MDMD(2): l'Grand Paranoia

[jporter]

Chris begins her summary:

> Chapter 5:  Mason and Dixon's paranoid speculations regarding the
     attack of the l'Grand continue in earnest....<

Yes, paranoid. But if we are to believe the Rev^d, they were told, if only
by a fraudulent prophetess- the friend of a talking dog- no less, of the
impending doom well beforehand. They chose to disbelieve their eyes and
ears and trust in the good and rational wisdom of the Royal Society. So
what is this paranoia? Methinks there is something more frightening behind
this paranoia than that which the duo can sanely project onto the RS.

They are on the verge of admitting what Chris herself alluded to a ways
back, i.e.,

    >... the "one Lesson."  I propose this, from _V._:  "...life's
     single lesson:  that there is more accident to it than a man can ever
     admit to in a lifetime and stay sane."  (Harper Perennial, 320-1)<

Admitting the possibility that perhaps their trusted RS and the high
priests of reason, might really be no more in control than talking dogs and
false prophetesses, perhaps even less so.

Their letter to Bradley is as much an admission of that apostasy from their
faith in the Royal Society's judgement, and The Enlightenment for which it
stands, than it is an act of open disobedience. Their belief (Wicks would
have his audience believe) has been badly compromised. They are paranoid
but sheepish, and their paranoia is emblematic. They would prefer that the
RS be in control, which would mean complicit. Paranoia is preferable, at
this point, to its opposite.

 They are on the verge of admitting this possibility, but not quite able to
yet. Their mutual experience has left them, however, shaken enough to begin
the quest for sources of meaning other than that supplied by reason alone,
best undertaken, as Dorothy might say, arm in arm.

jody