MDMD Chapter 49 Summary

[Prokopis Prokopidis]

MDMD Chapter 49 Summary

The Company proceeds, traversing land with a consistency in iron so high
that farmers can collect vegetables by just passing "any large Container
of Iron" over them. The two surveyors have to adjust their course
according to their new calculations. After crossing the streams that
flow into Gunpowder Creek, they find themselves bewitched by the beauty
of the landscape surrounding them. Sitting in their tent, the two
friends discuss the possibility of putting fireflies in their
employment, as a means of having the campsite permanently lit during
nights. The other members of the expedition busy themselves with
festivities of dubious quality.

Alternating between labor and party, the company passes all summer in
the service of the Line. Dixon confides to his friend his belief that
they are being used "in the Interest of Trade". Nevertheless, he sees no
way out from the commitment they have undertaken. Mason shares his
companion's conspiracy anxieties, although his is a more sophisticated
paranoia, one that includes Jesuits trying to extract a secret meaning
from the expedition's everyday observations.

Armand's melancholy is paired by Louise's distress about her husband's
tall stories. Peter Retzinger believes that Christ has abandoned him
without any clear advice on how to proceed from now on. Louise tries to
tell her spouse about Armand, but Peter does not listen: his past
adventures in the company of Jesus (visiting Indians to educate them,
learning from him the art of Golem-creation etc) seem to haunt him.

An extract from Wicks Cherrycoke's Spiritual Day Book pops up, with
details on German farmers from Pennsylvania who, after managing to
escape hell, excel in piety and Christian devotion. DePugh mentions a
sermon that describes heaven and hell as spheres above and under our
earth, respectively. According to what resembles a lecture in geometry
and/or astronomy, hell is shrinking while heaven seems to expand
forever. Ethelmer, the Reverend and DePugh discuss the possibility of
counterparts of the two surveyors existing in hell, struggling to draw
their line in an infinitesimal space which, unbelievably crowded with
sinners, reminds DeP of the Black Hole of Calcutta.