suddenly fascinated by feminism

[David Morris]

I've got to give MD another read.  I think it was much better than AtD.

On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 10:16 AM, Madeleine Maudlin <
madeleinemaudlin at gmail.com> wrote:

> Speaking of funny and MD.  I wonder if anyone would agree, one of the
> funniest moments in Pynchon is when Mason is trying to remove the mother
> Vroom's bodice, just a typical classic cliche comedy scene, the knock on
> the door, Mason jumps out the window, naturally, but then the daughter says
> to the mother who is coolly composing herself on the edge of the bed,
>
> "Mother, what are you doing in Mr. Mason's room?"
>
>
> On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 9:59 AM, Madeleine Maudlin <
> madeleinemaudlin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I do not know though, at this point in the story, how important a
>> character Maskelyne is, I've only just met him.  Dixon has only just sailed
>> away jabbering to a clock.  A tension between Mason and Mask has been
>> established, but that's all I know.  Not that I ever would have thought
>> otherwise, regarding his name, if nobody ever pointed it out...
>>
>> I wonder if I ever *would* have!?  Hum!
>>
>> On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 9:52 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Funny, I'd always assumed that Maskelyne was a real person, especially
>>> because of how much the rivalry with Mason was such an important aspect of
>>> the novel.  And I'd never thought of the mescaline connection...
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 8:41 AM, Madeleine Maudlin <
>>> madeleinemaudlin at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Ah, 'tis funny, never ever crossed my mind Maskelyne might be a real
>>>> person.  Pynchon must have had a few laughs when he came across that in his
>>>> research.  And here I was, at the same time as reading MandD, looking into
>>>> whether Waynman Dixon might be any relation, the engineer who hammered into
>>>> the airshafts of the Queen's Chamber of Cheops, and who engineered the
>>>> theft of that obelisk to London (a gift from a moron Ottoman, still a
>>>> theft).  Dixon still might be, still haven't looked into it--
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 5:57 PM, Don Higgins <bencanard2000 at yahoo.com>wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Now I'm on 130ish of MandD.  You have the four Vroom women, and the
>>>>> Slave.  There's also Euphrenia, who has promise, lovely name anyway.
>>>>>  (Speaking of characters, why is the fellow Astronomer on St. Helena called
>>>>> Mescaline, for peet's sake?  Jeez, Pynchon has a one tract mind with the
>>>>> psychedelia--)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> After Neville Maskelyne, from *Mason and Dixon.* Maskelyne was sent
>>>>> at the same time as M and D to record the Transit of Venus on St. Helena.
>>>>> He became Astronomer Royal while they were in America.
>>>>>
>>>>> While Maskelyne is indeed a real person, the name is very suggestive
>>>>> of mescaline. The two do not seem to be "related."
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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