M&D Deep Duck Ch. 3: Innocent merriment

[jochen stremmel]

the (untimely) death of a partner or a friend – I think that's just what
Pynchon means to suggest.

2015-01-24 14:39 GMT+01:00 Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com>:

> Wow. That's pretty dark, Philip.
>
> Nice one!
>
> MT
>
> On Sat, Jan 24, 2015 at 12:13 AM, Philip Smith <e4e689 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> As the text shows we don’t know Mason’s reason for attending the
>> hangings, but that doesn’t stop speculation. One possibility is his
>> inability to accept his wife’s death and the hangings can be viewed as a
>> form of desensitization. But I think Mason is finding out the death of a
>> partner can’t compare to that of a hundred strangers.
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 18, 2015 at 1:22 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> And two ape usages.
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>> On Jan 18, 2015, at 8:45 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> > O yeah...The Tempest has the line about the past being prologue which
>>> seems pretty apt for Pynchon's set up in M & D.
>>> >
>>> > Sent from my iPad
>>> >
>>> >> On Jan 16, 2015, at 7:10 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> We learned earlier of Mason's 'heedlessness' and in Monte's citation
>>> >> we learn of his similar heedlessness toward "Lust's less-frequented
>>> footpaths"..
>>> >>
>>> >> Gripped by grief, he acts the opposite of mindful, that quality we
>>> have examined
>>> >> elsewhere in P's vision.
>>> >>
>>> >> So, is Mason unable to see clearly, objectively, mindfully attentive
>>> >> ...unless he
>>> >> can overcome his Grief? More embedding of unreliable narrator trope?
>>> >>
>>> >>> On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 11:19 AM, Monte Davis <
>>> montedavis49 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >>> Well... death and mourning and suicidal thoughts and metempsychosis
>>> having
>>> >>> had their say, let's add what we'll learn on pp. 109-110, when a
>>> brightly
>>> >>> outfitted Florinda arrives at St. Helena and greets Mason as "Tyburn
>>> >>> Charlie":
>>> >>> "The year after Rebekah's death was treacherous ground for Mason,
>>> who was as
>>> >>> apt to cross impulsively by Ferry into the Bosom of Wapping, and
>>> another
>>> >>> night of joyless low debauchery, as to attend Routs in Chelsea, where
>>> >>> nothing was available betwixt Eye-Flirtation, and the Pox. In
>>> lower-situated
>>> >>> imitations of the Hellfire Club, he hurtl'd
>>> >>> carelessly along some of Lust's less-frequented footpaths... 'Twas
>>> then that
>>> >>> Mason began his Practice, each Friday, of going out to the hangings
>>> at
>>> >>> Tyburn, expressly to chat up women, upon a number of assumptions,
>>> many of
>>> >>> which would not widely be regarded as sane."
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>> On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 6:09 PM, <msacha1121 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> So many suggestions of death in this section, popping up amidst
>>> otherwise
>>> >>>> lighthearted scenes of pre-departure. Tyburn can probably be
>>> attributed to
>>> >>>> mood, but there's a lot to do with the sense of passage and the
>>> significance
>>> >>>> of getting back from the traverse - Mason, in the company of
>>> Hepsie, is
>>> >>>> eager to reach his late wife but not to stay there. Pirate ships are
>>> >>>> "Bullies (that) shift about in the dark", but it isn't the French
>>> at the
>>> >>>> helm of boats that "wait with muffl'd Oars to ferry them against
>>> their will
>>> >>>> over to a Life they may not return from." The principle word here,
>>> I think,
>>> >>>> being "may".
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>> On Jan 12, 2015, at 3:14 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> Life Against Death....and Dixon fearing he is unfit for being with
>>> >>>>> others in public.
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> Then, related, Mason's Puritanism sees joke-telling Dixon as
>>> perhaps
>>> >>>>> dicey to be in public with.
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> a lot in its way....major contrasting temperaments and each seeing
>>> a
>>> >>>>> different public self.
>>> >>>>> has to lead someplace in the book.........
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>>> On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 3:05 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com
>>> >
>>> >>>>>> wrote:
>>> >>>>>> I think the implication is that Mason's grieving has brought on a
>>> >>>>>> depression, generating a morbid fascination with death. I don't
>>> know
>>> >>>>>> how
>>> >>>>>> much deeper one could examine this.
>>> >>>>>>
>>> >>>>>> David Morris
>>> >>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 1:39 PM, Monte Davis <
>>> montedavis49 at gmail.com>
>>> >>>>>>> wrote:
>>> >>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> 15.10: "Mason explains, though without his precise reason for it,
>>> >>>>>>> that,
>>> >>>>>>> for the past Year or more, it has been his practice to attend the
>>> >>>>>>> Friday
>>> >>>>>>> Hangings at that melancholy place ..." (Tyburn)
>>> >>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> Anybody care to venture a "precise reason"? This first meeting
>>> is in
>>> >>>>>>> 1760
>>> >>>>>>> or 1761, so his habit might date to his wife Rebekah's death in
>>> 1759
>>> >>>>>>> (although later we'll get reasons to think he had tended to the
>>> >>>>>>> Melancholick well before that). And yes, the Tyburn hangings
>>> were an
>>> >>>>>>> acknowledged Sight of London.
>>> >>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> Is that enough to explain it? Mason is rather gentle, neither
>>> sadistic
>>> >>>>>>> nor
>>> >>>>>>> vindictive; I for one don't see an obvious or direct connection
>>> >>>>>>> between
>>> >>>>>>> mouning and a desire to watch excutions.
>>> >>>>> -
>>> >>>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>>>
>>
>>
>
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