Pynchon & Religion

[Madeleine Maudlin]

Quite all right.

I wouldn't mind pointing out though, I wasn't going to but I might now that
I'm here, I meant Cherrycoke is a consequence of *Pynchon*'s being poisoned
by a Catholic upbringing, not Cherrycoke being so.  Maybe Pynchon wasn't
raised in a Catholic environment, I thought I've heard that mentioned on
here.  Not the poisoning bit, that's my own innovation, but the incessant
adolescent Catholicizing--

On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 11:08 AM, Alex Colter <recoignishon at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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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