MDDM Chapter 44: Quakers, Prison and Meditation

[John Bailey]

Not really M&D but all this talk reminds me of the 'Model Prison' which 
existed in Port Arthur, Tasmania (then Van Diemen's Land) a little later. 
Established by Quakers, one of the notable characteristics of this jail was 
the complete silence and solitude it enforced: prisoners were kept mostly 
separate, eye contact was forbidden as was all speech, even the guards wore 
special slippers to minimise sound. The idea, as I understand it, was a very 
Quakerite notion of redemption through meditation, voluntary or otherwise. 
This prison was also restricted to chronic offenders or those considered 
irredeemable.

>From: Terrance <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
>To: "pynchon-l at waste.org" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: MDDM Chapter 44 "a haze of green Resurrection" (441.2)
>Date: Mon, 08 Apr 2002 21:42:47 -0400
>
>
>
>jbor wrote:
> >
> > 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.
>
>Not quite what? The text engages his POV.
>
>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)
>
>I'm not sure if this the Fox text Dixon has in mind, but it's Quaker
>dogma anyway.
>
>"Altho' Dixon is heading off to Sumatra with a member of the Church of
>   England,-- that is, the Ancestor of Troubles,-- a stranger with whom
>he
>   moreover but hours before was carousing exactly like Sailors, shameful
>   to say, yet, erring upon the side of Conviviality, will he decide to
>   follow Fox's Advice, and answer, "that of God" in Mason, finding it
>soon
>   enough with the Battle on all 'round them, when both face their equal
>   chances of imminent Death." M&D.38-9
>
>Recall that George Fox belonged to the Church of England, his parents
>raised him in
>   the Church of Englan, but Fox began his career as a preacher
>agitating against
>   the Anglican Church, which he believed, remained too close to Roman
>   Catholicism. He would sometimes attend Anglican
>   sermons, after which he would stand up and give counter-sermons. He
>   would preach on the streets.    He was  thought to be madman or a
>mystic.
>  He preached against the bible puritans. He was tossed into Prison.
>
>
>
>   So, Dixon here is thinking of Fox's Journal, specifically, I think,
>his address
>   to the Ministers.
>
>
>
>   Dwell in the power of life and wisdom, and dread of the Lord of life,
>   and of heaven and earth, that you may be preserved in the wisdom of
>God
>   over all, and be a terror and a dread to all the adversaries of God,
>   answering that of God in them all, spreading the truth abroad,
>awakening
>   the witness, confounding the deceit, gathering up out of transgression
>   into the life, into the covenant of light and peace with God.
>
>          --GEORGE FOX
>
>   Launceston Jail, 1656, To Friends in the Ministry
>
>
>   The basis of George Fox's teaching was the belief that each soul is in
>   religious matters answerable not to its fellows, but to God alone,
>   without priestly mediation, because the Holy Spirit is immediately
>   present in every soul and is thus a direct cause of illumination. From
>   this central belief flowed two important practical consequences, both
>   essentially modern; one was complete toleration, the other was
>complete
>   equality of human beings before the law.
>
>
>   Fox  felt that the Spirit which had guided the fathers was waiting
>still
>   to lead forward their children: that He who spoke through men of old
>was
>   not withdrawn from the world but ready in all ages to enter into holy
>   souls and make them friends of God and prophets.
>
>And if we have any doubts about Dixon's mind we should also look to page
>43 where this Quaker principle is being discussed as Dixon is trying to
>be a Friend to Mason.
>
>   "But Quakers are a bit matier, the idea being to look for something of
>   God in ev'ryone...?"
>
>Dixon looks for god in Mason and he finds HIM.




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