MDMD: Buzz-Men

[Dave Monroe]

Anbother situation in which I might have deployed
Umberto Eco's "Postscript to The Name of the Rose,"
but I've lent it as proof/consolation to someone who's
bubble I (unfortunately, perhaps) burst by pointing
out that Eco's novel isn't REALLY a transcription (of
a transcription of a ...) of a found manuscript.  But
M&D seems perhaps a similar case ...  

On the one hand, an author immerses him/herself in the
literatures et al. of the period in which s/he is
setting his/her histori(ographi)cal (meta)fiction; on
the other hand, one is ineluctably of one's own time
and place (and ...), such that either anachronisms
unintentionally--and, inevitably--infiltrate one's
text, or one uses them pointedly.  Or, more likely,
both ...

There's no doubt, Pynchon's one hell of a researcher,
and my occasional satisfactions in seemingly having
caught scent of one or the other of his various trails
are tempered by the inevitable realization that
there's just no way I'm going to even come close to
uncovering them all.  My guess is, there are various
explanations for any given anachronism in M&D ...

Of course, quibbling over, say, dates of coinage
(which, of course, is no small interest of my own)
seems more than faintly ludicrous in the face of such
blatantly anachronistic--by virtue of improbability,
implausibility, or impossibility--moments as giant
cheeses, artificially inetlligent mechanical ducks or
talking dogs.  Like SF or fantasy or comic book fans
haggling over details of plausibilty ...

Remember those Mighty Marvel No-Prizes?  Always wanted
one of those, even if it was merely an honorable
mention for apologetic acrobatics.  Stan Lee would've
made a good early modern Pope ...

But one needs some sort of "world" in which to
operate, I suppose, some sort of framework, some set
of guidelines, some degree of consistency, whatever, I
suppose, so ... he, we have the historical events
surrounding, the historical milieu of, Mason and
Dixon, and "their" characters as written by Pynchon, I
suppose, so ...

But it's worth doing the legwork nonetheless, or,
perhaps, will prove to be.  One possibility I haven't
yet much considered is the way in which previous
historical fictions--vs., say, the texts immediately
of a given milieu--might have had their effect as
well, the way in which the anachronisms of others
might be absorbed into one's own texts ...

Really gotta read that Shepard an Shepard book, see
what might be in there beyond the introduction (and,
again, note those W.C.'s et al.), but seeing as you've
already done so, if you recall anything, if anything
strikes you as perhaps having originated there, let
me, lt us know ...

Am still often reminded of Monty Python and the Holy
Grail here as well, or, perhaps, of "The Black Adder,"
both often painstakingly historically informed even
while ludicrously anachronistic, nigh unto
counterhistoric, even.  That scene in the Jenkin's Ear
museum read to me in particular like a MPFC/BA sketch
...  

Reminds me, Gotta watch that third season/series of
"The Black Adder" again, set in, roughly, M&D's Age of
Johnson.  And speaking of Bruce Campbell, the late,
lamented "Jack of All Trades" was ostensibly
(allegedly?) set a scant few decades later ...

--- Tyrone Mullet <tyronemullet at hotmail.com> wrote:
> I’ve wondered about this myself, as over the years
> various p-listers have pointed out similar apparent
> anachronisms.  Pynchon’s work, I think, 
> demonstrates that he’s an extremely careful
> researcher.  To my mind this makes it unlikely that
> these usages are accidental, in most cases (no this 
> isn’t hero-worship, but by all means call me names
> if it makes you feel good).  If they're not
> accidental, I guess there’s a reason.  Maybe he
> finds a word he likes, and decides what the hell.

And, yeah, sometimes something jsut seems to work, and
you don't sweat it too much.  But it doesn't hurt to
look this stuff up, at least, on the off chance there
might be Something Up.  Pynchon also seems to know his
way around an etymology, something (else) he might
have picked up from Norman O. Brown (see, esp., Love's
Body) ...



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