RV: Mason & Dixon questions

[Richard Romeo]

>
>
>
>Saurio sed:
>
>Don´t know, IG Farben existed in the XVIIIth century?
>Cos phalansteries did, and were the trend of the time, like hippies
>communities without the sex, the drugs, the rock´n´roll and everything else
>that could be fun.
---------------------------------
Well, the East India Company fits the bill somewhat.  An interesting area of 
comparison would be the IG Farben/East India dichotomy--there is a distance 
to Pynchon's writing in M$D vis-a-vis the E.I.C.--he tackled the 
octopus-like workings of IGF, so I'm assuming he didn't want to go the route 
of heightened paranoia in M&D with the EIC--the paranoia/connections fractal 
is so "absent" in M&D, as if everyone knows already the perniciousness of 
the overseas trade--we, as readers know it, but it's doubtful the folks in 
M&D would.  I have just read one of the Vineland articles in the OK City 
Review, where the author claims that the perniciousness of government, the 
law, etc is a given--I would argue this is continued in M&D, as Pynchon is 
aware that he is writing for the present in an historical context, which may 
explain the lack of the proliferation of heightened paranoia in the book.
Funny as I was driving upstate this past weekend, and noting the natural 
beauty of the surroundings, how much the many echoes of Mason and Dixon 
still reverberate, the roads that "scar the dragon", the absurd town names, 
and arbitrary lines drawn between them, etc.


P.S.  The GR/Catch 22 comparison article in the Law Review is very good.  I 
also think I'm one of the few who actually liked Closing Time, which I 
didn't expect to.
Rich

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