MDDM Ch. 70 Scalping Lord Lepton

[jbor]

Although, and I think this is something you have overlooked, consider
Catfish's judgement:

    "... He was a very bad man. Even White People hated him." (681.1)

So I don't think it's as simple as Native Indian = "good" such that White
Man = "bad" in Pynchon's text. Recall that giant hemp tree, for example, and
the way it  motivated a distinctly capitalist type of greed and exploitation
amongst the tribes (654-5).

I'm pretty certain that it's meant to be the scalp of Lepton, and his rifle:

    He cannot release his Grasp upon the thing. (428.32)

    " ... a Monomaniack ... " "--looking for that Rifle back." (681.14)

And I don't think the encounter is meant to be "staged", except by Pynchon,
of course, tying up another loose sub-plot.

I think that Mason is worried about the "evil Powers" of the inverted
Pentacle (a Satanic emblem), and warns Catfish to prise that out. I don't
think he cares about Catfish's possession of the rifle, and both he and Jere
were pretty impressed by it back at Lepton's (cf. also Mason's praise of
"[t]he Lancaster County Rifle" at 663.2).

My guess is that D & M remain silent about knowing Lepton so as not to be
mistaken as an ally of his, something which I'd say they certainly aren't.

And, banal though it is, the LL of Lord Lepton, "drooling and sneering,
multiply-bepoxed" (416.20), seems a conscious precedent for the MM of Major
Marvy. Type and prototype.

I think that it "not feeling complete" to Mason was his simple expression of
disbelief in mortality, coupled with a eulogy for Lepton which is thoroughly
drenched in Schadenfreude.

best


Bandwraith wrote:

> 
> 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.
> 
>