re MDMD Washington

[Doug Millison]

jbor:
>Washington's use of this term, highlighting the fact that he has to pay a
>tax for the privilege of Gershom's company and tomfoolery, is equally a
>criticism of the system of slavery.

A bootless sort of critique, I'd say, since Washington remained a slave
owner until his death. "Gershom's company" is Washington's legal right, not
privilege, a right that continued  until a bloody civil war was fought in
part to end slavery.

The notion that slave owners treated their property well has always been
used to justify this abhorrent institution, of course; I didn't think
people still put it forward as a serious proposition.  I believe it's
related to a worldview that gives property rights a high priority and which
considers the darker-skinned races needful of white Europeans to help them
prosper and guide their development because they are incapable of managing
that on their own, the white man's burden.  Minstrel shows remained popular
in the U.S. well into the 20th century, an embarrassing legacy that Gershom
prefigures (in terms of M&D's historical setting) and points us, the
novel's readers, back to.

Pynchon has fun with this chapter, but Gershom's court jester antics come
with a rather desperate edge, and probe what is, after all, a very sad and
tragic history of African slaves in the New World, reverberations that only
deepen when you consider this material in M&D in the context of the
black/white racial politics throughout Pynchon's work, GR especially.

By depicting Washington as booby, slave-owner, real-estate huckster,
somebody who's vacant appearance needs to be understood in light of the
man's combat experiences (akin to the comment that LBJ is said to have made
about Gerald Ford, that the man's problem was he had played too much
football without a helmet) , an inebriated misanthrope in the hapless W.C.
Fields vein, paranoid pot head babbling about the Jesuit conspiracy, etc.,
Pynchon can hardly be said to  flatter the Father of Our Country, in my
view -- far from hagiography and very much  in keeping with the revisionist
view of the nation's origins generally (see Howard Zinn's _A People's
History of the United States: 1492 to Present_ for a comprehensive
overview), as well as the Founding Fathers and Washington more
specifically, that grows out of the post WWII counterculture which
nourished Pynchon's writing.

http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=booby
booby
\Boo"by\ (b[=oo]"b[y^]), n.; pl. Boobies (-b[i^]z). [Sp. bobo dunce, idiot;
cf. L. balbus stammering, E. barbarous.] 1. A dunce; a stupid fellow.


http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=tithe
tithe
\Tithe\, n. [OE. tithe, tethe, properly an adj., tenth, AS. te['o]?a the
tenth; akin to ti['e]n, t?n, t[=e]n, ten, G. zehnte, adj., tenth, n., a
tithe, Icel. t[=i]und the tenth; tithe, Goth. ta['i]hunda tenth. See Ten,
and cf. Tenth, Teind.] 1. A tenth; the tenth part of anything;
specifically, the tenthpart of the increase arising from the profits of
land and stock, allotted to the clergy for their support, as in England, or
devoted to religious or charitable uses. Almost all the tithes of England
and Wales are commuted by law into rent charges.
The tithes of the corn, the new wine, and the oil. --Neh. xiii. 5.
Note: Tithes are called personal when accuring from labor, art, trade, and
navigation; predial, when issuing from the earth, as hay, wood, and fruit;
and mixed, when accuring from beaste fed from the ground. --Blackstone.
2. Hence, a small part or proportion. --Bacon.
Great tithes, tithes of corn, hay, and wood.
Mixed tithes, tithes of wool, milk, pigs, etc.
Small tithes, personal and mixed tithes.
Tithe commissioner, one of a board of officers appointed by the government
for arranging propositions for commuting, or compounding for, tithes.
[Eng.] --Simmonds.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

tithe
n 1: a levy of one tenth of something 2: an offering of a tenth part of
some personal income
Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University
------------------------------------------------------------------------


tithe a tenth of the produce of the earth consecrated and set apart for
special purposes. The dedication of a tenth to God was recognized as a duty
before the time of Moses. Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek (Gen. 14:20;
Heb. 7:6); and Jacob vowed unto the Lord and said, "Of all that thou shalt
give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee." The first Mosaic law on
this subject is recorded in Lev. 27:30-32. Subsequent legislation regulated
the destination of the tithes (Num. 18:21-24, 26-28; Deut. 12:5, 6, 11, 17;
14:22, 23). The paying of the tithes was an important part of the Jewish
religious worship. In the days of Hezekiah one of the first results of the
reformation of religion was the eagerness with which the people brought in
their tithes (2 Chr. 31:5, 6). The neglect of this duty was sternly rebuked
by the prophets (Amos 4:4; Mal. 3:8-10). It cannot be affirmed that the Old
Testament law of tithes is binding on the Christian Church, nevertheless
the principle of this law remains, and is incorporated in the gospel (1
Cor. 9:13, 14); and if, as is the case, the motive that ought to prompt to
liberality in the cause of religion and of the service of God be greater
now than in Old Testament times, then Christians outght to go beyond the
ancient Hebrew in consecrating both themselves and their substance to God.
Every Jew was required by the Levitical law to pay three tithes of his
property (1) one tithe for the Levites; (2) one for the use of the temple
and the great feasts; and (3) one for the poor of the land.