Webb Traverse | AtD <-> M&D??

[Bryan Snyder]

Isn't the Traverse family mentioned in AtD (they come from Pittsburgh or ...
the three-rivers area??) also characters in M&D... or one of them is?

I may be way off, but I think the Traverses at least in name appear in both
books...

B

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of Daniel Harper
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 5:28 PM
To: David Morris; pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: Webb Traverse

On Wednesday 18 April 2007 15:39, you wrote:
> On 4/18/07, Daniel Harper <daniel_harper at earthlink.net> wrote:
> > On Wednesday 18 April 2007 15:11, you wrote:
> > > Daniel,
> > >
> > >   I am convinced, are you?, that ATD was being written while TRP was
> > > writing Mason & Dixon...he has many thematic referrals...
> >
> > At the very least he designed the two to work together after-the-fact.
> > I'd say it's likely that the two were at least originally conceived of
as
> > companion pieces, and that it was intended that many elements of M&D
> > would only become truly clear after one has read ATD.
>
> Would you care to elaborate?  So far I haven't read anything in AtD
> that illuminates MD, but I'd like to hear how it has for you.
>
> David Morris

Nothing too specific here, as I'm still finishing the book. But several 
references to the word "Day" in M&D have the same kind of relevance that
they 
do in ATD, in that in some sense the characters or the themes of the book
are 
working "against" the day. 

Also, there are several instances of what might be thought of as bilocations

in the book. Besides Mason and Dixon themselves being sort of twisted mirror

images of each other, M&D are mirrored by Chinese astronomers Ho and Hsi in 
an old story re-told starting page 622, and also by two of their chainmen 
(names I cannot remember and don't have a handy reference for) who actually 
go around pretending to be Mason & Dixon while in America.

Intelligent dogs aiding the characters can be found in both books, most 
noteably Pugnax in ATD and the L.E.D. in M&D. 

This is aside from the structural similarities that I detailed in an earlier

post. I am not convinced as Mark is that the two books were written 
concurrently, but I do think there are definite connections between the two.

It's possible that the two books exist in the same universe, a hundred and 
fifty years apart, and that M&D's exploits would be considered history to
the 
characters in ATD. In that sense, ATD may be rightly considered a sequel of 
sorts to M&D.

Maybe I'm wrong or reading things into the text that aren't intended, but I
am 
finding a lot of food for thought in comparing the two books. (About a 
hundred pages left of M&D.)

-- 
No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.
--Daniel Harper
countermonkey.blogspot.com