MDDM Dixon's act of violence

[Dave Monroe]

And, as I've said, in perhaps even FEWER words for
once, Dixon, in the end, is apperently, fianlly,
understandably, pushed over the edge.  The text allows
for some equivocation on the physical (physiological,
mechanical) end of events, but Dixon's rhetorical
aggression, violence, even, is unmistakable. 
Historiaclly, or, at least, folklorically, however,
the matter is rather more straightforward.  But,
again, the text's divergence from that (hi)story(?)
is, indeed, noteworthy.  S'allright?  S'allright ...

--- Doug Millison <millison at online-journalist.com>
wrote:
> 
> Please read M&D, page 397, where Dixon makes this
> straightforward announcement and explanation of his
> pacifist stance, when challenged to  fight:
> 
> "Did they tell You I was a Quaker, Sir, and would
> not fight?"

Read all this, over and over again, before I realized
you all were actually arguing events far further down
the line (no puns where none intended) ...
 
> Thus setting up his encounter with the slave driver
> later in the novel where, after consulting with his
> conscience, he manages to suppress his murderous
> urge and refrains from fighting, injuring, or
> killing the slave driver:
>
> [...]
> 
> Instead of hitting or killing him, Dixon takes the
> whip, which then passes down to his descendents, and
> frees the slaves.
> 
> It's interesting that Pynchon chooses to let Dixon
> remain faithful to his Quaker pacifism in this
> encounter, instead of sticking with the historical
> record which would have Dixon yielding to his baser
> impulses.  Given the other material that Pynchon has
> worked into M&D regarding the suicidal nature of the
> project to kill the evil other, his reworking of
> Dixon's character would appear to be in keeping with
> the politics of nonviolence that serve as a subtext
> for the novel.

Dixon is more sympathetic this way, to me, and, most
likely, to you (and, quite likley, to many), but that
depends entirely on where your sympathies lie. 
Without speculating where Pynchon's lie, and with no
desire to argue about it, I will note, his Dixon lets
the Driver largely off the hook, where history's, or,
at least, legend's, does not.  However ...

> girls.

I will, however, object to this last bit, as it
implies there's something wrong with being a girl. 
I'm not one, nor do I play one on teevee, but, if I
were one, I'm sure I'd enjoy it ...

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