MDMD(5): Dreams and Boundaries

[Michel Ryckx]

Just wondering: two weeks ago, I asked why we took magic for granted in
mr. Marquez' novels, and why we don't accept it as readily when
discussing a mr. Pynchon novel.

Part of the answer may be the setting of a (chapter in the) novel.  An
L.E.D. in Plymouth somehow does not make as much sense as the story of
the Malay Dagger and forces us to discuss it.  But here, at the Cape,
where nothing is what it seems, it is OK that we are told the story of a
Khoi woman; that a krees is being offered to Death:

"Silently, the bow'd Figure throws it on the Ground to one side [. . .]
 When he wakes, there it is, [. . .] " (71-72)

And this brings me to the main topic: on first sight the distinctions
are clear, taking a closer look, the distinctions disappear or becomes
unclear.

1.  Bonk points out there's no difference between Sea and Land

2.  The horrors of the Cape, visible to 'Men of Reason' (68.26) and
described as an 'Obsession or Siege' (68.25) causes nightmares.  Thanks
to Toko, a Senoi woman, Mason re-gains control over death.  A scheme:
Waking Life --> Nightmare --> Waking Life, wiping out the boundary
again.
(by the way, I cannot help but think 'Siege' is a Pynchon code word)

3. There's a distinction between the settlers and their slaves.  The way
Johanna treats Austra as a mere commodity brings the Latin word for
slave in mind: manicipium: a thing (the word is neutral) to be grabbed
(capio, to take) with the hand.
But:
"Slaves here commit suicide at a frightening Rate --but so do the
Whites, for no reason, or for a Reason ubiquitous and unadress'd [. . .]
(69.3-5)
United in death (wish)?

4. The Cape, described by Mason as a 'Viper-Plantation', (71.21), a
'Colony of Hell' (71.13).  They both consider themselves as enlightened
men; they both differ, or think they do from the whites at the Cape.
But Dixon phantasizes about slaves helping him out while 'gazing.