terror,paranoia,hilarity and calculated madness on the way to the transit of Venus- tone in chapters 456

[Joseph Tracy]

 More thoughts: One way this research may be illuminating Pynchon's adaptations of history is that he leaves different interpretations open in the fiction which logically contradict each other, so the reader is left with one more example of the absence of omniscient narration, but also some intelligent and crazier guesses. It isn't that something very precise and real did not happen, but  a combination of inability to know the facts and the problem and power of words, that almost any story is half composed of guesses and favored myth. One thing that seems realistic is that Mason and Dixon, men of science and astute to the politics,  are as baffled by the whole thing as we are, and that bafflement opens the door to paranoia which may or may not be a reasonable response.   

On Jan 23, 2015, at 11:10 AM, <kelber at mindspring.com> <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> Which brings up the question of why the l'Grand turned away. Was it really, as Smith (filtered through Cherrycoke) reported, "France is not at war with the sciences?" If so, how did they eventually figure out, mid-attack, that this was a scientific expedition? Was Smith able to get the letters of passage over to the other captain? Kind of seems there should have been some identifying marker - a sail with a sun and two crossed telescopes instead of the skull and bones? - to prevent attacks before they started.
> 
> Laura
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> 
> From: Joseph Tracy 
> Subject: terror,paranoia,hilarity and calculated madness on the way to the transit of Venus- tone in chapters 456
> I have just been doing some laughing aloud in chapters 5 and 6 and considering the playful transitions of tone from paranoia to annoyance to humored enjoyment of cup and comrade. Captain Grant and the "Admiralty Fopling" gets particularly hilarious  and along with  sketches of the crew. 
> I also am trying to understand a bit more about the transit studies, below is a good history of this by Nasa scentist Sten Odenwald more thorough than the wikipedia piece.  There is also what appears to be a difference of opinion about who came out with the authoritative calculation of the Su-Earth distance. wikipedia:In 1771, using the combined 1761 and 1769 transit data, the French astronomer Jérôme Lalandecalculated the astronomical unit to have a value of 153 million kilometers (±1 million km). The precision was less than had been hoped for because of the black drop effect, but still a considerable improvement on Horrocks' calculations.[21]
>    Odenwald:It actually took nearly 50 years for the astronomer Encke to finally collect all of the observations, analyze them mathematically, and report an improved estimate for the distance of 95 million miles.    The number is the same translated from km to miles so don't know why the discrepancy over who did the calculations
> http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2012/articles/ttt_73.php
> here is one passage from Odenwald interestingly relevant to M&D:      Some of the scientists were involved in spectacular international events as they carried out their observations in remote corners of the world. Most were French or English, and the transit occurred during the peak of the Seven Year's War between these two international empires. Special letters of passage were carried by these scientists so that they could safely pass into 'enemy' territory. You would never know about these adventured from reading the newspapers!
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