M & D Duck Read

[Mark Kohut]

So, first correction leading naturally to first observation and question. Last line below should have read " it is the embodiment not the notions that IS Mason & Dixon"...
Pynchon insisted on the Ampersand and solid rumors are he helped 'design' the cover. He and Melanie had cover approval at least. Riff on that cover. 

What meaningful differences exist if not "Mason and Dixon"?  

Dedication: " For Melanie and for Jackson" ...not " for Melanie and Jackson".....Pynchon's precision singles each out, the separate individuals that they are. 





Sent from my iPad

> On Jan 4, 2015, at 4:26 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I bought a new paperback for underling and stuff but I have been reading my hardback. 
> Thicker paper makes a difference as story, each page like thicker parchment (so to speak) 
> 
> How it works: I say stuff, I ask questions, I will point to the text a LOT, I hope we all do. The text rules, we make our cases with it; we " refute" with it. I will often be posting lots before responses 
> Can come in. ( I get up early US time) But responses can come anytime to all posts and threads. 
> 
> I will often be as granular as espresso; I will be speculative unto "Wha? " Challenge me. I will be offering a " reading" when I can, which, with Pynchon and that vaunted " ambiguity" [meaning richness of associations, allusions everywhere] does not preclude other 'correct' meanings and readings. But I do not think 'anything goes' in interpretation so will say so. I can always be wrong, of course.
> 
>  I have read and reread Pynchon all my life, a lot in recent years; have been called a ' fanboy' and must embrace that since true. My bags are literary and philosophical, cheaply made and full of holes. 
> 
> I will try to keep this in mind as I post: Some critic or philosopher, it may have been Wittgenstein, said something like: with Art, sometimes you just have to say," See how beautiful, original, well-crafted, full of wit, full of humanity, full of life, insight, etc. thus and such is."  M & D is so WITTY that as we--I--put down some prosaic meanings, ideas, notions that of course are not exclusive to the book, I do not want to forget it is the embodiment not the notions that are Mason & Dixon. 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
>> On Jan 4, 2015, at 1:31 AM, M Thomas Stevenson <m.thomas.stevenson at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Now! (And by reading.) Me too, I love this big, ugly, thickly beige monster. Two weeks to read first three sections isn't it.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On 4 January 2015, at 07:05, Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> I've got my big ol' hardback edition out and ready and I can't hardly wait!
>> 
>> I look forward to giving this one a nice close read!
>> 
>> Jerky / Mark
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