NP really, but maybe. But if I am right

Tue May 7 16:21:48 CDT 2013

This is quite a sentence -- apologizing for sounding pompous, then roaring off on a roll of pomposity.

 [Sorry if I'm sounding pompous- too much Trebbiano, and the rest of the Mediterranean diet, sans the fish, chicken and cheese, for me, of course, but even with that, it really is good for you! I encourage all P--listers to make a move in that direction] And given its Greeky-ness, I'd have to say: Mentor, or better, Mentor/Athena.

-----Original Message-----
From: bandwraith <bandwraith at aol.com>
To: pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Mon, May 6, 2013 11:18 pm
Subject: Re: NP really, but maybe. But if I am right

I think- not. It's not Giles Goat-Boy, but it is of the "Campus" genre, and true to that form, it poses some academic-type questions, but like Giles, it's verging on Pomo, so it tends to undermine the "Received wisdom".  [Sorry if I'm sounding pompous- too much Trebbiano, and the rest of the Mediterranean diet, sans the fish, chicken and cheese, for me, of course, but even with that, it really is good for you! I encourage all P--listers to make a move in that direction] And given its Greeky-ness, I'd have to say: Mentor, or better, Mentor/Athena.

Which raises a very interesting dilemma:- is Gnossos Odysseus, or is he, Telemachus? Is he father, or is he son? Orthodox Easter having just passed has got me thinking on such things- the old Homoousian/Homoiousian ( you can look that up y'rself, as well as the parallels between BDSL and the Odyssey/Telemachia) conundrum. Certainly, he is both and neither. Overlaying the classic Greek myths is Christianity, in its various guises, and by Farina's time, Freudian Psychoanalysis, and rampant secularism.

If Christianity inverted the Oedipal myth- the Father now sacrificing the Son- then Freudian Psychoanalysis allowed for a secular resolution of both, apparently opposite, but murderous impulses, or at least, a dialectical resolution, of sorts. All this would be part of the Received Wisdom by Farina's time.

Enter Blacknesse, who would act as Gnossos's mentor and perhaps spiritual guide. He encourages an Eastern-style technique- look inward. There is a beast lurking there, of course, which will manifest itself in due time. It is the beast which bridges the gap between father-like and son-like aspects of our hero. Pynchon is more like a brother, in the Freudian sense.

There might be a parallel between Blacknesse and that Bete noire that lurks around ATD, in the sense that one must become (own) the beast within- i.e., take responsibility, or admit, those murderous/explosive impulses within, in order to understand, ultimately, one's own being, as a man.

On another level, the embeddedness-ness of the son in the father, or the father in the son (let Wordsworth sort it out) reminds me of certain aspects of computational theory regarding analog v. digital computation, especially from the perspective of Universal Turing Machines. Enough. I'm out of Trebbiano...

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sat, May 4, 2013 10:48 am
Subject: Re: NP really, but maybe. But if I am right

From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Saturday, May 4, 2013 6:32 AM
Subject: NP really, but maybe. But if I am right 

about Calvin Blacknesse as essentially Pynchon in BEEN DOWN SO LONG there is this:
he is a painter, he can draw..."Blacknesse sketching him [Gnossos] roughly with a broad-
nibbed peen, delineating features, unable to prevent the emergence of satyrs and nympths
from the tangle of hair. His own brow curled and wrinkled, dark eyes searching, hinting 
vaguely, as always, at the uncertain, the nearly defined."......p.76

One nice simple way to describe a lifelong thrust of TRP's art, yes? 

on the next page comes this exchange: 
CB: "Ah, you'll forgive an intuition, then?"
GP: "Swhat I'm here for man, I'm uptight"
CB: "The immortality worm has been chewing."
GP: "What if it has?"
CB: "Try chewing back."

Get on with the work. 

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