MDDM Ch. 70 Scalping Lord Lepton

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/15/02 18:31 PM, jbor at bigpond.com writes:

<<This brief scene with Catfish showing off Lepton's rifle, and Lepton's scalp
   still dripping blood (680-1) reminded me of the castration of Major Marvy 
in
   GR, although it's even more gruesome, less darkly comic than the episode in
   the earlier novel. Here Pynchon's brutal stroke of poetic justice is
   directed against a character probably less cruel than foolish, and 
certainly
   less cruel and despicable than Marvy was. >>


 Yes, and it probably is Lepton, although it might not
be. But what about the reaction of M&D, for whom this
encounter is surely staged? M finds it less than complete,
and there are numerous documentations of survivors of
 scalpings, both in the historical and the medical literature,
 although the exception rather than the rule. Neither was
 scalping solely the practice of the natives. And Dixon
 envisions the scalpee to be more concerned about "the
 piece" than his missing topper. M&D are not sanguine 
 about the possibility of the owner of this rifle having been
 murdered by Catfish, to the point where they are not
 satisfied with only bearing witness to his blood-dripping
 scalp. They want him separated from the rifle permanently.

 And yet, how can they, if but only in the deepest recesses
 of their mutual "sentimental horizon", not but picture their own 
 fates- this far west of the Warrior Path- to be similar to that of 
 Lepton? They must simultaneously feel kinship with him as they
 despise him. Isn't that the functional definition of a scapegoat?

 In that sense, I agree with you about the similarity with Marvey.
 Lepton also functions as a scapegoat, not so much for white
 male readers, like Marvey, but for M&D themselves. It is 
 interesting that "revenge" and "that rifle" are what M&D picture 
 the scalped Lepton as missing most, but that certainly is 
 "in character" for both of them.