The Crying of Lot 49 Group Read 2024

[Joseph Tracy]

 From Hesiod also, the people of the Golden Age <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age>were transformed into daimones by the will of Zeus <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeus>, to serve mortals benevolently as their guardian spirits; "good beings who dispense riches…[nevertheless], they remain invisible, known only by their acts".[8] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimon#cite_note-8> The daimones of venerated heroes <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_hero> were localized by the construction of shrines, so as not to wander restlessly, and were believed to confer protection and good fortune on those offering their respects.[6] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimon#cite_note-Burkert1985-6>
One tradition of Greek thought, which found agreement in the mind of Plato <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato>, was of a daimon which existed within a person from their birth, and that each individual was obtained by a singular daimon prior to their birth by way of lot <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleromancy>.[6] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimon#cite_note-Burkert1985-6>
The evil demon was a transformation of the concept by Christianity drawing on the idea of  the serpentine  deceiver spirit in Genesis , and a couple other bible stories.



The most interesting idea I have heard on entropy was from Buckminster Fuller, who suggested that life itself (which he also identified as intelligence) is anti- entropic. Probably the greatest unresolved mystery of science is the question of how non-life spreading  in entropic and random motion guided by inherent physical restraints/habits/ becomes self-reproducing life forms that have endured for millions of years and transformed into various forms and degrees of consciousness which evolve to fill various niches via genetic coding. Life defies the extinction of intelligent consciousness but at the expense of individual mortality. And humans have always suspected and now claim to scientifically establish a beginning for everything, so how is that not an anti-entropic mystery; everything from nothing.. The thing about life and physics is the constant change which is a kind of constant death and rebirth moment by moment. Life as we know it needs death, and every energetic system we can prove or manipulate runs down. But something wound it up.  So  universes may come and go but why not enjoy the ride rather than fight a losing  and frequently vicious battle for control. 

Pre-monotheist cultures seem to be much more comfortable and interactive with non-human intelligences.  Pynchon summons them regularly( conversational ball lightning, an ice monster with X-ray eyes, conscious light bulbs, talking dogs, underground worlds)   but not in COL 49, Oedipa wants that contact but it seems to flit by like  a "nightmare about something in the mirror, across from her bed. Nothing specific, only a possibility, nothing she could see.” or like Maxwell's momentary smile, or the visionary tears from Varo’s painting. The only solid form of such contact  focuses her attention on the  Tristero " in magic, anonymous and malignant, visited on her ( and not just her) from outside and for no reason at all".  But Pynchon is about to break that spell, if only for  a few days through OM’s compassion arising from her contact with the preterite, the non-owners. 



> On Jun 23, 2024, at 4:48 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Why do we not explore the word 'demon' n Maxwell's Demon"...that was Lord
> Kelvin's naming and it comes from the Greek
> Daemon, with only positive life force meanings in Greek my greek scholars
> tell me,,,,so it is, as we can sorta read and see
> a force against entropy......and here is another implication, meaning...
> 
>   - In aphorism 341 of *The Gay Science
>   <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gay_Science>*, Nietzsche
>   <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nietzsche> puts forth his eternal
>   recurrence <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_recurrence> concept.
>   In it, he employs a demon with special metaphysical knowledge as an agent
>   for forcing reevaluation of perspective on one's own life.
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>