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

[David Morris]

Yes.  GR's take on human consciousness is VERY Brownian.  Brown posits that
"Culture" is a reaction against fear of death.  All monuments are acts to
defy death.  Money is an even more extreme example of death monetization.
But, so far, Se La Vie, on alternatives.

David Morris

On Sun, Jul 5, 2020 at 7:40 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
>>>
>>