MDMD(3): Carry On Astronomers (Same post sent properly, ignore the first one)

[Eric Alan Weinstein]

Howdy Y'all-- ya may remember a post I sent about 
of Seduction and Resistance on a variety of levels, 
sexual, political, ethical, linguistic, etc., in  the very
interesting Chapter 7. I wish to return to this, in Chap 
8 & 9, but first--

Chap 8 it makes me nauseous and very hungry in turns 
and in equal measures. Quite a  feat/feast. Its description of 
Malay fast-food tents makes me remember a wonderful 
food-tent at Glastonbury, when Glastonbury was!, circa 1987.
I love watching a great Cook cook in mid-flow. Great vivid 
descriptions of a Cape night in this section.

Now---The humour of Vroom table, hallway, and bed chamber
seems to me very much the humour of the Carry On films. That
wonderful line about "strike her (the ketjap bottle, the Vroom girls) 
upon the bottom...and perhaps she will behave," and Mason fixing 
his wig, and...
well, the whole darn thing. Carry On, Astronomers.

Seductive.
Pynchon will let us read the Cape Town  parts of M&D as 
Carry On Astronomers. Pure farce. But. 

History's dark (or perhaps uncomfortably white) side, which leans 
in astride our bed of pleasure like an unwanted intruder privy to
the secrets of our own collective repressed past, bursts 
through the attic door. She is  the madwoman in the attic of our social 
and political history, ready to assert how terrible are the forces 
which shape the world of the farce-players.


This is part of what makes the Cape Town section rich---
resurrecting a small slice of Cape history with its complex 
emotional, political and aromatic punch, while performing a Music Hall
act at the same time. I can say of this writing
what Sir Kenneth Clark said of certain 19th cen. portraits of French
Nudes---you can almost smell the people and their times. But
you can also see the greasepaint.

Do you fancy a bit of fun at chez Vroom?
Are we sitting comfortably, gentle readers? 


Eric

Eric Alan Weinstein
E.A.Weinstein at qmw.ac.uk



Eric Alan Weinstein
E.A.Weinstein at qmw.ac.uk