a bit more Re: MDDM Ch. 66 Stig's tale

[Doug Millison]

Pynchon frames Stig's tale of "this first Act of American murder" nicely,
in what appears to be the afterglow of the couple's amour, and caps it
equally well with Mrs Eggslap's comment, "Do we really need the Ax right
here, like this?" (634).  That would be, perhaps, an Ax not unlike one of
the weapons that the invaders brought from Europe to Vinland, and Mrs.
Eggslap would seem to indicate that it's superfluous in the present
context.  This might be seen to open several avenues for reading this
opening scene of Ch. 66 -- Pynchon may be saying, there was no need for the
Europeans to bring weapons, they might have settled in peacefully and
enjoyed the welcoming, lucious fertility of this new world; or maybe he
casts the Skraelings as subjugated, in relation to the Europeans as Mrs.
Eggslap the prostitute relates to Stig, willing enough in a friendly,
commercial sort of way with no need for a weapon in bed to assure the
transaction.  The weapons of the Northmen and Stig's Ax provide two,
shining focal points for this episode -- they  play a key role in the
"murder" (a word I assume Pynchon chose carefully with all its moral and
legal overtones ) that breaks the Magic.

Re-reading the scene now, it's not at all clear that the "strange, small
Woman" (632) who slips into the "House" has anything to do with the
fighting outside -- she comes in "with the most enormous eyes", and tries
to make friends with the lady of the house, Gudrid; telling, I think, that
the two women share the same name -- another path not taken, a potentiality
foreclosed by the violence of the Northmen outside, these women on the
verge of friendly solidarity that might have led to a far different
unfolding of this encounter between the two peoples.


At 7:36 AM -0700 7/22/02, Doug Millison wrote:
>Sounds to me as if the original inhabitants, realizing that it was their
>invaders' weapons that gave them the edge (so to speak), wanted to take
>them away and defend themselves, an understandable desire.  Agreed that
>Pynchon leaves it somewhat ambiguous, but the murder seems to be a European
>import.  I suspect the "Magic" is also less metaphorical than suggested
>below (in addition to, both/and, not either/or) -- equally likely, it's the
>unity of consciousness that links humans and the living Earth, which is
>shattered by the invasive entry of the Europeans and what is already
>shaping up as the European dispensation of analysis, differentiation
>(Norsemen vs. the evil Skraeling Other), control, death.
>
>Just curious, but why "sinister" if Skrællings are using some spell in
>self-defense, defending themselves against foreign invaders who are there
>to seize their land and establish empire? That sounds like the way later
>American colonists would blame the Native Americans for fighting back to
>defend themselves, styling them as monsters and murderous deveils and
>themselves (teh colonists) as brave freedom fighters battling British
>tyrrany?
>
>
>
jbor:
>>634.2 Stig's description to Patience Eggslap of "this first Act of American
>>murder" from the sagas does seem to support the idea that his earlier
>>mention of "murder, slavery, and the poor fragments of a Magic irreparably
>>broken" (612.12) refers to the Norsemen killing and enslaving Native
>>Americans, though the story itself is quite ambiguous ("any question who had
>>prevail'd come to matter ever less"), and it is noteworthy that it is the
>>Skrællings who come seeking weapons, against Thorfinn's strict orders, and
>>who seem to use a rather sinister magic to trick Gudrid, and it's the
>>Norsemen who end up getting "captur'd and enslav'd" (634.9) after they try
>>to return to Greenland. I suspect that "the Magic irreparably broken" in
>>fact refers to the promise and hopes for peace which "Vineland the Good" had
>>initially held for these Norse settlers: "Thereafter they were men and women
>>in Despair ... "
>>
>>best