M&D Deep Duck: Section 4 summary

[alice malice]

I seem to recall reading the acrimonious letter exchange and the legal
threats that our boys were subjected to. I can dig.

Surely nothing makes strangers, even odd couples, fast friends as fast
as fastening them to  moral and mortal lines, tort, taut, they are
taught and brought into brotherhood by the WORK: indentured, enslaved,
or, for those who read and write contract, contract labor, lines, all
lines.

Hello? This is the Knife. Calling Eden. Eve? Back to Her. All of us
make our call Home. Hello? Oh, She's not connected? Can't be? No
plughole in her belly for the switch operator to...stick the line. Oh,
you son of the Engineer of Melting Wings, will you as Monks, into the
bellybutton and there fish a Pike, Madam? Or the transmigration of
souls?

May you marry a savage and give birth to seahorses.




It was a humorously perilous business for both of us. For, before we
proceed further, it must be said that the monkey-rope was fast at both
ends; fast to Queequeg's broad canvas belt, and fast to my narrow
leather one. So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time,
were wedded; and should poor Queequeg sink to rise no more, then both
usage and honor demanded, that instead of cutting the cord, it should
drag me down to his wake. So, then, an elongated Siamese ligature
united us. Queequeg was my own inseparable twin brother; nor could I
any way get rid of the dangerous liabilities which the hempen bond
entailed.

So strongly and metaphysically did I conceive of my situation then,
that while earnestly watching his motions, I seemed distinctly to
perceive that my own individuality was now merged in a joint stock
company of two; that my free will had received a mortal wound; and
that another's mistake or misfortune might plunge innocent me into
unmerited disaster and death. Therefore, I saw that here wa a sort of
interregnum in Providence; for its even- handed equity never could
have sanctioned so gross an injustice. and yet still further pondering
- while I jerked him now and then from between the whale and the ship,
which would threaten to jam him - still further pondering, I say, I
saw that this situation of mine was the precise situation of every
mortal that breathes; only, in most cases he, one way or other, has
this Siamese connexion with a plurality of other mortals. If your
banker breaks, you nap; if your apothecary by mistake sends you poison
in your pills, you die. True, you may say that, by exceeding caution,
you may possibly escape these and the multitudinous other evil chances
of life. But handle Queequeg's monkey-rope heedfully as I would,
sometimes he jerked it so, that I came very near sliding overboard.
Nor could I possibly forget that, do what I would I only had the
management of it.

On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 7:55 PM, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com> wrote:
> Cope provides a brief description, adequate to Pynchon's narrative.
> The departure day is not provided, only December 1760, the Arrival
> day, 27th April. Cope says it took the whole month of January to
> repair the damage, and that during this time, a number of spirited
> letters were exchanged between Mason and Dixon and the Officers of the
> RS, and that M&D had proposed a Near East station, but that such
> proposal was rejected by the RS.
>
> On Sun, Jan 18, 2015 at 8:09 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Dear historians: did M & D do this in real life? And same time?
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Jan 18, 2015, at 4:42 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>
>>> My summary. Please, everyone, point out and attack my misreads.
>>>
>>> Part 4:
>>>
>>> Cherrycoke reminisces to his assembled audience -- which includes his niece Tenebrae, her brothers Pitt and Pliny, their father LeSpark, who we now learn made his fortune in weapon sales, and LeSpark's nephew Ethelmer -- on break from Princeton. Cherrycoke is reminiscing about traveling with Mason and Dixon on the frigate Seahorse, en route to Sumatra, to observe the Transit of Venus. But an event occurs -- well-known already to Cherrycoke's assembled audience -- which he now relates to us.
>>>
>>> Mason and Dixon are annoyed to discover that they're apparently being charged for their passage by Captain Smith. It turns out to be a misunderstanding, and Dixon warms up to the Captain when he discovers he enjoys a drink. But there's impending doom on the horizon -- we and Cherrycoke's immediate audience know that the French warship l'Grand is lurking in the Channel. Mason, in particular, seems to sense it. It turns out Ben Coolen (their destination on Sumatra) has fallen to the French, and the Captain's been warned by the Admiralty not to sail for it. So they’re going to head for the Cape of Good Hope instead.
>>>
>>> As the ship sails through the Channel -- considered the most dangerous body of water in the world by some of its sailors -- we learn something of both the captain and his ship. Smith, captain of a near-warship (it lacks the full complement of guns) is, himself, no man of war. He'd prefer to be sharing a drink and having a philosophical chat with the two Men of Science on board. The ship, though, has a proud military record, having served with distinction in Quebec. While the sailors sing a chanty wherein they rhyme Sumatra with Cleopatra, Cherrycoke discourses on the meaning of the ship's motto, Eques Sit AEques, which he translates as "Let the Sea-Knight who would command this Sea-Horse be ever fair-minded." At which point the l'Grand appears on the horizon, and, being a French ship, its intentions are clearly hostile.
>>>
>>> The l'Grand proceeds to kick the shit out of the Seahorse. Cherrycoke, Mason and Dixon, terrified, are dispatched below to serve as makeshift medical aides as the casualties pile up. Finally, the l'Grand stops the mayhem and moves on. Cherrycoke's never been sure what transpired, and he speculates that either the French captain realized there were men of science aboard, signaling: France is not at war with the sciences. Or maybe he just realized that the Seahorse was not a worthy foe: You are leetluh meennow -- I throw you back. Captain Smith, distraught over the dead and wounded lashes out at M and D: Are you two really that important? On deck, Mason and Dixon commune over a couple of bottles of grog. Dixon: More like a Transit of Mars ...? And the Seahorse limps back to the dockyard.
>>>
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l