On "Mindless Pleasures",

[Jeff Sunbury]

Ambiguity, thy name is Pynchon.


On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 9:40 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

> "O happy dagger, / This is they sheath; there rust and let me
> die"---Juliet...
> The Latin for sheath is *vagina. *
> **
> The more I think on it, the more I think, yes, as Morris wrote,  Slothrop's
> ego dies; Blicero dies in ecstasy....Pynchon's 'ambiguous' on both edges of
> meanings with first title? His wont.
>
>
>
>
>   *From:* Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> *To:* David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> *Cc:* pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> *Sent:* Sunday, May 12, 2013 9:18 AM
>
> *Subject:* Re: On "Mindless Pleasures",
>
>   In a book on Shakespeare by A.S. Nuttall, I find this summary of a
> concept we have explored
> in discussing Pynchon in GR. Perhaps it is the way I can finally see
> Morris's point, if it is (part of) Morris's
> point? ....anyway, another possible slant on that alternate title?
>
> "the internal character of ecstasy seems to oscillate between maximum
> intensity of experience and an extinction
> of experience. One feels as one has never felt before and at the same
> time the experiencing mind is blotted out,
> one drops into nothingness. That is why "die' became a slang word for
> "orgasm". [He sez.]
>
> [He adds: " The theme [of love "replacing" sexual  ecstasy] will grow
> under Shakespeare's hand as he moves from *Love's Labour Lost*
> *to Romeo & Juliet]*
>
>   *From:* David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> *To:* Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> *Cc:* pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> *Sent:* Friday, May 10, 2013 4:50 PM
> *Subject:* Re: On "Mindless Pleasures",
>
> Slothrup becomes the Buddha before disappearing.
>
> "Mindless" may be taken to mean something other than a contrast to
> "mindfulness."  I don't know if that term was even used back then.  "Be
> here now" was common, but "mindfulness?"
>
> Buddhist meditation involves stilling the frantic mind (sometimes called
> the Monkey Mind) by focusing on what might be called mindless: eg.  the
> sensation of breathing to the exclusion of all narration.  The goal being
> to find a place within, still & quiet, from which to let chaos of
> "thinking" become external, something to observe w/o letting it control
> one's central being.  "Just Being" as opposed to Thinking.
>
> "Mindless" back then might actually mean what is now called (ubiquitously)
> "Mindfulness."
>
> David Morris
>
> On Friday, May 10, 2013, Mark Kohut wrote:
>
>  the working title of GR, as we know. Is there anything known,
> or have we bloviated yet on that possible title, used all the way
> through submitted manuscript copies to paperback houses
> to read and bid for paperback rights?
>
> What would be the mindless pleasures in GR? All of them?
> Everything in it?
>
> And, this occurred to me last evening, prompting this post: maybe
> this title was a working contrast to the concept of Mindfulness in
> Buddhist thought?
>
> Anyone, anyone, Bueller? Bueller?
>
>
>
>
>
>
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