Black Holes in the collective unconscious

[Smoke Teff]

"He is also not so dedicated to Aglican doctrine or hierarchy  as he
is to friendly end equitable human relations and open to any spiritual
experience that might explain the loss of his wife"

Good thing to emphasize as we follow Mason forward.

"Only the Taoists and similarly disposed non-dualists seek to diffuse
and neutralize this balance, make it into a circle where death and
life, dark and light,  are equally needful to the whole."

Is this true beyond the spiritual traditions we've seen depicted in
the first ~300pg. of the novel? Are there not any systems of
mythistory and iconography that assign special and integral power to
the spiritual forces of the night?

All the rest of this is really great thinking--I like everything you
say about Pynchon's quasi-binary interpretation of the Black Hole of
Calcutta.


On Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 1:58 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> Black Hole
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> Black - absence of light,  presence of all pigments,  mysterious, unknowable, unseeable, zoroastrian- spiritual darkness/ equivalent of evil,  death, unlit underworld,  unillumined space between the stars,  for some semitic bible interpreters black skin was the mark of Cain ((cursed son of Adam and Eve (Moses married Ethiopian woman and Shulamite of the Song of Songs was black skinned so perhaps not so clear)), during colonial perod skin color became  the base for a caste system favoring white skin and denigrating black, the day night cycle.the pupil of the eye
>
> This relation of consciousness and life  to the light/dark spectrum is more than just cultural. Because of its omnipresent physical importance there is practically no way for it not to assume  major cultural significance. Only the Taoists and similarly disposed non-dualists seek to diffuse and neutralize this balance, make it into a circle where death and life, dark and light,  are equally needful to the whole.
>
>  Interestingly Pynchon actually moves the reader through many permutations of culture and direct experience in relation to blackness and whiteness. We find that Mason’s original interest in the stars, that ultimate field of light and dark was kindled as an avenue into a larger scale of being , but also that he is an earthy man with powerful human appetites and that he is conflicted by the subservience of astronomic inquiry to the political goals of empire and commerce. He is also not so dedicated to Aglican doctrine or hierarchy  as he is to friendly end equitable human relations and open to any spiritual experience that might explain the loss of his wife. The corruption he sees and the corruption he suspects fits the doctrine of original sin, but moral and philosophical questions are settled in his life as much by the pressures of survival as by a free inquiry.  Even the balance of light and dark in the heavens is not a neutral refuge, even the self declared freedom of the American revolution continues much of the cruelty of the colonial project.
>
> In my reading Pynchon marks the Black Hole of Calcutta as a combination of 2 interconneced  mythic forces. One is the potentially terrifying end of the colonial project where all that the white europeans  have done to others is visited on them and both individual and culture is forced to see that it has created a hell and deserves to inherit that utter dismemberment of humanity and biospheric balance that it has pursued. Thus The Black Hole comes to haunt  the psyche as the ultimate fear.( This theme of dreadful revenge first appears in stories in Slow Learner) The second is an act of denial and reversal that is breath-taking in its bold dishonesty and common as dirt, the Black Hole becomes a rallying point for for the continuation of violence against non-whites.The violence of those who resist subjugation is seen as the innate violent nature of the uncivilized and the core difference between the fair-skinned and the darker skinned.
>   Is there a 3rd option? A zero point of potential recreation from dissolution? Is it simply the gracious acceptance of death and a humble rebirth as part of a whole rather than the almighty I.  As I read Pynchon, the darkest places always contain this seed.
>
>   As readers we go from the midwinter warmth and safety of  an extended egalitarian family, asked to identify with  curious chidren on the brink of the adult world,  on a global journey which takes us through the heart of the age of enlightenment, from the old world with its many layers through the cruel beginnings of corporate capitalism,  sexual adventures, spiritual quests,  philosophic questions,  to wilderness and cultural adventures in the new world. The entire story is shaped by questions of ownership and boundaries, who owns what and how boundaries are made and maintained.
>
>  This could be grim stuff but it can also be hilarious as we smoke pot with George Washington and his black Hebrew plantation manager, catch Cherrycoke’s subversive jokes, or consider the passionate lovesick flight of the mechanical duck of the future.  And Pychon brings in Taoists and children’s questions and native people to   point at a different set of boundary making forces: rivers, mountains, kivas, earth serpents and feng shui masters suggesting magnetic lines, cultural conversation, regard for beauty, balance of power, mutual respect, friendliness.
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