mdmd(4) - last call

[Brian D. McCary]

Don't forget, mdmd(5) starts tomorrow, chapters 14-16.  So it's time
now to put finger to keyboard and dash off all those half thoughts you
have been reluctant to share on events in 11-13.

Here's one to start with: chapter 13 is about the first of many
partings between Mason & Dixon.  Outside of some flashbacks, this is
our first veiw of Mason by himself, or at least on in the presence of
Dixon.  Although the attack on the ship permitted them to break through
some barrier, they may not come to appreciate how important they are to
each other until they have to work seperately.  Although Dixon's joking
seems to disturb Mason at times, it seems to be a comfortable
disturbance.  While Mason & Maskelyne (M&M - suppose our boy, with his
bad teeth and love of ampersands, is a plain or peanut man?) are
clearly capable of working together & even recreating together -
witness the trip to the orange grove, and even the communal drinking at
the Moon - it is clear that Mason is far less comfortable with
Maskelyne than with Dixon.  I cannot attribute this fully to
competitive jealosy or surviving shared peril; Maskelyne is no crazier
than Dixon, and has little less in common with Mason than Dixon (in fact,
he seems to share a certain quality of self-torture with Mason) but
Mason just can't form the same bond.  In fact, throughout this whole book,
Mason's clear ease with Dixon is a pleasant contrast to his strained 
relations with everyone else: father, sons, sister, Bradley, Peach, usw.  
The Mason-Maskelyne chapters seem to help define the Mason-Dixon relationship
by showing another possiblility.

Brian McCary