M&D Chapter 12 - pp 116-117

[Becky Lindroos]

Hi all,  

I was gently advised that I may have missed sending pages 114-117.   I didn’t pick up on much for 114 (although I’m sure there’s plenty there!),   but page 115 ended with,  “A Chinaman , a Jesuit, and a Corsican are riding up to Bath . . .”   which I included in the post for 111-113 - just got carried away and forgot to break.  Page 115 may also be a chapter break page, which means only a few lines on the page. (???) 

With pages 116/117,  I sent them from an addie which is not on the P-list - didn’t get there.   (eeks - sorry!)  
**********************************

Chapter 12 - Overview: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_episodes_in_Mason_%26_Dixon#Episode_12

The two astronomers spend time with Nevil Maskelyne, who is on the island to make observations but suffers from faulty equipment. Despite political and personal differences, they belatedly celebrate Maskelyne's twenty-ninth birthday. Dixon is ordered to return alone to Cape Town, while Mason comes to terms with his orders to remain on St. Helena. Two clocks, one having been with Maskelyne during the transit, the other with the Mason and Dixon, discuss the differences between the two locations and the particular behaviors of the titular heroes. The episode closes with Dixon departing for the Cape with the clock previously kept by Maskelyne, leaving behind Mason and the other clock.


page 116
Following the somewhat cryptic line which ends Chapter 11,  “A Chinaman, a Jesuit and a Corsican are riding up to Bath …”  we have the first line of Chapter 12 reading: 

“Mason, Dixon and Maskelyne are in a Punch house on Cock Hill called The Moon … “

Do the two sentences (lines?)  parallel or work together and if so,  how? 

**  Mason and Dixon both have problems with Maskelyne as he does with each of them.  Dixon’s problem seems to stem from Pembroke College in Cambridge.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembroke_College,_Cambridge

*** Christopher (Kit, Kitty, Jack) Smart - mid-18th century 1722 – 1771
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Smart
English poet, friend of Samuel Johnson and Henry Fielding,  known for religious obsessions to the point of being hospitalized and after release ended up in debtor’s prison until death. 

Dixon and Maskelyne wonder about Smart’s being committed, etc.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raby_Castle


page 117
*** "Mason, as if newly arriv’d,”  (is using the phrase “as if” for a simile (“like”) standard Pynchon since M&D? - since when?)  
	And in this case does it indicate his attention has been involved in some “other worldly” place.  ?? 

** from Maskelyne:  Smart’s madness due to too many "Gothickal Scribblers” 
(Horace Walpole  “The Castle of Otranto”  /  1764,  -first Gothic Romance but it was probably preceded by some influences - Samuel Johnson,  Henry Fielding?  or this could be one of those deliberate anachronisms -  
Maskalyne is also referring to Mason’s melancholic gallows visiting - his “earlier-announc’d preferences in Entertainment.” 

“The Ghastly Fop” and other fictitious gothic novels:  - "The Ghastly Fop is a gothic and somewhat pornographic novel in several parts, with new volumes appearing from time to time that also appear in the novel.”   

“The Ghastly Fop” is apparently a fictional novel mentioned several times throughout M&D and discussed in many places including Sebastian Fasthuber’s    "The tension between the real and the fictional” which is a part of his larger work,    "Drawing the Line. Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon” 
http://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/easyrider/data/pages/masondixon/1.htm

http://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/easyrider/data/pages/masondixon/#top

Mason, Dixon and Maskelyne discuss the porn in gothic novels of the day -

**  “...[Maskelyne’s] eyes do not engage in (the smile), being off on business of their own.  The impression is of unrelenting wariness. ”  - I take it he’s a bit paranoid.  Teases Dixon about possibly reading porn. 

******
Becky 















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