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

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Is the Christian objection to fathering a baby that will be born as a slave, or to having sex with a (non-Christian) slave, or to slavery itself? Would doing something non-procreatively sexual with Austra be OK? Or having sex with a slave who was converted to Christianity? What about sex with prostitutes in general? Having sex with another man's wife doesn't seem to give him Chritian-qualms. t think the big turn-off for Mason (Pynchon's 20th-century construct of Mason, that is) is that Austra is inviting him to participate not in a sexual act, so much as a commercial act - the production of a high-valued commodity.

Laura


-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>Sent: Feb 3, 2015 11:31 AM
>To: alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com>
>Cc: "pynchon-l at waste.org" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: Mason's Christian "Whiteness"? A long sentence on whiteness
>
>I have to save this from Alice and go back to work but I
>was going to post that I think Mason is, in Pynchon's creation,
>guided more by religion, by P's take on that religion too..
>
>On Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 11:15 AM, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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.
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>-
>Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
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