MDMD2: The Learned English Dog

[Jasper Fidget]

I feel inclined to settle on the dog that way too: as superstition,
hallucination of the past which these men of science are slowly destroying.
He is an oracle for those who seek meaning otherwise denied them (recall the
myriad of similar endeavors in GR), and (since I'm always more interested in
character) Mason's mission with the dog is a regression on his part, a brief
turning from the rational laws which he uses to structure his life and
occupation, coerced there by the force of his grief (which can rarely be
dealt with rationally imo), and which all embarrasses him with Dixon
there--wanting to maintain a sense of superiority to the younger man who has
accomplished less?  Wanting to embody the principles of scientific advance
that have put them together in the first place?--and so this meeting with
the dog is a dark tangent, a brief relapse into the pre-lapsarian (couldn't
resist it, but perhaps it is so: pre-knowledge) past.

Also the LED of the technological future, which to the dog's audience, who
haven't learned to control electricity, would seem every bit as magical as a
talking dog, if not more.  So then also perhaps an hallucination of the
*future*, of the (exaggerated?) potential of the Enlightenment, where all
commonplace needs could be supplied answers--for instance the need for
digital clock radios?

Anyway, this is my day off.

Jasper Fidget

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Bailey" <johnbonbailey at hotmail.com>
To: <davidmmonroe at hotmail.com>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2001 10:42 PM
Subject: Re: MDMD2: The Learned English Dog


>
> I think, too, The L.E.D. is the first example of the kind of
> super/preter/extranatural thing which M&D seems to suggest is denied and
> subsequently destroyed by the Age of Reason, Enlightenment, Men of Science
> etc, yeah? Would people agree that this is a major theme of the novel?
Like,
> one of the 'lines' which the novel suggests should (maybe) not have been
> drawn is the one between myth/magic/fantasy/belief and
> fact/proof/nature/thought? I'm pretty sure it becomes more explicit later
> on, though I could be recalling wrongly. I have so much trouble sorting
out
> what is in these books and what I think about when reading them. I'm sure
> I'm not alone.
>
> >From: "Dave Monroe" <davidmmonroe at hotmail.com>
> >To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> >Subject: MDMD2: The Learned English Dog
> >Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 12:36:05 -0500
> >
> <snip lots of excellent stuff>
>
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