MDDM Chapter 44 "a haze of green Resurrection" (441.2)

[jbor]

on 7/4/02 10:36 PM, Terrance at lycidas2 at earthlink.net wrote:

> We have a very different view of Christianity, I guess.

I'm not at all sure about this assumption, but we certainly seem to have
different views about Christianity's influence on and in Pynchon's texts.

I don't think "Dark Hepsie" is a Christian priestess at all. I've only got
_Bewitched_ episodes to go on, I admit, but I'm pretty certain that a bit of
digging on her name (from Hepzibah, I'd guess) will elicit a connection with
witchcraft and paganism rather than Christianity. She does not make any
distinction between "Christ, Fate, Saint Peter and the god Neptune" at all
(and she then starts talking about insurance!) and Dixon discerns her as a
"Scryeress". (26.17) The term "scry" refers to the art of divination,
especially by crystal-gazing.

I don't dispute the fact that Mason, Dixon, Wicks, and probably all of the
LeSpark clan are Christian, of various persuasions and to varying degrees.
Historically-speaking, it would be highly improbable if they weren't. And
the interplay between Mason's and Dixon's different backgrounds, including
though not restricted to religion, is certainly highlighted in the text. One
such moment is the conversation which begins Chapter 5. Mason declares that
the attack at sea was "an act of Him so strange", meaning an act of God.
Dixon replies that he doesn't know "which one" Mason means, and I take this
to mean that Dixon doesn't know which particular *act* Mason is referring
to. Mason misunderstands, thinking Dixon is uncertain about which *Him*,
assuming that Dixon believes in more than one deity, or more specifically,
in the active interference of the Devil in human affairs. Dixon immediately
realises the assumption Mason is making about his faith and replies,
facetiously, "all thah' Coal-mining, I guess". (42) I don't think Dixon
"looks for HIM in Mason" at all, or that the conversation indicates a
Christian impulse driving Pynchon's text. The exchange is played out for
comic effect and the development of the protagonists' relationship, and
foregrounds both Mason's condescension and Dixon's rapier wit, along with
their respective socio-cultural and religious heritages.

It is not at all correct to say that "Pynchon decides to include the Good
Friday start date" for the marking of the Line. The fact that April 5, 1765,
was Good Friday is not mentioned in the text of Pynchon's novel - not in Ch.
44, at least. This *is* significant. No reader could reasonably be expected
to just *know* that this date was Good Friday, and what I find conspicuous
is that none of the characters - all Christians, as we agree - mentions it
either. Why isn't it mentioned? Why haven't *any* of the narrative agencies
gotten some mileage out of this historical coincidence? It seems a very
conspicuous *omission* to me.

Imo, there are no allusions to Christ on these pages either, and the "green
Resurrection" metaphor is used in a pointedly non-Christian context, and
used thus by a narrative voice which is not Wicks nor any other of the
characters in the novel. (I can see no references to the 1794 Mutiny off
Spithead or coal-miners' strikes here either.)

Finally, far from being "dismissive of religious superstitions" I think that
Pynchon's texts are very inclusive of religious and other superstitions,
including those superstitions upon which Christianity is founded. I don't
believe any single set of religious superstitions assumes a privileged
position in the texts, however. In other words, I see no evidence of a
Christian ethos undergirding Pynchon's work.

Of course, I can see we are going to continue to disagree on this, so I
won't press the point any further.

best