4. Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon, pp. 94-124

One: Latitudes and Departures; 10-12

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Pliny suggests that they set up the orrery so Cherrycoke can demonstrate the transit of Venus, and Pitt gets out the candle that represents the sun. Their sister Tenebrae, meanwhile, indulges in some mild flirtation with Cousin Ethelmer. The orrery includes the new "Georgian" planet, which would later be named Uranus, because its creator, "Dr. Nessel, the renown'd German Engineer," had traveled to Philadelphia to update, free of charge, the orreries he had built in America. He has even given some surface features to the new planet, which inspired the children to write "a Book, History of the New Planet, the Twins providing the Wars, and Brae the scientifick Inventions and Useful Crafts."

Cherrycoke explains why numerous observations of the transit are necessary to determine "the value of the Solar Parallax." That is, we want to determine the size of the Earth, and the observations of the transit allow us to calculate it as if one were standing on the surface of the sun. DePugh, "the son of Ives LeSpark, like Ethelmer home on a Visit from School, in this case from Cambridge," refers to the sought-after calculation as "A Vector of Desire," a Pynchonian joke on a Lacanian phrase. Cherrycoke calls this "the phrase exact."

We return to the scene in Cape Town where "odd behavior like it, is going on all over the World all day long that fifth and sixth of June, in Latin, in Chinese, in Polish, in Silence, -- upon Roof-Tops and Mountain Peaks, out of Bed-chamber windows, close together in the naked sunlight whilst the Wife minds the Beats of the Clock." They need to record "four instances of perfect Tangency":  the moments when the planet first touches the outer edge of the sun and when it is fully within the circumference, and the corresponding moments as it leaves the solar disk. But it is cloudy on the days leading up to the event. Mason and Dixon are nevertheless calm but they notice that "the Zeemans and the Vrooms speed about in unaccustom'd Bustle," which causes Mason to remark, "Dutch Ado about nothing." (Pynchon leaves no opportunity unpunned.)

The day comes, and the sky is clear enough for observation. They observe carefully, but "Whatever the cause, the times [Dixon] records are two to four seconds ahead of Mason's." And then comes anticlimax.

As before the Transit the month of May crept unnaturally, so, after it, will June, July, August, and September hasten by miraculously, -- till early in October, when Capt. Harrold, of the Mercury, finds a lapse in the Weather workable enough to embark the Astronomores, and take them to St. Helena in.... After the Transit, Astronomers and Hosts walk about for Days in deep Stupor, like Rakes and Doxies after some great Catastrophe of the Passions.

The pursuit of Mason by the Vroom women ends when some young men arrive at the Cape, "a Heaven-sent Source of White Blood.... Johanna can almost see those Babies now, up on the Block, adorable enough to sell themselves, kicking their feet in the air and squealing." Idled, Mason inquires of Dixon about the Quaker practice of sitting quietly until one feels the presence of the spirit, but Mason is too eager for the experience and "keeps jumping up, to run and interrupt Dixon, who is trying to do the same, with news of his Progress, '' 'Jere! I think it almost happen'd! D'ye get a kind of rum sensation here,' -- touching the center of his Forehead, -- 'is that it?'" But they finally give it up after "Mason, in his Chair, falling asleep, topples with a great Crash, or Dixon decides he'll step out after all, nip down to The World's End, and see what the Cape Outlawry may be up to." Finally, they sail away from the Cape, with "no one ... there at the Quay to say good-bye but Bonk, the police official who earlier greeted them."

Cherrycoke's audience is joined by Aunt Ephrenia, "careering into the room with her Oboe and an armload of sheet-music," and as she carves a reed from her oboe we learn that she was once abducted by Barbary pirates and kept in a sultan's harem. Cherrycoke continues with "a part of the Tale that I miss'd," which is the experiences of Mason and Dixon in St. Helena, where they met up with the astronomer royal, Nevil Maskelyne. Uncle Ives asks how they are to know what happened there, but Cherrycoke continues with the story nevertheless. St. Helena, he says, is "an infamous Port of Call, quite alone in the mid-Atlantic, a Town left to shift as it may, dedicated to nought but the pleasures of Sailors, -- which is to say, ev'ry species of Misbehavior, speakable or not."

Maskelyne is there to observe Sirius, "the Island's Zenith-Star." But it's hardly a pleasant place to be.

The Town has begun to climb into the Ravine behind it, and thus, averaged overall, to tilt toward the sea. After Rain-Storms, the water rushes downhill, in Eagres and Riffles and Cataracts, thro' the town, rooftop to rooftop, in and out of Windows, leaving behind a shiv'ring Dog from uphill, taking away the Coffee Pot, till leaving it in its turn somewhere else, for a Foot-Stool, thus bartering its way out to sea. 

The residents of the island "make up a mix'd flock":

Convicts being transported to the South Seas for unladylike crimes in England, with St. Helena one of the steps in their Purgatory, -- young Wives on their way out to India to join husbands in the Army and Navy, a-tremble with tales, haunting the Day like a shadow from just beneath the Horizon ahead, of the Black Hole of Calcutta, -- and Company Perpetuals, headed out, headed home, such shuttles on the loom of Trade as Mrs. Rollright, late of Portland, who keeps opium in her patch-box and commutes frequently enough upon the India run to've had four duels fought over her already, though she has yet to see her twenties out. 

And Mason encounters an old acquaintance, Florinda, whom he met after the death of his wife, when he followed "some of Lust's less-frequented footpaths." He had met her at the hangings at Tyburn, particularly at "the much-heralded Hanging of Lord Ferrers for the murder of Johnson, his Steward."

Mason and Dixon meet with Maskelyne at The Moon, "a punch house on Cock Hill," but Dixon and Maskelyne don't get along particularly well after Dixon, learning that Maskelyne was at Pembroke College, Cambridge, is indiscreet enough to ask him about Christopher Smart, notorious for his insanity. The proprietor of the punch house also can't resist a pun about how Maskelyne is there on "Sirius Business." And Maskelyne is further annoyed by having his birthday celebrated with a cake, reminding him that he has just turned twenty-nine.

Dixon is preparing to return to the Cape, and when Maskelyne steps out, Mason reveals that the instrument Maskelyne is using to measure the position of Sirius doesn't work. Dixon thinks he can fix it, but Mason warns him not to bring up the subject of the instrument with Maskelyne because he has so much invested in it. Dixon is returning to the Cape with the Shelton Clock, and there is a section of dialogue between it and the Ellicott Clock about Dutch clocks, whose mechanisms don't give a warning -- the sound of the mechanism preparing -- before they strike. Mason and Dixon were both annoyed by the surprise striking of the clocks.

3, Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon, pp. 58-93

One: Latitudes and Departures; 7-9

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A change in plans has deposited Mason and Dixon at Cape Town, where they take rooms at a house owned by the Zeemanns, but have their meals -- because the Zeemanns' slaves have run away -- at the neighboring home of Cornelius Vroom, his wife, Johanna, and their three daughters. The Dutch mistrust Dixon "as unreliable in any white affairs here. They have noted his unconceal'd attraction to the Malays and the Black slaves, -- their Food, their Appearance, their Music, and so, it must be obvious, their desires to be deliver'd out of oppression." But Mason, the somberly dressed widower, is considered safe.

He is not safe, however, from the attentions of the Vrooms' daughters, Jet, Greet and Els. Jet, the oldest, is 16, but "Els, tho' a mere twelve by the Calendar back home, down here in the Southern World began long ago the active Pursuit of Lads twice her age, not all of them unwilling." When he finds himself alone with the girls, Jet asks him to brush her hair -- "There's a bit in back I can't reach" -- while Els sits (not very still) on his lap and say, "shall I tell you what she really wants you to do with that Hair-Brush?" Their mother enters, sends them away, and proceeds to flirt with him herself, taking note of the erection that the girls have inspired.

That night a slave girl named Austra slips into his bed. She explains that "their Wish is that I become impregnated, -- if not by you, then by one of you.... All that the Mistress prizes of you is your Whiteness, understand? Don't feel disparag'd, -- ev'ry white male who comes to this Town is approach'd by ev'ry Dutch Wife, upon the same Topick. The baby, being fairer than its mother, will fetch more upon the Market." She warns him that "the Mother will set her three Cubs upon ye without Mercy, and make her own assaults as well, all of it intended to keep this rigid with your Desire, -- and the only one in the House you'll be allowed to touch is me."

She's right about the continued efforts of the Vroom women, so Mason asks Dixon, who has been exploring the native culture, about "the various sorts of Magick, that they are said to possess." What he wants, he explains, is "Emphatickally not a Love-Potion, you understand, no, no, quite the contrary indeed." He wants something he can put in Mrs. Vroom's soup that will tame her appetites.

Dixon tries to get Mason to join him in exploring the town outside the Vrooms' house.

They do, to be sure, go out that Evening, as into various others together, in search of Lustful Adventure, but each time Mason will wreck things, scuttling hopes however sure, frightening off the Doxies with Gothickal chat of Headstones and Diseases of the Mind, swilling down great and occasionally, Dixon is told, exceptional Constantia wines with the sole purpose of getting drunk, exploding into ill-advis'd Song, losing consciousness face-first into a Variety of food and Drink, including more than one of the most exquisite karis this side of Sumatra, -- that is, proving a difficult carousing partner, block'd from simple enjoyment in too many directions for Dixon to be at all anger'd, -- rather marveling at him, as a Fair-goer might at some Curiosity of Nature. 

Mason begins to have bad dreams about being threatened by "some Presence with a Krees or Malay Dagger." He blames it on Cape Town, which he calls "one of the colonies of Hell," but Dixon disagrees, blaming Mason's dreams on "all this Malay food we're eating ev'ry day." Mason is upset that Dixon is "enjoying this miserable Viper-Plantation! Why, Damme if you're not going to miss it when we're shut of it at long last." Austra suggests that he consult "a certain Toko, a Negritoe, or Asian Pygmy, of a Malay tribe call'd the Senoi," who advises him that the dream world is as real as the waking world, and that he should ask the figure in his dream for "Some solid Gift you may bring back with you." So Mason asks the dream figure for the dagger, and is shocked to find it in bed with him the next morning. Dixon observes, "Happen 'twill be those Girls, teasing with thee....?" Which sends the two off into a heated (and very funny) dialogue.

The days until the transit pass slowly in Cape Town.

Temporally, as geographically, the End of the World. The unrelenting Vapor of debauchery here would not merely tempt a Saint, -- Heavens, 'twould tempt an Astronomer. Yet 'tis difficult, if not impossible, for these Astronomers to get down for a Chat upon the Topick of Desire, given Dixon's inability to deny or divert the Gusts that sweep him, and Mason's frequent failure, in his Melancholy, even to recognize Desire, let alone to act upon it, tho' it run up calling Ahoy Charlie.

At dinner with the Vrooms, Johanna observes that Dixon has "discovered another Cape delicacy ... our Malays call it ketjap." Dixon has brought his own bottle of to the table, where a particularly nauseous and fatty mutton is being served: "'Girls, don't even want you looking at it. Filthy Asian stuff,' Cornelius commands thro' clouds of aromatic pipe-smoke.  'Even' (puff) 'if something has to be done' (puff) 'to cover up the taste of this food.'" As is usual with ketchup, Dixon has a problem "with its slender Bottle, out of whose long neck he finds he has trouble getting the stuff to flow. 'Strike her upon the bottom,' whispers Els, 'and perhaps she will behave.' Dixon does a quick triple-take among the faces of the women, a Jocularity poised upon his Tongue but peering our warily, not quite trusting the open."

After dinner, the family retires to the porch, the Stoep, where the girls draw the attention of the local boys, whose "talk is of Roof-tops, Arch-ways, Sheds, and Warehouses -- any place secure from Traffick long enough for a Skirt to be lifted or Breeches unbuckl'd. Johanna keeps looking over at Mason, as if offering to translate."

Soon enough Mason and Dixon are desperate. Pretending astronomical Chores up at the Observatory, Bowls and Cutlery conceal'd in their Cloaks, they steal away, thinking of Oceanick Fish, African Game, hot Peppers, spices of the East. "I believe in Vibrations," declares Mason, "-- I believe, that Vibrations from that horrid family get into their food, which is difficult enough to enjoy to begin with." 

They learn that ripe mangoes will be available the next morning, and when they arrive at the market they find Cherrycoke there. The Seahorse has left him behind, explaining that Christian ministers are not welcome where they are going.

Mason finds himself trapped in an upstairs bedroom by Johanna Vroom, who tells him she has "chosen to be a very wicked woman" and starts undoing her bodice. Then Jet knocks on the door, and Mason takes the opportunity to jump out of a window. Then the rainy season begins, and Mason is trapped: Cornelius is up-country and "prevented by floods from returning" and Dixon has been rained in "across town at a certain Malay establishment." Much chasing about ensues.

The girls follow Mason and Dixon up the mountain to the observatory. "They are ascended into Africa. At some point alll note that they can no longer hear the Town. That is all it takes, to deliver them into Africa." At the observatory, which was built by the carpenter of the Seahorse, Mason takes it on himself to try to explain the nature of the transit and their observation of it.

"Thro' our whole gazing lives, Venus has been but a tiny Dot of Light, going through phases like the Moon, ever against the black face of Eternity. But on the day of this Transit, all shall suddenly reverse, -- as she is caught, dark, embodied, solid, against the face of the Sun, -- a Goddess descended from light to Matter." "And our Job," Dixon adds, "is to observe her as she transits the face of the Sun, and write down the Times as she comes and goes." 

They also explain about parallax, and the need for observations from everywhere around the world. "The Girls keep their Glances each looping 'round the others, like elaborately curl'd Tresses, trying to see if they should be understanding this, or, -- being cruel young beauties ev'ry one, -- even caring."