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

Fri May 24 16:16:21 CDT 2013

St Helena is a good enough stand in for hell

On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 4:38 PM, Lemuel Underwing <luunderwing at gmail.com>wrote:

> There are certainly heavy allusions to Orpheus & Eurydice in Mason's
> yearning for his deceased wife. Tho' nothing so fruitful as a journey to
> Hades occurs.
>
>
> On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 11:33 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Nice post no matter.
>>
>> There is a creative mini-recreation of the Orpheus myth in the
>> Cyprian-Yashmeen section of Against the Day.
>> And other places, I think.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>    *From:* Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
>> *To:* P-list List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> *Sent:* Thursday, May 23, 2013 8:33 PM
>> *Subject:* Re: Gnostic Myth-Making...? + notes from waste archives
>>
>> 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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