Mettānoia in Thomas Pynchon’s Buddhist Trilogy
Michael J. Sanders
Religion & Literature December 29, 2021 DOI: 10.1353/rel.2020.0040 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Key points | Argues that Buddhism is central to Thomas Pynchon's fiction and that three novels form a Buddhist Trilogy centered on a concept the author terms 'mettānoia,' a Buddhist corrective to paranoia. |
Abstract
Abstract:This article argues for the centrality of Buddhism in Thomas Pynchon’s fiction. The Crying of Lot 49, Vineland, and Bleeding Edge make a Buddhist Trilogy. As the only three Pynchon novels to have female protagonists, each novel features a motherly protagonist that has a Buddhist reference in her name. Beneath the patina of Judeo-Christian, psychological, scientific, and political references apparent on the surface in this Trilogy’s denouements, Pynchon has sculpted a program for changing one’s mind firmly grounded in Buddhist belief and practice. This program is a specifically Buddhist quest for mettānoia. Mettānoia is the author’s tripartite term for Pynchon’s corrective to paranoia: a 1) change of mind that, while 2) softly inclusive of forms of Christian metanoia, is centered much more on 3) Buddhist mettā, the summary moment after meditation when the Buddhist subject is changed to a heightened sense of compassionate care. However, mettānoia also limits one’s acts of compassion such that they retain a Buddhist detachment from worldly outcomes. This article ends by looking at how mettānoid reading might counter paranoid reading, adding to the current discourses of postcritique and the postsecular.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |