Fun stuff in M&D

[Dave Monroe]

--- Daniel Harper <daniel_harper at earthlink.net> wrote:

> ... perhaps Pynchon is cluing us into some sense
> that the dog's intelligence is artificial ...

"'But please do not come to the Learned English Dog if
it's religious Comfort you're after. I may be
praeternatural, but I am not supernatural. 'Tis the
Age of Reason, rrrf? There is ever an Explanation at
hand, and no such thing as a Talking Dog,-- Talking
Dogs belong with Dragons and Unicorns. What there are,
however, are Provisions for Survival in a World less
Fantastick.'" (M&D, Ch. 3, p. 22)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0109&msg=60225

Also ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0208&msg=69635

> It's interesting how non-doglike that character
> seems ...

"'Peace, Grandam,-- reclaim thy Ort.  The Learned One
has yet to sink quite that low.'  The Dog, with an
expressive swing of his Head, makes a dignified Exit,
no more than one wag of the Tail per step." (M&D, Ch.
3, p. 26)

Cf. ...

"JOHNSON. '... Did you never observe that dogs have
not the power of comparing?  A dog will take a small
bit of meat as readily as a large, when both are
before him.'" (pp. 146-7)

-- James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0109&msg=59965


 
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