Black Holes in the collective unconscious

Tue Feb 20 04:41:11 CST 2018

I am reminded in this context of our beloved author stating
that History is a Step-Function...

step func·tion
*noun*
MATHEMATICSELECTRONICS

   1. a function that increases or decreases abruptly from one constant
   value to another.

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In mathematics, a function on the real numbers is called a step function (or
staircase function) if it can be written as a finite linear combination of
indicator functions of intervals. Informally speaking, a step function is a
piecewise constant function having only finitely many pieces.
‎Definition and first ...
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step_function#Definition_and_first_consequences>
 · ‎Examples <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step_function#Examples> · ‎
Properties <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step_function#Properties>

Zero Point is the abruptness of change...

On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 11:52 AM, Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:

> Black hole as zero point as...
>
> if you look at history dialectically, as consisting of antagonisms
> between fluctuating anti/theses...
>
> Do we ever return to zero? Or is the return to zero a fallacy?
>
> Sine waves have regular zero-points. Maybe this is a good 2-d model
> for our limited, linear brains.
>
> On Mon, Feb 19, 2018 at 6:45 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> > And, in a lesser range of meanings,--maybe I'm repeating myself?--zero
> > point, from the energy and Cartesian meaning, is when history starts
> again
> > (in some way).
> >
> > When the past is overturned (Colonizers imprisoned).
> >
> > The Black Hole is mentioned in Looking Backward (1888) by Edward Bellamy
> as
> > an example of the depravity of the past.
> >
> > On Sun, Feb 18, 2018 at 6:16 PM, Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> The BHoC is brought into the novel in a series of chapters that seem
> >> to bring special attention to human eyes. Eyes as representative of
> >> human consciousness in the Age of Reason, on the
> >> individual/ego-identification level and the
> >> collective/governmental/panoptic level. The eye as spherical as the
> >> globe. A white globe with a black pupil at its center--we are
> >> encouraged to regard Rebekah's, Cornelius's, and Dieter's eyes in such
> >> a way within relative proximity to the focus on the Black Hole.
> >>
> >> White is associated with the hyperactive, obsessively conscious forces
> >> of government, of hegemonic power, throughout P's work.
> >>
> >> The Black Hole is offered as a kind of pupil-like eruption of chaos
> >> amid the whitened eyes of the conscious-unto-insanity--perhaps this
> >> chaos contains within it the violent promise of racial retribution.
> >>
> >> Violent anyway because it is the collapse of all that is repressed
> >> into a point of unfathomable density.
> >>
> >>
> >> Thinking about it this way, eyes and spheres and planets, the Black
> >> Hole seems topographically analogous to the journey toward the center
> >> of the Earth in AtD.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sun, Feb 18, 2018 at 5:07 PM, Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> > "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
> >> >>
> >> >> 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.
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> -
> >> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >> -
> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >
> >
>
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