Re: GR translation: what hep humorists here are already calling “Critical Mass”

[Mark Kohut]

There are at least three-four types of wonderful Empsonian ambiguity at
work here with 'critical mass', I think. Including  'mass' meaning heaps
of, in size, in number, and with that phrase, "the mass of humanity'  in
play, etc.

 Teilhard de Chardin, cited, would have been very 'superhepcat-to-hepcat'
in 1945; de Chardin, whose major ideas were in hepcat circulation in
1945--the book in which they occur, *The Phenomenen of Man *was written in
the thirties but not published in English until 1955 argued that human
evolution was moving to an inevitable critical mass wherein the Omega Point
(some kind of Cosmic Consciousness) would be reached. Here the narrator
finds the total loss of 'freedom' in that condition.  Those theologian
types do wonders of acrobatics with the concepts of freedom and determinism
and souls and God. Narrator and novel seem to vote for 'freedom' as the
human vision, right?

A condition in which 'freedom' has lost its meaning--the text-- dovetails
with de Chardin's beliefs maybe, wherein we all merge as individual
consciousnesses into a (new) kind of Mystical Body. "against return"
refers, I think, to Chardin's revolutionary theology which offered an
eschatological vision removed from this known physical world. Much Catholic
eschatology did offer THIS world transformed as the future to come. I
believe this was the official Church teaching in some variations, which is
why de Chardin was not liked by the Established Church.

This adds to the subversion/blasphemy/ imaginative transformation of
Rapier's "Critical Mass"---and, of course, Mass in the Catholic tradition
is *very *critical because unlike the Protestant versions of Christianity,
Catholicism believes in actual transubstantiation with Communion.

My memory of Against the Day says that 'mass' returns in maybe even more
types of Empsonian ambiguity, maybe up to seven
(which might be in play here if you look up all the etymological nuances of
'mass').

On Tue, Jul 18, 2017 at 8:37 PM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> V539.10-24, P548.12-26   DEVIL’S ADVOCATE’S what the shingle sez, yes
> inside is a Jesuit here to act in that capacity, here to preach, like his
> colleague Teilhard de Chardin, against return. Here to say that critical
> mass cannot be ignored. Once the technical means of control have reached a
> certain size, a certain degree of being connected one to another, the
> chances for freedom are over for good. The word has ceased to have meaning.
> It’s a potent case Father Rapier makes here, not without great moments of
> eloquence, moments when he himself is clearly moved . . . no need even to
> be there, at the office, for visitors may tune in from anywhere in the
> Convention to his passionate demonstrations, which often come in the midst
> of celebrating what hep humorists here are already calling “Critical Mass”
> (get it? not too many did in 1945, the Cosmic Bomb was still trembling in
> its earliness, not yet revealed to the People, so you heard the term only
> in the very superhepcat-to-hepcat exchanges).
>
> Does the word "critical" here refer to the nature of Father Rapier's
> sermon, as in "given to adverse or unfavourable criticism"?
> I'm aware of the pun, of course.
>
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