William Slothrop & the slave driver

[Doug Millison]

Thanks for bringing that into the discussion, Steve.  Once again, it seems
(to me at least) that, as some people believe based on letters from Pynchon
to his literary agent at the time, with this sort of link between the to
novels, that Pynchon might have been working on parts of M&D when he was
writing GR.


At 10:22 AM -0700 8/26/02, Steve Maas wrote:
>William admires the pigs, enjoys their company, treats them well. When all
>is said and done, he sells them for slaughter. Which would count more if
>weighed against a feather, ma'at style?

Given the L.E.D.'s comment about the Buddah-nature of animals, it's
possible (but who knows for sure) that they might balance out on those
dreadful scales.


And if an animal rights activist were to happen on William and attempt to
liberate those pigs?


>"William must've been waiting for the one pig that wouldn't die, that would
>validate all the ones who'd had to, all his Gadarene swine who'd rushed into
>extinction like lemmings, possessed not by demons but by trust for men,
>which the men kept betraying...possessed by innocence they couldn't
>lose...by faith in William as another variety of pig, at home with the
>Earth, sharing the same gift of life...."


Pynchon's inversion/subversion of the New Testament story is fine -- such
evil that humans do while they're waiting for a hero, a savior, (even those
'60s hippie daydreamers perhaps) instead of taking steps to make things
better right then and there by showing mercy, love, compassion ...


Pynchon's Dixon shows, imho, what a delusion this is on the part of
William, instead of waiting for the Pig Hero Plechazunga  (see
http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/extra/pigs.html in Tim Ware's
labor of love ), William could have just set those pigs free himself and
eased his conscience.


It's not the victims who have to save themselves -- not in the Christian
story, at least -- it's the people who send the victims to their death (and
the people who benefit from same, even if they keep their distance from the
process) who can step up and stop the killing and suffering, if, like Dixon
when he frees those slaves and stops himself from whipping or killing the
slave-driver, they choose to do so.


<doug millison>
<http://dougday.blogspot.com>
<http://www.Online-Journalist.com>