Analysis of Mason & Dixon, Part 1 - Chapter 16: The Cheese-Rolling Festival, Lusting After Susannah Peach, Saved by Rebekah, Back at Sandy Bay, Mason Leaves Maskelyne
"...Performances, of musick distinctly not British,— Viennese perhaps, Hungarian, even Moorish” is a particularly interesting turn, even by Pynchonian standards. Each new term in the series marks a musical step away from strict Western European Practice Period vocabulary—new scale tones and modalities, new and odd-metered rhythms, new formal constructs.
"Laws are therefore written not by those who would most benefit from a lawful society, but by those who own these people’s wages...Prisons confine any Preterite so brave to break these laws. All these metaphors of death stem from something as ridiculous as a massive block of cheese, rolling down the hill in all its unnecessary enormity, ready and willing to crush anything beneath its rind."
Really well said. I was so impressed with the sheer poetry of these sentences that I felt compelled to comment.
Thank you. That was one of my favorite portions of this chapter/essay. It's hard to maintain some semblance of good prose while writing these every week, but I'm glad the attempt doesn't go unnoticed.
"...Performances, of musick distinctly not British,— Viennese perhaps, Hungarian, even Moorish” is a particularly interesting turn, even by Pynchonian standards. Each new term in the series marks a musical step away from strict Western European Practice Period vocabulary—new scale tones and modalities, new and odd-metered rhythms, new formal constructs.
Good observation. I didn't noticed that actually. And I think it parallels with each being a step away from Western cultural norms as a whole.
"Laws are therefore written not by those who would most benefit from a lawful society, but by those who own these people’s wages...Prisons confine any Preterite so brave to break these laws. All these metaphors of death stem from something as ridiculous as a massive block of cheese, rolling down the hill in all its unnecessary enormity, ready and willing to crush anything beneath its rind."
Really well said. I was so impressed with the sheer poetry of these sentences that I felt compelled to comment.
Thank you. That was one of my favorite portions of this chapter/essay. It's hard to maintain some semblance of good prose while writing these every week, but I'm glad the attempt doesn't go unnoticed.