Back to AtD Karmic Adjustment

[Paul Mackin]

On 5/22/2012 3:41 PM, Mark Kohut wrote:
> I din't know from no stinkin' doges until you posted. Thanks I am still
> trying
> to have something more in my mind regarding this whole bit.
> 1) TRP, unlike many who love and write about Venice gave us the dark
> backstory. Why?


Pynchon has an engineer's mentality (putting him in sync with Luddy W.) 
and likes to have his equations balance. You have to take the bad with 
the good. Medieval Venice ran as smoothly as Chicago used to under da 
mayor. In Chi if you wanted something done you found the right person to 
pay off. In Venice you found the right person to bump off. All very 
officially. With spectacular public executions, in St Marks Square no 
doubt if it was finished yet. In other words for every problem there was 
a solution. That's the kind of balance an engineer appreciates. Modern 
Venice has balance too and I'm not just referring to the ratio of 
tourists to pidgeons. The Square is actually a perfect square--heard 
this is exact down to the inch.

> 2) Re penance....from Lot 49, where there is the 'joke' about coming out
> just under even in life; from
> TRP's Watts non-fic piece where he speaks of acts having a necessary
> blowback [not his term] from Gravity's
> Rainbow wherein we get the 'inevitable' return of the repressed, (maybe
> in AtD the Event the Trespassers are fleeing is related...We unbalanced
> the human race; into beating the casino in AtD and this quoted piece
> ---and karmic adjustment as not just a joke? in IV,
> I see this theme, if it is, of a clear balanced world and untroubled
> acts which, if penance is not served when
> they they are bad acts, builds and hurts.
> One might loosely riff that the love you make better be at least equal
> to the love you take...


All very true.

P
>
> *From:* Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
> *To:* pynchon-l at waste.org
> *Sent:* Monday, May 21, 2012 3:58 PM
> *Subject:* Re: Back to AtD Karmic Adjustment
>
> On 5/21/2012 3:03 PM, Mark Kohut wrote:
>  > 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....
>
> Yes, I agree. The sacrament is ceremonial symbolizing sorrow for our
> sins, and sorrow for our sins in turn is metaphorical for the material
> consequences for our actions.
>
> The Protestant Ethic meant that, contrary to tradition, it was OK to
> make money. The Doges' job was seeing to it that the making of money was
> serene (La Serenissima), as peaceful as possible using all necessary
> means regardless of how ruthless. So I can see how the Protestant Ethic
> might be seen to apply to Doge rule.
>
> Is this roughly what you had in mind?
>
> P
>
>  >
>  > *From:* Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net
> <mailto:mackin.paul at verizon.net>>
>  > *To:* pynchon-l at waste.org <mailto: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
>  >
>  >
>  >
>
>
>