MDMD 1: Snow-Balls

[Thomas Eckhardt]

The opening sentence is full of echoes. "Snow-Balls have flown their
Arcs". These words, as has been pointed out, rather obviously allude to
GR, a novel in which the parabola or "Arc" of the Rocket functions as
leitmotif, central symbol, and structural device. GR is set in WWII, but
it is also the - perhaps definitive - literary expression of a
sensibility shaped by the cold war. This historical period is over, the
opening sentence seems to declare, but not accidentally, I suspect, the
imprints of those missiles on the walls can still be seen. (The word
"starr'd", by the way, may be perceived as a first reference to the
subjects of astronomy and astrology.)

As we go along, we hear that only a few years before the time of the
narrative present - the present of the framing narrative, that is -
other missiles have been flying their deadly parabolas. The War for
Independence is over, but its imprints too are still everywhere, "wounds
bodily and ghostly, great and small, go aching on, not ev'ry one
commemorated." (6)

And, of course, the title of the novel - uniting the names Mason and
Dixon by means of an ampersand which couldn't be more unlike a straight
dividing line - to anyone with even only cursory knowledge of US-history
inevitably is reminiscent of the institution of slavery and the Civil
War.

Echoes, associations. On the other hand - and more importantly, in my
opinion - the opening of the novel is a marvellous example of realistic
writing, drawing us into its long lost world with an immense amount of
visual, aural and olfactory impressions, with historical detail
concerning the family's history and the larger events, and of course by
means of its language. "A la recherche du temps perdu" indeed.

Thomas







on a historical plane deals not only with WWII but, a . The sentence
contains a reference to the central symbol of Pynchon's other huge novel