Mason & Dixon

[k-j]

Does no-one read prose on PG?

Currently 2/3 through this knock(ab)out masterpiece. It is great, but maybe not quite as great as the previous Pynchon books, though I might change my mind if they go off somewhere else. My favourite bits so far are the South Africa/St Helena parts.

[brianedwards]

It's probably grown to be my favourite Pynchon, his true masterpiece even. Arguably contains his most poetic sequences? Will dig it out when I have time and post some quotes.

B.

[David2]

My favourite Pynchon. A bit of a baggy monster, but a brilliant, lovable one.

[k-j]

I guess I'm missing the zaniness of the earlier stories. M&D are really the only two principals... I've come to expect the big cast from Pynchon. Maybe that's not right. But there's this mad anarchy in V., GR and TCoL49, and even Vineland, which is mellowed and polished in M&D. I can see why this would be many people's favourite, but it is quite a departure.

Having moped aloud, I should add that it's still a brilliant, joyous novel and, on reflection, it's perhaps the final proof of Pynchon's genius, zooming in like this - switching from the telescope to the microscope. I haven't loved two men so much since Ulysses. In fact, M&D are better than Stephen and Bloom by virtue of neither of them being Stephen..

p.s. Brian, nice to see the Dixonian ? at the end of your sentence there. But it's really ..?

[k-j]

I thought it sagged a bit in the middle but the ending was great. The flights of fancy were lovely but sometimes felt a bit too random - like TP had written them separately and was just shoehorning them into M&D wherever he could. Agree with you Brian that some of the prose is really glittering... without the myriad madcap microplots of the earlier works I guess the writing can shine more.

Got to love the dog and the duck.