MDDM "Another Slave-Colony"

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/22/01 5:53:00 PM, jbor at bigpond.com writes:

<< The point I was making is that it must have come as a surprise or shock to
many readers - American readers especially - that the focus of the text,
ostensibly, and self-described as, "a Tale about America" (7.22), is on
Mason and Dixon themselves, and (so far, at least) *England*, and Englishmen
abroad, rather than on the actual Mason-Dixon Line, as it had long been
reported the novel *would* be about.<<

But it's Pitt that asks "Why haven't we heard a tale about America?" and as 
we've
been informed the paragraph before: "The Youth, as usual, not being consulted 
in this"
regarding the choice of subject matter for the Rev's revelations, albeit, 
regarding the
the moral usefulness of these tales. What we have been prep'd for as readers 
is a tale with moral value not a rehashing of colonial america. No surprise 
here, at any rate, by
the sojourn entitled "Latitudes and Departures." 

Whatever the novel had "long been reported to be about" was, as per usual 
with Pynchon, a risky bet.

 >>What *isn't* narrated as 'background'
is the eighty years of boundary disputes between the Calverts and the Penns
that van Atta's article addresses - what is narrated are some of the
political and other intrigues and issues on the English and Continental side
of things. I think Pynchon's decision to gear the novel in this way is
significant. But what he has...
>>done in the novel is deliberately foreground the significance of one
particular set of circumstances - those prevailing in England - at the
expense of another - those within the American colonies - and this fact is
something that has not gone unnoticed either by Tenebrae, as evidenced by
her 'perplexity' and remark which open Ch. 25. It seems to me that,
empathising with Mason's and Dixon's points of view as the text does,
Pynchon is setting up to deal that myth of a noble and glorious (and
'independent') American heritage a bit of a mortal body-blow:

      "Not to mention the Americans...?"
      "Excuse me? They are at least British there,-- aren't they? The Place
    *is* but a Patch of England, at a Three-Thousand Mile Off-set. Isn't
    it? [ ... ] Dixon, hold, are you telling me, now, that Americans are
    *not* British?-- You've heard this somewhere?"
      "No more than the Cape Dutch are Dutch...? 'Tis said these people keep
    Slaves, as did our late Hosts,-- that they are likewise inclin'd to
    kill the People already living where they wish to settle.-- "
      "Another Slave-Colony...so have I heard as well. Christ." (248)<<

It seems M&D are somewhat at odds here, so "the text" (whatever that might
mean) might be hard pressed 'to agree' with them both. I'm not sure where "The
myth of a noble and glorious (and 'independent') American heritage" that you 
are
referring to is coming from. the last reference I recall was "the Nation
bickering itself into Fragments, wounds bodily and ghostly, great and small, 
go aching
on, not ev'ry one commemorated,- nor, too often, even recounted"(6.10)... not 
particularly auspicious.

>>After 250 pages of this purportedly historical narrative - "a Tale about
America" - the corresponding prior *'American'* history is encapsulated, all
but dismissed<<

[see above, re: "purported" v. requested by Pitt]

>>in these few lines, part of a conversation coming right after
Dixon's reminder of "all thah' French Jabber" that was heard, or intuited,
and then interpreted as being a lesson about the ethics and motives of
European imperialism ("France is not at war with the sciences" ... "The
Business of the World is Trade and Death"), when the *L'Grand* decided not
to finish off the *Seahorse* in the first attack at sea.<<

Ethics and motives of euro-imperialism not withstanding, Mason's primary 
reason
for acknowledging the harsh reality of power politics, it seems to me, is to 
contrast it with his hope for a "Moment of Purity" as the price for such an 
iffy and personal wish. He seems to be unconsciously replaying  past battles 
with his father. 

>> (39-40) Why Chas
and Jere have agreed to go there, whatever redeeming qualities the place
might hold, can only be guessed at: "the Food, the Lasses?" Or, as Mason
cynically observes, "[t]he Pay,-- I suppose." <<

Or, perhaps, the chance to be with Dixon.