MDMD Chapter 5: Paranoia

[Terrance]

John Bailey wrote:
> 
> Aaaah. Didn't take long for the old Pynchonian Paranoid Ponderings to begin,
> and Chapter 5 marks the first really serious musings on the machinations of
> Higher Forces by our dynamic duo. Mason & Dixon begin to wonderwhy they were
> sent on a doomed mission, and it appears to me, at least with the amount of
> information we are provided with *within* the novel, that Conclusions Are
> Being Leapt To. This is not the carefully reasoned, horribly and inhumanely
> logical description of sinister plots such as we find in COL49, or esp. GR.
> It feels more like a writer's habit to me, an old coat that fits so well
> even if it's lost its external shape.
> 
> Although it does complicate matters for the writers who have linked
> Pynchonian Paranoia to a specific post-war sensibility, unless we either see
> it as a) something Pynchon has no control over, as in he really IS paranoid,
> the writer I mean (not a very popular opinion) or b) M&D isn't about
> colonial times at all, but is about OUR times. I'm of the opinion that M&D
> is about many times. That's why time is such an important recurring trope in
> the book. Watches, clocks, calendars, memories, histories etc. But is
> Pynchon universalising Paranoia? I don't know.
> 
> I just...don't know.

Thanks John. I agree with all you say here, I just want to follow up
with two 
forms of the paranoid here.  The first is a religious paranoia. Not in
the sense that we find in GR--everything is connected, either by a
benevolent God or an Evil one, but in the sense of "cultural/theological
conflict and miscommunication. Mason and Dixon don't quite understand
each other's religion.   To make matters worse, Mason talks the talk,
but doesn't walk the walk, while  Dixon says he is no longer technically
a Quaker, but he sure acts like one. And both seems to rely on
stereotypes and rumor and what they have been taught about the other's
religion. Although Dixon, in part because he is a Quaker, and in part
because of his disposition, is not as ignorant about Mason's Religion as
Mason is of Dixon's.  

They are paranoid too because they just had a very traumatic experience,
a brush with Death. And their paranoia is compounded by,  and in turn
complicates, exacerbates,  the general communication problems we have
already noted. 



In chapter 5 Dixon and Mason  try to figure out what in Christ's Name
happened  to them in Chapter 4. "Twas all so out of the ordinary, sez
Mason, and adds, 
it must have been intended, an act of HIM. 

HIM? 

His Purpose? 

God? 

With all these Capitalized words (the pronouns Him and His, when
capitalized, often stand for God or Christ) it's difficult to know if
Mason is 
suggesting that the battle in Chapter 4, which he says  was "so out of
the ordinary,"  can  only be explained or not explained by God's design. 

To make matters worse, Dixon doesn't understand Mason. He sez, 
"I'm not sure which one tha mean." (note there is no question mark and
of course Dixon doesn't have the benefit or disadvantage of the
Capitalized print, but can we assume that he places some inflectional
emphasis on the words Him and His?) 

Anyway, Mason assumes that his statement was unambiguous. 

He sez, "Who else could-oh. Oh, I see. 
"Hum
a common belief among your people?"  

But what does Mason mean by a common belief among Dixon's people (The
Society of Friends or Quakers) ? 

The Devil? 

Dixon seems to understand that this is what Mason means and so he says, 

"All thah' Coal Mining, I guess." 

(Insert Quaker history and Coal mining, humble working class Fox Cobbler
Mission to Penn and Barclay, Quaker marriage law and drink, Raby
minutes, etc.) 

What does Mason know about Quakers? 

What does Dixon know about Anglican Vergers? 

Will a knowledge of the other's religion  help them understand each
other? 

This book sounds more and more like Moby-Dick by the chapter. 

Mason is suffering from excessive grief and so his actions are a bit
insane, but he doesn't act like a member of the Church of England. 


What of his theology? 

Dixon says he is no longer technically a Quaker. 

But what about his theology? 



Although Dixon, like the Quakers in Moby-Dick, is willing to kill, the
foundation of his theology seem to be Quaker to the Heart---George Fox. 

"Altho' Dixon is heading off to Sumatra with a member of the Church of
England,-- that is, the Ancestor of Troubles,-- a stranger with whom he
moreover but hours before was carousing exactly like Sailors, shameful
to say, yet, erring upon the side of Conviviality, will he decide to
follow Fox's Advice, and answer, "that of God" in Mason, finding it soon
enough with the Battle on all 'round them, when both face their equal
chances of imminent Death." M&D.38-9

And Dixon explains this teaching of Fox to Mason on page 43. 

"But Quakers are a bit matier, the idea being to look for something of
God in ev'ryone...?" 

Him? His? The conversation shifts to other possibilities of who Him is
and what is His purpose. A collective conspiracy? The RS? Who wrote that
letter? Him? 

Note too, that the steaming bodies of sailors, the carnage, the war,
brings with it a certain awareness of the other, of the weaknesses and
strengths, courage and cowardice, 
and  Dixon and Mason have to pull together, there is no time to argue or
air differences of opinion. 

And what about Wicks? 

Does anyone else find it odd that Wicks sez  perhaps our  Guardian Angel 
got us back to Plymouth? 
Why would Wicks say this? I assume he says it for the children's
benefit. 
What does this tell us about Wicks and the Children? 
Like the Devil, Saints, Baptism, all manner of Catholic dogma, belief,
practice, theology, the Guardian Angel was much discussed and argued
about when the Sects were forming and fighting. Only a  few Protestant
Sects accept the RC Guardian Angels, in fact, in political sketches and
pamphlets "an enemy of God" or "man in league with 
Satan" or a man of "Reason" or a "false prophet" or a preacher in the
"synagogue of satan" would be depicted or described as having a guardian
angel at his side or two on either  side. 

On another topic, 


Dixon and Mason sail on a Friday. But they don't sail on Good Friday. 
Good Friday or Paschal Day, the Day of Preparation, the Day of Our
Lord's Passion, the Day of Absolution  is 20 March, 1761.

The Christian Calendar is a double Calendar, it is Jewish by the Moon
and Roman by the Sun. We have "fixed" days and "moving" days. 

The Baptism of the Lord is Sunday, 11 January, 1761.

This the date of Chapter 5.