Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

T

2006-11-28T04:21:09Z

64.171.162.2:

[[image:Tait.jpg|thumb|P. G. Tait|right]]'''Tait, Peter Guthrie (P. G.) (1831-1901)''' 
324; Scottish mathematician who helped formulate "Knot Theory" (the study of the way a closed curve can be embedded in three dimensional space without intersecting itself. Intuitively, one may "make a knot" by tying a knot in an ordinary piece of string and then fusing together the free ends of the string. Associated with any knot is its knot group which is the fundamental group of the space obtained by removing the knot from the R3 in which it is embedded). He studied at the University of Edinburgh where he studied with [[ATD-M#maxwell|James Clerk Maxwell]]. Beginning in 1854, he taught at Queen's College, Belfast. When [[ATD-H#hamilton|Hamilton]] died in 1865, Tait took over the crusade to give quaternions a leading role in mathematical physics. [http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Tait.html Biography of P. G. Tait]; [[Tait Discussion|DISCUSSION]]

'''Taklamakan War''' 
444; The Taklamakan (also Taklimakan) is a desert of Central Asia, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. It is known as the largest sand-only desert in the world. Some references fancifully state that Taklamakan means "if you go in, you won't come out"; others state that it means "Desert of Death" or "Place of No Return". "Makan" is a Turkic word meaning "place", of Arabic origin: the word may mean something different if treated as original pre-Islamic native Turkic; It is crossed at its northern and at its southern edge by two branches of the Silk Road; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taklamakan Wikpedia entry]

'''Talking Creatures''' 
Parrot, 385, 387; rabbits, 579;

'''Tammanoid''' 
150; creatures, 150; Tammany Hall was the name given to the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in New York City politics from the 1790s to the 1960s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall Wikipedia entry]

'''Tancredi, Andrea''' 
584; Anarchist in Venice, and painter; the "infernal machine" 586;

Tancredi is a time-traveling character in ''City of Death'', a four-part serial in the British science fiction television series ''Dr. Who'' which involves time travel and bilocation. Tancredi is the sole survivor of the Jagaroth race, an evil people who destroyed themselves in a war some 400 million years ago. Tancredi explains that a few escaped in a dilapidated spacecraft and found Earth in a primeval, lifeless stage of its development. The ship disintegrated upon takeoff and [[Scaroth]] tells of how he was fractured in time, splinters of his being were scattered across time and space, all identical, none complete. Whereas, in ''City of Death'', Tancredi, one of the Scaroff "splinters" living in Renaissance Italy, is plotting to create multiple Mona Lisa's for fraudulent purposes, ''Against the Day'''s Tancredi is fighting art fraud. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Death Read the synopsis of ''City of Death'']; The name "Andrea" ''could'' be a reference to a novel about time travel published in 1889, ''Timeless Love'' by Judy Hinson ([[Timeless Love|synopsis]]).

'''Tarahumare Indians''' 
23; Indian tribe of Northern New Mexico, in the Sierra Madres; 388; [[Tarahumare Indians|About the Tarahumare Indians]]

'''Tarot''' 
186; 253; Hanged Man (XII), 605-06; "Number XV, The Devil" 686;

'''Tate, Professor''' 
131; three dimensions

'''Tatzelwurm''' 
655; a stubby cryptid, a rumored animal two to six feet in length, possessing two front legs, while the rest of the body resembles that of a snake. Local folklore says the creature breathes deadly fumes that can kill a person. The creature has been said to exist for hundreds of years in tales of the Alps of Austria, Bavaria and Switzerland; "a snake with paws" 655; speaks, 659; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatzelwurm Wikpedia entry]

'''Tavernier-Gravet slide rules''' 
497; Tavernier-Gravet were preeminent Parisian makers of logarithmic slide rules (an analog computer) in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Originally Lenoir, the firm became Gravet-Lenoir, then Tavernier-Gravet.

'''Tawil Balak''' 
521; bar in Morocco

'''Tears of Job''' 
"sky-pale translucent seeds" 394;

'''Teatro Malibran''' 
355; in Venice

'''Telluric Interior''' 
114;

'''Ten-Day Miner''' 
302; The terms "ten-day miner," "ten-day man," "ten-dayer" and "ten-day stiff" are common names for the "hobo miner," who worked in a camp only long enough to get a roadstake before setting out for the next camp. Such miners are also commonly referred to as "boomers," "ramblers," and "floaters," and less commonly as "grubstakers." An older designation, dating from the early mining history of the West ... is "Overlander." From "The Folklore, Customs, and Traditions of the Butte Miner" by Wayland D. Hand, ''California Folk Quaterly'', Vol. 5, No.1 (Jan 1946), pp.1-25.

'''Tennyson''' 
535;

'''Terapia''' 
570;

'''Teresa''' 
87; girl Webb fancies on his way to Colorado

'''Terrorism''' 
85; "monsters that Did the Deed" 85; innocent victims, 87; "radius of annihilation" 95;

'''Tesla, Dr. Nikola''' (1856-1943) 
33; 97 - "Tesla logged in his diary on July 3, 1899 that a separate resonance transformer tuned to the same high frequency as a larger high-voltage resonance transformer would transceive energy from the larger coil, acting as a transmitter of wireless energy, which was used to confirm Tesla's patent for radio during later disputes in the courts. These air core high-frequency resonate coils were the predecessors of systems from radio to radar and medical magnetic resonance imaging devices." [http://www.crystalinks.com/tesla.html from this nice Tesla page] - This information was later used to confirm his patent for radio which he received posthumously in 1946, 3 years after his death - [http://www.resonanceresearch.com/nikola-tesla-coils-picture-colorado-1899-labratory.htm from this Tesla page]; Kit Traverse working for, 97; 326; tower, 401; 425; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla Wikipedia entry]; [[Tesla's_Death_Ray|Read this article about Tesla's Death Ray and the Tunguska Event...]]

'''Tesseract''' 
633; four-dimensional analog of a cube;

'''Theign, Derrick''' 
701; "tall and careworn fuctionary" in Vienna; In Henry James' novel ''The Outcry'', there's a widowed Lord Theign, who to cover the gambling debts of his daughter Kitty Imber, is planning to sell his beautiful painting ''Duchess of Waterbridge'' by Sir Joshua Reynolds to American billionaire Breckinridge Bender; code name "Good Shepherd" in Vienna, 705; Cyprian Latewood's "field advisor" 705;

'''Theosophy''' 
630;

'''They''' 
410; 483; 719;

'''Thick Bush''' 
8; town where Chick Counterfly was recognized as the son of "Dick" Counterfly

'''Thorn, Ryder''' 
553; "one of the Trespassers" at ukulele workshop; Mr. Ace and "his people" 415; what if they are not benign? 416;

'''Thorvald''' 
453; recurring sentient tornado at Candlebrow;

'''Throyle, Hastings''' 
131; collegial nemesis of T. Blope

'''Thucydides''' 
493;

'''Time''' 
33; 54; 111; colonizing, 131; "at right angles to the flow of" 132; 143; 252, 256; 355; time travel, 398; Nasotemporal Travel, 408; "Chronoclipses, Asimov Transeculars, Tempomorph Q-98s" 409; River of Time, 410; 415; wave functions, 426; "our fate, our lord, our destroyer" 427; 428; conference at Candlebrow, 452; time machine, 453; bazaar of Time, 454; clock-wise/one-way time, 457; and gravity, 457; and ukuleles, 552; time-travel, 577; 602; 612; 616; "future, past, and present <nowiki>[...]</nowiki> all together" 617; 623; 636; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_travel Wikipedia Time Travel entry]; [[Time in Old Japan|Time in Old Japan]]

[[image:Tintoretto_St-Mark.jpg|thumb|''The Abduction of the Body of St. Mark''|right]]'''Tintoretto (1518-1594)''' 
579; Tintoretto (real name Jacopo Robusti) was one of the greatest painters of the Venetian school and probably the last great painter of the Italian Renaissance; ''Abduction of the Body of St. Mark'', 579; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintoretto Wikipedia entry]

'''Tiny''' 
399; bouncer at Lollipop Lounge;

'''Titian''' 
579;

'''Toadflax, Captain Q. Zane''' 
425; '''Saksaul''' frigate, 434;

'''Toilet Travel''' 
422;

'''tommyknocker''' 
391;

'''tong war''' 
340; in Chinatown in New York City
'''toroidal dispensation''' 
128;

'''Tonio''' 
581; in Venice, hitting on Dally

'''Tovarishchi Slutchainyi''' 
123; Russian counterparts to the Chums of Chance

[[image:topler-influence-machine.jpg|thumb|Töpler Influence Machine|right]]'''Töpler Influence Machine''' 
58; An electric machine consisting of the combination of two materials, which when rubbed together produce static electricity, and of a third material or object which acts as a collector for the charges. August Joseph Ignaz Töpler (1836-1912) was a German physicist known for his experiments in electrostatics. In 1864 he applied Foucault's knife-edge test for telescope mirrors to the analysis of fluid flow and the shock wave. He developed the Toepler machine, an electrostatic influence machine, in 1865 for use in X-ray photography. Improved versions were produced by Wilhelm Holtz, Roger and J. Robert Voss; [[Töpler influence machine]]

'''Toy, Yup''' 
367; "ice-girl" in Denver

'''Trabants''' 
45; German: ''satellite''; The Trabant was an automobile formerly produced by East German auto maker VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau in Zwickau (today in Saxony). It was the most common vehicle in East Germany, and was also exported to other socialist countries. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant Wikipedia entry]

'''tragedy at Mayerling''' 
681; refers to the double suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf and his mistress at Mayerling in Austria. [[ATD-R#rudolf|See Rudolf, Archduke, Crown Prince of Austria.]]

'''Traverse family tree''' 
It seems certain that the Traverses of ATD are the progenitors of the Traverses of Vineland, described therein: "These were old, proud and strong union people, surviving in one of the world's worst antinunion environments - spool tenders, zooglers, water bucks and bull punchers [all logging jobs, btw] some had fought in the Everett mill wars, others from the Becker side had personally known Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill], and had not mourned, and organized......"

The Traverse family tree as revealed in Vineland, goes like this:

Eula Becker - Jess Traverse
| |
____________
|
Sasha Traverse - Hubbel Gates
| |
_________________
|
Frenesi Gates - Zoyd Wheeler
| |
_____________
|
Prairie Wheeler

-note also the preference for feature-names; lake, reef, praire, .... our job is to fill this in at the top.

'''Traverse, Cooley''' 
105; Webb's father

'''Traverse, Frank''' 
90; Webb's son; 374; working at Empresas Oustianas, S.A.,376; dreams of a counterpart, 377; 380; shoots Sloat Fresno, 395; in Nochecita, "his own ghost" 461; back in Denver, 465; and Dally, 512; working out of Tampico, Mexico, 637; recurring dream of Webb, 649;

'''Traverse, Jesse''' 
360; son of Reef and Stray (and a character in Vineland); with Willow and Holt, 646; 650;

'''Traverse, Kit''' 
90; Webb's son who goes to Yale; vectorist, 97; 156; at Vibe Corp., 330; on ''Stupendica'' to Germany, and Dally, 510; to Bruges with Pino and Rocco, 562; attacked by Woevre, 563; dueling Günther, 600-01; in the ''Klapsmühle'', 626-27; meets Reef in Switzerland, 664; seance, 671;

'''Traverse, Lake''' 
90; Webb's daughter; and Deuce, 472; Child of the Storm, 487;

'''Traverse, Mayva''' 
480; conversing with animals

'''Traverse, Reef''' 
89; Webb's first-born son; Stray and Reef (now a card sharp) drifting from town to town, 358-61; dynamiting, 361; in Denver, 367; seen in New Orleans by W.T. Rooney, 646; with Flaco in Austria, 652;

'''Traverse, Webb''' 
76; "sort of mine engineer in Colorado" 76; from South Pennsylvania, 87; [[Traverse Family Tree]]

'''Trespassers''' 
424; time-travellers from The Future;

'''Trilby hat''' 
185;

'''Trouvé''' 
28; screw unit;

'''Tsangpo-Brahmaputra''' 
130; The Yarlung Tsangpo/Brahmaputra river drains a large portion of the eastern Himalaya and southern Tibetan plateau as well as the eastern Himalayan syntaxis, one of the most tectonically active areas of the globe.

'''Tsurigane, Miss Umeki''' 
531; female Quaternionist; 560;

'''Tubby''' 
161; trained pig

'''Tubsmith, Root''' 
511; mathematician on Stupendica; in Ostend, 535;

'''Tucker, Benjamin''' 
370; wrote of Land League;

'''Tungus Reindeer herders''' 
23;

<div id="tunguska"></div>'''Tunguska Event''' 
145, 782, 792, passim; an explosion that occurred at 60°55′N 101°57′E, near the Podkamennaya (Under Rock) Tunguska River in what is now Evenk Autonomous Okrug, at 7:17 AM on June 30, 1908. The event is sometimes referred to as the great Siberian explosion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_Event Wikipedia entry]; [[Tesla's_Death_Ray|Read this article about Tesla's Death Ray and the Tunguska Event...]]

'''Turkish Corner''' 
431;

'''Turner, Freddie''' 
52; at Harvard

'''Turner, Joseph Mallord William (1775-1851)''' 
578; English Romantic landscape painter and watercolourist, whose style can be said to have laid the foundation for Impressionism; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._W._Turner Wikipedia entry]

'''Turnstone, Willis''' 
and Lake Traverse, 262;

'''Twin Vibes, The''' 
102; Foley Walker and Scarsdale Vibe "in matching sport ensembles of a certain canary-and-indigo check"

'''T.W.I.T.''' 
219; True Worshippers of the Ineffable Tetractys, headquartered in London, north of Hyde Park; 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; 591; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetractys Wikpedia entry]

'''''Tzigane''''' 
18; (French: ''gypsy'') Bindelstiffs of the Blue A.C.'s balloon-ship

{{ATD_Alpha_Nav}}

Main Page

2006-11-26T17:10:15Z

64.171.162.2: /* How to Use this Wiki */

[[Image:Campanile.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]<big>'''Welcome to the Pynchon Wiki'''</big>

To become a contributor/editor, [http://pynchonwiki.com/mycaptcha/captcha-page.php '''Create an account.''']

:[http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FAgainst-Day-Thomas-Pynchon%2Fdp%2F159420120X%2Fsr%3D8-1%2Fqid%3D1164267006%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks&tag=hyperartspynchon&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325'''Order ''Against the Day''''']

This is the newly created Wiki for -- inaugurally -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon Thomas Pynchon's] ''Against the Day'', and eventually for the guides to Pynchon's other "big" novels, ''V.'', ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Mason & Dixon'', which are currently available at [http://www.thomaspynchon.com/ ThomasPynchon.com]. Eventually, all the novels will be migrated here so that registered users of this wiki can create pages and make changes for those novels' guides.

You can take a look at the [[ATD cover|cover]], read the [[Against the Day description|book description]] written by Pynchon himself, or read the [[ATD Reviews|reviews]].

==How to Use this Wiki==

There are two major ways to use this wiki. The first is the '''''Against the Day'' Alphabetical Index''', used to keep track of the myriad characters, real and imagined, as well as events, arcana, and lots of other stuff. The second is the '''Spoiler-Free Annotations by Page''', which allows the reader to look up and contribute allusions and references while reading the book, in a convenient and spoiler-free manner. These two sections are so far almost entirely different, but we're working on integrating them.

Apart from those, it's up to you!

==Alphabetical Index==
Information on the characters, events, and everything else in ''Against the Day'', organized alphabetically:{{ATD_Alpha_Nav}}

 
== Spoiler-Free Annotations by Page ==
An alternate form of commentary on the text, to be linked up (or not) to the alphabetical index as future contributors suggest and agree upon. The guiding principle of these annotations is to remain spoiler-free, so that readers can follow along without the fear that later parts of the book will be revealed.

: '''Part One: The Light Over the Ranges'''

::[[ATD 1-25|Pages 1-25]] 
::[[ATD 26-56|Pages 26-56]] 
::[[ATD 57-80|Pages 57-80]] 
::[[ATD 81-96|Pages 81-96]] 
::[[ATD 97-118|Pages 97-118]] 

: '''Part Two: Iceland Spar'''

::[[ATD 119-148|Pages 119-148]] 

== Pynchon Wiki Help and Contributor Guidelines==

[[Help:Contents|'''Click here for help with editing and creating pages.''']]

We have a few conventions we ask that you follow:

* When creating a new page, first check to make sure a page/article about what you want to write about hasn't already been created, by '''[[Special:Allpages|checking the list of all Wiki pages on Pynchon Wiki]]'''. If a page already exists, please modify that one.

* When creating a new page, if its information pertains to one (and only one) specific Pynchon novel (currently just ''Against the Day'', please categorize it with the identifier "ATD" using this syntax: <nowiki>[[Category:ATD]]</nowiki>

* To open a discussion on an individual listing of the Alpha Index, [[ATD-T|see the page on Tait]]. Basically, give it a name that identifies the alpha listing (eg <nowiki>[[Name Discussion|DISCUSSION]]</nowiki>) and notice that the visible name will be "DISCUSSION" in full caps, so it stands out a bit.

* [[Help:Contents|More help for this wiki available here.]]

==External Links==

* [http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/thomaspynchon/ Random House UK ATD Page]
* [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/ The Modern Word Pynchon page]
: [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/countingdown.html The Modern Word: counting down to ATD]
: [http://z11.invisionfree.com/thefictionalwoods/index.php The Fictional Woods] - a Pynchon forum
* [http://pynchonoid.blogspot.com/ Pynchonoid Blog]
* [http://www.sporadikos-logos.org/against-the-day/ ATD Blog]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_the_Day Wikipedia ATD page]
* [http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/ ThomasPynchon.com]
* Penguin Group AtD Page (Hmmm. There isn't one...)

==Featured Article==

[[image:tesla.tower.jpg|150px|thumb|Tesla's Wardenclyffe laboratory|left]]
'''Was the Tunguska Event Caused by Tesla's Death Ray?''' 
Given that Tesla's inventions generally possessed an element of social conscience, of doing good for humanity, it may seem surprising that he created a number of devices with military applications. And the notion of the Tesla harnessing his mind for purposes of war may seem immensely frightening. After all, this is the man who boasted that with his resonance generator he could split the earth in two... and no one was ever quite sure whether he was joking.

([[Tesla's Death Ray | more...]])

<div style="clear:both;"></div>

==Gallery==
Below are some of the images you will find on Pynchon Wiki. {{Special:Newimages}}

We will be providing more support for using this wiki in the coming weeks. Feel free to contact us (admin at pynchonwiki dot com) with any questions.

Thanks, and enjoy...

Main Page

2006-11-26T15:57:51Z

64.171.162.2: /* How to Use this Wiki */

[[Image:Campanile.jpg|250px|thumb|right]]<big>'''Welcome to the Pynchon Wiki'''</big>

To become a contributor/editor, [http://pynchonwiki.com/mycaptcha/captcha-page.php '''Create an account.''']

:[http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FAgainst-Day-Thomas-Pynchon%2Fdp%2F159420120X%2Fsr%3D8-1%2Fqid%3D1164267006%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks&tag=hyperartspynchon&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325'''Order ''Against the Day''''']

This is the newly created Wiki for -- inaugurally -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon Thomas Pynchon's] ''Against the Day'', and eventually for the guides to Pynchon's other "big" novels, ''V.'', ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Mason & Dixon'', which are currently available at [http://www.thomaspynchon.com/ ThomasPynchon.com]. Eventually, all the novels will be migrated here so that registered users of this wiki can create pages and make changes for those novels' guides.

You can take a look at the [[ATD cover|cover]], read the [[Against the Day description|book description]] written by Pynchon himself, or read the [[ATD Reviews|reviews]].

==How to Use this Wiki==

There are two major ways to use this wiki. The first is the '''''Against the Day'' Alphabetical Index''', used to keep track of the myriad characters, real and imagined, as well as events, arcana, and lots of other stuff. The second is the '''Spoiler-Free Annotations by Page''', which allows the reader to look up and contribute allusions and references while reading the book, in a convenient and spoiler-free manner. These two sections are so far almost entirely different but we're working on integrating them.

Apart from those, it's up to you!

==Alphabetical Index==
Information on the characters, events, and everything else in ''Against the Day'', organized alphabetically:{{ATD_Alpha_Nav}}

 
== Spoiler-Free Annotations by Page ==
An alternate form of commentary on the text, to be linked up (or not) to the alphabetical index as future contributors suggest and agree upon. The guiding principle of these annotations is to remain spoiler-free, so that readers can follow along without the fear that later parts of the book will be revealed.

: '''Part One: The Light Over the Ranges'''

::[[ATD 1-25|Pages 1-25]] 
::[[ATD 26-56|Pages 26-56]] 
::[[ATD 57-80|Pages 57-80]] 
::[[ATD 81-96|Pages 81-96]] 
::[[ATD 97-118|Pages 97-118]] 

: '''Part Two: Iceland Spar'''

::[[ATD 119-148|Pages 119-148]] 

== Pynchon Wiki Help and Contributor Guidelines==

[[Help:Contents|'''Click here for help with editing and creating pages.''']]

We have a few conventions we ask that you follow:

* When creating a new page, first check to make sure a page/article about what you want to write about hasn't already been created, by '''[[Special:Allpages|checking the list of all Wiki pages on Pynchon Wiki]]'''. If a page already exists, please modify that one.

* When creating a new page, if its information pertains to one (and only one) specific Pynchon novel (currently just ''Against the Day'', please categorize it with the identifier "ATD" using this syntax: <nowiki>[[Category:ATD]]</nowiki>

* To open a discussion on an individual listing of the Alpha Index, [[ATD-T|see the page on Tait]]. Basically, give it a name that identifies the alpha listing (eg <nowiki>[[Name Discussion|DISCUSSION]]</nowiki>) and notice that the visible name will be "DISCUSSION" in full caps, so it stands out a bit.

* [[Help:Contents|More help for this wiki available here.]]

==External Links==

* [http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/thomaspynchon/ Random House UK ATD Page]
* [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/ The Modern Word Pynchon page]
: [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/countingdown.html The Modern Word: counting down to ATD]
: [http://z11.invisionfree.com/thefictionalwoods/index.php The Fictional Woods] - a Pynchon forum
* [http://pynchonoid.blogspot.com/ Pynchonoid Blog]
* [http://www.sporadikos-logos.org/against-the-day/ ATD Blog]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_the_Day Wikipedia ATD page]
* [http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/ ThomasPynchon.com]
* Penguin Group AtD Page (Hmmm. There isn't one...)

==Featured Article==

[[image:tesla.tower.jpg|150px|thumb|Tesla's Wardenclyffe laboratory|left]]
'''Was the Tunguska Event Caused by Tesla's Death Ray?''' 
Given that Tesla's inventions generally possessed an element of social conscience, of doing good for humanity, it may seem surprising that he created a number of devices with military applications. And the notion of the Tesla harnessing his mind for purposes of war may seem immensely frightening. After all, this is the man who boasted that with his resonance generator he could split the earth in two... and no one was ever quite sure whether he was joking.

([[Tesla's Death Ray | more...]])

<div style="clear:both;"></div>

==Gallery==
Below are some of the images you will find on Pynchon Wiki. {{Special:Newimages}}

We will be providing more support for using this wiki in the coming weeks. Feel free to contact us (admin at pynchonwiki dot com) with any questions.

Thanks, and enjoy...

ATD 1-25

2006-11-23T01:17:57Z

64.171.162.2: /* Page 3 */

'''Dedication''' 
Most of Pynchon's novels contain dedications-- ''Mason & Dixon'' ("For Melanie, and for Jackson") , ''Vineland'' ("For my mother and father"), and ''Gravity's Rainbow'' ("For Richard Farina")-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. It is [http://pynchonwiki.com/index.php?title=DISCUSSION purported] that advance reading copies of the book contained some kind of dedication that was omitted from the final publication.

'''"It's always night, or we wouldn't need light."''' 
Epigraph by Thelonious Monk. Jazz and particularly bebop seem to be a lifelong interest of Pynchon’s, appearing in some form in all his works and what biographical snippets exist. As a college student, Pynchon later “spent a lot of time in jazz clubs, nursing the two-beer minimum,” by his own admission (''Slow Learner'', Introduction).

== Page 3==

'''"Now single up all lines!"''' 
The opening line has many possible connotations. The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that "it is simultaneously a self-directive and a call to the reader; suggesting that ''Against the Day'' is a culmination of his previous work, and also charging the reader to find meaning within its twisting labyrinth. It may also be a sly, preemptive joke on the book’s initial critics, as the novel begins with the launch of a bloated gasbag bearing a somewhat provocative name."

'''The Chums of Chance''' 
Cameraderie and isolation are two recurring topics in Pynchon's works. The Chums are a band of heroes like those commonly featured in the 19th century boys' fiction that Pynchon evokes, but also recall Pynchon's high school fictions, [http://themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_hamster.html Voice of the Hamster] and [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_boys.html The Boys], in which the teenage Pynchon lovingly portrayed his group of high school chums, known as, simply, "The Boys."

'''World's Columbian Exposition''' 
also called The Chicago World's Fair, a World's Fair, was held in the U.S. city of Chicago in 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World. Chicago bested New York City, Washington, D.C. and St. Louis, Missouri, for the honor of hosting the fair. The fair had a profound effect on architecture, the arts, Chicago's self image and American industrial optimism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_Columbian_Exposition Wikipedia entry].

=Page 5=

'''Pugnax''' 
The name meaning, in Latin, "likes to fight." Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent dog, the Learned English Dog in ''Mason & Dixon''.

=Page 8=

'''"which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched"''' 
Like the Prime Directive in ''Star Trek''.

=Page 9=

'''"Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual..."''' 
This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his introductory blurb proclaims the world of AtD as what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two, this paragraph seems to indicate that Pynchon, like all great fantasy or sci-fi writers, does not intend to create a world where anything goes. Rather, he will create a world that differs from ours but then obey the rules and constraints he's already established.

'''"Going up is like going north."''' 
Anyone understand this statement by Randolph??

=Page 12=

'''Herr Riemann''' 
Riemann, Georg Friedrich Bernhard (1826-1866) (pronounced REE mahn or in IPA: ['ri:man]) was a German mathematician who made important contributions to analysis and differential geometry, some of them paving the way for the later development of general relativity. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann Wikipedia entry].

=Page 15=

'''ukelele''' 
Ukeleles also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. According to Jules Siegel's article, "Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?", Pynchon himself played the ukelele in college.

=Page 18=

'''Tzigane''' 
Meaning "gypsy".

=Page 24=

'''Epworth League''' 
A Methodist youth organization founded around 1899.

= Page 25=

'''Haymarket bomb''' 
The Haymarket Riot on May 4, 1886, in Chicago may be the origin of international May Day observances and in popular literature inspired the caricature of "a bomb-throwing anarchist." The causes of the incident are still controversial, although deeply polarized attitudes separating the business class and the working class in late 19th century Chicago are generally acknowledged as having precipitated the tragedy and its aftermath. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_bombing Wikipedia entry].

'''duck soup''' 
Meaning "an easy task," but also the name of a Marx Bros. movie. Perhaps relevant, given the cameo by Groucho promised on the book sleeve.

C

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'''''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; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_lucida Wikipedia entry]

'''Camp, Walter''' 
159;

'''Capitalism''' 
79; and modern chemistry; and the Tsar, 83; 147; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism Wikipedia entry]

'''carnival theory''' 
184-185;

'''Cartesian''' 
[[ATD_-_D#descarte|See Descarte, René]]

'''Case Institute''' 
58; in Cleveland

'''Cassidy, Butch (1866-1908?)''' 
172; a notorious train and bank robber.; 180; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_Cassidy Wikipedia entry]

'''Cathedral of the Prefiguration''' 
153;

'''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.

'''charabanc''' 
53; bus: a vehicle carrying many passengers; used for public transport; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charabanc Wikipedia entry]

'''Chase, Ed''' 
176; "boss of the redlight district" in Denver

<div id="chicagofair"></div>'''Chicago World's Fair''' 
21; held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's "discovery" of America; eulogy, 56; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition Wikipedia entry]

'''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.

'''Chums of Chance''' 
3; "celebrated aeronautics club"; 6, 7; 54; 107;

'''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;

'''climber''' 
131; 167;

'''Coleman-Smith, Miss''' 
186;

<div id="buffalo"></div>'''Cody, Buffalo Bill (1845-1917)''' 
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; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill Wikipedia entry]; 53;

'''color''' 
160; 162;

'''Colorado''' 
83; commenting on its shape;

'''Columbian Exposition of 1893''' 
3; See [[#chicagofair|Chicago World's Fair]]; 10

'''Commandant of Earthly Days''' 
17; a "potent though invisible" entity that dictates human behavior

'''Consuelo''' 
161; ''bandida'' in ''Mischief in Mexico''

'''Control''' 
34; Rational Systems of;

'''Counterfly, Chick''' 
4; member of the Chums of Chance; 108; 139;

'''Counterfly, Richard "Dick"''' 
7; father of Chick Counterfly; 17

'''Cowboy's Christmas''' 
81;

'''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. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coxey's_Army 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. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crack_of_Doom Wikipedia entry]

'''Cracker Jack''' 
24; caramel-coated popcorn

'''Cripple Creek''' 
82; in Colorado - strike for an 8-hour day;

'''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 [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/pepper The Free Dictionary]

'''Culpepper, Madge and Mia''' 
60; worked at the Hamilton Street establishment of Nelly Lowry; 66;

'''Curly''' 
183; Waiter at a Chicago hotel;

'''Cyclomite''' 
182-185; combo of cyclopropane plus dynamite, and psychotropic;

{{ATD_Alpha_Nav}}

Main Page

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<big>'''Welcome to the PynchonWiki'''</big>

This is the newly created Wiki for -- inaugurally -- Thomas Pynchon's ''Against the Day'' (pub date: 11/21/06), and eventually for the guides to Pynchon's other "big" novels, ''V.'', ''Gravity's Rainbow'' and ''Mason & Dixon'', which are currently available at [http://www.thomaspynchon.com/ ThomasPynchon.com]. These three will eventually be migrated here so that registered users of this wiki can create pages and make changes for those novels' guides.

We'd like to thank Mr David Kipen for being the first contributor to this eventually historical website. You can read the beginnings of his [[annotation of the Against the Day blurb]], written by Thomas Pynchon, which appeared, disappeared and reappeared at [http://www.amazon.com/Against-Day-Thomas-Pynchon/dp/159420120X/sr=8-1/qid=1160281177/ref=sr_1_1/002-0839395-6830455?ie=UTF8&s=books Amazon.com].

If you would like to be a contributor to this wiki, please register (by clicking on the "register" link on the top right).

We have a few conventions we ask that you follow:

When creating a new page, if its information pertains to one (and only one) specific Pynchon novel (currently just ''Against the Day'', please preface it with the identifier "ATD".

For example, ''Against the Day'' is divided into five sections, and we're starting a section-by-section annotation, so the first section is [[ATD The Light Over the Ranges]].

If you'd like to start a foreign translations page for ''Against the Day'', you'd use [[ATD - Translations]].

'''''Against the Day'' - Alpha Guide''' 
[[index.php?title=ATD - A|A]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_B|B]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_C|C]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_D|D]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_E|E]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_F|F]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_G|G]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_H|H]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_I|I]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_J|J]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_K|K]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_L|L]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_M|M]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_N|N]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_O|O]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_P|P]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_Q|Q]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_R|R]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_S|S]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_T|T]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_U|U]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_V|V]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_W|W]] - [[index.php?title=ATD_-_XYZ|XYZ]]

Here's some info on Wiki [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Naming_conventions naming conventions].

Here's [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing#Most_frequent_wiki_markup_explained a good page on editing wiki text].

I will be providing more support for using this wiki in the coming weeks. Feel free to contact me (tim at hyperarts dot com) with any questions.

Thanks, and enjoy...

Consult the [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents User's Guide] for information on using the wiki software.

== Getting started ==

* [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Configuration_settings Configuration settings list]
* [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ]
* [http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce MediaWiki release mailing list]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Portal About Wiki Portals]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Portal/Instructions Creating a Portal]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Moving_a_page Moving/Renaming a Page]

A

2006-10-10T04:06:28Z

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'''absquatulate''' 
8; run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along

'''Anemometer''' 
6; An instrument for measuring wind speed; Robinson anemometer, 6 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemometer Wikipedia entry]

ATD The Light Over the Ranges

2006-10-09T04:00:26Z

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'''aeronaut''': the pilot of a balloon or airship; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition Chicago World's Fair, 1893] and [http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/title.html more here]

'''cubeb''': 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 [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/pepper The Free Dictionary]

'''Keeley Cure:''' Devised by Leslie Keeley, this was a proprietary system of treatment for the alcohol and opium habits. The Keeley Cure was a forerunner of certain measures adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous. Relying heavily on injections of Bichloride of Gold (a chemical impossibility), it was so well-known in its day that several popular songs, such as an Irish comic song, entitled "The Keeley Cure," parodied it unmercifully. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Keeley More on Wikipedia]

ATD The Light Over the Ranges

2006-10-09T03:36:26Z

64.171.162.2:

'''aeronaut''': the pilot of a balloon or airship; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_Progress Chicago World's Fair, Century of Progress, 1933] and [http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/race_to_strato/LTA11.htm more here]

'''cubeb''': 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 [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/pepper The Free Dictionary]

'''Keeley Cure:''' Devised by Leslie Keeley, this was a proprietary system of treatment for the alcohol and opium habits. The Keeley Cure was a forerunner of certain measures adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous. Relying heavily on injections of Bichloride of Gold (a chemical impossibility), it was so well-known in its day that several popular songs, such as an Irish comic song, entitled "The Keeley Cure," parodied it unmercifully. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Keeley More on Wikipedia]

ATD The Light Over the Ranges

2006-10-09T00:23:02Z

64.171.162.2:

'''aeronaut''': the pilot of a balloon or airship; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_of_Progress Chicago World's Fair, Century of Progress, 1933] and [http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/race_to_strato/LTA11.htm more here]

'''cubeb''': 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 [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/pepper The Free Dictionary]

'''Keeley Cure:''' Devised by Leslie Keeley, this was a proprietary system of treatment for the alcohol and opium habits. The Keeley Cure was a forerunner of certain measures adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous. It relied heavily on injections of Bichloride of Gold (a chemical impossibility) was so well-known in its day, that several popular songs, such as an Irish comic song, entitled "The Keeley Cure," parodied it unmercifully. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Keeley More on Wikipedia]