Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 63: Line 147 (1129)

 "Buy the next round, we'll call it even."

* * * * * * * * * *

Roswell Bounce purchases redemption easily enough. He goes from sinner to righteous with the purchase of a round of whiskeys. From Preterite to Predestined, as Pynchon might say.

Yeah, yeah. I know you can't go from Preterite to Predestined, theologically! The whole point is that each is already decided before you were even born! But, being that human beings are incapable of attaining that knowledge in life, they can still go from believing they're saved or lost from any moment to the next. Obviously they'll never actually know until they die. Although, they won't really know then either because they'll be, you know, dead. Non-existent. Back to the material from which they came. Deletion of the ego. The end. Kaput. That's all she wrote, folks.

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 61: Line 93 (1075)

 That if Blinky were ever caught, there would also turn out to be no Æther.

* * * * * * * * * *

Being that I'm writing this in 2025, I can say that Merle was correct. Blinky was caught (and hanged) and there was no Æther. Now, that doesn't mean he was correct that these two events were somehow entangled. But was he?

Within the reality of Pynchon's novel, Æther currently exists. Reality actually changes as scientists discover more and more secrets of the physical universe. There's an almost magical realist air to the book, as in Mason & Dixon. I don't know if this is a general theme in Pynchon's work or not. Gravity's Rainbow feels like it's more grounded and the weird, fantastical bits all make sense in the perception of the characters or simply Pynchon's use of other medium through his text (like scenes devolving into musicals or spinning newspapers to shout headlines or comic books). But Gravity's Rainbow also deals quite a bit with the investigation of the supernatural so maybe? One thing I'm really noticing on my current re-read of Gravity's Rainbow (as well as Mason & Dixon. Don't forget that book!) is how much he alludes to predestination (the Elect vs the Preterite, in particular) versus free will.

But back to this sentence, Merle sees these two events as entangled so perhaps they are? Perhaps Merle's belief actually destroys Æther when Blinky Morgan is captured and hanged. The experiment itself doesn't prove the existence of Ætheric drift which begins the decline in people's belief in it. But what if that wasn't what killed it? What if Merle did?

Chapter 1: Section 5: Page 41: Lines 133-139 (715-721)

 "Many people believe that there is a mathematical correlation between sin, penance, and redemption. More sin, more penance, and so forth. Our own point has always been that there is no connection. All the variables are independent. You do penance not because you have sinned but because it is your destiny. You are redeemed not through doing penance but because it happens. Or doesn't happen.

* * * * * * * * * *

Well, Drave set me straight on his take on penance, sin, and redemption! I, apparently being one of those people who see a mathematical correlation between them, projected that idea onto Drave two posts ago:

"Sometimes making oneself a better person is too hard. It's easier to just take a dozen lashes with a whip and be done with the guilt of your sin. But as Drave correctly points out, atonement and penance are not two variables in different equations; they're values on the same side of an equation balancing out the other variable, guilt. Lew will rightly punish himself for having hurt his wife which will probably lessen the amount of time atonement will take. Without penance, atonement just takes the standard amount of time that needs to pass before grief isn't in control anymore. You really don't have to do any work; time will do it all for you!"

Drave wasn't pointing out the thing I thought he was pointing out. He was simply bringing it up so that I would think, "Oh yeah! Guilt! Penance! Sin! Atonement! It's all entangled!" Then he could play Devil's Advocate (or simply Devil because, come on, he's totally Satan, right?) and say, "A-ha! But no! The variables aren't connected at all! I'm talking predestination here, good buddy! Either you're saved or you're not saved. All that shit you do to atone or to deny sinful temptations or to perform holy work? Doesn't matter! Either you're destined to salvation or you're not. Elect or Preterite."

Drave believes in unconditional election. That means God chooses a specific number of people to be saved regardless of anything they do. Conditional election takes the view that God, being omniscient, has already saved an elect few because he knows beforehand that they will use their free will to do good works and resist temptation. It's kind of the "Wait a Second Clause!" where some holy thinkers realized that unconditional election meant nobody ever needed to seriously act out their faith and religion. Why bother when God has decided beforehand with no standards at all?!

Drave, being the Devil (probably), now teaches people on Earth that they don't need to be holy to atone. Why bother?! Just be your usual selfish self, don't worry about guilt, don't bother with penance, and don't lose any sleep over redemption. If you're destined to it, it'll come, whether you're lashing yourself with a thorny whip or shagging, gambling, and drinking to your heart's content.

Chapter 1: Section 5: Page 41: Line 132 (714)

 "Presbyterian."

* * * * * * * * * *

Shrug emoji. All Christian denominations are the same thing to me! This probably indicates something to somebody who grew up in the Midwest or the South. But I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. I'm a fucking heathen. Nobody ever taught me what all the differences to all the denominations were!
    The extent of my "religion" was being baptized when I was born (my mother is, technically, Catholic. My father is one of those other ones) and being forced to go to one Sunday School class when I was about six during a trip to visit my uncle's wife's family in Salina, Kansas.

So I did the most minimal research possible on Presbyterianism (which means I read the Wikipedia article until I found something that ties it in to Pynchon's themes across various novels). I learned Presbyterianism was greatly influenced by John Calvin who believed in predestination. He said, "All are not created on equal terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation; and, accordingly, as each has been created for one or other of these ends, we say that he has been predestinated to life or to death." Pynchon seems fascinated with the idea of predestination, mostly in the idea that if one believes in it, one must hold in their hearts the belief that most people, including themselves, can do nothing to attain God's grace. They are damned at birth. The only hope is that they aren't damned at birth (which seems like a pretty major narcissistic hope). In Gravity's Rainbow, he uses the term "Preterite" to describe those destined for death. Here, he brings it up with one mere word. In Mason & Dixon, he brings it up in line 38, page 9, when he invokes the names of Wesley and Whitefield, the founders of the Methodists who had a falling out between them regarding predestination. I can't speak for his other books having either not read them or read them over twenty years ago (The Crying of Lot 49).

That's probably more than enough to write on one word.

Chapter 1: Section 3: Page 23: Line 36 (321)

"No, boss, it's an ancient African method of divination, allows you to change your fate."

* * * * * * * * * *

 Oh! Well now doesn't Lindsay look foolish! What a xenophobic jerk to think this guy was running a scam just because he was wearing a pork-pie hat and maybe some other reasons! If at any point you thought I was jumping to that conclusion myself, just realize that I'm a Grandmaster Book Reader and I was just channeling Lindsay's thoughts and attitudes! With all the other crazy, non-accurate stuff going on (Waziri teaching waylaying methods; Tungus sexing up reindeer; Tarahumara pretending to do drugs), I should have realized this guy wasn't just trying to pull a scam with his folding table and cards; he's doing a right proper ancient African divination ritual! Of course! I would totally bet five dollars on that! And to think, I would have passed up such an opportunity because I thought this honest man was pulling some sort of scam! I've got to stop being so cynical!

"allows you to change your fate"
Interesting. This man's philosophical view of life must be that there is no free will and our courses are entirely pre-determined. Predestination, if you will. So he might say that there are those of us who are already saved (the Elect) and the rest of us who are already damned (the Preterites). But say there were a ritual, perhaps discovered in Africa with European playing cards, that could change God's predetermined fate for you! Wouldn't you take this chance?! Wouldn't you bet five bucks to try to win ten and also a seat in Heaven?!