ATD 171-198
- Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.
Contents
Page 174
"your own brother"
Unabomber Ted Kaczynski was turned in by his brother. ("Kaczynski" means 'ducky' or 'duckman'. Did TRP hide this somewhere?)
Page 179
different tempos and keys
Cf 'anarchist miracle' in "Lot 49" (chapter 5).
Page 180
Valley Tan
Mormon whiskey reported by Mark Twain. cite
Page 182
P.E.T.N.
Ingredient of Semtex, discovered 1891. Wikipedia
Page 185
excursion
Wilde's US lecture tour was in 1882.
Page 186
grifa
Marijuana. cite
Miss Colman-Smith is West Indian [tarot cards]
From Wikipedia: Pamela Colman Smith (1878—1951) was an artist, illustrator, and writer. She is best known for designing the Rider-Waite-Smith deck of tarot cards for Arthur Edward Waite. Smith was born in England, the daughter of an American merchant from Brooklyn, Charles Edward Smith and his Jamaican wife Corinne Colman. Due to her father’s job with the West India Improvement Company, the family often moved, spending time in London, Kingston, Jamaica and Brooklyn, New York.
Pynchon's interest in the tarot is evident in Gravity's Rainbow. Two tarot cards are referred to here -- The Hanged Man card can be seen at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rider-Waite. The Knight of Swords can be seen at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_arcana#Swords
The reference is an anachronism, as the deck wasn't published until 1909.
Perseid
August (1900).
Page 188
hurricane
07 Sept 1900.
Page 192
nearly twenty
1883 + 19yo = 1902?
Page 197
coupling pin
pic
Page 198
The Light Over the Ranges
