M&D 773 (fwd)

[the Robot Vegetable]

> 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.  

I was thinking about how the Line is very straight, but the book is not.
Pynchon books are never a straight journey from point A to B, and this one
was a perfect opportunity for him to make that clear, by contrasting his
narrative structure with the central plot device.

	What has struck me is that the Line is not straight.  It
consists of a sequence of chords of great arcs that are completely
to the north of the proper latitude, except where the ends are
identified, the lines meeting at an angle stated (arg!) somewhere
in the text, a spot which eludes me.  Thus we have a series of tapered
sections, within which the land is both in Maryland (above 39deg43')
and in Pennsylvania (below the sequence of lines actually determined.
	Two lines, one stubbornly straight ahead, the other flitting
away and back again, which serve to divide and unite, intended to
settle problems but which mostly creates them.  

	veg