Gravity's Rainbow in depth on Studio 360

[David Morris]

On Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 5:03 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>
>>Paranoia has its religious aspect: Is the "order" we see in the cosmos the product of an hidden power (and if so, why is it hidden?)?
>
> The problem here is that we don't really see anything like a religious order in our cosmos, that way of seeing is culturally imposed and enforced by culture propaganda and violence. It's not so much a direct result of a  personal or group perception of an order in the cosmos.  The paranoid  aspects of religion seem to arrive at  that point where the myth and language and culture wars  becomes as powerful as common experience.
>

I think you miss this religious-paranoia point.  "Intelligent Design"
is more than an ignorant anti-science concept, but maybe scientists
are too close to the trees to see the forest.  Think about mathematics
(as Pynchon does in AtD).  Is math something invented, or is it
inherent in the "creation?"  We all see an amazing order in all levels
of the cosmos.  Is it the product of random chance?  Aquinas had a
point that I think Pynchon considers valid.  This "all is random"
thought scared Pointsman to his core (If I remember correctly).  "God"
is the ultimate GR "They."

>> Paranoia also means the act of making connections between data points, things seen into things perceived.  At the root of paranoia is the
>> question, "Is what I'm seeing really there, or is it the product of my mind?"
>
> Part of the issue here is the sharp duality inherent in the word. Paranoia as self delusion( its most common pejorative usage) is the untested, unexamined acceptance that the patterns perceived are really there.
> It all hinges on whether you interpret 'para' as irregular/sick/delusional or  simply beside/alternate, doesn't it? Otherwise it can also mean an apprehensiveness based on limited data that may or may not indicate a real existing systemic pattern of abuse of power. This is how I tend to innately think of the word since in most words that use the Gk. root para it has no negative connotations. Another ingredient of paranoia the way virtually everyone uses it  is fear.

You have to follow Pynchon's definition of the word.

David Morris