MDMD: America

[Doug Millison]

Pynchon does hold out some hope for humanity in M&D, but I'm not sure about
hope for America.  "what America can still represent" seems to be the
problem, because America-as-symbol seems so at odds with
America-the-reality in M&D.  Time and again, Pynchon points to specific
ways that the reality undermines the dream -- genocide of the indigenous
people, degradation of the environment, a "revolution" that's actually scam
to shift control from one propertied class to another, etc.  I'm not so
sure about children being able to "redeem" America, either -- Mason's boys,
at the end of the novel, are obviously seduced by the wildly Romantic
vision of America that Pynchon has thoroughly undercut and exposed as a
sham in the previous 700+ pages.   I don't see Pynchon refusing to give up
on what America can represent as much as I see him refusing to give up on
what people, individuals and collectively, can do in the face of an array
of forces -- economic and political (what Walter Wink calls the "domination
system" in his three-volume work, _Naming the Powers_, _Unmasking the
Powers_, and _Engaging the Powers_) -- that will  turn a relatively
unspoiled continent into the quasi-fascist US that Pynchon portrays in his
earlier novels. I see this most clearly in Pynchon's choice to present
Dixon's non-violent action to set free a group of slaves; considering that
noble act in the context of the picture of race relations in the US that P
has presented in "The Mind of Watts" makes it seem rather futile, however.
The same sad arcs trail from so much of what Pynchon presents in M&D to the
world he portrays in his other novels-- chartr'd corporations evolving into
multinational companies responsible for the War that never ends, European
genocide in Africa and America paving the way for the Holocaust , the Line
just the first cut in what develops into wholesale environmental
destruction for profits, etc. Pynchon's characters in M&D can find
something ofa haven in their friendships and families, building on a theme
that emerged strongly in Vineland, although it's no guarantee, as M&D is
full of personal relationships that have gone sour or ended tragically.

Rich:
One of the things about M&D is its refusal, despite the evidence included
within, to give up on what America can still represent. We can agree it's
quite a pessimistic view, but there are small avenues to hope for, to find
some small redemption, if anything represented by its children.