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

[Mike Jing]

Fascinating. Thanks for the thoughtful reply, Mark.

On Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 6:25 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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