Dixon's Phat Baby

[John Bailey]

Once Upon A Time Terrance wrote:
>Dixon, not unlike, but very unlike Slothrop, develops a paunch.

Plenty of (arguably) main (male) characters in Pynchon's books develop or 
possess a paunch. Benny, Slothrop, Zoyd and Dixon. It's a point that keeps 
popping up (or out). It always struck me as odd; I can't think of another 
writer who does this so consistently. It's also these characters who 
repeatedly come up against paranoid systems which seek to prescribe the 
limits of the body. Many of the sub- or alternative cultures which appear in 
Pynchon's work could be considered the paunch of Western civilisation. Sort 
of.

>When I read the language here it sounds like Dixon is pregnant with
>child. Of course he is not pregnant with Mason's baby, but with
>something of theirs that is not simply and only a paunch from eating
>rich food.
>

I don't particularly see any hint of pregnancy beyond Dixon's joke, but I 
think the point you're making is a very productive one. Mason & Dixon join a 
pantheon of buddy-heroes who all possess a relationship beyond the official 
one explicitly described by their narratives. Mason & Dixon's place in this 
pantheon is not explored as critically in the novel as some of the other 
literary tropes which are funked up; especially towards the end, their 
relationship is used in far more affective ways than the usual 'flat' 
characters in, say, GR. Pynchon plucks the heart-strings in the final 
section, lets the critical distance of the angry young V.-man slip away for 
a little. I don't think saying this belittles him as a writer or suggests 
that he stoops to an inferior form of writing. He still respects his 
readers' ability to see past this. Maybe this is the 'post-ironic' form he 
admires elsewhere.

>Mason says, What is this Spheroid you bear.
>

I'm tempted to imagine a comma after spheroid, for fun.

>Following a long tradition in American Literature and indeed of Western
>Literature, Pynchon has Dixon and Mason share a bed. The clearest and
>obvious example is Melville's Moby-Dick.
>

There's also a whiff of the Bert & Ernie about M&D. No guesses as to who is 
who. But seriously, Moby-Dick is the best example of this, and Terrance has 
argued well enough to convince me that MD is a useful thing to keep nearby 
when reading P's stuff.

There is also so much food being thrown around in M&D. I wonder if food was 
that abundant during this period. Or if it matters. P sure knows how to cook 
his books. But I seem to recall the early P described as a skinny guy. The 
locals down South called him Pancho Villa, after all, not Pauncho Villa. So 
I admire his allo-identificatory respect for the fender-belly.

_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com