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

[Smoke Teff]

Because it's the plist, to give one of JT's refs (GW's "six dicks")
some context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7iVsdRbhnc

On Tue, Apr 3, 2018 at 5:23 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l