The Subjunctive in M&D (a spoiler, perhaps?)

[Ted Samsel]

A neighbor, who could have well been in the whole sick drew is
also reading M&D and over some porter he told me this...

Forwarded message:
> 
> At 08:33 AM 6/5/97 -0400, you wrote:
> >N,
> >  Want to re-relate the Thucydical ref to me and I'll throw it
> >into the maw of pynchon-l and see what snaps at it???
> >
> 	"The ancient historians certainly believed that they should tell the
> truth, but they never had any qualms about inventing a speech" (according
> to historian Richard Vann of Wesleyan University). He goes on to quote
> Thucydides, who, referring to his work on the Peloponnesian War, wrote: 
> 	"With regard to the speeches in this history . . . it was in all cases
> difficult to carry them word for word in one's memory, so my habit has been
> to make the speakers say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the
> various occasions, of course adhering as closely as possible to the general
> sense of what they really said."
> 
> 	This would today seem an appropriate rule for historical novelists to
> follow, but modern historians have generally adopted a more "scientific"
> approach to past events. 
> 	Pynchon has stretched the rule quite a bit, as can be seen on page 208 of
> Mason&Dixon. After a passage describing the relationship between Mason and
> his Father, he writes:
> 	"All subjunctive, of course, --- +had+ [itals] young Mason gone to his
> father, this  +might have been+ [itals] the conversation likely to result." 
> He has, however, copied Thucydides' honesty in alerting his reader to the
> limits of reportorial accuracy!
> 		*************************************************
> 	`o^o'	*	Neil W. Henry (nhenry at vcu.edu)	*
> 	-<:>-	*	Virginia Commonwealth University	*
> 	_/ \_	*	Richmond VA 23284-2014		*
> 		*(804)828-1301 x124  (math sciences, 2037 Oliver)*
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> 

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tejas at infi.net
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