ATDTDA (33) - p. 935-9 lines and borders

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Straight lines and artificial borders are always bad in Pynchon.  The wedge-shaped places that the map depicts are an affront to modern "civilization."  Their borders cry out to be turned into straight lines.  No wonder the Congo, Bosnia and (once) Texas have been such hot-spots.  Iraq (if Kurdistan seceded or was usurped by Turkey) would be similarly wedge-shaped.  Straight-line borders have a finality about them.  Who's gonna quibble about the borders of Kansas?

An oddball border dispute that I bring up only because the Pynchon family name appears:

http://www.southwickma.org/Public_Documents/F000102F9/S00476B50-00476B5B.0/The%20Southwick%20Jog.pdf

Laura