M&D - Chapter 21 - Mason&Rebekah

[Jerome Park]

In this example the hypothetical or subjunctive dialogue is only a
paragraph. And there it is, right there, on the same page. Had he, instead,
would have...

Why rub it in?

All subjunctive, of course, *had *young Mason gone to his father, this *might
have been* the conversation likely to result.

I don't think Pynchon has underestimated the reader here. There is
something else to it.

Tony Tanner says that P's use of the subjunctive is "an elegiac lament for
the accelerating erosion of subjunctivity (225).

A brilliant reader that Tony Tanner!



On Sun, Apr 12, 2015 at 1:13 PM, Elisabeth Romberg <eromberg at mac.com> wrote:

> Next paragraph, an imagined dialogue between Mason and his father as
> Jerome points out. Do you agree, though, that the last sentence: «All
> subjunctive, of course, *had *young Mason gone to his father, this *might
> have been* the conversation likely to result.» is over the top. I mean
> it’s not as if we’ve forgotten it was imaginary from the start?
>
> Don't you feel a little underestimated as a reader?
>
> ;)
>
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