MDMD(8) Questions - Tunnels

[Steven Maas (CUTR)]

> 232.35 - 233.2 "In the days of the '45,--guessing that the Young
> Pretender would travel ev'rywhere he could by way of those secret
> Tunnels known to Papists from ancient times, which ran from most
> parish Churches away to other points of interest,--...." 

Harrison sez:
> On the tunnels, I'm also going on instinct,here, but surely, surely
> these are the legendary escape tunnels supposedly built--from Time
> Immemorial!--from churches to points of safety, such as nearby castles
> or riverbanks? Built for quick getaways for the persecuted priesthood in
> virtually every religious war that you've ever heard of? Part & parcel
> with priestholes and tha'?

Especially given P.'s penchant in M&D for poking things R.C. with sharp
sticks* (e.g., "Painted Italian Whore," a Jesuits doing Penance for
showing pity), it could additionally be a reference to those long-rumored
tunnels leading from, e.g., monastaries and/or churches to nunneries
(speaking of "other points of interest").

(*Presumably to portray the anti-Catholicism prevalent in those days,
rather than because of a personal anti-R.C. streak on P.'s part--though
speaking for myself, ex-R.C.s can be vehement critics of the church.) 

> 235.3-8.  "And sometimes, 'twas told, the Devil sent his own Dodmen, to
> lead the Diggers in grisly play 'round the Corner again and into the
> Church-yard, where Death in its full unpleasantness waited them, a
> Skull, in the instant of any Spade's burden, emerging from the Mud just
> at Eye-Level, smiling widely as in recognition..."

As Harrison said, vintage Pynchon and wonderful stuff. 

The paragraph of which this is a part seems to expand the original purpose
of the Tunnels well beyond the R.C. church.  Lud explains them as a
reaction to the "Enclosure, Sub-Division, and ... Exhaustion of Space" on
the surface--maybe an example of the proto-Counterforce at work.  This is
an interesting digression; too bad it wasn't explored a little more--but
of course if all the interesting topics were fully explored. . .the
prospect boggles the mind. 

	Steve Maas