17. Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon, pp. 525-553

Two: America; 54-55

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The narrative abruptly shifts to first person, as our abductee tells us that one evening she was "taken to a Chamber, and there laced into an expensive Corset," her face was "painted ... into a wanton Sister of itself,"... and she was given "undergarments ... that might, Blondelle assur'd me, make a French whore think twice." She is to be taken to "the Chinaman."

If this sounds like porn, it is. Tenebrae "has discover'd the sinister Volume in 'Thelmer's Room, lying open to a Copper-plate Engraving of two pretty Nuns, sporting in ways she finds inexplicably intriguing." Ethelmer claims the book, which is "the next in the Ghastly Fop series," is "something of Cousin DePugh's." She wonders that "a young University Gentleman should find Affection between Women at all a topic of interest." He gives her a synopsis of the series featuring the Ghastly Fop, who to some "seems quite conventionally alive, whilst others swear he is a Ghost.... The Series runs to at least a Dozen Volumes by now, tho' no one is sure exactly how many, -- forgeries have also found their way into the Market." Ethelmer tells Tenebrae that he has read as far as "where she meets the Chinese Boy, and they plan their Escape." He says he will read the next chapter to her. "And so off they minuet, to become detour'd from the Revd's narrative Turnpike onto the pleasant Track of their own mutual Fascinations, by way of the Captive's Tale." 

The tale resumes with the captive's account of a dream, and then shifts to third person as the Wolf of Jesus realizes that the "Chinaman," Zhang, whom he has paired with the captive is fluent in Spanish. Moreover, Zhang is now preparing to escape from the Jesuits and the captive "understands when he will leave, and in the instant decides to go with him." She disguises herself as a boy, and they make their escape. He has with him a "miraculous Luo-Pan," a magnetic compass used in feng shui. They make their way to the home of Sir William Johnson, who recognizes Zhang after he "presents him a curious sort of Metallick Plate" and they "exchange a complicated Hand-shake." She reveals herself to be Eliza Fields of Conestoga.

Ethelmer proposes to skip a page of erotic stuff about Eliza and Zhang, but Tenebrae has already read ahead. Eliza and Zhang journey on, and at this point the fiction of the Ghastly Fop joins up with the narrative of the Mason-Dixon expedition: "they arrive at the West Line, and decide to follow the Visto [the line blazed by the axmen] east, and ere long they have come up with the Party." Zhang asks if she plans to return to her husband. "'Either to the Jesuits, or to him? -- That's my full list of Choices? ...' She twirls her Nose in the air, and departs."

Eliza bunks with one of the camp-followers, Zsuzsa Szabó, who does a show involving "Accordion musick, Dog tricks and Gypsy Dancing" with a machine that recreates the Battle of Leuthen. The surveyors meet Eliza in the tent, Dixon quite taken with the "Deerskin Costume" that she wears, and Mason stunned to discover in her a likeness, indeed a "Point-for-Point Representation," of his late wife. Both Mason and Eliza consult the chaplain of the party, which is Cherrycoke, who "speculates that the Resemblance so confounding Mason is less likely the Transmigration of a Soul, than the Resurrection of a Body, -- enough of its Particulars to convince him 'tis she." Mason is tormented by dreams of Rebekah, and one day concludes that since Eliza's hair has grown back in, she no longer looks like her that much.  Eliza tells him that she and Zsuzsa have decided "to go off and be Adventuresses," and if he passes near Conestoga to listen for the sounds of merriment that will reveal how much her husband, Seth, misses her.

Zhang, meanwhile, is criticizing the survey itself: "Terrible Feng-Shui here. Worst I ever saw. You two crazy?" He means that the straight line, the Visto, "acts as a Conduit for what we call Sha, or, as they say in Spanish California, Bad Energy. -- Imagine a Wind, a truly ill wind, bringing failure, poverty, disgrace, betrayal, -- every kind of bad luck there is, -- all blowing through, night and day, with many times the force of the worst storm you were ever in." Boundaries, he says, should "follow Nature, -- coast-lines, ridge-tops, river-banks, -- so honoring the Dragon or Shan within, from which Land-Scape ever takes its form." He is surprised that a people so given to religion as the settlers in America should allow it.

He tells them of his enemy, the Wolf of Jesus, Father Zarpazo, who is "sworn to destroy all who seek God without passing through the toll-gate of Jesus." Under his direction, they have particularly targeted practitioners of feng shui. Dixon is fascinated by Zhang's luopan, recognizing a fellow "Needle man." When he mentions that Mason is frustrated by the fact that the compass "never points to what he calls True North," Zhang says that Zarpazo is too. "The Impurity of this Earth keeps him driven in a holy Rage, -- Which is why he wants this Visto." He explains that the Visto will draw Zarpazo to it because "Purity of Azimuth is his Passion."

Dixon is puzzled that Zhang should be so opposed to their mission, but he reassures him that "my business is with the Jesuit. We happen to be the principal Personae here, not you two! Nor has your Line any Primacy in this, being rather a Stage-Setting, dark and fearful as the Battlements of Elsinore, for the struggle Zarpazo and I must enact upon the very mortal Edge of this great Torrent of Sha." But so obsessed is Zhang with the struggle against Zarpazo that he has become paranoid, convinced that Zarpazo, "a master of disguise, ... has actually penetrated the Camp, and only waits his moment to administer that poison'd Stiletto preferr'd by a Jesuit confronting Error." His suspicions also include Dixon because "'Tis widely assum'd that you are here on behalf of the Jesuit Le Maire." The Jesuits, he claims, want to "tap into the unremitting torrent of Sha roaring all night and all day, and convert it to their own uses."

Mr. Everybeet, the mineralogist, notes that "west of here, in the Hills 'round Cheat and Monongahela, are secret Lead Mines, which the Indians guard jealously." And that "who controls Lead controls the supply of Ammunition."

Mason and Dixon conclude that Zhang is "a few Links short of a Chain," especially when he begins transforming himself into the image of his adversary, Zarpazo. He wears black robes and begins to grow a small beard, and "Spanish phrases increasingly creep into his Conversation." Mason suggests that there might be trouble if Zhang's presence attracts Zarpazo and that Dixon is the only one who can get rid of him: "He already thinks you're a Jesuit Agent. All you have to do is advise him to stay, and he'll do the opposite." But Zhang claims to have an amulet against the Jesuit that will protect the expedition: "a dark Red sphere about the size of a Cherry" that he claims is a cyst that once grew in the brain of a cobra. "Therefore fear not the Advent of the Wolf, for here is the soul of the Cobra, yet living, yet potent." When Zhang displays it, "'I'll buy one!' Dixon cries. Mason looks upward, patiently."

9. Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon, pp. 257-288

Two: America; 26-28

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Mason and Dixon arrive in Philadelphia, which Cherrycoke informs his audience was "second only to London, as the greatest of English speaking cities." It is mid-November and "a rousing Evangelist" has just visited the city, leaving a wave of religious enthusiasm behind him. "Even Quakers are out in the Street, bargaining with unexpected pugnacity, for a share of this Population suddenly turn'd into Christliness." Cherrycoke recalls when Whitefield visited and Philadelphia was "delirious with Psalms." This somehow turns the talk of his audience to music, and Ethelmer performs a song "the fellows sing at University": "To Anacreon in Heaven," noting a phrase that ascends "like a Sky-Rocket" and observing

"'Tis ever the sign of Revolutionary times, that Street-Airs become Hymns, and Roist'ring-Songs Anthems, -- just as Plato fear'd, -- hast heard the Negroe Musick, the flatted Fifths, the vocal portamenti, -- 'tis there sings your Revolution.... Is it not the very Rhythm of the Engines, the Clamor of the Mills, the Rock of the Oceans, the Roll of the Drums in the Night, why if one wish'd to give it a Name, --"

"Surf Music!" DePugh cries. 

Cherrycoke resumes his narrative with the encounter of Mason and Dixon with Benjamin Franklin in an apothecary where they have gone to order medicines for their journey into the wilderness. Franklin helps them stock up on laudanum and save money, too: "Strangers, heed my wise advice, -- Never pay the Retail Price." They then adjourn to Franklin's favorite pub, The Blue Jamaica, where, when Dixon goes to relieve himself, Franklin questions Mason about his partner's "Calvert connections," noting that the Jesuit Le Maire "is native to Durham and a particular friend of Dixon's teacher, William Emerson." Mason is shocked to infer that Franklin is asking him to spy on Dixon: "I am sorry the Politics here have become so, as one would say, Italian, in their intricacies."

Dixon returns, and when Mason exits for the same need, Franklin starts to work on Dixon about Mason's "East India Company Connections" and particularly Sam Peach, whose name Dixon feigns not to recognize: "One of thoase lads in The Beggar's Opera...?" Franklin fails in his mission to set the surveyors on each other, but introduces him to some women, Molly and Dolly, and invites them to hear him play the glass armonica at The Fair Anchor that evening. There they meet a Mr. Tallihoe of Virginia, who wants to arrange for them to visit Col. Washington.

So the next day they are off to Mount Vernon, where George Washington "turns out to be taller than Dixon, by about as much as Dixon rises over Mason." Washington is not "the incompetent Fool depicted in the London press, and he smiles when he hears Dixon's northern accent, "though owing to the state of his teeth he is reluctant to do so when in company, -- a smile from Col. Washington, however tentative, is said to be a mark of favor." He notes that he has relatives who talk the way Dixon does. Washington has surveyed the West himself, and they discuss the political and legal conflicts and pitfalls involved.

Washington calls for Gershom to bring them "some Pipes, and a Bowl of the new-cur'd Hemp. And another gallon of your magnificent Punch." Gershom is "An African servant with an ambiguous expression" whom Washington calls, quoting John 1:47, "an Israelite in whom there is no guile." Dixon takes mild offense: the Earl of Darlington used to call Dixon's great-uncle George, who was his steward, the same thing. But Gershom tells him not to take offense "about that Israelite talk" because he is "of the Hebrew faith." And he bends his head to display his yarmulke. When Washington asks for some hog jowls, Mason is surprised that Gershom should be asked to serve pork, but Gershom says "the Sect I belong to, is concern'd scarce at all with Dietary Rules." And Washington observes, "Yet if a Jew cooking pork is a Marvel, what of a Negroe, working a Room?" Gershom, he explains, is a stand-up comedian working "a circuit of Coaching-inns" and earning "an income per annum which creeps dangerously close to that of his nominal Master, me."

Martha Washington, "a diminutive woman with a cheerful rather than happy air, who seems to bustle even when standing still," joins them. Mason and Dixon divide their attention between the Washingtons, Mason discussing astronomy with Martha while Dixon talks with Washington about the history of the Ohio Company, in which Washington's brothers are investors. Washington talks about the expedition of Céléron de Bienville in the Ohio Valley, in which he buried lead plates to mark the claim of the French to the territory. This attracts Mason's attention too, and there is much discussion about the electrical possibilities of lead plates. Washington says he dug up a few, and when Dixon sees them he is startled to see markings in Chinese on them. Washington then grows suspicious of Dixon and asks him for the Masonic password, which Dixon fortunately has learned. Washington is put at ease, and explains that Jesuits from Quebec sometimes show up "to work some mischief down here -- so a fellow has to be extra vigilant, is all."

Later, Franklin explains that the Jesuits are believed to have a form of telegraphy that involves balloons and mirrors, and that there are Telegraph Squads composed of "elite teams of converted Chinese... The Sino-Jesuit conjunction may prove a greater threat to Christendom than ever the Mongols or the Moors. Pray that more than the Quarrel over Feng Shui divides them."

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.

2. Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon, pp. 30-57

One: Latitudes and Departures;4-6

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We have a glimpse of Cherrycoke's audience before he returns to the story. It includes a Cousin Ethelmer, recently "return'd from College in the Jerseys." And we learn of Mr. LeSpark that he "made his Fortune years before the War, selling weapons to French and British, Settlers and Indians alike."

Mason and Dixon have had a little disagreement with Capt. Smith of the Seahorse, who wants them to chip in a hundred guineas each for the privilege of dining at his table, with the result that they end up dining in the Lieutenant's Mess. Moreover, there has been a communication that their destination in Sumatra, Bencoolen (now Bengkulu), has fallen into the hands of the French.

On board the ship, Mason and Dixon make their acquaintance with Cherrycoke, who tells them that Capt. Smith "wishes to be taken as a man of Science," and that he "does not consider his best game to be war." Which is unfortunate because they are soon under attack from the French ship l'Grand. Mason, Dixon and Cherrycoke are sent below where they do what they can with the casualties of the battle, which ends when the French captain learns that the mission of the Seahorse is to ferry a scientific expedition to its destination. "France is not at war with the sciences," proclaims the French captain, adding, "You are leetluh meenow, -- I throw you back. Perhaps someday we meet when you are biggair Feesh, like me. Meanwhile, I sail away, Poohpooh! Adieu!" Capt. Smith feels compelled to give chase when the French sail away, but he has to give it up because of the damage to the ship, which returns to Plymouth for repairs.

Mason and Dixon have a drunken conversation in which Dixon explains that he's been expelled from the Quakers, so he has no compunctions against war. Mason writes to the Royal Society explaining about Bencoolen's fall to the French and asking if another station would do as well, but the Society "wrote back in the most overbearing way, on about loss of honor, strongly threatening legal action if Mason and Dixon were to break their contract."

Another member of Cherrycoke's audience reveals himself. Uncle Lomax is a manufacturer of soap, but "'Philadelphia Soap' is a Byword, throughout the American Provinces, of low Quality. At the touch of water, nay, damp Air, it becomes a vile Mucus that refuses to be held in any sort of grip, gentle or firm, and often leaves things dirtier than they were before its application, -- making it, more properly, an Anti-Soap."

Cherrycoke tells them that they set sail again in a convoy with a larger frigate, the Brilliant. Cherrycoke is quarter'd with Lieutenant Unchleigh, a rattle-head," who protested when he found Cherrycoke reading a book. Cherrycoke explained that it was the Bible, but Unchleigh replies, "No matter, 'tis Print, -- Print causes Civil Unrest." Capt. Smith has been replaced by Capt. Grant, who has been ordered to follow the Brilliant until further orders, which he has been given and told to open at Tenerife. Grant protests that Smith had been ordered to sail to Bencoolen even though the Admiralty knew it was in the hands of the French, so "what if my orders are to some equally impossible Destination?"

We learn a bit about the crew. The ship's band consists of Slowcombe, "a single Fifer, to whom it fell, the noontide the Frenchman appear'd, to inspire the Lads ito battle with his one silver Pipe." There is Jack "Fingers" Soames, "a viperish Lad whose eponymous Gesture, made in answer to all Overtures, however ritual or ev'ryday, strangely lacks any hostile Intent, being exressive rather of a deep-held wish, so far as may be possible within the Perimeter of a Sixth-Rate, to be left alone." And there is Veevle, "legendary thro'out the Royal N. for being impossible to wake to stand Watch," but who if he is caught while awake and tricked into taking the watch for someone else, "becomes the smartest and most estimable of Seamen."

Boredom (and horniness) aboard ship makes the anticipation of crossing the Equator more intense. The "Pollywogs" crossing the line for the first time -- Mason, Dixon and Cherrycoke -- will undergo a hazing ceremony by the crew.