MDDM Ch. 51 The Field-Book

[jbor]

on 10/5/02 4:45 PM, Dave Monroe at davidmmonroe at yahoo.com wrote:

> But from Charles Clerc, Mason & Dixon & Pynchon
> (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2000), Ch.
> VI, "Fact & Fiction," pp. 57-85 ...
> 
> "Pynchon cut two lines from the original: one on
> Anglican services held in the cave in winter,

Well, the narrative does mention this at 496.30, so the information is
retained in the novel. I suspect the way it is worded in the Field-Book
might have been a little awkward, and potentially ambiguous, or else it was
something Pynchon decided to pick out specifically and use to further his
characterisation of Mason.

> and then
> Mason';s description of a long narrow passage, a river
> beyond, and additional smalll rooms.

This bit's not so much "cut" as the quotation ends.

> Otherwise, novel
> and Journal match perfectly." (p. 68)
> 
> Now, not only is Clerc's book excellent for such fact
> (and fiction) checking (I've used it constantly here),
> but it also includes as an appendix The Journal
> itself, sans entries consisting solely of technical
> data.  Ch XI, pp. 153-229 ...
> 
> September [1765]
> 
> "21 Continued the Line./ 95 miles 38 chains crossed a
> spring running into Antietam. / 96 miles 3 chains.
> Mr. Staphel Shockey's House 7 chains North.
> 
> "22 (Sun.) Went to see a cave (near the Mountain about
> 6 miles South of Mr. Shockey's.)  The entrance is an
> arch about 6 yards in length and four feet in height,
> when immediately there opens a room 45 yards in
> length, 40 in breadth and 7 or 8 in height.  (Not one
> pillar to support nature's arch): There didvine
> service is often (according to the Church of England)
> celebrated in the Winter Season.  On the sidewalls are
> drawn by the Pencil of Time, with the tears of the
> Rocks: The imitation of Organ, Pillar, Columns and
> Monuments of a Temple; which, with the glimmering
> faint light; makes the whole an awful, solemn
> appearnace: Striking its Visitants with a strong and
> melancholy reflection: That such is the abodes of the
> Dead: Thy inevitable Doom, O stranger; Soon to be
> numbered as one of them.  From this room there is a
> narrow passage of about 100 yards at the end of which
> runs a fine river of water: On the sides of this
> passage are other rooms, but no so large as the
> first." (p. 182)
> 
> But Staphel Shockey I've found nothing further on.
> Just a guy whose house the surveyors happened upon,
> apparently ...

Thanks for this. There seem to have been plenty of Shockeys about in the
region at the time, still are, but "Staphel" is a very unusual name .... Is
it a German name? Plus I think Shockey is Anglicised from Schocke. And there
is the way they are described (in the novel) as "English Church services",
not Church of England, or Anglican, or whatever .... Not that it means much,
other than that Pynchon doesn't seem to want to make anything out of it if
Staphel and co. were descended from German settlers, but I guess it's
interesting to check out just what he is and isn't doing with the primary
source material.

best