MDDM Re: ch. 67, "Life as Fiction"

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/31/02 6:03:19 PM, jbor at bigpond.com writes:

<< I was also struck by the passage from 649.26 which begins "And so on
(records the Rev.d) .... " It does indeed seem to be one of Wicks's rare
narratorial interventions. What caught my eye was the florid style of
language he uses, his prolixity and obscurity, and how different it was to
that of the general narration. <<

I think it might reflect the conflict he must be experiencing
knowing that M&D will soon be parting permanently; the line
no longer something which holds them together but that 
which separates them for good. And for Wicks, the dilemma
of being in two places at once must be resolved. Of course, 
he will resolve it in favor of Mason. 

Is that resolution forced on the narrator by history, i.e., the
fact that Dixon's death precedes Mason's, or, does he prefer 
Mason's pov?


>>There's a reminder that Wicks is present in either of or both the venues at
649.26, and a parenthetic interpolation at 652.12 where Lomax takes Wicks to
task for attempting to Christianise one of the Mohawks in his recount, and
then Wicks's tale-telling proceeds for a moment inside the parenthesis, and
then we jump out of the parenthesis and into the main narrative again.

I actually think the "usual pomo whim wham" is the main point of the analogy
between the Warrior Path being "yet unrecorded as Fact, [and] a-shimmer,
among the few final Pages of its Life as Fiction". It's an example of what
is meant when text is described as "reflexive" or, more commonly, if
redundantly, "self-reflexive". <<

I think we'll see another variation of this when Mason meets
Johnson and Boswell. This narrative "reflexivity" seems to be
something which Pynchon tends to fall into toward the 
finality of his novels, certainly GR- which seemed more
reflexive all through out- became even more so towards the
end. Although it might be constued as a type of arrogance
or even coldness by the author, it strikes me, somehow, as
an act of humility, a gesture toward the audience, as if to
suggest, "I'm one of you." It also reminds me of Escher:

http://btr0xw.rz.uni-bayreuth.de/cjackson/escher/p-escher9.htm

but more subtle.