Gaddis - clocks tangentially - Venus transits (M&D -> p150ish)

[David Doak]

phoax,

	Interesting to see William Gaddis getting a mention on the list,
particularly liked Craig Bleakey's comment about the visual (Pynchon) / oral
(Gaddis) contrast. I find Gaddis' unattributed dialogue as charming a device as
Pynchon's unattributed POVs - especially when you finally work out whassa goin'
on and have to rewind a paragraph or six.

	Given the ongoing clock anthropomorphism discussion I was reminded of
the sequence in _JR_ where a clock is the one constant 'character' in a room
full of junk (and a dripping sink?) in and out of which drift the major players
in the novel. Gaddis marks time in the narrative through descriptions of the
clock hands rising and falling behind some boxes(?) which obscure most of the
face. 'Taint much of a parallel but thereya go.

	A-and on the subject of timing. After reading Sobel's book on Longitude
I splashed out on a bigger glossier (costlier, too) number _The Quest for
Longitude_ (ed. Andrewes - I think) which consists of a number of papers
arising from an International Conference on Longitude a few years back. I've
been dipping into it for M&D reference and was quite amused by a note about
Maskelyne as Astronomer Royal sacking a junior over unreliable transit timings
(unreliable in the sense that they didn't agree with his own) - cf Mason &
Dixon's discrepancies in their Venus transit timings - it seems that in the
heat of a many-years-waited-for moment nerves could get the best of these
otherwise impeccable, dispassionate observers ;)

	Dave.

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