Was reading some stuff on the Pynchon Wiki, saw a short commentary on the idea of Part 1 being like the widening of a lens, which I think is a pretty great image. At first, we see very narrow, action-oriented depictions of M. & D., presumably because they are still trying to "sort out the power betwixt 'em." The action itself is also difficult to see as more significant than itself, like the attack on the Seahorse, and the relegation to St. Helena, etc., whereas in GR, there was from the first page, the sense of a vast significance beneath (or behind?) the surface. Toward the end of Part 1, when M. & D. reconvene in London, they start making conspiratorial connections, wond'ring if they might just be pawns. Fitting too, that this begins back in London, as Pynchon is always skeptickal of Cities, and their effect on people: "yet are Londoners ever a-scan, ev'ry word tha speak, ev'ry twitch o' thy Phiz, for further meanings, present or not--" (250)
As for big, theme-y things, still feels too early to say for sure. There must be something in M. & D.'s final dialogue, when Mason responds to Dixon's paranoia by asking if they'd be any safer if they had been "dropped blindly, into a Forest on some little-known Continent, perhaps? -- no Perimeters." It's this lack of human-inscribed lines on the Earth that frightens Mason, although I'm anticipating that when it comes down to it, Pynchon will probably be professing the opposite: that it is exactly these unnatural lines that spell a certain death for humanity. It's borderline explicitly stated by George Emerson on pg 219 when he tells of how the Ley-Lines, geometrick "right" lines, that he flies along (by magic) are "a clear sign of Human Presence upon the Planet."
Mason talks of how he'd never do Cape Town again, knowing what he now knows, but Dixon counters with the philsophy that "That's part of the Price -- to drink from Lethe and lose all they Memories," and thus seeing the "next World" (America) as "brand new" when in fact he should be bringing along his memories of Cape Town -- it's various horrors: slavery, savage natives, etc. -- to inform the new experience. The thing Dixon says people don't have, which would allow us to make these analogies, is "a Conscience." (253) A historickal conscience, I suppose would be more specific. In the same discussion, there is even a nod back to Vineland, in that Dixon claims the churchgoers are too afraid of silence, to which Mason responds that "all [their] worries [are] usually kept at bay by that protective Murmur of Sound..." (253) Couldn't help reading that as a "Tube" reference.
"Down below, where no property Lines existed, lay a World as yet untravers'd," for those who had "master'd the Arts of Pluto." (233)
This quote is indicative of where I think things are headed right now, "Tellurick secrets," and all that, the "Hollow Earth" theory becoming a sort of Haven for the pre-US Counterforcers. Adjust my bearings if I'm off?
Matt
Some good stuff here, Matt, & I'm sorry I've been on vacation. Plus now blogger ate my first long-ish comment, alas.
ReplyDeleteA few quick notes -- think about the "Age of Reason" & its attendant madnesses. Also slavery & turning people into things (an old Pynchon theme from *V*). Also perhaps think about this book, like *GR*, as a pre-birth moment, before the US is born & therefore giving a view of the possibilities not taken by the country itself.
Also, there's a noticeable emotional shift here, to a more sympathetic vision of friendship & romantic love, among other things. We see this a bit in *Vineland* too. Is old Tom becoming a sentimentalist?