Mason's Christian "Whiteness"? A long sentence on whiteness

[alice malice]

Mason's understanding of his sexual partnerships may be guided more by
religious and legal definitions than by race definitions. In
Melville's famous long sentence on whiteness he fishes for meanings in
history, but M-D is directed at an audience circa 1850, for Mason, the
enslaved are legally defined as non-Christian, so sexual encounters
would violate Christian Law if the enslaved were a "heathen" by law.

Applying Ham, and the Maternal Law of enslavement, as was the practice
in the United States, so an enslaved mother's children were born into
bondage, may not apply to Mason's "child" in SA.

Not sure what if any research P did on the legalities of SA's mixed
children, but ti seems that he has in mind, at least, the idea that
white was a religious and legal good, an aesthetic and cultural good.


The blacker the berry the sweeter....


Though in many natural objects, whiteness refiningly enhances beauty,
as if imparting some special virtue of its own, as in marbles,
japonicas, and pearls; and though various nations have in some way
recognised a certain royal preeminence in this hue; even the barbaric,
grand old kings of Pegu placing the title "Lord of the White
Elephants" above all their other magniloquent ascriptions of dominion;
and the modern kings of Siam unfurling the same snow-white quadruped
in the royal standard; and the Hanoverian flag bearing the one figure
of a snow-white charger; and the great Austrian Empire, Caesarian,
heir to overlording Rome, having for the imperial colour the same
imperial hue; and though this pre-eminence in it applies to the human
race itself, giving the white man ideal mastership over every dusky
tribe; and though, besides, all this, whiteness has been even made
significant of gladness, for among the Romans a white stone marked a
joyful day; and though in other mortal sympathies and symbolizings,
this same hue is made the emblem of many touching, noble things—the
innocence of brides, the benignity of age; though among the Red Men of
America the giving of the white belt of wampum was the deepest pledge
of honour; though in many climes, whiteness typifies the majesty of
Justice in the ermine of the Judge, and contributes to the daily state
of kings and queens drawn by milk-white steeds; though even in the
higher mysteries of the most august religions it has been made the
symbol of the divine spotlessness and power; by the Persian fire
worshippers, the white forked flame being held the holiest on the
altar; and in the Greek mythologies, Great Jove himself being made
incarnate in a snow-white bull; and though to the noble Iroquois, the
midwinter sacrifice of the sacred White Dog was by far the holiest
festival of their theology, that spotless, faithful creature being
held the purest envoy they could send to the Great Spirit with the
annual tidings of their own fidelity; and though directly from the
Latin word for white, all Christian priests derive the name of one
part of their sacred vesture, the alb or tunic, worn beneath the
cassock; and though among the holy pomps of the Romish faith, white is
specially employed in the celebration of the Passion of our Lord;
though in the Vision of St. John, white robes are given to the
redeemed, and the four-and-twenty elders stand clothed in white before
the great-white throne, and the Holy One that sitteth there white like
wool; yet for all these accumulated associations, with whatever is
sweet, and honourable, and sublime, there yet lurks an elusive
something in the innermost idea of this hue, which strikes more of
panic to the soul than that redness which affrights in blood.
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l