the motif of marriage

[jbor]

We all tend to gloss over the drawing room family tableaux which frames the
historical-biographical narrative in *M&D*, with "the War settl'd and the
Nation bickering itself into Fragments" (6). If the 'irresponsibly
embellish'd' exploits of Chas and Jer take us on a fantastic voyage through
some subjunctive New World which could have been but never was, the details
of and discussions in that Philadelphia drawing room around "Christmastide
of 1786" depict just what "America" became and has remained, both the good
and the bad of it: the nepotism and corruption as well as the familial
loyalty and goodwill; the warmth of that middle class parlour and through
the window the snowdrifts of social and political unrest.

best

----------
>From: "Domine Vobiscuits" <dominevobiscuits at hotmail.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: FW: the motif of marriage
>Date: Sat, May 6, 2000, 5:57 PM
>

> 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).
snip