Chapter 3: Page 15: Line 31 (122)

 "Oh, damme, I say, I didn't mean,—"

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Line 122 Vulgarized:
Mason, realizing his faux pas, apologizes with a swear.

Subtext:
Mason's probably not autistic. He's just overly enthusiastic about public executions and got caught up in the moment without realizing he was being a dick. It's how people learn to get along with people they've never really been around before. It's called growing and learning and having an open mind. He, like Dixon, knows they're going to be around each other a lot, probably in a lot of close quarter environments, and doesn't want to ruin their relationship before it's even gotten going. They both come across as good blokes, so far.

Chapter 3: Page 15: Line 30 (121)

 "Nooah, the first thing they'll ask is, 'Did thoo understand 'em the weeay theey talk, down theere...?"

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Line 121 Vulgarized:
"Actually, the first thing they'll ask is "Pip pip, cheerio! Wat ya say, guv? 'Ave a butchers! Apples and pears! Could ya even comprehend a thing the berk's say?!" Dixon says imitating Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.

Subtext:
Dixon hilariously mocks Mason's London accent as his "registering of annoyance." Instead of making a show of offense, Dixon simply mirrors Mason's behavior so that Mason can experience what he just did to Dixon.
    Yes, yes. I know he wasn't doing a Cockney accent. But I can't really tell what British accent he's doing with Pynchon's written version of it. Elongated vowel sounds? Maybe if I heard somebody speak this, I'd have an "A-ha!" moment of recognition. But there are so many accents in the United Kingdom and I'm not great at identifying them. It helps if I know famous people from the areas so that I know Rhod Gilbert's accent is Welsh and Ozzy Osbourne's accent is Brummie and John Lennon's accent is Scouse and all dwarves in fantasy films have a Scottish accent and all leprechauns in cereal commercials have Irish accents and Dick Van Dyke's Bert accent is aggravated Cockney. But there are so many more, like Posh and Geordie and Yorkshire and a whole bunch I can't remember or don't even know!

Chapter 3: Page 15: Lines 27-29 (118-120)

 Is it too many nights alone on top of that fam'd Hill in Greenwich? can this man, living in one of the great Cities of Christendom, not know how to behave around people?— Dixon decides to register only annoyance.

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Lines 118-120 Vulgarized:
"Has spending too many nights all by himself immersed in the grotesque spectacle of public executions rendered Mason, a man surrounded by other city folk, other professed Christians and urbane Londoners, unable to politely socialize with other people?" Dixon thinks while making a sour face at Mason's rude impression of Dixon's fellow country folk.

Subtext:
Mason might be autistic. He shows an almost obsessive joy concerning the public executions, believing everybody would (and should) enjoy the spectacle as much as he does. He also doesn't seem to register that his speech mimicking Durham County residents might come off as insulting, especially when speaking directly to a Durham County resident. He's doing an exaggerated accent in the face of a guy who is speaking in that accent.
    I don't mean to suggest that autistic people are rude! I don't think Mason is trying to be rude here at all, which is why the suggestion that he's autistic. Dixon's confusion about how somebody living in the city, living around people, might not understand social niceties strongly suggests that Mason doesn't think in the same way most folk might think.
    Rather than getting upset with Mason, Dixon just "decides to register only annoyance." This is a good move on Dixon's part, not turning what is probably an innocent slight into an argument. On the other hand, if Mason is autistic, he's almost certainly not going to register the register of annoyance.
    All in all, it's a first meeting and Dixon seems to handle Mason's initial eccentricities politely. Dixon, the more outgoing and extroverted of the two, realizes they're going to be working together for quite a while and decides to forgive Mason's social misstep here in the hopes of the two of them continuing to get along in the long run.

Chapter 3: Page 15: Lines 21-26 (112-117)

 Mason shrugging, palms up, "I'm serious. Worse than that, I'm sober. A man's first time in town, he simply can't miss a hanging. Come, Sir,— what's the first thing they'll ask when you get back to County Durham? Eh? 'Did ye see them rahde the Eeahr at Taahburn?' "

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Lines 112-117 Vulgarized:
Mason: "What? Really! I mean it! And I'm not even drunk! The first thing a tourist should do when visiting London is go see a public execution. What do you think the rubes back in Durham are going to ask you when you get back there? 'Yeehaw! Did y'all see 'em ride the air at Tyburn?!' "

Subtext:
Death is a spectacle and a cultural fascination, especially to an audience who thinks the person they're watching hang deserved to. A public execution celebrates punishment. It's an embrace of acting punitively, of vengeance attained. As I noted in the last entry, the tone is projected onto the scene by the viewer. A criminal being hanged is cause, for most of the public, to celebrate. It's a chance to revel in primal bloodlust. But if the same person celebrating the public hanging were to walk into a hotel room with a body hanging from the rafters, or find one of their loved ones hanging, death would suddenly not appear fascinating or amusing or celebratory. Death by public execution is irreal because the victim has been othered, becoming simply an object onto which justice is projected.

In a time when death was more visceral, and daily reminders were all around you, public executions might also seem comforting to the audience in that it's a way for humans to have some seeming control over it. Death can come at any time in any number of random ways. But what if we apply it, on schedule, to those whom we are keeping from possibly causing more death in the future by hanging them? Might that be some comfort? I wouldn't know because I live in the modern era where we deny our mortality for seventy to eighty years before truly grasping the reality that science isn't going to come up with a cure for death "just in the nick of time" for ourselves. It's possible that death became so abstract for Americans that many of them have decided killing other Americans isn't that big a deal. Because what is death other than a few points in a video game or a bunch of criminals shot in the face by various action movie stars?

Chapter 3: Page 15: Lines 19-20 (110-111)

 Taking it for the joke it must surely be, Dixon laughs, "Ha, ha, ha! Oh, thah's a bonny one, all right."

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Line 110 Vulgarized:
Dixon would be insane to think Mason was being serious and so laughs at the crazy idea of enjoying a hanging. "Ha, ha, ha! That's a pretty good joke!"

Subtext:
Our temperaments and our prejudices keep us from perceiving things in the way the thing is being presented. If the event or scene before an observer is natural and therefore neutral, they will project their own tone on it. It's like viewing an animal draped over the arm of a couch. Some might see it as bored, others as sulking, maybe even angry. But it's probably just resting and waiting for food, its posture suggesting no human emotion at all. As here, where Dixon, jovial and good-natured, cannot imagine somebody finding some kind of entertainment or spiritual solace in visiting a horrific event like a public hanging. And so he laughs at the idea.

Chapter 3: Page 15: Line 18 (109)

 "You must come out there with me, soon as we may."

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Line 109 Vulgarized:
"Come enjoy the spectacle of death with me next weekend!"

Subtext:
Mason's a little quick to project his fascination with death onto his new partner. He's acting a little bit too excited about these outings to public executions and if I were Dixon, I'd be wary of this guy. He's got a "There's more than a few corpses in my basement" vibe happening all of a sudden.