Mason-Dixon Line in US History
Brian D. McCary
bdm at storz.com
Sun Jul 20 14:08:19 CDT 1997
Douglas Kellner writes:
"(... general prais for M&D...) But I didn't find any particularly
illuminating depictions, or can't recall any right now, of the US North
and South divide."
I largely agree with this statement, but this seems (to me) to be characteristic
of TRP's approach: GR touches on, but does not focus on, Nazies, the Holocaust,
or the atomic bomb, which is unusual in a novel planted in WWII. Yet what he
argues, IMO, is that WWII and this particular triumvirate came about as a consequence
of the machinations of the technologies, companies, and economies which existed
before the war, and which continue to exist in modified form today, even as the
Nazies, the Holocaust, and Hiroshima fade from memory to icons. His position
being that as long as you think of WWII in terms of the specific contemporary
events, you will fail to see the similar symptoms today (Tibet, Yogoslavia,
Rawanda/Burundi, usw).
I think he sees the M&D line the same way: If you think of it as a symbol of
US Slavery and the US Civil War (or, for all you poor losers, the war between
the states) then you may well miss its significance as an arbitrary line drawn
by jousting elite powers through the back yards of the poeple who actually
lived there. The idea that the Penns and the Baltimores (or the Calverts?
short term memory...) felt it reasonable to draw the line through this land
they barely even saw in the first place is the most telling part of it. The
Cape section underscores that Slavery was, in fact, not just a US problem,
but the line itself was particular to the US. If he fails, at that point,
to engage the great North/South divide in US history, it is because (I believe)
he does not see the North/South divide in US history as more compellingly interesting
than the process of division and differentiation in general. In other words,
I think he is really trying to draw us away from thinking of US history re slavery
as unique, and toward the idea of US slavery as ongoing....
In any case, interesting comment, Douglas
Brian McCary
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