M&D Duck Read

[Mark Kohut]

Laura again:
 "In a way, it's about the moment when the British handed over the
baton of colonialism to the Americans."

1786.
p. 8 M & D  "Nation bickering itself into fragments". 1786. States
divided over their interstate 'laws', currency, soldiers'
pay/pensions. etc. The Next Year there was to be the Constitutional
Convention, one out of many. The United States. September 17 - The
United States Constitution is adopted by the Constitutional Convention
in Philadelphia.

P had to have his reasons for setting it in 1786, especially since M &
D had finished the Line decades earlier. And the story gets told in
historical flashbacks---wait, wait, we will get to talk about that, I
promise.

There is a twitter avatar named calling itself Law of 1786 proclaiming
the unique ideals embodied in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Here's so'mores:

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 produced the most enduring
written Constitution ever created by human hands. Though the United
States existed prior to the ratification of the Constitution, it was a
nation held together by the tenuous threads of the Articles of
Confederation, a sometimes contentious, and often ineffectual national
government.

The states became the United States of America (in ratification time).
Arguments over the meaning of that Constitution are key to all
Americans' lives today and ongoingly.

i might suggest that set when it is and as we read it, M &D is a lot
about the idea of America, about those ideals and.......the
reality?.....stay tuned. Need to link further inside when we get
there.
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l