History & Christ & Satire (Gibbon, Melville, Pynchon...see Frank Palmeri)

[Terrance]

http://www.iath.virginia.edu/pmc/current.issue/12.1palmeri.html

In Vineland, the attitude toward paranoia departs from the pattern
established in Pynchon's first three novels, but it does not entirely
coincide with that in Mason & Dixon. No shadowy conspiracy of 
multinational or historic proportions lurks behind individual actions
and historic events in Vineland.[25] Instead, two repressive efforts in
America's history contribute largely to shaping the concerns of the
narrative. The first of these is the attack on labor unions....


  29.However, in Mason & Dixon, Pynchon represents the world of the
1760s and of the
     eighteenth century generally as already largely shaped by shadowy
transnational
     institutions. The question of where the boundary line between
Maryland and
     Pennsylvania should be fixed aligns Calverts and their Catholic
followers against
     Penns and their Quaker and Protestant partisans, leading
eventually, perhaps, to a
     world-wide conspiracy of the Jesuit order--viewed as ruthless,
rational, and
     authoritarian--against the equally world-wide reach of the British
East India
     Company, which is interested in any extension of technical
knowledge with
     commercial applications for the expansion of overseas markets.[26]
Moreover