re MDMD: America

[Scott Badger]

Doug:
> Good point, Scott, but non-violenc is not passive or non-reactive.  You
can
> physically prevent somebody else from harming a third party without
> actually harming the potential perpetrator.  In Dixon's case, it reads as
> if the slave owner ran his face into Dixon's raised fist -- that's hardly
a
> punch.  Certanly Dixon feels many impulses and motivations before and
> during his action -- moral outrage at the treatment of people as property
> significant among them.  Even if  he feels impelled to physical assault or
> even murder, the important thing, in my opinion, is that he refrains from
> doing so.

I guess I am more inclined to read the passage as a slightly euphemistic
description of a punch (sorta' like Philip Marlowe's line in Murder My
Sweet, "I assaulted his fist with my face"...or something like that), though
I certainly won't argue that Pynchon isn't ambiguous. In any case, my point
is that Dixon's DESIRE and intent is to both injure and kill. And the fact
that he doesn't continue his assault is due, for the most part, to impending
injury to himself - as pointed out by one of his "benefactors". Further, it
is not simply justice that Dixon seeks, but he also wants to play the part
of executioner. And, it isn't slave-drivers in general, or a particular
system, that he acts against, but this individual slave-driver - this other
human.- that Dixon DESIRES to hurt and kill.

Scott Badger