MDDM Re: ch.67 "Oh, Coz, what Stuff."

[jbor]

I think it might tie in with the way Native Americans identify themselves
with, and name themselves after, animal spirits. The example given in the
text is Jemmy's "Protector,-- a Bear" (652.7). The discussion of the
constellations which follows ties together Western astronomy and Native
American myth, Ursa Minor being called or envisaged as "the Great Bear" in
both cultural systems (652.32-3).

An allusion to _Walden_ is a possibility too I guess, but it seems oblique,
and an interpretive case would need to be made.

I'm interested in that list of names of the "Indians!" (648.18).
Hananhereyowagh reads like a very bad pun. There are Old and New Testament
names, a Dutch-sounding name (which might also be a pun), and a couple of
names which sound more typically Native American-y. The only name I could
track down was "John Sturgeon", and he wasn't an "Indian!" at all!

http://www.grapevine.net/~pskys/page9.html

Father of:

http://www.sturgeon.com/genealogy/sturgeon/nathan/d0000/g0000081.html

best


on 2/8/02 12:39 AM, Bandwraith at aol.com at Bandwraith at aol.com wrote:

> There is something odd about this whole
> passage, including the Sky-fishing bit. If
> the natives are willing to use their bodies
> and spirits for bait, what is it that visits
> them from the stars, "Never all at once..."
> 
> Is this passage pure "Pynchonian Interpolation,"
> or is there some historical basis for this
> practice?