The Revenge of the Straight Line: Smooth and Striated Space in Thomas Pynchon’s Mason and Dixon : WestminsterResearch

Chapter title	The Revenge of the Straight Line: Smooth and Striated Space in Thomas Pynchon’s Mason and Dixon
Authors	Griffiths, S.
Editors	Karunaratne, G.
Abstract	This paper explores the philosophical, spatial, and narrative significance of the straight line through Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concepts of striated and smooth space, applied to Thomas Pynchon’s novel Mason & Dixon. Striated space—structured, hierarchical, and measured—is contrasted with smooth space—fluid, nomadic, and emergent. These spatial modes are exemplified through artistic, musical, and cartographic practices, such as Paul Klee’s wandering lines and John Cage’s aleatoric compositions. The essay positions the Mason-Dixon Line as both a literal and metaphorical striation of space, marking the imposition of Enlightenment rationalism and colonial order onto the American landscape. Yet, Pynchon’s narrative complicates this binary, depicting the line not only as a tool of abstraction and domination but also as a cross-section that reveals cultural, political, and metaphysical complexity. The novel blends science, fable, and politics, using the line to explore tensions between mapping and lived experience, order and chaos, representation and embodiment. Critically, the essay challenges the privileging of smooth space over striated space in post-Deleuzian thought, questioning whether anti-representational approaches inadvertently deny the pragmatic and ethical value of judgement, reason, and representation. It argues for a more dialectical understanding of spatial categories and highlights the potential of rational tools—like the straight line—to serve emancipatory, rather than solely oppressive, purposes. Ultimately, the paper suggests that Pynchon’s work, while sceptical of Enlightenment rationalism, offers a nuanced perspective that embraces complexity, ambiguity, and the interplay between order and freedom.
Keywords	Mason Dixon Line
	Thomas Pynchon
	Deleuze and Guattari
	John Cage
	mapping
	colonialism
	straight line
	Enlightenment
	Reason
Book title	Mapping: Narratives, Practices and Spatial Inquiry
Year	2026
Publisher	Routledge
Place of publication	London
ISBN	9781032934204

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The Revenge of the Straight Line: Smooth and Striated Space in Thomas Pynchon’s Mason and Dixon

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