Pynchon was born in 1937. Previous fiction includes V (1963), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), Gravity's Rainbow (1973), Slow Learner (short stories), and Vineland.
References from the World Wide Web provide biographic and bibliographic information.
Part Two America, p. 255.
Part Three Last Transit, p. 715.
PART ONE: LATITUDES AND DEPARTURES (pp.3-253)
CH. 1: (5-11) NARRATOR: The narrator, the Rev'd Wicks Cherrycoke, in 1786 stays in Philadelphia after attending Mason's funeral and tells the story to his sister's family.
CH. 2: (12-13) GREETINGS: Mason and Dixon introduce themselves to one another by letter as they prepare to go on assignment together.
CH. 3: (14-29) LEARNED ENGLISH (TALKING) DOG: A Pynchon prank enters as a talking dog in port as M&D ready for departure on Royal Society appointment for parts unknown. Mason is introduced as a misanthrope over his dead wife, superstitious. Dixon, we learn, is rational and realistic.
CH. 4: (30-41) M&D DEPORT THEMSELVES DUBIOUSLY IN BATTLE: The frigate Seahorse, departing Portsmouth for Sumatra, where M&D are to observe the Transit of Venus, is turned back by French. Our heroes return to port, unheroically.
CH. 5: (42-46) M&D RECEIVE A REPRIMAND: The Royal Society reprimands M&D for their report on the battle with French and their deportment. A sorry start for a big adventure.
CH. 6: (47-57) A SECOND SAILING: Finally the Seahorse sets sail after repairs for the equator and Cape Town. Shipboard ennui.
CH. 7: (58-76) THE COLLECTIVE GHOST OF CAPE TOWN: The Dutch settlers keep close tabs on the English astronomers. Mason's bevy of female hosts entices him to make a baby with a slave girl while Dixon lives it up with the pygmies. The essence of the social atmosphere is SLAVERY, an ever present ghost. The theme will persist as the story later shifts to America.
CH. 8: (77-86) CHERRYCOKE RIFFS ON SEX AND REPRESSION IN CAPE TOWN He was with M&D there but was waiting for a ship to India.
CH 9: (87-93) ASTRONOMY LESSON IN THE RAIN Cape Town girls come to the observatory and, rained in, get a lesson on the Tranist of Venus from Mason.
CH. 10: (94-104) TASK IS DONE AT CAPE TOWN: Having traced the Transit of Venus on 5 June, M&D leave. The steamy atmosphere turns cold and the Dutch do not even see them off. Mason tries to find the Quaker inner light known to Dixon but fails. Cherrycoke and his family audience in Philadelphia are given some attention by Pynchon.
CH. 11: (105-115) ST. HELENA, HO--A LYNCHPIN OF SLAVERY M&D move to their next assignment with Rev. Maskelyne at the island of St. Helena, a mad and windy scene. They are to observe Sirius.
CH. 12: (116-124) A TENSE TIME WITH MASKELYNE, AN IN-LAW OF CLIVE OF INDIA Royal Society politics blow in the St. Helena wind between M&D and Maskelyne. Meanwhile, TP bestows on us the dialogue of the astronomer's clocks. M&D's Ellicott Clock reports on Cape Town to Maskelyne's Shelton Clock, which is to go to Cape Town with Dixon. The clocks puzzle over the rhythm of the sea, so alien to their mechanical regularity; they want to synchronize with it. (123) [[[Pynchon here we see is contrasting Nature to the rational mechanics made by 18th century mankind. Throughout we are aware of the astronomers' global task--to take the measure of the earth--while the irrational keeps erupting in Portsmouth necromancy, rainy zany stuff in Cape Town, Dixon's inner light, Mason's moody yearning for his dead wife's ghost.]]]
CH. 13: (125-145) ST. HELENA IS HELL; MASKELYNE IS DAMNED And so is Mason, who is left alone with Mask. after Dixon goes alone back to S. Africa with the Shelton Clock. Maskelyne tells Mason the story of the Serpent in the Volcano of St. Helena (135). [[[Pynchon catches a flavor of the stressed-out extremes of behavior caused by the demands of Empire here in Maskelyne. He manages to couple the products of Reason--measurement, civilization--with the emotional charge of getting and keeping a maritime global hegemony.]]]
CH. 14: (145-157) DIXON REENTERS SEXUAL MADNESS IN CAPE TOWN Cornelius Vroom shoots at Dixon, back in Cape Town with the clock. Vroom learned Dixon cuckolded him. Forgiveness comes when Cornelius takes Dixon to the Dutch Compa ny Lodge, where sex-slaves-sadism divert the slaveholders of S. Africa. [[Pynchon continues to focus on the inhumanity of slavery throughout the British Empire.]]]
CH. 15: (158-166) MASON ENCOUNTERS MADNESS ON ST. HELENA'S WINDY SIDE Maskelyne persuades Mason, now alone, to test their measurements on the windy other side of the island. Mason feels a visitation of his dead wife Rebekah there in the high winds.
CH. 16: (167-174) THE HUGE CHEESE COLLISION: HOW MASON MET REBEKAH In a flashback to rural England, Mason tells of his meeting with Rebekah when a huge cheese made by local farmers fell off a wagon and rolled over him. She was there to help him get up. She was not his first love (Susannah was) but she captured his heart. [[[Pynchon slapstick]]]
CH. 17: (175-182) MASON TALKS TO JENKINS' PICKLED EAR AT ST. HELENA Leaving the madness of the windward side of the island, Mason comes on Mournival at "Jenkins' Ear Museum," which he visits. Dixon in Cape Town "hears" the wish that he whispers into the famous pickled ear of Jenkins--that Dixon return to St. Helena safely. He does return and M. & D. return to England, talking about a new assignment to America. [[[More Pynchon slapstick]]]
CH. 18: (183-189) MASON RETURNS TO HIS HOME He brings toy boats home for his two young sons, cared for by his sister. There is a complicated story of his young married life with Rebekah and his boss Bradley's married life with Susannah Peach--the original sweetheart. Their observatory is a scene of "lust and death" for the four of them.
CH. 19: (190-198) MASON CONFRONTS THE 11-DAY DILEMMA OF THE "NEW CALENDAR" At the George Pub in his home town, Mason is challenged to explain what happened to the 11 days between the Old Style and New Style calendars when Parliament approved the change. His boss Bradley then was assistant to Lord Macclesfield, president of the Royal Society. The story went that pygmies were brought to England by Macclesfield to inhabit the lost 11 days. [[[Pynchon plays with the contrast between a rational ordering of the world (changing the measurements of days) and magical and fantastic myth. It is the contrast that haunts the Enlightenment.]]]
CH. 20: (199-206) MASON ANNOUNCES THE AMERICA PROJECT TO FAMILY He is criticized for this new departure of uncertain outcome by his sister, two sons, and his baker father. Father sees him as a foolish star gazer who abandons his children. Yet he will go.
CH. 21: (207-214) MASON SETS HIS MIND ON AMERICA He remembers his visit to Stonehenge with Rebekah...his father's coldness and deafness (masking a parental love).
CH. 22: (215-227) THE EDUCATION OF JEREMIAH DIXON William Emerson is Durham is Dixon's teacher. He follows Mesmer of France (mesmerism). Narrator Cherrycoke and family in Phila. exchange ideas on hypnotism. Emerson thought Dixon put a limit on his potential when he chose to be a surveyor (land enclosure made this a lucrative choice at the time). Now, however, he opens a door for him to go to America. Pynchon's story suggests that through Emerson's contacts Mason became a sympathizer of the Jesuits, who had an interest in the way the Mason-Dixon line turned out, Maryland being Catholic.
CH. 23: (228-237) DIXON MAKES A JESUITICAL DEAL AT THE PUB At a low-life pub in Durham, Dixon negotiates with Father Maire, Jesuit, for the assignment in America. He is assured he will have to do no espionage for the Catholics! (230) Lud-Oafery offers some Pynchon low-life slapstick. Cosmopolite Jesuit Maire explains how to make a PIZZA--the first British pizza in history.
CH. 24: (238-245) DIXON'S PARENTAGE EXPOSED George, his father, flirted with Mary Hunter. Enlightened spirits.
CH. 25: (246-253) MASON & DIXON REUNITE IN LONDON Signed on for the assignment in America, they go on the town, wondering about the wilds of America, recalling their "cowardice" at their first sailing, gossiping about the politics of the Royal Society.
PART TWO: AMERICA (pp. 257-713)
CH. 26: (257-265) MASON AND DIXON ARRIVE IN PHILADELPHIA November. Dock Street scene is busy, and Phila. is second only to London. They encounter pimps, Whitefield's religious Enthusiasm. Cherrycoke's family listeners riff on the correlation of change in musical forms and civil order/disorder. (262)
CH. 27: (266-274) ENCOUNTER WITH B. FRANKLIN Franklin is a conniving, lecherous, clever, anti-Brit force in town. M&D first meet him in an apothecary shop, where he advises them on buying dope (laudanum) at a bargain price. He talks Catholic/East India Co. intrigue with Dixon and Mason separately, playing both sides. At the "Fair Anchor" they hear him entertain the crowd on his glass harmonica. [[[Pynchon's skill in nutty characterization colors Ben in motley--the clown of the patriot cause.]]]
CH. 28: (275-288) ENCOUNTER WITH GEORGE & MARTHA AT MT. VERNON [[[More Pynchon humor at the expense of traditional historical icons.]]] M & D get instruction from Washington during their brief trip to Mt. Vernon on the hard realities of land development in America and the Indian wars (275-9) GERSHOM, George's manservant slave, is both black and Jewish, a Pynchonesqe extravagance from the pool of bizarre characterization. Gershom casually shares a pipe of tobacco with his master and guests, as if he were an equal. Martha pops in and cheerily offers snacks. She disputes with Mason about astronomy (282-3) She and George do a duet on Venus--nutty. Washington tells them of a Quebec Jesuit who periodically comes south and stirs up trouble and he asks them to report and be vigilant....Back in Philly, M&D learn from Franklin about THE JESUIT TELEGRAPH, which is a "marvel of instant communication. It works with giant balloons, mirrors, intense beams. It is operated by telegraph squads, elite teams of converted Chinese. [[[Pynchonian paranoia, sci-fi pastiche, the anachronisms of the postmodern permissive--the hope for overcoming entropy?]]]
CH. 29 (289-295) PHILLY POPS: EFFIGIES, INSOMNIA, ELECTRICITY Mason experiences the whacked-out political/social brew of Phila. The Masons accept him as a member ex Nomine (290). Effigies of commissioners for the Boundary Line live a bizarre life. Sleepless, Mason goes to The Orchid Tavern where Franklin performs an electrical show and gossips about Pa. politics.
CH. 30 (296-301) DIXON AND DOLLY IN PHILLY The public gathers in South Philadelphia where the line will start. An observatory for M&D is built by local carpenters. Now a town celeb, Dixon chats with Dolly, B. Franklin's tawdry ale house friend. They talk about surveying and dowsing at The Flower-de-Luce coffeehouse. Dolly warns Dixon about the Calverts in Md.
CH. 31 (302-314) PAXTON'S INDIAN MASSACRE Mason & Dixon learn about the massacre of Indians in Lancaster by the Scotch-Irish Paxton boys, who now are reported to be moving toward Philadelphia. They see the same racial madness here that they saw in Cape Town Dutch. (307) LIBERTY, an ideal of rationalist enlightenment, here means the right "to injure whomever we might wish." (307) They contemplate the GENOCIDE committed by both British and French when they gave Indians blankets infected with small pox. They compare and relate the 1745 Scottish conflict with British to that of whites and natives in North America. Mason laments the industrial rape of his home shire in England by knitting mills. [[[The Enlightenment theme of Liberty appears in this chapter as the drive to hegemony. Power, that is, lies at the center of rationalist argument.]]]
[[[NOTE: SOME OF THE SUMMARIES THAT FOLLOW FROM THIS POINT ARE FROM THE PYNCHON-LIST DISCUSSIONS. THEY ARE IDENTIFIED AS FOLLOWS: PYNCHON-L]]]
PYNCHON-L CH. 31: Sometime between Christmas & New Years, M&D wake to hear the city silent. Finding the streets empty, they wander to the nearest coffee house (the Restless Bee) where they find a fist-fight in progress between a Quaker and a Presbyterian. They learn that the Paxton boys have attacked and killed the remains of one tribe of Indians in Lancaster, and are on their way to Pilly, intent on killing off a tribe of Christian Indians there. This prospect seems to divide the city between those in favor of such action, and those opposed. Everyone seems afraid, and there is some discussion between Mason, Dixon, and Franklin about the causes of this kind of white brutality. This creates a break in the narrative, while the Rev. engage in a related conversation. Mason and Dixon spend the rest of the day hearing discussions of the looming invasion. The idea seems to excite Dixon, and Mason's ensuing interrogation brings up his and Dixon's recollections of the troubles of 45 and 55. Much of the discussion seems to be implicitly about the romance of war and rebellion as seen by young boys. Mason plays the wiser elder, which galls Dixon; they seem to get on each other's nerves. END PYNCHON-L CH.31
CH. 32 (315-326) PYNCHON-L CH. 32 Pliny and Pitt are sent unwillingly to bed, but not before drawing attention to the "Geminity" of M&D -- a convergence the Rev'd says was broken in 1767 or 1768 when "something occur'd between them... that divided their Destinies irremediably..." In the watches of the night, D tells M about the non-Newtonian timepiece entrusted to him by Emerson. Is it Jesuit technology? Or a conduit for those unsettling dreams of a Contract he has somehow violated? Before its power over him can grow stronger, it is eaten by local surveyor R.C., whose experience of Tangents and litigious Pennsylvanians casts an oblique light on the larger story. D worries that Emerson will judge he has betrayed his trust, but learns that whatever his teacher's plan, "it hath work'd to Perfection." The chapter ends with two cryptic codas from Emerson and Cherrycoke. END PYNCHON-L CH. 32
CH. 33 (327-340) PYNCHON-L CH. 33 More Drink, Smoak, Jollification, and coffee snorting, now at The Indian Queen. But Proprietarian politics is always present with the Line Commissioners, and we are reminded that the sweetness of sugar and molasses is distilled from the blood of West Indian slaves. The surveyors explain their initial dog-leg course to the Harlands, who are amiable but not entirely at ease with these unfamiliar Rituals. John Harland himself is seduced, "having Romantic thoughts for the first time": now he too wants the West. A dissertation on the Problem of the Tangent Line and the Stupidity of Kings, as 1764 ticks productively by. In the early winter lull, M&D fall to quarreling again, Repetition and Routine vs. pure Adventure... and set off for Lancaster to escape the imps of Discord. END PYNCHON-L CH. 33
CH. 34 (341-348) PYNCHON-L CH. 34 Or at least we think they both do; unreliable reconstruction is more than hinted at. The massacre site is a flourishing tourist attraction, with the inverted star of the Sterloop reminding M&D of the Cape. Conversation at The Dutch Rifle touches inconsequentially upon blood vengeance, city vs. frontier, and tobacco as currency. Is America Britannia's dream? Mason, abandoned by Rebekah since St. Helena, visits the jail where the Indians were slaughtered as if it were a shrine -- and Dixon "doubles" the visit later, dressed as Mason but wondering in his own way how this could possibly be made right. They do not share their responses, but they do not need to: the question is "Whom are we working for?" The clement Routine of Observation, or something stronger, draws them up and away. They escape their escape, and return to the Harlands' farm. END PYNCHON-L CH. 34
[[[On p. 345, the narrator meditates on the function of America for Britain. The provinces are what is not yet mapped and are therefore still something unknown and new that could be possible: they are what "may yet be true," the Earthly Paradise. As the west is conquered, it becomes known, mapped, demystified, transformed into "simplicities that serve the ends of Governments."]]]
CH. 35 (349-361) PYNCHON-L CH. 35 Christ & History epigraph, by Revd Wicks Cherrycoke
Chapter 35 begins with a conversation regarding the veracity of history, principally between Uncle Ives who sees events as a compilation of verifiable fact versus Ethelmer (and the Reverend) who wittily argue for the possibility that history is comprised of multiple versions of events under no single authority or source. Euphrenia later dismisses the Novel which Ives insists is a Devils Bargain, sqaundering precious time. The historical characters represented in Shakespeare's plays are contrasted with their real lives, particularly Hamlet and Ophelia (allowing Tenebrae and Ethelmer to flirt some more). After some sustained banter from Aunt Euphrenia, the Reverend samples some Peach Brandy which leads into the continuation of his narrative.
Cherrycoke is back in the Americas riding east from Susquehanna towards Philadelphia and his next assignment, acting as Chaplain to Mason and Dixon's expedition (unbeknownst to either). Times are a bit touchy for a British minister in the Americas, seeing as the Stamp Act as spurred open rebellion to all things British.
During this eventful coach ride (the coach being larger inside than out), the good Reverend meets Mr Edgewise, a jovial gambler, who as the ride progresses begins to share the contents of another Jesuit invention, the "thermos" (also exhibiting larger contents than its outer figure would dictate) with all and sundry; Mr Edgewise's wife, who we will later learn, is quite the magician. Two women are later picked up, Frau Luise Redzinger and daughter, Mitzi, travelling to Philadelphia in hopes of procuring a lawyer to save their property from the wiles of Mr Grodt, a Maryland farmer attempting to cheat the Redzinger farm from them, as the property lay in the path of the approaching Visto and Grodt wishes to prove that the land should be his as the Redzinger's have not paid their quitrent, realizing of course, there is no such law in Pennsylvania, where the Redzinger's reside, pre-drawing of the Line. We also hear the story of the religious conversion and the effect this has on Mr Peter Redzinger, Luise's husband, Luise becoming more animated after consecutive nips from Mr Edgewise's thermos, which either contains coffee or liquor. He apparently drowned in a pit of roasted hops, only his finger attached to this, earthly sphere.
After much debate about lawyers and land disputes, we are given the idea that this is all rather old, seeing as the subdivision of this, our earth, began on that second day of creation, when the firmament divided the waters. (as Dixon will later discover in a most unusual way)
The chapter ends with a rather glum Reverend Cherrycoke ruminating on the machine that ,(its pale driver, History) bears us along, picking us up, in the midst of love, life, sorrow and everything else, only to leave us driver-less, the machine evaporating, upon a prarie of desperate immensity. (we're definitely not in Kansas, anymore)
END PYNCHON-L CH. 35
CH. 36 (362-370) SNOWBOUND EN ROUTE FROM LANCASTER Mason and Dixon and narrator Cherrycoke meet in a snow storm at an inn where they are trapped with the other travelers for days somewhere east of Lancaster, en route back to Philadelphia. Many adventures take place in this and succeeding chapters. Most notable is the romance of Armand Allegre, the French chef, and Frau Redzinger, Pa. Dutch echo of Chaucer's wife of Bath.
CH. 37 (371-381) SNOWBOUND II: THE MECHANICAL DUCK'S AMOUR WITH ALLEGRE The mechanical duck--a marvel of eighteenth century rationalist mechanics--fell in love with the chef in France. Its relentless pursuit forced Allegre's emigration to America, to which the duck followed him. [[[Pynchon continues to connect the story to the conceptual contrast between MECHANISM and ORGANICISM. This sustains the preoccupations of the 18th century Enlightenment. These include the concept of PERPETUAL MOTION, the opposite of ENTROPY, Pynchon's theme from the first.]]] Quixotic/romantic fool Dimdown tries to duel with Allegre. This may be a way of showing the cabin fever experienced in the snowbound inn.
CH. 38 (382-390) SNOWBOUND III: DIMDOWN'S SWORDSMANSHIP FAILS While Frau Redzinger and Allegre get romantically involved, her daughter Mitzi makes a play for Dimdown.
PYNCHON-L CH. 38
Chapter 38: The company is snowbound in the Inn and the forced proximity breeds various tensions. Dimdown goes for the Chef again; the Duck, Armand's guardian angel/tormentor, intervenes. Luise Redzinger and Armand develop a touching romance, watched over by the Duck. The rest of the company squabble. Cherrycoke gets carried away by his metaphysical speculations on the Eucharist. Mitzi, Luise's daughter, experiments with her newly discovered sexual power on a variety of local boys. She also seeks Armand's company as much as possible, with whom she is infatuated. He instructs her in some culinary mysteries. Next, she approaches Dimdown, ostensibly to bring about a rapprochement between him and Armand. She tries out the effect of unbound hair upon Dimdown (no body problems there); it works well. Mitzi herself is not unmoved either. Mr Knockwood interrupts what is rapidly becoming a pretty steamy scene. Dimdown and Armand make up and discuss the various uses of lamination. The discussion becomes general. In a flashforward, Dimdown is revealed to be a revolutionary in fop disguise. We surface in the frame story, where Tenebrae shows herself well acquainted with the conventions of romantic fiction.
END PYNCHON-L CH. 38< CH. 39 (391-398) AFTER SNOWBOUND, M & D TAKE SEPARATE PATHS In the last period of being snowbound, M & D argue about female relationships. Mason is still mourning his wife's death. Dixon is involved with the baker's helper and getting fat in the inn. AFTER THE SNOW, Dixon heads south to Williamsburg. He exposes himself to see if Popish or other plotters seek him out. (394) He sees revolutionary fervor at the Stamp Act. Dixon at the Raleigh Tavern gives Tom Jefferson a phrase that Tom will make famous--"the pursuit of Happiness." (395) He duels with a Cavalier over a mistress with quoits instad of guns. He sees no slaves in Va.
PYNCHON-L CH. 39
Chapter 39: Dixon advises Mason to seek a new love, in order to dispel his melancholy. Mason takes it in fairly good part at first, and interrogates Dixon on his current fling. Dixon reveals her to be Maureen, an accomplished cook, and recommends her friend Pegeen to Mason. Mason gets irritated. When their confinement ends, they agree to travel seperately for a while; Dixon goes south, Mason north. Their leavetaking of each other is guarded. The rest of the chapter concerns itself with Dixon's journey, though there is some real doubt how much of this is Cherrycoke's fabrication. In Cherrycoke's telling, Dixon believes himself to be on a mission, and goes looking for a contact. Noone approaches him, but he does witness various scenes of revolutionary unrest. At a tavern, he meets the young Thomas Jefferson, and supplies him with a rather famous quote. Jefferson turns out to know something about surveying and philosophizes on the consequences of drawing boundaries; those on the other side are always somehow lacking. Meanwhile, a party is in progress. Dixon briefly dances, gives offence, and is challenged to a duel. The weapon of choice is quoits, and the dispute is settled amicably. On the way back, trying to sum up his recent experiences, Dixon has a flash of insight. It was all about something that had failed to happen. He had not seen slaves consciously.
END PYNCHON-L CH. 39
CH. 40 (399-409) MASON IN NY-BROOKLYN Mason learns about the growth of an American consciousness from Amy and her "uncle" in the rowdy center of commerce, spurred by the Stamp Act. He fixes their telescope. He's thrown from a horse en route through Jerseys.
PYNCHON-L CH. 40
Chapter 40: Mason goes to New York as a tourist merely, unlike Dixon. He falls in with a young girl who takes him home after he has fed her. She turns out to be not quite what she seems (again) and she has some friends of whom the same can be said. Initially they seem merely rogues, bent upon seperating Mason from his money. They speculate, not in a very friendly spirit, as to his occupation. Once he reveals it, they turn out to have a use for him: he can fix their telescope. Mason does so, more or less under duress. The telescope would appear to be for the purpose of spying, not upon the heavens, but upon some strategic sites, and the Collectivity, so styled, more and more appears to be some kind of revolutionary cell. He overhears their discussions on the hot topics of the time--taxation without representation and the rest--and takes some part in them. He is shocked by the lengths these people are willing to go to. He disavows any responsibility for the doings of British Parliament, as a non-property owner (only householders were allowed to vote). His situation (wage slave) is compared to that of the local slaves, to his chagrin. The situation of the British weavers is also brought up again: Mason remembers the autumn of '56, when Wolfe annihilated the weavers. It was a turning point in Mason's life, the time he chose his present career, and he briefly regrets having left his father, and his way of life. He parts on friendly terms with the company. On his way back, he suffers a fall from his horse and has to keep to his bed for a while. He wonders whether the horse saw a ghost, and reads the bible on resurrection for clues. He is visited by a presence, not exactly Rebekah, though the name it calls him (Mopery) seem to indicate it is her, and he stores up its revelation for future use.
END PYNCHON-L CH. 40
CH. 41 (410-421) ADVENTURES AT LEPTON CASTLE, THE IRON WORKS, BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF CIVILIZATION
PYNCHON-L CH. 41
We open with Wade annoucing that he once met M&D at the Lepton Ridotto in the early 60s. Wicks has heard the tale of the Ridotto from M&D but was unaware of Wade's part until now. Wade begins to tell the tale of the meeting, describing his business trips in the hostile but ultimately enfranchised lands beyond the bounds of US civilization. Lepton appears to have been on his itinerary because it housed an iron works, raw material for the manufacture of the weapons Wade is involved in selling. Wade expresses a fscination for the metal and its magical magnetic properties, rather than any feeling towards the martial uses for which it is employed. Wicks, in an aside, weighs into the equation the misery of the slaves who labour at its production, `the inhuman ill-usage, the careless abundace of pain inflicted, the unpric'd Coercion necessary to yearly Profits beyond the projectings of even proud Satan'.
Wicks continues the tale, recounting M&D's stumbling, lost, upon Lepton Castle and stumbling, bemused, into the Ridotto where, mysteriously, they are announced as they argue whether or nto to crash the gate. As they continue arguing, Captain Dasp, apparently a Calvert spy, drops some advice in their ear just as Lady Lepton arrives. Dixon is astonished to recognise her from Raby Castle, where in his young manhood he spied on and fell for her from a distance, now flushing with pleasure when she recalls him favourably. Lord Lepton duly appears, a rake once ruined in a bubble market but his fortunes now revived in the American iron trade, he fetched Lady L from Raby once his US business was started. Amid the party chat it emerges taht Lady L, unsatisfied by her husband's attentions, is casting her eye around, possibly in Dixon's or Dasp's direction. A familiar looking slave who brings Dixon some punch is discussed, Dasp claiming that he bought her from a `convent' (more like a brothel) in Quebec, drawing the joke out into a blasphemous creed. Dixon tries to continue th ejoke but Mason who has recognised Austra cuts him off, having also realised that Dasp is a spy who has fled south following the reent French defeats in Canada and the lands west of the British colonies. A gong summons the guests to a wing of the castle decked out as a giant casino.
END PYNCHON-L CH. 41
CH. 42 (422-435) TALE OF A TUB: M&D SWIPE A MAGNETIC TUB FROM LEPTON
PYNCHON-L CH. 42
Wicks discusses the belief that gambling is inherently sinful, an affront to an omniscient God, tantamount to wagering on his Will from the vantage point of our own ignorance. He applies the same doctrine to enterprisers - entrepreneurs - earning a reproof from Wade for the unjustness of the comparison between businessmen and mere gamblers. Wicks continues undeterred, citing the corrupting and corrosive power of money as the cause of his concern.
M&D are fleeced, of course, Lepton resorting to cheating where necessary to win. Dixon determines to steal something to replace the 20 pounds sterling of the King's money they have been relieved of and settles for a large iron bathing tub. Amazingly, he manages to lift and move the tub with ease, apparently because it is a giant magnet. He leaves Mason holding the tub while he scouts out the way ahead and appears to be waylaid by Lady L for a quickie. meanwhile, a Professor Voam, Philosophical Operator, appears confirming that the tub is indeed a powerful magnet. Voam is on the run having electrocuted a Philadelphia Fop who took too close an interest in Voam's electric eel, Feli'pe.
They run into Austra, who challenges Charles, then feeds him the story about being sold and then handed over to the Quebec nuns before Dasp purchased her. Mason disregards this, letting her know that he has rumbled her and Dasp as spies. She disappears and, Dixon having returned, they set about searching for her finding lots of secret passages but no Austra. Instead they stumble upon a gun bearing the inverted star pattern they saw at the Cape and in Lancaster.
Here Wade resumes the narrative. As they argue about its provenance Wade, who is asleep on an adjacent sofa, wakes and inspects the gun, identifying that it is a forest hunting weapon sized to kill animals of about human weight. Wade does not recognise the inverted star sign and pooh-poohs Mason's suggestion that it is the Devil's mark, remaining agnostic on the subject of guns and the Devil, having heard the arguments on either side many times. Finally he gets round to asking them what they are doing with *that* tub. Dixon suggests it is fair exchange for not taking the rifle, Mason considering the latter alternative far too dangerous. Wade agrees, adding that he will keep mum re the tub, although he does tease them about informing Lord Lepton. That's Wade's version of events as he tells it, though whether or not he kept his promise is not made clear, and Wicks resumes the narrative.
M&D and Voam escape with the tub on a Conestoga wagon. Voam begins describing the eel and we find ourselves in the middle of one of his shows, with M&D in the audience, either on the next or some subsequent evening. Voam is using the magnetic tub to enhance the powers of his electric eel. When he uses the eel's stored potential to light a cigar, Mason, staring straight at the spark, has a `mystical' experience induced by the blinding flash. Voam and Feli'pe end up joining the party on the line, Feli'pe being used as the camp Compass.
END PYNCHON-L CH. 42
CH. 43 (436-439)
PYNCHON-L CH. 43
The surveyors obtain news of Maskelyne's ascension ot the post of Astronomer Royal when they return to Newark at the end of February. Mason is obviously upset but tries to be cheery, causing Dixon more grief as a result. Mason picks on a careless word of Dixon's to launch [[[ed note: go to mail:programme:file 150 for the rest of this pynchon-l summary of ch. 43]]]
END PYNCHON-L CH. 43
CHAPTERS 44-61 [[[TO BE INSERTED]]]
CH. 62 (608-617) CHAPTER SUMMARIES TO BE CONTINUED--18 October 97
CAVEAT: WORK WILL RESUME ON THIS INCOMPLETE FILE. MEANWHILE, WE INVITE READERS/BROWSERS TO TAKE FROM WHAT IS HERE WHAT THEY WILL. THEY SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT THE PROGRAMME DOES NOT HOLD ITSELF RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS FILE UNTIL WE REMOVE THIS CAVEAT.