Mason and Dixon

[Paul Mackin]

On Wed, 20 Oct 1999, davemarc wrote:

> > From: Thomas Eckhardt <uzs7lz at uni-bonn.de>
> > 
> > davemarc wrote:
> > 
> > >If it is one, don't you think that it's a relatively mysterious one, a
> > >little like a koan?
> > 
> > Then it would have to be paradoxical, no? What would that mysterious,
> > paradoxical quality be? Or, perhaps better, how would you attemmpt to
> > describe it?
> > 
> I can accept it as family lore, recounting something that might or might
> not have happened.  It puts Dixon in a good light, though under scrutiny
> the story turns out to be not as simple as "One day, Dixon rebuked a
> slaveowner and saved slaves."  Within its context, the moral gist of the
> story seems balanced by the arguable futility of Dixon's gesture:  Dixon
> helps to set slaves "free" in a setting where they would not be able to
> escape recapture and punishment.  As a koan-like puzzler, perhaps it'd be
> something like "Can one set slaves free when they are bound to be enslaved
> again?"

Seems to me this is well stated. A considerable part of the beauty in
P writing is that it can state these dilemmas or puzzles or
complexities or moral ambiguities poignantly and without cynicism.

			P.