ATD 748-767
- Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.
Contents
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Sample entry
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Page 749
Crotona
Or Croton. One of the most flourishing cities of Magna Graecia. According to Herodotus (3.131), the physicians of Croton were considered the foremost among the Greeks. Pythagoras founded his school, the Pythagoreans, at Croton circa 530 BC [1].
Page 750
Ringpungpa
In the 15th century, Namka Gyantsan, an aristocrat, usurped the post of Dzongpon (magistrate) of Rinpung county and changed it to a hereditary position. Called Ringpungpa in Tibetan historical books, the family gradually grew stronger and more powerful, establishing a separatist rule in Ringpung County whose influence extended into the internal section of the Phaddru regime [2]. The "scholar" referred to would have to be a descendent of this powerful family. Again the spiritual and temporal powers are intertwined. TRP is fond of usurpation; cf. the Tristero in Lot 49.
Page 751
Constantza
Constanţa, Romanian port on Black Sea.
dukhans
Inns.
Qara Qum
Now more often spelled Kara Kum, desert between Caspian Sea and Amu Darya River.
railroad-metaphysics
Notice how 'consciousness is a part of this description. And reflect on what Pynchon thinks of railroads, therefore of the phenomenology of 'railroad metaphysics'.
Page 752
The effect of rotating ninety degrees from a moving timeline, as expected, was delivery into a space containing imaginary axes...
The moving train is described by a tensor, its path a vector in three dimensions plus the time dimension. Looking out from it, i.e. at ninety degrees to its direction of travel, may involve axes with complex number coordinates. In other words, looking out of a train moving through unknown territory involves one in acts of imagination, trying to fathom the lives lived in the territory one is passing through, here a very strange one for Kit (consultation of the Times Atlas shows the railroad's route is described precisely, between desert and irrigated fields, and on to the terminus), or perhaps alternate histories generated by leaving the train at any point.
footplate man
Railroad crewman, one involved in the running or maintenance of the locomotive (the control cabin surface of a steam locomotive is called the footplate).
deadheading
A crew member riding as a passenger, not actively participating in the running of the vehicle, is said to be "deadheading"; the term is still used in railroading and on the airlines. Similarly, a nonworking locomotive being towed as part of a train is a "deadhead". (Unavoidable allusion, perhaps, to the non-working followers of the Grateful Dead, as well).
Page 753
barkhan
crescent-shaped sand dune.
Page 754
Prokladka
The name is a common Russian word with two meanings: construction and gasket.
Kalinka
"My Little Snowball Tree", Russian folk song, popularized by soldiers' choirs.
Ochi Chorniya
Stereotypical Russian ballad, "Dark Eyes." The second word is actually Chorniye. (It's spelled so now, but before 1917 it was chorniya or chornyya.)
E. N. Molokhovets
The book (Podarok molodym khozyaykam, Kursk: 1861) and the author are real. Elena Burman married city architect Frants Frantsevich Molokhovets, whose name is not Russian but suggests a Germanized Polish noble family (Franz Molochowiec). The etymology is not clear.
Orloff
Also known as Oryol or Orel Trotter, a breed developed in the 19th century.
Page 755
A.D.C. or lichnyi adiutant
Aide-de-camp or (Russian:) personal adjutant.
Klopski
Klop is a Russian word for "bug."
peculiar machines
Arcade games?
Yob tvoyu mat'
Russian, literally: Fuck your mother. Just a general expletive.
zastolye
Group of people around a table. A feast.
begin to spin
To whirl like a Dervish, a member of a mystical Sufi sect that spins to induce visions ("your mind proceeding to flee in all directions at once"). The "Spin" of an electron, however, is also one of four quantum numbers (all vector quantities) specifying the electron's exact quantum state. It can be further used to calculate properties of electrons as wave functions, radiating "in all directions at once" [3].
Page 756
Poshol ty na khuy
Impolite Russian, literally "Go to the prick", meaning; "Fuck off".
The Doosra
Doosra is an Urdu word loosely meaning "second". It has become common parlance in cricket in the past few years and is used to describe a ball bowled by a finger spinner that turns in the opposite direction from his stock delivery. A lot of controversy surrounds the doosra as it is hard to bowl legally (it is much easier to throw it than to bowl it). One assumes that Pynchon was aware of all this: see the cricketing references on pp.219-242. In particular, Pynchon has already referenced the bosie: a mirror image of the doosra. More bilocations, anyone?
fusel oils
Fusel alcohols, also sometimes called fusel oils, or potato oil in Europe, are higher order (more than two carbons) alcohols formed by fermentation and present in cider, mead, beer, wine, and spirits to varying degrees. The term fusel is German for “bad liquor.”{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusel_oil]
Chingiz
Also transliterated as "Genghis" as in "Genghis Khan".
denshchik
Russian: batman.
Page 757
poisonous nutmeat
betel.
Uyghur
Member of an ethnic group in western China, sometimes described as Indo-European.
Al Mar-Fuad
Get a load of this character! He dresses in English hunting tweeds and a deerstalker cap, brandishes a shotgun, pronounces his "r"'s as w's, and says things like "Weally?" and "I am going out after some gwouse." Maybe "wabbits" are next for this Uyghur version of Elmer Fudd (Al Mar-Fuad--get it?).
Page 758
...so as to draw off the odd Russian division in the event of a European war
A possible alternative in World War II, a junction point for all kinds of alternative histories. Had Japan struck at the USSR (via Cental Asia) in concert with Germany in 1941, the Soviets could not have brought 58 divisions from Siberia to stop and eventually turn the German advance. Soviet successes in obscure border engagements in Mongolia (Battle of Nomonhan) in 1939 did much to turn Japan's military ambitions southward instead [4].
yakitori pitches
Yakitori: grilled bird, a Japanese type of skewered chicken made from several bite-sized pieces of chicken meat, or chicken offal, skewered on a bamboo skewer and barbecued, usually over charcoal Wikipedia. A Yakitori pitch would be a kind of fast food stand. As opposed to the current worldwide McDonalds flood?
old Cavi ate the sausage at Kabul
Sir Louis Cavagnari, British envoy to Afghanistan, killed on Sept. 3, 1879, in the course of an insurrection. If "eat the sausage" is some horrible detail, I have not found an online source that specifies. --Volver 15:26, 13 January 2007 (PST)
meddling of the Powers...convergence to the Mohammedan
Exactly the situation today. More 1900/2000 parallels.
Polkovnik
Russian: Colonel.
Polny pizdets
Russian: a total fuckup.
Simla
Punjabi Hill States, refuge and resort of Raj officers for generations [5].
Pelitis
Peliti was a Manufacturing Confectioner and he was by appointment to Her Majesty the Queen Empress, a purveyor of cakes, chocolates etc. He started his restaurant and confectionery business in 1870 at 11 Government Place in the Dalhousie Square area of Calcutta.(At a meeting on 26-Sep-1919 the Rotary Club of Calcutta was organized thus ushering in the movement in India and indeed the mainland of Asia)[6].
Page 759
"haunted spaces of desire...walled in by work-demands"
is co-conscious(ness), page 760
Page 761
subaltern
A junior officer in the British army; now titled second lieutenant in most regiments.
Guri Amir
Guri Amir or Gur-e Amir is the mausoleum Tamerlane built for his family. It is a great monument of Islamic architecture.
Craven A
"Craven A" was a blend of pipe tobacco celebrated under the name "Arcadia" by James M. Barrie, but here the name is applied to cigars.
Eurasia Irredenta
Fighters for Italian statehood in the 19th century used the slogan "Italia Irredenta": unredeemed Italy, that is, the lands still held by Habsburgs and other foreign powers. Their goal of course was to redeem it, place these areas under rule by Italians and fold them into one kingdom.
Page 762
Beerbohm Tree
Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1853-1917), noted English actor.
Page 763
P&O steamer
Pacific and Orient line, British steamship company.
might as well all be on a Cook's tour
Cook's is still in business selling package tours. What cost Auberon months of hardship and danger, groups might now visit as tourists.
Page 764
Kara Tagh
With a name meaning "black mountain" you would expect there to be more than one. Places going by this name or the similar name Karatau are dotted all over Central Asia. This one does not seem to be one of the mapped ones, lying in extreme western China.
Is it significant that Kara Tagh is the Turkish name of Montenegro?
Tunguska country
Site of the Tunguska Event, an explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya (Under Rock) Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai of Russia, at 7:17 AM on June 30, 1908. The event is sometimes referred to as the Great Siberian Explosion. It was probably caused by the airburst of an asteroid or comet 5 to 10 kilometers (3–6 mi) above the Earth's surface. The energy of the blast was later estimated to be between 10 and 20 megatons of TNT, equivalent to the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated by the US. However, other (frankly, crackpot) theories link it to an experiment by Nikola Tesla [7].
And when we try to return . . . [w]e may not be able to
Kit had this experience when the liner Stupendica doubled herself.
Buriat
The Buriats live in southwestern Siberia to northwestern China and Mongolia. They include Buddhists and shamanists.
Page 765
the journey itself is a conscious Being
I am contaminated beyond hope, Mushtaq
Halfcourt's predicament vis a vis Yashmeen is reminiscent of that of Edward Ashburnham, Ford Madox Ford's "Good Soldier".
- In what way, may I ask?
Page 766
when you come to a fork in the road, take it
A maxim of America's foremost Yogi, the baseball player Yogi Berra.
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 |
