Back to AtD Karmic Adjustment

[Mark Kohut]

Great responses....thanks.
 
More to come but I too mean penance figuratively, yet meaningfully. (It was only capped 'cause it was first word)
 
And Protestant Ethic is a figurative generality, no?   
So, keeping like with like....

From: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org 
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2012 2:47 PM
Subject: Re: Back to AtD Karmic Adjustment

On 5/21/2012 10:36 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:
> p.868 middle...."the doges are gone.....how power can be an
> expression of communal will, invisibly exercised in the dark that
> surrounds each soul, in which penance must be a necessary term."
> Anyone care to riff?


Seems to be saying that a ruler in Venice, as long as he lasted, had an assigned role and that role included whatever moral trespass was necessary to maintain order and prosperity in the Republic. Furthermore, it was expected that once the ruler's days in office were over he had "to do penance," meaning he had to suffer some of the moral trespass he himself had inflicted.

"Communal will" means that doge rule was rule by the consent of the governed, which of course means the governed who count. (the rich guys)



> 1) Does this explain what the two village guys did to Theign?

I think it may well be a commentary on what happened to Theign, if I'm remembering correctly who Theign was.


> 2) Isn't some kind of communal will a largely positive thing in P's
> worldview?

The communal will may or may not be in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount.


> So, here too?
> "Unless one has performed in his life penance equal to what he has exacted
> from others, there is an imbalance in Nature."
> Penance replaces the Protestant Ethic as cultural vision?

I think the sacrament of Penance is being used figuratively.

P
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