MDDM Ch. 70 Scalping Lord Lepton

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/20/02 8:10:41 PM, rfiero at pophost.com writes:

from jbor:
<< >"... He was a very bad man. Even White People hated him." (681.1)

rfiero:
My reading certainly differs here. This is great humor on the 
part of Catfish who is implying that "Whites are so bad that 
it's unthinkable that a White could hate someone for badness 
unless that person was supremely bad."

Ha, ha! that's good. I like your Catfish!
. . .
>>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."<<

rfiero:
"I don't believe that Pynchon is doing social darwinism here. Yes, it's 
theater."

>. . .
>Clearly, the symbolism of a five-sided star on the Cheek- 
>Piece ....

rfiero:
"The five-sided star in my opinion is just a trinket. It has no 
symbolism or power other than what Mason invests in it. Mason 
is a true klutz here to admonish Catfish to "pry it out." This 
has to be the epitome of stupidity and is itself embarrassingly 
funny -- "'The sign on it has Evil Powers,' Mason warns. 'You 
should take a knife or something and pry it out.'"
Still chuckling over that one and apologies for my well-intentioned 
differences."

None necessary. But come to think of it,  many of Pynchon's
tropes border on being contrived, "klutzy" or even rube
goldberg-ish, probably something akin to the high magic/low
pun formula first articulated in Lot49. & another trademark 
difference between him and some of the names being bandied 
about here, of late. It is a territory he seems to insist on 
staking out- sort of a magical hyper-realism- and imo, a 
"poison pill" to those, like Millison, determined to fence him into 
some sort of ideological high sierra.

So the question for me is: Is Mason's obsessively superstitious
reaction to the sterloop just his own- remember Wicks tried
to reason with him about this same topic back at Lepton
castle- or, is Pynchon using another klutzy trope to once
again undercut any of those possible "invisible connections,"
while at the same time tempting any of us inclined toward
high magic to step across the threshold?

regards
 


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