FW: the motif of marriage

[Domine Vobiscuits]

I agree with s~z's reading here.  Like the missing holocaust in GR, I think 
Pynchon is forcing his readers to call upon historical knowledge to to fill 
in those gaps that he leaves textually marginalized.  I don't think that his 
motive is simply to save space by marginalizing these issues.  Rather, when 
the reader historically contextualizes these events, the text (the orgy of 
insane abandon, for example, in GR) becomes that much more grim.  Issues 
like the holocaust come to the forefront of the readers' attention because 
they are marginalized and because it's only natural to reflect upon the 
holocause at some point while reading a book about WWII (particularly when 
you visit the location of a Nazi slave camp).  Almost all of M&D functions 
similarly.  In this case, however, I suspect that Pynchon is constantly 
suggesting a contrast between what America could have been (it is the 
"Rubbish-tip for subjunctive hopes" (MD 345)) and what we know/see it has 
become.  The period of M&D is perfect because (particularly while M&D are in 
America) America is at the historical point just previous to the 
establishment of its own autonomy.  It is a subjunctive state.  We see the 
existence of possibility, but we also witness the seeds of its own decine 
into a simulation of European economics and politics (George Washington's 
involvement in the Ohio Company, for example, or--obviously--the 
perpetiation of the slave trade).  The close of the novel is 
tongue-in-cheek, but I think we're also supposed to regester a sense of loss 
of possibility and hope.  As though, by virtue of history, almost every 
American becomes preterite and blah blah blah.

Also: Dixon and Meg Bland seem to get on quite well at the end of the 
novel...of course, they're not married...

Keith
s~z said:
>Yeah right.....good ole America ended up just like the ending of
>M&D.....Pynch didn't have his tongue firmly lodged in his cheek on >that 
>one,
>did he now?

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