Difference between revisions of "C"
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'''Candlebrow University'''<br /> | '''Candlebrow University'''<br /> | ||
130, Dr Vormance on sabbatical; 405; "institute of higher learning in the heartland"; 451; | 130, Dr Vormance on sabbatical; 405; "institute of higher learning in the heartland"; 451; | ||
+ | |||
+ | [[image:ex-voti-isernia.jpg|thumb|175px|''Ex Voti'' of Wax, from Isernia|right]]What ''is'' a "candlebrow"? Consider those [[St. Cosmo|phallic ''ex voti'' candles offered up to St. Cosmo]]. The head of the candle-phallus, brow shaped, sits atop the cylindrical candle-shaft and is, metaphorically, the candle's brow. And, natch, Gideon Candlebrow made the bucks necessary to fund Candlebrow U. with the miracle product "Smegmo," the "Messiah of kitchen fats" — and we all know what [http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Asmegma&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official smegma] is... | ||
+ | |||
+ | Pynchon consistently calls it Candlebrow '''U.''' — instead of simply Candlebrow or Candlebrow University — because the letter's ''shape'', like the inverted-vagina shape of the Tetractys, echoes its phallic connotation. Pynchon similarly emphasizes the phallic by using "Dick" Counterfly (''with'' the quotes) instead of simply Dick. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Or, heck, maybe it's just Pynchon's oblique way of saying "fuck you"... | ||
+ | |||
+ | And, of course, this is all connected with how [[St. Cosmo|that Randy St. Cosmo]] got his name... | ||
'''Canon City'''<br /> | '''Canon City'''<br /> | ||
Line 114: | Line 122: | ||
'''Chegomistas'''<br /> | '''Chegomistas'''<br /> | ||
988; participants in the Chegomista Rebellion in Juchitan, Mexico, 1911-1912 | 988; participants in the Chegomista Rebellion in Juchitan, Mexico, 1911-1912 | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Cheroot'''<br /> | ||
+ | A cigar with both ends cut squarely flat. A.K.A. a stogie, the most popular and least expensive of cigars enjoyed by the likes of Mark Twain et al; Nate Privett buys 'em in Lew Basnight's presence ([[ATD_26-56#Page 42|pg.42]], U.S. edition); later Pynchon has Lew Basnight smoking a panatela, a cigar substantially more expensive than a stogie or a cheroot ([[ATD_26-56#Page 51|pg.51]]). Auberon Halfcourt lights up a cheroot of the transnoctial variety ([[ATD_748-767# Page 759|pg.759]]) | ||
'''Chess'''<br /> | '''Chess'''<br /> | ||
Line 158: | Line 169: | ||
347; harpist at Smokefoot's | 347; harpist at Smokefoot's | ||
− | '''Chums of Chance'''< | + | <div id="chums">'''Chums of Chance'''</div> |
− | 3; "celebrated aeronautics club"; 6, 7; 54; observing the impact of Tesla's Colorado experiments from the Indian Ocean, 107; intercepting the Vormance Expedition, 114-149; "agents of ''extrahuman'' justice" 215; in Murano, 243; retirement, 254; in the Arsenale battle with Padzy, 254; [[Campanile|toppling the Campanile]], 257; in New York City, 397; Upper Command (aka Hierarchy), 398, 407; at Candlebrow University, 407; the | + | 3; "celebrated aeronautics club"; 6, 7; 54; observing the impact of Tesla's Colorado experiments from the Indian Ocean, 107; intercepting the Vormance Expedition, 114-149; "agents of ''extrahuman'' justice" 215; in Murano, 243; retirement, 254; in the Arsenale battle with Padzy, 254; [[Campanile|toppling the Campanile]], 257; in New York City, 397; Upper Command (aka Hierarchy), 398, 407; at Candlebrow University, 407; "You are not aware that each of your mission assignments is intended to prevent some attempt of our [the Trespassers] own to enter your time-regime?" 415; infiltrated by Trespassers, 418; their "Tesla machine" 425; under the sand, 434; in Brussels, 548; recalled, in Venice, 575; witnessing Tunguska and Shambhala, 792; size of their airship (with ''Bol'shaia Igra'' takes one-fourth of the sky), 794; no longer work for the American government, 795; disaffiliated from The National Office, 1018; in Switzerland, 1026; on counter-Earth, 1021; rescue Vanderjuice, 1079; |
'''Chums of Chance books'''<br /> | '''Chums of Chance books'''<br /> | ||
''Chums of Chance and The Evil Halfwit'', 5; ''Chums of Chance and The Curse of the Great Kahuna'', 5; ''Chums of Chance at Krakatoa'', 6; ''Chums of Chance Search for Atlantis'', 6; ''Chums of Chance in Old Mexico'', 7; ''Chums of Chance and the Bowels of the Earth'', 117; ''The Chums of Chance and the Ice Pirates'', 123; ''The Chums of Chance Nearly Crash into the Kremlin'', 123; ''Chums of Chance at the Ends of the Earth'', read by Reef Traverse, 214; ''Chums of Chance and the Caged Women of Yokahama'', 411; ''Chums of Chance and the Wrath of the Yellow Fang'', 1019; | ''Chums of Chance and The Evil Halfwit'', 5; ''Chums of Chance and The Curse of the Great Kahuna'', 5; ''Chums of Chance at Krakatoa'', 6; ''Chums of Chance Search for Atlantis'', 6; ''Chums of Chance in Old Mexico'', 7; ''Chums of Chance and the Bowels of the Earth'', 117; ''The Chums of Chance and the Ice Pirates'', 123; ''The Chums of Chance Nearly Crash into the Kremlin'', 123; ''Chums of Chance at the Ends of the Earth'', read by Reef Traverse, 214; ''Chums of Chance and the Caged Women of Yokahama'', 411; ''Chums of Chance and the Wrath of the Yellow Fang'', 1019; | ||
+ | |||
+ | '''Chunxton Crescent'''<br /> | ||
+ | 219; where T.W.I.T. is headquarted | ||
+ | :in that ambiguous stretch north of Hyde Park known then as Tyburnia, in a mansion attributed to Sir John Soane, which during its latest tenancy, dating roughly from the departure of Madam Blavatsky from the material plane, had become a resort for all manner of sandaled pilgrims, tweed-smocked visionaries, and devotees of the nut cutlet. | ||
+ | |||
+ | A fictitious location. "Crescent" is a female symbol in many mythologies and cultures, and it reinforces T.W.I.T.'s association with the female sex. | ||
+ | :The moon is seen as a female symbol, and was worshipped in ancient times as a powerful force. It is believed to be linked to the unconscious and our feminine side. The sacredness of the moon has been connected with the basic cyclic rhythms of life. The changing phases of the moon were linked to the death and rebirth seen in crops and the seasons, and also to the female monthly cycle that controls human fertility. The moon calendar is still important and many festivals exist around the lunar phases. [http://www.new-age.co.uk/moon-dates.htm] | ||
'''Cinema / Film'''<br /> | '''Cinema / Film'''<br /> | ||
Line 189: | Line 207: | ||
131; 167; "cringers and" 779; | 131; 167; "cringers and" 779; | ||
− | '''Clissan, Vlado'''< | + | <div id="vlado">'''Clissan, Vlado'''</div> |
− | 810; "neo-Uskok chap" in Trieste; looking after Yashmeen, 813; sex with Yashmeen, 815; | + | 810; "neo-Uskok chap" in Trieste; looking after Yashmeen, 813; sex with Yashmeen, 815; entrusts Yashmeen with "green schoolboy's copybook" called ''The Book of the Masked'', 853; |
'''Clothilda'''<br /> | '''Clothilda'''<br /> | ||
Line 304: | Line 322: | ||
'''Cowboy's Christmas'''<br /> | '''Cowboy's Christmas'''<br /> | ||
− | 81; | + | 81; a loose term that describes the time that begins (unofficially) after the Reno Rodeo in Nevada and runs through the 4th of July weekend (or through most of July, depending on who you ask). It's affectionately called Christmas Time by cowboys and cowgirls because of all the rodeos taking place (34 or so just in the holiday week!) and the tremendous amount of money to be won. It's extremely important in the quest to make it to the Wrangler NFR, because a good run during Cowboy Christmas can potentially make or break a cowboys chances to enter the top 15 at years end. [http://rodeo.about.com/od/faqs/f/cowboychristmas.htm] |
'''Coxey's Army'''<br /> | '''Coxey's Army'''<br /> | ||
Line 313: | Line 331: | ||
'''Cracker Jack'''<br /> | '''Cracker Jack'''<br /> | ||
− | 24 | + | 24. Trademark dating from the 1890s for caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts. "Jack" has been used for "man" since the mid-1500s, as in "jack-of-all-trades." "Crackerjack" entered English first as a noun referring to "a person or thing of marked excellence," then as an adjective.<br> |
In 1893, according to legend, a unique popcorn, peanuts and molasses confection which was the forerunner to Cracker Jack caramel coated popcorn and peanuts was introduced by F.W. Rueckheim and Brother, at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago's first World's Fair. [http://www.crackerjack.com/history.php] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack] | In 1893, according to legend, a unique popcorn, peanuts and molasses confection which was the forerunner to Cracker Jack caramel coated popcorn and peanuts was introduced by F.W. Rueckheim and Brother, at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago's first World's Fair. [http://www.crackerjack.com/history.php] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack] | ||
Line 323: | Line 341: | ||
'''Creede'''<br /> | '''Creede'''<br /> | ||
− | + | 85; 89; 260; 305; 650. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creede%2C_Colorado Creede, Colorado], was one of the last towns to take off as a result of the late nineteenth-century [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Silver_Boom Colorado Silver Boom]. Named after Nicholas C. Creede, owner of the town's foundational Holy Moses Mine, Creede flourished between the years 1891 and 1893--the years of greatest silver production and the Boom--when the city of Denver was undergoing reform-driven curtailments of its gambling and saloon activities. Many of Denver's high-rollers, as consequence--including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ford_%28outlaw%29 Robert Ford] (the man who shot Jesse James) and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_Masterson Bat Masterson] (curiously unmentioned by Pynchon)--made ephemerally hustling Creede their base of operations during the period explored by the novel. Ford (AtD, pp. 89, 642) was shot to death in Creede by Ed O'Kelley, "the man who killed the man who killed Jesse James." | |
+ | '''Cricket'''<br /> | ||
+ | Read Peter Vernon's excellent paper, [[Cricket_in_Against_the_Day|"It’s Just Not Cricket: Cricket as Metaphor in Thomas Pynchon’s ''Against the Day''"]] | ||
+ | |||
'''Cripple Creek'''<br /> | '''Cripple Creek'''<br /> | ||
82; in Colorado - strike for an 8-hour day; | 82; in Colorado - strike for an 8-hour day; | ||
Line 332: | Line 353: | ||
'''Crouchmas, Clive'''<br /> | '''Crouchmas, Clive'''<br /> | ||
− | 899; suitor of Dally's in London; in Caporetta, 1067; | + | 228; T.W.I.T. neophyte, consultant for Renfrew and Werfner, 237; 899; suitor of Dally's in London; in Caporetta, 1067; |
'''Crusades'''<br /> | '''Crusades'''<br /> |
Latest revision as of 17:58, 16 February 2009
Calderara, Mario (1879-1944)
912; Italian ace pilot designing his own machine for airshows in Brescia; Early Aviators website
California Peg
303; sous-maîtresse of the Silver Orchid in Telluride;
camera lucida
141; A camera lucida is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists. It was patented in 1806 by William Hyde Wollaston; Wikipedia entry
Camp, Walter (1859-1925)
159; sports writer and football coach known as the "Father of American Football". Along with John Heisman, Amos Alonzo Stagg, and Glenn Scobey Warner, and George Halas, Camp was one of the most significant person in the history of American football. He attended Yale from 1876-1890; Wikipedia entry
Campanile
257; St. Mark's Campanile is the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, located in the square (piazza) of the same name. On July 14, 1902, the campanile collapsed completely, also demolishing the logetta. Remarkably no one was killed, except for the caretaker's cat; 454; Wikipedia entry
Campas, Don Emilio
984; "taking some people south [in Mexico]"
Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry (1836-1908)
448; British Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister from December 5, 1905 until resigning due to ill health on April 3, 1908. No previous First Lord of the Treasury had been officially called "Prime Minister"; this term only came into official usage after he took office; Wikipedia entry
Canaletto (1697-1768)
576; Giovanni Antonio Canale, better known as Canaletto, was a Venetian artist famous for his landscapes, or vedute of Venice. He was a son of the painter Bernardo Canale, hence his nickname Canaletto. His nephew Bernardo Bellotto was also a landscape painter; he sometimes used the name of Canaletto to further his own career; Wikipedia entry
Candlebrow, Mr. Gideon
406; "of Grossdale, Illinois, who had made his bundle back during the great Lard Scandal of the '80s" who subsidized the yearly Candlebrow Conferences at Candelbrow U.
Candlebrow University
130, Dr Vormance on sabbatical; 405; "institute of higher learning in the heartland"; 451;
Pynchon consistently calls it Candlebrow U. instead of simply Candlebrow or Candlebrow University because the letter's shape, like the inverted-vagina shape of the Tetractys, echoes its phallic connotation. Pynchon similarly emphasizes the phallic by using "Dick" Counterfly (with the quotes) instead of simply Dick.
Or, heck, maybe it's just Pynchon's oblique way of saying "fuck you"...
And, of course, this is all connected with how that Randy St. Cosmo got his name...
Canon City
261; site of the Colorado State Penitentiary
Canteloube, Marie-Joseph (1879-1957)
941; a French composer, Canteloube was born in Annonay in the Ardèche, and died at Grigny in Essonne (a part of the Auvergne region.) He is best known for his collection of orchestrated folk songs from the Auvergne region, Chants d’Auvergne ("Songs of the Auvergne"). Wikipedia entry
Cantor, Georg (1845-1918)
250; 593-94; German mathematician who is best known as the creator of set theory. Cantor established the importance of one-to-one correspondence between sets, defined infinite and well-ordered sets, and proved that the real numbers are "more numerous" than the natural numbers. In fact, Cantor's theorem implies the existence of an "infinity of infinities." He defined the cardinal and ordinal numbers, and their arithmetic. Cantor's work is of great philosophical interest, a fact of which he was well aware. After his father's death in 1863, Cantor shifted his studies to the University of Berlin, attending lectures by Weierstrass, Kummer, and Kronecker, and befriending his fellow student Hermann Schwarz. He spent a summer at the University of Göttingen, then and later a very important center for mathematical research. In 1867, Berlin granted him the Ph.D. for a thesis on number theory, De aequationibus secundi gradus indeterminatis. After teaching one year in a Berlin girls' school, Cantor took up a position at the University of Halle, where he spent his entire career; "the Beast of Halle" 624;
Capitalism
79; and modern chemistry; and the Tsar, 83; 147; collapse of, 415; 419; "mills of Capital," 455; "If it doesn't work with gold, the next step will be lead" 618; Wikipedia entry
Capsheaf
492; pal of Cyprian Latewood
Capunizer
698; a "caponizer" would be a castrator;
Carnal, Reverend Lube
210; "of the Second Lutheran (Missouri Synod) Church"
Carnegie, Andrew (1835-1919)
734; Andrew Carnegie (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American businessman, a major and widely respected philanthropist, and the founder of the Carnegie Steel Company which later became U.S. Steel. Wikipedia entry
Carnesalve
880; "the secret counter-Carnevale";
carnival theory
184-185;
Cartesian
See Descarte, René
Case Institute
58; in Cleveland
Casas Grandes
923; Casas Grandes (or Paquimé) was a large, influential capital city of the Casas Grandes polity in the state of Chihuahua, northern Mexico (very close to the southern borders of Arizona and New Mexico), considered the third great regional state (the others are Aztec and Toltec) of the American southwest, from about AD 1150-1450. The site of Paquimé is also the largest pueblo known in the US southwest and Mexico, including more than 2000 rooms. More about Casas Grandes
Ca' Spongiatosta
728; where Dally Rideout is boarding in Rome;
Cassidy, Butch (1866-1908?)
172; a notorious train and bank robber.; 180; Wikipedia entry
Cathedral of the Prefiguration
153;
Cavi
758; "ate the sausage at Kabul";
Celluloid
86; a thermoplastic compound of cellulose nitrate and camphor, originally developed and patented by John Wesley Hyatt as a substitute for ivory in billiard balls. It was later used as the film base for photosensitive emulsion, seminal in the use of photographic plates and especially in motion pictures. Nowadays, it is found principally in ping-pong balls and in some guitar (perhaps also ukelele?) picks and pickguards. Wikipedia entry; 103; 570;
Center of the Earth
41; See also Gravity
C.F.I. Office
1004; Colorado Fuel and Iron; The Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) steel mill on the south side of town was the main industry in Pueblo, Colorado for most of its history. Over the course of its history, the company has had several major labor disputes. The most famous of these culminated in the famous Ludlow Massacre at one of its coal mines in 1914; Wikipedia entry
Chandrasekhar, O.D.
63; from Bombay, India; Perhaps a nod to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995), an Indian-American physicist, astrophysicist and mathematician, known to the world as Chandra, who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics. He calculated and discovered the Chandrasekhar Limit which is the maximum mass possible for a white dwarf star (one of the end stages of stars that have exhausted their fuel) supported by electron degeneracy pressure, and is approximately 3 × 1030 kg, around 1.44 times the mass of the Sun.
The initials O.D.C. refer to the novel "2001: A space odyssey" by Arthur C. Clarke, where Chandra is the inventor of the HAL computer system.
In ATD p. 63 O.D.Chandrasekhar mentions akasa as the solution for the problems the aetherists have discussing implications of the Michelson-Morley experiment, akasa referring to spacein hindu cosmology ,alas O.D. is proposing space itself here as the medium for light.
Chaos Theory/Fractals
961; self-similarity and death;
charabanc
53; bus: a vehicle carrying many passengers; used for public transport; Wikipedia entry
Chase, Ed
176; "boss of the redlight district" in Denver; 465;
Chase, John
1007; "Colorado Fuel and Iron stooge"
Chavalito, Señor
387; what El Ñato calls Frank
Cheesely, Thrapston III
367; Reef Traverse's alter-ego - "East Coast nerve case"
Chegomistas
988; participants in the Chegomista Rebellion in Juchitan, Mexico, 1911-1912
Cheroot
A cigar with both ends cut squarely flat. A.K.A. a stogie, the most popular and least expensive of cigars enjoyed by the likes of Mark Twain et al; Nate Privett buys 'em in Lew Basnight's presence (pg.42, U.S. edition); later Pynchon has Lew Basnight smoking a panatela, a cigar substantially more expensive than a stogie or a cheroot (pg.51). Auberon Halfcourt lights up a cheroot of the transnoctial variety (pg.759)
Chess
543; "war in miniature"; 558; 594; 689;
21; held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's "discovery" of America; eulogy, 56; 476; 503; Wikipedia entry
Chinchito
350; "jumped-up circus midget" on the Bowery stage, at R. W. Vibe's party;
Chinese Gong Effect
356;
Chingiz
756; Prokladka's denshchik;
867; italian painter and cheramist, was born in Florence, Italy. His style is grandiloquent and measured at the same time, between neo-Renaissance Symbolism, Decadentism and Art Deco. [1]
Chiquita
994; "fandango girl" in San Antonio; a fandango is a provocative Spanish courtship dance in triple time; performed by a man and a woman playing castanets; a fandango girl is also, I believe, a dancing girl at a fandango which is a Mexican celebration or party;
367; "touring English woman" in Denver; in New Orleans, 368; in Austria, 656; levitation during performance of new work by Ralph Vaughan Williams, 896;
Chisholm, Grace490; Grace Chisholm (1868-1944), an English mathematician. She went to Girton College, Cambridge in 1889 to study mathematics. Since no women were accepted to graduate schools in England, after graduation She went to the University of Göttingen to continue her mathematics education and received her PhD there in 1895. The following year she married William Young (1863-1942), one of her tutors at Girton and also a mathematician. (romances with one's tutors à la . . .) Grace Chisholm and Will Young formed a mathematical married partnetship of real significance. Husband and wife played a major role in set theory research. Between them they wrote 214 mathematical articles and several books, including one on geometry and one on set theory. Grace Chisholm and William Young.
chloral hydrate
621; drug of choice at University of Göttingen - Mickifests - chloralomania
Chong
602; Theosophoid at Göttingen
Christianity
"Christian faith," 334; "Christmas-pudding controversy," 406; Genesis 14:10, 441; "biblically lurid yellow-gray," 452; 453; born-again, 675; transfiguration of Christ, 960;
Chthonica, Princess of Plutonia
117; chthonic = "dwelling in or under the earth; also, pertaining to the underworld";
Plutonia? Well, TNT and Plutonia are two "alternate" versions of DooM 2, i.e. they have the same story line as DooM 2, but completely different level designs, and some new music and textures; alternately, there's the Plutonia Dilemma: an eccentric trillionaire gathers 20 people together, and tells them that if one and only one of them sends him a telegram (reverse charges) by noon the next day, that person will receive a billion dollars. If he receives more than one telegram, or none at all, no-one will get any money, and cooperation between players is forbidden. In this situation, the superrational thing to do is to send a telegram with probability 1/20.
Chuck
347; harpist at Smokefoot's
3; "celebrated aeronautics club"; 6, 7; 54; observing the impact of Tesla's Colorado experiments from the Indian Ocean, 107; intercepting the Vormance Expedition, 114-149; "agents of extrahuman justice" 215; in Murano, 243; retirement, 254; in the Arsenale battle with Padzy, 254; toppling the Campanile, 257; in New York City, 397; Upper Command (aka Hierarchy), 398, 407; at Candlebrow University, 407; "You are not aware that each of your mission assignments is intended to prevent some attempt of our [the Trespassers] own to enter your time-regime?" 415; infiltrated by Trespassers, 418; their "Tesla machine" 425; under the sand, 434; in Brussels, 548; recalled, in Venice, 575; witnessing Tunguska and Shambhala, 792; size of their airship (with Bol'shaia Igra takes one-fourth of the sky), 794; no longer work for the American government, 795; disaffiliated from The National Office, 1018; in Switzerland, 1026; on counter-Earth, 1021; rescue Vanderjuice, 1079;
Chums of Chance books
Chums of Chance and The Evil Halfwit, 5; Chums of Chance and The Curse of the Great Kahuna, 5; Chums of Chance at Krakatoa, 6; Chums of Chance Search for Atlantis, 6; Chums of Chance in Old Mexico, 7; Chums of Chance and the Bowels of the Earth, 117; The Chums of Chance and the Ice Pirates, 123; The Chums of Chance Nearly Crash into the Kremlin, 123; Chums of Chance at the Ends of the Earth, read by Reef Traverse, 214; Chums of Chance and the Caged Women of Yokahama, 411; Chums of Chance and the Wrath of the Yellow Fang, 1019;
Chunxton Crescent
219; where T.W.I.T. is headquarted
- in that ambiguous stretch north of Hyde Park known then as Tyburnia, in a mansion attributed to Sir John Soane, which during its latest tenancy, dating roughly from the departure of Madam Blavatsky from the material plane, had become a resort for all manner of sandaled pilgrims, tweed-smocked visionaries, and devotees of the nut cutlet.
A fictitious location. "Crescent" is a female symbol in many mythologies and cultures, and it reinforces T.W.I.T.'s association with the female sex.
- The moon is seen as a female symbol, and was worshipped in ancient times as a powerful force. It is believed to be linked to the unconscious and our feminine side. The sacredness of the moon has been connected with the basic cyclic rhythms of life. The changing phases of the moon were linked to the death and rebirth seen in crops and the seasons, and also to the female monthly cycle that controls human fertility. The moon calendar is still important and many festivals exist around the lunar phases. [2]
Cinema / Film
"Dreamtime Movy" (theater), 450; and Time, 451; "movie audience and crowds at tent-meetings," 450; 456-57;
Circassian slave
797; "in old Araby"; possible reference to The Circassian Slave: or, The Sultan's Favorite, a novella by Lieutenant Murray, 1851, the action of which takes place in Turkey, "the world bordering on the Black Sea, the Sea of
Marmora, and the Bosphorus"; Circassian beauties were allegedly women of the Circassian people of the Caucasus mountain range in Circassia neighboring Ukraine and Georgia. A fairly extensive literary history suggests that Circassian women were unusually beautiful and spirited and very elegant and as such were desirable as slave concubines; Wikipedia entry
City
"mythic cities at the horizon," 394;
Clarabella
249; Dally's doll
Clementia, Sister
1007; with Stray in Ludlow
Cleveland
455;
Clifford
632; invisible
climber
131; 167; "cringers and" 779;
810; "neo-Uskok chap" in Trieste; looking after Yashmeen, 813; sex with Yashmeen, 815; entrusts Yashmeen with "green schoolboy's copybook" called The Book of the Masked, 853;
Clothilda
893; Ruperta Chirpingdon-Groin's four-year-old niece;
Cobianchi, Mario (1885-1944)
912; Italian ace pilot Early Aviators Website
coconut-shy
806; A coconut shy (or coconut shie) is a traditional game frequently found as a sidestall at funfairs and fêtes. The game consists of throwing wooden balls at a row of coconuts balanced on posts. Typically a player buys three balls and wins each coconut successfully dislodged. In some cases other prizes may be won instead of the coconuts. Wikipedia entry
Coeur d'Alene
333; 362; 463;
History of miners' disputes in:
Wikipedia entry
Coffee
102; 103; 144; 235; 394; 464;
Cold Harbor
101; 335;
Cohen, The
720; See the Grand Cohen
Coleman Smith, Pamela (1878-1951)
186;225; artist, illustrator, and writer best known for designing the Rider-Waite deck (also known as the Rider-Waite-Smith, Waite-Smith, Waite-Colman Smith or Rider deck) of tarot cards for Arthur Edward Waite in 1910. Wikipedia entry
22; William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was an American soldier, buffalo hunter and showman. He was born in the American state of Iowa, near Le Claire. He was one of the most colorful figures of the Old West, and mostly famous for the shows he organized with cowboy themes; Wikipedia entry; 53;
718; Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum (or Friern Hospital) was a hospital located in Colney Hatch in what is now the London Borough of Barnet. It was in operation from 1851 to 1993. At its height the asylum was home to 3,500 mental patients and had the longest corridor in Britain, and hence, its name was synonymous among Londoners with any mental institution. Wikipedia entry
Colonel, the
699; in Leopoldstadt, in the Jewish quarter north of the Prater, in Vienna; solicits Sado-Masochistic sex from Cyprian Latewood; 704; surveilled by the Russians, 711;
Colonialism
527; in the Belgian Congo;
color
"summer uniform of red-and-white striped blazer and trousers of sky-blue," "'White City,'" "green," 3; "yellow," 9; "sepia," 10; "eclipse green," 18; "vivid magenta," 26; "attractive little girl of four or five with flaming red hair" (Dally), 27; "orange phosphate," 47; "flowers in bells and clusters, purple and white or yellow as butter," "red berries," 70; "Red Mountain Pass," 81; "colorless," 109; "pale blue radiance," 115; Northern Lights' "heavenwide pulses of color," 121; "red as a cursed ruby," "Blue Ivory," 125; "green ice," "sheer green walls of ice, the greenness nearest the water," "green and yellow," "gray slatework," 127; "vivid cream," "Payne's gray and Naples yellow," "an unfaded spectrum of tropical colors," 129; "silver-gray," "sky was more neutral-density gray than blue," "shadowless green ... sea-green sea, the ice-green, glass-green sea," 134; "seas more emerald," "pale grasses, failing by a visible margin to be green," 137; "glowing a different primary color," "blue chalk-dust," 140; ""various colors and intensities," "strange yellowish green," 141; "yellowed glare," 142; "red Zouave-style hats and trousers," "fire-reddened light," 145; "sombre brown landscapes of north Canada," 149; "levels of gray," "color, not the fashionable shades of daytime but blood reds, morgue yellows, poison greens," "accuracy of colors," 153; "an abstract array of moving multicolored lights against a blue, somehow maritime, darkness," 154; "rust-red and yellowish," 155; "rival school hues," 156; "'crimson' is cognate with 'worm,'" 157; 160; "colors of doubtful taste," "Scarsdale's in gray tones, Edwarda's in mauve. Puce sometimes," 162; "screamin Red threat," "a range of colors," 182; "red liquor," 196; "red adobe towers," 198; "valley fog the same color as the snow," "luminous shades of gray," 200; "country was so red that the sagebrush appeared to float above it as in a stereopticon view, almost colorless, pale as a cloud, luminous day and night," 209; "blue laws," 210; "disturbing colors," "daytime blue," "aquamarine and mauve," 211; "dark, blood-red wall," 214; "mossy greens," "the Order of the Golden Dawn;" 219; "mauve," "pale blue", 226; "silver-streaked," 227; "'pinky,'" 233; "queer purple liquid that Lew could swear was glowing,"," 234; "violet dusk," "luminous green liquids," 235; "purple," "logwood," "vivid, unmistakable turquoise," 236; "red-clay chimneys," "ancient sepia...more optimistic red," 243; "'Purple Thanksgiving,'" "white and red vini frizzanti," "'Red blood,'" 247; "pale blue albatross cloth," 266; "Sloat was partial to the color green," "shade of green," "'never could see green, bein a mauve man myself,'" "blood-red dirt," 269; "vivid red," 297; "multicolored flashes of light," 322; "lighter colors," 337; "aquamarine," 340; "suit of acid magenta and saffron" 342; Erlys? 347; "wine-colored plush," "orange Tiffany orchid brooches vivid as flames," 348; "Congo violet" 349; "gray," "Red" (nickname for Dally), "blindingly pomaded gray hair and a gigantic emerald ring on his pinky," 350; "perfect black velvet and multicolored silk brocade," 351; "Sunsets tended to be purple firestorms, with blinding orange streaks running through," 364; "Madame Aubergine," "scarlet", 367; "silver and lapis," 368; "the Red Onion," "the red-light district," 371; "green volcanic islands," 372; "red-brown mountainside," 377; "brown," 380; "silver," 381; "earth tones," 384; "indigo," 386; "red bandannas," 390; "peculiar colors," 392; "whirling colors including magenta, low-brilliancy turquoise, and a peculiarly pale, wriggling violet," 394; "checked in indigo and custard yellow, topped off with pearl-gray bowlers," 399; "bluish electric lights blooming," 401; "violent blue sparks," 402; "color-coded tickets of identification," "patriotically colored Smegmo crock," "dark brown light," 408; "reddish liquid," "magenta-and-green aura," 410; "apricot and aquamarine," 412; "Chinese red and indigo," 418; "sunny verdigris campus," "green mist of budding," "closely maintained white mustache and gold teeth," "red sweatshirts bearing the golden crest of the Academy," 421; "green fields," "moistly violet," 422; "'don't be blue, pal,'" 424; "succession of colors," 434; "red-brown color," 439; "unearthly green," 443; "shiny green suit," 445; "yellow," "lemon-white neon," "purple clover," 451; "biblically lurid yellow-gray," 452; yellowish, 455; "red whiskey," 462; "blue Excelsior," 464; heliotrope, 493; green, white and mauve, 501; Coronation Red, 497; claret and blue, 503; indigoes and aquas, 526; Chinese red, 526; blue, taupe, Chinese red, 532; "analine teal and a bright though sour orange" 533; 537; pale violet, 544; taupe and damaged rose, 551; 568; duck-green, 574; Jesus, 580; 584; 585; orpiment yellow, scarlet vermilion, Nürnberg violet, 586; 608; Foley Walker's suit, 619; 625; green and magenta, 633; 689; 715; 742; 795; 796; "seaweed-green suit" 833; "black that rests at the heart of all color" 835; 846; "some shade of heliotrope" 867; primaries, 924; fuschia, 1042; acid-yellow, 1073;
- See also, N. Katherine Hayles and Mary B. Eiser's article, "Coloring Gravity's Rainbow," originally published in Pynchon Notes, Vol. 16, available as a free, downloadable .pdf file here.
Colorado
83; commenting on its shape;
Columbian Exposition of 1893
3; See Chicago World's Fair; 10; 397;
Combermere Bridge
758; The Combermere Bridge on the mall is the oldest British landmark of Shimla. In the words of Captain Mundy, A.D.C. to lord Combermere (1928),"Lord Combermere amused himself, and benefitted the public by superintending the formation of a fine, broad,level road round the mount Jakhu, [Combermere Bridge] about three miles in length...worked entirely by Hill men...and skillfully done..and when finished, will be a great acquisition to the loungers of Shimla. This is the present Jakhu round, a favourite woody walk around JakhuHill." Across a deep ravine, a quarter of mile from the town, his lordship erected neat Sangah, or a mountain bridge of pines; and under it a capacious stone tank was constructed to obviate the great scarcity of water." The bridge still bears the name of Combermere and it was the first step towards the improvement of Simla. [3]
Commandant of Earthly Days
17; a "potent though invisible" entity that dictates human behavior
Committee of Union and Progress (C.U.P.)
911; a political organization, established by Bahaeddin Sakir initially among Young Turks in 1906, during the dissolution period of the Ottoman Empire. It came to power between 1908 and 1918. At the end of World War I most of its members were court-martialled by the sultan Mehmed VI and imprisoned. Wikipedia entry
"commonwealth of toil that is to be"
361; from the song "The Commonwealth of Toil" written by Ralph Chaplin in 1905 and included in the International Workers of the World Little Red Songbook - The Lyrics... A recording...
Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits
567; Carlson Wagonlit is a chain of travel agencies. The company was founded in Belgium in 1876 by Georges Nagelmackers as the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (the International Sleeping-Car Company). Originally, the company deployed sleeping- and dining-cars in Europe. In 1883 the company started with a service to Constantinople, now Istanbul in Turkey, called the Orient Express; Wikipedia entry
Compassionate
749; "a great skyborne town, a small band of serious young people, dedicated to resisting death and tyranny" (reminiscent of The Counterforce from Gravity's Rainbow, and describing the Chums of Change?; in Corfu, 973;
Comptes Rendus
532; Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences, or simply Comptes rendus, is a French scientific journal which has been published since 1835. It is the proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences. It is currently split into seven sections, published by the Academy and Elsevier: Mathematique, Mecanique, Physique, Geoscience, Palevol, Chimie, and Biologies; Wikipedia entry
Cone Amor
468; Mayva's ice-cream parlor, a quite common name for ice-cream parlors, as it turns out, being a pun on con amor, Spanish for "with love"...
Consequential Pictures
1053; in Los Angeles where Deuce Kindred works
Consuelo
161; bandida in Mischief in Mexico
Control
34; Rational Systems of;
Cooper
202; at Stray's, courting Sage
Cosmas of Jerusalem (8th Century CE)
960; canone of; Saint Cosmas (8th century) was a hymn-writer of the Eastern Church and the foster-brother of Saint John of Damascus. Wikipedia entry
Counter
"counterfactual," 9; Igor Padzhitnoff, "Randolph's mysterious Russian counterpart," 123; "counterfactual," 304; "counter-Crusade," 437; "counter-time," 454; "counter-City," 585;
- See also Counterfly, Chick and Counterfly, Richard "Dick," below.
Counterfly, Chick
4; member of the Chums of Chance; the name of Gravity’s Rainbow’s dissipational rocket-eroticist, Tyrone Slothrop, anagramatically appears in the letters “Counterfly” and his first spoken sentence in the book, in which he calls fellow Chum Miles a “Slob-footed chap,” [1]108; now "Dr. Counterfly", 139;
Counterfly, Richard "Dick"
7; father of Chick Counterfly; 17; 1034;
Counterfly, Treacle
1034; Dick's third wife;
couple-three
193; a mid-Southern US colloquialism meaning more than two but less than "a few"; 206; 511;
Courage, Camille
345; "Courage Camille" is a game in which three players are required. Two of the players face each other and lock hands. The third person stiffens and falls backwards into their arms. This should be done several times, with the person falling farther backwards each time (the players locking their hands should lower them each time). Other players can then try.
Also, a line masterfully delivered by Bob Hope as radio personality and craven muckraker Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence in the 1940 horror-comedy The Ghost Breakers.
Cowboy poets
463
Cowboy's Christmas
81; a loose term that describes the time that begins (unofficially) after the Reno Rodeo in Nevada and runs through the 4th of July weekend (or through most of July, depending on who you ask). It's affectionately called Christmas Time by cowboys and cowgirls because of all the rodeos taking place (34 or so just in the holiday week!) and the tremendous amount of money to be won. It's extremely important in the quest to make it to the Wrangler NFR, because a good run during Cowboy Christmas can potentially make or break a cowboys chances to enter the top 15 at years end. [4]
Coxey's Army
79; Coxey's Army was a protest march by unemployed workers from the United States, led by the populist Jacob Coxey. They marched on Washington D.C. in 1894, the second year of a four-year economic depression that was the worst in United States history to that time. Wikipedia entry
Crack of Doom
12; The phrase at the crack of doom, meaning "at the striking of the fateful hour", is derived from Macbeth by William Shakespeare and has entered common usage. Wikipedia entry
Cracker Jack
24. Trademark dating from the 1890s for caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts. "Jack" has been used for "man" since the mid-1500s, as in "jack-of-all-trades." "Crackerjack" entered English first as a noun referring to "a person or thing of marked excellence," then as an adjective.
In 1893, according to legend, a unique popcorn, peanuts and molasses confection which was the forerunner to Cracker Jack caramel coated popcorn and peanuts was introduced by F.W. Rueckheim and Brother, at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago's first World's Fair. [5] and [6]
Crayke
492; fond of Shetland ponies
Creation 457;
Creede
85; 89; 260; 305; 650. Creede, Colorado, was one of the last towns to take off as a result of the late nineteenth-century Colorado Silver Boom. Named after Nicholas C. Creede, owner of the town's foundational Holy Moses Mine, Creede flourished between the years 1891 and 1893--the years of greatest silver production and the Boom--when the city of Denver was undergoing reform-driven curtailments of its gambling and saloon activities. Many of Denver's high-rollers, as consequence--including Robert Ford (the man who shot Jesse James) and Bat Masterson (curiously unmentioned by Pynchon)--made ephemerally hustling Creede their base of operations during the period explored by the novel. Ford (AtD, pp. 89, 642) was shot to death in Creede by Ed O'Kelley, "the man who killed the man who killed Jesse James."
Cricket
Read Peter Vernon's excellent paper, "It’s Just Not Cricket: Cricket as Metaphor in Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day"
Cripple Creek
82; in Colorado - strike for an 8-hour day;
Crookes, Sir William (1832-1919)
228; English chemist and physicist. Sir William attended the Royal College of Chemistry, in London, and worked on spectroscopy; Wikipedia entry
Crouchmas, Clive
228; T.W.I.T. neophyte, consultant for Renfrew and Werfner, 237; 899; suitor of Dally's in London; in Caporetta, 1067;
Crusades
436; counter-Crusades, 437;
Crystal
473; 565;
cubeb
17; the name for the berry and for the oil obtained from the unripe berry of the East Indian climbing shrub P. cubeba. The dried fruits are sometimes used as a condiment or are ground and smoked in cigarette form as a catarrh remedy. The oil is used medicinally and also in soap manufacture. The masticated roots of kava, P. methysticum, widely grown in its native Pacific islands, are made into a beverage called kavakava, which contains soporific alkaloids. It is an integral part of religious and social life there. A preparation of kava for commerce, also called kavakava, is sold widely as an herbal remedy for anxiety and insomnia. From The Free Dictionary
And let us not forget, part of the Disgusting English Candy Drill: "turns out to be luscious pepsin–flavored nougat, chock–full of tangy candied cubeb berries, and a chewy camphor–gum center" (GR, 118)
cucuji991; The cucujo Pyrophorus noctilucus (Coleoptera: Elateridae) is a very large bioluminescent insect, with a brightness of 45 millilamberts. This insect is also known as the Jamaican Click Beetle and the “Cucujo” or fire beetle of the Mexico and the West Indies.
Culpepper, Madge and Mia
60; worked at the Hamilton Street establishment of Nelly Lowry; 66;
Curly
183; Waiter at a Chicago hotel;
Custozza
661; the summer of;
Cyclomite
182-185; combo of cyclopropane plus dynamite, and psychotropic; "reality-modifying explosive" 233; 683;DISCUSSION
Cyprienne
815; Yashmeen's cat
Czolgosz, Leon (1873-1901)
372; assassin of President McKinley;
Leon Czolgosz As a young man, Leon Czolgosz worked in a wire mill in Cleveland, Ohio. He was a good employee, retaining his job even through an economic depression. In 1898 he suffered a breakdown, and returned to the family farm. He made trips to hear the anarchist leader Emma Goldman speak, and approached several anarchist groups, who rebuffed him. In 1901, Czolgosz moved to Buffalo, New York, site of the Pan American Exposition. There, in a receiving line on September 6, he shot President McKinley two times. Czolgosz who gave his name to police as Fred Nieman, or Fred Nobody later stated in reference to his decision to assassinate McKinley, "I didn't believe one man should have so much service, and another man have none." After a brief trial, Czolgosz was convicted. He was executed on October 29, 1901.