re Re: more re MDDM Dixon's act of violence

[Doug Millison]

jbor:
>I think it's also pretty clear from the evidence in the text that Dixon
>beats the man with the whip.

Since Pynchon doesn't mention it at all, how can it possibly be clear?
Pynchon shows Dixon taking the whip from the man and putting it in his
pocket, nothing more. Dixon "seizes the Whip" on p 698; "raising the Whip"
p. 698; talking about using the whip at the top of p. 699, takes the keys
but still not using the whip on the man p. 699, "shakes the Whip at him" a
few lines later, and the next thing Pynchon shows us regarding the whip is
Dixon "Thrusting the Whip into his red Coat" just before he and Mason
depart.  Nowhere does Pynchon show us Dixon hitting the driver with the
whip, although I agree with you that it's certainly possible to imagine
Dixon doing it, but that's an interpretation without support in the text
before us.

>But I do think his conscience is telling him
>not to kill the man at 699.18

Pynchon tells us as much.


>(as well as telling him that he *must* kill
>the man if he means to prevent him from continuing in his vile profession),

Pynchon says nothing to indicate if this might be the case; of course it's
possible that this is what Dixon's conscience tells him, but Pynchon
doesn't address it, this is pure speculation on your part with no textual
support.

>Mason will still recognise what Dixon did
>as an act of Bravery (698.3), however.

Indeed. It is brave to take on an armed man (the whip is a nasty weapon,
Pynchon takes pains to point out).  It takes a morally courageous man to
ignore his desire to kill and instead focus on ending the cycle of
violence, as Dixon does when he follows his conscience, in my
interpretation of Pynchon's ambiguous text.