MDDM Chapter 44 "a haze of green Resurrection" (441.2)

[jbor]

on 5/4/02 10:03 PM, Terrance at lycidas2 at earthlink.net wrote:

> why does he say
> he **imagines** that Dixon and his people have some magical gift?

Mason says: "What is it about you people, some mystickal Gift, I imagine."
(438.35) It's a pretty common conversational tag, a self-apostrophe. Mason
is being facetious, and he is very bitter.

> At 435,
> Squire says, they are Lads, having a dream together. Who are these lads
> and what does a dream **together** imply?

The "Lads" are the members of the party who have just been teasing Squire
Haligast. The "dream together" is their ironic imagining of the Squire
writing all the business letters and manning the camp's information booth.
(435.11-13)

I imagine your rebuttals have a point to them, though I'm not sure what that
is. The evidence you're citing is pretty flimsy, however.

> And, our boys begin their line on April 5th, that's Good Friday. Or it
> was. 

I wondered whether it was Easter Friday - it's 1764, right? If it is then
it's quite conspicuous and telling that no-one mentions that it is (i.e. the
Christian, celebratory context - Good Friday, sun dancing etc), including
Pynchon/the narrator. Not even Wicks. Unless it comes up later.

I imagine the point in the text is, unless there is proof to the contrary
somewhere, that they did begin marking the West Line on Friday April 5,
1764, and that it was the beginning of spring.

best