BE Chap 14. misc.

[Mark Kohut]

In this novel so far---and maybe when we certify the whole read, to use a
cute metaphor---we
will learn/decide that not everything IS explained in other ways, If I read
you correctly.

I would say there are other mysteries wilfully put into the other novels,
or most of them.

On Wed, Jan 19, 2022 at 11:51 AM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> Can Gematria lie, be applied to aerodynamics, predict markets, be agreed
> on as to meaning? Is it subject to standard fraud investigators methods?
>
> I am usually kind of on the pro mystic side of these discussions, agnostic
> about definitive claims on true knowledge of the workings of the universe,
> but sympathetic to the idea there is meaning, a difference between life
> enhancing and foolishly dangerous, the possibility if not an inner
> conviction that evolution has a moral dimension. My body of experience
> includes much that defies a strictly materialist interpretation.
> Nevertheless certain systems that claim to embody cosmic codes are are so
> un definitive, so vague as to appear useless in any practical way. If all I
> gave you was the gematria for, say, a passage in the bible, or the name of
> an organization, I am highly dubious the interpretaion would bear any
> resemblance to the original text. Same with astrology, i-ching etc. Maybe
> there is a way for a disciplined adept to use these systems effectively but
> do tarot readings really define or illuminate something that is not
> essentially intuitive.
>
> When I listen to people who are invested in these systems regularly they
> all sound too much alike to me, a kind of vague sentimental positivism.
>    These things appear in Pynchon’s writing as confirmations of what can
> be seen by other more direct thought process but because of the symbolic
> images they have extra portent. They function more like color or atmosphere
> than to independently convey reliable meaning. They  are a vocabulary of
> symbols  which have use in context, but which lose definition in random
> arrangements.
>
>    palm reading on the other hand….
>
> Maybe nothing is random, maybe there is a semantics embedded in every
> movement of every particle; I am not entirely sure this is not so, but it
> leads to a  question of which decoder ring do i choose today?
>
>
>
> --
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>