M & D Read

[Joseph Tracy]

Not so sure Mason would have really considered this idea in any depth. His conversations with Dixon point to him being unfamiliar with Quaker ways. The only Quaker actions that would likely have been widely known were proselytizing, challenging the authority of clergy, refusing to use honorific titles, and calling for better treatment of prisoners. Even abolitionism was just starting to gain traction in the mid 1700s. It s my understanding that while women were acknowledged as equal, the public forums for Quaker speech by anyone was limited. Mostly Quaker women used their  freedom for direct action( help poor, visit prisoners, help prostitutes) and were key to shaping the practical organizational  structure of quaker practice. I think all of this would have passed under most people's radar as noise from the trouble-making fringe. They were under 2% of the population.  
  It is my experience that what those called learned know differs widely. 
On Feb 9, 2015, at 6:45 AM, alice malice wrote:

>> Pretty 'radical' idea for the time, yes?  Tougher turn of the screw on
>> the idea that marriage is > institutionalized prostitution.
> 
> Mason and Dixon would know all about this radical idea; especially
> Dixon because as Quaker his is the first Christian church to give
> public forum to women who take full advantage of it, allying
> themselves with other oppressed groups, such as, naturally, the
> enslaved and indentured, and prostitutes.    As learned men it would
> be impossible for our boys to avoid this radical idea. Of course, in
> Pynchon's mad comedy, all things are ampersanded, so tht folly and
> hypocrisy abound.
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l

-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l