MDDM Ch. 72 Dixon and the slave driver

[Dave Monroe]

Again, he threatens to whip the Driver, but, as far as
the text goes, he never actually goes through with it.
 Not on the page, not in Pynchon's novel.  This is
nigh unto a set piece here.  "Why, I oughtta ....,"
whip raised, threatening, like a cobra poised to
strike, but never quite striking ...

Something about those "yous" was pointed out to
offlist, "yous" = lashes of the whip, this isn't
necessarily a bad inference, but it is an inference,
nonethless, and one not quite (not quite ...)
authorized by the text (the author being another thing
entirely, and he ain't talking, so ...) ...

Another one of those interpretive Necker cube moments?
 Two possibilities of equal probability flickering in
and out of each other, but never quite coexisting? 
Complementarity?  Tres Heisenbergian, at any rate. 
Many such moments in those Pynchonian texts, non? 
Oui.  Perhaps understandably, we seem to have an awful
lot of awfulness over such moments ...

Did read Richard's post on this, very good.  But note
something else here ...

In the text, on the page, Fist and Face never actually
collide.  I made ths point last time 'round, but what
we read is a series of frames ...

   "Dixon, moving directly, seizes the Whip,-- the
owner comes after it,-- Dixon places his Fist in the
way of the oncoming Face,-- the Driver cries out and
stumbles away.  Dixon follows, raising the Whip. 
'Turn around.  I'll guess you've never felt this.'
   "'You broke my Tooth!'" (M&D, Ch. 72, p. 698)

... frames which we act as "tweeners," in that cel
animation sense, for, filling in the action betwixt
the stills given unto us by the Animator ...
  
http://www.fantasticarts.plus.com/workshop/workshop.articles.glossary.htm

Tres cinematique, non?  Tres Pynchonian as well.  A
veritable pornography of a (non)punch.  And ALL cinema
of course is Animation, "animation" in the sense of
"cartoons" being indeed a Derridean supplement here,
the accursed share which turns out to be the very
condition of possibility for that to which it is
presumed marginal ...

But, again, Fist never quite collides with Face there,
something vaguely Zeno paradoxical going on there,
although, again, I'm willing to let mechanics,
momentum do the tweening for me there.  The
(non)whipping of the Driver is rather more
undecidable--unless, perhaps, one lets history, or,
rather, lore, do the tweening for one there ...

But I never would have though Dixon might actually
have whipped the Driver in Mason & Dixon unless I'd
read Robinson's (or some similar) account.  And even
then, I was struck by the difference, not by the
possibility that the latter might collapse the former
into agreement ...  

A perceptual trick?  A textual Necker cube?  Young
lady/old lady?  Rabbit season, duck season?  Maybe
some room for wish-fulfillment left there, perhaps
purposefully, even?  Cf. Pirate's dream, his way of
getting inside the fantasies of others, and that
opening "dream" (?--even that is undecideable) of GR. 
Very, very interesting.  I see the clouds from both
sides now, though I see one side as less warranted by
what's actually on the page than the other, so ...

--- Otto <ottosell at yahoo.de> wrote:
> Where, do you think, refers that "Now be a man, face
> me, and make it easier, or must I rather work upon
> you from the Back, like a Beast" (699.2-3) to?
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dave Monroe" <davidmmonroe at yahoo.com>
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2002 5:58 PM
> Subject: Re: MDDM Ch. 72 Dixon and the slave driver
> 
> > The short answer is, Dixon doesn't whip the
> > Driver....

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