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

[Mark Kohut]

A--and, obvious follow-on re part of the Why?: MLK and Malcolm X embody
that full resistance, later, to the overwhelming sin of slavery, so they
stand invisibly with those non-satirizing slavery scenes
in M & D. TRP finding NOTHING to joke about there.

We know what happens to Malcolm's vision via P in GR.

And, from anyone who knows more Ishmael Reed than I might (from too long
ago), is Chap 28 as JT lays it out easily seen as indebted to Reed?



On Mon, Apr 2, 2018 at 5:17 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>>
>
>