antw. Re: MDDM Dixon's act of violence

[David Morris]

kai,

I spoke below in reference to the great passage jbor posted from MD ending 
with "For the Sheep. ..." (698.3)  Pacifism is a Street action just as are 
other forms of revolution.  They are, in this context, ways for the preteite 
to rise above the level of sheep (or pigs).  But it seems common in 
Pynchon's stories that the greatest heroes of the Street die as martyrs.

I think Pynchon loves a rebel of blood like Dixon's, which seems clear from 
jbor's quoted passage:

>       Say then, that Mason at last came to admire Dixon for his Bravery,-- 
>a different sort than they'd shown each other years before, on the 
>*Seahorse* where they'd had no choice. Nor quite the same as they'd both 
>exhibited by the Warrior Path. Here in Maryland they had a choice at last, 
>and Dixon chose to act, and Mason not to,-- unless he had to,-- what each 
>of us wishes he might have the unthinking Grace to do, yet fails to do. To 
>act for all those of us who have so fail'd. For the Sheep. ... (698.3)

... and I just paged ahead to your retraction of your objection, but I 
wanted to clarify my point in case I was before unclear.

David Morris

> > Pynchon, in all his works, has never preached pacifism.  His sympathies 
>are clearly with ACTION, but he knows that such action usually results in 
>martyrdom, death in the Street, in the orchestrated ballet of the  
>Daisy-Chain of power.  He idealizes this fight.
>
>   is this what gr says about hiroshima? i don't think so. yours, kai


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