M&D 317

[David Casseres]

Brian D. McCary sez
>This will be about anachronisms:
>	When presented with the Watch by emerson, Dixon asks "And upon the hour
>it sings 'Yankee Doodle'?"  My recollection is that Yankee Doodle was a
>parody song made up by the British during the Rebellion, to make fun of
>the revolutionaries.  That being so, it shouldn't have been around in
>1763 (no revolutionaries to make fun of) so how would Dixon have heard
>about it?

I believe the song is older than that, and was taken up by the Redcoats 
rather than made by them.

>	Thinking about this, I break the anachronisms into three classes:
>1)  Modern allusions...
>2)  Frame tale artifacts, ie mistakes or changes the Rev. makes...
>3)  Just plain goofs...

Now I know that even Homer nodded and all that, but I'm mighty careful 
about imputing geef to Our Encyclopedist.  When something appears to be a 
goof, always look hard for the Hidden Significkance, sez I.

I find a fourth, particularly enjoyable class of anachronism: the way 
Pynchon slips in and out of his familiar, slang-sprinkled 20th-century 
American idiom.  He does it so slick!  I can damn near believe he chose 
to invent his very own 18th-century style just to set off his 
20th-century style and have the sport of dancing back and forth between 
them.



Cheers,
David