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

[Mark Kohut]

As has been said of that famous ex-Catholic, James Joyce, with paradoxical
insight.

On Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 11:02 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> "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.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20170720/d3fbe6b4/attachment.html>