Chapter 45: The Duck and Slothrop

[Dave Monroe]

>From Hanjo Berressem, "Tristes Traumatiques: Trauma in
the Zone:s," Pynchon Notes 42-43 (Spring-Fall 1998),
pp. 244-74 ...

   "If one can believe his letters--I'm being
frightfully logocentric here, but then, sometimes
curiosity kills deconstruction--it seems that Pynchon
was already at work on Mason & Dixon in 1975 .... 
With this in mind, it is of course tempting to read
the novels as (maybe hypertextually) linked.  In fact,
nowadays (if one is a faithful lurker on pynchon-l, as
I am, one knows this_--and I think it is a good
thing--in the treatment of the novels, chronological
linearity and with it the concept of development are
being discraded for complex topological mappings,
structural superimpositions of texts that create ... a
faield of many--maybe up to a thousand--plateaus,
intersecting at many times and places, creating points
de capiton [quiltings] and transfers....
   "... examples include Vaucanson's Duck in Mason &
Dixon and 'Marcel, a mechanical chessplayer,' in
Gravity's Rainbow ....'" (p. 270)

Or Vaucanson's Duck and Tyrone Slothrop.  On Pynchon's
letters, see ...

Gussow, Mel.  "Pynchon's Letters Nudge His Mask."
   New York Times, 4 March 1988: E1, E8.

Beressem's essay also includes some nifty Mark Tansey
illustrations, albeit none of these ...

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/ftptoc/tansey_ext.html

Hey there, Hanjo ...

--- David Morris <fqmorris at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> These quotes [...] make me think of Slothrop.
> Constructed by Them, he transforms into a force
> beyond Their control, becoming a fugitive who MUST
> be caught, brought back under control. Like the
> duck's 'morphosis, Slothrop also becomes more and
> more invisible until finally opinions vary as to
> whether he ever actually existed.  I don't think
> these parallels are accidental.

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