Preparatory reading for Mason & Dixon

Thu Nov 24 15:44:15 CST 2016

Yes thanks for those. I had read about The Wake before and found it most
intriguing. Have you read it?

Have also flitted through Balzac's *Contes drolatiques*, is there anything
that guy hasn't done.

2016-11-22 21:49 GMT+01:00 Protomen <protomen at protonmail.com>:

> re: examples of archaism, in very different styles, Paul Kingsnorth's "The
> Wake" is in a hypothetical sort of Old english; Balzac wrote "Contes
> drolatiques" (Comickal tales) in 16c./Rabelaisian pastiche.
>
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: Preparatory reading for Mason & Dixon
> Local Time: 22 novembre 2016 12:24 PM
> UTC Time: 22 novembre 2016 11:24
> From: alexei.duperier at gmail.com
> To: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com>, Robert Mahnke <rpmahnke at gmail.com>,
> P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>
> 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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