MDDM Ch. 54 Toll-House

[jbor]

NB also the allusion to Fr Zarpazo's fondness for (the methods of ?) the
Spanish Inquisition at 530.16. Parodying an 18th C. non-style with his
capitalisations, as Pynchon is in this novel, it's sometimes easy to
overlook an actual proper noun when it does occur.

I agree with you about Eliza's dream; she has somehow been able to detach
herself from the physical experience and circumstances of her kidnap and
captivity, but all of this is now starting to play out in her psyche, her
subconscious. As often happens in Pynchon's work, the experience starts to
manifest for her as sexual fascination also. Ultimately, she is brought to a
new level of personal identity and awareness. In fact, by the end of Ch. 54
Eliza has become totally liberated - sexually, spiritually, socially,
emotionally - and she recognises that what she experienced before in her
married life with Seth was just as much a type of bondage and submission as
her time with the Jesuits. (eg. 540.12-16) The relationship between Zsuzsa
and Eliza has a real Thelma & Louise/ DL & Frenesi flavour to it I think:
they will go off and become galpal or lesbian "Adventuresses". (540.11)

Even though I know what you are saying about Zarpazo, there's still an
element of pathos in the portrayal of this "Wolf of Jesus" too, as in the
lecture he gives to the sniggering novitiates - "an entire *Room*-full of
Students transferr'd here from the University of Hell" - at 522-524,
particularly in the last two paragraphs of the chapter on p.524. Remember
that the Jesuits have been tortured, persecuted and virtually chased out of
Europe, as we found out back in the first section of the novel when Dixon
met up with Christopher Maire. The Jesuits aren't really in "control", of
history or of anything else. As I see it, part of the point in the second
bit you've quoted is that being able to manipulate "history", of removing
and substituting memories, is a way of *gaining* control, which is what Fr
Zarpazo has realised. The convergence of "Lies and Truth ..., albeit far
from this Place" which Zarpazo will "perhaps never [be] aware" of seems to
be a reference to the Day of Judgement. Of course, one needs to factor in
the way that narrative agency in this section has been deliberately rendered
indeterminate - the shifting ontological status of the text, which mixes up
real historical people and events with Eliza's tale, and with the 'Ghastly
Fop' instalment in Ethelmer's bedroom, with Wicks's tale-telling and
pronouncements in the parlour, and with the separate narration of M&D's
travails - before making any rash suppositions about whether or not
Pynchon's own religious beliefs might be on display here.

best




on 28/5/02 8:31 PM, Otto at o.sell at telda.net wrote:

> "I kept the right ones out and let the wrong ones in."
> (Aerosmith - Amazing)
> 
> 529.13-17
> "One night I dream that I have come to a Bridge across a broad River, with
> small settlements at either approach, and in its center, at the highest
> point of its Arch, a Curious Structure, some nights invisible in the river
> mists, Lanthorns burning late,-- a Toll-House. Not ev'ryone is allow'd
> through, nor is paying the Toll any guarantee of Passage. The gate-keepers
> are members of a Sect who believe that by choosing correctly which shall
> dwell one side of this River, and which the other, the future happiness of
> the land may be assur'd."
> 
> The sect are the Jesuits. This has to be read with p. 543 (Ch. 55),
> referring to Zarpazo:
> "he is accordingly sworn to destroy all who seek God without passing through
> the toll-gate of Jesus. (...) If access to God need not be by way of Jesus,
> what is to become of Jesuits?"
> 
> Note the binary structure of the first quote describing organized
> monotheistic religions, the last sentence telling what these are pretending.
> The second quote reveals the true egoistic motives which have replaced the
> original religious impulse.
>
>Otto

and
 
> The Usual Tragedy
> 
> 530.13-15, 19-20
> "But then the Spaniard may see an opportunity to remove certain memories,
> and substitute others,-- thus controlling the very Stuff of History.(...)
> The Wolf of Jesus, perhaps never aware that Lies and Truth will converge
> (...)."
> 
> Compare this to Wicks' "Christ and History" on p. 349. History, the idea
> that through looking back in time we could gain any objective knowledge of
> the past, is one of the three meta-fictions deconstructed by postmodernism.
> 
> "Those in power control history."
> Linda Hutcheon, _A Poetics of Postmodernism_, Routledge 1988.
> 
> Otto