M&D Deep Duck Read. Pure speculation on sources of his M & D creativity

[Mark Kohut]

I wonder,  as we know TRP conceived 'the idea of' this book by the
sixties--letter to Cork Smith-- In real life what might have inspired
the conception of it.

Surely John Barth's The Sot-Weed Factor which was first published in
1960 or so, and even more probably, Barth's source in Ebenezer Cooke's
Sot-Weed Factor,  because of the CAP

Some possible other pieces of inspiration?:

"So if I draw a boundary line that is not yet to say what I am drawing
it for". --Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein.

Seems certain that TRP had read Wittgenstein's two famous books early
in his adult life. 1) famous quote in V. 2) his importance 3) learned
of him w Cornell connection?
(which had a tangential Wittgenstein connection just fyi. " He
[Wittgenstein] also accepted an invitation from Norman Malcolm, then
professor at Cornell University, to stay with him and his wife for
several months at Ithaca, New York. He made the trip in April 1949,
although he told Malcolm he was too unwell to do philosophical work"

A--and. Although I have never been able to find this 'fact' again, I
remember that when TRP's friend Ian McEwan was being hit with those
stupidly false plagiarism charges and TRP had signed that letter in
support and issued a few words and some of Ian's interviews happened
(or were referenced about again), an interesting book by a legendary
Cornell professor--building named after him---Carl Becker--his THE
HEAVENLY CITY OF THE 18TH CENTURY PHILOSOPHERS was said to have been
lent by--or to--Ian by or to Thomas. Separate post coming on this
since this post is already long but know it is about how religious
notions lasted in society even as the Enlightenment started to
secularize the world.

If Mason & Dixon's work is an embodiment of a science that came out of
the Enlightenment....?
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l