19-11-2010, 07:03 PM
(This post was last modified: 19-11-2010, 07:06 PM by Jan Klimkowski.)
Ed - an important subject. Many thanks for posting.
I disagree with this statement in the piece:
I don't consider this "dedication to the ruling class" to be unusual or an aberration. Rather, I contend that there has always been both a love and worship of Mammon and Earthly Power in the American WASP tradition.
One of the philosophical frames in Thomas Pynchon's masterwork, Gravity's Rainbow, is the Calvinist/Puritan doctrine of the Elect (the chosen) and the Preterite (the passed-over).
WASP America serves the Elect, who are often known to their contemporaries by their Mammon. Their very Wealth is a sign that they are in God's Favour.
The Preterite are passed over, cannon fodder lacking God's Grace and Favour.
Gravity's Rainbow's unreliable narrator ends the journey with the following hymn allegedly penned by his Preterite Puritan ancestor:
There is a Hand to turn the time
Though thy Glass today be run
Till the Light that hath brought the Towers low
Find the last poor Pret'rite one...
Till the Riders sleep by ev'ry road,
All through our crippl'd Zone,
With a face on ev'ry mountainside,
And a Soul in ev'ry stone....
I disagree with this statement in the piece:
Quote:What makes C Street and the Family so unusual in the landscape of American fundamentalism is their explicit dedication to the ruling class.
I don't consider this "dedication to the ruling class" to be unusual or an aberration. Rather, I contend that there has always been both a love and worship of Mammon and Earthly Power in the American WASP tradition.
One of the philosophical frames in Thomas Pynchon's masterwork, Gravity's Rainbow, is the Calvinist/Puritan doctrine of the Elect (the chosen) and the Preterite (the passed-over).
WASP America serves the Elect, who are often known to their contemporaries by their Mammon. Their very Wealth is a sign that they are in God's Favour.
The Preterite are passed over, cannon fodder lacking God's Grace and Favour.
Gravity's Rainbow's unreliable narrator ends the journey with the following hymn allegedly penned by his Preterite Puritan ancestor:
There is a Hand to turn the time
Though thy Glass today be run
Till the Light that hath brought the Towers low
Find the last poor Pret'rite one...
Till the Riders sleep by ev'ry road,
All through our crippl'd Zone,
With a face on ev'ry mountainside,
And a Soul in ev'ry stone....
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War."
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta."
The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war