But after finally having read Sot-Weed, the archaic spellings and the bizarre circumlocutions seemed natural. The historical setting of Mason and Dixon is in the mid 1700s, about 50 years after that of Sot-Weed . Sot-Weed in England and Maryland, and Mason and Dixon primarily in England, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. But there the similarity ends. Mason and Dixon has its humorous moments and passages of pure brilliance, but the story line is weak and hard to follow, with no clear conflict or antagonist.
Individual scenes are fascinating.
Individual characters are extraordinarily memorable. But the pieces don't seem to hold together. Here there is a narrative frame, with an old friend of Mason and Dixon telling their story to his own extended family, after the American Revolution. But the narrator does not have a unifying vision. Undoubtedly, graduate students will have fun trying to make sense of it all, and justify the author's strange choices.