MMV: Siegel's "house divided"

[jbor]

Yes, the references in the story to Siegel's "still small Jesuit voice" and
the ongoing account of how it has manifested over the years in opposition to
his "gentle" Jewish side haven't been addressed in a coherent way at all. I
agree that it's Siegel's Roman Catholic side which makes him honest and able
to see the egocentric superficiality of his "parishioners" for just what it
is. It's this "Jesuit ... poltergeist" which is the practical part of his
personality that allows him to function in society (it would "call him back
to the real country where there were drinks to be mixed and *bon mots* to be
tossed out carelessly and maybe a drunk or two to take care of"), and it's
the side of his personality which motivates him to leave the partygoers to
their fate at story's end (though his Jewish side also agrees very quickly
that this course of action is the correct one). It's also the RC side of his
personality which allows him to recognise that the partygoers only want from
him "absolution or penance, but no practical advice" and, perversely
perhaps, that's exactly what he's giving to them by letting Irving Loon run
amok. Ironically, I think it's his Jewish side which urges him to feel
"sympathy" for them and which has actually caused him to be in the situation
in the first place, allowing himself to be manipulated into taking over from
Lupescu and then agreeing to serve as a father-confessor to all the nitwits
at the party (and throughout his life -- this part of his personality leads
all the way back to the "timid spindleshanked boy" in Jewish mourning garb
he once was).

The two conflicting sides of Siegel's personality are flagged early on: in
his shifting attitude towards his job in "the Commission"; in the way he has
"funky periods" (his Jewish side) or feels "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed"
(his Jesuit side); and in the way he switches between "hysteria" (Jewish)
and "nonchalance" (Jesuit). I'm not quite sure that I understand correctly
what it is that he has "inherited from his mother" -- I think it's actually
the repression or rejection of *both* his Jewish and Catholic instincts that
she is the root cause of -- but it is this inheritance from her which is
responsible for all his practical jokes and rebellious and anarchic
behaviour in the army and at college. On the other hand, it could be that
Pynchon isn't referring to his mother's apostasy but to her prior
Catholicism as the "inheritance" that has inspired the "Jesuit voice" inside
Siegel and which counters his stereotypical Jewish "guilt" and
"ineffective[ness]". That would make more sense, but it's a bit ambiguous.

At the end of the story Siegel again reflects on the contest between the
Jesuit and Jewish sides of his personality respectively, how "the nimble
little Machiavel inside him would start to throw things at the mensch who
had just cast off adolescence and who still sat perpetual shivah for people
like Debby Considine and Lucy and himself and all the other dead" (it's
interesting that Siegel is self-conscious and self-critical enough to number
himself amongst "all the other dead" here).

Anyway, I agree that the Catholic/Jewish tension is a crucial aspect of the
story and well worth discussing, and I'm pretty much in agreement with
Ghetta's take. I'm sure Terrance has some good insights as well.

best

on 24/8/04 3:09 AM, Paul Mackin at paul.mackin at verizon.net wrote:

> I'm having a little trouble with the way the Jesuit references in the
> story are being interpreted. It's true that "Jesuit" has the
> well-recoginzed meaning of sophistic, deceptive, tricky. However in M&M
> in V the term is introduced, clearly it seem to me, with reference to
> Stephen Dedalus, whom Buck Mulligan calls "you fearful Jesuit."
> Mullligan does not mean Stephen is dishonest. Rather, S is TOO honest. M
> is chiding his friend for refusing to kneel down at S's mother's
> deathbed and pray with her. S refuses because he himself does not
> believe. M, who has a completely materialistic view of death, thinks S's
> reticence is a frivolius and heartless waste. He attributes S's attitude
> to the fact that S has had the Jesuit Strain injected into him, except
> that in Stephen's case it was injected upside down. (both men were
> educated in the Catholic religion by Jesuits I think) In other words in
> M's view S is still a theological person. Not quite a materialist like
> M.
> 
> I think there are a number of indications in M&M in V that Siegel is
> viewed by Grossman and himself as essentially a theological person.  A
> priest of sorts. In an odd way of course.
> 
> The denouement of the story is in fact a religious event. Cleanth Siegel
> S.J. A crazy kind of Jesuit maybe. Religion turned up side down. Like
> Stephen's Jesuit strain left him.  But religious nevertheless.
> 
> Anyway we could think about it.
> 
>