012 4:33 PM
> *Subject:* Re: Back to AtD...p960
>
> A Benedictine monk once loaned me his copy of The Cloud of Unknowing. I
> didn't make the explicit connection until reading your insights here, Mark,
> but I think this little summary from wikipedia is an adequate teaser
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloud_of_Unknowing Wasn't Cyprian a
> Cambridge lad?
>
> I'm not so sure about P's singling out for dissing the contemplatives,
> though. It seems to me he is equally ready to dis those too eager to act
> without considering the repercussions of their actions. Benny and the Crew,
> Slothrop, Lake, maybe even Zoyd and Mucho might be examples of characters
> inclined to action and reaction as opposed to the over-contemplative
> (Mason? Roger M?), though, in the end, I am inclined to see all as aspects
> of the human psyche. You got your poles and then there's all that's in
> between.
>
> On Tue, Dec 25, 2012 at 8:56 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>    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?
>
>
>
>
>


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