MDMD(1)--a few comments

[Gary L. Thompson]

Thorough and good reading so far. I have a couple of further 
reflections/questions:

8.16, _parsonical Disguise_--excuse the repetition if this has 
come up already, but it makes me think of Stencil's impersonations. So 
the Rev(d) picks up where Stencil has left off at the end of _V._?

15.10, "The Bridport Dagger"--in context, this appears to be a pub name, 
right?

19.22, "mopishly"--does anyone have a reason for Pynchon's fondness for 
"mopery" and such terms?

32.18, members of "The Council"--apparently the RS has sent a "committee 
of Two" to see Lord Anson about the captain's appropriation request.

38.36, "Fox's Advice"--my association here is with the old canard (not a 
mechanickal one) about "no atheists in foxholes."

The mode here seems to be narrative digressions and long delays 
juxtaposed against the (conceptually) straight Mason-Dixon line. 
Something about this seems very Pynchonian, as (famously) _V._ and _GR_ 
both set a geometric figure before readers, for contemplation perhaps, 
but introduce complicating narrative strategies at what might be 
considered a surface level--the famous and rather obvious V shape 
introduced in Stencil's first chapter, and the rocket's parabola as 
described for Slothrop by Katje. Our lads have to go to South Africa in 
pursuit of the transit of Venus, to St. Helena, and to other points I'm 
not very well aware of yet in pursuit of their line across the "settled" 
wilderness. Then there's the narrative skips of the Rev. WC (?!) as 
previously described.

Another antecedent--another _MD_, _Moby-Dick_, which juxtaposes a linear 
chase of the White Whale against Ishmael's refusal to tell a straight 
tale. (One of the cetological chapters begins with the assertion that "In 
some enterprises, a careful disorderliness is the true method," or words 
to that effect--I think Ishmael may be one of the Rev's ancestors, or 
descendants.)



Gary Thompson