Pynchon lit.

Alex Colter recoignishon at gmail.com
Mon Jul 23 10:53:15 CDT 2012


I think Pynchon's careful censorship of what may, at times, wax into Gnosis
in his work may be an indicator of his feelings, whether Catholic or
Agnostic or closet Gnostic. I have a hard time seeing him as Atheist,
because like Christians, Jews, and Muslims, atheists seem to adhere to
their own "infinite lunacies"of what they call "logic".

On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 10:50 AM, Alex Colter <recoignishon at gmail.com>wrote:

> And while I certainly agree with you concerning your rule of thumb you are
> very wrong about there not being "infinite lunacies" in Judaism, it
> certainly has its share.  I tend to be more inclined to study the Zohar and
> the early Kabbalists or the works of Valentinus and Christian Gnostics
> these days, and I think there are good many readers and writers who possess
> their own unique 'Gnosis', not necessarily Pynchon, but Borges, Blake,
> Shelley, among others...
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 10:44 AM, Alex Colter <recoignishon at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> I think you're in the wrong thread....? A-and Cherrycoke is certainly not
>> a Catholic, even displaying a great deal of 'Gnostic' tendencies.
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 10:38 AM, Madeleine Maudlin <
>> madeleinemaudlin at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> My opinion of Pynchon's stature as a Christian, is that he's not.
>>>  Mainly because I think that as a rule of thumb erudite literary geniuses
>>> are not Christians, Jews, etc.  Ever.  (Even though Judaism is more sane
>>> than the infinite lunacies of Christianity.)  If a Reverend Cherrycoke
>>> narrates one of Pynchon's big novels, eg., it's because he was poisoned by
>>> being raised in a Catholic household.
>>>
>>> Speaking of which! I just came across this most excellent tidbit of
>>> Judeo-Christianity information the other day, and I wonder if you know it?
>>>  I am given to understand that it is common knowledge.  This I learned
>>> while investigating one of my new projects--who invented Jesus and penned
>>> the Gospels.
>>>
>>> Turns out that the things of the Gospels mimick or reflect things of the
>>> Torah, or at least they have Jesus's life paralleling Moses?  So you have
>>> for example:
>>>
>>> Old Testament
>>> Gen.45-50 Joseph goes to Egypt
>>> Ex.1 Pharoah massacres boys
>>> Ex.4 "All the men are dead which sought thy life."
>>> Ex.12 From Egypt to Israel
>>> Ex.14 Passing through water (baptism)
>>> Ex.16 In the wilderness "Tempted thy bread"
>>> Ex.17 "Do not tempt God"
>>> Ex.32 "Worship only God"
>>>
>>> Matthew
>>> 2:13 Joseph goes to Egypt
>>> 2:16 Herod massacres boys
>>> 2:20 "They are dead which sought the young child's life"
>>> 2:21 From Egypt to Israel
>>> 3:13 Baptism (passing through water)
>>> 4:4 In the wilderness "Tempted by bread"
>>> 4:7 "Do not tempt God"
>>> 4:10 "Worship only God"
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 8:01 PM, Alex Colter <recoignishon at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>> O-oh I was gonna make a thread asking for much of the same thing. I am
>>>> still tryin' to find Frank Kermode's *Genesis of Secrecy*, which
>>>> features a lengthy discussion of CoL49 alongside such works as the Gospel
>>>> of Mark, after that I'll have to look into some of these.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 7:11 PM, Dave Monroe <
>>>> against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 11:43 AM, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> > Anyone familiar with Levine's "Mindful Pleasures", essays on Mr. P?
>>>>>
>>>>> http://archive.org/details/mindfulpleasures00levi
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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