Fun stuff in M&D

[Daniel Harper]

On Friday 16 March 2007 11:30, you wrote:
> I am not with my copy of ATD, but I was just referring to the screams under
> the sand/silicon connection in that submarine trip under the sands....a bit
> on the anti-humanity of computers,I might argue.
>

I don't recognize the reference. If anyone has a page number I'd be happy to 
discuss it, though.

> Daniel Harper <daniel_harper at earthlink.net> wrote:  On Wednesday 14 March 
2007 14:30, you wrote:
> > OK....fine distinctions there.......I would argue that TRP sees computer
> > use--as much other technology---as tending to the anti-human.......
> >
> > What did you make of the screaming under the sands in ATD?
>
> I assume you're referring to the bit on p. 432-433?
>
> ====BEGIN EXCERPT=======
>
> Like Balaam's ass, it was the camel tonight who first detected something
> amiss, freezing in midstep, violently clenching every muscle in its body,
> and attempting un-camel-like cries it hoped its rider might at least be
> alarmed by the queerness of.
>
> Presently, from just over the dune to his left, Lindsay heard someone
> calling his name.
>
> "Yes do stop for a moment Lidsay," added a voice from the other side of the
> track, whose source was no more visible.
>
> "We have messages for you," hissed an augmented choir of voices.
>
> "All right now, old scout," Lindsay reassured the camel, "it's quote common
> out here, reported as long ago as Marco Polo, I've personally run into
> something like it in the Far North as well, yes plenty of times." More
> loudly, as of replying to the now-accelerating imopurtunacy, "Simple
> Rapture of the Sands, absence of light, hearing grows sharper, energy
> reallocated across the sensorium--"
>
> "LINDSAY_Linsday_Lindsaylinday..."
>
> The camel looked around at him with a long eye-roll meant, mutatis
> muntandis, to convey skepticism.
>
> "You must leave this track you were told never to stop from, come to us,
> just over this dune--"
>
> "I shall wait here," advised the aeronaut, as primly as the situation
> permitted, "If you will, come to me."
>
> Plenty of _wives_ over here," the voices called, "Don't forget that this is
> the Desert...."
>
> "With its well-known demands upon the mind..."
>
> "...which so often may be resolved as _polygamy_..."
>
> "Heh, heh...."
>
> "_Wives_ in blossom, pan-spectral fields full of _wives_ Lindsay, here is
> the Great Wife-Bazaar of the World-Island...."
>
> And not only the sibilant words but also liquid sounds, kisses, suction,
> mixed in with the unceasing friction of sand in its travels. An obscure
> local insult directed at himself? Or was it the camel they were trying to
> lure?
>
> ====END EXCERPT=======
>
>
>
> Of course the camel acts intelligently here, perhaps even more aware of the
> dangers of the situation than Lindsay. Lindsay seems to believe that the
> voices are delusions of his, that they are simply the desert acting upon
> his mind, but the reader is encouraged not to take such a skeptical
> approach towards the text. I'm reminded of the Sandman comic "Soft Places",
> in which those places that have no been explored and mapped exist across
> time and a variety of characters are liable to show up unannounced.
>
> It also seems to have reference to the Sirens in the Odyssey, but regarding
> the desert instead of the ocean. Shambala (sp?) calls out to those seeking
> it, promising rewards?
>
> > Daniel Harper wrote:
> >
> > On Tuesday 13 March 2007 08:55, you wrote:
> > > nice finds...I'm about the only one posting on the Mason & Dixon wiki
> > > at the moment so I recommend you post these two bits---or I will!
> >
> > Done and doner.
> >
> > > The L.E.D. find illuminates two parts of Pynchon's vision---or one part
> > > vision, one mataphor, I think....dogs in his two books with them are
> > > human stand-ins for passive middle-class humans....(more)
> > >
> > > And, as with much other technology, computers are not, in general,
> > > positive things....
> >
> > Yes, there's much in Vineland to be said about computers. But I think
> > it's more about the objectification and dehumanization of humans than
> > necessarily anti-technology.

-- 
No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.
--Daniel Harper