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

[Mark Kohut]

"There's no such person as an ex-Catholic"--Charles Simmons.

True of Pynchon in some senses too.....

On Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 10:58 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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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