Re: Thomas Pynchon Predicted the Pandemic in 'Gravity's Rainbow.’ Now Aren't You Sorry You Didn't Read It?

[David Morris]

Of course our ability to be madly willful is also rooted in our
physiology.  But some SciFi buffs would disagree.

On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 7:13 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think the concept of humans being the virus on this planet really means
> to indict "conscious" and subsequent willfulness.  In GR that kind of
> consciousness is rooted in the knowing we will each die.  The Bugsby
> Berkeley mouse extravaganza in the mad scientist's White  Visitation lab
> explicitly laments humankind's knowledge of death.  It's very Freudian. I
> don't buy it.
>
> Many species very explicitly mourn the death of their loved ones. So
> consciousness of death isn't the "sin."  I think GR identifies humanity's
> real sin as Defying Death, a very special arrogance.  Willfulness, not
> knowledge.
>
> David Morris
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 5:45 PM Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> You never did the Corona Kid.
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 12:47 PM Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > this is a good essay. I was kind of irked LeClair went to get a pull
>> quote
>> > from, of all things, "The Matrix," to pin down this "humans are the
>> virus"
>> > idea; TRP's version of it was plenty (and much less hacky than the
>> Matrix
>> > bit, or even the current & ridiculous "maybe we are the virus" meme.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 12:22 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >> This imaginatively stretches the reading wonderfully, but it is so
>> good. I
>> >> love all the smart readings which take it away from the literal Blitz
>> and
>> >> rocket, which fetish pervades too many, I pick a fight with by
>> declaring.
>> >> (I'm done, you win).
>> >>
>> >> So alive and in touch with reality now and the reality of *Gravity's
>> >> Rainbow*.(isn't the section quoted, which seldom is, GREAT?) All those
>> >> tentacles and tendrils involved.
>> >>
>> >> LcClair has lived with this book from the beginning and makes the
>> overall
>> >> case again why great books "touch bottom" so well that they are always
>> >> true. There it stands intertwined with Moby Dick,
>> >> the two greatest American novels of their centuries, I say.
>> >>
>> >> My vote for the best critical essay of our times since.....Pynchon
>> wrote
>> >> the intro to the reissue of* 1984*? (written for effect and as if I
>> know
>> >> more than a few)
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> https://www.thedailybeast.com/thomas-pynchon-predicted-the-pandemic-in-gravitys-rainbow-now-arent-you-sorry-you-didnt-read-it
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Sent from my iPad
>> >> --
>> >> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> >>
>> >
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>