The 5th Novel

[jporter]

>Without my history texts in front of me I tread on thinnish ice, but your
>take on the history of western Mass. and the early 19th Cent. are at some
>variance with my own.
>
>Western Mass. was, indeed, a center of the US textiles industry, but not
>until more than 100 years after Wm. Pynchon founded Springfield.  Too,
>Springfield was not a textile town: nearby Holyoke and So. Hadley were.
>
>Also, as part of the general British colonial pattern, the colonists were
>not permitted to make finished goods:  the colonies produced raw
>materials while the homeland produced (and sold) the finished product.
>Thus, the colonies produced pewter (which was permitted) but not fine
>silver (reserved to the UK manufacturers); iron goods more sophisticated
>than wrought by a blacksmith were equally prohibited.  Only after the War
>of Independence did a US manufacturing base develop.  Protection of those
>industries did, indeed, play some part in the War of 1812.

It's clear that Wm Pynchon became disillusioned with the Puritan leaders of
Massachussetts, but rather than going off and founding Rhode Island, he
returned to Mother England. However, it's a safe bet that much of his issue
remained in the colonies, and after a period, perhaps several generations,
they may, like Slothrop's forebears, have gotten themselves involved in the
textile industry.

To me the exact details of time and place are not critical. I feel a
general sense of the spirit of that time and place, passed along through
the generations of Slothrop/Pynchons...The connection I was trying to
uncover has less to do with precise historical chronology, than with
general patterns of cause and effect brought about by a perseverating
cluster of influences working its way into the fabric of society. Perhaps
"dyed in the wool" is just an old Puritan euphemism for stained.

The transition from wool to cotton is fascinating, as well. Cotton implies
the south (not just in the Americas), the east, flags, empire, domination,
and a whole range sensual delights, unavailable to the culture of woven
hair.

On The Watchtower for #5,
Jody Porter