Maskelyne, Aliens, Myth, Madness and Ecology; MD 134-5

[kellner at ccwf.cc.utexas.edu]

Hello Everyone
It seems that the list has become SIGNIFICANTLY less noisy (cybernetic
sense) since the discussion of the need for moderation....

In re-reading Chapter 13 this morning I noted some interesting Maskelyne
comments: After some speculations on the evil of St Helena ("this great
Ruin, --haunted...an Obstinate Spectre,-- an ancient crime" etc; p. 132),
on the top of p. 134 Maskelyne entertains the "notion of the Garden in
Genesis, an an instance of extra-terrestrial Plantation." (p 134) 
Is Pynch playing with contemporary alien/ET settlement lore, were these
speculations current in 18th C, or what is he getting at?

Then there are some ruminations on the Heavens as Mathematical equation,
followed by Maskelyne's ecological ruminations at The Last Orange Grove,
where after alluding to a Serpant in the Volcano as source of evil, he
makes some pertinant ecological observations:

    "In thoughtless Greed, within a few pitiable brief Generations, have
these People devastated a Garden in which, once, anything might grow.
Their Muck-heaps ev'rywhere, Disease, Madness. One day, not far distant,
with the last leaf of the last Old-Father-Never-Die bush destroy'd, whilst
the unremitting Wind carries off the last soil from the last barren
Meadow, with nought but other Humans the only Life remaining then to the
Island,--how will they take their own last step,--hiow disobey themselves
into Oblivion?"

    Pretty strong stuff, but why make Maskelyne --repeatedly portrayed as
"mad" by the narrator, dixon, mason and even the talking clocks--mix within
 four pages so many discourses -- alien speculations, scientific
rationality, mythic lore, ecological, "madness"? Is this another case of
neither/nor logic-discourse but both/and? Or is Maskelyne just mad? In
fact, as we shall see he is a great survivor, does not succumb to madness,
or least functions successfully upon his return, but is always a highly
ambiguous and hard to read character-- as perhaps he was. Does anyone have
any idea to what extent Pynchon is taking literary liberties with his
construction of this highly interesting and complex character?

 Douglas Kellner, Dept of Philosophy, Univ of Texas, Austin, TX 78712
kellner at ccwf.cc.utexas.edu  fax: 512 471-4806
Web sites: Postmodern theory= http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~kellner/pm/pm.html
Critical theory= http://www.uta.edu/english/dab/illuminations/