M&D CH 6 Notes

Smoke Teff smoketeff at gmail.com
Sun Jan 28 16:31:47 CST 2018 

M&D p. 68:

"As the Company seeks to confine all the Dutch of the Cape Colony
behind a Boundary it has drawn, and to rule them radially from a
single Point, the least immoderate of Feelings, in such a clos'd
Volume, may prove lethal."

On Sun, Jan 28, 2018 at 2:19 PM, Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:
> I see plenty of thematic/conceptual overlap between F and P, though
> hesitate to claim textual influence. But F's work on the panopticon,
> on the enforcement of discipline through and into the body of the
> human being, fit very nicely with many of P's paranoid conceptions of
> power structures and the way they influence the human.
>
> On Sun, Jan 28, 2018 at 12:28 PM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm simply bouncing off JT's insightful reading of the use of ships.
>> One of Foucault's major concerns is hegemony, so in this,  surely
>> we can easily see Foucault in TRP.
>> Specifically, both are concerned with How hegemony both makes and
>> maintains social order and control
>>
>> how it then excludes vulnerable groups by defining or classifying them
>> as mad, or deviant, or so on,
>>
>> and how it justifies, in the name or social order, the use of its
>> power, again, to exclude, in leper colonies, on prison ships, in
>> houses for the mad.
>>
>> What F calls the great confinement is described in Madness &
>> Civilization. The bureaucratic, and social "scientific" control,
>> aims at knowledge, claims truth, history, and even justice, but is
>> merely power that is made legitimate by power.
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 28, 2018 at 7:57 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 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/?listpynchon-l
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