MDDM Ch. 5: "an act of Him"

[John Bailey]

Terrance,

Thank you for some really excellent stuff on M&D in the past few days (and 
also of course to Michel who has served up a banquet both expansive yet 
digestible). A few thoughts on the Act of Him (Hymn). Hadn't had much to add 
to this thread, as I'd kind of assumed, well, coalmine=underground, like 
Hell is down, yeah? God v. Devil? Now I'm all confused. Although there is 
the human element...and I think you address this well here Terrance.

Regarding paranoia, I'm interested in the way the dialogue and pondering of 
our two intrepid heroes goes from some fairly vague and speculative 
ruminations in one chapter to a solid form in the next. We suddenly have the 
Seahorse/L'Grand incident described as an Interdiction At Sea: interdiction? 
Where'd that come from? Suddenly it goes from paranoid wondering to a solid 
ACT, an interdiction, which implies an authority, the question still 
remaining as to who. Was the l'Grand a warning, as they mooted earlier? It 
seems they now treat it as a Statement, a firm notice of intent...

So, who made this statement? Once again, religious or secular paranoia here? 
I think that our merry boys do indeed keel in the directions T has outlined 
below. Maybe relevant to anyone with a background in literary studies..the 
Proppian Morphology of a Folktale stuff starts stories with an interdiction 
addressed to our hero. Maybe Pynchon is getting all Mythological on our 
asses. I hope not.

>  What is here, I believe, is what we continue to read, at least from the
>Dixon side of the tale, the preterit are are at the Mercy of men in
>power. Not War. Not THEM. Not even a conspiracy of machines, but men.
>Dixon protects himself with a military coat. Protects himself not so
>much from the madness of war, as the madmen who wage (and wager) it.
>Mason goes to the witch. He wants to buy or have told his fortune,
>insurance (like the ships on both sides of these protracted world wars,
>insured by Lloyds of London), Dixon flirts with the girl. Mason now,
>like the savage harpooner of Moby-Dick meditates madly on Death.
>

Interesting, no, that Mason, the serious one, the city boy, the educated, 
the somewhat more priveleged, is aligned with magic and the Other Side in a 
different way to Dixon. Dixon is pragmatism, magic as a part of everyday 
life, not to be relied on, not even to be thought about that much. Mason is 
the one obsessed, Dixon barely curious. It seems to me that Reason, in M&D, 
is not completely opposed to magic. There is a sort of practical reasoning 
employed by Dixon which is at odds to Mason's spluttering scientific 
Rationality.

>The entire novel, thus far, is one big cock fight. It's a cock fight, a
>battle royal. The Fop fighting the learned English Dog (in a ring,
>sailors wagering) who threatens to infect him with his onsetting mental
>illness, a fear of water. Now Captain Grant
>feigns madness, an old trick of the cunning bar room brawler in over his
>head.
>
>The boy fifer is but one more example of a Wapping Lad pressed into
>service.
>Coal miners, like Irish spinners of Yarns, like Indian Sailors up the
>mast to smell the wind, are the colonialized, exploited foot soldiers
>indeed. And where the Lefty intellectuals to save them from their
>ignorance? To invite them into the party of Wittgenstein quips and
>Freudian cant at rusty spoon as they wait out in the WIND?
>

The initial description of The Seahorse (when Capt. Smith comes upon it) 
actually made me think "Damme! A Preterite Ship!" And that thought has not, 
as of yet, been contradicted.


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