M&D new question

[Mark Wright]

A line that situates the "speaker" Rev'd Cherrycoke in his moment. The
un-named boundary they inscribed upon the earth was "meaningless," but the
_named_ boundary, the Mason-Dixon Line, bears a tottering superstructure of
meaning in history.

Maybe M&D is the story of all the snarled lines, the tarry fixed lines and
yellow manilla running lines of rigging that entangled Mason and Dixon

On Tuesday, January 13, 2015, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> No thoughts? dumb question?
> On Jan 12, 2015, at 12:36 PM, Joseph Tracy wrote:
>
> > All the questions have been provocative, so I hope this won't be a
> complete dud.
> >
> > One question/observation that jumped out at me in the introduction is
> the word meaningless to describe the completed M&D line in Cherrycokes
> introduction to the Mason Dixon story. It did not strike me on the first
> read how boldly the writer seems to be characterizing the endeavor at the
> very opening of the work. He seems himself to be drawing a line or at the
> very least posing a deep question about everything implied by that line.
> Was anyone else surprised at how early this question is set forth, or am I
> treading into the obvious?
> >
> > Even the word meaningless is provocative- both historically and
> metaphorically an odd choice to characterize something with such import.
> But it fits with Cherrycoke's probable attitude at this time. I don't know
> if I can defend that; I just feel it.-
> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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