Mason & Dixon, online resources

[The Great Quail]

>Nice to see some abiding interest in MDMD.

I have just finished reading M&D for the first time -- I have been 
putting it off until I had the time to do  little research on Mason, 
Dixon, and the history of that time, as well as read "Longitude" and 
such. In the end, I failed to do most of the research, but I read the 
book anyway because I was taking a trip this summer to Greenwich, 
England, and I couldn't resist.... (I have this weird habit of 
putting off books and movies I really want to experience -- delayed 
gratification and all. It saddens me when I have read all the work of 
a favorite author -- hell, there's a story in James Joyce's "The 
Dead" I still will not read, and I refuse to touch Lovecraft's "The 
Dunwich Horror" until I am at least 60.)

Anyway, I *loved* "Mason & Dixon" -- I thought it was Pynchon's best 
novel. I could rave about it for hours on end. I would place it on my 
top five novels of all-time list, that is, if I made such lists, 
which of course I do, don't we all?

I am sure you already know of Tim Ware's excellent site:
http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/masondixon-f.html

I have a small page here that collects every review I could find:
http://www.TheModernWord.com/pynchon/pynchon_m&d.html

Peter Schmidt has a nice page with some wonderful insights:
http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1/essays/pynchon/mason.html

Also of interest -- there was a recent film adaptation of 
"Longitude," which had Maskelyene and other M&D-ish characters. (I 
think this was discussed on the List, but I was absent for a few 
months):
http://www.aande.com/tv/shows/longitude/

And finally, there's another new book due out in a few months 
"Pynchon and Mason and Dixon," which I assume will be about the 
novel, and not the (apocryphal?) residential building surveying firm. 
 From the fact it is edited, I assume it will be a collection of 
critical essays?
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0874137209/thelibyrinth

--Quail





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The Great Quail, Keeper of the Libyrinth:
http://www.TheModernWord.com

Every novel is an ideal plane inserted into the realm of reality.
      --J.L. Borges