M&D CH 6 Notes

Sun Jan 28 06:57:22 CST 2018

Yeah, some good stuff JT as I've already said and I want to add two things:

Since the globalization of the 'modern world' in the 20th Century has
become such a thing as to merit tons of books and major revisions of
economics--by the reality-attuned (not just the abstract theory
explains it all economists)--I noticed while recently looking up
articles on Moby Dick that there are some now which deal with it as
'the first novel of globalization or 'first American'). I say TRP made
M & D the second--a joak rank here, of course.

And, barroom talk doesn't matter in M & D? I suggest it and
coffeehouse talk is what TRP thinks most matters. In all the humanly
important and anti-political, anti-State ways that so matters.

I can never see Foucault in TRP but surely my lack, right?

On 1/28/18, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:
> Very nice on ships and alienation and so on.
> Foucault's _Madness & Civilization_ is useful here too.
>
> Also, JT, your use of the word capitalism often confuses me. What kind
> of capitalism are you talking about here?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ish
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 26, 2018 at 5:03 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>> ships as holographs: of state, community,  pursuit of fortune, colonizers
>> and soldiers of empire, piracy, powers structures, fragility of life in
>> the unpredictable universe of physical forces
>>
>> By giving us ships from many angles from Mason’s  toy gifts to nephews, to
>> affairs of the Frigate, shipboard relations, even the narrowing of
>> musicians on the Seahorse to the lone player of a martial-keyed fife which
>> seems to parallel Mason’s reflections on the narrowing of choice, P
>> directs us to think about their central role for empire building,
>> capitalism, technological development social and power structures.
>>
>> He makes the point that ships are artificial and fragile and dangerous and
>> that their role is to carry men and wealth  and power between worlds. The
>> ships themselves are often repaired in ports where crews change in
>> constant search of a better situation.  The insularity of habits of those
>> conveyed seems to be reinforced by the structures of power, and insularity
>> of the world of the ship.  So when the Dutch or English arrive in their
>> new ‘home’ old habits prevail, and their religion always tells them they
>> are going someplace else, so what they build has much in common with a
>> fort, their loyalties are to a system that provides rank and status and
>> the particular balance between security and insecurity favored by the
>> prevailing power. Human solidarity and realistic self knowledge is the
>> positive side of shipboard life.
>>
>> One word for all this is alienation - not being at home in a place and
>> culture, not being home in one’s body( Mason), not even being at home in
>> one’s home . The result is to draw lines ( class, religion, education,
>> state, town)and make claims, but the empire of capital regards all lines
>> as temporary and disposable when profit is at sake.
>>
>> I don’t think P is negating the human expansiveness of trade and travel. I
>> don’t see that, but he seems make a distinction between the non aggressive
>> travel of the personal adventure and colonialism.This difference is
>> explored more thoroughly in ATD  What is funny about the paranoia directed
>> at Jesuits is the colonialist   similarity of the jesuit mission to that
>> of the critics.
>>
>> Another refrain is the vaunting of English freedom contrasted with the
>> constraint that you can’t speak freely in England, shouldn’t do so on a
>> ship, and are under surveillance in the colonies. The only place where
>> there is relative freedom of expression is barrooms where nothing really
>> counts and St. Helena where it seems to drive men bonkers.
>>
>>
>>> On Jan 25, 2018, at 7:31 PM, Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> CHAPTER 6
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> p. 47
>>>
>>> “patently a warning to the Astronomers, from Beyond. Tho’ men of
>>> Science, both now confess’d to older and more Earthly
>>> Certainties[…]the Royal S. wrote back in the most overbearing way, on
>>> about loss of honor.”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The stuff about the warning is interesting enough. But the Royal S.’s
>>> words somewhat echo the narration later in talking about the forces
>>> that send (specifically American) pioneers on their way into the
>>> unknown:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Cf p. 212: “The Pilgrim, however long or crooked his Road, may keep
>>> ever before him the Holy Place he must by his Faith seek, as the
>>> American Ranger, however indeterminate or unposted his Wilderness, may
>>> enjoy, ever at his Back, the Impulse of Duty he must, by his Honor,
>>> attend.”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “’Philadelphia Soap’[…]often leaves things dirtier than they were
>>> before its application.”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Feels somewhat metaphorickal, unless someone knows of a historical
>>> verification? But also funny, and paradoxickal enough that we might
>>> keep it in our heads going forward.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “Loxodrome”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Google’s ngram suggests anachronistic?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> p. 48
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “pretends to weigh his Choice.”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> A really funny and recognizable moment, but also thematickally
>>> relevant, performance of free will when none exists.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “’’Tis the Holy Bible, Sir.’
>>>
>>> “’No matter, ‘tis Print,--Print causes Civil Unrest,--Civil Unrest in
>>> any Ship at Sea is intolerable.’”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> As we think more about what ships represent on these voyages, cf. p.
>>> 220, “[Emerson] has devis’d a sailing-Scheme, whereby Winds are
>>> imagin’d to be forms of Gravity acting not vertically but laterally,
>>> along the Globe’s Surface,--a Ship to him is the Paradigm of the
>>> Universe. ‘All the possible forces in play are represented each by its
>>> representative sheets, stays, braces, and shrouds and such,--a set of
>>> lines in space, each at its particular angle. Easy to see why
>>> sea-captains go crazy,--godlike power over realities so simplified….’”
>>> P thinking both systematickally and symbolickally
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “Coffee [causes Civil Unrest] as well”
>>>
>>> Coffee, I think, comes in for variegated treatment here. Perhaps as a
>>> kind of blanket (but artificial, in its way) accelerant of human
>>> energies, it is a technology that can be put to ends as good or bad as
>>> the humans imbibing
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “How is any of this going to help restore me to the ‘ordinary World’?”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Cherrycoke seeking restoration, a kind of death-wish yearning for
>>> innocence, for an innocent soul and an innocent world==as we all are.
>>> Of course, he wisely instructs us: “these are the very given
>>> Conditions of the ‘ordinary World.’”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “Take me back to the Cross-Roads,/Let me choose, once again”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> THIS part is important, I think, because here we see the emphasis on
>>> alternate paths—alternate future histories, etc—as being related to
>>> the wish for innocence, for return, for death.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> p. 49
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> We see the malevolent aggression of the sea captain, and then Mason’s
>>> objections. Then our astronomer from the north notes: “’A Quaker might
>>> say, ‘tis war that’s insane, and Frigate captains only more open about
>>> it…?’”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> War is a force that moves through people, uses them for
>>> instruments—we’ve seen this time and again in Pynchon
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “’You go about in this,--forgive me,--this Coat, Hat, and Breeches of
>>> unmistakably military color and cut,==’
>>>
>>> “’Upon the theory that a Representation of Authority, whose extent no
>>> one is quite sure of, may act as a deterrent to Personal Assault.’”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I guess this is kind of Hobbesian? State as monopolist of violence,
>>> etc. But also we see that these kinds of authority—“whose extent no
>>> one is quite sure of”—achieve, advertise, and obfuscate the nature of
>>> that extent by preying on/appealing to the self-interest and fears of
>>> those who can align with it.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “’==not to mention this Ocean of Ale flowing thro’ you’”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The big step forward in closeness they took post-near-death is fraying
>>> somewhat—or perhaps allowing for more intimate kinds of disagreement.
>>> But we’re seeing Mason’s temperance (sorta), stuffiness is more like,
>>> judgment, elitism, so forth.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> p. 50
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “Yet a Shark is a Shark, in the day or the dark”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I haven’t even seen West Side Story and I recognize this reference
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “There’s nought an Astronomer won’t do for Work.”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Astronomers seem to be kind of bohemian in terms of their attitudes
>>> toward what apparently meager astronomy work is available, at least if
>>> you ask an astronomer’s father, e.g. Charles Mason, Sr.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “the Immortality of Ships,--new masts stepp’d in and Yards set,
>>> Riggers all over her[…] yet slow as Clock-hands, Wood, Hemp, and
>>> Canvas Resurrection would proceed. Three weeks and she was whole
>>> again.”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> So more on the sea as providing some kind of resurrection, or some
>>> boundary between life and death. Also, this seems to be referencing
>>> the paradox of Theseus’s Ship
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> p. 51
>>>
>>> “Capt. Grant surreptitiously flicked the Quill, trying to spatter
>>> ink-drops[…]”
>>>
>>> Seems to be both extending and parodying the notion from earlier in
>>> the chapter of print being any kind of potent weapon, especially on a
>>> ship.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “Admiralty Fopling”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The name marks him as a comic character, but who is he working for,
>>> exactly?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “’Truth’…?[…]Perhaps I am not your ideal Confidant[…]divided Loyalties
>>> sort of thing….”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Who else is he loyal to that impels a will to disbelief?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “the Rumor that my Predecessor was order’d there in full knowledge
>>> that ‘twas already in the hands of the French”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Fate, fate being known and decided not only for you—but before you
>>> even have your own job. Feels also like it relates to the question of
>>> elect v preterite
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “so much more swiftly than the Trade Winds, these Days, do the Winds
>>> of Diplomacy blow.”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Somewhat mysterious line for me. I can understand the notion that the
>>> ambitions of colonial governments keep extending farther and
>>> farther—but don’t these ambitions also include ambitions for commerce?
>>> One thing happening in the 7 Years War is that mercantilism, through
>>> the filter of war, is translating into capitalism.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “a Source of pre-civiliz’d Sentiment useful to his Praxis of now and
>>> then pretending to be insane, thus deriving an Advantage over any
>>> unsure as to which side of Reason he may actually stand upon.”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Lots of resonance here. One: Cherrycoke’s holy insanity. Two: isn’t
>>> there a big recurring theme of people pretending to be idiots in GR?
>>> Three: this comes shortly after Dixon’s idea about pretending to be
>>> affiliated with an authority in order to derive advantage. Insanity
>>> and obedience to military authority are kind of tied together here?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> p. 52
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “till the final eight Bells, when Mason reaches for a Loaf and a
>>> Bottle and becomes upon the instant convivial as anyone has ever seen
>>> him.”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Mason is compelled to keep not only Rebekah’s memory alive—but also
>>> his own grief? She lives in his pain, at least he might think. Also:
>>> interesting that his grief ritualistically ends with the final bell.
>>> Goes to show how powerful our notions of the day are.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “and what is a Village, without Village Idiots? Ev’ryone on board
>>> knows who the Madmen are, and that they are here as security against
>>> the Forces of Night”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Furthers the notion of the uses of insanity—except it makes the object
>>> of the advantage of insanity not merely the individual but the
>>> ship/village/community
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Other kinds of beings who are thus far described as USEFUL (to adult
>>> humans): children, dogs
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “that Other World of which Wapping is the anteroom”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Anteroom from GR, obviously. The notion of the earthly world around us
>>> conforming to some of these archetypal structures (as defined by our
>>> psychic forces), realms, etc
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “understanding that nothing would go away now, and that Shot was
>>> inevitable, ‘morphosing to extensions of a single Engine homicidal”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Recalls one of the central metaphors of the book, the idea of America
>>> as a kind of engine. I’m not sure what kind of traction the idea of an
>>> engine would have around 1760—but certainly they are in some kind of
>>> collective reservoir of mechanickal ideas-to-be. Also, again, the
>>> emphasis on homicide.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> And the notion of inevitability is not new in the book, but the
>>> inevitability of violence seems so.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> p. 53
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> (cont’d from 52)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “in that general and ungovernable Tip of Soul, what allow’d us to hear
>>> the Musick so keenly?”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Ungovernability at the core (or just the edge?) of the soul is
>>> important to note as we try to build a potential moral/thesis.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> In this rhetorical phraseology I hear echoes of the national anthem,
>>> also.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “the Fife being of standard Military issue, tun’d in that most martial
>>> of Scales[…]the fam’d Hanoverian Fifer Johann Ulrich, whom the Duke of
>>> Bedford had brought in after the previous War to instruct his
>>> Regimental Winds.”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The idea of musical instruments being an instrument of continuity for
>>> the greater winds that move men. Also of music being, like technology,
>>> only as morally good/bad as the ends it is put to.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> p. 54
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “’Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads….’”
>>>
>>> Obvious continuity with the opening to AtD.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> p. 55
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “Mr. Higgs’s Obsessedness as to Loose Ends”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “alternatives to Ennui[the steps from Boredom to Discontent to Unwise
>>> Practices are never shorter than aboard a Sixth-Rate upon a long
>>> Voyage, Sir”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Ennui, according to the ngram viewer, doesn’t start coming into
>>> English usage until…right around this period, actually. Right
>>> around—maybe we ought notice—the industrial revolution. DFW has a
>>> similar riff (delivered via a ghost in The Pale King) on the
>>> increasing usage of the words BORE/BORING as we think of them now,
>>> starting in the industrial revolution as an apparent take-off on BORE
>>> meant in the more mechanickal sense.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The conflation of idleness and sin (and their analogous opposition to
>>> usefulness and…whatever the opposite of sin is, probably understood as
>>> some kind of spiritual currency) a theme in this book (many of P’s
>>> books, really) and to the best of my knowledge seems especially
>>> emergent around this time?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> p. 56
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “’But that for one Instant[…]our Shadows lay perfectly beneath us[…]
>>> Tolls exacted for passage thro’ the Gate of the single shadowless
>>> Moment[…] So must there be a Ritual of Crossing Over, serving to focus
>>> each Pollywog’s Mind upon the Step he was taking.”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Reminds me of the solar sound shadow bit from GR (which will pop up in
>>> other ways later in this book). Also, more on the kinds of realms
>>> humans pass between, and the use of ritual as a means of either
>>> marking, paying toll for (i.e. earning/securing), or perhaps creating…
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> p. 57
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “as if secure forever in a warm’d, melodious Barcarole of indolent days”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Recognizable—when we find ourselves satisfied we often can’t conceive
>>> of the satisfaction ending. In fact, the ego—the instrument that makes
>>> and understands time—often can’t properly conceive of impermanence or
>>> present circumstances/emotions changing.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Also reminds me of the Sirens.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> “in denial of all we thought we knew, to smell the Land we are making
>>> for, the green fecund Continent, upon the Wind that comes from behind
>>> us”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> In one of the books I read in the run-up to M&D, it mentioned that the
>>> first English settlers to America could smell the evergreen trees out
>>> on the ocean for something like fifteen miles before they reached
>>> shore.
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list
>>
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l