M&D Deep Duck: Contract with the City

[Monte Davis]

IN M&D's first meeting, at 14.16, Dixon asks how Londoners avoid brawls and
duels. Mason replies :

" 'Oh, one may, if one wishes, find Insult at ev’ry step,— from insolent Stares
to mortal Assault, an Orgy of Insult uninterrupted,— yet how does one
proceed to call out each offender in turn, or choose among ’em, and in
obedience to what code? So, one soon understands it, as yet another Term in
the Contract between the City and oneself,— a function of simple Density,
ensuring that there never be time enough to acknowledge, let alone to
resent, such a mad Variety of offer’d Offense.' ”


Over the next few pages, while it is clear that they are finding each other
congenial, it is also clear that they are negotiating their own contract:


"Taking it for the joke it must be, Dixon laughs..."


"Dixon decides to register only annoyance..."


"...Dixon...  finds himself laughing without... honest Mirth..."


"Mason has been edging away..."


"Mason retreats from  [Dixon's clasp] in a Flinch..."


"...in some Uncertainty as to how the power may come to be sorted out
betwixt 'em"


Dixon "...seems disappointed in Mason, --or so the Astronomer, ever
inclined to suspicion, fears."


It's a perverse strength of this friendship that it will never lack for
variety of offer'd offense.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20150113/a0ea4457/attachment.html>