M&D - Chapter 16 - A personal tragedy, a divine comedy

[Mark Kohut]

I also thought of the little-remembered (by many) fact that Romeo had
a love before he met Juliet...as did little ole Lolita....

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 2:10 PM, Elisabeth Romberg <eromberg at mac.com> wrote:
> Great post. Lovely quote from Dante. So sad.
>
>> 24. mar. 2015 kl. 03.20 skrev Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com>:
>>
>> "Here is what Mason tells Dixon of how Rebekah and he first met. Not yet understanding the narrative lengths Mason will go to, to avoid betraying her, Dixon believes ev'ry word"
>>
>> We've established that M&D is a novel boasting a Russian Doll structure of unreliable narrators - Mason, Cherrycoke, TRP himself. Is it possible to have a reliable narrator in the first place? Especially when you're telling the story of how your heart broke and you lost the greatest love of your life.
>>
>> I also believe we've previously mentioned a link between Mason and Rebekah and Orpheus and Eurydice. Rereading the start of chapter 16 now brings to mind The Divine Comedy
>>
>> "Amor, ch'al cor gentile ratto s'apprende
>> prese costui de la bella persona
>> che mi fu tolta; e 'l modo ancor m'offende.
>>
>> Amor, che a nullo amato amar perdona,
>> Mi prese del costui piacer sì forte,
>> Che, come vedi, ancor non m'abbandona..."
>>
>> "Love, which quickly arrests the gentle heart,
>> Seized him with my beautiful form
>> That was taken from me, in a manner which still grieves me.
>>
>> Love, which pardons no beloved from loving,
>> took me so strongly with delight in him
>> That, as you see, it still abandons me not..."
>>
>>
>> Mason's suffering from a similar heart shattering personal loss, and is undertaking a deep personal examination of what his lost love meant to him and how he can properly honour her memory.
>>
>> Like Dante, Mason soon realises "My course is set for an uncharted sea."
>
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l