MDDM "Another Slave-Colony"

[jbor]

Bandwraith:

> snip

> Pynchon's M and D are almost total fabrications of his
> creativity. As little is known about the historical M and D now as before
> the novel, except a few tidbits. They have been created almost out of
> whole cloth.

> And I think it is what Pynchon relishes most. M and D are almost blank slates
> upon which he can practice his art- the further examination of the
> metaphorical
> process, on all scales, or levels, if you prefer.

I'd say that quite a bit of biographical research has informed the
characterisations of M & D. I think that it's in the portrayals of Wicks and
the family where Pynchon's creative imagination has had freer rein.
Ironically, there is greater recourse to literary "realism" in the
Philadelphia sections than in those which focus on M & D.

> Mason's preliminary idea of
> America: "The Place is but a Patch of England..." seems telling.

I can see that you want to equate Pynchon with Mason, and why, though for
mine it's Dixon who has prevailed in most of the verbal stoushes between the
two to this point. (I think that we need to wait until the final section,
and the gradual development of Mason's insight, to see a closer alignment
between this character and his creator.) I've been more sympathetic to Dixon
so far, and I think one of the themes propelling the narrative has been the
way the country surveyor is usually more level-headed, sensible and
intuitive than the apparently better-credentialled city Academician.

Jere corrects Chas again at this point I think, and Mason appears to retract
his initial statement, accepting Dixon's observation that "Americans" are no
more "British" than "the Cape Dutch are Dutch". This latter truth is
something which Dixon (and the reader) realised during the sojourn at the
Cape, and which Mason, too self-involved, largely missed.

best