MDMD (2): Notes and Questions

[Paul Murphy]

Steven Maas writes:

<A few easy ones (I think!).

>      42.5  `Eeh - that is, I'm not sure which one tha mean' i.e God or the
>      Devil.  Is Dixon a Manichean?  If so why is it because of `all thah'
>      Coal-Mining'? (42.8)

I don't know about Manichean--but I think the Coal-Mining reference is to
digging down to the devil's realm, so to speak.>

This is a theme we'll have to track over the course of MD, namely the theme
of telluric - subterranean - underworld realms, into which the coal-mining
reference fits. Land-surveyor Dixon might be more attuned to these currents
than star-gazing Mason -- but the 'descent to Hades' notion which this
quote evokes is clearly a folk-religion representation of the Devil's world
as below the earth's surface. We'll have a chance later to compare this
picture with the Feng Shui master's 'dragon', as well as Plato's Myth of
Er, the Orpheus myth, and Hollow Earth ...

Cheers,
Paul