Pynchon's Age of Reason: Mason & Dixon and America's Rise of Rational Discourse

TLDR: In this article, Pynchon develops a revisionist history of these two Englishmen as they come to terms with America in the so-called Age of Reason, which was informed by a European philosophical movement with its roots in rational discourse aimed at cultural and political intellect that eventually served as the foundation for American independence and democracy.

Abstract: By drawing upon astronomer Charles Mason and surveyor Jeremiah Dixon for the unlikely protagonists of Mason & Dixon (1997), Thomas Pynchon develops a revisionist history of these two Englishmen as they come to terms with America in the so-called Age of Reason, which was informed by a European philosophical movement with its roots in rational discourse aimed at cultural and political intellect that eventually served as the foundation for American independence and democracy. But as Thomas Paine suggests, time wields a stronger power than does reason, and what history calls the Age of Reason may remind one of an ideal time in America when, in theory, rational discourse converted people into better citizens. However, as Mason and Dixon create their Line, recognizing that it will, in effect, divide North from South, they begin to realize that America consumes them with irrational discourse.

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
Pynchon's Age of Reason: Mason & Dixon and
America's Rise of Rational Discourse
Jason McEntee
South Dakota State University(0-,+!#,1##0"011##"2
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Mason Dixon 
 
Jason T. McEntee
     
 
        
       
        
       
      

 
 
Mason  Dixon 

  
         

    


         
     
           
 
          

        
         
        
         

1
  

           
          
         

186
nchon Notes 52-53

  
       

       
   


          

          
          

  
Mason Dixon   
         


        
   
       

  

 
             
    

  



 
            


    349-51)



2

         


          
 

 

          
 
3
    
  
 
        
   
4

 

      


 
5
   
         

          
 (48).       
         

    

     

 

        
         
        
 
       
progress in the Age of Reason. 


     
  

 
         
 
 
       
 
         
    

   
            
 
  
 


         



nchon Notes 52-53

         


        
          

      
 


     

 
6
          
  

 
 
     
         
         
         

   
     

         

     
         
 

         
        
       
          
         
   
     
         
  

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What is the purpose of Pynchon's novel?

Pynchon's novel challenges readers to rethink and redefine ideas of reason and rational discourse, not only in colonial America but also in contemporary America. 

Q2. What is the last poor fallen and feckless inheritors of a Knowledge they?

Brokers of Capital, lnsurancers, Peddlers upon the global Scale, Enterprisers and Quacks, -these are the last poor fallen and feckless inheritors of a Knowledge they can never use, but in the service of Greed. 

Q3. What does Pynchon say about the divide between the rich and the poor?

But working-class Americans will also become virtual slaves to a capitalism that sees the divide between the rich and the working poor growing larger with each passing day . 

Q4. What is Beverley's enthusiasm for the book?

Beverley's enthusiasm occasionally leads him ... into the kind ofinventive, high-flown boasting that was to become a hallmark of nativehumor. 

Q5. What does Pynchon know about the history of the United States?

Pynchon seems to know that contemporary readers cannot rely on only one version of history if they wish to adhere to contemporary ethics of reading, but must remain open to how other writers, including fiction writers, interpret history to keep history alive. 

Q6. What is the key to this rational discourse?

(27)Communication is the key to this rational discourse, and Habermasdiscusses how reason (debate, for example) became critical in the public sphere, for it did not appear (in theory, of course) until privatepeople had "come together as a public" (27). 

Q7. Why does Dixon realize that he is an accomplice in atrocities?

Dixon's frustration mounts because he realizes that, to the party using him,· his creating the Line means more than settling a simple boundary dispute : that he is an inadvertent accomplice in atrocities . 

Q8. What does he think of the line?

His insight later reveals that he knows the Line will separate North from South, but the sheer fact that he senses this indicates that he has begun to tune in to pursuing a good even while he remains involved in an act which has the negative repercussions of marking off the slave states. 

Q9. What makes America feel good about its bad history?

(6 1 5)Composing and consuming bad history (rationalizing what has no rational end-the purely irrational) makes the evils America commits appear necessary. 

Q10. What does Mason and Dixon know about America?

Having reached America, Mason and Dixon know very little about it save its reputation for the supposed rational discourse that prevails there as citizens, of course, strive for enlightenment. 

Q11. What is the author's view of the Mason & Dixon line?

( 1 1 01 5Russ Castronovo discusses such narratives as those of Frederick Douglassand Harriet Jacobs in arguing that "the Mason-Dixon line ... provides a site forexamining the pitfalls of racial ideology and the cul-de-sacs in inescapablenationalism predatorially inherent to borders" ( 1 98).