MDMD(Part1) Who is Rebekah Mason?

[Paul Mackin]

I certainly agree with Andrew that we shouldn't give up on trying to
figure out Rebekah better. I intend to give it another go. It had just seemed
to me that an author might come to a place where he doesn't consciously know what
to write and decides to turn control completely over to the unconscious. Like what must
have happened with that perplexing remark of the old derelict Pirate meets at the
drinking fountain. Not to say that analysis of these passages couldn't be instructive. Might
take somebody with psychoanalytic training to make the attempt. If one believes in such things.

					P.



----------
From:  andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk[SMTP:andrew at cee.hw.ac.uk]
Sent:  Tuesday, September 30, 1997 12:21 PM
To:  Paul Mackin
Cc:  Pynchon-l
Subject:  RE: MDMD(Part1) Who is Rebekah Mason? 



Paul Mackin writes:
> Some of  the passages about Rebekah seem to be Pynchon at his
> most stonedness. We may never make much literal sense of them.

I'm not so sure. For example, looking back at the opening I recalled
my utter puzzlement when I first read the hanged man analogy employed
by the Revd and yet more puzzlement when I realized it is actually
perfectly clear how it is to be read. Ditto the Learned Dog scene
where I failed to see that the LED answers his own riddle first (and
second) time round. As Henry Kingman said sometimes you get it and
then you lose it again. I suspect more of it is there than meets the
unrehearsed eye.


Andrew Dinn
-----------
How do you know but ev'ry bird that cuts the airy way
Is an immense world of pleasure clos'd by your senses five