MDDM Ch. 72 Dixon and the slave driver

[jbor]

> 698-9 While Chas cringes Jere intervenes, seizes the whip, punches the
> slave-driver hard in the nose as the man tries to take it back from him.
> Dixon then lashes the cowering slave-drive with his own whip eight times
> while he berates him.

     ... Dixon follows, raising the Whip. "Turn around, I'll guess *you've*
    never felt this. ... in addition, I'm going to kill *you* ... face me,
    must I rather work upon *you* from the Back, like a Beast .... "

     Dixon reaches down .... Dixon still greatly desires to kill the Driver,
    cringing there among the Waggon-Ruts. ... He shakes the Whip at him. ...
    "If I see *you* again, *you* are a dead man."

s~Z wrote:

> I really liked that reading by jbor. Saying that the italics 'communicate
> that action' is a little too strong, but when I read the passage and
> visualize a lash of the whip with each italicized word, the content of the
> verbalizations combined with the visual image mesh very well. Then, when the
> knowledge we have from the historical record is added to the mix, it doesn't
> prove anything (as TRP may be altering history for artistic purposes as you
> suggest), but it supports this reading. In my reading, Dixon punched and
> whipped the guy, and wanted to kill him. The restraint that is in the text
> is restraint from murder, not restraint from punching and whipping.

Yes, that's the way I read it too.

Otto wrote:

>> In my reading, Dixon punched and
>> whipped the guy, and wanted to kill him. The restraint that is in the text
>> is restraint from murder, not restraint from punching and whipping.
>> 
> 
> "(...) Dixon still greatly desires to kill the Driver (...). What's a man of
> Conscience to do? It is frustrating."
> (699.18-20)
> 
> I agree, and I think Rob's reading is very convincing. The roles are
> reversed, finally, as being announced before as a possibility on 696.13-14.

Yes. I think in the street Dixon acts on what he felt the previous night at
the inn: 

    Several times Dixon feels the need, strong as thirst, to get up, walk
    over to the fellow and strike him. (696.19-20)

best