MDDM Ch. 70 Scalping Lord Lepton

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/21/02 4:00:17 AM, jbor at bigpond.com writes:

<< I disagree. I don't see in this recount an analogy with modern drug gangs,
who are on the whole distributors rather than primary producers, and whose
retail product is generally more chemical than herbal. >>

Marijuana is an important cash crop in America, especially,
but not exclusively, in California, where it is grown illegally.

>.There's no Native
American connection either, except in that modern-day drug gangs often
develop amongst (other) marginalised ethnic minorities.>>

I agree, that's my point, yet to my ear there is an attempt
to link it anachronistically to an illegal modern subculture,
from bud to bowl.

<<I think it plays
rather more aptly as a demonstration of the inherent tendency to avarice in
all human cultures, just as the example of the Catawbas' booby traps and the
explanation which follows (676) exemplify a wider tendency towards
internecine conflict.>>

On this we agree.


>>I'm not at all sure about Pentacle = Pentagon, inverted or no, but I agree
that the symbolism is there. Wade LeSpark calls it a "Cryptogram" (428.29)
Tracking back, the sign over the 'The Dutch Rifle' tavern in Lancaster Town
sported the same symbol, where it was described as

    ... a sure sign of evil at work, universally recogniz'd as the Horns of
    the D---l. No one would adorn a Firearm with it, who was not wittingly
    in the service of that Prince. (342)

>>This is both Mason and Dixon, but I think that that "universally recogniz'd"
is the narrator, too. This connection, between Lord Lepton and the Paxton
posse who committed the heinous massacre at Lancaster gaol, seems more of a
reason why Lepton, for Catfish, was "a White man I have wished to meet for a
long time." (681.1) And so this is perhaps another case of mistaken identity
after all? Note also how Catfish, like Dixon, Lepton and Wade LeSpark,
covets the gun as a "Beautiful Piece".<<

Absolutely, but no case of mistaken ID, imo. Lepton is notorious
and chosen, I think, for that purpose. His evility has more
to do with his Slave-run Iron Plantation, above (north of)
the line, and his linkage with what will one day grow to be
a worldwide arms trade on the largest scale. It is foreshadowed 
by both the twin gallows of chapter 11, and Dolly's conversation 
with Dixon, at the Flower-de-Luce.

On the symbolism of the Pentagram:

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/p/pentacle.html

http://www.religioustolerance.org/wic_pent.htm

>>I think you might mean Wade LeSpark, who is telling that part of the Lepton
Castle story (428.5 ff). I don't really get the "klutzy trope" idea.<<

Of course, I meant Wade. Thank you. The trope notion
was more as a reaction to rfiero (rich?) and his reading
of Mason's typically idiotic and spineless response to a
"a trinket," all of which I can appreciate, but because I
also appreciate a more powerful significance behind the
symbolism, it strikes me as vintage Pynchon, and my
chuckles are bitter sweet, like certain other seemingly
"fun" passages in the works.

Perhaps "klutzy" is a poor choice. Contrived might be
better. There are some who believe as much about the
entire novel: Lot 49. If you don't get what I was trying,
to suggest, albeit, in my klutzy way, it probably is
not worth my effort in trying to convince you. As I
mentioned, I was responding to rfiero. 

regards