pynchon-l-digest V2 #2397

[Doug Millison]

Thomas Eckhardt:
[...] "Dance" does not
>sound too linear, but at least it is a predetermined affair. A hunt may
>be perceived as a linear, even teleological affair - Ahab's hunt for
>Moby Dick certainly is.  [...]

Both dance and hunt can move in non-predetermined, surprising directions as
the result of improvisation, opportunism, accident, etc.  Isn't that
undetermined aspect what makes dancing and hunting most interesting?

Thomas Eckhardt:
>(the ideology of
>Manifest Destiny is, of course, one of the shapes Christian teleology
>has assumed in the course of history).

As well as  the European imperialism project which sugarcoated its
commercial program with its Christian missionary program, both of which
bring, ultimately, Mason and Dixon to America.