MDDM Ch. 42 Summary & Notes

[jbor]

The chapter opens as Wicks again pontificates, this time regarding the
similarity between gambling, as a sin, and entrepreneurial speculation. (He
seems, with the sardonic reference to the "serious questions" which "arise
as to Predestination and the Will of God", to be taking yet another potshot
at the "Protestant work ethic".) John LeSpark makes light of his bluster and
hyperbole, however.

This episode of our story opens in the boys' "Rooms" in the aftermath of a
substantial loss (over twenty pounds) at the gaming tables. Disgruntled,
afflicted with "Gambler's Remorse", Mason has convinced himself that Lord
Lepton's dealers were cheating. Jere, somewhat bemused by the vehemence and
recklessness of his offsider's determination to exact retribution in kind,
convinces Cha. that they should steal the iron bathtub from the room, and,
with a "secret" technique of alignment of the "Centers of Gravity" learned
from his mentor, William Emerson, manages to balance the weighty tub - "as
if by Levitation" - on his fingertips and to carry it thus across the room.

Handing the tub over to Mason Jere then exits, ostensibly to "reconnoitre",
but actually spending several minutes engaged in coital intimacy with Lady
Lepton. As Mason is listening to the crescendoes of their foreplay and the
silence which - "gongingly" - follows, a "dishevel'd philosopher" by the
name of Professor Voam taps on the still-suspended tub and inquires as to
the provenance of the "astonishing" magnetic power it exudes. The Professor
examines the tub with his "fantastickal compass", meanwhile telling Mason of
his companion, Felípe, the "Torpedo", or electric eel, and of his need to
depart. Mason invites the Professor, with Felípe, to join the Commission's
entourage.

Dixon re-enters the room through a false panel in the wall, and the three
then make their way - with the tub - towards the "Arabian-Gardens Pool",
where the eel is currently harboured. As they navigate the corridors of the
expansive manse Mason is confronted by Austra, though afterwards both he and
Dixon express some doubt, though perhaps disingenuously, about the girl's
true identity. (431.4-9)

Their next encounter is with an impressive and immaculate "Dutch Rifle",
decorated with the same inverted star that adorned the tavern sign back in
Lancaster Town. (342.9) John LeSpark, asleep on a couch, awakes to the boys'
bickering regarding the origin of the firearm. The quartet discuss the
weapon, the coincidence of the symbol and its portents and significance, and
the potential advantages, disadvantages, and other consequences of
substituting the gun for the tub. Eventually deciding on the tub, LeSpark
cheerily bids them farewell.

They arrive at the pond. Felípe seems impatient. The tub is filled with
water and loaded onto a Waggon, and they make their escape.

On the road the Professor recounts his prior experiences as a sort of
travelling sideshow, and, as the narrative morphs almost imperceptibly into
a description of a subsequent demonstration, and then into the pages of
Mason's "hidden Journal", we discover how Cha. was "bedazzl'd" by a numinous
experience within the electrical phenomenon, and how he imagined himself as
having a personal rapport with Felípe and came to nurture same thereafter.
(Cf. Dixon's teasing and Mason's dissemination re. "the Torpedo" to the
Washingtons and Gershom back at 285-6.)

Felípe's appetites having adapted to the regional cuisine, a larger tank is
soon required, and the eel comes to assume a dual role as mascot and "camp
Compass". The episode ends with some of the wags suggesting that Squire
Haligast - his observations again teetering precariously between divine
profundity and gibberish - be charged with manning an Information Booth. But
the Squire's calm and good-natured response to the ribbing carries a cryptic
edge even so.

***

422.5 "the dark Dromonds of Piracy"  dromond or dromon n. a large swift
sailing vessel of the 12th to 15th Centuries [13th C. from Anglo-French
*dromund*, ultimately from Late Greek *dromon* light swift ship, from
*dromos* a running]

422.10 "'Spielers'"  players, or gamblers [19th C. from German *Spiel* play]

Cf., perhaps, Fritz Lang's _Dr Mabuse, der Spieler_:

http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~ntucs82/PEOPLE/b2506017/sf/6f.html

423.4 "Damme, he owes us twenty pounds,-- more!" Even though Pynchon chose
not to write about it explicitly in the text I believe that, considering the
contextual details, it's safe to assume that Mason lost over twenty pounds
at the gaming tables.

425.35 "Excuse me. I am Professor Voam, Philosophical Operator [ ... ] "
And, who will subsequently become "the camp naturalist". (321.19)

426.12-15 "My Co-adjutor, Mr Dixon."
          "Of course! The Astronomers! Dixon and Mason!"
          "Actually," Mason says, "That's-- "
          "Say, I hope you Boys ain't had a falling-out."

Again, this exchange between Mason and Professor Voam foregrounds the
increasing interchangeableness of the duo (à la Guildenstern and
Rosencrantz) and of their professional roles, and the subtle shift which is
occurring in status and authority. Mason's pre-eminence has diminished to
the point where Jere and he are regarded as at least equals. In fact, Voam
has here reversed the hierarchy of their nomenclature. (Pynchon thus
demonstrates, or speculates on, the circumstances by which it ultimately
came to be known as "the Mason-Dixon Line" rather than simply "the Mason
Line". Thus MDDM, not MDMD.)

427.10 "coprophagously a-grin"  Dixon's shit-eating grin bespeaks the carnal
satisfaction he has just enjoyed with Lady Lepton. He finally gets to get
his rocks off with a gal: no wonder he's happy!

427.28 "shaking those Globes"  i.e. her breasts (?)

428.4 "A Polaris of Evil"  Polaris n. 1. Also called: the Pole Star, or
North Star, the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor, situated
slightly less than one degree from the north celestial pole. It is a Cepheid
variable, with a period of four days. Visual magnitude: 2.08-2.17; spectral
type: F8.  2. a type of U.S. two-stage intermediate-range ballistic missile,
usually fired by a submerged submarine; also used as an adjectival modifier,
as in "a Polaris submarine" [shortened from Medeival Latin *stella polaris*
polar star]

I think there are overtones of both definitions here. Cf. the actual and
projected directions of the (disarmed) 00000 and 00001 in _GR_, and

      "The edge of evening . . . the long curve of people all wishing on
    the first star. . . . Always remember those men and women along the
    thousands of miles of land and sea. The true moment of shadow is the
    moment in which you see the point of light in the sky. The single point,
    and the Shadow that has just gathered you in its sweep . . . "
      Always remember.
      The first star hangs between his feet.
      *Now--*
                                                    (_GR_ 759-60)

Cf. the similarities in phraseology and mood when, just before this sudden
appearance of the star-decorated weapon, Austra farewells Mason:

          "'Good-bye, Charles,' beginning to blur, receding 'round the long
        curve of the Wall. [...] " (427.32)

430.3 "Sharper"  sharper n. a person who cheats or swindles; fraud (cf. a
"card sharp")

431.18 "this Giant Specimen of Guyana Torpedo" (also: Felípe; the Surinam,
or Electric, Eel; *Gymnotus*; "El Peligroso or "the Dangerous One"):

http://whozoo.org/Intro2000/tashcorm/tempagetwo.htm

Cf. also "Rancho Peligroso", Crutchfield's home in Slothrop's Sodium
Amytal-induced nightmare at St Veronica's Hospital. (_GR_ 69)

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