M&D Ch 20. p.202 Force majeure: Derivatives & Ambiguities

[Monte Davis]

Saw it last week: killer performance by Lisa Loven Kongsli.
Spoilers ensue:







Swedish (Swedish-Norwegian?) couple and their two children at ski resort in
French Alps where "preventive" avalanches are routinely triggered. As they
dine at a terrace restaurant, one such avalanche on a slope across the
valley overshoots. A huge, turbulent snow cloud hits the terrace. Father
bolts as mother tries to gather and shield the kids. Very quickly it's
clear there's no real physical hazard, but the damage is done. Wife's
doubts, and their competition to characterize what happened to another
couple, turn pre-existing fissures in the family into crevasses. Per Evans'
"semi-automatic"... was the husband's response "force majeure" or
revelatory of his "true" character?

On Sat, Apr 11, 2015 at 4:53 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> Evidently a movie....
> Jules Evans @julesevans77  8m8 minutes ago
>
> Force Majeure is great - explores how character-defining and life
> defining moments can come down to split second semi automatic
> decisions.
>
> On Fri, Apr 10, 2015 at 12:58 PM, Jerome Park <jeromepark3141 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > "Force Majeure", like "Inherent Vice", is a legal, often a maritime law
> term
> > that Pynchon enjoys sprinkling about his books with all puns and
> > ambiguities, intended and unintended. in play.
> >
> >  The force majeure clause is employed by Mr. Dixon and Mr Mason after the
> > "Interdiction at Sea" (47).
> >
> > "interdiction" is a fine example, of a legal and military term that
> invites
> > ambiguities
> >
> > In the claim afte the clash at sea, the clause has no force and  is
> easily
> > countered by the RS, not on the facts, or on what is right, or who is
> right
> > and who is wrong, but by force of contract and force of inflexible power
> of
> > a powerful entity over its subordinated workers. Time, as lawyers say,
> is of
> > the essence. Mason and his Partner  are on a schedule and must keep it to
> > honor the contract. . In this case, Time, the common currency of Science,
> > is on the RS's side because the time option has an expiration date and
> the
> > premium in the option is a multiple of the days to expiration.
> >
> > Though Pynchon uses the term several more times in M&D, and in other
> works,
> > the deliberate ambiguity in its use is most apparent when we juxtapose
> the
> > use on 47 with the use here on 202. Here, the force is Mason's then
> recent
> > Grief, now, those who Represent his sons claim, has not the force it had
> > when they agreed to take the lads two years back. In this case, Time is
> > against Mason again, but the time option is reversed, so the longer he
> stays
> > away from his boys, the less his Grief is worth. Now he must pay with
> > something other than his Grief, his force majeure option is expired.
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
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