M&D's connections with R&G

[AH Sarmiento]

In response to:
>Ok, I'm only on page 500 of M&D, but I see many parallels between it and R&G
>are Dead.  On page 471:
>
>        "He means," Darby hastily puts in, "that he's Mason, and I'm Dixon,
>        isn't that right, 'Mason'?"
>
>Of course, M&D is even funnier and richer than R&G, but R&G can be enjoyed all
>the way through in the course of an hour or two.



Being a relative new-comer and an often silent one at that, I was dismayed
at this post which echoes the sentiments I had been bridling the courage to
express,-- my timidity notwithstanding, I will just add another angle or
two: Firstly, the oddly similar way in which M&D discuss their commissions
and the way that they are bound to them, as compared to R&G lamentations on
having been called.
        Secondly, and more obviously is the scene (I forget the p.ref,
don't have it on me) when, Brae, I think, and DePugh or Ethelmer discuss
Hamlet. (I am no doubt butchering the exact details of this, which someone
more meticulous will no doubt correct) There are references to the 'corpses
on the stage' (which I think comes right out of R&G), and there is  a
comment by one of our boys that Ophelia the character is a somewhat
inflated version of Ophelia the historical figure (gesturing perhaps also
to Brae; I forget).
        Anyway, I would forward the notion that the two works are similar
in dredging up and rewriting a particular corner of the cultural
unconscious (though M&D especially has far grander aims as well),
refocusing through writing on another aspect,-- another side to the
story,-- of a story we take mostly for given. R&G reevaluating the 'corpes
on the stage' in favour of focusing on two dead,-- seemingly for no
reason,-- buddy/everymen. The way M&D (admittedly at least to the point
I've read) similarly flits in and out of the history books (as in and out
of "Hamlet" dialogue) to put a new spin on the corpses,-- the Civil War,
Civil Rights, you name it,-- a spin that reconsiders the position of
exactitude, prediction, definition, science, and observation in light of
where its gotten us (if that isn't vaguely grandiose enough,-- as a
backhanded compliment,--  I don't what is).
        This said, I wonder if there's even much interest here in
discussing this, but maybe it could be considered as another example of
Pynchon swallowing texts whole and repositioning them within the context of
his oeuvre. Any takers?





_ __ __ ____ ___ ________ ____ ________________
Tony Sarmiento
607.277.8329
ahs2 at cornell.edu
www.museum.cornell.edu