Pynchon and Catholicism

[John Bailey]

I agree. A lot of (probably most?) first novels include a fair amount
of the author working out their own unprocessed psychological quirks.
Sometimes this results in a brilliant debut whose originality isn't
matched by subsequent attempts, and sometimes it's a good first work
hampered by a few idiosyncracies.
V. is definitely a stellar first novel, but it does have a bunch of
stuff that feels... particular to Pynchon.
I read somewhere that Esther Gets a Nose Job was a response to Pynchon
being dumped by a Jewish girlfriend whose parents disapproved of his
Catholic upbringing.
And of course Benny Profane is half-Catholic, half-Jewish, while the
major women in his life are Josephina (Catholic) and Rachel (Jewish).
In general V. has a very, very conflicted take on women that mirrors
the Catholic - both deifying and degrading women - and Catholicism
pretty much owns the patent for the Virgin/Whore dichotomy. I don't
think P. had quite fully formed his notion of the excluded middle at
the time of writing.

On Mon, Sep 28, 2020 at 10:28 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> No, Kai, it could not have unless......they got some kind of 'converted" (to the idea at least)
>
> On Mon, Sep 28, 2020 at 7:16 AM Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>>
>>
>> "The force of the Virgin was still felt at Lourdes, and seemed to be as
>> potent as X-rays; but in America neither Venus nor Virgin ever had value
>> as force --- at most as sentiment." (The Education of Henry Adams, p. 383)
>>
>> Could "V" have been written by a 100% Protestantically socialized
>> author? The cult of the Virgin Mary does not only distinguish
>> Catholicism from other strains of Christianity, it seems to be unique
>> among Abrahamic religions.  The Virgin Mary represents - like the Hindu
>> Goddess Parvati -  the feminine aspect of the Divine in its benign
>> grace.  & although the Virgin does not cover the fierce power of
>> Goddesses like Kali or Durga, it makes imho sense to call Her the
>> Western embodiment of the Shakti. Could a 100% Protestantically
>> socialized author have written "V"?
>>
>> Am 27.09.20 um 04:04 schrieb John Bailey:
>>
>> > (...) Some of the defining features of Catholicism that I've heard
>> > distinguish it from other strains of Christianity include (...)
>> > - a massively more significant role accorded to Jesus's mother Mary...
>> > in fact at one point Mary was worshipped more than Jesus and the
>> > authorities had to step in a reel that back
>> >
>>
>> --
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