M&D Ch 8

[Becky Lindroos]

Ready for Chapter 10 tomorrow?  That’s the schedule -  ?

Becky 


> On Feb 14, 2015, at 2:23 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> The phrase Light Across the Ranges from ATD. A positive phrase I think. 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Feb 14, 2015, at 5:20 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Way I mostly read it too... Although I think P's vision of "the good life" lies w low-lifes, freer sex, variety of food....I believe RANGE OF HIS DESIRES Is used in this chapter( or soon) and I always read that against 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>> On Feb 14, 2015, at 4:56 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>> 
>>> Ch 8 summary 
>>> opens with dix heading on a cloudy eve into "the prohibited parts of town." whistling  a  Javanese  gamelan tune. He is acquiring a nasal map of the town learning to avoid the sheep fat suppers, scenting the spices of non-white districts, english soap, St Helena coffee… feels like a predatory animal…to become part of the night … thinking the Dutch carry on like Judgement is upon them, like good behavior doesn't matter, their Fate is decided, the end near.
>>> 
>>> jump in time forward or back? To a time before a Vroom supper: Mason  expresses contempt for Dixons  lack of sexual restraint and Dix counters that  restraint  which Mas calls backbone looks to him like a ramrod up the Arse. M shows interest in Jet
>>> Joanna comments on Dixon's appetite for ketjap-  Cornelius calls it filthy asian stuff then farts  volcanically at the prospect of more flatulence flavored sheeps tail stew.
>>> strike her upon the bottom says Els about ketjap
>>> Vroom Girls go on stoop afterward to flirt with local boys  dutch boy sings tune with uke  sounding like a beachboys tune (cape girl...)
>>> in midst of sexual flirting CC mentions that the Voc manages a slave brothel  to keep control of local sex trade.
>>> Some youths  arrange trysts in secret places and some even go beyond to Hotentot country but hard to leave the lively flow of money and pleasure at this port town.
>>> Greet Vroom slips away with Austra to follow M&D on ramble.. reports to sisters that they eat ,talk and drink interns  
>>> funny song about food varieties
>>> hilarious musing that it does not occur to Vrooms that M&D are seeking escape from Vroom hose and food wherein is contained visions of Dutch religious wars- "personages with rapt Phizzes standing about in Rays from above, pointing aloft at who knows what."
>>> Mason says he thinks vibrations get in food(  vibrations : refrain from beach boys style tune , but also attempts scientific explanation of bad vibes)
>>> watch man in sarong  expertly prep food with Krees
>>> They hear that mangoes will be ripe next day, ( mangoes seem like reference to adam eve myth) they go meet Cherrycoke who is nervous to sail on with belligerent captain of Seahorse. 
>>> Rev holds up mango like host and compares to flesh.
>>> Mason complains of dutch food tasteless, fatty, boiled roots.
>>> Later rev prays observing that Mason aversion is to transubstantiation  and invoked memory of Father/ baker, blood  of lamb.
>>> 
>>> Any further thoughts on CH 8?  they always seem a bit more coherent to me when you compress them . What I see here are 2 tables, 2 origin myths, one the rich natural flow of markets, appetites,   multiculturalism embraced,  simple pleasures uninhibited sexuality; the other offers the convoluted cultural/religious/practical baggage of the Netherlands. In the end Holland goes secular while the US takes up the Calvinist bent and all the baggage that comes with it.  Is P asking readers to give that some thought?
>>> 
>>> The nasal map is interesting as a device which P revisits with satiric intensity in Bleeding Edge. The smelled word is something we give less attention and importance to than our more abstracted means of perception, closer to our animal senses and selves. -
>>> 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