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

[David Morris]

A few years ago I swore off eating octopus.  A small very move from an
animal lover. The ethics of carnivorism vs veganism should be discussed
elsewhere...

David Morris

On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 7:49 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> After another drink, I might argue that our genius has Gregori in this
> novel to show this possibility, so to speak.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jul 5, 2020, at 8:40 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> It’s Brownian as you know. His pushing Freud thru the end of logic and
> the Greeks. I buy it. Always have. We’re talking about Western human beings
> here.
>
>
>
> That other wonderful sentient creatures mourn the death of their loved
> ones might mean we explore their consciousness of death as we can.
> “If a lion could speak, we would not be able to understand
> it”—WITTGENSTEIN might be relevant.
>
> And I also fully agree with your fine words on the sin of Defying Death, a
> special arrogance, nicely phrased and surely one of the major plots of GR.
>
> Both can be true. I buy them both, it’s rich as life that way.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jul 5, 2020, at 8:26 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 
> 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
>>>
>>