M & D Deep Duck Motrix

[John Bailey]

Euphrosyne - great connection! Have never read any of that stuff.

Mason's lines are "did you see them ride the air at Tyburn?" That
description of a hanging has always stuck with me. The notion of the
condemned, kicking corpse-in-the-making described as riding some
invisible beast... chilling.

And I think Mason's attempt to imitate the Durham accent is
deliberately meant to be bad, as I can't parse it convincingly,
either.

On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 11:17 AM, David Mugmon <dmugmon at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I've been following the bouncing ball here for years.  I don't participate
> because it would be a bit like showing up at an intellectual Gunfight at the
> OK Corral with a cap gun.  I've loved reading the craziness over here for
> years though.
>
> I've read M & D a couple of times and in my mind it's Pynchon's greatest
> work.  I've really enjoyed the discussion so far, from ampersands to
> Cherrycoke.
>
> In regards to Dixon laughing without the "Motrix of honest Mirth", I have
> the definition of Motrix in the margin of my copy as a "female instigator".
> The Greek goddess who brings forth mirth is Euphrosyne.
>
> This deity can be famously found in Milton's poem, L'Allegro.
>
> But come thou goddess fair and free,
> In heav'n yclep'd Euphrosyne,
>
> .......The speaker orders Melancholy from his life, telling it to find a
> dwelling place among the Cimmerians—people who live in a land of unending
> darkness. At the same time, he invites a goddess of joy, Euphrosyne, to
> bring him mirth on the dawning of a new spring day as the song of the lark
> and the din of a rooster chase the last of the darkness away.
>
> .......John Milton's "L'Allegro" is a lyric poem centering on the joy of
> taking part in the delights of a spring day, including those provided by
> nature in a pastoral setting and those provided by the theater in an urban
> setting. The title is an Italian word that originally meant "the cheerful
> man." The poem was published in London in 1645 as part of a collection,The
> Poems of John Milton, Both English and Latin. It is a companion piece to "Il
> Penseroso," a lyric poem centering on sober, contemplative living that
> courts melancholy rather than joy. The poems use similar metric and rhyme
> schemes.
>
> http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides8/lallegro.html
>
> Il Penseroso and L'Allegro...  The melancholy man and the cheerful man?
>
> On another note...
>
> I have a question re the text in the current section that I've never been
> able to decipher.  Mason asks Dixon, "Come, Sir - What's the first thing
> they'll ask when you get back to County Durham? Eh?  'Did ye see them rahde
> the Eeahr at Taahburn?' (Pg. 15)
>
> Taahburn = Tyburn?
>
> I just can't cut thru Mason's mock Durham dialect.  I've read it out loud,
> asked others and I can't make sense of it.  What in the hell will they ask
> Dixon when he returns home?
>
>
> On Jan 11, 2015, at 3:48 PM, David Ewers <dsewers at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Maybe 'vis motrix' (Newton's force acting upon a body "proportional to the
> motion which it produces in a given time"; or motivating force), but
> omitting the 'vis' (maybe redundant, not as neat?...)?  I read it as meaning
> something like his eyes weren't participating in his smile.
>
> On Jan 11, 2015, at 12:14 PM, Mark Kohut wrote:
>
>
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=_yPWAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA130&lpg=PA130&dq=vis+motrix+definition&source=bl&ots=mQ4yVNu4Pz&sig=OULbkV51vtYiTNMuqWu8cPSkDWs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kgWzVN6VCo61ogTxgoLwBw&ved=0CDIQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=vis%20motrix%20definition&f=false
>
> p. 15. All:  define and riff on 'the Motrix of Mirth'
>
> -
>
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>
>
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