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

[Mark Kohut]

My gawd, Chapter 28 is soo rich with ...stuff! JT lands, like a good
critic, on a key chapter in a rich book, imho. I did not even remember that
everything that is in it is in this one chapter; memory said as scattered
around as Slothrop.

Geo Washington, land speculator too. Incipient Pres, embryonic
self-crystalizing leader of the nascent nation, surveyor has 'insider
trading' knowledge of
the rich and beautiful land that Tocqueville goes on at length about to
start Democracy in America. Land developer motif, just like what's his name
in Inherent Vice and land, that always-exploited 'commons' in P's vision,
it might be fair to say. [pushback wanted]. The ownership of which means
the non-propertied
are always starting from behind in this coming country, in the world then
too.(If one had fled England, one could get his own land in the new land,
basically--unless, of course,
you were a woman or a slave).

And that's just the beginning.

More in future days so as not to watch the M & D Read die too soon of empty
days of no postings.

On Mon, Apr 2, 2018 at 6:18 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>>>
>>
>>
>