M& D Group Read (cont.)

[Smoke Teff]

In my reread of M&D thus far it seems that paranoia is emergent even (because of course) in colonial times, and yet the “civilized” people are increasingly finding themselves shuffled to and pursued into new frontiers of unknowability. Who sends them? Who chases? Not always clear. 

But then someone must be behind it all, no? Surely people are profiting off, eg, all this slavery. People are making decisions. Or are they?

I think M&D broadens the conspiratorial view out of just the history-making animal’s historical brain and into its interaction with the physical spaces around those brains. 

There’s a lot going on with (possibly natural laws of) urbanity and density and geography (and madness?). Even if you can ascend the chain of conspiracy and continue arriving at Christian-named conspirators, they themselves are just conspired *through* by forces more superhumanly powerful than even They are. 

> On Jan 17, 2018, at 5:31 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Ah, the conspiracy of the separate snippet when everything doesn't connect.
> 
> Lensing quoting Wood BOTH love M & D to the skies. The snippet is part of an argument that
> the conspiracy (of History) framework of GR (and Vineland?) are Gone, gone as gone girls in Mason & Dixon. 
> 
> Mich Wood's over-the-top rave for Mason & Dixon was in Raritan, a review with a thematic reading, not just
> 'full, rich characters and terrif prose":
> 
> In his detailed review "Pynchon's Mason & Dixon" (Raritan, 4, 1998, 120-130), Michael Wood first discusses the book's intentional aimlessness, then takes up differing reviews of Louis Menand and James Wood. Next he fixes upon the choices between "wonder" and "care," and determines that the novel is "about learning, rather slowly, to care instead of wonder." He next discusses Cherrycoke' snarratorrole and characterization of Mason and Dixon, Pynchon's use of bantering prose ...
> 
> Now discuss THIS. 
> 
> extra credit: Tanner's book on American Literature written before M & D: The Reign of Wonder. 
> 
>> On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 4:52 AM, matthew cissell <mccissell at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Howdy,
>> 
>> I haven't read the article but a little research shows that the fellow was not exactly specialized in reading Pynchon. I won't say more because the poor guy died very young so he's not around to argue. However, the one Pynchon book that Michiko K. thought was good was M&D, so he took a pretty difficult position to argue. I find the book to be masterful in its narrative construction and structure. J. Wood slagged it off but he's a wanker who used to be keen on Pynchon, enough so to put him on a top 100 list years ago. Doesn't talk about that now, does he?
>> 
>> mc
>> 
>> 	Libre de virus. www.avast.com
>> 
>>> On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 7:06 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> As Michael Wood writes of Mason & Dixon. "No overarching conspiracy, or even the steady suspicion of one, unites the
>>> unravlled strands of this book" ---essay Postmodernism at Sea, Dennis Lensing in Hinds' book. 
>>> 
>>> Discuss. 
>> 
> 
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