MDDM ch.67: "Yet, does it live" (657.13)

[Terrance]

Bandwraith at aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 8/5/02 12:17:17 AM, lycidas2 at earthlink.net writes:
> 
> << In any event, god is remote. Celestially structured  supreme beings
> disappear from the practices of religion, from cult; they depart from
> among men, withdraw to the sky or the horizon, become remote, inactive
> gods (see the Herero) (see dei otiosi).
>  >>
> 
> I'm not sure that it's just "god" that's being specified by
> the natives or M&D in their discussion, but the possibility
> of a spiritual dimension which can be accessed by the
> living as well as the previously alive, e.g., Rebekah.


Agreed. Yes, the conversation progresses to a discussion of "fishing"
and other 
"rites" and "dogma"--the soul and so forth. And, as usual, we can assume
that the conversation was progressing long before we made aware of it. 
In fact, the discussion  about where god dwells and where heaven is
situated is omnipresent in this novel and in P novels generally.  Mason
and Dixon and lots of other characters have been talking about this
topic from the start.  


That being said, Mason asks a specific question, he  wants to know where
the Indian "spiritual village or heaven is located.  They tell him it is
at the horizon--west. I think it is significant that all agree on this.
And they want to know **Where** his heaven is located. He indicates that
his heaven is up in the sky, but he's not very confident with his
reply.  Dixon questions the limited space Mason affords their god,
saying,   god dwells not only at the zenith, but all round. 

So the ironies are rich here. Mason is a haunted soul, but  Mason
looking up at the stars all the night,  is not attended by a star.  His
father god is remote. He can not sit still  long enough for his
vegetable god--the Son or christ or what Dixon calls the spirit
within--to be aroused within him so that he may find peace, a respite
from the labor of the night.