M&D 773

[Kyle Grieser]

> > Was Re: Transit of Venus (spoiler I guess)
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> [.... many ways that the TV lends to the tale deleted...]
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> > davemarc

I've thought of another way the the Transit of Venus parallels the book.
Mason & Dixon's journey (in a straight line, mind you) across America
is a direct parallel of the Transit of Venus.  Also, the book is structured
identically to the event.  

Page 97:
	"Astronomers will seek to record four Instants of perfect Tangency
	between Venus's Disk, and the Sun's.  Two are at Ingress,-- External
	Contact, at the first touch from outside the Sun's Limb, and then
	Internal Contact, at the instant the small black Disk finally
	detaches from the inner Circumference of the great yellow one,
	Venus now standing alone against the Face of the Sun.  The other
	two come at Egress,-- this time, first Internal, then External
	Contact."

The book itself has both an Ingress in "Lattitudes and Departures" and
an Egress in "Last Transit".  I suppose you could extend this parallel
to a greater degree.  The External Contact is when you start the book,
and when you finish.  The Internal Contact is the breaks between the three
separate sections.

Think of Venus as Mason & Dixon, standing alone against the Face of
America, our molten, melting pot.

-yuf