Mason & Dixon
by Thomas Pynchon · first published 1997
58% recommend42% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Historical novel praised as Pynchon's best, with long, detailed digressions into well-researched period material. It rewards readers who enjoy dense, maximalist fiction and are willing to work at it.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Told from the focal point of one Rev. Wicks Cherrycoke – a clergyman of dubious orthodoxy – who attempts to entertain and divert his extended family on a cold December evening (partly for amusement, and partly to keep his coveted status as a guest in the house). Claiming to have accompanied Mason and Dixon throughout their journeys, Cherrycoke tells a tale intermingling Mason and Dixon's biographies with history, fantasy, legend, speculation, and outright fabrication.
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Gravity's Rainbow is not worth the slog, IMHO, unless you like beautiful plot constructions and vulgar wordplay. As a commentary on literature, as a novel, as a piece of writing, and most of all as a story, Mason & Dixon is (by far) Pynchon's greatest work. The Crying of Lot 49 is the foil—short, with a meaningless story only good for the experience reading it.
on “On Not Reading” ↗Yeah. In the last three years I picked up Joyce's Ulysses, which I sputtered out on 35 years ago, and Pynchon's Mason & Dixon, which I sputtered out on 15 years ago. I now believe that Ulysses is the best book I've ever read, and Mason & Dixon is very good. So much process. People think there's a formula, not well known, that greatly raises the chance for "success" however defined, for everyth
on “Anti-mimetic tactics for living a counter-cultural life” ↗This receives an extended, hilarious, discussion in Thomas Pynchon's book Mason & Dixon, in which an astronomer sits at a bar and everyone complains at him about losing their eleven days, and when they can have the days back, etc.
on “Why 11 days disappeared in 1752” ↗Mason & Dixon by Pynchon is also very, very good.
on “Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?” ↗If you like Feynman, definitely read James Gleick's biography of him, Genius. I actually didn't like Gleick's other books very much, but Genius is beautiful. I went from thinking I'd major in English to majoring in Physics after reading it back in high school. And for general sheer amazingness, I always tell people to read Thomas Pynchon's Mason & Dixon. It's like reading Shakespeare; the first
on “Ask HN: Good books?” ↗Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon. A review on Goodreads sums up the introspective qualities quite well: >it is a loping colloquy between Faith and its mate Reason, Free Will and its mate Fate; I read in it that I should make my way West to go with the day, with Time, maturation, aging, having children, the coming of the next generation, the slow fading and dispersal at sunset- and East if I wish t
on “Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?” ↗…read two books recommended here, and one that wasn't. The Idea Factory, by Jon Gertner, was absolutely fantastic; How the Laser Happened was also very interesting. I also read (still reading, actually) Mason and Dixon by Pynchon. Really good so far.
on “Ask HN: Which book(s) did you read this summer?” ↗Liking Infinite Jest suggests an interest in American literary maximalism and / or comic novels. Suggestions: The Sot-Weed Factor, Gravity’s Rainbow, Mason & Dixon, Underworld, and if you’re feeling particularly masochistic The Tunnel
on “I Want to Fix Goodreads” ↗In my search for more works like the Baroque Cycle, I was led to Thomas Pynchon, who's writing far surpass that of Stephenson (in my opinion). In particular, Against the Day, Gravity's Rainbow, and Mason & Dixon. They are all historical fiction of sorts, with long detailed excursions into well researched nooks and crannies of history. Pynchon's writing is sublime once you get used to it.
on “We are all nerds: The literary works of Neal Stephenson” ↗> Maybe a real life reading group or something would help. This is what it took for me - having a few other people agreeing to a schedule and meeting to talk about what we had read. I ultimately very much enjoyed GR but it is really difficult to read alone for the first time. Both the social pressure to keep at it and the ability to have "what the hell was that" conversations with other people re
on “Read “Gravity’s Rainbow” fifty years later” ↗He said that he considers Lot 49 a "'story' marketed as a 'novel' [...] in which I seem to have forgotten most of what I thought I'd learned up till then." It doesn't compare to his later works IMO (Mason & Dixon still being my fav.)
on “Pynchon in Public Day” ↗Gravity's Rainbow is just a shadow of Pynchon's best work by a large margin, Mason & Dixon. I can't recommend it highly enough. It's probably the best novel I've ever read.
on “Ask HN: What are you reading these days?” ↗There are basically two sorts of Pynchon novels[1]: Gravity’s Rainbow, V and Against the Day are these monumental books which are sometimes really harrowing and hard to read (amazing in my opinion, but tough to read none the less). Lot 49, Inherent Vice, Vineland and the new one are kind of “weird noir” gumshoe novels - funny and full of whacky conspiracies etc. Bleeding edge is more like the s
on “If the Gumshoe Fits: The Thomas Pynchon Experience” ↗I think it's a mistake to dismiss them just for that reason. He's been dead for 26 years, and you can get the books second-hand, so it's easy to acquire them while ensuring no money goes to him or his estate if that's what you're worried about. They're an absolutely fantastic set of novels, full of joy and adventure and excitement and humor and astonishing erudition.. Tom Stoppard admired him (as
on “Read the Novels and Forget Everything Else” ↗…I could come up with a list of at least 10 American novels that I have read that I think are significantly superior. In no order here goes 1. Blood meridian 2. The Bell Jar 3. Of Mice and Men 4. Mason and Dixon (everyone’s gonna say “Gravity’s Rainbow” but I think since this is an explicitly American list, the themes of Mason and Dixon of the North/South divide etc put it more squarely on this list) 5. To Kill…
on “The Great Gatsby is the most misunderstood novel” ↗