Fwd: M & D deep duck: section 4 -- orders not to sail. Puzzled.

[Mark Kohut]

I've known a few who were hooked on the series; book after book, day after day .

And if you want a powerful psychological novel of what it is like to be hopelessly in love with someone happily married to another, in a small pre-McLuhan village where you virtually worked together, virtually LIVED together, so the mental torture, the utterly different being you become cannot go away from itself, I recommend TESTIMONIES. 



Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

> From: jochen stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com>
> Date: January 24, 2015 at 7:27:44 PM CST
> To: Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: M & D deep duck: section 4 -- orders not to sail. Puzzled.
> 
> Yes, of course, thank you, Mark.
> 
> But if you are interested – the books I mentioned are great fun to read! He really is the best Yarn-Spinner in all the Fleets!
> 
> 2015-01-25 2:20 GMT+01:00 Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>:
>> We know O' Brian is alluded to in M & D. 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
>>> On Jan 24, 2015, at 7:17 PM, jochen stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> A-and let's not forget that the author of the best historical novels in your language before Hilary Mantel's, Patrick O'Brian, wrote two novels about George Anson's mission – The Golden Ocean and The Unknown Shore – before he, well, embarked on the finest series of seafarer novels that I know (not saying much, sure), with two heroes, a British captain and an Irish-Catalan physician and natural scientist who can communicate quite freely with French colleagues despite the war, and I have the impression that it is all very well researched. The author wrote a biography about Sir Joseph Banks as well. 
>>> 
>>> A-and any boy who read the Hornblower novels of C.S. Forester knows that captains in the Royal navy had to pay for their own victuals.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 2015-01-24 20:01 GMT+01:00 <kelber at mindspring.com>:
>>>> This whole sub-section, from p. 31 ["He wants whah'?"] to p. 34 ["Perhaps there is?" he suggests, as gently as possible.] is rife with conjecture and unreliable narration. Cherrycoke recounts or conjectures about Mason's conjectures about what went on at a meeting at which he was not present. Various names are referenced: Mead, White, Stephens, Lord Anson [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Anson,_1st_Baron_Anson], adding up to a "Them," maybe? The sequence sets up a backdrop for the paranoia that consumes M and D after the attack. Meetings are being held, letters sent, by persons they have no contact with. What other decisions are being made by unseen parties?
>>>> 
>>>> Laura
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> >From: Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>>>> >Sent: Jan 24, 2015 9:48 AM
>>>> >To: James Robertson <james at themutedposthorn.com>
>>>> >Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>>> >Subject: Re: M & D deep duck: section 4 -- orders not to sail. Puzzled.
>>>> >
>>>> >Before this analysis, I simply assumed the orders had come somewhere
>>>> >in the spaces of the text.
>>>> >Now, I am inevitably reminded of the Orders to the Chums, of They, etc.
>>>> >
>>>> >The happy Captain is in the pocket of the Royal Society.
>>>> >
>>>> >p.41 "They knew the French had Bencoolen,---what else did they know?
>>>> >Thah's what I'd like to know"---[Dixon]
>>>> >
>>>> >On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 7:49 PM, James Robertson
>>>> ><james at themutedposthorn.com> wrote:
>>>> >> I am a little puzzled by this passage:
>>>> >>
>>>> >> On the eighth of December the Captain has an Express from the Admiralty,
>>>> >> ordering him not to sail. "Furthermore," he informs Mason & Dixon,
>>>> >> "Bencoolen is in the hands of the French. I see no mention of any plans to
>>>> >> re-take the place soon. I am sorry."
>>>> >>
>>>> >> "I knew it...?" Dixon walking away shaking his head.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> "We may still make the Cape of Good Hope in time," says Capt. Smith "That'll
>>>> >> likely be our destination, if and when they cut the orders."
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Without any further explanation the Seahorse proceeds down the Channel
>>>> >> towards its bloody encounter with the l'Grand. But why? Captain Smith has
>>>> >> orders from the Admiralty, which is responsible for command of the Navy, not
>>>> >> to set sail. And as we have seen in the proceeding matter of the hundred
>>>> >> pounds for expenses the Captain has "no wish to offend" "the Great
>>>> >> Circumnavigator" George Anson, the then First Lord of the Admiralty.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Does this mean the orders not to sail should be read as "do not sail to
>>>> >> Bencoolen"? This makes sense as it has been taken by the French, but
>>>> >> "furthermore" suggests Bencoolen is an additional reason not to sail not the
>>>> >> primary one. Is the Admiralty aware of the danger posed by the L'Grand?
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Who is the "they" Captain Smith is referring to when he talks about cutting
>>>> >> orders? If it's the Admiralty, then why would they order the captain not to
>>>> >> sail and then not cut orders. Surely the two are one and the same. If it is
>>>> >> the Royal Society then this raises other questions.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Judging by the threatning letter the Royal Society send Mason and Dixon in
>>>> >> reply to their letter from Plymouth, it is they whom the captain is
>>>> >> referring to. So why then would he follow their orders over those of the
>>>> >> Admiralty not to sail?
>>>> >>
>>>> >> "Happen," Dixon contributes in turn, "we were never meant at all to go to
>>>> >> Bencoolen,-- someone needed a couple of Martyrs, and we inconviently
>>>> >> surviv'd?"
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Dixon's suspicions about the motives of the Society (on page 44) offer
>>>> >> another glimpse of an explanation hinted at by captain Smith earlier. That
>>>> >> Mason & Dixon are not the only ones sent out to observe the Transit of
>>>> >> Venus.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> "No one else is going there to observe," Mason "Odd, isn't it? You think
>>>> >> there'd be a Team from somewhere."
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Capt. Smith look away, as if embarrass'd. "Perhaps there is?" he suggests,
>>>> >> as gently as possible.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Of course this suggestion is absolutely correct, Maskelyne has also been
>>>> >> sent out by the Society to observe the Transit from St. Helena. But it is
>>>> >> his mission that fails not theirs. Why the captain should know about this,
>>>> >> almost to the point of embarrsement, is unclear. But certainly Mason & Dixon
>>>> >> are being kept in the dark.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> --
>>>> >> James J. Robertson
>>>> >> @jamesjrobertson
>>>> >> james at themutedposthorn.com
>>>> >> themutedposthorn.com
>>>> >>
>>>> >-
>>>> >Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>>> -
>>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>> 
> 
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