Is The Princess Casamassima (1885-86) no more than a stage prop, put there to achieve a certain degree of estranged realism in such a definitely unrealistic-or cartoonish-scene, or is it a book-within-a-book with its own messages of great urgency to our time? James' novel, published a few years before the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, historically fits the scene but we may be offered a clue when it is described as concerned with “the inexorably rising tide of World Anarchism” ( AtD 6). There is also a less blatant stereoscopic effect generated by the novel that Pugnax is reading. Indeed, non-realistic elements are (as usual) to be expected-in the middle of partly excruciatingly accurate, partly subtly counter-factual historical reconstructions. It should also be noted that the Chums of Chance sub-plot in Against the Day is clearly a homage to 19th century adventurous science-fiction à la Jules Verne or Emilio Salgari. Pynchon is at heart a historical novelist but he also frequently employs devices from fantasy, science-fiction and cartoons (one might mention albino alligators or sentient light bulbs, not to mention android ducks). Of course the most blatant stereoscopy is the one concerning Pugnax: how can we accommodate a dog that reads Henry James’ novels from the point of view of genre theory? The obvious answer might be “postmodernist fiction,” “magic realism,” or “genre bending/interbreeding”. This small comedic episode from the first chapter of Against the Day is an example of the stereoscopic effect that plays an important role in the experience of reading Thomas Pynchon’s fiction. “Rr Rff-rff Rr-rr- rff-rrf-rrf,” replied Pugnax without looking up, which Darby, having like the others in the crew got used to Pugnax’s voice (…), now interpreted as “ The Princess Casamassima” ( AtD 5-6) “I say, Pugnax-what’s that you’re reading now, old fellow?” …while Freud says that sometimes a cigar is only a cigar, a rifle is always something more than a rifle. Moreover, this reading allows us to better understand how Pynchon may use the historical documents and literature he has found while researching his novels. By applying a stereoscopic reading of the novel, which may achieve depth by means of comparing different textual objects and a wider historical context (that of the history of firearms in the 17th and 18th century, plus other works by Pynchon featuring firearms), it will be shown how literary (textual) avatars of "real", "historical" objects (firearms) may at the same time be verbal constructs but refer to the technical, material features of those objects, establishing multi-dimensional and complex relations between technology, science, economics (early forms of globalization), politics (colonialism and colonial wars) within and outside Mason & Dixon, and the rest of Pynchon's oeuvre. This article aims to carry out a multidisciplinary reading of Mason & Dixon starting from the apparitions of what might only look like a "stage prop", a rifle in four more or less important moments of the novel.
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