M&D Deep Duck: Contract with the City

[Mark Kohut]

The Social Contract.

On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 9:00 PM, Monte Davis <montedavis49 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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..."
>
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> "Dixon decides to register only annoyance..."
>
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> "...Dixon...  finds himself laughing without... honest Mirth..."
>
>
> "Mason has been edging away..."
>
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> "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.
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