MDMD(8) Plot Summary

[Christine Karatnytsky]

     Openers further delayed, as real life intrudes, but you can expect
it           tomorrow or Sunday.  Many apologies.

     Chris
     

     MDMD(8) Plot Summary
     
     Chapter 23
     
     This chapter picks up from the previous, with Fr. Maire, Emerson,
and 
     Dixon entering the Cudgel and Throck.  They are greeted with
friendly 
     derision by the proprietor Mr. Brain, who is instigated into playing
a 
     cacophonous tune on his conveniently-located Hurdy Gurdy,
accompanied 
     by his howling dog, Goblin.  Maire and Emerson, to Dixon's dismay, 
     continue their sparring regarding the latter's recruitment by the 
     Jesuits.  While they are in the midst of this conversation, Lud
(short for            Ludowick) Oafery and his mother, who wishes a
consult with Emerson,           enter the pub, proceeded momentarily by
Mr. Whike.  Whike and Oafery,      former acquaintances of Dixon, each
has a moment in which they recall            their previous association
with him--Whike in real time, Oafery in                    flashback. 
The group discusses Tunneling, surveying, and the prospect of       
Dixon's upcoming trip to America.  After his off-chance comparison of the
      flat earth with the heretofore-unknown comestible pizza, Fr. Maire
is               prevailed upon to prepare one.  Proving once and for all
that the Jesuits are      the most evil scum ever to march the planet,
Maire improvises to create the      first British pizza, using Dixon's
ketjap, anchovies, and a remnant of Stilton       cheese. (Can Wimpy
burgers be very far behind after this?)  The chapter         closes with
the metamorphosis of Lud into the dandiest beast this side of         
Jean Marais--a werewolf, with a particular fondness for affected manners.


     Chapter 24
     
     In flashback, we are told of the courtship of Dixon's parents, who
met 
     when George Dixon, admiringly piqued by a pair of women's shoes, 
     traces them to the feet of their owner, Mary Hunter of Newcastle.   
               George's charming character reveals itself in a quirky
humor and sensual,         open manner.  The former, when, upon
discovering the shoes on Mary's          feet, he makes them speak to
each other and to him in funny voices.  The         latter, when Mary
notices that he pulls his back hair to reveal his face to           her. 
Something of the early life of Jeremiah is revealed, including his       
        obliviousness, while an infant to the taunts of his siblings. 
The effects of           the untimely death of George on his wife and
children, and in particular the       22-year old Jeremiah is discussed
in some detail.  Eventually, the young           man makes his peace as
best he can and finds solace in visiting the friends        and pubs that
were his father's favorites.
     
     Switching abruptly to real time, it is in one of these pubs, the
Jolly                    Pitman, that we discover Jeremiah before he
leaves to meet Dixon for the        journey to America.  He accepts an
invitation from an old  friend named          Mr. Snow  to travel London
on his keel.  On this journey, Dixon, Mr.           Snow, and the crew
have an encounter in dense fog with some ghostly,            inexplicably
resentful figures that might best described as Thanatoid-like. 
     
     Chapter 25
     
     We switch briefly to the framing story.  Tenebrae questions Wicks 
     about  the suspicious sequence of events regarding the Transits of 
     Venus and the Survey in America and is promptly pooh-poohed.
     
     Mason and Dixon meet in London to sign their contract.  They drink
in 
     Falmouth, where they discuss Bradley's death and review, with some 
     disagreement, their experiences of the previous journey.  Changing 
     drinking venues to the Dodman, they discuss America, the letter to 
     Bradley, the incident on the l'Grand, and what are revealed to be
the               anti-Semitic machinations of the Royal Society.  Mason
sees some                  unknown change, perhaps a maturity, in Dixon
based on remarks he                makes about Memory and Conscience.