Gravity's Son/Mason and Son/Against the Son

[Alex Colter]

M&D is chock-full of references to Christ, the Hebrew Testament, Biblical
Allegory, and American Religious Experience.

And Dixon is a Quaker, Mason a Deist, but really it serves neither of the
characters to box them 'in' thus.

On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 7:24 PM, Alex Colter <recoignishon at gmail.com> wrote:

> "The Ascent to Christ is a struggle thro' one heresy after another,
> River-wise up-country into a proliferation of Sects and Sects branching
> from Sects, unto Deism, faithless, pretending to be holy, and beyond,---
> ever away from the Sea, from the Harbor, from all that was serene and
> certain, into an Interior unmapp'd, a Realm of Doubt. The Nights. The
> Storms and Beasts. The Falls, the Rapids,... the America of the Soul.
> Doubt is of the essence of Christ. Of the twelve Apostles, most true to
> him was ever Thomas,--- indeed, in the* Acta Thomae* they are said to be
> Twins. The final pure Christ is pure uncertainty. He is become the central
> subjunctive fact of a Faith, that risks ev'ry-thing upon one bodily
> Resurrection.... Wouldn't something less doubtable have done? a prophetic
> dream, a communication with a dead person? Some few tatters of evidence to
> wrap our poor naked spirits against the coldness of a World where Mortality
> and its Agents may bully their way, wherever they wish to go...."
>
> -The Reverend Wicks Cherrycoke, *Undeliver'd Sermons
> *(M&D c53p511)
>
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Bled Welder <bledwelder at hotmail.com>wrote:
>
>>  Resurrection of the Body auto repair is brilliant enough!
>>
>> I'll check out the Marquez essay--
>>
>> > Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2012 10:35:59 -0500
>>
>> > From: mackin.paul at verizon.net
>> > To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> > Subject: Re: Gravity's Son/Mason and Son/Against the Son
>> >
>> > On 3/4/2012 8:07 AM, Bled Welder wrote:
>> > > Thanks yes, reverse mode, that sounds good and proper. Could I bother
>> > > you for where I might look up this bit about resurrection and
>> salvation?
>> >
>> >
>> > Well, jocularly, there was the Resurrection of the Body auto repair
>> shop
>> > in Inherent Vice.
>> >
>> > But more importantly, my first thought would be to his review of
>> > Garcia-Marquez's book the the NY Times, Death in a Time of Cholera.
>> >
>> > http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_cholera.html
>> >
>> > But it's in Mason & Dixon and other places as well.
>> >
>> > Also in one of his essays but I forget which one.
>> >
>> > P
>> >
>> > >
>> > > Jeez, I was going to attempt to read something this morning and avoid
>> > > being sucked in by those Morrison links...could not. Ah well, nothing
>> > > wrong with a good dose of Jim-worship on a Sunday morn...he was a
>> deity
>> > > of his time.
>> > >
>> > > Would anybody agree with me that Roger Waters, one, /is/ the mind of
>> > > Pink Floyd, and also that Waters is the greatest mind in rock history
>> > > (obvious to me), and also that Gilmore while maybe being a sort of
>> > > virtuoso on the guitar, composes only a fraction of Floyd compared to
>> > > Waters? Gilmorites cause me agnst on occasion. For a while two and
>> three
>> > > years ago Live at Pompeii became sort of a spiritual experience for
>> me.
>> > > Of course I was drinking very heavily back then--
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > > Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2012 07:48:02 -0500
>> > > > From: mackin.paul at verizon.net
>> > > > To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> > > > Subject: Re: Gravity's Son/Mason and Son/Against the Son
>> > > >
>> > > > On 3/4/2012 6:59 AM, Bled Welder wrote:
>> > > > > Thinking about the greatness of Jim Morrison for a moment, I found
>> > > > > myself thinking of Jesus.
>> > > > >
>> > > > > I've read 200 of AtD, 150 of GR, and 100 of MD recently. I don't
>> recall
>> > > > > any mention of religion, or Jesus, etc., items for discussion in
>> that
>> > > > > vein. Although maybe it might, wait, the uneducated half in MD,
>> is it
>> > > > > Mason or Dixon, the English chap, isn't he Christian?
>> > > > >
>> > > > > What's the role of Jesus/God etc. in Pynchon's work? No doubt
>> something
>> > > > > discussed a zillion times.
>> > > > >
>> > > > > What's the number of Christians and otherwise religious people in
>> these
>> > > > > sacred Pynchon vaults? Is this a fundamentally Christian list of
>> people
>> > > > > here?
>> > > > >
>> > > > > Does Pynchon have religion? I would very much like to know that
>> if he
>> > > > > is! Not like, math and physics type religion, but like
>> > > > > Christianity/Kabbalah sortsa thing--
>> > > >
>> > > > He adapts Christian notions--in a kind of reverse mode--to explain
>> the
>> > > > condition of mankind (Us)
>> > > >
>> > > > Poor preterite souls.
>> > > >
>> > > > The passed over.
>> > > >
>> > > > Also, he uses "resurrection of the body" to suggest the possibility
>> of
>> > > > some kind of salvation.
>> > > >
>> > > > The few things I can think of off the top of my head.
>> > > >
>> > > >
>> > > >
>> > > >
>> > > > P
>> > > > >
>> > > > >
>> > > > >
>> > > > >
>> > > > >
>> > > > >
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>> > > >
>> >
>>
>
>
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