MDDD Ch. 72 Dixon's act of violence

[Dave Monroe]

I do not in general disagree with this ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> on 13/3/02 2:57 AM, Doug Millison at
> 
> It's not a passive sentence structure at all. "Dixon
> places his Fist" is in the active voice. Dixon is
> the subject of the sentence and the agent of the
> punch. He "places" his fist deliberately, and
> obviously with force.

... excpet that, in all accuracy, again, there is no
punch (thrown or otherwise) per se, despite the end
result being the same.  "Belaboring," here, being the
labor of close reading.  The action actually starts
thus ...

   "Dixon, moving directly, seizes the Whip,-- the
owner comes after it,--" (M&D, Ch. 72, p. 698)

Dixon doesn't quite even seem to yank the Slave Driver
along with the whip, rather, Driver's Face meets
Dion's Fist in the Driver's act of 'com[ing] after
it."  Morris's (God bless 'im all, ev'ryone) claim
that this is all merely a "joke" isn't entirely off
the mark, as the "passivity" (if not necessarily
pacificism) of Dixon's non-punch is a cartoon set
piece, no?  Problem is, we're all in the position of
"tweeners," interpolating the full animation betwixt
the few set frames Pynchon does give us here.  But,
any ascription of Dixon's motions/motives here aside,
again, this is a significantly unusual way to phrase
this action, and there is asignificant departure here
from standard Dixon lore.  That being said, I'm off to
my movie, and will pick up elements ignored so far in
Ch. 40 at my earliest opportunity.  Mark yr calendars ...

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