BtZ42 Scene 16, Roger, Jessica, love, demob, religious longing and Puccini, et al.

[Mark Kohut]

What a lyrical appreciation of the cultural meaning beyond religion, below
religion, outside of religion, in the West of course, of Christmas. A
religious-infused Catholic genius could write it--and he did. we know TRP
loves Christmas, it seems, from elsewhere too.

With the 'Is it just gas?" line; with p. 135 "the plaster baby, the oxen
frosted with gold leaf and the human-eyed sheep are turning real again,
paint quickens to flesh."   [Transubstantiation-like]....and "To believe is
not a price they pay--it happens all by itself." ....."like a thrill, a
good time you wanted too much, not a complete loss but still too far short
of a miracle".

On Thu, Jul 7, 2016 at 10:39 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> Here is my current version of chapter summary. A bit more than a map, as
> there is not that much plot to map, but leaving plenty of room for
> elaboration. Can we revive this group read? I really personally am  hoping
> for more inputs during the zone section which I feel less sure about my own
> understanding. The reading thus far has been more energizing and
> surprisingly relevant than anticipted.
> Scene+++16
> Jessica and Roger have intense sexual pleasure with each other and play
> sweetly, there is scene where she takes off blouse in car and they are
> stared at by midgets in truck. He is jealous of possible rival in Jeremy.
> One day he wakes in White Visitation with a strand of J's hair in his
> mouth. She hadn't been there and he begins to freak out a bit with all the
> psi people about, he wants to get away realizing the only thing that
> matters to him is Jessica, that his mother the War may be jealous.  He sees
> her as a wave of life that has put him out of reach of past and future, on
> the beach( under the pavement, the beach) He is ready to abandon his
> cynicism. Jessica has stable 3 year relation with Jeremy who is more
> cheerful than the dour, when not having sex, Roger.   They are passing a
> church on Christmas and R, to J's surprise wants to go in and she does
> also. Jamaican man is singing in choir, the writing solemn and graceful and
> weirdly surreal with lists. Pynchon's long, 7th Christmas of the War sermon
> letting light sing like evensong through the endless details of the
> machinery and humanity of wartime London;  not  a children's story, a
> messa++ge for adults only a call past war id's, past false boundaries and
> caesar appointed roles and addresses, sounding the way home.
> There is a contrast being drawn here where the sermon becomes a prayer for
> humanness, for the holding to one's breast of a child who is just a child
> of God not messiah,  not king but a call to freedom from assigned
> identities and assigned enemies and all the planted guidance mechanisms of
> culture , even perhaps a profound rejection of culture itself. This sermon
> gains its power and beauty by being contrasted with the machinations of
> authority, Feldspath's ghost and the aspiration to shaping  internal
> control systems, the implanted gyroscopic guidance of a rocket or any tool
> of imperial will, the plans of Pointsman. The sermon seems to rise from the
> debris of the war, from the sordidness, beauty and ordinary carrying on of
> London in 1944 and Jerusalem in the last days of the Herodian dynasty.
>
> > On Jul 6, 2016, at 9:13 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > pp 120-136. I am not going to do a summary, since the map is not the
> territory,  but anyone can
> > who wants to can and it should be appreciated by all and with or without
> that, I urge all to
> > simply reread these few pages again after following along so far, no
> matter how many times and
> > how busy you are.
> >
> > Because the flag is flagging as it does.
> >
> > Because to feel the verbal territory anew is like fresh water in summer
> and, I bet, if you follow
> > the bouncing verbal ball in your head, you will feel/see something NEW
> or something old you
> > haven't thought of since your last reading. (and I'm gonna try to make a
> few new connections)
> >
> > It's about Love, after all.
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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