Pynchon & Religion

[Alex Colter]

ahem, forgive me '*Madeleine'*

On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 11:06 AM, Alex Colter <recoignishon at gmail.com>wrote:

> Continued from Madeline's post in the Pynchon Lit. thread, cause I figure
> it would be more appropriate to start a different one...
> We can't escape it so let us try to keep the discussion focused on the
> works of Pynchon and what they indicate, while keeping our own beliefs
> along the margins.
>
> We know Pynchon was raised Catholic, and, inasmuch as anything Jules says
> can be trusted, continued to go to Confession while at Cornell.
> There we begin to loose him, biographically speaking, and must resort to
> his Novels.
> I am inclined to agree with Madeline that the greatest writers among us
> have rarely been 'Christian' 'Jewish' or 'Muslim' in anything but
> upbringing, such Institutions seem to be downright hostile towards anything
> called imaginative thought.
> I am inclined to draw the closest portrait of Pynchon's Religious Views (a
> phrase that makes me bored just typing it) in Cherrycoke's wonderful
> narration. One thing is obvious, that Cherrycoke, despite his own attempts
> to make himself appear so, is anything but orthodox, and often waxes into
> Gnostic Thought, which was experiencing a revival amidst the so-called Era
> of Enlightenment.
> I would include among the institutions of Christianity, Judaism, and
> Islam, the institution of Deism, now known by its proper name Atheism, as
> being downright hostile towards anything called imaginative thought.
> I am inclined to believe Pynchon is something of an imaginative Skeptic in
> his literature, and is careful to censor himself whenever he approaches a
> sort of 'Gnosis' therein.
>
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