Pynchon & Religion

[Alex Colter]

There is a certain (dare I say?) charming censorship in Cherrycoke's
narration, but it is anything but subtle.

On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 11:16 AM, Madeleine Maudlin <
madeleinemaudlin at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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