BTZ42Reed: Von B's epigraph

[Mark Kohut]

Beyond extinction....comes up again all over GR.....late use (will find,
past page 700) clearly makes your point there although
we know TRP loves the uncertainty of double meanings at once.

On Tue, Mar 15, 2016 at 6:35 PM, Thomas Eckhardt <
thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de> wrote:

> Steven C. Weisenburger ("Gravity's Rainbow Companion", 2nd edition, p. 15)
> quotes Pynchon's source for the epigraph, William Nichols's "Third Book of
> Words to Live By" from 1962, as determined by Joseph Tabbi ("Postmodern
> Sublime", 5-6, according to Weisenburger) in full. What Pynchon left out is
> at least as interesting as what he used.
>
> Here is the former SS-Sturmbannführer in his own words, presumably at the
> end of the 50s or the beginning of the 60s:
>
> -----
>
> Why I Believe in Immortality
>
> "I believe ... that the soul of Man is immortal and will be treated with
> justice in another life respecting its conduct in this."
> --Benjamin Franklin
>
> Today more than ever before, our survival--yours and mine and our
> children's---depends on our adherence to ethical principles. Ethics alone
> will decide whether atomic energy will be an earthly blessing or the source
> of mankind's utter destruction.
> Where does the desire for ethical action come from? What makes us want to
> be ethical? I believe that there are two forces that move us. One is belief
> in a Last Judgment, when every one of us has to account for what we did
> with God's great gift of life on earth. The other is belief in an immortal
> soul, a soul which will cherish the reward or suffer the penalty decreed in
> a final Judgment.
> Belief in God and immortality thus give us the moral strength and the
> ethical guidance we need for virtually every action in our daily lives.
> In our modern world many people seem to feel that science has somehow made
> such "religious ideas" untimely or old-fashioned.
> But I think science has a real surprise for sceptics. Science, for
> instance, tells us that nothing in nature, not even the tiniest particle,
> can disappear without a trace.
> Think about that for a moment. Once you do, your thoughts about life will
> never be the same.
> Science has found that nothing can disappear without a trace. Nature does
> not know extinction. All it knows is transformation!
> Now, if God applies this fundamental principle to the most minute and
> insignificant parts of His universe, doesn't it make sense to assume that
> He applies it also the masterpiece of his creation---the human soul?  I
> think it does. And everything that science has taught me--and continues to
> teach me---strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual
> existence after death. Nothing disappears without a trace."
>
> -----
> The irony is overwhelming. As far as I am concerned, Tom Lehrer has said
> everything there is to be said about von Braun's "ethical principles."
>
> For all I know, however, von Braun may be serious. Compare the interesting
> press statement he gave after he surrendered to the Americans:
>
> "We knew that we had created a new means of warfare, and the question as
> to what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to entrust this
> brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else. We wanted
> to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been
> through, and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who
> are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best
> secured."
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun#Surrender_to_the_Americans
>
> "Ethical principles", "moral decision"... Perhaps von Braun actually
> believes this. Perhaps he is only telling the American public what he
> thinks is best for him. Which, if you ask me, is more likely.
>
> "A new means of warfare", indeed, leading to the possibility of "mankind's
> utter destruction."
>
> Note the prominence of the Last Judgment in the source text for the
> epigraph and the "judgment from which there is no appeal" close to the
> beginning of GR:
>
> "The road which ought to be opening out into a broader highway, instead
> has been getting narrower, more broken, cornering tighter and tighter until
> all at once, much too soon, they are under the final arch: brakes grab and
> spring terribly. It is a judgment from which there is no appeal."
>
> The passage obviously alludes to the final judgment which is so important
> to von Braun's argument in support of "ethical principles." This is
> probably no concidence.
>
> Pynchon adds the "final arch" which I would argue is the "strait gate"
> from Matthew 7:13--23, one of the most important sources for the idea of a
> final judgment:
>
> "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the
> way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
> Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,
> and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you
> in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know
> them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
> Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree
> bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit,
> neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth
> not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Therefore, by
> their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me: Lord,
> Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of
> my Father which is in Heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
> have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils?
> and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto
> them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
>
> In GR a total inversion of this passage takes place: The ever narrowing
> roads (a long-standing Pynchon trope -- compare, for example, the narrowing
> of possibilites in M&D) running towards the strait and final gate lead to
> the final judgment. And in this case, as we have already heard about the
> "second sheep", there can be no doubt about the judgment.
>
> Against this background, I propose to read the passage in GR as a dark
> satire of von Braun's stance in the source text for the epigraph, made
> American by the recourse to Calvinist theology: While von Braun speaks of
> "ethical principles" that presumably would allow people like him to get
> through Judgment Day unharmed, his own scientific accomplishments have in
> fact only lead to death and destruction for the not so elect during WW II
> as well as to the threat of nuclear holocaust.
>
> Not his department...
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20160316/fcd76d93/attachment.html>