M&D - Chapter 17 - Mason's fondest wish

[David Ewers]

On Mar 24, 2015, at 9:10 PM Jolly good day we are having, Johnny Marr wrote:

> "His fondest wish? that Rebekah live, and that,- but he will not betray her, not for this. What he whispers, rather, into the pervading scent of Brine and ... something else is, "A speedy and safe passage for Mr. Dixon, back to this place. For his personal sake, of course, but for my Sanity as well."
> 
> It's always vital to consider the labyrinthine world of TRP's narrators and audiences. Who is telling this story, and how can we rely on thei authority? Did Mason really make a wish for Dixon's safe return, or is he simply telling Dixon that to strengthen their friendship?


> When Dixon gets to hear about it, he responds by winding Mason up, claiming that "at exactly the instant you spoke into this Object, I heard, as out of a speaking-trumpet, your message", coming in off The Wind whilst he was sitting in the World's End. Does Dixon think Mason is telling a shaggy dog story, and returning the gesture? Or is Dixon responding to a profession of a deepening friendship by leavening the tone with humour?
> 
	A litte bit of both, I think... because of the platonic male dynamic you describe below (a motrix of plausible deniabilities...)

> Men - certainly British men - use humour in their (platonic) relationships both to come closer to one another and to maintain an emotional distance. This may sound paradoxical, but humour can be used as an affectionate gesture - an indication that you feel comfortable enough in someone's presence to adopt an informal tone - but is also often an excuse to divert the conversation rather than address any openly emotional feelings. Perhaps Dixon doesn't quite know how to respond to Mason's expressed kindness, so uses humour to undercut it (but not to dismiss or belittle the gesture)?
> Ironically, the kindness of Mason's wish in favour of Dixon's health may have stemmed from an repressed emotion of his own. Rebekah should have been the recipient of his fondest wish, but he didn't feel confident or sufficiently self-assured to offer it to her, so he claims to have offered his wish in Dixon's favour rather than potentially cheapen his love for Rebekah by expressing his devotion into a "priapick Ear".
> 
	The Ear's listening to but not granting wishes...  outsourcing God stuff again?

> If we take Mason's wish on face value, Mason's preoccupation with "Metaphysicks of the Moment" might refer not to hte supernatural powers of the Ear, but to the platonic friendship he has with Dixon - the greater altruistic sentiments and values that surpass our pettier instincts and concerns.
> Or maybe it's a reference to another of Mason's gnostic insights - as he views the neglected Garden, and how "In its suggestion of transition between Two Worlds, the space offers an invitation to look into his Soul for a moment", Mason becomes lost in a "State. I must have have found the way out. Unless the real Mason is yet there captive in that exitless Patch, and i but his Representative".
> 
> The ideas of Representatives and true essences  all fit into the metaphysical/Plarnoic framework, but it also fits in with the theme of ghostly presences carried by the wind, lost in a state of exile. And famously St Helena is an island of exile ...
> 
> PS - maybe wishing Dixon a healthy return was less a grand acknowledgement of spiritual brothershood than a practical acknowledgement that Mason's most important adult relationship is with Dixon, and that he's now the person who matters most to Mason, rather than his late wife's irretrievable ghost; therefore Mason needs Dixon in one piece for his own sake as much for Dixon's benefit. After all, Mason did make the wish on behalf of his own sanity ...

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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l