M & D Group Read (cont.)

[Jochen Stremmel]

Hey, you made me look up Chinaman in my OED – that is only available for
subscribers online – and I had to use a reading glass, a loupe, plus my
reading glasses that I need anyway TO DISCOVER:

that the term Chinaman is in itself an anachronism for the time of Mason
and Dixon!

The first (of 4, if I remember correctly) references is from 1772 and means
a dealer of porcelain. But as term for a man of a specific nationality it
was used not earlier than the beginning of the 19th century. There's a very
good article in you wikipedia about Chinaman as term, and I think most of
you wouldn't believe the strange blossoms that PC produced on that field.

For example:

On July 7, 1998, Canada <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada>'s province
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_and_territories_of_Canada> of
Alberta <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta> renamed a peak in the Rocky
Mountains <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountains> from "Chinaman's
Peak" to "Ha Ling Peak <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha_Ling_Peak>" due to
pressure from the province's large Chinese community. The new name was
chosen in honour of the railroad labourer who scaled the peak's 2,408-metre
(7,900 ft)-high summit in 1896 to win a $50 bet to commemorate all his
fellow Chinese railway labourers. Ha Ling himself had named it "Chinaman's
Peak" on behalf of all his fellow Chinese railway workers.[6]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinaman_(term)#cite_note-HaLingPeak-6>[28]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinaman_(term)#cite_note-28>
But on the other hand, in 1922:

The term has also been used to refer to Japanese
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_people> men, despite the fact that
they are not Chinese. The Japanese
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Japan> admiral Tōgō Heihachirō
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dg%C5%8D_Heihachir%C5%8D>, during his
training in England <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England> in the 1870s,
was called "Johnny Chinaman" by his British comrades.[15]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinaman_(term)#cite_note-15> Civil rights
pioneer Takuji Yamashita <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takuji_Yamashita>
took a case to the United States Supreme Court
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Supreme_Court> in 1922 on the
issue of the possibility of allowing Japanese immigrants
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_diaspora> to own land in the state
of Washington <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_(U.S._state)>.
Washington's attorney general, in his argument, stated that Japanese people
could not fit into American society because assimilation was not possible
for "the Negro <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro>, the Indian
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Americans_in_the_United_States> and
the Chinaman".[16]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinaman_(term)#cite_note-Gordon-Reed2002-16>
You see what a sneaky Menippean satirist our author can be?

2018-01-22 13:26 GMT+01:00 Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>:

> "One can question the propriety of publishing these immoral
> disclosures to the world"--from the author's intro, paraphrased.
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=1_lZAAAAMAAJ&
> printsec=frontcover&dq=Awful+Disclosures&hl=en&sa=X&ved=
> 0ahUKEwjiif6KyOvYAhXkc98KHRhOC0AQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=Awful%
> 20Disclosures&f=false
>
> On 1/22/18, Thomas Eckhardt <thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de> wrote:
> > Speaking of checking off the obvious: The bar joke is echoed later on in
> > the Captive's Tale (p. 511 ff.), that is it points forward to Zarpazo,
> > the Wolf of Jesus, and Captain Zhang, the Chinaman (although, as Zhang
> > emphasises, not necessarily a Lascivious Chinaman).
> >
> > China and Chinamen come in through the Jesuits exploits in China and
> > via, very broadly speaking, Feng Shui vs. Jesuit rationality and
> > scientific prowess. But keep in mind that Captain Zhang and Zarpazo may
> > actually be one and the same person.
> >
> > Behind this I see, as I said, Hofstadter's essay with its take on
> > Masonic and Jesuit conspiracy theories. The Captive's Tale appears to be
> > inspired by the novel "Awful Disclosures", mentioned by Hofstadter.
> >
> > As for the balloons, see Francesco Lana de Terzi and Bartolomeu de
> Gusmão.
> >
> > I have no idea, however, who the Corsican might be...
> >
> >> On Sun, Jan 21, 2018 at 4:50 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com
> >> <mailto:mark.kohut at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >>
> >>     A Chinaman, a Jesuit and a Corsican....etc.
> >
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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