MDDM Ch. 75 Dixon's Search Engine

[jbor]

Terrance wrote:

> Bibliomancy was quite common at the time so again P's portrayal is
> historical. 
> Friends in the 17th century, even fallen ones like Dixon,  were never
> averse to using the Bible in argument.  Friends   made -- selectively,
> like other people -- a considerable use of the Bible, and as the Devil
> is said to do, could quote Scripture to their own purpose. I think that
> Robert's idea that Jere could be or might be pollicating Mason here is
> interesting. I have to disagree however about the idea that chance or
> fortune or omen or pagan derived practices involving chance are at odds
> with Faith. Sure, they are at odds with Reason, but not faith
> necessarily. Although the reasoned view is one view of Faith, faith does
> not rest on logical proof or material evidence and is and was for many
> Christians not a determined or pre-ordained grace. Bibliomancy was
> frowned upon by some.

Yes, I think that was my point, that Bibliomancy (thanks for the proper
term) was not a practice of orthodox Christianity nor of orthodox science.
What you described as that old battle between reason and faith again is in
fact a false dichotomy, as Pynchon's depiction of these two Christian men of
science amply demonstrates. The Enlightenment project, though to call it
that seems to credit men like Chas and Jere with more prescience and
political complicity than they actually had (according to _M&D_, anyway),
was bolstered equally by an unwavering faith in science as by an unwavering
faith in ("our") God. They saw no contradiction whatsoever between Christian
and scientific principles; no-one did. And, what we do see in the novel is
that most of the enmities of the age, amongst and within European
nation-states at least, grew up out of arguments over "God" rather than over
Science.

Jere is more open to other belief systems, to the "Magickal in all its
Occurrences" (746.23) as Mason tells Dr Johnson and Boswell, but Mason is
prone to supernatural visitations himself, and secretly yearns for these. I
think that what Pynchon demonstrates throughout this and other works is that
the supposed argument between faith and reason is actually a bit of a
furphy, that these are both Western epistemologies or constructs and perhaps
even quietly in league with one another, and that they certainly have worked
and do work together to exclude or destroy other possibilities, other
spaces, other worlds.

best


 
> So was chance and luck and fortune and gambling, but for many
> christians, the old Roman Catholic/Pagan practices were not at odds with
> Faith. Wesley, founder of Methodism, was criticized for  Bibliomancy.
> 
> Recall that when Dixon and Mason visit Washington and George quotes the
> bible on Gershom, the men are a bit confused. Confused because a negro
> slave is a Jew, but also because they interpret the passage differently.
> And it's not only the bible, but letters from the RS or proverbs and
> folk tales that are differently interpreted. Consider Dixon's tale of
> the Worm. A traditional folk tale, but it seems to be his own telling of
> the tale, unique. And all those that listen to it have different ideas
> about its moral, its meaning. All very Modern. Indeterminate ironies
> abound as the secular cities (not unlike Slothrop's London) of the
> Modern world trap our boys in profane parables.
> 
> But the sacred surfaces. Often in dream, but sometimes when our boys are
> awake or someplace in between. It **Materilizes** and burst out at
> nightmare or comic subversion.
> So Mason dreams of a tribute, a stage and a pit-- that crowd walking
> round in a ring reminds us of ELiot and Dante, of the Unreal City and
> the Inferno, while Dixon dreams of a stage where a  musical comedy
> laughs at Death and the Elect.