MDDM Ch. 71 Perilous Boundaries

[Dave Monroe]

"'It is possible,' here comments the Revd Cherrycoke,
'that for some couples, however close, Love is simply
not in the cards.  So must they pursue other projects,
instead,-- sometimes together, sometimes apart.  I
believe now, that their Third Interdiction came when,
at the end of the eight-Year Traverse, Mason and Dixon
could not cross the perilous Boundaries between
themselves.'" (M&D, Ch. 71, p. 689)

Main Entry: in·ter·dict 
Pronunciation: 'in-t&r-"dikt
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, alteration of entredit,
from Old French, from Latin interdictum prohibition,
from neuter of interdictus, past participle of
interdicere to interpose, forbid, from inter- + dicere
to say -- more at DICTION
Date: 15th century
1 : a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical censure
withdrawing most sacraments and Christian burial from
a person or district
2 : a prohibitory decree : PROHIBITION 

Main Entry: in·ter·dict 
Pronunciation: "in-t&r-'dikt
Function: transitive verb
Date: 15th century
1 : to lay under or prohibit by an interdict
2 : to forbid in a usually formal or authoritative
manner
3 : to destroy, damage, or cut off (as an enemy line
of supply) by firepower to stop or hamper an enemy
synonym see FORBID
- in·ter·dic·tion  /-'dik-sh&n/ noun ...

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

Cf. not only ...

"At the moment of the Interdiction, when their Eyes at
length meet, what they believe they once found aborad
the Seahorse fails, this time, to appear.  It is not a
faltering on either man's part, or the mistaken
impression of one, or any moral lapse,-- 'tis a
difference of opinion.'" (M&D, Ch. 70, p. 678)

But maybe even ...

"It wasn't always so.  In the trenches of the First
World War, English men came to love one another
decently, without shame or make-believe [...].  While
Europe died meanly in its own wastes, men loved.  But
the life-cry of that love has longed sinced hissed
away into no more than this idle and bitch faggotry. 
In this latest war, death was no enemy, but a
collaborator.  Homosexuality in high places is just a
carnal afterthought now, and the real and only fucking
is done on paper...."  (GR, Sec. III, p. 616)

>From Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Between Men: English
Literature and Male Homosocial Desire (New York: 
Columbia UP, 1985), "Introduction," pp. 1-20 ...

"'Homosocial' is a word occasionally used in history
and the social sciences, where it describes social
bonds between persons of the same sex; it is a
neologism, obviously formed by analogy with
'homosexual,' and just as obviously meant to be
distinguished from 'homosexual.'  In fact, it is
applied to such activities as 'male bonding,' which
may, as in our society, be characterized by intense
homophobia, fear and hatred of homosexuality." (p. 1)

http://www.cc.utah.edu/~tsk2/lecture.html#Homosociality

And, again, just who might that cat at Dixon's
graveside be the 'morphosis, the metempsychosis, of?

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