MDDM Ch. 32 Twins

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: John Bailey <johnbonbailey at hotmail.com>
To: <o.sell at telda.net>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 5:25 AM
Subject: Re: MDDM Ch. 32 Twins
>
> But...I don't think that Pynchon uses twins as a metaphor, at least not in
> the same way. I doubt he would privilege 'geminity' without a healthy
> suspicion as to the problems of anything to do with dualisms.
>

Thanks for the Babyteeth - great!

The meaning of "Twin" is extremely wide in M&D. Twins can be brothers (Pitt
& Pliny), fathers & sons (Pitt), uncle & nephew (Plinius) or simply
colleagues like Mason & Dixon who have become twins in America's history
books because of the things they did together.

Pynchon has added another pair to the list Terrance provided.

Barth is indeed a dizygotic twin, having a sister with, he claims, he had
some sort of special non-verbial communication. For me his "masterstroke" on
twins is the "Bellerophoniad", the third part of "Chimera" (but as a simple
reader I love more the first two parts of that book, David Lynch should read
it) - re-telling the myth of Bellerophon and Deliades:

"Twins we were; twin brothers; look-alikes and inner opposites." -- the
question is whether the protagonist is "a bastard to be exposed on the
hillside or a demigod destined for the stars" (Chimera, 1972, p. 158-59).

With all "healthy suspicion" towards any dualism and the intrinsic
hierarchies.
Otto