MDDM Ch. 67 Various

[jbor]

Yes, this is apt I think. And there's a neat reversal in Ch. 68 when one of
the Native Americans, unnamed and indistinguishable from the others now,
re-"baptises" Mason as "Defecates-with-Pigeons" at 663.5. The final comment
about how "[t]hose of us who knew how, have fled into Refuge in your Dreams,
at last" I think refers to the fear which Native American "magic" now
inspires in the colonisers' minds, exemplified in Wicks's fear of "flying"
back in Ch. 67.

I don't know much at all about Indian naming, but a couple of the names in
the list did sound Indigenous to me: "Tanadoras ... Tondegho ... Sawattiss
... Soceena." And "Hanenhereyowagh" is a Loony Toons stereotype-name if ever
I heard one.

It's an interesting section, I think. As also is the enormous vegetable
sequence which ends the chapter.

best


on 2/8/02 9:55 PM, Bandwraith at aol.com at Bandwraith at aol.com wrote:

> Whether or not these were the actual names used
> by the "Indians" the clear implication is that they
> have been baptised, which I think is another demon-
> stration of Pynchon's concern that the "Indians"
> are willing to incorporate the spiritual reality of
> the whites into their dreams without sacrificing
> their own spiritual identity. For me, this indicates
> that Pynchon feels one of the basis of the
> "white christians' neurosis" is a loss of the spiritual
> connection with aspects deemed or defined as
> less than human, and therefore, incapable of
> being redeemed, not to mention original sin,
> expulsion from eden, yada, yada, yada. Wicks,
> I agree, is insecure with the more "material"
> spirituality of the "Indians."