MDDM Ch. 72 Dixon and the slave driver

[jbor]

on 24/8/02 2:58 AM, Doug Millison at pynchonoid at yahoo.com wrote:

> 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 --

I disagree. Whips don't "beg", nor do they experience "pleasure", nor do
they gamble. It's an inanimate object, a symbol, an "expression of the
contempt of the monger of perishable goods for his Merchandise." The "rôles"
which one day may "be reversed", clearly, and as Otto accurately
interpreted, are those of "Master and Slave". (cf. 697.4)

> 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,

Dixon's italicised "they" (697.6) is a rejoinder to the slave-driver's
italicised "Friend" (696.34). The aggro between the two men is there from
the get-go. 

best