bookhater17’s Reviews > Mason & Dixon > Status Update

“Mason did note as peculiar, that the first mortal acts of Savagery in America after their Arrival should have been committed by Whites against Indians. … They saw white Brutality enough, at the Cape of Good Hope. … Whites in both places are become the very Savages of their own worst Dreams, far out of Measure to any Provocation.”

I love how every Pynchon novel is about how evil white “people” are

“‘Why, to help you find out how much,—‘’— and how foolishly,—‘’— we have to spend, perhaps!’ sing Mason and Dixon”

This book is to surveying as Heated Rivalry is to hockey

“‘I wish I knew where my Affection for you runs,— one moment 'tis sure as the heart-yarn of a Mainstay, the next I am entertaining cheerfully Projects in which your Dissolution is ever a Feature.’”

This is Pynchon’s best novel simply because the faux 18th century style writing bars from him his beloved “sez”

“"As if... there were no single Destiny," puzzles Mason, "but rather a choice among a great many possible ones, their number steadily diminishing each time a Choice be made, till at last 'reduc'd,' to the events that do happen to us, as we pass among 'em, thro' Time unredeemable,— much as a Lens, indeed, may receive all the Light from some vast celestial Field of View, and reduce it to a single Point.”

Time to become the most annoying person at work again; to ascend once more to my throne and regain the title that is rightfully mine