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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Whew. This one took a while. Hardest part was simply getting into the voice the book was written in, the spelling and rhythm of the words. Once I got used to that, it was a great adventure across the Line
challenging
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
informative
slow-paced
A National-Lampoon-style-buddy-road- comedy that tackles the birth of the Great Satan.
There is no way to describe or explain Pynchon. His prose washes over you in every conceivable genre, in constantly narrowing and expanding asides. One moment you're laughing out loud in a quiet cafe to an 18th century fart joke and the next you're holding back tears after having your entire being summed up in a sentence.
Mason and Dixon is a later work but it is the begining of his career long quest to explain the American empire and with it where the world is and headed, always with an eye on our tiny lives going on within it.
Mason and Dixon seek to serve some objective science, the rallying cry of our modern age, they(more so Mason than his counterpart) believe it to be beyond the touch of earthly concerns and ancient mysticism. But it is in fact just another tool of the state, of the landowner, to carve into the earth lines of ownership of the earth and its inhabitants. They trace the path of the greatest horror unleashed on this earth, the triangle slave trade, and then are hired to drag its line out into the unblemished country, hacking down trees and dividing towns along the way.
For what? So that the Europeans and their Bastard offspring can drive men from their homes and through the blood of enslaved people hew profit from the earth. Creating a false map onto God's firmament to serve their own genocidal needs.
From the wild realities of our universe, The Royal Society and Clive of India carve in minutes and latitudes, enclosing us further and further into boxes of their own creation, a man made demiurge let loose upon our lives.
Yet for all of us trapped, he reminds us that there is coffee to drink, lovers to find, friends to be made, joy to be found, and, who knows, if you're lucky you may just stumble upon a philosophizing dog or the mole people or maybe even G-D H--SELF hiding just beyond the horizon at the star you can never quite reach.
There is no way to describe or explain Pynchon. His prose washes over you in every conceivable genre, in constantly narrowing and expanding asides. One moment you're laughing out loud in a quiet cafe to an 18th century fart joke and the next you're holding back tears after having your entire being summed up in a sentence.
Mason and Dixon is a later work but it is the begining of his career long quest to explain the American empire and with it where the world is and headed, always with an eye on our tiny lives going on within it.
Mason and Dixon seek to serve some objective science, the rallying cry of our modern age, they(more so Mason than his counterpart) believe it to be beyond the touch of earthly concerns and ancient mysticism. But it is in fact just another tool of the state, of the landowner, to carve into the earth lines of ownership of the earth and its inhabitants. They trace the path of the greatest horror unleashed on this earth, the triangle slave trade, and then are hired to drag its line out into the unblemished country, hacking down trees and dividing towns along the way.
For what? So that the Europeans and their Bastard offspring can drive men from their homes and through the blood of enslaved people hew profit from the earth. Creating a false map onto God's firmament to serve their own genocidal needs.
From the wild realities of our universe, The Royal Society and Clive of India carve in minutes and latitudes, enclosing us further and further into boxes of their own creation, a man made demiurge let loose upon our lives.
Yet for all of us trapped, he reminds us that there is coffee to drink, lovers to find, friends to be made, joy to be found, and, who knows, if you're lucky you may just stumble upon a philosophizing dog or the mole people or maybe even G-D H--SELF hiding just beyond the horizon at the star you can never quite reach.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Reimagining of the lives and times of the 18th century British surveyors Mason and Dixon of the eponymous boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland. I found the story a bit incoherent and boring by Pynchon’s standards, who normally writes a very tight script. Not the best novel of his, compared with e.g. Vineland or Gravity’s Rainbow. But then these masterpieces are a hard act to follow!
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes