MDDM Stig's tale & Powers (663) WAS Re: Gudrid's vision

[Paul Mackin]

Bandwraith at aol.com wrote:

> Scalding? I would rather say sarcastically condescending. The
> interesting thing is that there is much truth in what Mason says
> until the final "They who control..." comment on downward
> causality, you quote below, which seems to belie a certain
> political naivete' characteristic of the *Man of Science.*
>
> [Interesting sub-textual reflection on the actuality of the
>  "Two Cultures" problem and its unfortunate political
>  consequences, here.]
>
> The Indian's sarcastic corrective demonstrates a
> recognition that true power in the course of human events
> is political, i.e.: They who control the controllers of the
> microskopic- who own, co-opt or otherwise coerce them-
> control the world. All of which seems to speak directly
> to the ambiguous situation Mason & Dixon find themselves
> in, in the middle of the woods amongst "savages." Savages
> who sound remarkably like Pynchon, I might add.

Yes. And we might expect that this late in the book Mason too would be with the
program a little better. But that he may not yet be completely evolved can be
taken as a definite plus from the point of view of exciting fiction.

James Wood (The Broken Estate,  p. 175) got on Pynchon's case for making M and
D's views too closely aligned with P's.

P.

>
>
> In a message dated 7/25/02 2:16:11 PM, millison at online-journalist.com writes:
>
> << This pairs nicely with Stig's tale, and offers a scalding rebuke of the
> claim of superiority  that comes just before, "They who control the
> Microskopick, control the World" (663),  exposing imo the Europeans for the
> second-rate devils that so many of them are in this novel.
>  >>