MDMD(4): Equation, p. 134

[Doug Millison]

134.13  [...] the Stars, taken together, tho' innumerable, must like any
other set of points, in turn represent some single gigantick Equation, to
the mind of God as straightforward as, say, the Equation of a Sphere,-- to
us unreadable, incalculable. A lonely, uncompensated, perhaps even
impossible Task,-- yet some of us must ever be seeking, I suppose."

Maskelyne apparently had good company in this pursuit, according to John
Maynard Keynes (as quoted in Jane Sellers' book, "The Death of Gods in
Ancient Egypt"), whence I lifted this quote (ellipses and brackets are
Sellers'):

"[Newton] looked on the whole universe and all that is in it...as [having]
certain mystic clues which God had laid about the world to allow a sort of
philosopher's treasure hunt to the esoteric brotherhood... these clues were
to be found partly in the evidence of the heavens, [and] ... partly in
certain papers and traditions handed down ... in an unbroken chain back to
the original cryptic revelation in Babylonia. He regarded the universe as a
cryptogram set by the Almighty.'
--John Maynard Keynes, "Newton the Man,' The Royal Society Newton
Tercentenary Celebrations (1947)

I like Mason's reply to Maskelyne: " 'Those of us with the Time for it,'
suggests Mason."

Of course it seems Mason has as much time as Maskelyne has, all those
Obs-less nights. Mason seems to spend a certain amount of that time
thinking, longing, and  even visiting with his dead wife -- I haven't yet
sorted out the difference between Maskelyn's and Mason's respective
other-worldly pursuits. Maskelyne is called "insane" in Chapter 13, and by
the end of the book, Mason is "insane" too. I suspect there's a lot I'm not
seeing yet in these two characters and what Pynchon is doing with them.



D O U G  M I L L I S O N ||||||||||| millison at online-journalist.com
 Today in history (23 July, according to wire reports): 1940. The "Blitz"
all-night air raid by German bombers on London began.