Grace via Thomas Aquinas

[Mark Kohut]

I also love and laugh at P's jape at Hemingway, famous
for HIS secular 'grace under pressure" vision of courageous human beings.
As Lew experiences grace after merging on the other side of that
pressure-caused (by definition) bomb blast. LOL.

TRP is the best allusive laugh riot since......Shakespeare? (I do not
mean this literally)


On 1/29/18, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> I, too, to be clear about my reading, see the ending of AtD as one of
> the most profound ambiguities in (all) literature (that I know).
>
> As Empson shows in that classic I allude to too much, Seven Types of
> Ambiguity,
> genius writers use words, conceits, local and overarching metaphors
> with profound
> double (or more) meanings.
>
> And, P, a writer who argues in all his work against either-or, his
> instantiation, so to speak, of willed ambiguity, I think the ending of
> AtD might be all Joseph says AND a flying off to death
> as well.
>
>  Because that does happen next chronologically to the world which the
> Chums and Pynchon have created.
>
>
>
> On 1/28/18, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>> My last post was interesting for me to write but too fucking long. This
>> says
>> what I have to say:
>>
>> What makes me see the use of the word grace at the ending of ATD as
>> ambiguous rather than cynical is the transformation of the Chums over the
>> course of the novel. They reject
>> blind service to an unknown authority, make friends and allies of those
>> being portrayed as enemies, realize their need for the feminine , both
>> earthly and divine and they become more democratic and wary of war. If
>> the
>> chums represent fiction itself  or human myth making and humans highest
>> dreams and insights, they have turned from being fearfully authoritarian
>> in
>> their orientation,  toward the
>> fragile but hopeful vision that people can change( as many have) and find
>> more compassionate and earth-friendly ways. The wiggle room for the
>> planet
>> is running out, the prophets from the future( physics, pattern
>> recognition,
>> grace) have warned us, no happy ending is guaranteed and neither smoky
>> glasses nor Krav Maga will save the children  or stop the rising tide.
>>
>>
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>>
>
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l