MDDM Ch. 70 Scalping Lord Lepton

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/20/02 6:54:53 AM, jbor at bigpond.com writes:

<< 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). >>

Nor do I, but I think that the giant hemp tree episode is
one of the weaker spots in the novel. Surely there is an
attempt to anachronistically connect the bands of rival
"jobbers" with an overly romamticised version of modern
drug gangs feuding over product, but it does not play well.
Perhaps it is because the added dimension of illegality is
missing amongst the jobbers, while paramount in these
times.

>>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 it is "meant" to be Lepton's Scalp, as well, but that
could all be part of the staging, for the benefit of this
particular audience. The scalping has occurred off stage.
Even if it is Lepton's scalp,  meeting up with M&D  so 
soon after the deed, so far west of Castle Lepton is, at least, 
"cute."

>>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.<<

Clearly, the symbolism of a five-sided star on the Cheek-
Piece of the paradigm of that day's lethality should not be 
lost. This diminutive beginning echoes the first sentence 
of the book: "Snow-balls have flown their Arcs..." Then- 
just a well crafted flintlock, now- a Pentagon of unimaginable 
destructive power. Mason's sixth sense is correct. 

<< 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. >>

Not sure that connection isn't another example of
"failing to mark the Bundaries between Reality and
Representation," or treating the text as the world,
such an easy mistake in these pynchonian thickets. 
Yet, you might be on to something. Perhaps the 
world, in this case, is the "invisible connection" 
between the two texts, M&D and GR.

But the staging of this scene, I agree, is so much
more chilling than the case of mistaken ID that
allowed poetic justice to be carried out w/r/t
Marvey. Whatever vehemence may have been
involved in the scalping, in the telling, Catfish
is cold and deliberate, like a Brisk wind off
Delaware, into which the boys sit staring, Hatless.
But their silence, it seems to me, is fooling no one,
especially not the Delaware, who addresses them
with the same term used for Lepton by his slaves,
only plural: "Milords."

>>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. >>

Interesting choice, Schadenfreude And while my primary 
association is with der Springer, I think it fits Mason here 
perfectly. I think, as well, that it suggests another aspect 
of scapegoating.

"His eyes are steelies that never lose." [GR 526.15]