MDDM: Ch 33 - Summary

[Scott Badger]

Chapter 33 - Profit & Lines

Ch. 33 opens with a description of Mary Janvier's, haven from stormy nights
without and cauldron of stormy politics within, a gathering place of
Proprietarians and, in particular, the Line commissioners. A coffee house,
in fact, at which the commissioner Benjamin Chew hopes to meet up with the
Surveyors, who, it seems, have arrived.

The coffee house, as a place of congregation, and coffee, as a stimulant,
has played a prominent role in our story, if not also in History. Wicks
ponders the effect caffeine, along with alcohol, tobacco and sugar, might
have had on the politics at hand. How these stimulants of the mind (and
depressants of the soul, tied as they are to slavery) have effected the
emergence of political discussion, American style. At MJ's, a sometimes
violent mix of religious factions, renegades, Proprietarians and
Anti-Proprietarians, mechanics, wenches, macaronies, gentlemen, limitless
quantities of the aforementioned stimulants and not just a dash of Bad
History roils, 'at the verge of riot'. A newly forming political sense
coupled, the narrator suggests, with a change in the accounting of time -
the spending of which, now, is ever balanced against some profitable return.

The Colonies are in turmoil, yet Mason and Dixon pass through unimpeded,
'well away from Events'. A protective dispensation they seem to have enjoyed
from the beginning of their journeys, on the Seahorse. The Surveyors arrive
at John Harland's farm on the 8th of January, a choice of location that
Dixon, finally -- grudgingly --, admits is in part contingent, 'Mr. Tumbling
fir'd his gun at us'.  They mean to survey their way due south and,
approximately 31 miles west and 15 miles south of the southernmost tip of
Philadelphia, establish the zero point of the West Line.  John Harland, if
not his wife, is happy to oblige - willing to obtain future vegetable
necessities with income from the rental of his property. A sign of changes
afoot.. Without delay, the surveying party sets up in Harland's field and
John, entranced by the alien proceedings, finds excuses to hang about. Mason
and Dixon give him a crash course in 'bringing the instrument into the
Meridian' and he displays a preternatural (American?) dexterity with the
instruments. Though at ease with the mechanics of the telescope, Harland
finds the inverted image it shows profoundly unsettling. 'Are you looking
into Futurity?', he asks, to which our boys reply, "We wish!" But Harland,
and perhaps our narrator as well, remains suspicious.  The telescope might
not be a crystal ball, but its data, collected and reduced, may still bring
the World, and by extension, its future, into sharper focus.

After calculating their latitude and finding True North, Mason and Dixon are
ready to measure their way 15 miles south, John Harland in tow (reassuring
his wife, 'five shillings ev'ry day I work,- silver,- British, real as any
spade'). He will return, but with his head turned West and a new sense of
movement as Home (Manifest Destiny?). Once arrived at Mr. Alexander Bryant's
field, the surveying party turns around and re-measures their way north
again, hoping for that perfect return...

The starting point of the West Line marked, Mason and Dixon next turn their
attention to the ticklish problem of the Tangent Line. A classic case of
'Stupiditas Regia' that, so far, has proven 'intractable'(...). By being
*London* **astronomers**, it is assumed that they will succeed where the
'rude Colonial' surveyors have failed (among whom, one might find Mr. G.
Washington, suffering, as well, his chicken-nabob status). Our boys come
close - off by just 'two feet and two inches, more or less'.

The Tangent Line problem is tailor made to Pynchon's themeatic purposes -
magic to science - order out of chaos. Before being surveyed, the
proprietary status of land, like the Wedge, could be indeterminate; a
spinning binary of ownership by occupation and ownership by proclamation.
Once surveyed, lines of control can be drawn, borders defended, and the
subjunctive (or quantum) proprietary nature of the land is resolved -
ownership by determination is possible. A small price to pay, some would
say, for the PROFITS gained.

Wicks segues from his description of the Tangent Line problem to Mason &
Dixon's experience of New Castle and the 'Sphere of power' emanating from
the mysterious 'Scepter atop the Court House'. New Castle is a town
perpetually under siege, even in its dreams, but the, perhaps not altogether
unwilling, residents are never quite molested whilst living and sleeping
within the Sphere. Note that the 'Citizenry' fear *Catholick* war-ships,
which are unable to encroach within the *Court House's* influence. Does this
suggest an increasingly subjugal relationship between Church and State?

The Tangent Line completed, the surveyors head back to Harlands for some
winter hibernation. Dixon dreams of 'pure Adventure' to come while Mason's
melancholick hopes are for routine and return. One man's Space is another's
Void. Inevitably, they squabble. Finally, fearing the effects of
cabin-fever, and clearly overstaying their welcome anyhow, they road-trip to
Lancaster.