Gnostic Myth-Making...? + notes from waste archives

[Lemuel Underwing]

Oh cool I was gonna ask if you could link it cause I couldn't find it but
after a quick google search it was the first page to come up.



Enjoyed the vibin' on the Orpheus theme. I can definitely see how Coy's
story fits into the Orpheus myth as snugly modified by Pynchon, if only in
the broader sense of the life-death-rebirth sorta thing modulated through
Doc's marijuana haze. It almost makes me wanna go back to* Inherent Vice *and
see what other myths have been vaguely molded into it.              (*Almost
*. Yeah. I wasn't terribly impressed with I.V.)

Thanks for sharin'



On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 7:33 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> OK serious fuck up. I accidentally attributed an essay By Michael Jarvis
> UC Riverside to K Hume. Different take on a similar theme.
> On May 23, 2013, at 4:47 PM, Joseph Tracy wrote:
>
> > I remembered having posted one or 2 times on P's use of the Orpheus
> myth. So with an intro from L Underwing and Kathryn Hume i am reposting
> below a post /essay I wrote while reading IV.  I still tend to think that
> gnosticism in its traditional meaning is a stretch, but that P uses the
> realm of myth as one of the layers of his 3 tiered
> fictional/historic/mythic world. Some of it is play and some is serious and
> none is either dismissable or fully trustworthy.
> > At the time of my writing about this I had not read Hume and am just
> starting the essay here quoted today during the patches of sodden downpour.
> >
> > On May 22, 2013, at 11:51 PM, Lemuel Underwing wrote:
> >
> >> So if Miss Hume is convincing in her argument that one of Pynchon's
> main stabilizing functions is his Myth-Making (and I think she is), and
> furthermore that it is a type of Gnostic Myth with a Twist,
> >
> > This paper deals with mythological/religious imagery and syncretic
> soteriologies in Thomas Pynchon’s 2006 novel Against the Day, focusing in
> particular on the character of Cyprian Latewood, bisexual spy, Orpheus
> stand-in, and masochist par excellence. Cyprian’s path throughout the novel
> is specifically an Orphic descent/return myth, but it also deals with
> issues of mystical transcendence, metempsychosis, Dionysian ekstasis, and
> Buddhist nirvana. These are represented at the macro level in themes such
> as retreat from the world, neo-monasticism, anarchic activism, or hope for
> transcendent knowledge, and also within specific images and scenes, such as
> those involving flight, self-negation, disembodied voices, and the final
> voyage of the Chums of Chance, a Manichaean allegory of escape. Cyprian’s
> final home at a Bogomil-Orphic monastery near Thrace serves to tie together
> disparate religio-political strands within the novel, including a syncretic
> teleology (Gnostic/Buddhist/Manichaean) and countercultural activism. It is
> simultaneously a retreat from the world – a political move with relevance
> to the history of the Bogomils as both persecuted sect and social agitators
> – and also a move towards transcendence through gnostic ritual.
> >                       Opening paragraph of one of Hume's essays
> >
> >> From the waste archives
> > To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l@[omitted]>
> > From: Joseph Tracy <brook7@[omitted]>
> > Subject: Coy
> > Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:06:26 -0400
> >
> > Coy Harlingen :Heroin addict, Sax player session man, undercover
> > agent for cops,/Vigilant/FBI ?, husband of Hope, father of Amethyst,
> > seeker of return home( Jason,
> > Orpheus
> > , Euridice).
> >
> > Coy:  The politics of heroin in Southeast Asia ( Harper &Row)
> > by Alfred W McCoy - Mark Kohut wrote: Coy was on heroin; just a Mc
> > short of McCoy on heroin......... Coy- hard to get
> >
> > Harlingen   -  Harlingen Texas ( named after Harlingen, Netherlands ,
> > Frisian version of same name as Harlinton, Middlex) far south near
> > brownsville 80% mexican was airforce base, almost died when base
> > closed -harley- lingo- ingen- gen  .  ARLINGTON CEMETERY :  named
> > after virginia town which was named after Harlington, Middlesex
> > Name etymology:  Place( open field)  of the army , Ton= town
> > Harley' s (HD)  also have connections to war(Pancho Villa , WW1)and
> > heroin (Hells angels,Easy Rider)   Harlequin-romance stories
> >
> > I think Coy Harlingen's story is a version of the
> > Orpheus and  Euridice story of Greek myth which may be a major mythic
> refrain of
> > the novel. It takes up a regular pattern and theme of Pynchon's
> > fiction in journeys to the underworld( Vheissu, Chumps of Chance
> > hollow earth/ sub sand machine witch, caves in Mexico/ in Colorado/
> > Switzerland, down urinal, caves in Peenemunde, subtext, underwater
> > bones, Dante', Lemuria etc....)
> > One of the main forms this journey takes is an immersion into the
> > great game of  imperial espionage, undercover operations and
> > underground resistance.  Often those who travel this way experience a
> > crisis point when they find the game is simply a lucrative and greedy
> > cover and themselves implicated in serving people and actions which
> > are despicable.  What happens then varies , some seem unable to
> > emerge, some disappear in transcendence beyond the knowledge of self
> > or reader. Some, perhaps most, bounce like yo-yos.  Some journeys
> > turn back  toward something more humble that you might call home,
> > usually without so much sentiment, often flawed, but a  place with
> > love, family , friends, dogs, hope. Whether there is such a place is
> > not easily answered.
> >
> > Whatever the origins, the character of Orpheus has generated myth,
> > legend and supposed history( as teacher and founder of mystery
> > religions).  He is always a musician and was the lyre player aboard
> > the Argo who played so beautifully that he broke the spell of the
> > sirens over Jason. In this chapter Jason is a pimp who is under the
> > spell of flash, cash,  and stash and is naive and unable to control
> > "his" women and admires the slick operation of the Golden Fang. Doc
> > goes from Jason to a bar where there is a torch singer who has him
> > pretty intrigued but he is even more drawn by the musical
> > reappearance of Coy Harlingen and is caught up again in the implied
> > story of a homecoming in the house of the Harlingens.
> >
> > The major story of Orpheus is his love story with Euridice .
> > Supposedly on the day of his wedding, Euridice is chased by Aristaeus
> > the son of Apollo into a nest of snakes and bitten.  Coy meets Hope
> > in a junkie bar ( nest of poison injectors)  on the Mexican border in
> > the loo where they shit out and puke up packets of heroin and are
> > soon injecting together ( a 2 fanged serpent). In the myth
> > Orpheus,  upon Euridice's loss, plays music so sad it moves the gods and
> they
> > advise him to go to the underworld to plead with Hades which he
> > successfully does.  In this story both Hope and Coy are sinking into
> > addiction and watching their child drink milk laced with heroin from
> > Hope's breasts when Coy OD's in mysterious circumstances and Hope
> > never sees the body and questions his death.  The song that moves the
> > reader's hearts and Doc's is the powerful evidence of a Love from
> > both Coy and Hope.  When we meet her she is healthy , recovered,
> > attractive (apart from her false teeth), and has ample money which
> > appeared when Coy "died" and/or disappeared into the underworld. Her
> > daughter is healthy, curious and lively. But what Hope really wants
> > is her husband and clearly not to resume the habit.
> >
> > Coy's journey is revealed in pieces more slowly. First we find him in
> > the Club Asiatique where he gets paid, but doesn't know who he works
> > for.. He is straight now and living with the Boards and concerned
> > about Hope & Amethyst.  He tells the Doc GF is a boat with smuggled
> > goods and dangerous. We see him next at the Boards place where Doc
> > gives him a coded message amidst an  atmosphere of intense paranoia
> > that H& A are OK.  The Boards are so blinded by egotism they don't
> > even know their sax player is the reputedly dead Coy. Then he shows
> > at the Nixon rally and Penny says he is a cop snitch.  In Ch 10 he is
> > playing with the chanteuse and tells Doc he took the offer to work
> > undercover to get straight and serve his country . Now he has
> > realized that the people he is working for are not protecting people
> > but addicted to war and control/power/money. His addiction is dead
> > but he is still trapped in the underworld.  He misses his wife and
> > child, his only consolation is music.
> >
> > Now Plato says
> > Orpheus
> > is a weak willed coward who if he had any
> > manliness would have died . But Plato was a fascist prick and the
> > ultimate ideologist. Pynchon seems to have arranged things more along
> > the lines of where there's Life there's Hope or vice versa. Like
> > committing honorable seppukku is really not the way to save your
> > marriage ( or much else).
> >
> > In the myth, Orpheusis allowed to lead Euridice out of hell if he
> > trusts Hades and Euridice enough to not turn around to check up
> > before escaping. He fails and sings sad music until killed by women.
> >
> > As a parable of addiction this is pretty accurate; the recovered
> > person can lead the way but can't set the other free. That is a step
> > by step process they must take themselves.  As a parable of
> > unconsolable love as a source of the saddest and most beautiful music
> > it works well also. Somehow the saddest music purifies cleanses and
> > renews the will to love.
> >
> >
> > Love guarantees neither success nor failure in the short term,  some
> > addicts recover , some don't,  families and marriages heal and they
> > fall apart, nations occasionally heal.  In  a version  of the myth,
> >
> > Orpheus refuses women after Euridice's death and consoles himself
> > with boys. This sounds to me a sad explanation for homoerotic love
> > and art. Even the greeks could not fully accept this aspect of human
> > diversity.
> >
> > What is the way back from, or away from  war as a way of life? What
> > is the way back from or away from our many addiction's. Can anyone
> > or anything break the hold of ego and greed enough to heal this
> > paranoid country. Neither TV nor not TV, neither sex nor not sex,
> > neither information nor not information. Pynchon saturates us with
> > the detritus and the weighty issues of the early 70s until we are
> > reeling with it. Things haven't changed much. The gods of our age are
> > hard to move. Pynchon documents the course of empire and resistance
> > as it affects every type of individual, using satire, cultural
> > insanity, and moments of sheer horror to diffuse simplistic self
> > satisfaction and jolt the mind awake.
> >
> > One of the great gifts of our times are the people who have ventured
> > into the dark places and come back to tell the truth, but the
> > greatest power of these visionaries is when they lead people out of
> > hell.  I think of people like Bayard Rustin, Pete Seeger, Aung San
> > Suu Kyi Dorothy Day, but  just as much, maybe even more on a personal
> > level, one thinks of  the friends and teachers and bakers and makers
> > and children who surprise us with courage grace and insight , empathy
> > and love, and information we can use.  I think one thing Pynchon is
> > trying to do is showing the struggle to escape the powers of hades as
> > it plays out in the confused, compromised realities of average
> > screwed up people. The lights may be rare but they  come through the
> > cracks in the world..
> >
> >
>
>
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