more re MDMD Dixon's nonviolence

[Scott Badger]

Doug:
> The question none of you has answered satisfactorily is, if Dixon is such
a
> violent man and so prone to betray his Quaker upbringing, why didn't he
> beat the slave driver with the whip or kill him as he desired to do?  The
> answer, I suggest, is that he discovers (a major development in the arc of
> his character development in the novel) his conscience won't let him,
> precisely as Pynchon describes it in the passage in question.

...or, as I have stated before, if Dixon were to have stuck around to finish
the job, he would have run the probable risk of being arrested (as advised
by the slave immediately before he and Mason leave), if not a beating by the
Sheriff's men or the crowd as well. You are assuming that "conscience"
refers to a choice between violence and non-violence, I read it as referring
to a choice between self-preservation and dealing with the slave-driver in
the manner that Dixon feels he deserves.

Scott Badger