MDMD Elytra White

[John Bailey]

It's not unusual, this chapter. We've got some comical cartoonlike imagery 
(Mason running around the room twice before leaping out an open window with 
a receding cry and a thump), a fairly awful pun ('Dutch ado about nothing') 
and Mason falling from a disintegrating balcony before deciding to lie in 
the mud for a while. Now, this image of someone falling and then deciding to 
stay where they lie for a little seems awfully familiar...that's it! In V., 
someone (Porpentine?) falls down a set of stairs and then lights up a 
cigarette whilst lying on the ground. It's a weird image. It would never 
occur to me to do other than, say, get up, in any of these situations.

Anyway, all of this comical stuff is right up alongside some more serious 
matters, and as I said, it's not unusual. We've got lots of emphasis on 
white, as Terrance has pointed out, and lots of references to darkness. Why 
the darkling beetle? 'Now it's dark' (just to continue the Blue Velvet 
references). And it's a good question: why are this beetle's elytra white? 
Darkling beetles are very common in California, I hear.

Biblically, does anyone attach any significance to the rather obvious 
insects raining down? Not to mention some minor flooding.

And what's with the lonely sheep cowering by the wall? Is the sheep the 
'Snip' which demands Mason chase it? And if so, why does he?



>From: Terrance <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
>To: "pynchon-l at waste.org" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: MDMD Elytra White
>Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 12:12:53 -0400
>
>
>
>Terrance wrote:
>
> > So what P up to?
>
>Hint:
>
>Accusations of misogyny (P's or list members) are not going to help us
>find out.
>
>P's reverence  for Mother is unquestionable, as is his love of children
>and woman.
>
>And a little rain never hurt noone....
>
>That is, of course, a little rain, a small rain, fire and flood and
>rockets are another story altogher.


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp