mddr 27: Psst, wanna buy a watch? (Re: mddm 27: Franklin)

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

While I think we've just about exhausted the complementary
possibilities of this set piece- pun intended- there is still an 
issue which needs to be aired (several but....)

 From: jbor <jbor at bigpond.com:

>> Franklin lets Mason know about Le Maire, something which Dixon
>> has deliberately withheld.

> ...he lets Mason know about Dixon, and Dixon about Mason (the East
> India Co., Sam Peach), is an attempt to undermine each man's faith in his
> partner, to demonstrate that maybe the other is in "on the plot", to
> exacerbate each one's *personal* paranoia, all in order to win over one or
> both of their confidences. He's very insidious: trying to divide and rule,
> you might say. And, of course, he'd seen their dossiers back in London,
> knows what he's doing here.

He puts them to the test, as he should. They pass. They are the
better for it, as partners. I don't think it's necessary to ascribe
any motives to him, he is being used for other purposes in this set
piece.

> But I don't think he's doing this as a favour! 

I think his motives are largely irrelevant to the plot. 

> When neither of them falls
> or his scams, and he realises that his cover has been blown, he still oozes
> superiority: "should've just asked them at the Royal Society, being a member
> after all.... " So smug. And then, in a blink, he takes another tack: the
> letter. Again, he is trying to undermine their confidence. And this is
> nowhere more apparent than when he finally tells them, "no offense,
> Gentlemen", but there's a war against you lot looming here. Take that, you
> duffers. Have a *pleasant* stay. It's just so snide: I'm surprised you don't
> see it.

Don't need to. Franklin's role here is to reset the quantum clock. He is
the one unique character who has inside information on all aspects
what has and will occur. He is nearly everwhere. I know most are 
not interested in this aspect of the book, but Franklin is a figure for 
"the wave equation" of the novel. In that vein, note the way in which
he can 'collapse' the action at any time by raising a finger and quoting
an apothegm. For the cognoscenti, notice that at his performance
a The Fair Anchor the lens of his glasses have become halved. 
That is to say, that the wave function has been squared- the usual 
technique to make sense of it- removing "negative probablilities" 
One is left with all positive values- half waves- which can be given 
a meaning, or anchor, in the physical world.

Note also that Dixon finds him unfocused, i.e., spread out like a
wave front, as opposed to the sharp focus of a particle.

I could go on about the quantum possibilities of this set piece.
It does lay out the principles of the Heisenberg approach
(complementarity) as well as Schroedinger's wave mechanics,
and connects them both with the enigma of time, but I don't think 
there is enough interest on the list at this time to make it worth 
My time, unless I hear something different. People seem much
more intersted in squabbling.

>> again, "In the crucial moments, neither Mason or  Dixon had
>> fail'd the other." [43.9]
>> I think it significant that both Dixon and Mason piss
>> during this scene- a form of release.

> And, that they *don't* piss freely on the 24-hour coach ride to Virginia:

> " ... so swiftly have they Travel'd, that they miss the Chance."

Yes, I'm glad you caught that. Their peeing is constrained. And
while they may not be peeing through same dick, at least they're
sharing the same space.