MDMD All-Nations Coffee-House, continued

[Doug Millison]

a bit more on the All-Nations Coffee-House from the earlier P-list
discussion of M&D:




Date:	Mon, 27 Oct 1997 18:08:23 -0800
From:	millison@[omitted] (Doug Millison)
Subject: Re: MDMD(10) All-Nations


At 7:09 PM 10/27/97, Brian D. McCary wrote:
>Jeez, I want to reject this thesis outright: I like Dixon too much to
>veiw him as proto-Marvy.  But the image is very compelling.  There
>is something, say, exploitive about Dixon and his habits...?  Can we
>brush it off as being much less exploitive than the entire British/
>Dutch Colonial effort, and therefore more acceptable, at least within
>the context?  Or is Dixon in the tradition of Sphere McLintoc & Paola,
>or Slothrop & Leni (in the same All-Nations Whorehouse) perhaps
>exempt from our disgust because they seem to genuinely care for, or
>at least are not activly seeking to be aroused by the explotation
>of, the sex-worker?

Dixon is a likeable, fun-loving guy -- all the more so in comparison with
the melancholy Mason; some time past several Pynchon-L participants
identified Dixon as the one they'd rather a  drink with. They both find
slavery abhorrent, and in chapter 31 we see Dixon take action, putting
himself at risk in his criticism of the failure of soldiers to prevent the
massacre of Indians by the Paxton Boys (on page 304). I don't recall any
specific descriptions of Dixon's actual sexual encounters with the women in
Cape Town's native quarters, but I think it's safe to assume that they were
with prostitutes, and that carries with it the attendant hierarchical and
power relationships that emerge in the encounter of affluent white European
and poor indigenous woman of color  (whether those encounters take place in
Cape Town two and a half centuries ago, in Saigon during the Vietnam War,
or last weekend in Bangkok, or R & R bars near U.S. military bases in South
Korea, or in San Francisco's Tenderloin). Marvy is a monster, pure and
simple, but Dixon may be in some ways even scarier --  he's just getting
high and having fun with the local working girls, what's the harm of a
little fun, boy's night out, etc. I think this is part of Pynchon's
critique of colonialism/imperialism in M&D, and it certainly fits in with
the critique he lays out in Gravity's Rainbow. It's also one of the big
lessons that women and others pointed out from the 60s political scene --
many of the men who were most sensitive to issues of civil rights, anti-war
politics, etc, also happened to be egregiously sexist.

Don't forget the game Mason and Dixon play  on the Seahorse on the way to
Capetown (57.12):  "The Astronomers have a game, call'd "Sumatra" [snip]
Ev'ry woman in "Sumatra" is comely and willing, though not without
attendant Inconvenience, Dixon's almost instantly developing Wills and
Preferences of their own despite his best efforts to keep them
uncomplicated,-- whereas the only women Mason can imagine at all are but
different fair copies of the same serene beauty,-- Rebeka, forbidden as
Sumatra to him, held in Detention, as is he upon Earth, until his Release
and their Reunion. So they pass, Mason's women and Dixon's, with more in
common than either Astronomer will ever find out about, for even phantasms
may enjoy private lives,-- shadowy, whispering, veil'd to be unveil'd, ever
safe from the Insults of Time."

Dixon wants his women "uncomplicated" but they insist on "developing Wills
and Preferences of their own"; Mason's wants only an unattainable ghost of
a woman. Because of the colonial/Imperial/sexual-political situation on the
ground, Dixon has a chance to try to indulge his fantasy, as men have tried
to do with prostitutes for a long time now.
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9710&msg=20924&sort=date


From:	"Paul Mackin" <mackin@[omitted]>
Subject: Re: MDMD(10) All-Nations
Date:	Wed, 29 Oct 1997 08:32:36 -0500


Doug bundled a lot into his latest all nations post and I agree with it
as I did with his previous words on the subject. The UN connection
didn't occur to me if for no other reason than that there was so much else
to
occupy attention in these passages. In retrospect the UN Organization
strikes me as more of an all nations boondogle than an all nations
whorehouse although it does do some good things. The Securtiy Council,
the peace keeping arm,  would be the sinister part if any, related as it
is  to colonial past (and present), but of course IT is not "all nations"
but
quite exclusive.
                                            P.

-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Millison <millison@[omitted]>
To: Brian D. McCary <bdm@[omitted]>; pynchon-l@[omitted]
<pynchon-l@[omitted]>
Cc: andrew@[omitted] <andrew@[omitted]>
Date: Tuesday, October 28, 1997 12:55 PM
Subject: Re: MDMD(10) All-Nations

>Tempting as it may be to identify this establishment with the UN, isn't
>Dolly referring to the All-Nations Coffee-House in Philadelphia, not New
>York? Or maybe that doesn't make any difference?
>
>If we equate the AN to the UN, that would add another layer to an already
>complex reference. In addition to the dimensions it already adds to Dixon,
>the "core Clientele louder, beefier, and altogether less earnest" might be
>read as the powerful countries and interests that bend the UN to their
>will, not always in the best interests of humanity.
>
>I still think the parallels with Major Marvy and GR make this All-Nations
>Coffee-House business most telling about Dixon and how he fits into the
>political scheme of M&D. As enlightened as Dixon may be, he can't escape
>reflecting the deeper exploitative values of the Imperial system that
>employs him--the women of Sumatra being just one of the rewards he gets for
>being the Proprietors' "Wizard, a Dowser of Iron" as Dolly puts it
>(301.16). Dixon seems quite happy to go along, too ("why disenchant them?
>If it's Weird Geordie Powers they wish, why W.G.P.'s they shall have") for
>the price of a drink ("Mr. Calvert offer'd me Port, in a Silver Cup...?").
>Although it's not clear if Dixon thinks he's putting something over on them
>(let them believe he can do it if they want, no skin off Dixon's nose, he
>won't do it anyway); Dixon appears to actually possess those W.G.P.'s
>doesn't he (he can fly with Emerson, and survey underground from the
>surface, we've already learned)? Curiouser and curiouser.  And he gets a
>warning from Dolly:  "Then, Sailor among the Iron Isles,-- Circumferentor
>Swab,-- Beware." Interesting, too,  that Dolly calls him a Sailor in this
>context, and what that might mean in reference to Pynchon's prior works.

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9710&msg=20971&sort=date