My book club read my favorite novel last go-around. A few of the members struggled mightily with it, but all finished.

And now I shall reward them!

#Pynchon #MasonAndDixon #BookClub

Wanting to stay in the world of #MasonAndDixon for a while longer, so I'm reading Letters from an American Farmer by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur next.

Accompanied by cold beer & a notebook. Great dreampop from Air Hunger cushioning my ears.

https://shorediverecords.bandcamp.com/album/f-i-x-e-r

Finished #MasonAndDixon last night. Hit by a fierce need to weep. Heavy, shuddering convulsions.

I went upstairs to cry alone. My wife heard me moving & asked me to do some chore up there. I tried to hide the tears in my voice, & in doing so, I quashed the convulsions, but not the desire.

A chest that yearned for release; tears that would not come. Horribly unsatisfying feeling, like messing up a sneeze x20.

Anyway, best book ever!

#Pynchon #AmReading #Literature

Night over all this watershed how vast, that covers each soul in it like a breathing Mouth, humid, warm, carrying the odors of living and dying, that takes back ev'rything committed upon the Land that Day, without appeal, dissolving all in Shadow.

(p. 585)

#Pynchon #MasonAndDixon #BookClub

Prepping for tonight's 2nd of 3 book club meetings for #MasonAndDixon by #Pynchon. Comparing the novel's events w/ a transcript of Mason's journal I got from the good people at Mason-Dixon Historical Park in Core, West Virginia.

A splash of the gothic in the exquisite Ch. 35 (p.361)

#MasonAndDixon #Pynchon

From the shore they will hear Milkmaids quarreling and cowbells a-clank, and dogs, and Babies old and new,— Hammers upon Nails, Wives upon Husbands, the ring of Pot-lids, the jingling of Draft-chains, a rifle-shot from a stretch of woods, lengthily crackling tree to tree and across the water.... An animal will come to a Headland, and stand, regarding them with narrowly set Eyes that glow a Moment. Its Face slowly turning as they Pass. America.

(pp. 257-258)
#Pynchon #MasonAndDixon

1st of 3 book club discussions on #MasonAndDixon was last night. Everyone is giving it a solid effort. Most are a bit bewildered; one "got it" immediately & is loving it. Phew!

2nd section reading & posting to commence soon!

#Pynchon

M&D bicker over how hard they're working to stay out of the V.O.C.'s orbit (i.e., global capital, slavery, etc.). Mason bridles, assuming he's being accused of being Slothful in this regard. (p. 70)

In '93 Pynchon published an essay on Sloth, which included a def. of political weakness. A good essay on its own, & applicable to this novel. #Pynchon #MasonAndDixon

http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/uncollected/sloth.html

I got hip to most (all?) of the bigger themes, historical references, etc. by reading the excellent "The Multiple Worlds of Pynchon's Mason & Dixon," edited by Elizabeth Jane Wall Hinds, as well as a few online sources, esp. the "Pynchon Wiki: Mason & Dixon" at: http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

#Pynchon #MasonAndDixon

The weather is turning cold, & it's a perfect time to nestle into a thick library. My book club chose my favorite novel, Mason & Dixon by Pynchon, and I'm posting as I read. Join me?

#Pynchon #MasonAndDixon #BigBooks

https://zirk.us/@JaminBogi/109322636248950780