Pynchon & Math (Aristotle vs. Plato)

[alice wellintown]

Nasty Comic Relief.

We may feel sympathy for Grover, the boy genius with flaws, as one of
these flaws is that he can't help showing off how smart he is, in
other words, his secret integrarion, his knowledge of math, and lotz
of other things, including politics of Berlin (he argues with his old
man about Berlin until the dialogue fails), get him into trouble but
he can't help showing off. Moreover, he getz hooked on the cult of
calculus, the gnostic force from beyond, reaching out to it like
Mondaugan with his equipment, only Grover has a Ham Radio, Mason has
the Line making Engine...so on...hauntedby voices or things beyond
that get tangled in the lines, the bleeding on the edge of the wired
world.

Comic Relief dos not reduce the grave and pathetic to a ha-ha joak,
but actually does what its name says, it provides relief from the
tension of the knotting into of plots, but, Paradoxically, CR
intensifies the grave themes, so it does not reduce the painful to a
joak, but allows us a little comic in our stronger coffee.