MDMD(1) - Comments: china

[Brian D. McCary]

> 
> You refer to those abundant references on China et al. and iron in GR.
> 1) Has it occurred to you that something so prominent in a book by TRP 
> must (almost per definitionem) have an important meaning however long it 
> takes one to get it.
> 
> Thomas Vieth

Absolutely.  Or, at least, it's worth spending some energy trying to 
smoke out a meaning.  However, I'm not sure that the "meaning" will ever
be easy to state and prove.  Here's what I've come up with so far.

This seems to be a stylistic device, similar to the placement of sight
gags or the use of colors in a movie.  If a director used, say, the color
green repeatedly in the background of shots where it was not necessary, 
one could argue that the green didn't have meaning on its own, but was,
rather, a device for creating some sort of mood.  A more concrete example
would be the use of generic products in the movie Repo Man.  They seem
to be irrelevant with respect to the story line, yet they are woven in
through the movie in a very insistant manner, even to the extent of
intruding on the dialog (for instance, the "plate of shrimp" line).  I don't
know that I can say what is supposed to be meant by all the generics, but
I know it was a deliberate act, and I can't imagine the movie without them.

A similar, but not identical case, arises with the repeated appearance of
Yoyodyne and the Bodine family in Pynchon's stories.  With Pig Bodine,
Pynchon has professed great affection for the character, so I figure Bodine
just shows up because TRP likes him, not because it means anything.  Yoyodyne
is differant in that it, at least, symbolizes a nebulous sort of evil
in his work - although, I suppose, Bodine represents one of the counterforce
to that evil, in his anarchy.  Oh, yes, there's also all the pigs which
show up throughout GR.  Again, all the pigs don't seem to mean anything,
they are just there, for fun (or so it seems to me).

Some of the china referances could be for color.  I'm sure that British 
Society and London was infused with Chinese culture in the 1760's, given
the wave of exploration, expansion, and the preliminary diplomatic relations
which must have been established by that time.  A Chinese flute in a gambling
den is easy to believe.  But it seems that there must have also been Turkish,
Indian, and perhaps even Japanese (had they opened up that early?) exotica
around London at the same time, and they don't get much mention.  Further, 
later punning with respect to the professions of Darby and Cope is obviously 
not for color, and is largely gratuitous, so I'm thinking all this China stuff
is really just there for his own pleasure.

It has been suggested that, following the line far enough west gets you
to China, which is true, but what would the implication be? Is China 
supposed to inherit America's place as standard bearer for societal growth?
Or, given China's ancient culture, is it supposed to be a back to the future
kind of thing, where the human race will back off from America's wildness for
the old wisdom of the orient?  

I dunno.  I figure Tom got interested in China, thought it was cool, and the
referances worked their way into the story.  Maybe some deeper sense of
their meaning will emerge during the MDMD

Brian McCary