The Multiple Worlds of Pynchon's Mason & Dixon: Eighteenth-Century Contexts, Postmodern Observations (Studies in American Literature and Culture) (Studies in American Literature and Culture)

234 Pages·2005·0.86 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Jane Wall Hinds

UofRPressHind.qxd 9/7/05 9:18 AM Page 1
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Elizabeth Jane Wall Hinds is Professor and Chair of Edited by When Thomas Pynchon’s novel Mason & Dixon was
the English Department at SUNY Brockport.Her Elizabeth Jane published in 1997,it marked a deep shift in
book Private Property:Charles Brockden Brown’s Wall Hinds Pynchon’s career and in American letters in general.
Gendered Economics of Virtue was published in 1997. All of Pynchon’s novels had been socially and
T politically aware:V.,The Crying of Lot 49,Gravity’s
Contributors:Mitchum Huehls, Rainbow, andVineland are all marked by social
h
Brian Thill,Colin A.Clarke,Pedro García-Caro, e criticism and a profound questioning of American
Dennis M.Lensing,Justin M.Scott Coe, values.They have carried the labels of satire and
M
Ian D.Copestake,Frank Palmeri. black humor;“Pynchonesque” has come to be
u associated with erudition,a playful style,
l anachronisms and puns — and an interest in
t
i scientific theories,popular culture,paranoia,and the
p
“military-industrial complex,” which may or may not,
l
e according to Pynchon’s wild and widely populated

W casts of characters,be the definitive feature of
“America.” In short,Pynchon's novels were
o preeminently postmodern. Mason & Dixon moved
r beyond postmodernism to use the same style,wit,
l
d and erudition to re-create an eighteenth century
s when “America” was being formed as both the place

“This collection shows that Mason & Dixon has catapulted Pynchon squarely into the field of o and the idea we have come to know.Pynchon’s
eighteenth-century literature,politics,and culture,and thus into the very heart of American f focus on the creation of the Mason-Dixon Line and

Studies.After this collection,Pynchon no longer belongs only to scholars working on P the governmental and scientific entities responsible
twentieth-century literature.The “historical turn” inaugurated by the collection shifts y for it makes a clearer statement than any of his
Pynchon scholarship into a new,exciting direction”. n previous novels about the slavery and imperialism at
c the heart of the Enlightenment,and Mason & Dixon
— Professor Hanjo Berressem,
h
levels a dark and hilarious critique at this “America.”
University of Cologne
o
The novel was a New York Times bestseller.
n
This volume of new essays studies the interface
’s between eighteenth- and twentieth-century culture

M both in Pynchon’s novel and in the historical past.It
offers fresh thinking about Pynchon’s work not only
a
TThhee MMuullttiippllee WWoorrllddss because it deals with his most recent novel,but also
s
o because the contributors take up the linkages
n between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries in
studies that are as concerned with culture as with
& ooff PPyynncchhoonn’’ss
the literary text itself.

D The scope of the volume is indicated by its four
sections:“The Rounds of History,”about historiography
i
x MMaassoonn && DDiixxoonn and narrative temporality;“Consumption Then and
o
Now,” which deals with slavery,trade,and
n
Camden House
consumption;“Space and Power,” which confronts
668 Mt.Hope Avenue
ISBN 1–57113–318–6 the connections between “place” and imperial
Rochester,NY 14620-2731 needed? (Bar code with ISBN above Eighteenth-Century Contexts, power in the eighteenth century;and “Enlightenment
Jacket images:Map:Library of Congress,Geography and P.O.Box 9 and partial ISBN/check
Microhistories,” which studies in detail three specific
and Map Division.Hydra:John Flamsteed,Atlas Woodbridge,Suffolk IP12 3DF,UK sum below) Postmodern Observations
eighteenth-century cultural incidents.
Coelestis, 1729.Hydra,Crater,Corvus,Sextans,Virgo. www.camden-house.com
Edited by Elizabeth Jane Wall Hinds
Courtesy of Linda Hall Library,Kansas City,Missouri. or:www.boydellandbrewer.com
The Multiple Worlds of Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon
Studies in American Literature and Culture
The Multiple Worlds
of Pynchon’s
Mason & Dixon

Eighteenth-Century Contexts,
Postmodern Observations
Edited by
Elizabeth Jane Wall Hinds

CAMDEN HOUSE
Copyright © 2005 by the Editor and Contributors
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation,
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted,
recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
First published 2005
by Camden House
Camden House is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
www.camden-house.com
and of Boydell & Brewer Limited
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
www.boydellandbrewer.com
ISBN: 1–57113–318–6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The multiple worlds of Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon: eighteenth-century con-
texts, postmodern observations / edited by Elizabeth Jane Wall Hinds
p. cm. — (Studies in American literature and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1–57113–318–6 (acid-free paper)
1. Pynchon, Thomas. Mason & Dixon. 2. Biographical fiction,
American—History and criticism. 3. Mason, Charles, 1728–1786—In
literature. 4. Postmodernism (Literature)—United States. 5. Literature
and history—United States. 6. Frontier and pioneer life in literature.
7. Dixon, Jeremiah—In literature. 8. Scientists in literature. I. Hinds,
Elizabeth Jane Wall, 1960– II. Title. III. Series.
PS3566.Y55M3736 2005
813'.54—dc22
2005014649
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
This publication is printed on acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America.
Contents
Preface vii
Note on Quotations from Mason & Dixon ix
The Rounds of History
Introduction: The Times of Mason & Dixon 3
Elizabeth Jane Wall Hinds
1: “The Space that may not be seen”:
The Form of Historicity in Mason & Dixon 25
Mitchum Huehls
Consumption Then and Now
2: The Sweetness of Immorality: Mason & Dixon
and the American Sins of Consumption 49
Brian Thill
3: Consumption on the Frontier:
Food and Sacrament in Mason & Dixon 77
Colin A. Clarke
Space and Power
4: “America was the only place . . .”: American
Exceptionalism and the Geographic Politics
of Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon 101
Pedro García-Caro
5: Postmodernism at Sea: The Quest for Longitude
in Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon and
Umberto Eco’s The Island of the Day Before 125
Dennis M. Lensing
vi ♦ CONTENTS
Enlightenment Microhistories
6: Haunting and Hunting: Bodily Resurrection
and the Occupation of History in Thomas
Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon 147
Justin M. Scott Coe
7: “Our Madmen, our Paranoid”:
Enlightened Communities and the
Mental State in Mason & Dixon 171
Ian D. Copestake
8: General Wolfe and the Weavers: Re-envisioning
History in Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon 185
Frank Palmeri
Works Cited 199
Notes on the Contributors 213
Index 215
Preface
IN DECEMBER OF 1998, the Modern Language Association hosted, in
San Francisco, its first session solely devoted to Mason & Dixon, which
had just been released in 1997. Having fallen utterly under its spell, I co-
wrote, with my colleague John Loftis, a paper for that session, and after
our early morning MLA presentation, all of the presenters — Terry Reilly,
Hans-Joachim Berressem, Frank Palmeri, John and I — went out for
breakfast.
Trained as an eighteenth-century Americanist, I had spent some years
alternating between studies of eighteenth-century subjects and, as a kind
of palate cleanser, publications on postmodern cultural subjects like Star
Trek, heavy metal music, and increasingly, on Thomas Pynchon’s novels.
So when Mason & Dixon was published, I was ecstatic. I thought surely
this novel was for me, in some scholarly-mystical way — that I was
uniquely suited to study it because of my clever, switch-hitting, eight-
eenth-century and postmodern research agenda. The MLA post-session
breakfast turned out to be a real eye opener: everyone sitting at that table,
we all learned, had had the same rather solipsistic thought. All of us were
eighteenth-century specialists, and all had “dabbled” in Pynchon studies
over the years. But there was not a dilettante among us; we brought to
the table a wealth of cultural-historical knowledge that seemed specifically
positioned to unpack the bizarre, real-unreal, historical-modern landscape
of Mason & Dixon.
That breakfast cured me of my narcissism regarding Mason & Dixon,
and put in its place a strong curiosity to hear what others had to say about
its eighteenth-century contexts. These many years later, I’m pleased to
have heard so much more, largely from the contributors to this volume —
among them, I’m happy to say, Frank Palmeri, from the original breakfast
group. This volume has been about three years in the collecting, and my
greatest thanks go to the contributors for sticking it out with me through
a cross-country move and the distractions and lacunae that come with
department chairing. Reversing Mason and Dixon’s route, I headed east,
from Colorado to New York, and in the process, have begun, with this
volume, to get back to the origin of things American.
Two institutions have provided support for this collection. The work
began, conceptually, during a sabbatical leave from the University of
Northern Colorado. My colleagues there, Tracey Sedinger, Joonok Huh,
viii ♦ PREFACE
and Rosemary Hathaway helped me to keep my arguments honest and
my prose far cleaner than it would otherwise be: I owe them a debt of
gratitude for their tough readings and steady friendship. John Loftis, who
never tires of ideas, helped provide me with focus, both during our co-
production of the MLA paper and during the early versions of what
would turn out to be the introduction to this volume. Thanks go to my
students — in particular to Ken Hughes — who made the long and rol-
licking trip through Mason & Dixon with me.
Since 2003, SUNY Brockport has given me a solid foundation and a
supportive home. I am also indebted to a terrific team of editors at Cam-
den House. Mark Klemens has been unflaggingly encouraging, and Jim
Walker has engaged in the kind of persistent, stimulating dialogue that all
authors should have the great fortune of experiencing.
Note on Quotations from Mason & Dixon
MASON & DIXON INCLUDES a great many ellipses in the original. To
distinguish between Pynchon’s ellipses and those added by authors
of the essays to indicate where they have omitted text, the latter will be
enclosed in brackets [. . .] — while Pynchon’s original ellipses will appear
with no brackets.