exactly

[Matt Treyvaud]

On Fri, 18 Dec 1998, Doug Millison wrote:

> At 8:04 AM -0800 12/18/98, zeno the zetetic wrote:[snip]
> >Has anyone noticed the various R.A.Wilson references in Mason and Dixon
> >and the entire books parallels with R.A.W.s "Historical Illuminatus
> >Trilogy"?
> 
> I don't think we've yet plumbed those depths. Are you suggesting that
> Pynchon somehow patterned M&D after Wilson's work? Can you point to
> specific parallels?

(If I may jump in before zeno) I don't think the parallels are so great
that you could say Pynchon 'patterned' M&D after the HIT. There are some
similar ideas (kooky spiritualism among our forefathers, Washington
getting high) but those are pretty much historical truths (or at least,
historical conjectures based on at least a little evidence) and it would
be hard for a writer like Pynchon to go into that era without touching on
them at all. Kind of like how sharks and dolphins look really similar -
not because they're that closely related, but because they're just
adapting to the same environment, hydrodynamically speaking.

matt

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