AtD Beecher's Bibles & Sharps Rifles

[alice wellintown]

Some mighty fine reading in the P-L Archives (June 2007)  of Frank's
adventures Above/Below, that's pp.  Atd 281-317. One question raised,
and Keithsz provided wonderful notes and commantary ....concerning the
Sharps Rifles seems rather significant and I so looked into it a bit
more.

Bob has a Sharps Rifle and he can't hear nothing and don't want to
hear nothing niether. This is the Second Civil War. That's what the
characters and the narrators in AtD call it. Pynchon connects it to
the War that preceded the Civil War proper, that is, the War for
Kansas. After these beautifully crafted scenes that rival anthing P
has writtin, we go directly to Wall Street and Vibe. Of course, the
trains that arrive, the men unpacking them, the tourists gaping, the
horses leased, the bibles and guns given and sold with liberty if not
justice to all, are Vibe's. The Bible was not the only book these
Firms were shipping out to the Front Lines before, during, after the
War of the States.  There were all manner of "Indian Hating" books and
Captivity Trash modeld after the Mather produced narratives and novels
that celebrated the Gentleman and Ladies of the South (see Thomas
Nelson Page and his ilk), a regular battle of the books. Beecher's
Civil War match was mached by a series of anti-Uncle Tom books.

What was more dangerous to the young nation struggling to maniifest
its destiny under ever watchful eyes of God ? The Rifles or the Books?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beecher's_Bibles

The Sharps Rifle Episode in Kansas History
The Kansas struggle was indeed the prelude to the Civil War. The first
armed conflict between the North and the South began, not at Fort
Sumter in 1861, but on the Wakarusa and at Lawrence in 1855.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/_Topics/history/_Texts/journals/AHR/12/3/Sharps_Rifle_Episode*.html