MDDM Ch. 5: "an act of Him"

[jbor]

My reading of the opening misunderstanding (42) between M & D in the chapter
is that it is not over the word "Him", but the word "act". Mason says that
it was "an act of Him so strange, His purposes unknown", meaning of course
an act of "God", to which Dixon replies "I'm not sure which one tha mean",
meaning he isn't sure which "act" Dixon is referring to (i.e. the order to
sail, the attack, the retreat etc). If Dixon were referring to the "Him"
then he wouldn't have used the pronoun "one" in his reply, surely? And, it
fits in much better with Mason's wry rejoinder to Dixon's observation at
chapter's close about lightning not striking twice.

Then, I think that when Mason realises Dixon's interjection is not a quibble
over "Who" but rather *what*, he stops himself. ("-oh. Oh, I see.") I guess
the "common Belief" Mason alludes to then, rightly or wrongly, is to Quakers
accepting that any and all of God's acts are "strange" or "unknown" (setting
up a false Reason v. Faith binary in the process), and that Dixon
foregrounds the condescension of Mason's reply with what is becoming a
characteristic mode of ironic self-deprecation in his quip about "All thah'
Coal-Mining, I guess". Makes sense to me, anyway.

What I see as especially impressive about this novel is that despite the
antiquated linguistic overlay Pynchon has orchestrated (for Purposes
Parodick), all those obscure historical details and minutiae, and the
convoluted way Wicks goes about recounting the tale and consequent
disruptions to narrative sequentiality therein, it is remarkably easy to
follow and quite funny in the reading of it.

best