MDDM Ch. 72 Dixon and the slave driver

[Doug Millison]

jbor
> > Dixon then lashes the cowering slave-drive with
> his own whip eight times
> > while he berates him.

Pynchon:
>      ... Dixon follows, raising the Whip. "Turn
> around, I'll guess *you've*
>     never felt this 

jbor:
>... *you* ... *you* ... *you*
> ... *you* ... *you* ...
>     *you'll* ... *you* .... "


Very creative.  (How many weeks have you been waiting
to present this?) 

In my reading, however, jbor's interpretation here 
goes against the grain of restraint with which the
author embues Dixon in this scene, P (via his
narrator) chooses not to have D whip the slave-driver.
The repeated "you" contrasts nicely with the
slave-driver's "my" in his speech, "I'll do as I
damn'd please with my Property" at the bottom of the
previous page, 698.

Dixon's restraint also contrasts nicely with the way P
begins this episode, on p. 696,  "the contempt of the
monger of perishable goods for his Merchandise" (note
the pronoun, "his").

Dixon  thus reverses the narrator's set-up of the
whip, "it's purpose purely to express hate with, and
Hate's Corollary,-- to beg for the same denial of
Mercy, should, one day, the roles  be revers'd.
Gambling that they may not be. Or, that they may."

That's the whip begging, not the user of the whip --
the whip just wants to be inflicting pain, doesn't
matter if it's the slave or the master suffering the
pain, to the whip that's irrelevant, the House always
wins, no matter who's at the gaming tables.  But Dixon
denies the whip this pleasure, by refraining from
using it on the slave driver, responding
compassionately perhaps to the slave-driver's pleas
for mercy (or perhaps realizing, at the slaves'
urging, that he has no more time to spare hanging
aroun here), restraining his natural urge to violence,
transforming his rage in the positive, loving act of
freeing the slaves; Dixon settles for giving the
slave-driver a tongue-lashing instead of a physical
lashing with the whip.

=====
<http://www.pynchonoid.blogspot.com/>
<http://www.dougday.blogspot.com/>
<http://www.online-journalist.com/index.html>

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