M&D CH 31

[Mark Kohut]

Whne Night was Day
And Day was Night
Who, then, was the Jacobite?
                 p. 311

Yeah, this chapter, these couple chapters are heavily marked up in my copy.
"Touching bottom" chapters in
my reading, too. The bottom of patterns in US rationalization of its evils.
This last reading, but also from my own
previous notes, from my first, I guess, I zeroed in on P zeroing in on
FREEDOM, Liberty, America's triumphant
proclamation of that Right which, hypocritically (to speak lamely) destroys
so many, so much. In the DNA of
supposed 'political ideologies'; in the self-justification of trampling the
basic human rights of others.

A recent overtly alluded to concept in recent novels about America.
Franzen's FREEDOM, the first-rate FOURTH OF JULY
and others. Always writers' attempts to show what TRP lays down here--who
gets their freedom to BE human trampled by
the powerfuls'  freedom to destroy the rights of real freedom to just live.

This and the slavery scenes, the moral touchstones of Mason & Dixon, right?

On Sun, Apr 29, 2018 at 1:43 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> Ch 31
>
>   General interpretation: A kind of review of theological/political
> arguments at play : casuistry, strict morality, pelagianism,
> predetermination, means and ends, fashion messages, conscience vs doctrine,
> who will stop Paxton types.    M&D , observing and dubiuos about American
> infighting, are themselves infected with disagreement and mild aggression.
>
> Summary
> M&D awake to a day so quiet birds are heard. Curious, after a brief talk
> about hats and wigs( Dixon wearing quaker hat to blend in),  they go to  a
> local coffeehouse to see what is up.  At Restless Bee a quaker is fighting
> a presbyterian. Turns out Paxton boys have murdered another group of
> peaceful indians with no restraint from army and are reputed to be headed
> toward Philadelphia to kill Indians converted by Moravians. The city is
> rife with arguments over situation.
>  Rev Cherrycoke blames a doctrine of liberty which allows violence, but
> then shows indifference to violence against native people.
>
> M&D  in a long discussion recall Jacobite uprising, each claiming a
> dubious participation or sympathy, showing desire to connect to the by then
> mythic rebellion.  ???
>
> Mason says Dixon from part of England where magic is still possible, but
> he from a part of England where mechanized looms have banished such so that
> there is no home to return to for him.
> Dixon asks if he is in exile but Mason says not exile from but progress
> toward, accusing Dixon of boobyish casuistry and pessimism.  Dixon is
> confused by Mason’s intensity.
>
> Thoughts
> As I think over this chapter I find a profound correspondence to how
> morally troubling actions are processed in american culture, and may
> indicate a flaw in majoritarian populism. The massacre of native people who
> had peacefully assimilated reminds me of Old Testament stories of ethnic
> cleansing or the triumph of Anglo Saxon culture over Celtic culture,
> protestantism over catholicism . Once a group is deemed to be  “savages”
> which is usually a cover story for the sense that the targeted savages are
> standing  in the way of the opportunistic expansion of wealth and power,
> even the most obvious and horrible aggression is seen as a necessary
> defense of sacred rights and obligations.
>
> The chapter is  keenly relevant. Every violent action from  the Trail of
> tears to the Vietnam war to contemporary school shootings is interpreted
> through the endless culture wars, unity rarely achieved, and worse possible
> outcome common. Is this what we mean by freedom?
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>