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

[jbor]

Terrance wrote:

> I don't think Dixon
>> "looks for HIM in Mason" at all, or that the conversation indicates a
>> Christian impulse driving Pynchon's text.
> 
> Dixon says he looks for God in Mason. Bottom of page 38.

Not quite. The text does engage Dixon's point of view here: Mason is a
"member of the Church of England,-- that is, the *Ancestor of Troubles*,--".
Dixon asks himself whether, "erring upon the side of Conviviality, he will
decide to follow Fox's advice, and answer 'that of God' in Mason". The
phrase is apostrophised in the text for a reason, surely, the reason being
that it is quoted verbatim from George Fox.

Fox's advice: "Walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in
every one." (_Journal_, 1658; ed. by J.L. Nickalls, 1952, p. 346)

Dixon is in two minds about following Fox's maxim and entrusting his welfare
and future to a "stranger" like Mason. Dixon's carrying some pretty
heavy-duty anti-C of E baggage here too. However, he is reassured "soon
enough", when their lives are imperiled aboard the Seahorse, and Mason rises
to the occasion.

It's not that Dixon looks for God in Mason in particular, it just so happens
that he has thrown his lot in with this Mason character for the foreseeable
future. He's come to a point in his life where he has to gauge the practical
applications of his own Quaker faith - the relative wisdom in simply walking
"cheerfully" (i.e. his "Conviviality") and answering "that of God in every
one", as Fox advises.

> Conspicuous absences, some argue, are very important to P's texts, but
> what those conspicuous omissions mean or tell us about the author's
> intentions remains a game of guess as far as I am concerned. If it's not
> in the book, I can't guess what it might mean. Or I can, but I can't
> expect others to see it even if I give them my crystal ball.

It's a pretty simple point to make. Pynchon's text in Ch. 44 does not engage
with the historical fact that April 5, 1765, was Good Friday, no crystal
ball required.

best