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

[Monte Davis]

> not in a sexual act, so much as a commercial act - the production of a
high-valued commodity

And of course, as Austra's sly remarks remind us, there's nothing in
Christian or European tradition -- no dowries or bride-price,  no
inheritance law, no annulments for childlessness, no epochal Henry VIII
divorces, no wedding rings that ought to cost X months salary -- to connect
procreation and value/wealth/commerce. :-)


On Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 2:13 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> 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
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
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