Accounts secular and karmic

[alice wellintown]

Not sure what is meany by this comparison. Hester, in my reading, is like
Batleby, because she prefers not to work or live in a world bereft of human
kindness, of charity, so she does her work as an outsider, an outcast, what
Melville and CLR James call, a castaway. She's a subversive force, charity
and love. She's a secular saint, so her sin is secular as her her works of
charity.   Chillingworth is a devil. His sin is eternal and karmic.
Dimmesdale is human weakness. His sin is also eternal and karmic, for he
passes on his sin to posterity, like Pyncheon in HSG or Ahab.


On Mon, Apr 15, 2013 at 10:12 AM, Monte Davis <montedavis at verizon.net>wrote:

> Or at the next sin down the road, Hester & Dimmesdale’s sin vs.
> Chillingworth’s. ****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] *On
> Behalf Of *alice wellintown
> *Sent:* Sunday, April 14, 2013 1:45 PM
> *To:* pynchon -l
> *Subject:* Re: Accounts secular and karmic****
>
> ** **
>
> The difference is clearly defined in several Pynchon essays,  and is, of
> course, a major theme in all of his novels. Although some readers will
> never quite get it because they refuse to accept the author's position,
> even when he spells it out for them in plain words,  a good place to start
> is with Pynchon's essay on Sloth. ****
>
> In the essay the author examines Melville's Bartleby and explains that the
> scrivener's sin against the economy was secular, but the sin of the lawyer
> against Bartleby, even if the soul is little more than a few blades of
> grass in the Tombs, is Karmic. ****
>
>  ****
>
> ** **
>
> On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 12:30 PM, <bandwraith at aol.com> wrote:****
>
> What's the difference, I'd like to know?****
>
> ** **
>
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