MDMD - surveying V

[davemarc]

> From: Doug Millison <millison at online-journalist.com>
> 
> Forgive me if this has already been mentioned on the list, but in
> re-reading V, it seems that surveying has been a theme for Pynchon for
some
> time. In chapter 7, "She hangs on the western wall," just after
describing
> his trip to Vheissu, Godolphin tells Victorian Wren, that after
witnessing
> the carnage at Khartoum, "And in two weeks this surveying business came
up,
> and I was in. I was always weasling in, you know, on some show where you
> wouldn't expect to find naval personnel. This time it was escorting a
crew
> of civilian engineers into some of the worst country on earth. Oh, wild,
> romantic. Contour lines and fathom-markings, cross-hatchings and colors
> where before there were only blank spaces on the map. All for the
empire."
> 
Which Pynchon?  The author's Papa was an industrial surveyor.  I also note
that there's another surveyor's son named Tom, in M&D, who happens to be
handy with a pen and on the lookout for good material.

davemarc