M&D readins c1p1

[Lemuel Underwing]

*"'Tis determin'd afterward, that Mr. Dimdown, heretofore unacquainted with
any confinement longer than hiding in the Root-Cellar till the Sheriff took
his leave, had been drinking steadily whatever Spirits came to hand, for
the three days previous, attempting, as he explains, "to get the Time to
pass differently, that's all."*


On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 9:13 PM, Lemuel Underwing <luunderwing at gmail.com>wrote:

> *"...yards of purple stuff..."*
>
> I always took this to mean a sort of cheap imitation Silk, Silk being an
> interesting character throughout the Narrative (Susannah Peach's silk
> wherein a secret silk-road shortcut lies. Also, does the Nameless concubine
> wear silk to allure whomever the Jesuits are entertaining? I have trouble
> reading that bit of the book, it is hard).
> Purple, of course, being the color of Royalty, thus marking the family as
> Loyalists, confirmed only a few lines later.
>
> The Card-Table is call'd sinister, but can it be a sort of *Borgesian
> Labyrinth* *"...that neither the Twins nor their Sister can say they have
> been to the end of."* ?
>
> The next sentence is full of allusion,
> *"Upon the Wall, banish'd to this den of Parlor Apes for its Remembrance
> of a Time better forgotten, reflecting most of the Room--"*
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 7:20 PM, Alex Colter <recoignishon at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> The most interesting piece of furniture is probably the Card-Table,
>> wandering Heart, hidden compartments... maybe left over from LeSpark's
>> earlier days?
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 6:43 PM, Lemuel Underwing <luunderwing at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> *The Cape! The Wind! The Crew! The Clock! The Duck! ...g-giant stalks
>>> of Hemp! *
>>> I have to keep from drinking myself to death as I am living, in the wake
>>> of the Transit, at my parent's home
>>> as we sort some Legal Issues (marijuana, folks). This shall be part of
>>> the Antidote.
>>> So I'm going to be posting some of my "readings" of Mason & Dixon,
>>> possibly my favorite book of all time.
>>> *List-Characters & Rantings are Welcome!*
>>> Let us start with p1c1:
>>>
>>> *"Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs..."* (of course an allusion to the
>>> beginning of Gravity's Rainbow)
>>> *
>>> starr'd* is an interesting word to use obviously intimating the shape
>>> Snow-Balls make upon impact,
>>> but could one possibly say, without a hint of the psychopathic, that the
>>> V-2 'starr'd' the English Countryside?
>>>
>>> We the readers, being the Children of the House, having coax'd corporeal
>>> sweets from the kitchen
>>> retire, evading a melancholy we may for a moment pretend to be
>>> blissfully unaware of, to hear good Uncle P-err Cherrycoke
>>> tell his stories, a sort of Sweet in themselves.
>>>
>>> *"Here have come to rest a long scarr'd sawbuck table, with two
>>> mismatch'd side-benches, from the
>>> Lancaster County branch of the family, -- some Second-Street
>>> Chippendale, including an interpretation of
>>> the Fam'd Chinese Sofa..."*
>>>
>>> Once while smoking a *J* I opened this book and had the realization
>>> that the furniture listed here all have analogues in
>>> characters throughout the book, I'm not sure how I came about this
>>> thought but it's stuck with me.
>>>
>>> *'scarr'd sawbuck table'*, unlike the 'starr'd' impacts of Snow-Balls, *these
>>> *carefree assaults leave a lasting mark.
>>>
>>> Will add more later,
>>> now dinner.
>>
>>
>>
>
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