ATD 219-242
- Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.
Contents
Page 219
True Worshippers of the Ineffable Tetractys
The Tetractys is a triangular figure consisting of ten points arranged in four rows: one, two, three, and four points in each row. As a mystical symbol, it was very important to the followers of the secret worship of the Pythagoreans, Kabbalists, and nutbars of other affiliations since. It has all kinds of symbological meaning, including the four elements, the organization of space, the Tarot, etc. Wikipedia entry
Chunxton Crescent
Invented by Pynchon.
Tyburnia
"Tyburnia occupies the ground on the north side of Hyde-park and Kensington-gardens, and stretches from Edgware-road on the east to about Inverness-terrace on the west. This is not, strictly speaking, a fashionable quarter; but it is not absolutely unfashionable, and is a very favourite part with those — lawyers, merchants, and others—who have to reside in town the greater part of the year." Charles Dickens (Jr.), Dickens's Dictionary of London, 1879.
Sir John Soane
(1753 – 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. Wikipedia entry
Madame Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), Russian-born founder of the Theosophical Society. Madame Blavatsky claimed that all religions were both true in their inner teachings and false or imperfect in their external conventional manifestations. Wikipedia
Page 220
Caen stone
A cream-colored limestone for building, found near Caen, France.
syrinx
a primitive wind instrument consisting of several parallel pipes bound together; panpipes.
ten-in-one
Ten sideshow acts for one admission. Wikipedia
Grand Cohen
'Cohen' is Hebrew for 'priest'.
Page 221
"Lateral world-sets, other parts of the Creation, lie all around us, each with its crossover points or gates of transfer from one to another, and they can be anywhere, really."
Could this be the explanation for some of the most inexplicable scenes from the book thus far: Lew Basnight's first encounter with the Drave group (around page 39) and Hunter Penhallow's escape from the mysterious creature (around page 154)? Parallel worlds?
'Tzaddik'
A righteous Jew. Wikipedia
Page 222
Simla
British outpost in Himalayas. Wikipedia
Smartly taken at silly point
A cricketing reference. Silly point is a fielding position very close to the batsman. examples
To know, to dare, to will, to keep silent
Mystical formula. examples
The four precepts of Western Magick, extensively discussed in the writings of Aleister Crowley.
"There is but one 'case' which occupies us"
This echoes the famous quote from Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: "The world is all that is the case." (See the full text of the Tractatus here.) This quote also factors in heavily in V. (Specifically, in two places: there's the P's and Q's love song, and also in Captain Weissman's repeating, encoded, hallucinated message over the telegraph in Africa.)
The Number 22
I found it interesting that the significance of the number 22 was first brought up on page 222. might be nothing, really.
Page 223
"And the crime... just what would be the nature of that?"
Might Lew himself be one of the 22 suspects? Perhaps the ineffable crime is what made people treat him like a pariah earlier in the book.
Page 224
"'walking out'"
A walking date.
the veil of maya
In Hinduism, maya is the phenomenal world of separate objects and people, which creates for some the illusion that it is the only reality. In Hindu philosophy, maya is believed to be an illusion, a veiling of the true, unitary Self. Many philosophies or religions seek to "pierce the veil" in order to glimpse the transcendent truth. Arthur Schopenhauer used the term "Veil of Maya" to describe his view of The World as Will and Representation. Wikipedia entry
Trumper's
London's royal barbers since 1875. site
On this island [...] all English, spoken or written, is looked down on as no more than strings of text cleverly encrypted
A sentiment echoed in the first sentence of Pynchon's December 2006 letter written in defense of novelist Ian McEwan: "Given the British genius for coded utterance..." Image of Letter
crosswords in newspapers
The first crossword to appear in a newspaper was in 1913. Cryptic crosswords in British newspapers certainly match Pynchon's description. See, for example, the Listener crossword.
Page 225
Girton College
For women, founded 1869. history
four stone
56 pounds.
Uckenfays
Pig latin?
gaver du visage
To forcefeed of the face. cite
Page 226
growler
Hansom cab.
Renfrew at Cambridge and Werfner at GöttingenNote that each Professor's name is the other's spelled backward.
Also notice the theme of dual natures or forces. The two professors are "bound and ... could not separate even if they wanted to." They become rivals within the broader conflict of the 'Great Game' -- the political rivalry over Central Asia being played out by the various European powers, but especially by Great Britain and the Russian Empire.
Berlin Conference of 1878
Divided Balkans after Russo-Turkish War. Wikipedia
Page 227
"The Great Game"
The Great Game was a term used to describe the rivalry and strategic conflict between the British Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. The term was later popularized by Rudyard Kipling in his novel, Kim. The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running from approximately 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. Wikipedia entry Also the name of Padzhitnoff's airship.
mamluk lamps
pic
English Rose
Traditional English beauty.
Page 228
Oliver Lodge
English physicist, inventor and writer (1851-1940) involved in the development of wireless telegraphy and radio. After the death of his son in 1915, Lodge became interested in spiritualism and life after death and wrote several books on the subject. Lodge conducted research on lightning, electricity, electromagnetism and wrote about the aether, themes that are repeated throughout ATD. Wikipedia entry.
William Crookes
English chemist and physicist (1832-1919) who worked in spectroscopy and whose work pioneered the construction and use of vacuum tubes. Like Oliver Lodge, Crookes was also a spiritualist, which appears to be Pynchon's reason for grouping him with others in this passage, although his experiments in electricity and light also tie in with these themes in ATD. Wikipedia entry.
Mrs. Piper
Probably Leonora Piper 1857-1950.
Eusapia Palladino
(1854-1918) Famous italian spiritualist medium.
Wikipedia entry.
W.T. Stead
William T. Stead (1849-1912), British writer, poet, social crusader, and spiritualist. He went down with the Titanic. Wikipedia entry.
Mrs. Burchell
???
Alexander and Draga Obrenovich, the King and Queen of Serbia
According to Wikipedia the assassination occured on 11 June 1903, so the seance at which Mrs. Burchell "witnessed" it, should have taken place in March 1903.
Parsons-Short Auxetophone
pic and info
Page 229
syntonic
A term used in both engineering and psychology. Psychology: "Characterized by a high degree of emotional responsiveness to the environment." Electricity: "Of or relating to two oscillating circuits having the same resonant frequency."
Russo-Turkish War
(1877-1878) Wikipedia entry
Page 230
King's... Girton
King's College is one of the most famous and historic colleges at Cambridge. Girton College, Cambridge, was established in 1869 as the first residential college for women in England.
Michaelmas term
The fall term, starting early October (1900 here). Wikipedia
tweeny
Betweenmaid.
Edward Oxford
attempted to shoot Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, at the time of her first pregnancy (1840).Wikipedia
Salic law
was a body of traditional law that codified policy on matters such as inheritance, crime, and murder. The British and Hanoverian thrones separated after the death of King William IV of the United Kingdom and of Hanover. Hanover practiced the Salic law, while Britain did not. King William's niece Victoria ascended to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland, but the throne of Hanover went to William's brother Ernest, Duke of Cumberland. Wikipedia entry
Tory despotism
Thatcher?
- Not necessarily-- it describes Ernest himself. "The Duke of Cumberland had a reputation as one of the least pleasant of the sons of George III. Politically an arch-reactionary, he opposed the 1828 Catholic Emancipation Bill proposed by the government of the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington." Wikipedia entry
Catholics
Someone famously cited James Joyce as proof that Catholics shouldn't get university educations.
Page 231
stamp
This stamp has come to be called the Penny Black. Wikipedia entry
immune to time
Cf Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, in which a painted portrait ages while its subject remains young.
springtide
Cf Stray's pregnancy, a "dreamy thing" (page 201).
Page 232
Éliphaz Lévi
A/K/A Eliphas Levi, nom de plume of Alphonse Louis Constant (1810-1875), French occultist and writer who pioneered a revival of Magick in the 19th Century, and was an influence on A.E. Waite, the Order of the Golden Dawn, and Aleister Crowley. An acquaintance of novelist Edward ("It was a dark and stormy night") Bulwer-Lytton. Wikipedia entry.
punters
customers, clients
number twenty-four
Or 25? etext
Iamblichus
(ca. 245 - ca. 325, Greek) was a neoplatonist philosopher who determined the direction taken by later Neoplatonic philosophy, and perhaps western Paganism itself. He is perhaps best known for his compendium on Pythagorean philosophy.Wikipedia
maquillage
Cosmetic or theatrical makeup. def
Page 233
Collis Brown's Mixture
Contained morphine, choloform, and caramel, among other things. Full ingredients
xylene
Xylene abuse is similar to "glue sniffing"-- xyline is a strong solvent able to cause several damages to health, especially to the brain. wikipedia
a thousand pounds a year
Over $100,000 today. cite
Page 234
Condy's fluid
A disinfectant used to treat and prevent Scarlet Fever, among other things. Wikipedia
Cheapside
an important market street in the City of London.
mews
A street originally for stabling; but in modern times often converted into houses/apartments.
Coombs de Bottle
"comes the bottle" ?
Russian duck
Duck is strong, untwilled linen or cotton, lighter and finer than canvas. Russian duck is coarse, heavy and unbleached but softer than English duck.
Page 235
sensitive flames
Cf GR.
- Where? Bleakhaus 23:20, 1 January 2007 (PST)
tremblers and timers
For bombs.
proper solvent procedures
Famous 1960s "Anarchist Cookbook" was infamously inaccurate.
Page 236
The Gentleman Bomber of Headingly
Cf Hornung's 'Gentleman Thief' and cricket player, Raffles. info
Reminds me of the Krikkit Robots in Douglas Adams' Life, The Universe, and Everything, where a bomb is put in place of a Cricket Ball at a match between Britain and Australia.
The Ashes
An international cricket series between England and Australia dating back to 1882. A number of references in this chapter relate to this rivalry. For example, on this page the English cricket ball is compared to the Australian "kookaburra". Kookaburra is the brand name of the balls used in Australia, in England it's Duke. The properties of the English ball was one of the keys to England's success in the summer of 2005. Was Pynchon's writing here influenced by the hype in the UK at the time?
Phosgene
A poison gas used in World War I.Wikipedia
logwood
Source of red dye. Wikipedia
Page 237
beige substance
Presumably Cyclomite.
Gemini
21 May to 20 June. Wikipedia
Bosanquet
Another Ashes reference. Bernard Bosanquet invented the bosie (or googly), as described here, around 1900. A major factor in England's 2005 Ashes success was reverse swing, another type of delivery whose physical dynamics are poorly understood.
Pom
A term for a British person commonly used in Australian English.
Hebrew letter Shin
Obviously a nod to the Vulcan greeting in Star Trek, with the distinctive hand sign and the phrase, "Live long and prosper." Perhaps also to the Jewish faith of Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock. See The Jewish origin of the Vulcan Salute
Pynchon placed one of these in Mason & Dixon, as well:
- Dixon discovers "The Rabbi of Prague, headquarters of a Kabbalistick Faith, in Correspondence with the Elect Cohens of Paris, whose private Salute they now greet Dixon with, the Fingers spread two and two, and the Thumb held away from them likewise, said to represent the Hebrew letter Shin and to signify, 'Live long and prosper.'( M&D 485)
Might there be a further connection between The Cohen of T.W.I.T., the "Cohens of Paris" and these backwoods Kabbalists?
Page 238
Second Law of Thermodynamics
The law of entropy... "The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium." (Rudolf Clausius) [1]
Is Pynchon transposing the concept of thermodynamic entropy into the realm of economics? Exploitative communism: appropriated funds will be lost in order to even out the system of transfers?
- Seems like overanalysis. Seems to simply use the Second Law in its simplest sense: increasing disorder when stuff gets complicated.
morsus fundamento
Latin: A bite on the ass?
three-percent consols
British bonds. wikipedia
Page 239
Colney Hatch
London lunatic asylum. Wikipedia
MCTAGGART... VATICAN... HARDY
Logician joke. etext Professor McTaggart was, perhaps, the most famous philosopher
who argued that Time did not exist as we seem to experience it.
W.H. Hardy was a very famous Cambridge mathematician who knew all the
famous philosophers in England.
CREATE MORE DUKES and EXPROPRIATE CHUCKERS
Is the grafitti in Cambridge another cricketing reference? Dukes are the balls used in England (cf. p236). Chucking (or bending the arm when bowling) is an emotive topic in cricket that arises from time to time. It first arose around 1900 [2]. In 2005 it caused administrators to change the rules of the game [3].
Page 241
A bosie from a beamer
More cricket! A bosie is now more commonly known as a googly (cf. p237). A beamer is a full-pitched delivery that reaches the batsman above waist height.
Page 242
Inner Asia
map
Annotation Index
| Part One: The Light Over the Ranges |
|
|---|---|
| Part Two: Iceland Spar |
119-148, 149-170, 171-198, 199-218, 219-242, 243-272, 273-295, 296-317, 318-335, 336-357, 358-373, 374-396, 397-428 |
| Part Three: Bilocations |
429-459, 460-488, 489-524, 525-556, 557-587, 588-614, 615-643, 644-677, 678-694 |
| Part Four: Against the Day |
695-723, 724-747, 748-767, 768-791, 792-820, 821-848, 849-863, 864-891, 892-918, 919-945, 946-975, 976-999, 1000-1017, 1018-1039, 1040-1062 |
| Part Five: Rue du Départ |
