Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon (1997)
Read Professor Irwin Corey's acceptance speech for Pynchon's 1974 National Book Award for Gravity's Rainbow.
Also, have a look at Douglas Kløvedal Lannark's exhaustive documenting of "love" in Gravity's Rainbow.
Further Information 2
The Historickal Hsi & Ho
Contributed by Keith Woodward:
The tale exists: under Chung K'ang, the two court astronomers are said to have been "decapitated for having failed to predict an eclipse of the sun which took place while the two delinquents were absent and given to debauchery instead of attending to their duties" (Hirth 40). Newton translates from the French (which was translated from the Chinese): "Chung K'and had just mounted the throne . . . Hsi and Ho, drunk with wine, had made no use of their talents. Without regard to the obligations which they owed the Prince, they abandoned the duties of their office, and they are the first who have troubled the good order of the calendar whose care has been entrusted to them: for on the first day of the last moon of Autumn, the sun and moon in their conjunction not being in agreement in Fang, the blind one beat the drum, the mandarins mounted their horses, and the people ran up in haste. At that time, Hsi and Ho, like wooden statues, neither saw nor heard (understood?) anything, and by their negligence in calculating and in observing the movement of the stars, they violated the law of death promulgated by our earlier Princes. According to our inviolable laws, astronomers who advance and set back the time shall implacably (or, without pardon) be punished with death" (62-3). Yu, the first emperor of the Xia Dynasty, originally established positions for two astronomers named Hsi and Ho and ordered them to "Observe the Heavens, calculate and delineate the movements of the sun, the moon, the stars, and the zodiacal spaces; and so deliver respectfully the seasons to the people." The appearance of Hsi and Ho in Chung K'ang's period, then, is explained by the titles that were given to the followers of the originals: Ho, the Second Brother, &c. Hirth claims that these are descendants of of the first astronomers, but 'Hsi' and 'Ho' could just as likely be the names of the positions. Newton also explains that Hsi and Ho might also have been the names of minor solar deities, thereby making the Hsi-Ho story a description of a ritual that takes places when something goes wrong in the heavens during autumn (65).
The Paxton Boys
Contributed by Matthew P. Wiener:
Pynchon gives scant or no mention of some details about the historical
Paxton Boys, details I think worth emphasizing.
The reasons for the massacre outbreaks are only hinted at. (See p306,
as explained by Mr Chantry.) Pontiac, the top Indian leader out west
(meaning western Pennsylvania) had more or less unified the western
tribes, and had then declared genocide against the Englishmen. This
was all related to that failed ban on settlement further west. (The
Frenchmen were still considered acceptable allies.) Several horrific
massacres by the local Indians occurred out west. The fear M&D's crew
will later feel in the back country is genuine.
The PBs formed out west, the rather obvious survival response. Some
Easterners wanted to Do Their Part, and were not stymied by the total
lack of any threats or dangers in their neighborhood.
They proceeded to massacre along the way to Philadelphia. They were
eventually turned back at Germantown (now part of Philadelphia) by
a civilian counterforce, led by Benjamin Franklin in person, whose
comments I have seen in the history books about the PBs are rather
angry. Afterwards the PBs went home (presumably with nobody left
to massacre second time around). Pynchon, after building up some
tension about what is going to happen as the PBs approach, interjects
some brief Tim Tox poetry (p310) that barely tells of the above (and
which I presume is unintelligible without annotation) after which the
M&D narration resumes with Obs and the like.
I'm sure some will interpret Pynchon's unbalanced treatment of the PBs
as PC revisionism. Similarly, one might also think that Pynchon avoids
spelling out Franklin's heroic dimension, just so that Franklin is
maintained (like most/all of the colonists?) as something of a goof.
In both cases, though, Pynchon seems to be forcing on us the M&D perspective. The only PB related entry the historical Mason made in his
diary concerns his visit to the Lancaster jailhouse, with no comment
on the causes or the ending.
A reader of this guide replies:
A really good retelling of the Paxton Boys can be found in Thomas Slaughter's The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution, starting on pg. 29. While the person you have on the site claims it is "revisionism" that Pynchon turns them into genocidial xenophobes since they were reacting to Native American attacks, the important point that he is missing is that the Paxton Boys attacked and slaughter people that had absolutely nothing to do with these attacks. They were "Moravian Indians," Christianized and living in peace with Europeans. In actuality, the issue boiled down not to raids, but aid; specifically the fact that the Pennsylvania government was giving supplies to these "Moravians," while they did not subsidize settlers, and would not give them protection to against Native American attacks.
Lord Lambton's Oath
The story of John Lambton's oath to sacrifice the first thing he sees if he is victorious over the worm is an echo of the story of Jepthah in chapter eleven of the Book of Judges. A Gileadite warrior chosen to lead the battle against the Aommonites who have invaded Israel, Jepthah vows to the Lord: "if you deliver the Aommonites into my hands then whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me on my safe return from the Aommonites shall be the Lord's and shall be offered by me as a burnt offering" (J.P.S., 399). Jepthah routs them in battle and, upon returning home, sees his daughter and only child run out of the house in celebration. While Lambton eventually dishonors his oath, Jepthah is resigned to it, deciding "I have made a vow to the Lord, and I cannot retract it" (J.P.S., 399).
Lancaster & Conestoga
Contributed by Matthew P. Wiener:
Conestoga and Lancaster are both in Amish country,
a few hours drive west of Philadelphia. During the Revolutionary war,
it served briefly as the official capitol city after Philadelphia had
been occupied in 1777. (After the war, the state capitol was to migrate
west, from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, with Lancaster as a stop along
the way.)
Conestoga is indeed the original home of the Conestoga covered wagons.
And finally, locals pronounce "Lancaster" LANK-uh-ster, not LAN-cas-ter
or Lan-CAS-ter as I often hear.
Infancy Gospels
Contributed by Peter Petto:
Esoteric traditions, especially those based on apocalypses and apocrypha (such as the Apocalypse of Peter, Gospel of Thomas, Secret Gospel of Mark, and Gospel of Philip) preserve some legends and myths descending from the early Christian centres of Edessa, Alexandria, and Asia Minor. The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus (known also as the Arabic Infancy Gospel) recounts that, one day, Jesus and his playmates were playing on a rooftop and one fell down and died. The other playmates ran away, leaving Jesus accused of pushing the dead boy. Jesus, however, went to the dead boy and asked, "Zeinunus, Zeinunus, who threw you down from the housetop?" The dead boy answered that Jesus had not done it and named another (I Infancy 19:4-11). This and other such narratives describe the "hidden life" of Jesus in the 30 years before his public ministry began.
Contributed by Vaska Tumir:
It's often chunked together with "The Gospel of Thomas" although no
one knows whether the two were written by the same Thomas -- or even
who, exactly, either of the authors might have been. Here's a
possibly relevant excerpt from one of the translations of "The
Infancy Gospel" available on the Net:
"Having made some soft clay, He fashioned out of it twelve sparrows.
And it was the Sabbath when He did these things. There were also many
other children playing with Him. A certain Jew, seeing what Jesus was
doing, playing on the Sabbath, went off immediately, and said to his
father Joseph: Behold, thy son is at the stream, and has taken clay,
and made of it twelve birds, and has profaned the Sabbath. Joseph,
coming to the place and seeing, cried out to Him, saying: Wherefore
doest thou on the Sabbath what it is not lawful to do? Jesus clapped
His hands, and cried out to the sparrows, and said to them: Off you
go! The sparrows flew, and went off crying."
Great Warrior Path
Contributed by David Foreman:
From The Historical, Cultural And Archaeological Resources of Monongalia County, West Virginia by Jerry H. Shmoyer (Schmoyer quotes from Samuel T. Wiley's History of Monongalia County (1883)):
"Three great Indian trails ran through Monongalia County: Catawba War Path -
starting in New York, 'this great path or trail came through Fayette County,
Pennsylvania and crossed Cheat River at the mouth of Grassy Run. Passing south
through the county, it ran to Holston River.'
"Warrior Branch - 'this was a tributary path that struck from the great Catawba
War Path, in Fayette County and crossed the Cheat River at McFarland's, then
passed over the Monongahela and up the valley of Dunkard's Creek. From
Dunkard, it passed over the Monongahela and up the valley of Dunkard Creek.
From Dunkard, it passed over to and down Fish Creek, and then through southern
Ohio into Kentucky.'
"Eastern Trail - 'this path came from the Ohio River, probably by way of Fish
Creek, down Indian Creek, and crossing the Monongahela, ran up White Day Creek
through Preston County.'"
