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

[Seymour Landnau]

I thought about mentioning a type of phenomenon of "critical mass" before a
realization of "cosmic consciousness," which really is just a realization
of consciousness, but I never quite reached that critical mass yesterday
necessary before actually writing an email.

I might add that the "evolution" toward "cosmic consciousness" is an
illusion.  We, and the cosmos, already are consciousness, it's just that we
are currently *acting *like we're clueless, fearful, limited, that our
brains produce consciousness that is contained in the skull, and we're *acting
*like we're evolving apes who have invented language and technology, so
forth.



On Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 10:31 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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