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written down, nor ever, by the majority of Mankind,
seen – serving as a very Rubbish-Tip for subjunctive
Hopes, for all that may yet be true – Earthly Paradise,
Fountain of Youth, Realms of Prester John, Christ’s
Kingdom, ever behind the sunset, safe until the next
Territory to the West be seen and recorded, measur’d
and tied in, back into the Net-Work of points already
known, that slowly triangulates its Way into the Continent,
changing all from subjunctive to declarative,
reducing Possibilities to Simplicities that serve the
ends of Governments, – winning away from the realm
of the Sacred, its Borderlands one by one, and assuming
them unto the bare mortal World that is our home,
and our Despair.”
And with only a slightly greater synaptic leap, Mason
& Dixon can be read as a rueful acknowledgement of
the fragmentation of the American dream – the disappearance
of a collective sense of direction and purpose,
as well as possibly morality – a relief portrait of a
country and people adrift:
Mason to Dixon: “Acts have consequences, Dixon,
they must. These Louts believe all’s right now, – that
they are free to get on with Lives that are to them no
doubt important, – with no Glimmer at all of the Debt
BUY Thomas Pynchon books online from and
they have taken on. That is what I smell’d – Lethe-water.
One of the things the newly born forget, is how terrible
its Taste, and Smell. In Time, these People are able to
forget ev’rything. Be willing to wait but a little, and ye
may gull them again and again, however ye wish, – even
unto their own Dissolution. In America, as I apprehend,
Time is the true river that runs round Hell.”
Lethe, the river of ignorance in Greek mythology, is
evidently the creek we’re stuck on without a paddle,
drifting ever away from “the realm of the sacred.” Not
altogether a very cheery prospect.
Mason & Dixon, despite frequent humour, makes
for pretty lousy light reading; if the continual digressions,
daunting thematic content, odd symbolism, or
structural oddities don’t get to you, the period narrative
style certainly will. Maintaining the necessary mental
inventory of preceding events is a difficulty even early
on, and later, a virtual impossibility. Concentration,
and lots of it, is necessary for a successful foray into
Pynchon’s New World, where brevity is the only thing
in short supply. But for those who dare to attempt the
challenge, armed with the requisite patience and attention
span, Mason & Dixon offers abundant wit, as well
as considerable wisdom. �
412
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