MDDM Scalping Lord Lepton

[umberto rossi]

In data 29 Jun 2004, verso le 22:48, jbor si trovò a scrivere su Re: 
MDDM Scalping Lord Lepton:

> 1. If the issue is identifying the owner of the rifle then the fact that
> Mason and Dixon recognise *the* scalp is the salient piece of information.

Ok, surely it's the scalp that allows the Surveyors to say "We've 
met" (681), since they don't react this way to the rifle and the star 
on it. But what does connect the scalp to Lepton? It's described by 
the narrator as a "long Lock of fair European Hair" (681) which might 
belong to any European, be he Italian, Swiss, Portugese, Swedish, 
etc. Thanks to the Normans there's fair-complexioned people 
everythere in the continent. (Btw, I see the scene as a Rape of the 
Lock in its own right, so it's an ironic reference to Pope).

> It's irrelevant that as the rifle is produced by Catfish it's described in
> the text as "a Lancaster rifle". This reference occurs prior to the boys
> seeing the scalp and then realising for sure *whose* rifle it is.

Anyway, since Lepton's rifle is not the only Lancaster rifle around, 
and there are stars on many rifles (be they with one or two points 
up, cf. LeSpark), this does not add up to telling us that Lepton is 
the owner.

> 2. In Ch. 42 Mason contends that it is a Cape rifle, but Dixon avers that it
> is an American rifle (428.12), and it is then the narrator, not LeSpark, who
> confirms that Dixon is correct (429.4-5).

So what? This is highly irrelevant.

> 3. For all the twaddle about "renowned frontiersman" and "wild and unknown
> Ohio", and Daniel Boone and Steven Seagal, Lord Lepton actually makes it
> quite clear that he has travelled in the region and he even insinuates that
> he has had trade dealings with the Indians there (418.22-6). 

Defining other people's argument as twaddle does not make your 
argument strongers. Insults usually bespeak uncertainty. Ok, Lepton 
has travelled on the frontier, but when it comes to Ohio (the place 
where the surveyors are going), what he says in the passage you're 
quoting is that "There's Coal out where you're going, you see." He 
knows that there is coal in those lands, but he does not say that 
he's been there or that he's planning to go there. I won't define 
your use of the text as twaddle just because I don't want to step 
down to your level, (I hope you understood what I wrote in my 
previous message and know who Natty Bumppo is, etc. As for Steven 
Seagal, unlike Clint Eastwood he's got only one expression, with or 
without a hat).

> Further, the
> narrator informs us that on his arrival in America Lepton spent five years
> working in mines, driving "African slaves", and travelling "up-country" as a
> "Journeyman" (416-7).

So what? There's plenty of people met by the Surveyors who have done 
that. Is travelling up-country a monopoly of Lepton? Prove this if 
you can.

> It might also be worthwhile recalling that Catfish uses a saddle and speaks
> fluent English (680-1). When we first encounter Catfish in the narrative
> with "his Lady, and his Nephew" they are "all dress'd as Europeans might
> be", and he is apparently on a "Mission", "as if Disguis'd", and "Looking
> for Business" (673).

And what's the relevance of all this to your argument? It might be 
interesting, and it might also mean neither Catfish nor his relatives 
are real Indians. There's so many characters in disguise in Pynchon's 
fiction, dear jbor... d'you remember that Brit guy which does all 
those impersonations in V.?

> 4. And, for the fourth or fifth time now, the point I've been making isn't
> that the text unequivocally identifies the owner of the scalp as Lord
> Lepton, or anyone else -- in a typically postmodernist gesture Pynchon
> leaves the identity of the victim indeterminate. 

Ohhh! Great. Now you're talking. I wholeheartedly agree with you.

> Only M&D know for sure
> whose scalp it is; the information is deliberately withheld from the reader.

Yeah. Go on.

> In fact, it's a reversal of traditional dramatic irony. 

Very good.

> In spite of this, all the evidence points to Lord Lepton as the most
> likely candidate. 

What? Jbor, what do you smoke? I want to try your stuff!

> 5. The shift in signification of the term "Sterloop" doesn't have a bearing
> on any of the above, 

Really? I guess it has and have some evicence to support my thesis. 
But you'll have to wait for the publication of my essay (if it will 
be ever published) to see how it works.

> though I agree that a connection is being forged in the
> text between the Dutch riders at the Cape, the 'Dutch Rifle' hotel in
> Lancaster town, and Lord Lepton's foundry, with the inverted star being the
> common thread linking the episodes, and that Pynchon, as always, is mucking
> around with "the Boundaries between Reality and Representation" (429).

And that's what I said. Ok.

> There's nothing at all in the text to support the suggestion that the rifle
> in Catfish's possession, or the one M&D see at Lord Lepton's, is an
> "unstable artifact", however.

No? D'you think so? A rifle that changes name, nationality, owner, 
specificity... ehh, once again, I hope I manage to publish my 
article, so that you'll know why and how.

umberto rossi
___________________

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