M&D--a spoiler, perhaps, about names and other

[Brian D. McCary]

M&D Spoiler














Tying three threads together at once:

About fishing:  not to even mention the other great american MD novel,
which is (or isn't) about fishing for the giant fish, like those giant
vegtables which came up earlier.  It seems to me that Pynchon's work 
addresses the same types of metephysical questions that Melville does
in Moby Dick, questions about mortality and the afterlife, although Melville
does it in terms of forms of god (appropriate in a nineteenth century work)
while Pynchon has a somewhat more personal perspective (appropriate for
his late twentieth century environment).  I don't see the twin's comment as
a nod to Moby Dick,  and I haven't thought much about fishing themes, but
there's probably a rabbit or two to chase down there....

Of course, my introduction to Moby Dick was through a beautiful and 
intelligent lawyer who wrote her senior thesis on it.  She finally got me
to read Moby Dick, and I got her to read Gravity's Rainbow.  I liked it,
she loved it.  Later, I was a jerk, and she no longer speaks to me.

Unrelated to giant vegatables, but my favorite giant experience was at
the Kremlin.  Our guide was showing us the worlds largest bell:  it sits
in the Kremlin not to far from where it was originally cast.  It burned
down the forge during the casting and cooled improperly, so it is too
fragile to be rung (they suspect it will crack immediately).  Fifty meters
away is the worlds largest cannon:  it has never been fired, just set up for
intimidation.  It, too, is suspected of being too weak to be used without
self destruction.  My interpreter looked at gravely and said: That is Russia.
Everything is the biggest in the world, and doesn't work.

Brian McCary