Mindful Pleasures

[David Morris]

Mindful Pleasure.

In V. Pynchon contrast Benny versus Stencil.  Neither is mindful.
Benny is all  Earthiness, pleasure, animal.
Stencil is all theory, mentality, fear of experience.
Neither is mindful, but they are opposites.

So what is mindful pleasure?

Not Benny nor Stencil.
It is elusive in Pynchon's writing.
I think it would be the most natural state, Zen, Tao.
And I think it is what Slothrup achieves at the end of GR.

David Morris

On Sunday, March 23, 2014, David Morris
<fqmorris at gmail.com<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','fqmorris at gmail.com');>>
wrote:

> Mindless:
> http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mindless
> 1
> *a* *:*  marked by a lack of mind or consciousness <a *mindless*sleep>
> *b **(1)* *:*  marked by or displaying no use of the powers of the
> intellect <*mindless* violence> *(2)* *:*  requiring little attention or
> thought; *especially* *:*  not intellectually challenging or stimulating <
> *mindless* work> <a *mindless* movie>
>
> Pleasures:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasure<*mindless* of the consequences>
> *Pleasure* describes the broad class of mental states that humans<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humans> and
> other animals <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals>experience as
> positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. It includes more specific mental
> states such as happiness <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness>,
> entertainment <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment>, enjoyment<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enjoyment>
> , ecstasy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstasy_(emotion)>, and euphoria<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphoria_(emotion)>.
> Inpsychology <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology>, the pleasure
> principle <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasure_principle_(psychology)> describes
> pleasure as a positive feedback<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_feedback> mechanism,
> motivating the organism to recreate in the future the situation which it
> has just found pleasurable. According to this theory, organisms are
> similarly motivated to avoid situations that have caused pain<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffering> in
> the past.[*citation needed
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed>*]
>
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