Preparatory reading for Mason & Dixon

[Alexei du Périer]

Thanks guys!

Yes the reason I am asking is that since I am not American there are
probably a lot of things which are a part of very general American culture
and which might seem obvious to Americans that I don't know about. Because
even without purposefully reading something to prepare for M&D and "jumping
in" one still carries mounds of knowledge gleaned from previous reading.

I had another question: *Mason & Dixon* is written in an archaic style. Do
any of you know of other books which adopt this form of pastiche?* The
Sot-Weed Factor* by John Barth is one of my all-time favourites, and
something tells me I'm going to greatly enjoy M&D. I know Vollmann wrote
*Argall* (whose story recalls the journals found in Barth's novel). *Jonathan
Strange & Mr Norrell *is another example and a link to a review of *Golden
Hill* by Francis Spufford was posted here a while back. But I was wondering
if there were any others.

2016-11-22 2:44 GMT+01:00 David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>:

> M&D is my favorite after GR.  It is never "difficult," so you shouldn't
> get stuck.  Like Keith, I never prepare to read Pynchon.  Just jump in, and
> keep going, even if you feel a bit lost at times.  Just experience it raw
> the first time so as to not be bogged down by too many preconceptions.
>
> But a general understanding of aspects of the advent of Enlightenment will
> help you a lot.  You probably already know enough of that to suffice.  Like
> all things Pynchon, Reason, and all its units of measure, are big targets.
> Knowing the orthodoxy will help with the humor.
>
> David Morris
>
>
> On Monday, November 21, 2016, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm deep into my third reading of M&D. What a great book. In my humble
>> opinion, just jump in and read without any preparation. If you get stuck,
>> then maybe go back and read some of the things recommended here.
>> If you get through it once, you can always go back and prepare afterwards!
>>
>> Www.innergroovemusic.com
>>
>> On Nov 21, 2016, at 6:32 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> You might want to read about some of the personalities in M&D.  In
>> addition to the main characters, prominent ones might be George Washington
>> & Benjamin Franklin.  Both are humorously portrayed.
>>
>>  I don't think Thomas Jefferson got portrayed, but he was one of the lead
>> architects of the Constitution, and a proponent of "Enlightenment"
>> philosophy, largely imported from France.
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>> On Mon, Nov 21, 2016 at 4:51 PM, Robert Mahnke <rpmahnke at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> This is an interesting question.  I didn't read anything in particular
>>> before I read M&D, so I don't think there's any background reading
>>> required.  But there's no fun in that answer.
>>>
>>> Apropos of that period of American history, very few Americans get much
>>> history about the century and a half before the Revolution.  My son took
>>> American History in the eighth grade a few years ago, and his textbook
>>> skipped from the founding of the Jamestown (Virginia) and Plymouth
>>> (Massachusetts) colonies in 1607 and 1620 pretty much to the Revolution
>>> without only a short digression about the founding of Manhattan by the
>>> Dutch.  This approach is pretty typical.
>>>
>>> If you want to read a good history of that period, two I can recommend
>>> are Bernard Bailyn's The Barbarous Years, which covers 1600 to 1675, and
>>> Daniel Richter's Before The Revolution.  I particularly liked the latter,
>>> which (IIRC) emphasized the extent to which what happened in the American
>>> colonies was very much affected by transatlantic trade and political
>>> developments in Europe.
>>>
>>> The other obvious book to read as background is Benjamin Franklin's
>>> autobiography
>>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Autobiography_of_Benjamin_Franklin>.
>>> And if you're going to read that, or even if you aren't, you should read
>>> Jill Lepore's Book Of Ages, about Franklin's sister and the limits of
>>> history.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Nov 21, 2016 at 1:06 PM, Alexei du Périer <
>>> alexei.duperier at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hello chaps,
>>>>
>>>> I am planning on reading *Mason & Dixon* soon and would like to know
>>>> whether there are any books I ought to read before starting in order to be
>>>> familiar with the historical context/figures discussed etc.
>>>>
>>>> I have never studied American history so don't know much about pre-1776
>>>> stuff.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
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