Ch 28 In which George Washington and his happy negro smoke dope with Mason and Dixon

[Mark Kohut]

I have been away from any copy of M & D and am now rereading this section.

Reflection on this interesting post, however, leads me to one short answer
to one question in it: P does this
because, as pointed out, America, the US, in the social aggregate, did this
re black stereotypes. (Still thinking re Gershom,
but, as with every read, I am reminded that I wish I had read Melville's*
Israel Potter* to see what I can see, if anything, and maybe I will)

Yes, with slavery as the horror of M & D, the inherent vice, loosely used
here, of one "owning' another, I would think P's intention is to show
some ways America accommodated itself to its 'original sin'--as some
historians even call it. The reality can't be borne, as T.S.. Eliot is
always saying.



On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 9:25 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> M&D chapter 28  first installment
> In which George Washington and his happy negro smoke dope with Mason and
> Dixon . As told by Dick Gregory playing Sammy Davis Jr. playing George W’s
> man Gershom.
>
> Well something like that. Hard to peel away the layers of absurdity and
> historic make believe when it comes to George Washington ala Pynchon. P  is
> playing as  satirically fast and loose as he can get away with portraying
> the Father of our country, a man well known to have six dicks. I know from
> listening to Jerusalem( Alan Moore) that Washington’s family came from
> Northamptonshire. So between the 4 smokers we have north, south and middle
> England,  along with the unknown African homeland of Gershom. An Israelite
> in whom is no guile? Interesting choice of stereotype, direct from the holy
> scriptures.
>
> During the course of the day Pynchon’s George Washington goes from a harsh
> tactician analyzing the wars with Indians,  along with the politics of
> Ulster Scots and William Penn to spaced out  happy stoner enjoying the
> munchies with M&D and his all-purpose slave/historian/comedian/cook/butler/
> convert to judaism, Gershom,  and at the close of their time together  ends
> up  indulging paranoid (apparently this is one of those kind of Sativas)
> speculations on the dangers of the insidious Jesuits, chiefest of threats
> to human freedom.
>
> The conversation is not reassuring to M&D due to the heavy emphasis on the
> many sources of mortal danger in the western hills where they are
> ultimately headed.
>
> As a satirist and bent historian, what are Pynchon’s targets and goals
> here? And what particularly is he doing with Gershom? I would love to hear
> others thoughts.
>
> Historically several of Washington’s many slaves escaped when they had a
> chance, including the famous Hercules, his talented cook.  Apparently they
> were not so happy after all. Hercules would have been between 10 and 15
> years old when this chapter takes place  so not  historically realistic as
> model for Gershom. My wife is reading a book about Ona Judge’s escape from
> George Washington and her lifelong pursuit by the Washingtons. At the time
> M&D was published there were still chidren’s books on Washington showing
> happy slaves. I think P is mocking this whole portrayal of slavery which
> was still quite alive when he was writing M&D. Gershom strikes me as a an
> unlikely meld of Dick Gregory satirism with the eager to please Sammy Davis
> Jr.  the last of the rather sad minstrel show uncle Tom style black
> entertainers and a famous black convert to Judaism.  Thus P is marking out
> the most comfortable and accepted  then contemporary role of black people,
> though clearly not that of MLK or Malcolm X.  Why?
>   In some ways this is a  George Washington for a generation that inhaled.
> Who laughed at the sanctimonious shit dispensed by history teachers and
> knew that there is something majorly fucked up about freedom fighters with
> slaves. It is hard to take seriously and Pynchon doesn’t.
>
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>