Mason & Dixon bios

[Matthew P Wiener]

>The dictionary version suggests that M&D did not proceed from the Cape
>to Bencoolen because there was not enough time, while Pynchon's version
>(at least to my eye) suggests that the Bencoolen was off limits because
>it was held by the French ("Bencoolen is in the hands of the French.  I
>see no mention of any plans to re-take the place soon.  I am sorry."
>p. 33 & "strongly threatening legal action if Mason and Dixon were to
>break their contract, .... even when it was pointed out yet again that
>Bencoolen lay in the hands of the French, anyway", p 47)

>Was the real world slightly less sinister than Pynchon's?

Regarding historical matters, Pynchon is mostly accurate.  M&D were in fact
ready to quit their commission after the l'Grand attack, but they received
a rather harsh (and oblivious to reality) reply from the Royal Society,
telling them that a contract is a contract, and that they had better quit
slacking, or else.

Presumably, the RS would have been happy if they sailed on to Bencoolen,
arrived two months late, been shot at again by the French, and then had
returned empty-handed.

Ultimately, it turned out that Bencoolen was not going to be reachable
in time.  But that wasn't clear in January.
--
-Matthew P Wiener (weemba at sagi.wistar.upenn.edu)