MDDM Ch. 57 Coventry

[David Morris]

Your points below are well put, jbor.  There MAY be some allusion to 
something other than the time or place set in the novel, but until someone 
makes a compelling case (not a dead end gratuitous one) you shouldn't be 
called miserly for refusing to accept it.  On the other hand, public 
brain-storming of such possibilities is for me exactly what this list is 
for, so no one should feel obliged to present an air-tight case here before 
suggesting a possibility.  If the brainstorming leads to a dead-end, so be 
it.

David Morris

>From: jbor <jbor at bigpond.com>
>But even if there wasn't an HMS Coventry there at the time, and it is a 
>totally fictional name like that of Captain Volcanoe, then why not say that 
>he was thinking of the WWII HMS Coventry? Or another one entirely?
>
>But I guess my main question is, allowing for a moment the possibility of a 
>deliberate reference, what is Pynchon actually saying about that Falklands 
>HMS Coventry?
>[...]
>To be honest, I don't see how the 1982 war between Britain and Argentina 
>over the Falklands Is. and the lead up to the War of Independence in 1760s 
>America are comparable in any way, shape or form. As an allusion it just 
>doesn't say anything about anything: it's a dead end.
>
>And, further, once you've accepted it as being a deliberate reference, then 
>it's not just sitting there by itself. What of Pynchon's HMS Coventry's 
>captain - Kennedy - placed right there on the very same line of text? The 
>same research/prior knowledge/"must have come across it" equation applies 
>there too, doesn't it? So, which Kennedy is it? And, how does he fit in?
>What's, let's say, JFK's connection with the Falklands? Or is only one an 
>allusion and the other a coincidence? Whose decision is it to make?
>Being (as I trust you accept) a critical reader also, and in full awareness 
>of the existence of the Falklands HMS Coventry, can I similarly choose 
>*not* to make the connection? And, if so, could Pynchon have?


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