MDDM: Back to Innocence-remembering the experiment

[Judy Panetta]

Thanks Rob, and some brief reactions...

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org]On
Behalf Of jbor
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 6:17 PM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: MDDM: Back to Innocence-remembering the experiment

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>From Rob:

But I also get the sense that all is not well in this utopia. There is the
"seething Pot of Politics" (6) in the city outside, and Uncle Ives, his
"green Brief-bag over one shoulder"(9) (signalling what? that he's a lawyer?
a vocation generally detested and largely ridiculed in Pynchon's fiction),
has come from one "Coffee-House Meeting" and is on his way to another. (9)
The children in this society are somewhat neglected or overlooked: they are
"not consulted". (7) They have been banished by the adults to the Rev.d's
guardianship in the parlour: "too much evidence of Juvenile Rampage" (6) and
the Rev.d's services will be curtailed and other methods of keeping the kids
"amus'd" will be employed. Indeed, the very "size and difficulty" of
Tenebrae's needlework piece is seen by the adults as cause for concern (7),
evidence of wilfulness and free-thinking on her part perhaps.
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JP: If you are talking about the "these Republican Shores" (rather than the
Penn's Woods experiment) then in 1786 the utopia was not even a glint in its
Founding Gathers' eyes. The "Nation bick'ring itself into fragments" is
referring to the second continental congress. And considering that, there
was plenty to discuss in the coffee houses...the constitution being a cause
of great debate (and still is). I do think that Uncle Ives is somehow
involved with the law, I had thought he was studying law not practicing it.
(And please no remarks about Phila. Lawyers). But regardless, with interest
in the law, to be in Phila. at that moment, to perhaps have some small part
in creating the "perfect" government, gee wilikers! I have no doubt that the
Pot of Politics was seething and that young Ives would want to be in the hub
of it.

I don't get the sense that the children were neglected-quite the contrary.
They seem to be happy, well fed and suitably dressed. I understood this room
with the mirror to be a play-room. A place where they could be
children...where they could be free to "monkey around" with no fear of
damaging anything of value. The Rev'd. is employed to keep the kiddies from
"underfoot," out of the way while holiday preparations continue...to give
mother a break...to give the Rev'd. some "usefulness." Usefulness being more
dignified than outright charity, although I don't belief that J. Wade has
any particular affection for the Rev'd.
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>From Rob:

The implication of "moral usefulness" in the Rev.'s tales is a little bit of
jive on the Rev.d's part, and his tales are in fact quite titillating and
subversive, as is hinted here.
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>From JP: Yes and isn't it...oh...grand for the kids?
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>From Rob:

The other thing I forgot to mention pertains to the mirror, "banish'd to
this Den of Parlor Apes for its Remembrance of a Time better forgotten,
reflecting most of the Room" (6), which reflection encompasses the reader
also as one of these "Parlor Apes", and "the Room" of the narrative as an
allegory of the world (i.e. the novel as a mirror, but fully apprised of the
way that mirrors can distort, or can be used to represent a particular view
of the world, as this mirror did at the "Mischianza"). And there is here, as
Paul Mackin once noted about the opening of _GR_ as well, a distinct echo of
Proust's _A la recherche du temps perdu_.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From JP:

Perhaps. Although I believe that weights the mirror too heavily. If this
were so I would be tempted to find deeper meaning in all the furniture that
is described for us. I saw it as an interesting artifact. Like the card
table, it has a special feature (the convex glass "reflecting most of the
room") that the children would enjoy. The "Remembrance of a Time better
forgotten" line...as you know, I believe this is a clue to the LeSparks
sympathies during the war.
best




on 9/15/01 1:39 AM, Judy Panetta at judy at firemist.com wrote:

> Contemplating this opening chapter through the lens of recent events I was
> struck by the time and place Pynchon puts us at the opening of M&D.
>
> Philadelphia:
>
> The capital (so to speak) of William Penn's great "Quaker" experiment. In
a
> nut shell...the friends believe that all nature is equal and in balance.
> That each individual should look to their "inner light" by meditation
> thereby understanding in what way they achieve harmony in nature. Bottom
> line: no human being is better or worse than any other. (There will be a
> reference later on in the book to Penn jailed for not removing his hat in
> the presence of the king of England.) Penn's hope for Pennsylvania was
> utopian...an experimental community of tolerance based on the ideas of Fox
> and others. And in many ways, it sorta kinda worked. Pennsylvania was one
of
> the few settlements that not only lived peacefully but interacted with the
> indigenous people.
>
> Something to keep in mind about friendly sensibilities...the friends do
not
> believe in majority rule, but rather total community agreement. In this
> regard the "inner light" did not always shine brightly for members of
> Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (a sort of Quaker Vatican where decisions on
> important issues are arrived at). In 1754, John Woolman presented "Some
> Consideration on the Keeping of Negros" to Yearly Meeting, and the debate
> over slavery began. The decision to commit to abolition was reached 70
years
> later. It is probably also worth noting that friends were/are staunch
> pacifists.
>
> Let us also remember that William Penn was not the founder of the Society
of
> Friends, but George Fox.
> http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?z=1&pg=2&ti=761579324
>
> 1786:
>
> The dawn of the "Great Experiment." A new nation struggles to make right
the
> political and social ills of the conventional wisdom. Having just
separated
> from a (the?) oppressive world power, these delegates to the congress in
> Phila. were striving to create a model inspired by the age of
enlightenment.
>
> A brief...very brief review of enlightenment that I cribbed from somewhere
> on the web:
>
> The Enlightenment
> 1. believing that every natural phenomenon had a cause and effect
> 2. a belief that truth is arrived at by reason
> 3. believing that natural law governed the universe
> 4. progress would always take place
>
> OK folks...any reactions, comments?
>