Mason & Dixon

A wildly different historical novel, and can see why it's not the easiest of reads, its to be read slow and savored. Filled with wild travels, local foods and drinking establishments, mythology , Jesuits, ducks, and lots of surveying.

A through-the-roof masterpiece.

A fantastic book, and an epic story about storytelling. I'm still vibrating from the last chapter; probably the most intimate and beautiful prose Pynchon has written. TP loves contrasts: Mason & Dixon; Jesuit & Quaker; Earth & Stars; North & South; America & England; Slave & Master. Pynchon is never better than those periods and chapters where he is riffing about the recesses of the unspoken, the paths untaken, the caves unexplored. He is able to map the Cartesian coordinate of science and mythology with a language that folds the map, bringing the two opposite edges together in a kiss that explodes like a lightening strike.

Allora nemiche e nemici dello spoiler vi è andata male a sto giro perché è madame Storia che vi fornisce lo spoiler... Riusciranno i nostri eroi a tracciare la linea di confine, che tutt'oggi porta il loro nome, tra la colonia del Maryland e quella della Pennsylvania? La risposta è sì... Quindi puppatemelo... Quello che invece non potete sapere sono le avventure che hanno trascorso i 2 astronomi, in missione per conto del Re, per portare a compimento il compito (gioco di parole)... Faranno la loro comparsa George Washington Benjamin Franklin e gli indiani d'America... Quello è il tempo degli Stati Uniti d'America in cui ancora non esistevano quando ancora erano le 13 colonie sotto il controllo della Corona Inglese... correvano gli anni 1763 -1767

l'immagine in copertina sono gli USA, per vederli il libro va girato in senso antiorario

Había leído un par de cosas de Pynchon, pero nada de esta magnitud, nada que me conmoviera tanto. The Crying of Lot 49 me confundió y me impresionó. Inherent Vice me hizo reír y me entretuvo. Pero este libro tocó mi alma. Desde Don Quijote y Sancho que una pareja de personajes no me parecen tan entrañables, tan vivos.

Este libro tiene de todo: desde discusiones sobre astrología y el cambio de calendario, pasando por la naturaleza del tiempo mismo, de la muerte, hombres-castor y leñadores estrafalarios, aventuras a caballo con un maestro de Feng Shui y el fantasma de una esposa que se niega a dejar de amar, un pato mecánico y su idilio con un cocinero francés, sabios indios americanos y hasta un entrañable perro parlante. Charles Mason y Jeremiah Dixon se embarcan en el trazo de una línea recta casi imposible, que partirá en dos lo que después sería uno de los imperios más poderosos de la tierra.

Cuando cerré el libro, me costó creer que esta enorme y bella aventura se había terminado. Adiós, amigos. Intentaré quedarme donde ustedes están. Las estrellas estarán tan cerca que ni siquiera habrá telescopios. Los peces te saltan a los brazos. Los indios saben magia. Pescaremos juntos. Y tú también.

One of the most common and annoying misconceptions about experimental art is that its creators - which very definitely include Pynchon - only make it because they aren't good enough to make normal art. And while Pynchon thoroughly broke that rule with the heavily experimental opus Gravity's Rainbow, it's here that he disproves it in a way I think would be more readily evident to people who weren't that big into postmodernism.

After all, this is probably the most mature novel Pynchon ever wrote. It's not quite my favorite - I still prefer Gravity's Rainbow on account of being a bizarre, gut-busting opus that basically broke every rule that an author can reasonably break and still come out with a novel - but it has the most complete characters I've read in a Pynchon novel so far. The haunted, melancholy, timid Mason and the passionate, relentlessly cheerful, courageous Dixon really jump right off of the page and come to life, behaving as real people, and pretty cool people at that. Not only, but they share a charming and moving friendship that forms the core of this novel, every bit as much as the conspiracies and off-the-wall humor.

Because, Pynchon being Pynchon, there are conspiracies and off-the-wall humor here. Nothing as ridiculous as the central Lot 49/Gravity's Rainbow conspiracies, but still a nice combination of over-the-top and bone-chilling. To keep things from getting too heavy, there's also a talking dog, a vengeful robot duck capable of turning invisible, all matters of goofy songs, a grotesquely hilarious episode with an ear, scenes of our heroes smoking weed with George Washington, and a brief episode with Dixon mentioning the "pursuit of happiness" and a red-haired Philadelphian named Tom asking if he can use that phrase sometime in the future. With the possible exception of Vonnegut, Pynchon's sense of humor lines up with mine better than any other author I've read.

The last aspect of M&D I want to talk about, besides warning the prospective reader that the 18th century English can take some getting used to (although it was, ultimately, a brilliant decision) is the novel's two settings. Pynchon has this remarkable ability to bring a scene to life, which in my opinion just plain hasn't been discussed enough. And the mix of exoticism, hedonism, and kitsch that characterizes Cape Town makes it another one of Pynchon's great settings (see also: V's New York, the Crying of Lot 49's Southern California, [book Gravity's Rainbow]'s Zone), and the sense of excitement, mystery, outright strangeness, and borderline supernatural goings-on that characterize Pynchon's America is probably his #1, at least from what I've read so far. The confident, revolutionary buzz of the town combined with the bizarre, untamed, often inexplicable events that happen as soon as they step outside of them is fascinating.

So while it's not quite as good as Gravity's Rainbow, it's only trailing the slightest bit behind, and in some aspects is probably better. Out of every novel I read that was released in the '90s, the only one that I can reasonably say I liked more is good old Infinite Jest. And if that's not endorsement enough for you, I don't know what is.

Pinčonove romane zamišljam kao kofere koji pucaju koliko su prepuni stvari. Na carini mu kažu da ih otvore, pošto nešto sija na skeneru, i onda posle ne može da ih zatvori. Sve ono unutra izleti u svet.

Tako ovde postoje automaton patke sa fetišima, vanzemaljci, džinovska svesna uva, duhovi, kolonizatori napuštenih jedanaest dana, crni pakleni psi, golemi, feng šui džedaji, i mnogo drugog, sa sve Bendžaminom Frenklinom koga je struja udarila jedan put previše i Džordžom Vašingtonom kao trajno napušenim svodnikom. Plus divan rečnik i smisao za humor. Pinčon, ukratko.

Medjutim, ono što po mom mišljenju stavlja Mejsona i Diksona i iznad Duge Gravitacije (sl. prevod), jesu naracija i emocija.

Narativno, priču priča pinčonovski nazvan sveštenik Wicks Cherrycoke, kao jednu analogiju arapskoj Hiljadu i jednoj noći. On priča priču kako ga porodica ne bi izbacila napolje, na zimu; porodica podjednako životna kao i on sam, ali ne toliko mudra – jer samo kod Pinčona lik sa takvim imenom može da bude jedan od mudraca.
Viks je lično poznavao ubedljivo i toplo karakterisan naslovni dvojac – iako je to bilo na circa 5% njihovog ukupnog putovanja. Ali on ipak može da priča o svemu, jer, kako kaže: n  „Rather, part of the common Duty of Remembering, - surely our Sentiments,- how we dream’d of, and were mistaken in, each other,- count for at least as much as our poor cold Chronologies.“n

Emotivno, dosta je reći Mejson i Dikson.

I to je sve.

5+

Essential.