Talk:Chapter 1
Some guidelines to improve pages
This page and subsequent ones could be improved in a couple of ways:
- More exhaustive sources: for instance, in the first entry, the sentence "Also, bene [Latin] = "well-intentioned", observes Molly Hite." Who's Molly White? Where did she observed it?
Molly Hite was an associate professor at Cornell. She wrote a critical analysis of Pynchon's first three books titled Ideas of Order in the Novels of Thomas Pynchon, copyright 1983. Assume it comes from that book. I will try to find a link or the exact quote from the book. Jkvannort (talk) 15:59, 6 March 2024 (PST)
I added the definition of schlemiel/schlemihl, which alludes to a 19th century novel called Peter Schlemihl, who sells his shadow to the Devil. Jkvannort (talk) 07:55, 18 March 2024 (PDT)
I would also add that while the use of capitalization in V is derived from Germanic grammar, in Mason & Dixon, it follows the typical capitalization stylings of the 18th century Enlightenment, which probably does go back to German roots. However, when compared with novels like Pamela or Tom Jones, the language of M&D is imitating those. Jkvannort (talk) 18:52, 18 March 2024 (PDT)
- Update of dead links and cross-referencing of information: for instance, second entry, "Pynchon worked on aspects of NORAD [later acronym] when he was at Boeing." without source.
- Readibility: style uniformity when quoting texts, single words and links, for instance.
