NP: fox spotted at supreme court

[Paul Mackin]

Bandwraith at aol.com wrote:

I can understand how life in the real world and life on the

> p-list can sometimes seem toblurtogether, call it coincidence or
> or even something more paranoid, but for the life of me, I
> don't quite understand why Pynchon would create a character
> like Gershom. What's the significance of a black/jewish
> kabballist as Washington's "man." Help me out of this
> dilemma.

>From the point of view of story structure it allows George Washington believably? to say
proclamation-shmocklamation and that he's getting meeshugginah. From the characterization
angle it's one approach to making the servant more than a mere mindless slave, like Twain
raised Jim above reader expections in Huckleberry Finn (the TV show said repeatedly),
although if Gershom were anything like a believable character in a story the above original
question wouldn't have needed asking. A perverse alternative occurs--Gershom might have
been styled a Cinque (chraismatic leader of the Symbionese Liberation Army) mouthing off
slogans about oppressed peoples everywhere  Would that have fit any appropriate allegorical
purposes?  Surely, since it's Pynchon, the question as to the significance of a
black/Jewish kabbalist refers first and foremost to the issue of underlying meaning.  Or
meanings plural.
There must be plenty to go around. All the usual suspects.

P.