MDDM Ch. 72 Dixon and the slave driver

[John Bailey]

At the end of part one of M&D, M asks D something like "Good God. What are 
we about?" Good question, at that point. What are M&D about? What is M&D 
about? By the end of that first section, it's not really clear just what 
this book is about. It's never that clear. I had someone ask me the other 
day, "what's the book about?" I think I just shrugged eloquently (it takes 
articulate shoulders, see).

Later on, one of the lads asks the other just what the common thread running 
through their various adventures is, and points out that it is slavery. 
Maybe Pynchon was sick of people missing some point in his works, missing 
common threads. I mean, slavery is a preoccupation in all of his works, that 
is, the metaphysics of something we could call slavery, not the specific 
historical meanings which I don't want to occlude here (and Pynchon could be 
accused of mixing the theme with the historicity at times). But if you look 
at it on the more abstract level, it does run throughout M&D, at least. I'm 
thinking of the dog who learns to speak to avoid being eaten, the mechanical 
duck who becomes a slave to her passions, the cook who becomes a slave to 
the duck, the New Yorkers and their troubles with Representation, the golem 
(the revolt of the golem against its maker is usually a part of the golem 
myth, but that only really became a popular part during the 18th C.), Austra 
and others at the Cape, even the Vroom girls, Gershom, a number of married 
couples in America, Eliza, and so on. I'm not saying the theme is 
necessarily that well explored in the novel, but it is there, isn't it? It's 
a hook to hang your coat on, at least.

P.S. I noticed recently that one of the famous folks who played chess 
against Kempelen's chess-playing automaton (mentioned in GR) was none other 
than one Benji Franklin.

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