MDDM Ch. 67 Various

[Doug Millison]

Otto:
>2. Contrary to the historical record at least he lets them have names and by
>doing so, personality.

Another example is the Bible, which generally fails to name women, the
women who are named are the exception not the rule.

Whatever is or isn't in the historical record, Pynchon has complete control
over who he chooses to name (or not) in M&D.  He also seems to exercise
some control over the names of historical personages as well, choosing to
use a spelling variant (Crawfford v. Crawford), or to characterize these
people in ways that may have little or nothing to do with who they were in
"reality".


>3. Wasn't it a white & racist habit to rename colonised people instead of
>leaving them their birth names?

What?   Those benevolent old slave-owners wouldn't do anything like that to
deny the humanity and individuality of their property now would they?