M & D Read: Relevant to Gaze?

[Becky Lindroos]

Ah yes,  I guess Johanna is more willing than I thought - I read that - I know I read that.  It failed to stick, I guess. Rereading is a marvel.     

The Vroom girls need men who are suitable.  Dixon is apparently not for some reason.  I think Mason would be marginal - he’s not going to stick around long,  he’s “melancholick,”  etc.  There are other Dutch families at the Cape. 

I don’t know why Austra doesn’t go after Dixon - he’s white and available,  just not “suitable” for her,  either?  Maybe Dixon is just not very appealing to any woman - he was/is a drunk and never married.  He apparently cleaned up well - good image - but still …   

Dixon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Dixon#mediaviewer/File:Jeremiah_Dixon_2014-06-07_19-01.jpg

Mason:
https://arsenalarsenal.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/charles_mason.jpg

Becky

> On Feb 8, 2015, at 2:34 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
> 
> But in the opening of Section 9 (p. 87-8), Johanna and Mason are about to have sex - interrupted, in a Hays-Code-like style, by a knock on the door. But the intention, on both their parts, is there. And it gives the lie to Austra's statement that Johanna and her daughters have no intention of sleeping with him. Mason has been deemed suitable for marriage, so there's also a chance that one of the nubile daughters will sleep with him to exact a marriage proposal. If it was strictly about supplying white paternity, Dixon would be as sought after as Mason.
> 
> Laura
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Becky Lindroos <bekker2 at icloud.com>
>> Sent: Feb 8, 2015 9:07 AM
>> To: Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>> Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Subject: Re: M & D Read: Relevant to Gaze?
>> 
>> I think it means quite simply that for all of Mason’s forlornness,  his “Melancholick look,”  his eager-for-adventure “young-enough Fool” look,  his "workaday earth toned” skin, and  his “starv’d” look combined with his “desperate for a shore-cook’d meal” look -  he can’t see it if he looks in a mirror.  He has no awareness of his own condition.  But the point is that we do.  
>> 
>> The Hindu business earlier in the paragraph is Mrs. De Bosch’s opinion of Dixon who is regarded by local society as "Simply Not Suitable."  So Dixon’s available but unsuitable and Mason is suitable but unavailable - the dichotomy again.  Still - this  doesn’t keep Johanna from trying.  
>> 
>> And it’s about all that underlying “almost as if”  business the “gazes” are about -  Mason doesn’t want Johanna to get any ideas and Johanna doesn’t want Mason to think she has any.  Really,  they both do in their own dishonest ways, but they’re both just too messed up.  No way is Johanna going to go to bed with Mason - she has her own plans for him -  and Mason wouldn’t/couldn't have anyone else. 
>> 
>> (Not to get too far ahead but in Chapter 10 Austra is chasing whichever white male - “Sprig” - is easiest to seduce - p. 100.) 
>> 
>> Becky  
>> 
>> 
>>> On Feb 8, 2015, at 3:31 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> pp61--62....About Mason coming ashore, etc. : "None of this has
>>> appear'd to him in any
>>> mirror he has consulted"......
>>> 
>>> What means, this sentence? And, if it means what it seems to--Mason had
>>> nowhere to look to understand his experience---, why phrased this way?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Or? The Mirror of Mindfulness is a presentation of Tibetan Buddhist
>>> teachings on the endless cycle of experience, the four bardos -- life,
>>> death, after-death, and ...
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-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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