MDDM Ch. 30 Dolly

[Paul Mackin]

In case anyone thought my "children present" post was meant to be more
than an attempt at jocularity, let me emphasize that there are passages in
the book that are not only sexual but downright kinky. Like in the captive
tale sequence. We certainly wouldn't want P to waste his talent describing
the conventional. I think I agree mostly with both Mark and Terrance.

        P.

Mark Wright AIA wrote:

> Howdy
>
> Venturing into ha-penny lit crit territory for which I haven't the
> training, I venture --
>
> One of the characteristics of P's novels that I enjoy is the slippery
> identity of the narrator. In GR especially, the POV/narrative-voice
> slips continually, occasionally even within a single sentence. M&D
> reads this way, to me, as well. The effect is almost cinematic: a
> narrator begins to relate a tale and then the director and
> cinematographer take over as the voice-over fades. The Wicks voice
> slides away, and Pynchon (in his glorious 18th cent. costume) takes
> over. The narrative runs, dreamily, and once in a while we snap awake
> as it were when someone in the room interrupts Wicks. There are many
> chapters in which Wicks' voice is absent entirely.
>
> The sexual material, and much else, needn't be read as the Wicks voice
> at all. It may be P's account of Wicks' imagination, or then again it
> mayn't. Clearly the reader gets far more material to work with than Pit
> and Pliny ever hear.
>
> Mark
>
> > Paul Mackin wrote:
> > >
> > > Well, Wicks is telling the story WITH CHILDREN PRESENT.
>
> And T replies:
>
> > Anyway, if Wicks is trying to tell
> > tales
> > that exclude sex, he not doing it. We could say that he is
> > deliberately
> > keeping Dixon's sex life off stage but that's another matter I think.
> > At
> > the Cape, we have young ladies who are sexually aggressive, the sit
> > on
> > Mason's lap,  we have Mason walking around with a hard-on, we have a
> > naked slave girl pimped by the  white woman of the house, the mother
> > also comes on to Charles.
>
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