CoL49 group reading - Rapunzel musings

[David Morris]

On Sun, May 19, 2024 at 7:50 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> if we have to know ourselves aright, to love ourselves rightly, then I see
> Oedipa, from the
> allusive name and her quest to be seeking self-knowledge even
> though---isn't it a condition
> of full self-awareness that you can't really realize what you are seeking?


“Realization” is another term for “Enlightenment” in Consciousness
Circles.  Many consider it a more-accurate term, because Enlightenment
sounds like a final point of total Consciousness possible. But realizations
can be extremely powerful and profound, but they are not end points. And
they are a multitude, not a single universal ultimate state.



> On Sun, May 19, 2024 at 12:20 AM O G <octogonalyoyo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Maybe she is lacking/searching for self-love, maybe without even
> realizing
> > it.
> >
> > On Sat, May 18, 2024, 2:24 PM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> >
> > > Yes. This is pretty much  how I am reading Oed’s psychological terrain
> > > seen through the Rapunzel story.. My sense is that she can lo longer
> play
> > > the role of maiden saved by Prince because a) PI is 3/4ths asshole and
> b)
> > > he has not brought true escape but a realization about the deeper
> nature
> > of
> > > her entrapment.
> > >
> > > Her tower length hair as  genuine outgrowth of feminine identity is
> > > severed by that realization and what remains is no longer a sustainable
> > > connection to herself or  PI.
> > >
> > > > On May 18, 2024, at 9:17 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > On Sat, May 18, 2024 at 5:00 AM Michael
> > > >
> > > >>
> > > > “Suppose that climbing the hair is the legitimate way to woo -
> dealing
> > > > directly with something that grows out of her, and entering her
> > > imprisoning
> > > > environment via Oedipa herself, whereupon they bond and escape that
> > > > environment. […]
> > > >
> > > > [***]Something[***] interferes with the fairytale”
> > > >
> > > > SOMETHING? It’s identities as:
> > > > “some sinister sorcery”
> > > > And:
> > > > “ having no apparatus except gut, fear and female, cunning to examine
> > the
> > > > formless magic, to understand how it works, how to measure its field
> > > > strength, count its lines of force”
> > > >
> > > > But a more precise, deeper look by Oed reveals that the fairy tale is
> > not
> > > > so easily understood.  The Tower is seemingly inescapable, because it
> > > > FOLLOWS HER, as in, “Wherever you go, There you are!”
> > > >
> > > > “ such a captive maiden [Oed] Soon realizes *the tower [is]* like her
> > > > ego, *only
> > > > incidental*.”
> > > >
> > > > The tower, like her ego, are fictional, constructs, artificial
> devices,
> > > > which are symptoms of an invisible and ubiquitous “Magic, anonymous
> and
> > > > malignant, visited on her from outside and for no reason at all.”
> > One’s
> > > > Ego is an attempt to meditate a fatally wounded inner psyche with the
> > > > slave’s fate once finds thwarting the desires of the Id (Pynch was
> > deeply
> > > > into Freud at the time. It’s an ever-frustrating inescapable task.
> > > >
> > > > So there was no way that she could be rescued by a man.  The
> > > Counter-magic
> > > > escapes her right now. But that’s what she’s looking for on her
> quest.
> > > > --
> > > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> > >
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>