Back to AtD. Another use of 'grace"

[Mark Kohut]

To me this is a critical perspective without a difference, to adapt that phrase.
 
Of course it is comic. That is the book. But it is also about grave things
and you make the same case as David, and me, in effect.


________________________________
From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012 5:16 AM
Subject: Re: Back to AtD. Another use of 'grace"

You were doing better when shooting in the dark, that is, before you
read the section. Give it another shot. Re-read it.  Pynchon humor is
sometimes slick subtle slap stick:  "Slapstick is a type of broad,
physical comedy involving exaggerated, boisterous actions (e.g. a pie
in the face), farce, violence and activities which may exceed the
boundaries of common sense" (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). In the
Wiki article the authors provide a bit of history on slapstick. Read
it. Now, comic relief. It releases the audience from the grave and
tense themes--mortality and perhaps no immortality, for example.  Have
you read Hamlet? Check out Billy Crystal as the grave digger, holding
up a skull to the protagonist, a skull that once held the brains of
man of infinite jest. The grave man is Shakespeare's greatrest clown.
The comic relief, paradoxically (Pynchon loves a paradox) forces the
audience deeper into the grave themes through comedy.


> OK. Just read the section.  Reef's grace is wholly his own.  He makes it
> happen. That is important. Religious grace comes from extra-self.  Reef is a
> natural in combat.
>
> David Morris
>
>
> On Thursday, December 27, 2012, David Morris wrote:
>>
>> "To catch a break" might be another way of conveying the grace Reef is
>> given (or has bought?).  Can you give the lines just before this?  I'm
>> wondering what or who bought this minute and a half of grace.
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 9:42 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Grace used here might literally mean time, but a fuller meaning would be
>>> a period of being free from harm.
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