Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

ATD 296-317

2016-09-01T10:26:03Z

C-Melody: /* Page 315 */ added more info to the Galandronome

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page 296==

'''Rodgers Brothers''' 
spelled Rogers Brothers, with 1847 Silver Ware (and other items) on E-Bay they seem to have been a leading maker of silverware and other silver products in the 1900's.

'''Mescalero''' 
Mescalero is a native American tribe of Southern Athabaskan heritage currently living in southcentral New Mexico. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mescalero Wikipedia].

'''Little Hellkite Mine''' 
Does not seem to have existed. 
Hellkite = a fierce fighter. 
A kite is a vicious bird of prey in the falcon family. 
Shakespeare used the expression in Macbeth (Act 4, Scene 3): MacDuff:
"O hell-kite! - All? What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam, At one fell swoop? ".MacDuff uses 'fell' in a sense that is now rare - as an adjective meaning 'fierce, deadly.' From Brush Up Your Shakespeare.

'''Timken springs''' 
Henry Timken was a carriage maker who held three patents for carriage springs in the 1890’s. He founded his company, The Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company, in St. Louis in 1899. He also invented the tapered roller bearings which bear his name and were used in the hubs of carriages and automobiles. The company still exists and Timken roller bearing are used today in a number if diverse industries including spacecraft. Oddly enough (maybe not so odd considering Pynchon), the modern day Timken company created for the Bosch Group (See the note above for “Hieronymous wheel” on page 292) a process to produce a high alloy steel that could easily be machined to make trucks parts.

'''Basin''' 
The Basin referred to is most likely Marshall Basin[https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=37.944051,-107.767198&spn=0.001252,0.001719&t=f&z=19&ecpose=37.94280345,-107.76709648,3368.71,-3.669,89.115,0], which is located up the Tomboy Road [http://www.visittelluride.com/things-to-do/trails-huts/tomboy-road-town-tomboy-imogene-pass-ouray]. Here are two images of it from the late 1800s: [http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/39050/rec/6] and [http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/59402/rec/12]. 
Another thought is that it might be Yankee Boy Basin, which is up Imogene Pass, but it seems unlikely that Frank could have gone up the Tomboy Road and then wound up going over Imogene Pass, but that may have been difficult due to the 13,000 ft St Sophia's Ridge between the two.

'''glockenspiel''' 
Percussion instrument with horizontal, tuned steel bars of various sizes that are struck with mallets and produce a bright metallic sound. Norton glossary of musical terms.

==Page 297==

'''Pandora works''' 
Mine and works between Tomboy and Telluride. See the [http://www.telluride.net/index.cfm?fuseaction=standard&categoryId=7&categoryType=2&subcategoryId=0 Telluride Places of Interest]

'''adit''' 
A horizontal entrance to an underground mine. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adit Wikipedia]

'''tommyknockers''' 
Mythical mine dwellers, originally part of European legend, introduced to America by European miners. The name "tommyknockers" comes from Cornish mining lore. According to legend the tommyknockers are underground spirits who guard the earth's ores, especially gold and silver. Tommyknockers were known for mischief, pranks, jokes, and being highly spirited. "Knockers" comes from knocking sounds heard in mines that were attributed to their antics. They are tiny characters who dress like little miners and perform many mining duties while underground working alongside miners. [http://www.blm.gov/heritage/HE_Kids/tommy_knock.htm BLM Website]

==Page 298==

'''''duendes''''' 
Spanish for goblins, trolls or leprechauns, http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duende.
 
Also, ''duende'' is the essential spirit or passion of Flamenco, "flamenco soul". A "mysterious and ineffable spirit" inextricably linked with death, without which Flamenco is empty. Lorca called it "A mysterious power that everyone feels and no philosophy can explain". http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamenco#Duende

'''powder monkey''' 
Historically, a sailor whose job it was to keep gun crews supplied with gunpowder and shot during battle. More generally, one who carries or sets explosives, as Dally does here.

==Page 299==

'''matte-surface''' 
Not shiny.

'''"...Sunday-morning voice..."''' 
Perhaps a sermonizing, righteous preacher-like voice, although the context suggests whispering, as in church.

'''Buck Wells''' 
Bulkeley Wells, an historical figure, was a mine manager and cavalry commander and sheriff at Telluride, previously mentioned on p. 179. He was
aggressively anti-union. Bulkeley Wells http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulkeley_Wells

'''Might be he'll even do the deed on himself''' 
Wells committed suicide in 1931. Ibid.

==Page 300==

'''Throw down''' 
to begin an altercation. "Throw down"
http://www.blackraptor.net/m7fic/contents/terms.htm

'''"somethin tattooed on my head"''' 
Cf. Queequeg's tattoos in ''Moby-Dick'', Ch. 3 and ''passim''. 
"And the Lord put a mark on Cain ..." (Genesis) Cain is marked so that he can be recognized for his evil deed; at the same time he is protected by God. There is a great exegesis by Herman Hesse in his '''''DEMIAN''''' - that the mark is a symbol of inner knowledge. All three kind of fit Frank.

'''fragment of time''' 
Sparks move faster than shutter.

'''collodion''' 
Toxic chemical used both in early photography and explosives manufacturing.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collodion Wikipedia]

==Page 301==

'''"circles of otherworld blindness up on tall poles"'''
This about electric lights!. Seems to be an allusion to the most famous literary image involving poles--the heads on poles in Conrad's ''Heart of
''Darkness.'' 
A-and repeats this image from earlier use in Telluride chapter.

'''squareheads''' 
See annotation on [[ATD_171-198#Page_189|page 189.]]

==Page 302==

'''ghost bison''' 
The American Buffalo was nearly hunted to extinction in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_buffalo#19th_century_Buffalo_hunts Wikipedia]

'''Gallows Frame Saloon''' 
The Gallows Frame is the structural frame, usually made of steel or timber, at the top of an underground mine shaft. These frames hold the hoisting equipment which raise and lower equipment and miners into the underground mine. 
Cf. Sailor's Grave saloon in ''V.'' and the USS Scaffold also in ''V.''
Death surrounds us theme.

'''fathom miners''' 
Miners paid by the "fathom" of ore extracted. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0GDX/is_5_75/ai_65277661/pg_12 Useful background on mining practices.] A fathom was a block of ore 6 feet high by 6 feet deep by the width of the vein being worked.

'''remittance men''' 
remittance man 
Function: noun 
one living abroad on remittances from home. Merriam-Webster 

Black sheep paid regularly by families to stay away.??? Source?

==Page 303==

'''Circassian walnut''' 
A swirled hardwood popular in woodworking, in this case used as a synecdoche to refer to a bar (the bar is made of Circassian walnut; incidentally, Yashmeen was a Circassian slave). Named for a region in the northern Caucasus Mountains from which the tree originates.

'''Charlie Fong Ding''' 
Seems like a made-up comic Chinese name by TRP. Charlie, as in Charlie Chan, is a stereotypical Chinese first name as transliterated in America. 
There is a road in The Northern Territory named after Fong Ding who was born in 1856 in Hoy Ping, Kwangtung (Guangdong) Province, China. He arrived in the Northern Territory in 1890 and in 1898 married Wong See at Port Darwin. He died at Pine Creek in 1928 aged 72 years. Fong Ding was a railway fettler and gold miner at Brock's Creek and Fountain Head and was the patriarch of the Fong family of Darwin and grandfather of the late Lord Mayor of Darwin, Alex Fong Lim. Fong Ding http://www.ipe.nt.gov.au/whatwedo/landinformation/place/register/view.jsp?id=6144

'''congress... congregation''' 
Two vs more-than-two at a time.
Also, the word congregation has an official/religious conotation

'''California Peg 
The "''sous-maitresse''," or teacher's aid, at the Silver Orchid brothel.

'''Grundyesque''' 
Prudish; after Mrs. Grundy, a character in Thomas Morton's ''Speed the Plow'', (1798)([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Grundy]). See page 400 on "Mrs. Grundy"

'''Popcorn Alley''' 
Street of (now historic) brothels in Telluride.

'''a range of useful information'''. 
Range again, as spectrum.

'''hurdy girl''' 
A professional dancing girl.

==Page 304==

'''Annie Oakley''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Oakley See Wikipedia entry]

'''civil war and White Terror''' 
The Finnish Civil War lasted from January-May 1918 and was fought between the conservative White and revolutionary Red factions of the army. After the Whites emerged victorious, they rounded up Red elements in prison camps where many died, hence the White Terror. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Civil_War Wikipedia.]

'''"Love", whatever that turned out to be, would occupy a whole different piece of range.''' conveys a whole new meaning to the word 'range'?...not just land but something like 'range of emotions"?
'Piece of range' as in a spectrum? Light exists in a spectrum.
Cf. 'Light over the ranges' indeed.

==Page 305==

'''"The Shooting of Dan McGrew"''' 
"A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon ..."
Poem by Robert Service (1874 - 1958). A Scotsman who came to Canada to work tough outdoors jobs, he was also a banker, a World War I Correspondent (WWI), and a wealthy world traveler who left the Yukon in 1912. [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/poetry/TheSpelloftheYukon/chap13.html etext]

'''ruffled doves''' 
A/k/a "soiled doves," a Western term for prostitutes.

'''Stephen Emmens''' 
American chemist and mining engineer, inventor of the explosive Emmensite, who believed an intermediate substance he called "argentaurum" was transmutable into silver or gold; he claimed to have discovered a process by which the gold content of silver could be thus enriched. He carried out his experiments from 1895 to 1897, and saw them made public in 1899. The details of the process, as far as they are known, are as Pynchon describes them. Attempts to enlist emminent scientists to verify Emmens' apparent alchemy included an offer to Nicola Tesla (He refused). [http://www.borderlands.com/archives/arch/alchem.html].

'''"argentaurum"''' 
Substance claimed by Dr. Stephen Emmens to be intermediate beteween silver and gold, and through which, as an intermediate step, each could be transmuted to the other.[http://www.borderlands.com/archives/arch/alchem.html]. The preceding 2 links are to an article by Vincent Gaddis. I think his articles and books may well have been an important source for materials and ideas that appear in ATD. Gaddis lived in Gaberville, Ca., a region TRP lived in and researched for Vineland. Here's another Gaddis article that has ATD imagery: sentient lightning and the photography of etheric bodies [http://journal.borderlands.com/2010/electrical-ghosts/]

'''nymph's mirror''' 
Speculation: The "mirror" available to nymphs was any still surface of water, so thin as the surface of water.

'''''Schieferspath''''' 
Has nothing to do with paths; ''spath'' is German for ''spar.'' ''Schiefer'' indicates it is a foliated mineral. So: foliated spar, i.e., a spar that cleaves readily into sheets. "[S]ome of the visiting labor" may come from a place where calcite is mined under this name.

'''superstitious Scotchman''' 
Holding the nine of diamonds, [[ATD_1-25#Page_24|"the curse of Scotland,"]] he doesn't bet his hand but loses the specimen.

==Page 306==

'''''grown brighter''''' 
It's drawing light from a non-material source, from a parallel world, which adds to the light already present? 
Does this surprising way that images through a calcite spar ''grow brighter'' remind any readers of the rooms in ''Mason & Dixon'' which are
larger inside than their measureable dimensions?[[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 16:19, 14 June 2007 (PDT)

'''gold... silver''' 
Any role of Iceland Spar and double-refracted light in the Emmens process of transmutation is Pynchon's invention.

'''rhomboid''' 
A parallelogram with unequal adjacent sides and oblique angles. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhomboid Wikipedia]

'''Veta Madre''' 
The "Mother Lode" of Mexico [http://www.mindat.org/loc-7776.html] in Guanajuato.

'''frijoles''' 
Mexican beans.

'''the Gold Standard''' 
The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed weight of gold. 
Under the gold standard, currency issuers guarantee to redeem notes, upon demand, in that amount of gold. Governments that employ such a fixed unit of account, and which will redeem their notes to other governments in gold, share a fixed-currency relationship. Gold Standard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Standard

'''Silver Act...repealed''' 
Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 required the US government
to buy millions of ounces of silver bullion every month. This Act was
repealed in 1893 when people, mostly investors, sold silver to get notes redeemable in gold making the government's gold reserves were in danger of depletion. Silver Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Silver_Purchase_Act

==Page 307==
'''what'll there be then to crucify mankind on a cross of?''' 
Direct reference to William Jennings Bryan's [http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/ "Cross of Gold" speech,] delivered on July 9, 1896, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. One of the most famous American political speeches, it closes with, "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."

'''Lyman Gage''' 
Banker, and Secretary of the Treasury under McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, 1897-1902. In 1900 he ensured passage of the Gold Standard Act, which repealed bimetalism and had tremendous effects on the mining industry, and the economy in general, leading eventually to the foundation of the Federal Reserve System to regulate the currency in the wake of the resulting instability [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyman_J._Gage]. Just incidentally, Gage had been President of the Board of Directors of the Columbian Exposition.

'''like a kettle coming to a boil''' 
Chaos theory originated from a range of observations like this (organised cells in boiling water).

'''stopes''' 
Stopes are the steplike excavation working areas of a mine.
[http://www.morewords.com/word/stope/ Stope] or [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Stope Stopes].

'''Doc Turnstone''' 
A young doctor who unsuccessfully courted Lake, introduced p. 262.

'''Charles Bonnet Syndrome''' 
Named after the Swiss philosopher and naturalist, Charles Bonnet (1720-1793), who first described a syndrome in which visually-impaired people see vivid, complex images that aren't real. CBS is thought to result from visual deprivation, and commonly occurs in sufferers of macular degeneration and other impairments of the eyes. Importantly, CBS does not (clinically, cannot) result from any type of psychosis or dementia. Thus, those who experience CBS are otherwise "normal" people.

Remarkably, CBS is characterized often by bizarre and grotesque images: ghosts, elves, sprites, cartoon-like figures, disembodied faces, magical landscapes. According to Cliff Pickover, author of ''Sex, Drugs, Einstein, and Elves'' (Smart Publications, 2005), "people affflicted with certain eye diseases give similar reports of beings from parallel universes." [http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_rnib003641.hcsp Royal National Institute of the Blind] [http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/Pickover/pc/bonnet.html Dr. Cliff Pickover Comments] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bonnet Wikipedia Wikipedia entry on Bonnet]

'''Puckpool's Adventures in Neuropathy''' 
Seems to be invented by Pynchon.

==Page 308==

'''macular degeneration''' 
Degeneration of the macula, the part of the retina responsible for the sharp, central vision needed to read or drive. A leading cause of vision loss and blindness in people aged 65 and older.

'''duendes''' 
Mythical goblin or fairy-like creature. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duende_%28mythology%29 Wikipedia]

==Page 309==

'''Old Gideon''' 
Bourbon, mentioned on page 40 and in the index."Different varieties of bourbon were very popular too, such as Old Crow and Old Gideon."
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/old_west/102390

'''A.T. Still''' 
(1828-1917), "Father of American Osteopathic Medicine." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Taylor_Still The Wikipedia entry] also identifies the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri.

==Page 310==

'''''Jefe''''' 
Spanish: chief, boss.

'''''Gracias a Dios!''''' 
Spanish: thank God!

==Page 311==

'''mind-poisoning vetches''' 
The vetches are weak-stemmed, semi-vining plants. See [http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/Crops/Vetches.html Vetches].

'''creosote''' 
A creosote bush is "a shrub native to arid parts of Mexico and the western US. Its leaves smell of creosote" (''Oxford Dictionary of English'').

'''Edgar Hadley''' 
[http://books.google.com/books?id=HPNgqJI7WJoC&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=dr+edgar+hadley&source=web&ots=l84uX-RjA7&sig=YTXoiTwX93e5Yl3jy-tJj1ptN8Q Telluride Historical Museum].

'''blood diverted from its return''' 
Accurate but odd?

An example of Pynchon's predilection for describing apparently simple events in strangely abstract detail.

'''Trout Lake''' 
Trout Lake is located between Rico and Ophir, west of Silverton, CO, at an elevation of 9802 ft. For further information and photos see [http://ghostdepot.com/rg/mainline/san%20juan%20branch/trout%20lake.htm Trout Lake].

==Page 313==

'''Busted Flush''' 
The name of the boat that Travis McGee, the hero of 21 mysteries written by John D. McDonald, lives on. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_McGee Wikipedia]) He named the boat for the poker hand he had that won it for him.

'''tridigital''' 
Three fingers (measure of liquor).

'''packer's knife''' 
A meat packing knife, similar to a boning knife. Generally a long, thin, somewhat flexible blade. (Not unlike a filet knife in that respect.)

==Page 314==

'''Dutch Waltz''' 
A simple dance for beginning figure skaters. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_dances wikipedia]: "...in the United States, the first dance learned by most skaters is the Dutch Waltz, which features only forward skating in a side-by-side hold, skated to music with a very slow waltz tempo."

'''centrifugal''' 
Pulling away from center.

==Page 315==

'''Railbird Saloon''' 
A "railbird" is a spectator who hangs on or over the boundary rail at a racetrack, presumably a horseplayer. Not sure if that is any help here.

'''Gastón Villa''' 
A pun on British football club Aston Villa?

'''''cholo'' balls''' 
Seems to be referring to decorative ornaments hanging on a mariachi style sombrero as the decorations often portrayed in the vehicles of Mexican-American "Cholos" (gangsters/low riders).

'''''charro''''' 
A Mexican cowboy.

'''don't preoccupy yourself''' 
A literal translation of the Spanish idiom ¡No te preocupes!, "don't worry". Ellmore Disco was thought to be Mexican. p. 283.

'''Galandronome''' 
A type of bassoon developed by French instrument maker Galander in the mid-19th century. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galandronome Wikipedia]. Since there is only one known instrument left in the world, Gastón Villa probably exaggerates when he says it was once standard military issue. Furthermore, Pynchon writes that it is made of brass and has valves and keys. However, the descriptions and photographs show that its main body is made of maple wood and that it does not have any valves. [http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/502238 Images on the Website of The Metropolitan Museum of Art]

'''Battle of Puebla''' 
Mexican victory over French forces, May 5, 1862, commemorated in Latino communities as ''cinco de mayo.''

==Page 316==
'''Rio Bravo''' 
Perhaps a nod to one of the greatest movie westerns, Howard Hawks' ''Rio Bravo''? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Bravo_(1959_film) Wikipedia]

'''Some ghosts go oo-oo-oo... the bone deep voice of retribution''' 
Here we have Frank in an encounter with the ghost of his father, which ends with a auditory hallucination of an explosion. Which may or may not have something to do with the explosion recorded in Madame Eskimoff's sitting for the T.W.I.T. See p229

'''Ophir road''' 
Presumably the road to the town of Ophir, South of Telluride, named for the biblical souce of the treasure of Solomon's Fleet [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11259b.htm]. Perhaps one of Pynchon's contrasts: Telluride, named rationally for its ore deposits; Ophir a name from the pre-rational and mythic. Yes, and Telluride's 'rationality': "to Hell You Ride" [ADT]

==Page 317==

'''backward departure''' 
No way to turn engine?

:Right; [[ATD_243-272#Page_265|see annotation to page 265.]]

'''''abrazos''''' 
Spanish for "embrace"; "hugs".

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

ATD 199-218

2016-08-22T13:43:10Z

C-Melody: /* Page 200 */ formatting and cleaning up

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page 199==

'''headed for Nevada''' 
From Denver or Golden the boys travel westward. Do they reach Nevada or just point in that direction? The scenic description may fit parts of Utah (between Colorado and Nevada) or Nevada proper. It's some 250 miles from Denver to the Utah-Nevada line; we learn that Jeshimon is a day's ride (say 100 miles?) from Nochecita, and also that you go south from Jeshimon to get to Telluride. And there's more: In Nochecita some visitors are identified as "Utahans," which suggests the town is not in Utah. 
The geography seems to work only if Nochecita is in western Colorado, not Nevada.

==Page 200==

'''Nochecita''' 
Spanish: little night. We saw earlier [[ATD_1-25#Page_22|(see annotations to p. 22)]] that bright light is not a source of comfort while darkness can be; Nochecita should be a place of shelter.
 The online dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy defines [http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=nochecita nochecita] as "Crepúsculo vespertino", i.e. evening twilight.

'''Estrella''' 
Spanish: star. In Spanish the middle syllable is pronounced just about like "Stray."
She is a star in the "little night."
The name of a character in Dickens' ''Great Expectations.''

==Page 201==
'''natatorium''' 
''(originally and chiefly North American)'' 
A swimming pool, esp. an indoor one; a complex containing one or more such pools. Occasionally also: an area of a sea, lake, etc., suitable for swimming.<ref>(The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989)</ref>

'''stand literally ''in a circle'' around the couple as if enforcing the choice and allowing them no other''' 
Weddings in many places and times feature circles (circular ring, guests dancing in a circle, ribbon encircling the couple). A confining circle of guests does not seem to be a custom anywhere. Are these newly made "friends" pursuing some end we can't recognize—for example seeking to ensure a lineage?

'''Family idiot... some emergency drooling done''' 
Frank the self-professed Frankenstein of the Traverse family. 
Frank will not be the last ''AtD'' character to hold himself out as an [[Idiots and Idiocy in Against the Day|idiot]].
 The original Frankenstein, in Shelley's novel, however, is anything but an idiot, as he reads Milton and can express himself eloquently. The depictions of Frankenstein as an "idiot" didn't come until at least 1910 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(1910_film)] and surely Pynchon knows this.

==Page 202==

'''Cooper''' 
In the spirit of Icelandic Spar doubling, is it possible that the description of 'young gent Cooper' is Pynchon writing himself into ATD? Pynchon is reportedly shy and one of the supposed reasons given for why he never wanted his picture taken was that his upper teeth protruded and he did not like his portrait. Cooper sits astride a black and gold V-twin (!), produces a "Cornell" model Acme guitar, 'which now and then found strange notes added into the guitar chords, as though Cooper had hit between the wrong frets, only somehow it sounded right,' a pretty good analogy of Pynchon's bizarre but powerful prose style. Cf. Pynchon and his music connections and the trope (from Homer on) of musicians as the archetypal artists. Pynchon reportedly played the ukulele, so perhaps he also plays guitar. Perhaps this Cooper is an amalgam of himself and his great deceased school friend, Richard Farina?

:Scaled down just a bit, striking blue eyes, blond hair, "motor-wheelman," "injury . . . in his past." Everything but the name comes out [http://www.stevemcqueen.org.uk/ Steve McQueen] (1930-80). Not an identification but a distant resonance.

:Yeah, too much of a stretch to think it's Pynchon writing himself in. There was speculation that the character Osbie Feel in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' was just such an instance, and this one a bit more plausible. [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Osbie_Feel Check it out...]

:[[image:V-Twin.jpg|right|thumb|Mesa V-Twin Preamp & Stompbox|175px]]Also, could be a nod to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Cornell Chris Cornell], singer, guitarist & songwriter for Soundgarden and Audioslave. He's got that blond(ish) hair, that lip, was in a motorcycle accident, collaborated with Alice Cooper (on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Temptation ''The Last Temptation''], a 1994 "concept" album), &c &c. And here's the kicker: Chris often uses the [http://www.mesaboogie.com/Product_Info/Out_of%20_Production/V-Twin/v-twin.html Mesa Boogie V-Twin Preamp] which, by the way, has rubber tires, er, I mean, feet. So, in this context, I think Cornell's a good bet. And check the V-Twin logo which riffs off the Harley-Davidson logo. And, hey, this Cooper sings, writes songs and plays the guitar!

'''V-twin with white rubber tires''' 
A V-twin is a two cylinder internal combustion engine where the cylinders are arranged in a V configuration, most often seen in motorcycles. The first motorcycles available for purchase were made in 1894 by Hildebrand & Wolfmüller, but the V-twin layout did not come to market until ca. 1902 (Zedel, Switzerland). The first U.S. V-twin was apparently made by [http://www.ianchadwick.com/motorcycles/triumph/time01.html Indian] (1903). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley_Davidson Harley-Davidson] got a V-twin motor into production in 1910 or 1911 (prototype 1907).

:More to the point, it's ''also'' a rocking preamp and stompbox, as noted above. A great example of Pynchon's setting up multiple resonances with names, here having "V-Twin" do multiple-duty as a guitar preamp, a motorcyle, twinning/doubling, and his ubiquitous V's.

'''notes... rang like schoolbells''' 
Recalls the lyrics from the famous 1958 Chuck Berry song, "Johnny B. Goode": "But he could play the guitar just like a-ringin' a bell."

'''didt'n''' 
According to [http://books.google.com/books?id=FFixAAAAIAAJ&q=didt%27n+inauthor:pynchon&dq=didt%27n+inauthor:pynchon&hl=en&ei=bdcdTdf7EMGclgeB-LSyDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA Google Books], this spelling occurs twice in Against the Day, and 12 times in Vineland. It also occurs at least once in Inherent Vice.

'''"the music, which now and then found strange notes added into the guitar chords, as though Cooper had hit between the wrong frets, only somehow it sounded right."''' 
In Pynchon's first novel, [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#sphere ''V.''], saxophonist McClintic Sphere played "all the notes Bird missed" which itself was a nod to jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman whose raw, highly vocalized sound and penchant for playing "in the cracks" of the scale led many Los Angeles jazz musicians to regard his playing as out-of-tune." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ornette_Coleman]

==Page 203==

'''Cooper, cont'd'''

If Cooper ''is'' meant as some kind of parallel of Pynchon, note that Cooper waits "for faces there, or a particular face, to be drawn by the music," and one is-- Sage, who exits the house wearing gray and puts her arm up Cooper's sleeve. Could this be Pynchon's loving memory of meeting his wife?

This is all far too tenous and speculative, surely?

==Page 204==

'''Linnet Dawes''' 
The linnet is ''Carpodacus mexicanus,'' most often called house finch. The species originated in the western U.S. but got spread through the east as a result of releases by bird smugglers. Also a European finch. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linnet Wikipedia]

So far we have women as a wren and as a finch.

She is named for two birds. The daw or jackdaw is an Old World bird somewhat resembling the crow in appearance and the grackle in behavior.

Jackdaw in Czech is "Kafka" --[[User:jackmw|jackmw]] 18:28, 04 April 2007 (PST)

'''plagal cadences''' 
A cadence -- the end of a musical phrase -- in which the subdominant chord resolves to the tonic, as opposed to the more common harmonic progression where the dominant resolves to the tonic. The "Amen" at the end of church music is typically a plagal cadence. <ref>Def.2. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989</ref>

'''reading the ''Police Gazette'' or, actually, looking at the pictures''' 
[http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1330925 The ''National Police Gazette''] (published 1848-1980s) was the biggest men's magazine in the U.S. at the turn of the century, selling some 150,000 copies. Printed on pink paper, it contained sports reporting as well as crime stories, often with drawings of rumpled female victims. Photos of burlesque performers were a regular feature by the time of the action.

==Page 205==

'''against the daylight''' 
A direct example of ''against the day'' as ''against the light''. Significantly, Frank's attempt to discern Stray's true facial expression is thwarted by the daylight behind her. An object positioned against the daylight, or, in general, between an observer and a light source, is shadowed or silhouetted -- in Pynchon's words of the same sentence, "veiled by its own penumbra". This is suggestive of the idea that light does not always illuminate.

This is also an echo of the 'dorsal finality' framing of Constance Penhallow in Hunter's portrait back in Iceland.

'''"faro boxes"''' 
Card game with anti-cheating mechanism that can be fixed. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faro_(card_game) Wikipedia.] In fact, faro was a big moneymaker—for the house—because rigging the shoe or box was so common.

'''ol' Buck-the-Tiger''' 
"Bucking the tiger" is an old euphemism for playing faro. [http://www.bcvc.net/faro/history.htm bcvc.net]

==Page 206==

'''soul-to-soul''' and '''down Mexico way''' 
Possible allusions to blues-rock guitarists Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix, respectively. The first phrase was the title of a Vaughan album and the second is a phrase used in the song "Hey Joe," most famously recorded by Hendrix.

Pynchon must be laughing his tits off at some of this stuff. "Soul to soul" and "down Mexico way" are just expressions - that's how they found their way into songs. TRP is a bright guy and if he'd wanted for some reason to allude to Stevie Ray and Jimi at this particular point (why, for god's sake?) he'd have found a more satisfying way of doing it.

'''everything . . . proceeded down Mexico way''' 
A triple metaphor: (3) to proceed to Mexico from Colorado, you go south. (2) "Go south" evokes "Go west." (1) To go west is an expression from the World War meaning to die. 
The vast system of trenches in the war ran mainly north and south, with the Allies on the west. Going west meant getting finally withdrawn from the never-ending trench war. Soldiers would later say "go home in a bag." [http://www.worldwar1.com/heritage/wordswar.htm ''Gone west'' for "dead"] apparently predates ''gone south'' by a little. 
[http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/26/messages/584.html ''Gone south'' for "deteriorated"] is influenced by the preceding but also relies on customary map orientation: south = down. 
So ''everything proceeded down Mexico way'' means it all came undone, turned to disaster.

'''both sounders and inkers''' 
Two types of telegraph machine. Inkers turn telegraph signals into marks along long ribbons of paper, while sounders only made sounds through a speaker, requiring a human to write down the message.

'''one day it rang while Reef happened to be right next to it''' 
Someone who knew Pynchon in the 60s described their final meeting in the article, [http://theaesthetic.com/NewFiles/pynchon.html Thomas Pynchon and the South Bay]: "I was walking down the street and he was walking toward me. Our paths crossed right in front of a pay phone, our eyes met and we recognized each other. I asked how he was and at that moment the telephone rang. He looked at me and looked at the phone, then turned around and ran down the street, and I never saw him again."

At the 70s pot-commune 'The Farm' in Tennessee, their first phone system (called 'Beatnik Bell') was legendary for working this way (by ESP). [http://www.thefarm.org/lifestyle/albertbates/akbp1b.html more]

'''a turbulent bath of noise that could have been fragments of speech or music surged along the lines''' 
A possible imagistic allusion to the work of Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver, specifically their 1948 book ''A Mathematical Theory of Communication''. Shannon and Weaver were engineers working for Bell Systems who posited that information traffic through telephone systems could best be described in mathematical terms normally reserved for the flow of ''turbulent fluids''. Their work, along with that of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbert_Wiener Norbert Wiener], founds the basis of the American branch of information theory. Wikipedia citations for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon Shannon] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Weaver Weaver], and for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_theory information theory].

We know from the introduction to ''Slow Learner'' that Pynchon read (some--two books mentioned) Norbert Wiener while still in college.

==Page 207==

'''"Bob Meldrum"''' 
1900s outlaw. [http://www.museumnwco.org/lookBackArticle.php?lookBackID=35 cite]
(link broken or page inoperative - [http://steunenberg.blogspot.gr/2008/02/bad-man-and-hair-trigger-bob-meldrum.html new_link])

'''Jeshimon''' 
Jeshimon is typically rendered from Hebrew as desert or wasteland. It appears in the Bible, 1 Samuel 26:1, "And the Ziphites came unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon?"

Apparently not the name of a real town. Utahans are known to name towns with words from scripture, though. In the Mormon book of 1 Nephi, the patriarch Lehi is reported to have migrated with his family through a wilderness. D. Kelly Ogden ("Answering the Lord's Call," ''Studies in Scripture,'' vol. 7, Salt Lake, Deseret Book, 1987) notes that the remotest kind of wilderness would have been called jeshimon. In ''God and the American Writer,'' Alfred Kazin quotes the Puritan preacher Increase Mather (in "The Mystery of Israel's Salvation") as saying, "God hath led us into a wilderness, and surely it was not because the Lord hated us but because he loved us that he brought us hither into this Jeshimon." He may, however, have been referring to Massachusetts.

There seem to be differences between commentators as to whether Jeshimon refers to a specific place or not (although the broad consensus is that it doesn't, but see for instance [http://net.bible.org/dictionary.php?word=Jeshimon NetBible]). So Jeshimon may or may not be an actual place but is certainly not pleasant to be in, befitting the mysterious, anarchic town of death in AtD

==Page 208==
'''Mortalidad''' 
Spanish for mortality.

==Page 209==

'''"every telegraph pole had a corpse hanging from it"''' 
very reminiscent of the heads on poles in Conrad's Heart of Darkness, an important text for GR.... "worst town Reef ever rode into". And the Belgian Congo, the setting for most of Conrad's novella, is mentioned in "AtD" in terms of the cruelty and exploitation of colonialism. The image of the corpses on telegraph-poles reminds me of a similar image in Stephen King's "The Stand". Not to mention Stanley Kubrick's ''Spartacus''.

'''Towers of Silence''' 
The Towers of Silence (also dakhma or dokhma or doongerwadi) are circular raised structures used by Zoroastrians for exposure of the dead. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towers_of_Silence Wikipedia]

==Page 210==

'''leave it to hang there by its one foot''' 
The Governor shoots malefactors, then exposes them in this way, which calls to mind the Hanged Man in the Tarot deck.

'''Second Lutheran (Missouri Synod) Church''' 
A small town with ''two'' LCMS congregations really is covered up with churches. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is a traditionalist body with no bishops. Its heritage is strongly German, and half its members today live in the Upper Midwest.

'''more churches here than saloons''' 
A comment on the utility of organized religion in maintaining civilization.

:All those churches don't seem to have much effect on civilization... 

'''blue laws''' 
Laws created during the American colonial period to enforce strict "morality." Some of these remain to this day; for example, in Indiana, you cannot purchase alcohol on Sundays. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_laws Wiki]

'''accommodations''' 
Decent burial.

'''subornation''' 
The act of inducing (a person) to commit an unlawful or evil act.

Reef learns that for a price even the "laws" here can be bent.

== Page 211 ==

'''arnophilia''' 
A word invented by Pynchon. According to this [http://www.basarchive.org/sample/bswbBrowse.asp?PubID=BSBR&Volume=19&Issue=6&ArticleID=5 website] the greek word ''arnos'' generally refers to a lamb or sheep, but occasionally to a goat, too. Suffixes with the common part -phil- (-phile, -philia, -philic) are used to specify some kind of attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-phil- Wikipedia]

Given Pynchon's penchant for low humor, this is also likely to be a reference to a very old joke: Salesman blows into remote Western town, asks bartender, "What do you do for, um, amusement hereabouts?" Bartender says "We fuck sheep". Salesman after a few days finds a sheepfold and soon finds himself surrounded by (in different versions) (1) laughing locals, who say "You picked an ugly one"; (2) deputies, who arrest him saying "That's the Sheriff's girl." This joke was ancient when I heard it in the late 1950s.

Also recalls the episode with Gene Wilder as Dr Ross who falls in love with a sheep in Woody Allen's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_You_Always_Wanted_to_Know_About_Sex*_(*But_Were_Afraid_to_Ask)_(film) ''Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)''].

'''ovine''' 
Resembling or reminiscent of (a) sheep in appearance, behavior, etc., sheeplike; sheepish; esp. lacking in initiative, thoughtlessly following the leader. <ref>Def.A1. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989</ref>

This word is textually nearby the word arnophilia. As such, the first part of its definition gives credence to the supposed definition of arnophilia. Additionally, the second part of the definition is appropriate to the behavior of the denizens of Jeshimon.

'''Lourdes''' 
city in France of Blessed Virgin appearances in the late 1800s to a youth and supposed miraculous cures since. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lourdes Wikipedia entry]

'''a kind of winged God''' 
in various depictions, Satan appears as an angel/godlike-creature with huge wings. One of the most famous examples would be Milton's "Paradise Lost", especially Books 1 and 2.

Also, Satan is depicted as winged in the Rider-Waite Tarot

==Page 212==

'''The upside down star''' 
The upside down star, also known as the ''inverted pentagram,'' (with "two horns exalted"), is an emblem of the Devil.

In ''Mason and Dixon,'' the upside-down star is a symbol of two things that are connected: 1) when M&D are trying to find true north, they look at stars in their telescope to measure when they reach the peak of their arc arcoss the sky. In the telescope the star is upside down. Thus, upside down stars symbolize points which cut through distortion. 2) The star is seen again and again on rifles of both Dutch and American design. They pop up around slavery, a massacre, and an Iron refinery used for making impliments of slavery and war. The rifle is much like a telescope, but differs in that it shoots lead rather then huge sweaping cuts across the landscape. But they are both acts that are branded by evil.

'''apelike trudge''' 
If you suspect someone is the devil, you watch their gait. Cloven hooves inside his boots?

Plus, surely it can't remain unmentioned, this a spot-on piss-take of George 'Dubya' Bush, leader of the Free World (versus the 'Evildoers'), and a former execution-loving Governor.

'''Flagg''' 
In several Stephen King novels, including The Stand, Randall Flagg is an evil antichrist-like character.

Also, in The Stand, the character Flagg sometimes manifests himself as a weasel.

It is probably a stretch, but if going with the Bush interpretation, we can't help but read Rove into the Gov's "cringing weasel" of a clemency secretary.

==Page 213==

'''''Quieres un cloque''''' 
Spanish: You want a grapple.

'''dusk's reassembly of the broken day''' 
Broken by heat, reassembled as it cools. Or, dusk
bringing darkness, night--"it's always night"--after
another broken day...another 'against the day' allusion?

==Page 214==

'''stole a horse''' 
Reef probably he left in such a hurry, rapelling down "the blood-red wall", that he did not try to find his own horse or felt the Marshall might have gotten to it. Possibly, but unlikely, that TRP 'forgot' about the horse Reef came in on. 
He traveled to Mortalidad by train and must have rented a horse to get to Jeshimon.

'''the McElmo''' 
Watershed territory in Utah and Colorado.

'''gravid''' 
Pregnant, heavy with young. Also figuratively. <ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989</ref>

'''an ancient people whose name no one knew''' 
No one knows what the Anasazi or ancient pueblo people called themselves. The name Anasazi is Navaho, ''anaasázi'': enemy ancestors, but most Anglos think it means something like "ancient ones."

'''shouldn't somebody ought to carry on the family business—you might say, become the Kid?''' 
The comic strip ''The Phantom'' stars something like the 22nd inheritor of his family business. The Queen of England is another parallel. 
Also Cf. The Kids in the Hall sketch about the Cincinnati Kid and the Toronto Kid. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuvPpzPiIec YouTube]

'''"Each explosion was like the text of another sermon"''' 
Cf. "That gun will replace your tongue, and your poetry will be now written with blood" - Nobody towards William Blake, from 1995 movie ''Dead Man'' by Jim Jarmusch ([http://imdb.com/title/tt0112817/ IMDb], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Man Wikipedia])

'''voice of the thunder''' 
Twelfth Song of the Thunder

The voice that beautifies the land!
The voice above,
The voice of the thunder
Within the dark cloud
Again and again it sounds,
The voice that beautifies the land.

The voice that beautifies the land!
The voice below,
The voice of the grasshopper
Among the plants
Again and again it sounds,
The voice that beautifies the land.

[From Washington Matthews, The Mountain Chant: A Navajo Ceremony, 1887]

Voice of the Thunder is also the title of a book by Laurens Van der Post
championing the life of the Australian Aborigines.

And the fifth and final section of T S Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land' is entitled "What the Thunder Said".

'''''The Chums of Chance at the Ends of the Earth''''' 
Not to be confused with ''The Chums of Chance in the Bowels of the Earth'', mentioned at the end of Part 1 ([[ATD_97-118#Page_117|page 117]]). The cover illustration suggests that the events in ''Ends of the Earth'' follow ''Bowels'' directly.

'''[the book], already dog-eared" 
A contributor has mentioned a possible connection to Pugnax, but Pugnax was a neat reader, unlike Reef.
The book was "dog-eared" when Reef got it and I think the connection is to the word and the meaning of reading dogs like Pugnax and the one in Mason & Dixon.

Or, simply, that the book was dog-eared. (One doesn't always need to create connections where they may not exist.) --[[User:Kirkm|Kirkm]] 02:27, 24 February 2007 (PST)

==Page 215==

[[image:bridalveilfalls.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Bridal Veil Falls (c) [http://www.stevegarufi.com/bridal-veil-falls-colorado.htm ColoradoGuy.com]]]

'''"running a game of chance without a license" 
The use of the word 'chance' here is probably no accident. Perhaps this implies that only the Chums of Chance can run a game of chance? Only the author of the Chums books has "[poetic] license? Cf. 'Great Game'and chance.

Or it is simply a game of chance (ie, gambling).

:It seems to be simply tapping on the irony that Reef's being busted for running an unlicensed game of chance is what leads him to discovering a book about the Chums of Chance. Does he just discover the book on the floor of the cell? Ha. [[User:Greenlantern|Greenlantern]] 17:21, 28 February 2007 (PST)

'''North Cape and Franz Josef Land''' 
North Cape, Norway, is one of the northernmost points of Europe. Franz Josef Land is an archipelago in the Arctic Circle that was discovered in 1873 by Austrian polar explorers and named in honour of the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I. Today it belongs to Russia.

'''While reading, "he enjoyed a sort of dual existence"''' 
Spar and splitting theme? Pynchon on fiction and readers of? The magic of reading fiction and how it can transport you to other worlds?

Much like the boy Bastian in mid-80's children's fantasy film ''The Neverending Story'' [http://imdb.com/title/tt0088323/ IMdb entry]

'''he thought he saw something familiar''' 
Sensitized by the (cleverly planted?) book, he sees ''Inconvenience'' conducting surveillance.

'''Sleeping Ute''' 
Ute or Sleeping Ute Mountain is near Cortez.

'''Bridal Veil Falls''' 
Waterfall near Telluride, Colorado. At 431 feet, Bridal Veil Falls is Colorado's tallest. The historic structure between the two falls is the former Smuggler-Union hydroelectric plant, which provided Telluride's electricity from 1904 until 1954. [http://www.jeffblaylock.com/window/2004/06/bridal_veil_fal/index.php source]

==Page 216==

'''"Just greasy ashes by the trailside."''' 
Cf. p. 10, "tall smokestacks unceasingly vomiting black grease-smoke."

'''disrespect''' 
Corruption setting in?

'''Joe Hill''' 
1879-1915, immigrant from Sweden, labor organizer and Wobbly ideologue, executed (after being framed) in Utah. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill See the Wikipedia article.]

 Note that this is probably an anachronism. Franklin Rosemont's book on Joe Hill quotes a friend of Hill's, Alexander MacKay, stating he was "pretty damn positive" Joe Hill joined the IWW in 1910. [p. 46 of "Joe Hill - The IWW and the Making of a Revolutionary Working Class Counterculture".] The IWW wasn't even formed until 1905.

==Page 217==

'''in country you don't know how to get back in from''' 
A recurring idea, that you can go somewhere and not be able to get back.

'''Confederate Colt''' 
Webb's Uncle Fletcher's revolver; [[ATD_81-96#Page_88|see annotations to page 88,]] where it is first mentioned.

==Page 218==

'''God . . . laying on tells''' 
"Tell" is poker slang for any signal a player gives that other players can exploit.

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

ATD 57-80

2016-08-22T11:34:24Z

C-Melody: /* Page 66 */ updated expired link

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page 57==

'''Her name was never far from the discourse of the day.''' 
Another reference to something with respect to ''the day''.

'''Dally's questions...''' 
...seem a tad complex for her age, if this is just after she was first seen, when she is said to be four or five.

==Page 58==

'''a couple of professors at the Case Institute in Cleveland, who were planning an experiment''' 
The Michelson–Morley experiment, one of the most important and famous experiments in the history of physics, was performed in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University, and is generally considered to be the first strong evidence against the theory of a luminiferous aether. Primarily for this work, Albert Michelson was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1907. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson-Morley_experiment Wikipedia entry]

In oversimplified form: Michelson and Morley built an instrument that would signal any change in the speed of light traveling along its axis. They measured no change when the instrument was rotated. Now a wave in the æther should appear to go faster if you are moving against it, slower if you are moving with it (like ripples in a pond: walk beside the pond in the same direction as the ripples, and you catch up to them, finding a lower speed; walk the other way and they come toward you at a higher rate, seeming to move faster). By the theory that was then accepted, the instrument certainly should have reported a difference. After repeating the experiment many times, M&M concluded that the æther was somehow always moving the same way relative to the instrument, an absurd behavior, or that light was not, after all, a wave in the æther. And if the æther doesn't convey light waves, there is no justification for including it in physical theory.

'''the luminiferous Æther''' 
This passage recalls Pynchon's discussion of the "soniferous aether" in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (695).

:Michelson and Morley, in [http://www.aip.org/history/gap/Michelson/Michelson.html their original ''American Journal of Science'' article,] spelled the word "ether." ''Aether'' and ''æther'' have hung on as minority spellings. Most people say EE-ther, but William Vermillion Houston, a venerable professor of mathematical physics in the middle 1960s, pronounced it EH-ther to avoid confusion with the anesthetic. Most writers don't capitalize the word.

'''one finds in the devout Ætherist a propensity of character evertoward the continuous as against the discrete''' 
Particle or Wave? Aether is the medium that light would move in, if it were a wave. This enters the question of whether light is a particle or a wave into the discussion. Pynchon sets up the dichotomy: (aether/wave/continuous vs. empty space/particle/discrete) (also, see page 61)

'''sal ammoniac''' 
Ammonium chloride. A solution served as electrolyte in storage batteries such as the Leclanché cell, which could be used to store the charge generated by the Toepler machine (next entry).

'''[[T%C3%B6pler_influence_machine|Töpler influence machine]]''' 
A machine for producing electrical charge. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Toepler [Wikipedia]]. Also spelled Toepler.

'''all those tiny whirlpools the theory has come to require''' 
People still write articles and books about physics based on the æther. Many physics departments put such papers in the "crank file," but now the World Wide Web [http://www.aetherpress.com/physics.htm makes them available to everybody.] One way of finagling the æther to accommodate "real" matter is to postulate vortices or whirlpools in the medium, corresponding to electrons and other particles.

Ætherism escaped the fate of Ptolemaic astronomy, which collapsed gradually—over a matter of centuries—as it had to grow in complexity to keep up with the technology of observation. Ideas about the æther, in contrast, could not be rigged up to fit Michelson and Morley's results: one experiment spelled the death of the theory, and it became untenable between a summer and the next spring.

'''Michelson''' 
Albert A. Michelson (1852-1931), American physicist. He was born in Strelno, Prussia (now Strzelno, Poland). His family emigrated to the US in 1854. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in 1873. After some studies in Europe (Berlin, Heidelberg and Paris) he became Professor of Physics in Case School of Applied Science (1883-89), Clark Univeristy (1889-92) and University of Chicago (1892-1931). He invented an interferometer and an echelon grating, and did important experimental work on the spectrum, but is chiefly remembered for the Michelson-Morley experiment to determine æther drift, the negative result of which set Einstein on the road to the Theory of Relativity. In 1907 he became the first American scientist to win a Nobel prize "for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid." ([http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1907/michelson-bio.html Michelson].)

'''Maxwell Field Equations''' 
In 1864, Maxwell advanced a set of four equations that would describe almost all phenomena involving electricity and magnetism. They not only explained the interrelationship of these two but also showed these two could not be separated. There was only a single ''electromagnetic field''. These equations predicted the existence of ''electromagnetic radiation''. By taking the ratio of certain corresponding values in the equations describing the force between electric charges and the force between magnetic poles one can calculate the velocity at which the electromagnetic wave would have to move. This ratio turned out to be precisely equal to the velocity of light. In 1865 Maxwell wrote that "light itself is an electromagnetic disturbance in the form of waves
propagated through the electromagnetic field according to electromagnetic laws".

'''in Berlin''' 
Although Pynchon says that the Michelson-Morley experiment was first carried out in Berlin, this is not completely correct; he first tried it there at the Institute of Physics but there was too much noise due to traffic so the interferometer did not produce any results. Therefore, in 1881, Michelson moved to the Astrophysical Observatory Potsdam on Potsdam's Telegraph Hill where he succeeded finally for the first time to show the Null event: no ether out there.
[http://www.pik-potsdam.de/~thomas/michelson/Michelson.html Source] In the basement of what is now Building A31, at the very place where Michelson had set up his experiment, one can find a reproduction of the instrument, though, for health reasons, without the original quicksilver lamp.

==Page 59==

'''Ohio''' 
Harks back to Mason & Dixon's visit with George Washington.

Pynchon spends an inordinate amount of time in Ohio in ''Against the Day''. Why?
I don't know. An idea: in addition to the Mason & Dixon connection, Ohio dominated US politics from 1869 to 1923 producing 7 of the 11 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_presidents presidents] (counting Grover Cleveland -- who ironically was not from Ohio -- once). Most of them were riddled with scandal.

[What, pray, would be an appropriate amount of time for Pynchon to spend in Ohio? Is there something inherently unliterary about Ohio?] Of late, although Ohio has not dominated US politics, it has received a lot of attention as a "battleground" state in presidential elections.
TRP
In ''Against the Day'', Pynchon seems to mention things that are connected with some of these presidents without naming the president outright. Spotting them is what is hereafter named the "Hidden Ohio President" -- sort of like "find the pope in the pizza." The only president mentioned by name (to the best of my recollection) is William McKinley -- an Ohio president, but not hidden.

'''This strip of Ohio due west of Connecticut''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_Western_Reserve Western Reserve of Connecticut.]

'''Blinky Morgan''' 
The Blinky Morgan episode is not invented; it was a sensation in parts of Ohio in 1887-88. (New York Times archive page: [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9C04E5D71E38E033A25756C2A9679D94669FD7CF].) For a spoiler, [[M|see M in the Alphabetical Index.]]

'''bravos in blue''' 
A bravo is defined as a villain, especially a hired killer. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/bravo Definition] Here, it's the men in blue who earn that sobriquet.

'''Northern Ohio Insane Asylum''' 
Full of light enthusiastes who invented light-powered bicycles (see p 76), believe light to have consciousness and personality, and who eat light.

"Originally known as the [http://www.rootsweb.com/~asylums/cleveland_oh/index.html Northern Ohio Lunatic Asylum], this was the second of 6 public asylums established in Ohio in the 1850's. In later years it was commonly known as Newburgh State Hospital because it was located in Newburgh Township as recompense for Cleveland having been awarded the location of Cuyahoga County Seat. The main building, containing 100 beds, was completed in 1855 on land in Newburgh" donated by the family of James Garfield, later US president -- who ironically was gunned down by a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Garfield "delusional religious fanatic."]

Hidden Ohio Presidents: this is the first (not) mentioned president from Ohio in ''Against the Day'', James Garfield.

Could there exist some subtly altered version of the Northern Ohio Insane Asylum, filled with scientists? A university perhaps, from which physicists sometimes escape to wreak havoc upon the world? Surely, not: that would be Para-NOIA.

==Page 60==

'''Lightarians''' 
see Breatharians [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/inedia Wikipedia entry], who claim that it is possible to live without food.

'''Aether reports''' 
Associations of light with "wind."

'''Roswell Bounce''' 
GR includes a character named Hillary Bounce.

The mentions of cosmic space, balloons, a US Bureau "in charge of reporting," and his occupation as a photograper seem to allude to the 1947 Roswell UFO incident, an alleged alien crash that the US government insisted was a downed weather balloon. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident Wikipedia entry]

==Page 61==

'''intervals of invisibility''' 
When you blink, the world becomes invisible momentarily. Blinky - intervals of no light?

'''international scramble to ''corner light''''' 
Corner a commodity, or make a corner in it: to gain possession or just control of so much gold or silver, say, that you can dictate the price. In 1869 Jay Gould and James Fisk almost cornered gold; their success depended on the federal government locking down its gold reserves, but [http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1991/1/1991_1_20.shtml in the end it didn't.] The whole market collapsed. In the 1970s the Hunt brothers [http://www.wallstraits.com/main/viewarticle.php?id=1298 nearly made a corner in silver.]

'''Somehow Merle got the idea in his head that the Michelson-Morley experiment and the Blinky Morgan manhunt were connected.''' 
Vaguely recalls the use of John Dillinger in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_735-760#Page_741 ''Gravity's Rainbow'', p. 741], insofar as they both read a surprising amount of metaphysical meaning into the death or final apprehension of a notorious criminal.
It also ties the criminal underground (out of the light) with the properties of light.

'''box job''' 
Safecracking. [http://www.skepticfiles.org/faq/twists.htm [cite]]

'''Each of Blinky's eyes . . . a walking interferometer''' 
The instrument used by Michelson and Morley (see annotations to page 58) was called an interferometer. It worked by leading light along two paths, then back to the source. Light also reaches Blinky by two distinct paths.

Blinky's damaged left eye indicates the 12th house in Vedic medical astrology, the house of invisible enemies, hospitals, insane asylums, imprisonment, bankruptcy, expenses, convents/monasteries, pleasures of the bedroom. The 4th, 8th (see Columbus below) and 12th form the triad of moksha houses, houses of final release and liberation. Being next to the 1st, the house of dawn and the day, the 12th is alongside the day, and a great place to disappear into.

Cf. Vera Meroving in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=M#meroving ''V.'', p.237] has an artificial left eye the iris of which is encircled by the zodiac and seems to operate like a watch. 
Cf. [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_17-19#Page_18 ''Gravity's Rainbow'', p.18] where we first visit Tyrone Slothrop's desk among the items described are "lost pieces of different jigsaw puzzles showing parts of the amber left eye of a Weimaraner". Also, as Pudding makes his way to Katje he passes a tattered [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_226-236 Tommy up on White Sheet Ridge]whose left eye is damaged.

==Page 62==

'''A walking interferometer''' 
Blinky Morgan is a walking [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometry#Interferometer interferometer]. 
Incidentally, while you may not be able to become a walking interferometer, you can apparently train yourself to see light polarity, whether the polarization is linear or circular and in which direction thanks to [http://www.polarization.com/haidinger/haidinger.html Haidinger's Brush.]

'''double-refractor''' 
In physics, the word ''birefringence'' describes a substance that refracts light differently as a function of its direction or polarization. If the difference has to do with color or wavelength, the term used is ''dispersion'' (a prism disperses white light into a rainbow).

'''Edward Morley''' 
Edward W. Morley (1838-1912), American chemist and physicist. He was born in Newark, N.J. He was a professor at Western Reserve (1869-1906) and conducted researches in the variations of atmosphere oxygen content, thermal expansion of gases, vapor tension of mercury, desities of oxygen and hydrogen. He was best known for collaboration with Michelson on æther effect experiment (1887).

'''''goes somewhere else'' . . . where Blinky was when he was invisible''' 
Suggesting that Blinky's mechanism for invisibility—and Lew's stepping [[ATD_26-56#Page_44|"to the side of the day"]] as well—involves moving a little distance along some unconventional dimension, so that the light by which people ''would'' see him doesn't arrive with the rest of the light they perceive.

'''when Michelson and Morley were making their final observations''' 
M&M's paper appeared in a November 1887 journal and reported observations dated January and July, presumably also 1887. (Publication lag was much shorter then than it is today.)

'''Alpena, Michigan''' 
Town where Blinky Morgan is apprehended. One of two anchor cities in Northern Michigan. The other, across the peninsula, its rival, Traverse City. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpena%2C_Michigan Alpena link] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traverse_City%2C_Michigan Traverse City link]

'''''emerged from invisibility''''' 
Blinky "emerges from invisibility" thus dooming the existence of aether. Aether is then "Against the Day" undetectable, unknowable, invisible.

'''the moment he reentered the world . . . experiment was fated to have a negative outcome''' 
The phrasing points to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schroedinger%27s_cat Schrödinger's infamous cat experiment,] where the fate of the creature is not determined until the chamber is opened and the system inside it reenters the observer's world.

'''cults who believe the world will end on such and such a day''' 
Such as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millerites Millerites], who thought this would occur on October 22, 1844.

==Page 63==

'''O.D. Chandrasekhar''' 
Perhaps a nod to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrasekhar 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 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandrasekharlimit 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 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Chandra 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 [http://ignca.nic.in/ps_05013.htm space] in hindu cosmology, alas O.D. is proposing space itself here as the medium for light.

O.D. may be named after Shiva, the destructive or transformative deity of the Hindu Trimurti. "Shiva bears on his head the crescent of the moon. Thus Shiva is known by the names of Somasundara and Chandrashekara."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva#Attributes_of_Shiva wiki]

Chandra means moon. Punning, chandra "sekhar" might be "moon seeker." 
According to a colleague from India, "sekhar" means "light." So,
O.D. Chandrasekhar means "o.d. on moonlight" or "o.d. on moonshine."

'''If we can explain . . . why keep it?''' 
If Roswell doesn't engage his internal censor pretty quickly, he will be asking this question about God indeed.

'''directionless drift…Mia Culpepper…astrology…void of course…mid October''' 
TRP is taking some poetic license with the term void of course. The moon is Void of Course when it does not make any major aspect with a planet from the moment of its last aspect to the end of the sign it is passing through. The moon passes through each sign approximately every 2.5 days. Thus, void of course is an astrological situation that can last from a few minutes to a day or two at most – not until “mid-October” which sounds like more than two days into the future. And as it says in the book, it is a period of directionless drift.

“Void of course” can also be a pun on the reality of the aether, it's void, of course, akasa.

'''Madge and Mia Culpepper''' 
May be descended from the noted astrologer, botanist and original wildcrafter [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Culpeper Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654)],through his only surviving child, Mary.

They present another duality around light. 

Madge derives from the Greek ''margaron'' meaning pearl or "child of light" and has some resonance if not relation to Magdalene. Madge as a pet-form of Magaret has been considered the [http://www.babynamer.com/Madgethe national Scottish female name].

Mia, strictly speaking, is derived from the Hebrew Miryam meaning "the wished-for child." It might be traced back to ancient Egyptian, and is a form of Maria/Mary. Other interpretations are "rebellion" or "sea of bitterness." It might also simply be a pun on M.I.A. -- missing in action.

Maybe 'Mea Culpa'? or to expand 'Mea Maxim Culpa' as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mea_culpa here]

'''fundament''' 
Buttocks.

==Page 64==

'''hoosier''' 
An inexperienced, awkward, or unsophisticated person.

'''Photography''' 
Light tied to silver and chemistry and a bit of alchemy.

'''saw the image appear . . . out of the pale Invisible''' 
The chemical processes of photography, a kind of alchemy, become the mechanism by which the visible becomes invisible (when the plate is exposed) and the invisible becomes visible (when it is developed). The chemistry of the silver salts may be the "dimension" Lew and Blinky move along.

'''As if light had been witched somehow into its opposite...''' 
Darkness becomes light, and light becomes darkness. The essence of light is dark, and vice versa, and this might be a key hermeneutic for AtD.

==Page 65==

'''Merle’s all-night illumination''' 
Distant echo of Blundell’s quote from p. 24 with inspiration (Merle’s new found obsession with photography) being like physical electricity, here like a light bulb. A glowing that keeps him awake.

'''Murray Hill''' 
A street in Cleveland bordering both Case Western Reserve University and Little Italy.

'''dip-fingered''' 
A dip is a pickpocket. Merle has magic fingers for extracting information.

'''Cleveland Library''' 
The Cleveland Public Library was founded in 1869, its mission, "to be the best urban library system in the country by providing access to the worldwide information that people and organizations need in a timely, convenient, and equitable manner." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Public_Library Wikipedia]

The open-stacks system is deeply subversive and a great enabler of writers and other anarchists.

==Page 66==

'''seeking admission to the hanging''' 
This whole scene, with Blinky's Hanging memorabilia, people in town walking around in a trance, etc, strongly echoes the beginning verse of "Desolation Row" by Bob Dylan. [http://bobdylan.com/songs/desolation-row/ "They're selling postcards of the hanging..." (Dylan's lyrics)]

'''murders in Ravenna''' 
Ravenna is the county seat of Portage County, Ohio (home to the famous Kent State University). Blinky Morgan and his gang broke into a train at the Ravenna Station to free a fellow gang member who was in-transit to be questioned regarding a recent robbery of a Cleveland area business. One officer was killed and another brought within an inch of his life [http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=BMC [Encyclopedia of Cleveland History]].

'''light of Heaven''' 
By Merle ruining the plates of the hanging (where his photography obsession has led him) by over-exposure of physical light, his brain is lit up by a spiritual light.

'''If the U.S. was a person . . . and it ''sat down,'' Columbus, Ohio would instantly be plunged into darkness.''' 
Merle stole this gag from ''Mason & Dixon.'' 
Note that the bars in Columbus are said to close at 8 o'clock. In astrology (both Western and Vedic) the 8th house rules among other things, death, hemorroids, the anus and rectum.

'''youthful folly''' 
The name of the 4th hexagram of the I Ching (Yi Jing) in the Wilhelm/Baynes translation. Mentioned in GR as well.

'''Lorain County''' 
Greater Cleveland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorain_County%2C_Ohio [Wikipedia]]

==Page 67==

'''Beast Without Shame''' 
Inexplicably recalls the epithet earlier used to denounce Lew Basnight on [[ATD_26-56#Page_36|page 36]]: "the Upstate-Downstate Beast."

Given that Merle is involved with photography and that the ladies of indignation and male town folk are out to get him, one possibility, reading between the lines, is that Merle might be involved in risque photography, the late 19th century version of porn.

Merle's backstory probably got rewritten very late in the game (see also pp. [[#ATD_26-56#Page_30|30]], [[#Page 58|58]], [[#Page 64|64]] and [[#Page 75|75]]).

'''East Fullmoon, Iowa''' 
The full moon (fool moon) is usually associated with lunacy and strange behaviour. The moon is full when it is in direct opposition to the sun (against the day, so to say), and east is the direction of ascendancy (lunar, solar, planetary, etc.). An east full moon would be big and bright just after sunset (the death of the day).

The moon also, traditionally in both western and eastern astrology, represents silver and the feminine -- the waxing moon, the growing young woman; the full moon, the pregnant mother; the waning moon, the mature woman becoming a crone; the new moon, the hidden cycle between death and rebirth/resurrection.

The eastern houses of an astrological chart are the 1st, 2nd, and 12th. Only the 1st and 12th are above the horizon.

Full moon in the first house, the ascendant, represents the rise of lunacy, anarchy, the growing importance of silver and the empowerment of women. This is when the moon is big on the horizon. 

As the moon moves higher into the sky, its apparent size diminishes as it transverses the twelfth house, and so the moon in the twelfth represents the loss of silver and the disappearance of women and mothers, and here in East Fullmoon we see the disappearance of two women, Roxana and Erlys. The 12th being a house of loss, "there is little hope on the horizon...for any replacement." Venus is not rising on this particular night. However, "Lucky" Luca Zombini gets a replacement, while "Miserable" Merle Rideout does not.

'''tenor sax player from the pit band at the local opera house''' 
The "opera house" is not a venue for opera, then.
:Actually, in opera, the orchestra plays in the pit in front of the stage. The use of "band" may just be colloqial, although tenor sax in an opera orchestra ''does'' seem a bit odd...

==Page 68==

'''. . . have you ever felt that you wished to suddenly disappear . . . ?''' 
While Merle is getting obsessed with revealing images from darkrooms and chemicals, Zombini comes and makes Erlys "disappear." 
 
'''He didn't know what was happening. He did know.''' 
Perhaps a subtle reference to the extramarital tryst between Anna Sergeyevna and Dmitry Dmitrich in Anton Chekhov's "The Lady With the Dog", specifically the first paragraph of part IV, where Anna tells her hubby that she is going to Moscow "to consult a specialist on female diseases, and her husband believed her and did not believe her."

==Page 69==

'''some larger plan''' 
May be talking about writing ''Against the Day'' itself.

'''winter skies . . . Through the falling snow''' 
Above the white space we're in winter 1887-88 (after Blinky Morgan's execution); below it, winter 1893-94 (after the Fair closed).

'''hieratic''' 
Pertaining to or used by the priestly class; used in connexion with sacred subjects. (From the same root as ''hieroglyphics''.)

==Page 70==

'''scantlings''' 
Framing lumber.

'''man-made bad times''' 
The Panic of 1893 and the 1893-95 depression. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893 The Wikipedia article] goes into causes and effects.

'''giant spokes''' 
This illusion, only with straight streets instead of straight planted rows, was described by the ''Chums'' author [[ATD_1-25#Page_10|on page 10.]]

'''The skies were interrupted by dark gray storm clouds with a flow like molten stone, swept and liquid, and light that found its way through... 
This whole paragraph is one majestic passage of sumptuous Pynchonian Poetry. Full of beauty, dignity and glorious sentimental value: nostalgic, evocative and yet so romantic. One of those things anyone will miss after vanishing from human existence. Yes! Life is worth fighting for. Its a Gift. The thing is people are too blind and stupid to see it. We wonder why? ($$$) Merle sees hope and life worth living through Dahlia presence. You could write millions of books from this little vessel ending: 
'''They lived for different futures, but they were each other's unrecognized halves, and what fascination between them did come to pass was lit up, beyond question, with grace. 
Immutable! ''The summer evening had begun to fold the world in its mysterious embrace ~ Mary, star of the sea'' James Joyce Ulysses passage comes to mind.

''''seng''' 
Ginseng. ''Panax sp.'' The [http://www.wfbf.com/media_center/photo_gallery/ginseng%20closeup.jpg "red berries"] Merle refers to. 
[http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/tending/essay1c.html American Ginseng and the Idea of the Commons] at the LOC.

'''. . . herbs the wildcrafters knew the names and market prices of . . .''' 
"Wildcrafting" here means the harvest of any plant parts from non-cultivated medicinal plants, plants which have essentially planted themselves in any location". ([http://www.ryandrum.com/wildcrafting.htm wildcrafting] also contains a detailed explanation of the author's wildcrafting.)

==Page 71==

'''Inner American Sea''' 
The Great Plains.

Melville in ''Moby Dick'' likens the sea to the prairie:

Chapter 14: A Nantucker (sic) ''"lives on the sea, as prairie cocks in the prairie, he hides among the waves, he climbs them ...like the Alps."''

Chapter 114: ''"in his whale-boat the rover softly feels a certain filial, confident, land-like feeling towards the sea; that he regards it as so much flowery earth; and the distant ship revealing only the tops of her masts, seems struggling forward, not though high rolling waves, but through the tall grass of a rolling prairie: as when the western emigrants' horses only show their erected ears, while their hidden bodies widely wade through the amazing verdure. The long-drawn virgin vales; the mild blue hill-sides; as over these there steals the hush, the hum; you almost swear that play-wearied children lie sleeping in these solitudes, in some glad May-time, when the flowers of the woods are plucked."''

But perhaps Melville was only following common usage as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conestoga_Wagon travelers] crossing the prairie often described their wagons as "ships upon the ocean," or ships on "rolling waves of green from horizon to horizon," or as resembling "dim sails crossing a rolling sea."

'''Ottumwa''' 
City in Iowa. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottumwa,_Iowa [Wikipedia]]

'''Albert Lea''' 
City in Minnesota. Hometown of Seaman Bodine from ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (710) and ''V.''.

'''before the sun had moved a minute of arc''' 
''Pedantry alert:'' The sun moves 1 minute of arc in 4 clock seconds.

==Page 72==

'''parquetry''' 
Inlaid work of blocks of wood arranged in a geometric pattern, esp. in furniture and flooring.

'''brightly lit against the stormy days''' 
Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page_57|page 57]].

'''witch hazel''' 
Astringent distilled from leaves and bark of the witch hazel shrub (genus ''Hamamelis'') and used as a skin care product.

'''thorned helixes''' 
An allusion to Thurn and Taxis?

'''Premo''' 
1903. [http://westfordcomp.com/classics/filmpackhawkeye/index.htm [cite]]

'''Brownie''' 
1900.

'''calm as a sharpshooter''' 
Allusion of camera as a gun. Also, perhaps the idea of breathing out when shooting to ensure calm when pulling the trigger (or pressing the shutter button).

'''There was always plenty of bell-hanger work''' 
In this and the subsequent pages we see Merle getting involved, apart from his usual ''light-related'' job (photography), to ''sound-related'' and ''electricity-related'' jobs.

==Page 73==

'''frog-bonding''' 
Can mean a technique in brick masonry. [http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index.php?qid=20061106081517AAscjfG [source]], but when referring to streetcars, "frogs" are the heavy metal flangeways that connect track to switches, diamonds, cross-overs and other track structures. Frogs guide wheels from one track structure to another. Pynchon may be confusing the term. (Frog-bonding here is probably the electrician's task of installing cables to link the frog and the tracks to either side of it, so that the car's front and rear wheels are at the same potential relative to the catenary wire.)

'''sal ammoniac battery''' 
Wet storage cell using sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) solution as electrolyte. A well-known form is the Leclanché cell. Prof. Vanderjuice got mixed up with such a battery [[ATD_57-80#Page_58|on page 58.]]

'''Skip''' 
Obviously recalls Byron the sentient lightbulb from ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Also possibly the movie "Ghostbusters".
Also recalls Insane Asylum where he is told light has "consciousness and personality."
But Merle's "hitch as a lightning-rod salesman" also may be read as Pynchon's
tip-of-the-hat (or the copper rod) to a certain nineteenth-century American
predecessor, the author of a story called "The Lightning Rod Man" (1854).
Come to think of it, Pynchon may be the one contemporary author able to match
Melville in whimsy, satire, melancholia, encryption, Jehovah-like ambition, and periodic
sentences that are light on their feet yet labyrinthine. Cf. M&D's link to Melville's
''Israel Potter'' (now, sadly, unread), or GR's line trailing back toward that book about a whale.... Cf. ATD, p. 123.
This 'Skip' episode is not to be skipped or skimmed; it sets ATD's readers briefly aglow with sweetness and light and sadness.

'''Ball Lightning''' 
Ball lightning reportedly takes the form of a short-lived, glowing, floating object often the size and shape of a basketball, but it can also be golf ball size or smaller. It is sometimes associated with thunderstorms, but unlike lightning flashes arcing between two points, which last a small fraction of a second, ball lightning reportedly lasts many seconds. There have been some reports of production of a similar phenomenon in the laboratory, but some still disagree on whether it is the same phenomenon. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning Ball Lightning],
[http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s520317.htm Ball lightning explained] and
[http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020209/bob8.asp Anatomy of a lightning ball].

:Great balls of fire [http://searchlight.anomalyresponse.org/2007/03/physicists-create-great-balls-of-fire.html]! Sort of reminds one of that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Balls_of_Fire Jerry Lee Lewis song]. Recall The Killer's 1973 tune [[Meat Man]], and one [[ATD 397-428#meatman|Alonzo Meatman]]...

==Page 74==

'''two bits''' 
The equivalent of an absurdly generous $5 in today's money. [http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppowerus/ [calculator]]
Merle's proposition to Dahlia echoes the old saw about marriage: if you put a penny in a jar for every time "you do it" in the first year of marriage and take a penny out for every time you do it thereafter, you'd never empty the jar.

'''Indian grass''' 
A North American prairie grass [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Grass Wikipedia]

==Page 75==

'''She watched the invisible force at work''' 
This subchapter, in which we have watched Merle getting involved in jobs about ''sound'' and ''electricity'', on top of his usual job about ''light'', closes with an image of the blowing ''wind'', the "invisible force". A couple of lines back, we have Merle saying "There's your gold, Dahlia", pointing to the wind "blowing in the high Indian grass" and Dally thinking "what an ''alchemist'' [he] was" (italics mine). It is the first allusion of Merle as an alchemist.

'''San Juans''' 
[http://www.americansouthwest.net/colorado/san_juan_mountains/index.html [map]]

'''Dishforth's Illustrated Weekly''' 
"dish" - gossip. Also, Dishforth is an English cricket club in the Nidderdale and District Amateur Cricket League.

'''some new kind of gravure process''' 
In gravure (rotogravure, photogravure) printing, the ink is applied to the paper via tiny pits or "cells" in the metal gravure cylinder. The equipment costs way more than hot-lead or offset plant, but the image quality ranges from very good up to astounding and the cylinder is good for extremely long runs. Gravure differs from halftone in pits versus raised dots. At the time of the action, gravure was used for premium materials such as lifestyle magazines.

If anyone remembers the song "Easter Parade," the lines
<blockquote>The photographers will snap us, 
And you'll find that you're 
in the rotogravure,</blockquote>
refer to a gravure-printed fashion section in a newspaper.

The halftone, which became common in the 1890s, revolutionized magazines, no longer requiring more complex and expensive engravings. Pictures were finer, as explained in this section, as they were reduced to "a grain so fine" that the dots were almost invisible. Light and dark were therefore split into tiny atoms of ink, allowing for subtle gradations of tone. [http://www.oldandsold.com/articles10/advertising-14.shtml Article on the history of the halftone.]

'''approach the gates of the laughing academy''' 
Echoes "approach the gates of the Penitentiary" (used by the ''Chums'' author) [[ATD_1-25#Page_7|on page 7.]]

==Page 76==

'''charge slowly building up on a condenser plate''' 
Condensers are now more often called capacitors. You store charge by taking electrons from one plate and depositing them on the other.

'''photographer's or, if you like, alchemist's stuff''' 
Second allusion to Merle as an alchemist (see also previous and next page).

'''Electric Generator hooked to an old bicycle''' 
Don't know if this is that important, but similar to Insane Asylum light-bicycle. (There was one in GR, too-- somebody giving a haircut.)

'''annealing oven''' 
Equipment that definitely pertains to alchemy and metal fabrication more than photography. The alchemist who creates his/her own glassware (alembics, coils, etc.) has an annealing oven, in which newly made wares are allowed to cool very slowly (many hours) so that internal stresses are relieved. Unannealed glass shatters too readily. A similar treatment is applied to metal parts that have been made brittle by working (bending, hammering, etc.), and for a similar reason.

'''burnishing machine''' 
In darkroom times, very high-gloss prints got that way by being pressed against a bright, smooth, chrome-plated drum that was heated from the inside.

==Page 77==

'''Webb Traverse''' 
The character is introduced mere paragraphs after the description of spiderwebs "that when the early daylight was right cause you to stand there just stupefied." As "traverse" means to travel across or through, perhaps the character's name signifies his ability to navigate the complicated webs of so-called reality.

In law, to "traverse" means to deny, and a "traverse" to a pleading is a denial of its allegations. This appellation fits Webb Traverse, whose anarchism is a denial of industrial capitalism.

[http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ Mason and Dixon's] survey was a traverse, as opposed to a triangulation.

The Traverse family plays a significant role in [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Vineland'']. Frenesi Gates' grandfather is Reef Traverse, thus her great-grandfather is Webb. [[Traverse Family Tree]]

See note on [[#Page 62|p.62]] in regards to Traverse City, MI (Alpena's cross-peninsula rival). Significant, or not?

Webb Traverse's homophonic name paronomasia connects to the rhetorical idea of '''World-System''' in [[ATD_26-56#Page_33|Page 33]] and revolutionary internet geeks in pre-911 America at the turn of this century. Yeah, the ones who usually indulge good electronic downtown music and intellectually happy conversations.

'''bloviate''' 
to speak or write verbosely and windily (from Merriam-Webster)

'''cupel''' 
A porous ceramic cup used in refining noble metals like gold. When the contents are melted, "base" metals oxidize and the material of the cupel absorbs them, leaving the gold in the cup.

'''the famous Philosopher's Stone''' 
Not famous enough: When Scholastic Books acquired the ''Harry Potter'' series for U.S. publication, the company insulted American readers by changing the name of the first book from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Philosopher's_Stone ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone''] to ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.'' The Sorcerer's Stone is not famous at all. Most likely they thought Americans would be scared off by anything involving "philosophy." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher%27s_Stone Wikipedia on the Philosopher's Stone]

:This guess is correct as I heard from colleagues in publishing.

'''traprock''' 
In geology, a dark-colored, fine-grained igneous rock like basalt.

'''alchemists keep tryin, it's what we do''' 
Photography as alchemy. Mercury and the Philosopher's stone.

'''Fulminate I believe it's called''' 
Merle gets almost everything right (and a good thing, too these substances are lethal). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_fulminate Mercury fulminate] was discovered in 1799 and came into use in detonators by 1814. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_fulminate Wikipedia] has a good entry on silver fulminate and fulminating silver. Some fulminates are so sensitive that their own weight will cause them to detonate. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulminic_acid Fulminic acid,] discovered in 1824, is not the same as prussic (hydrocyanic) acid but does smell like it. Fulminating gold, not very closely related to these, is a material of alchemy.

==Page 78==

'''The Anti-Stone''' 
Probably anticipates the atom bomb. See page 79 on "politics through chemistry"...."temples of Mammon all in smithereens".

This statement that Anti-Stone, if it is an allusion to the atomic bomb, "has another name that we'd just get into trouble saying out loud"
reminds of Oppenheimer and what he said the detonation of the first atomic bomb "Trinity" in the New Mexico desert made him think of: "We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that one way or another."[11]

:The A-bomb is just not convincing. No one—not even proficient alchemists—knew until the 1930s that elements could be transmuted explosively. And at the time of the action (1890s) the only way to get into trouble by saying "atom bomb" would be to say it to a conservative English teacher. While using an atomic bomb does result in "smithereens," its action is not based on chemistry. If you dissect this conversation, going all the way back to "In Colorado they found a farm outbuilding," it seems more likely that Merle and Webb are thinking of a process that deconstructs gold and silver and turns plutocrats' fortunes into rubble. Two alternatives: (a) Just as triple-rectified mercury is a step along the way to the Stone, fulminating silver is a step along the way to the Anti-Stone, some ideal or essential chemical explosive. Or (b) what demolishes fortunes and turns gold into just a shiny metal: revolution and anarchy.

Anti-Stone seems to be a watchword. Merle and Webb are sizing each other up, looking for a "countersign" sniffing each other out as members of a conspiracy. Similar to Masonic (brick/stone) practice where signs and countersigns are used so that members may recognize one another in public without revealing themselves, "Anti-Stone" and "alchemist" stand in as coded references for "anarchist" -- a word, that if spoken, would get them in trouble.

If the Philosopher's Stone is a "figure of speech for God and salvation" in everyday, "Christian" society, "why then the other --" the Antichrist is the Anarchist, who seeks to overturn that social order. In a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvinistic Calvinistic]- Pynchonian world, the Philosopher Stone of God and Salvation represents the Elect, the "pre-saved" and the "other" is the preterite, totally depraved and ruined, common man.

From ''V.'', p.533: The Jesuit Father Fairing states: "Any tug in the direction of anarchy is anti-Christian." and a couple pages later:
"In the matter of Caesar and God...there's no conflict of interests," implying that they are one and the same.

[http://www.3rd1000.com/alchemy/alchemyterms2.htm Handy Alchemy Dictionary] 
Compare ''Lapis Philosophorum'' and ''Infernal Stone'' 
AntiStone might be thought of as the ''Infernal Stone'' which is an alkali hydroxide such as sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) used to make soap or potassium hydroxide aka potash. They are both alkali salts. Another alkali salt (but not an hydroxide) is calcium carbonate, better known as Iceland Spar.

What about Pro-Soul?

'''amalgamator work''' 
Extracting silver from its ore by combining it with mercury. (Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, 1989.)

'''breathin in those fumes''' 
Mercury fumes are what made hatters mad. Just like the smell of pesticide in subway stations near any ghetto of every single city in America.

==Page 79==
'''Telluride . . . Hell with electric lights''' 
The mountain town of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telluride,_Colorado Telluride] was home to the world's first commercial-grade alternating-current power plant. The world "telluride" also means something in chemistry.

'''poor folks on the march, bigger than Coxey’s Army''' 
Group of unemployed men who marched to Washington, D.C., in the depression year of 1894. Jacob S. Coxey (1854–1951), a businessman, led the group, which hoped to persuade Congress to authorize public-works programs to provide jobs. It left Ohio on March 25 and reached Washington on May 1 with about 500 men, the only one of several groups to reach its destination. It attracted much attention but failed to bring about any legislation [http://www.answers.com/topic/coxey-s-army Answers.com], [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9026696/Coxeys-Army Britannica]

==Page 80==

'''not the result of any idle drift but more of a secret imperative, like the force of gravity''' 
Ties into the central scientific metaphor of GR, that the laws of physics and fate are somehow connected.

'''as if silver were alive, with a soul and a voice''' 
. . . like Skip the ball lightning.

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

ATD 296-317

2016-08-22T10:24:24Z

C-Melody: /* Page 315 */ more details on the Galandronome

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page 296==

'''Rodgers Brothers''' 
spelled Rogers Brothers, with 1847 Silver Ware (and other items) on E-Bay they seem to have been a leading maker of silverware and other silver products in the 1900's.

'''Mescalero''' 
Mescalero is a native American tribe of Southern Athabaskan heritage currently living in southcentral New Mexico. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mescalero Wikipedia].

'''Little Hellkite Mine''' 
Does not seem to have existed. 
Hellkite = a fierce fighter. 
A kite is a vicious bird of prey in the falcon family. 
Shakespeare used the expression in Macbeth (Act 4, Scene 3): MacDuff:
"O hell-kite! - All? What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam, At one fell swoop? ".MacDuff uses 'fell' in a sense that is now rare - as an adjective meaning 'fierce, deadly.' From Brush Up Your Shakespeare.

'''Timken springs''' 
Henry Timken was a carriage maker who held three patents for carriage springs in the 1890’s. He founded his company, The Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company, in St. Louis in 1899. He also invented the tapered roller bearings which bear his name and were used in the hubs of carriages and automobiles. The company still exists and Timken roller bearing are used today in a number if diverse industries including spacecraft. Oddly enough (maybe not so odd considering Pynchon), the modern day Timken company created for the Bosch Group (See the note above for “Hieronymous wheel” on page 292) a process to produce a high alloy steel that could easily be machined to make trucks parts.

'''Basin''' 
The Basin referred to is most likely Marshall Basin[https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=37.944051,-107.767198&spn=0.001252,0.001719&t=f&z=19&ecpose=37.94280345,-107.76709648,3368.71,-3.669,89.115,0], which is located up the Tomboy Road [http://www.visittelluride.com/things-to-do/trails-huts/tomboy-road-town-tomboy-imogene-pass-ouray]. Here are two images of it from the late 1800s: [http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/39050/rec/6] and [http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/59402/rec/12]. 
Another thought is that it might be Yankee Boy Basin, which is up Imogene Pass, but it seems unlikely that Frank could have gone up the Tomboy Road and then wound up going over Imogene Pass, but that may have been difficult due to the 13,000 ft St Sophia's Ridge between the two.

'''glockenspiel''' 
Percussion instrument with horizontal, tuned steel bars of various sizes that are struck with mallets and produce a bright metallic sound. Norton glossary of musical terms.

==Page 297==

'''Pandora works''' 
Mine and works between Tomboy and Telluride. See the [http://www.telluride.net/index.cfm?fuseaction=standard&categoryId=7&categoryType=2&subcategoryId=0 Telluride Places of Interest]

'''adit''' 
A horizontal entrance to an underground mine. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adit Wikipedia]

'''tommyknockers''' 
Mythical mine dwellers, originally part of European legend, introduced to America by European miners. The name "tommyknockers" comes from Cornish mining lore. According to legend the tommyknockers are underground spirits who guard the earth's ores, especially gold and silver. Tommyknockers were known for mischief, pranks, jokes, and being highly spirited. "Knockers" comes from knocking sounds heard in mines that were attributed to their antics. They are tiny characters who dress like little miners and perform many mining duties while underground working alongside miners. [http://www.blm.gov/heritage/HE_Kids/tommy_knock.htm BLM Website]

==Page 298==

'''''duendes''''' 
Spanish for goblins, trolls or leprechauns, http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duende.
 
Also, ''duende'' is the essential spirit or passion of Flamenco, "flamenco soul". A "mysterious and ineffable spirit" inextricably linked with death, without which Flamenco is empty. Lorca called it "A mysterious power that everyone feels and no philosophy can explain". http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamenco#Duende

'''powder monkey''' 
Historically, a sailor whose job it was to keep gun crews supplied with gunpowder and shot during battle. More generally, one who carries or sets explosives, as Dally does here.

==Page 299==

'''matte-surface''' 
Not shiny.

'''"...Sunday-morning voice..."''' 
Perhaps a sermonizing, righteous preacher-like voice, although the context suggests whispering, as in church.

'''Buck Wells''' 
Bulkeley Wells, an historical figure, was a mine manager and cavalry commander and sheriff at Telluride, previously mentioned on p. 179. He was
aggressively anti-union. Bulkeley Wells http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulkeley_Wells

'''Might be he'll even do the deed on himself''' 
Wells committed suicide in 1931. Ibid.

==Page 300==

'''Throw down''' 
to begin an altercation. "Throw down"
http://www.blackraptor.net/m7fic/contents/terms.htm

'''"somethin tattooed on my head"''' 
Cf. Queequeg's tattoos in ''Moby-Dick'', Ch. 3 and ''passim''. 
"And the Lord put a mark on Cain ..." (Genesis) Cain is marked so that he can be recognized for his evil deed; at the same time he is protected by God. There is a great exegesis by Herman Hesse in his '''''DEMIAN''''' - that the mark is a symbol of inner knowledge. All three kind of fit Frank.

'''fragment of time''' 
Sparks move faster than shutter.

'''collodion''' 
Toxic chemical used both in early photography and explosives manufacturing.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collodion Wikipedia]

==Page 301==

'''"circles of otherworld blindness up on tall poles"'''
This about electric lights!. Seems to be an allusion to the most famous literary image involving poles--the heads on poles in Conrad's ''Heart of
''Darkness.'' 
A-and repeats this image from earlier use in Telluride chapter.

'''squareheads''' 
See annotation on [[ATD_171-198#Page_189|page 189.]]

==Page 302==

'''ghost bison''' 
The American Buffalo was nearly hunted to extinction in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_buffalo#19th_century_Buffalo_hunts Wikipedia]

'''Gallows Frame Saloon''' 
The Gallows Frame is the structural frame, usually made of steel or timber, at the top of an underground mine shaft. These frames hold the hoisting equipment which raise and lower equipment and miners into the underground mine. 
Cf. Sailor's Grave saloon in ''V.'' and the USS Scaffold also in ''V.''
Death surrounds us theme.

'''fathom miners''' 
Miners paid by the "fathom" of ore extracted. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0GDX/is_5_75/ai_65277661/pg_12 Useful background on mining practices.] A fathom was a block of ore 6 feet high by 6 feet deep by the width of the vein being worked.

'''remittance men''' 
remittance man 
Function: noun 
one living abroad on remittances from home. Merriam-Webster 

Black sheep paid regularly by families to stay away.??? Source?

==Page 303==

'''Circassian walnut''' 
A swirled hardwood popular in woodworking, in this case used as a synecdoche to refer to a bar (the bar is made of Circassian walnut; incidentally, Yashmeen was a Circassian slave). Named for a region in the northern Caucasus Mountains from which the tree originates.

'''Charlie Fong Ding''' 
Seems like a made-up comic Chinese name by TRP. Charlie, as in Charlie Chan, is a stereotypical Chinese first name as transliterated in America. 
There is a road in The Northern Territory named after Fong Ding who was born in 1856 in Hoy Ping, Kwangtung (Guangdong) Province, China. He arrived in the Northern Territory in 1890 and in 1898 married Wong See at Port Darwin. He died at Pine Creek in 1928 aged 72 years. Fong Ding was a railway fettler and gold miner at Brock's Creek and Fountain Head and was the patriarch of the Fong family of Darwin and grandfather of the late Lord Mayor of Darwin, Alex Fong Lim. Fong Ding http://www.ipe.nt.gov.au/whatwedo/landinformation/place/register/view.jsp?id=6144

'''congress... congregation''' 
Two vs more-than-two at a time.
Also, the word congregation has an official/religious conotation

'''California Peg 
The "''sous-maitresse''," or teacher's aid, at the Silver Orchid brothel.

'''Grundyesque''' 
Prudish; after Mrs. Grundy, a character in Thomas Morton's ''Speed the Plow'', (1798)([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Grundy]). See page 400 on "Mrs. Grundy"

'''Popcorn Alley''' 
Street of (now historic) brothels in Telluride.

'''a range of useful information'''. 
Range again, as spectrum.

'''hurdy girl''' 
A professional dancing girl.

==Page 304==

'''Annie Oakley''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Oakley See Wikipedia entry]

'''civil war and White Terror''' 
The Finnish Civil War lasted from January-May 1918 and was fought between the conservative White and revolutionary Red factions of the army. After the Whites emerged victorious, they rounded up Red elements in prison camps where many died, hence the White Terror. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Civil_War Wikipedia.]

'''"Love", whatever that turned out to be, would occupy a whole different piece of range.''' conveys a whole new meaning to the word 'range'?...not just land but something like 'range of emotions"?
'Piece of range' as in a spectrum? Light exists in a spectrum.
Cf. 'Light over the ranges' indeed.

==Page 305==

'''"The Shooting of Dan McGrew"''' 
"A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon ..."
Poem by Robert Service (1874 - 1958). A Scotsman who came to Canada to work tough outdoors jobs, he was also a banker, a World War I Correspondent (WWI), and a wealthy world traveler who left the Yukon in 1912. [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/poetry/TheSpelloftheYukon/chap13.html etext]

'''ruffled doves''' 
A/k/a "soiled doves," a Western term for prostitutes.

'''Stephen Emmens''' 
American chemist and mining engineer, inventor of the explosive Emmensite, who believed an intermediate substance he called "argentaurum" was transmutable into silver or gold; he claimed to have discovered a process by which the gold content of silver could be thus enriched. He carried out his experiments from 1895 to 1897, and saw them made public in 1899. The details of the process, as far as they are known, are as Pynchon describes them. Attempts to enlist emminent scientists to verify Emmens' apparent alchemy included an offer to Nicola Tesla (He refused). [http://www.borderlands.com/archives/arch/alchem.html].

'''"argentaurum"''' 
Substance claimed by Dr. Stephen Emmens to be intermediate beteween silver and gold, and through which, as an intermediate step, each could be transmuted to the other.[http://www.borderlands.com/archives/arch/alchem.html]. The preceding 2 links are to an article by Vincent Gaddis. I think his articles and books may well have been an important source for materials and ideas that appear in ATD. Gaddis lived in Gaberville, Ca., a region TRP lived in and researched for Vineland. Here's another Gaddis article that has ATD imagery: sentient lightning and the photography of etheric bodies [http://journal.borderlands.com/2010/electrical-ghosts/]

'''nymph's mirror''' 
Speculation: The "mirror" available to nymphs was any still surface of water, so thin as the surface of water.

'''''Schieferspath''''' 
Has nothing to do with paths; ''spath'' is German for ''spar.'' ''Schiefer'' indicates it is a foliated mineral. So: foliated spar, i.e., a spar that cleaves readily into sheets. "[S]ome of the visiting labor" may come from a place where calcite is mined under this name.

'''superstitious Scotchman''' 
Holding the nine of diamonds, [[ATD_1-25#Page_24|"the curse of Scotland,"]] he doesn't bet his hand but loses the specimen.

==Page 306==

'''''grown brighter''''' 
It's drawing light from a non-material source, from a parallel world, which adds to the light already present? 
Does this surprising way that images through a calcite spar ''grow brighter'' remind any readers of the rooms in ''Mason & Dixon'' which are
larger inside than their measureable dimensions?[[User:MKOHUT|MKOHUT]] 16:19, 14 June 2007 (PDT)

'''gold... silver''' 
Any role of Iceland Spar and double-refracted light in the Emmens process of transmutation is Pynchon's invention.

'''rhomboid''' 
A parallelogram with unequal adjacent sides and oblique angles. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhomboid Wikipedia]

'''Veta Madre''' 
The "Mother Lode" of Mexico [http://www.mindat.org/loc-7776.html] in Guanajuato.

'''frijoles''' 
Mexican beans.

'''the Gold Standard''' 
The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed weight of gold. 
Under the gold standard, currency issuers guarantee to redeem notes, upon demand, in that amount of gold. Governments that employ such a fixed unit of account, and which will redeem their notes to other governments in gold, share a fixed-currency relationship. Gold Standard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Standard

'''Silver Act...repealed''' 
Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 required the US government
to buy millions of ounces of silver bullion every month. This Act was
repealed in 1893 when people, mostly investors, sold silver to get notes redeemable in gold making the government's gold reserves were in danger of depletion. Silver Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Silver_Purchase_Act

==Page 307==
'''what'll there be then to crucify mankind on a cross of?''' 
Direct reference to William Jennings Bryan's [http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5354/ "Cross of Gold" speech,] delivered on July 9, 1896, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. One of the most famous American political speeches, it closes with, "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."

'''Lyman Gage''' 
Banker, and Secretary of the Treasury under McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, 1897-1902. In 1900 he ensured passage of the Gold Standard Act, which repealed bimetalism and had tremendous effects on the mining industry, and the economy in general, leading eventually to the foundation of the Federal Reserve System to regulate the currency in the wake of the resulting instability [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyman_J._Gage]. Just incidentally, Gage had been President of the Board of Directors of the Columbian Exposition.

'''like a kettle coming to a boil''' 
Chaos theory originated from a range of observations like this (organised cells in boiling water).

'''stopes''' 
Stopes are the steplike excavation working areas of a mine.
[http://www.morewords.com/word/stope/ Stope] or [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Stope Stopes].

'''Doc Turnstone''' 
A young doctor who unsuccessfully courted Lake, introduced p. 262.

'''Charles Bonnet Syndrome''' 
Named after the Swiss philosopher and naturalist, Charles Bonnet (1720-1793), who first described a syndrome in which visually-impaired people see vivid, complex images that aren't real. CBS is thought to result from visual deprivation, and commonly occurs in sufferers of macular degeneration and other impairments of the eyes. Importantly, CBS does not (clinically, cannot) result from any type of psychosis or dementia. Thus, those who experience CBS are otherwise "normal" people.

Remarkably, CBS is characterized often by bizarre and grotesque images: ghosts, elves, sprites, cartoon-like figures, disembodied faces, magical landscapes. According to Cliff Pickover, author of ''Sex, Drugs, Einstein, and Elves'' (Smart Publications, 2005), "people affflicted with certain eye diseases give similar reports of beings from parallel universes." [http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_rnib003641.hcsp Royal National Institute of the Blind] [http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/Pickover/pc/bonnet.html Dr. Cliff Pickover Comments] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bonnet Wikipedia Wikipedia entry on Bonnet]

'''Puckpool's Adventures in Neuropathy''' 
Seems to be invented by Pynchon.

==Page 308==

'''macular degeneration''' 
Degeneration of the macula, the part of the retina responsible for the sharp, central vision needed to read or drive. A leading cause of vision loss and blindness in people aged 65 and older.

'''duendes''' 
Mythical goblin or fairy-like creature. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duende_%28mythology%29 Wikipedia]

==Page 309==

'''Old Gideon''' 
Bourbon, mentioned on page 40 and in the index."Different varieties of bourbon were very popular too, such as Old Crow and Old Gideon."
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/old_west/102390

'''A.T. Still''' 
(1828-1917), "Father of American Osteopathic Medicine." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Taylor_Still The Wikipedia entry] also identifies the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Missouri.

==Page 310==

'''''Jefe''''' 
Spanish: chief, boss.

'''''Gracias a Dios!''''' 
Spanish: thank God!

==Page 311==

'''mind-poisoning vetches''' 
The vetches are weak-stemmed, semi-vining plants. See [http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/Crops/Vetches.html Vetches].

'''creosote''' 
A creosote bush is "a shrub native to arid parts of Mexico and the western US. Its leaves smell of creosote" (''Oxford Dictionary of English'').

'''Edgar Hadley''' 
[http://books.google.com/books?id=HPNgqJI7WJoC&pg=PA55&lpg=PA55&dq=dr+edgar+hadley&source=web&ots=l84uX-RjA7&sig=YTXoiTwX93e5Yl3jy-tJj1ptN8Q Telluride Historical Museum].

'''blood diverted from its return''' 
Accurate but odd?

An example of Pynchon's predilection for describing apparently simple events in strangely abstract detail.

'''Trout Lake''' 
Trout Lake is located between Rico and Ophir, west of Silverton, CO, at an elevation of 9802 ft. For further information and photos see [http://ghostdepot.com/rg/mainline/san%20juan%20branch/trout%20lake.htm Trout Lake].

==Page 313==

'''Busted Flush''' 
The name of the boat that Travis McGee, the hero of 21 mysteries written by John D. McDonald, lives on. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_McGee Wikipedia]) He named the boat for the poker hand he had that won it for him.

'''tridigital''' 
Three fingers (measure of liquor).

'''packer's knife''' 
A meat packing knife, similar to a boning knife. Generally a long, thin, somewhat flexible blade. (Not unlike a filet knife in that respect.)

==Page 314==

'''Dutch Waltz''' 
A simple dance for beginning figure skaters. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_dances wikipedia]: "...in the United States, the first dance learned by most skaters is the Dutch Waltz, which features only forward skating in a side-by-side hold, skated to music with a very slow waltz tempo."

'''centrifugal''' 
Pulling away from center.

==Page 315==

'''Railbird Saloon''' 
A "railbird" is a spectator who hangs on or over the boundary rail at a racetrack, presumably a horseplayer. Not sure if that is any help here.

'''Gastón Villa''' 
A pun on British football club Aston Villa?

'''''cholo'' balls''' 
Seems to be referring to decorative ornaments hanging on a mariachi style sombrero as the decorations often portrayed in the vehicles of Mexican-American "Cholos" (gangsters/low riders).

'''''charro''''' 
A Mexican cowboy.

'''don't preoccupy yourself''' 
A literal translation of the Spanish idiom ¡No te preocupes!, "don't worry". Ellmore Disco was thought to be Mexican. p. 283.

'''Galandronome''' 
A type of bassoon developed by French instrument maker Galander in the mid-19th century. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galandronome Wikipedia]. Since there is only one known instrument left in the world, Gastón Villa probably exaggerates when he says it was once standard military issue.

'''Battle of Puebla''' 
Mexican victory over French forces, May 5, 1862, commemorated in Latino communities as ''cinco de mayo.''

==Page 316==
'''Rio Bravo''' 
Perhaps a nod to one of the greatest movie westerns, Howard Hawks' ''Rio Bravo''? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Bravo_(1959_film) Wikipedia]

'''Some ghosts go oo-oo-oo... the bone deep voice of retribution''' 
Here we have Frank in an encounter with the ghost of his father, which ends with a auditory hallucination of an explosion. Which may or may not have something to do with the explosion recorded in Madame Eskimoff's sitting for the T.W.I.T. See p229

'''Ophir road''' 
Presumably the road to the town of Ophir, South of Telluride, named for the biblical souce of the treasure of Solomon's Fleet [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11259b.htm]. Perhaps one of Pynchon's contrasts: Telluride, named rationally for its ore deposits; Ophir a name from the pre-rational and mythic. Yes, and Telluride's 'rationality': "to Hell You Ride" [ADT]

==Page 317==

'''backward departure''' 
No way to turn engine?

:Right; [[ATD_243-272#Page_265|see annotation to page 265.]]

'''''abrazos''''' 
Spanish for "embrace"; "hugs".

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

ATD 119-148

2016-07-24T17:00:08Z

C-Melody: /* Page 123 */ added intertextual reference to Tetris in Bleeding Edge.

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page 121==

'''flying bridge''' 
On an ordinary aquatic ship, the flying bridge is an open deck atop the pilothouse for navigating in good weather. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_bridge [Wikipedia]]

'''to measure and map . . . that mysterious mathematical lattice-work''' 
A big research area in satellite and earth sciences. For example, if you know to utmost accuracy how gravity varies in near-Earth space, you can predict the orbits of satellites used for navigation and positioning (i.e., GPS). AtD is interested in Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry throughout, as well as in electromagnetic fields, topology and mapping. How does one world, one reality "map" onto another? Do they "double"? In what ways do they intersect?

'''"Ray-rush"''' 
Cf contemporary telecom bandwidth auctions. "Ray-rush" as "Gold-rush"

'''here at the high edge of the atmosphere''' 
Odd phrasing that may mark an allusion to the space race a few decades later.

'''obscure feelings of dread''' 
Strange lights in the sky, not accompanied by thunder, are a portent—seldom of anything good on the way.

==Page 122==

'''transfiguration unceasing''' 
Not just continuous change, but specifically changes in the observer's face as the colors and intensities shift.

'''iceblink''' 
Lightening of the underside of clouds over ice. A related phenomenon is "water sky," darkening of clouds over water. [http://nsidc.org/arcticmet/basics/phenomena/water_sky.html Photos of both.]

'''souls bound to the planetary lines of force, swept pole to pole''' 
In ''V,'' Mondaugen was stationed in South Africa to record "sferics" or "whistlers," a form of radio interference due to charged particles traveling along Earth's lines of magnetic force. Here, the planet being hollow, the field may be continuous, north-south on the outside and then south-north on the inside, and the lines may represent some other, nonmagnetic field. Note the link here to the mysterious lattice-work on p. 121 above.

'''manœuvring''' 
British spelling; U.S. ''maneuvering.''

'''dazzle-painting''' 
A camouflage painting technique used on WWI ships.[http://www.gotouring.com/razzledazzle/articles/dazzle.html].

'''intelligence centers on the surface such as the Inter-Group Laboratory for Opticomagnetic Observation (I.G.L.O.O.), a radiational clearing-house in Northern Alaska''' 
Perhaps a reference to the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) site in Gakonka, AK, which is ostensibly engaged in ionospheric research [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haarp (Wikipedia entry)]. Also suggestive of the ECHELON network [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON (Wikipedia entry)], comprising a number of signals intelligence sites, which are capable of intercepting a wide variety of communications signals throughout the world. Also, Pynchon often creates humorous or fanciful acronyms: W.A.S.T.E. (''The Crying of Lot 49''), A.C.H.T.U.N.G. (''Gravity's Rainbow''), etc.

'''Lloyd's of the high spectrum [...] the next fateful Lutine announcement.''' The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutine HMS Lutine] (Lutine translates as "the tease") was a ship commissioned in the French Royal Navy which was later given to the English Royal Navy during the Revolution. In 1799 she sank in the North Sea while blockading Holland; her hold was full of gold. Lloyd's of London, an independent insurance market still known for being willing to assume large insurance risks for the right price, had insured the gold, and paid the claim in full, acquiring nominal ownership of the still-unsalvaged cargo. The ship's bell was recovered in the mid-19th century and hangs to this day in the Underwriting Room at Lloyd's. For many years the Lutine Bell was struck to announce news of an overdue ship: once if lost, twice if reported safe. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd's_of_London#Miscellaneous [Wikipedia]]

'''last eclipse''' 
Possibly Pike's Peak, 1878? [http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEhistory/SEhistory.html (partial table)]

==Page 123==

'''assbackwards''' 
there's a memorable discussion of the meaning of this term in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (p. 683).

'''lookout telegraph''' 
Instead of attaching Pugnax's tail directly to a hammer that hits the gong, the gong is struck remotely via a telegraph line.

'''Igor Padzhitnoff''' 
The whole passage that introduces the rival airship captain is a play on Tetris. Igor's surname is similar to that of the creator of Tetris, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Pazhitnov Alexey Pazhitnov]. Also, the captain himself serves "a program of mischief", flies a ship called "The Great Game" and drops "bricks and masonry, always in the four-block fragments which had become his "signature," to fall on and damage targets designated by his superiors." (As an aside: the Nintendo Tetris theme, the Russian folk song "Korobushka" or "Korobeiniki," appears in ''Bleeding Edge,'' p. 43.)

The term 'Great Game' also refers to the intense geopolitical rivalry between the English and Russian empires over control of Central Asia during the whole of the 19th century [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game Wikipedia]. The period of this Great Game is thought to have ended in 1907, about the time of the book, though many still use the term to refer to geopolitics and contests for access to natural resources in Central Asia today. The constant appearance of the Russians wherever the Chums go would appear to play on both this and on the coming Cold War conflict. The equation of all of these with Tetris suggests a common theme in all three 'non-violent' conflicts.

Additionally, the name Padzhitnoff sounds like ‘pads hitting off’ which in cricketing parlance describes a batsman being dismissed ‘Leg Before Wicket’ (or LBW). The rules for being given out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leg_before_wicket LBW] require the umpire to make a subjective decision about whether the ball would have travelled onto the stumps after hitting the batsman. Due to this inherent element of uncertainty LBW dismissals are a constant source of disagreement between players, umpires, and fans.

'''''Ice Pirates''''' 
This turn of phrase echoes the spoof [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087451/ movie] of camraderie and dangerous "space herpes" that was released in 1984. There's no textual evidence that Pynchon means to refer to the movie, but the satirical humor and outlandish situations presented in the film might be attractive to someone with his sensibilities.

'''Tovarishchi Slutchainyi''' 
Tovarishchi translates as comrades; the literal translation of "Slutchainyi" is "accidental", leading to one possible reading of the phrase being: Chums of Chance. 
The phrase "Tovarishchi Slutchainyi" could also mean someone who is friends, but not intentionally, ie: perhaps people who are conscripted into a situation where they are forced to be communal. (Thanks to Anna Zaytseva for the idiomatic help!) 
A third reading is introduced when the homophonic correspondence between the final two syllables of Slutchainyi and Vice-President Cheney's name is noted. (Erhm, this doesn't work: the Russian word is sloo-CHIE-nee.)
:If the name were ''Tovarishchi Sluchainogo'' instead of as in the text, it would mean "Comrades of the Random," an exact parallel to the Chums.

'''trespassing upon their "sky-space" again''' 
A Soviet and Russian preoccupation, encroachment on their airspace by military or civilian flights.

'''nasal dislocation''' 
'Nose out of joint' = offended, feelings hurt.

==Page 124==

'''Getting jump on me''' 
To put on a comic Russian accent, first thing you do is delete all the articles: ''a, an, the.'' Russian has no articles, and some Russian speakers can't get the frightfully complicated rules for using ours.

'''Na sobrat' ya po nebo!''' 
Randolph says "На собратья по небо." What I believe he means to say is
"Наши собратья по небу" or Nashi sobrat'ya po nebu, meaning "Our brothers/comrades of the sky"—perhaps a ritual greeting between the two groups. 
If aeronauts are like pilots, and they are--see ATD early---they feel and state a solidarity with others who fly. 
It is unlikely that Pynchon would make a mistake (the Russian in GR is correct) but Randolph might err. 
:''Much'' of the Russian in ''GR'' is OK, not all, and somebody erred on page 123 when they made ''sluchainyi'' (singular) modify ''tovarishchi'' (plural).

'''all animals . . . had names—bears, wolves, Siberian tigers''' 
Linguists cite Padzhitnoff's error as their favorite example of a taboo. Some time in the remote past, the name of the bear—derived from an Indo-European word like ''arktos'' or ''rktos''—became unspeakable and was replaced, in Russian, by the euphemism "honey-eater": ''medved'.'' It happened so long ago that speakers of the language think this is the native word. Same in English; ours comes from an old word for "brown."

'''That creature, we did not have name for''' 
Well then, how the hell are we supposed to look it up and post it to the wiki?

==Page 125==
'''a ''roman-feuilleton'' by M. Eugène Sue''' 
A ''roman-feuilleton'' or serial novel. Eugène Sue (the "M." is for Monsieur = Mr.) was a French novelist roughly contemporary to Dumas père, with whom he has been compared. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugène_Sue Wikipedia entry on Eugène Sue] Sue's most famous, which used to be a Modern Library title, is ''The Wandering Jew.''

His largest work, Les Mystères de Paris, is noted for its eventful plots and unique characters. Sue could have been called an early-19th-century Pynchon. Sue explored the underworld, and his work was quite sensational. [http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/s#a1186 Link to his works at Gutenberg]

'''into the Zone of Emergency''' 
Both the text and the theme are reminiscent of Slothrop's passage "into the Zone" in GR.

Reading TRP has trained me to look for meaningful acronyms whether they are there or not. Here ZoE, zoë, [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=b&p=10 "animal life"] -- and the emergence thereof. Spinning this album backword, we hear "the emergence of the animal" which like all good backward masking, refers to something in the [http://www.ccel.org/bible/phillips/CP27Revelation.htm ''Book of Revelation''.] This section, so titled, seems relevant (revelant): 
: 11:7-10 - ''Then...the animal will come up out of the pit and go to war with them. It will conquer and kill them, and their bodies will lie in the street of the great city...."

'''red as a cursed ruby representing a third eye in the brow of some idol of the incomprehensible''' 
Seems too random to not be a reference to something...Very possibly; under the name T.Lopsang Rampa an Englishman published a thoroughly discredited spiritual autobiography called The Third Eye. The Third Eye, by Englishman Cyril Hoskin, a fantastic (and popular) tale of Tibetan spirit possession published in 1956; included telepathy and more.

In the 1940 version of "The Thief of Bagdad" the boy thief Abu (played by Sabu) must steal a magical "all-seeing eye" (ruby?) from the brow of a massive golden idol in a remote temple, in order to see - as in a crystal ball - the location of the Princess held in thrall by the evil vizier Jaffar.

:The stolen idol's eye as a literary device goes back at least to 1868, when Wilkie Collins invented the modern detective novel in [http://www.lib.mq.edu.au/digital/seringapatam/other/moonstone.html ''The Moonstone.''] In 1891, London's Savoy Theatre presented a post-Gilbert and Sullivan operetta called [http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/other_savoy/nautch_girl/nautch_review.html ''The Nautch Girl''] using the same gimmick. And a rather maudlin poem by J. Milton Hayes, [http://ingeb.org/songs/theresae.html "The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God"] (written before 1911), gives it a Kiplingesque treatment.

:And the theft of the idol's eye results in blindness, blindness at the heart of the diamond, and so [[ATD_97-118#Page_109|another ''Moonstone'' resonance.]]

The Hindu god of destruction and transformation, Shiva, "is often depicted with a third eye with which he burned Desire (Kāma) to ashes". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva#Attributes_of_Shiva wiki]

'''Isafjörðr''' 
Town in the Westfjords of Iceland. Often spelled as Isafjörður, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ísafjörður Wikipedia]

'''The "extra man" of Arctic myth''' 

In his footnotes to "The Waste Land", T.S. Eliot glosses the lines:

''Who is the third who walks always beside you?'' 
''When I count, there are only you and I together'' 
''But when I look ahead up the white road'' 
''There is always another one walking beside you'' 

with:

"The following lines were stimulated by the account of one of the Antarctic expeditions (I forget which, but I think one of Shackleton's): it was related that the party of explorers, at the extremity of their strength, had the constant delusion that there was one more member than could actually be counted." [http://www.infoplease.com/t/lit/wasteland/thunder.html]

See also [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackletonexped/dispatches/19991110.html NOVA Online: Shackleton's Antarctic Odyssey]
"Shackleton, for his part, attributed their astonishing success to something else: 'I know that during that long and racking march of 36 hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia, it seemed to me often that we were four, not three.' Worsley and Crean, uncannily, felt the same. When T. S. Eliot read Shackleton's account, he was inspired to write the passage at the head of this dispatch."

'''the true face''' 
Possible variant on Taoism's "The Tao that can be spoken of is not the true Tao" [http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/the-X-that-can-be-Y-is-not-the-true-X.html [cf]] 
Or -- the Zen koan regarding one's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_face Original Face]: "What did your face look like before your parents were born?"

'''bonzoline''' 
Ivory substitute made from celluloid, used for billiard balls. [http://www.oedilf.com/db/Lim.php?Word=bonzoline [cite]]

==Page 126==
'''inukshuk''' 
An inukshuk is a stone landmark used as a milestone or directional marker by the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic. The Arctic Circle, dominated by permafrost, has few natural landmarks and thus the inuksuk was central to navigation across the barren tundra. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inukshuk Wikipedia entry on Inukshuk]

'''a truth beyond the secular''' 
Pynchon's use of the word "secular" is unusual. He previously had the Chums striving "to minimize contamination of the secular" on [[ATD_97-118#Page_113|page 113]], and here the Chums try to glimpse "some expression of a truth beyond the secular." Neither of these statements makes much sense with the normal definitions in use today for "secular"-- what could this mean?
: I think it is likely that secular means quotidian, "of the day", visible, as opposed to the invisible and mysterious which pervades ATD.
:Yes, that is a good extension of the original meaning: of the ages, of an age—as opposed to "eternal."

'''Étienne-Louis Malus''' 
See [[ATD_97-118#Page_114|page 114]].

'''The ''Étienne-Louis Malus''''' 
The level of detail in the description suggests Pynchon wrote it while looking at a photo.

'''Iceland spar''' 
A crystalline form of calcite; see [[ATD_97-118#Page_114|annotations to page 114]] and the fuller entry [[I|under "I" in the alpha index]]. In truth, the links in these wiki entries make [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcite Wikipedia] look lame.

'''Luxembourg Palace''' 
In Paris; now the seat of the French Senate.

'''376 feet, 6 inches''' 
The same length as the WWII-era [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher_class_destroyer Fletcher Class Destroyer].

'''to the coasts of "Iceland," to the inhabited cliffs of ice''' 
The quotation marks suggest a place with this nickname, not Iceland. And sure enough, the Icelanders live in unglaciated lowlands, not cliffs in the ice.

'''They passed around rumors--the Captain was insane again, ice-pirates were hunting the ''Malus'' like whalers...''' 
This phrase seems evocative of ''Moby Dick'', not only in the intimation that the Captain might be insane and the rumors that might result, but also with the explicit references to "whalers" in the subsequent clause, "the subtle insanity of Ahab." ''Moby Dick'' of course contains many scenes when two whaling ships come together to exchange messages. Chapter 131, "The Pequod Meets the Delight," features particularly sinister omens. It is safe to say, however, that none of the captains who meets Ahab quite resembles Padzhitnoff or has a "signature" resembling the game of Tetris! Pynchon once again lightly tweaks the "line" linking his body of work to Melville's. ([[ATD_57-80#Page_73|page 73]])

==Page 127==

'''Constance Penhallow''' 
Hallow: to set apart as holy, to honor greatly. Her name then pairs the virtue of constancy with honoring the pen. Note also that her grandson, mentioned a few lines below, is named Hunter and is an artist--In the hunt for the consecrated pen.

Alternatively, the prefix ''pen-'' is Gaelic for ''head, principal,'' or ''chief,'' in which case the name would mean "Holiest." It is also Latin for ''nearly, almost'' (as in "penultimate" or "peninsula"), rendering the name "nearly holy." Given the Nordic origin of the Penhallow family, and the Germanic etymology of "hallow," the Gaelic prefix may be more likely. On the other hand, the Latinate prefix suggests the state of preterition -- not quite holy and perhaps not saved...

I don't see "Nordic" (although their fortune is derived from Nordic commerce). The prefix ''Pen-'' in a surname marks the family as Cornish in origin.

Cornish, for sure. Given the following sentence from a report regarding the [http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/cisi/newlyn_east/CISI_Newlyn_East_report.pdf Cornwall Industrial Settlements Initiative, Newlyn East (St. Agnes Area)], CP may well have been named for the sites of two different Cornish mines: 
:Prospecting took place in the vicinity of East Wheal Rose with adventurers hoping to discover equally rich lodes, but the surrounding mines at Wheal '''Constance, Penhallow''' Moor and Cargoll failed to match its success. (8/13)

'''another remembered country''' 
The description of the scene suggests England or more specifically Cornwall, but who is remembering it? Constance lives in an "ancestral" home and Hunter apparently has not been away from there. It's an iconic background Hunter has painted into the scene; see the next entry.

'''walled garden''' 
In the Christian iconographic traditions of the Medieval and Renaissance periods, a walled garden, or ''hortus conclusus'' signified both/either the Garden of Eden and/or Mary's virginity.

'''Harald the Ruthless''' 
Harald III Sigurdsson (1015 – September 25, 1066), later surnamed Harald Hardråde (meaning ruthless) was the king of Norway from 1047 until 1066. Harald was the last great Viking king of Norway and his invasion of England and death at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 proved a true watershed moment. It marked the end of the Viking age. In Norway, Harald's death also marked the beginning of the Christian era. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harald_III_of_Norway Wikipedia entry on Harald the Ruthless]

'''Ginnungagap''' 
In Norse mythology, Ginnungagap ("seeming emptiness" or "gaping gap") was a vast chasm that existed before the ordering of the world. To the north of Ginnungagap lay the intense cold of Niflheim, to the south the insufferable heat of Muspelheim. At the beginning of time, the two met in the Ginnungagap; and where the heat met the frost, the frost drops melted and formed the substance eitr, which quickened into life in the form of the giant Ymir, the father of all Frost giants. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginnungagap Wikipedia entry on Ginnungagap]

Ginnungagap seems a Norse counterpart to the Indian Akasa. 
''Eitr'' has no linguistic tie to ''aether'' -- but the two words have phonetic resonance. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eitr Eitr] means "poison" or specifically "snake poison."

'''inexplicable desire . . . about desire, and the forsaking of desire''' 
When Pynchon uses the word "desire" it always has some special urgency. Harald feels driven to enter Ginnungagap but draws back without fulfilling his desire.

==Page 128==

'''So relates Adam of Bremen in the ''Historia Hammaburgensis Ecclesiæ''''' 
The references to [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Adam_of_Bremen Adam of Bremen] and [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Harald_III Harald the Ruthless] may be "softer" than many appropriations of history in ''AtD.'' Or another way to characterize them may be "bolder." Adam (d. ca. 1085) was a learned churchman who wrote a history called ''Gesta hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum'' (Acts of the Archbishops of the Hamburg Church) or ''Historia ecclesiastica'' (Church History). In the fourth book, ''Descriptio insularum aquilonum'' (Description of the Islands of the North), Adam writes about the expedition mentioned in the text and another voyage to the northern seas.

The indented paragraphs below are based on ''History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen,'' translated by F.J. Tschan from the ''Historia'' and published in 1959 by Columbia University Press. Extracts are paraphrased except where identified by quotation marks.

:From Book IV, chapter xxxix (pp. 219-220 in Tschan): Past [i.e., north of?] Vinland there is no habitable land in the ocean, only impassable ice and darkness. Frozen sea is encountered one day's sail to the north. The Norwegian prince Harald took several ships to explore the northern realm. Finally they saw the murky boundaries of "a failing world." Harald turned around and did not fall into the bottomless pit.

:From the next chapters, IV, xl-xli (220-221 in Tschan): A number of ships sailed from the coast of Frisia, landing in Iceland and then proceeding northward. Reaching the limits of the known islands, they commended their fate to God and St. Willehad and continued into an all-obscuring mist. They were picked up by a current of the "fluctuating" ocean and whirled around a great chasm that sucks in the sea and then vomits it forth again. Some ships were lost but others saved themselves by rowing against the flow. The voyagers came to an island encircled by high cliffs where men lived in underground caves. They collected great treasure of gold and silver that lay in front of the caves, then were chased from the island by giants with enormous hounds. A safe return to Bremen ended the exploration.

What the mariners reported is some medium-scale phenomenon, big enough to seize a ship. It might be a tidal or current vortex. In a footnote to chapter xl, the translator says there is a big whirlpool (the ''Eis'') off the east coast of Greenland. The original Maelstrom (look further down this page) is a zone of current shears and eddies off the west coast of Norway. We might also suspect a violent tidal rush, as in the Bay of Fundy. There are enough candidates out there to promote Adam's version from fabulous to plausible, at any rate.

The key point, however, is that Ginnungagap and Harald's epiphany about desire are ''not'' related by Adam but read/written into his account.

'''water-sky''' 
Darkening of the underside of clouds over water; [http://nsidc.org/arcticmet/basics/phenomena/water_sky.html photos of water-sky and iceblink.]

'''drawn into another, toroidal dispensation''' 
"Dispensation" refers to a scheme under which God carries out his purposes toward men, or to a providential event affecting men and involving either mercy or judgment. [http://www.calvarysbd.com/terms.htm#D Slightly fuller definition.] "Toroidal" means donut-shaped.

A toroidal dispensation then is a scheme of universal management involving a donut shape. A huge whirlpool, in short: a ''maelstrom.''

[http://www.math.uio.no/maelstrom/ ''The'' Maelstrom] is a complicated system of currents and eddies off the coast of Norway, a frightful hazard to navigators that has become an icon for the vortex or whirlpool.

A couple of connections here: a Tesla Coil is a toroid, I think; and the 'creature' that is found in the ice, and taken back to America by the Vormance expedition, is (sometimes) described as serpent-like, another coil. The creature's escape, and the disastrous aftermath, have many September 11th resonances, and there's an obvious analogy between that and our world, post-911, being sucked into another, more perilous phase, subject to a new, 'toroidal' dispensation.

'''Bay of Röerford''' 
Does not seem to exist, at least with this spelling. 
A Google hit seems to confirm that the scientist Rasmus or Erasmus Bartholin studied calcite from the Bay of Roerford or Röerford, possibly in Denmark, but the link leads only to a summary, not full text.

The spelling Roerfjord is an old Danish or Norwegian variant of the Icelandic Reydarfjord. On the shores of Reydarfjord Bay lies Helgustadir, the site of the Iceland spar mine for centuries - in Bartholin's day thought to be the only source of Iceland spar.

'''southward to that region of sailors' yarns and oddities unconfirmed''' 
Clever inversion. To these people of the north, it's our familiar temperate seas that contain the marvels: porpoises, sargasso weed, year-round harbors.

'''Hunter Penhallow''' 
See above, Constance Penhallow. 
By the way, Penhallow is pronounced in a way that's very close to the italian "pennello" which means "paintbrush": quite appropriate for a painter!

'''lower-eighties''' 
Latitudes from 80N to 85N (mainly Ellesmere Island). [http://www.athropolis.com/map2.htm [map]] 
You would think that, but the text refers to people with "lower-eighties accents," and virtually no scientist comes from these latitudes (to say nothing of alienists). Could it have to do with 80th to 85th Streets? The expedition does appear to sail from New York.

'''love''' 
The word is rare in Pynchon's work. Here it is linked to separation, the human theme of the novel.

==Page 129==

'''shakes''' 
[http://www.houstonremodeling.com/glossary/glossary_s.htm Shingles made by splitting a wood such as cedar along the grain.]

'''Meat Olaf''' 
Anagram.
:As a lesson on the dangers of over-interpretation: I asked a Norwegian friend whether this is truly a Norwegian dish, to which he replied "no," making me feel stupid. [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]]

:It is however the case that a popular Norwegian (and Norwegian-American) dish is lutefisk, an awful concoction unimaginable to those of us who enjoy fresh seafood, which is a sort of "fish loaf." For a funny description of an American attempt to eat it, see [http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~atman/ic/lutefisk.html].

'''''¡Cuidado Cabrón! Salsa Explosiva La Original''''' 
Cabrón is an offensive word in Spanish meaning a guy who is an asshole/dick/cuckold, but friends can also call each other Cabrón in a joking manner. So, ''Watch-Out, Fucker! The Original Explosive Sauce''.
:There appears, in "''Explosiva La Original''," to be a suggestion of an originary explosion, i.e. the Big Bang.

==Page 130==

'''separated . . . by only the thinnest of membranes''' 
An excellent book, ''The Mind in the Cave,'' by David Lewis-Williams, explores the idea that the partition between worlds is thick most everywhere but thin in special places, allowing the spiritual journeyer (e.g., the shaman) to make an easy crossing. Superstitions about veils, including [[ATD_119-148#Page_140|human cauls,]] make similar claims about what separates the natural and supernatural worlds. Shifts from one world to another figure at several places in ''AtD''; [[ATD_1-25#Page_9|see for example the dialog on p. 9,]] "Another 'surface,' but an earthly one."

This colorful and sinister tropical bird, so out of place in these arctic climes, heralding a passage between worlds or maybe states of being, is reminiscent of the rainbow-hued spider monkey from Vheissu, found frozen beneath the icy surface of the Antarctic in the climactic reveal [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_7 (''V'', p. 205)] in the chapter "She Hangs on the Western Wall."

'''until the phrase no longer had meaning''' 
This contributor took part in creating a work of radio conceptual art called ''Knob.'' A reader spoke the word "knob" onto a tape, which was then looped so that it repeated every 3-4 seconds. After a few dozen repetitions, the listener could not associate any meaning with the word; after the full half-hour, few could stand without assistance.

'''the force of a Tibetan prayer wheel''' 
Pynchon is slightly confused here. When spinning a Tibetan prayer wheel, you don't recite any prayers or mantras. The prayer wheel contains rolls of paper imprinted with the Om Mani Padme Hum mantra, but it is believed that the spinning of the wheel has the same effect as reciting that mantra; the more one recites the mantra, the closer one can get to enlightenment. So here, it would be more correct to say something along the lines of "the force of a mantra" rather than a Tibetan prayer wheel, since the characters are reciting the name of the salsa. [http://www.dharma-haven.org/tibetan/prayer-wheel.htm More on Tibetan prayer wheels]

'''Tsangpo-Brahmaputra country''' 
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.

'''Candlebrow University''' 
A fictional institute, created in the tradition of Lovecraft's Miskatonic University.

[[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" (Imperial Margarine was advertised as "the King of Margarines") 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. Also, the Biblical Gideon was associated with Phallus worship which was not considered at all shocking back in the day. When Gideon was asked by the Israelites to rule over them, he demurred stating that Yahveh shall rule over them, and he called on the people for all their golden ornaments, and of these be made the golden ephod (conventionally viewed as a priestly apron; controversially viewed as a phallus). The ephod was thus Yahveh or his idol. [http://kspark.kaist.ac.kr/Old%20Testament/Sex%20Worship%20and%20Idols.htm] [[The Sexual Angle|More on this...]]

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. Hmmm, Ewball / U-ball?

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...

'''Candlebrow,''' and its associations with ''candlepower, luminescence, illumination, learning, and consciousness'' (not to mention the high-brow/low-brow brand of dividing that determines what may and may not be taught at any '''U'''), may also be a return to yogic thinking and to the Sixth Chakra, [http://chakrayoga.suite101.com/article.cfm/brow_chakra_basics the Brow Chakra] (and not only because nummer six is an æther chakra). The distinction between ''luminescence'', light that usually occurs at low temperatures, and ''incandescence'', light that usually occurs at high temperatures, may be in play, as well.

'''Quaternions''' 
In mathematics, quaternions are a non-commutative extension of complex numbers. They were first described by the Irish mathematician [[ATD-H#hamilton|Sir William Rowan Hamilton]] in 1843 and applied to mechanics in three-dimensional space. At first, quaternions were regarded as pathological, because they disobeyed the commutative law ab = ba. Although they have been superseded in most applications by vectors, they still find uses in both theoretical and applied mathematics, in particular for calculations involving three-dimensional rotations. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternion Wikipedia entry].

'''Dr. V Ganesh Rao''' 
Ganesha is a Hindu god. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha Wikipedia]:

"It is widely believed that "Wherever there is Ganesha, there is Success and Prosperity" and "Wherever there is Success and Prosperity there is Ganesha". He is the Lord of Obstacles both of a material and spiritual order.[2] He is capable of placing obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked, and can remove blockages just as easily. By calling on him people believe that he will come to their aid and grant them success in their endeavour. He also is considered the master of intellect and wisdom."

'''Fleetwood Vibe''' 
Fleetwood, like Scarsdale, is a wealthy suburb of New York City. Both communities are located in Westchester County, north of New York City.

'''bucket-shop''' 
Business designed to cheat people. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucket_shop [Wikipedia]]

'''Dodge Flannelette''' 
Flannelette is a little washcloth. 
Flannelette is a soft fabric popular (in the UK at least) for pyjamas of a cosy but unsexy kind --[[User:Gobbag|Gobbag]] 10:40, 11 February 2007 (PST)
We have already seen one character with a name similar to an American car: Chevrolette. Two actually: The Cadillac Fleetwood.

'''Harriman... Schiff''' 
Railroad magnate and financier behind Northern Pacific Railroad, c1901. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Pacific_Railroad [Wikipedia]] [http://www.beardbooks.com/beardbooks/eh_harriman.html Book on Harriman] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._H._Harriman Harriman Wikpedia Entry] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Schiff Schiff Wikipedia Entry]

==Page 131==

'''The Transnoctial Discussion Group''' 
Note that "transnoctial" doesn't mean ''through'' the night, it means ''across'' the night. 
Trans- \Trans-\ [L. trans across, over.]
A prefix, signifying over, beyond, through and through, on the other side, as in transalpine, beyond the Alps;
transform, to form through and through, that is, anew,
transfigure.[1913 Webster]

See annotations to the next page for discussion of the members' names.

Noctial: from a [http://forums.gleemax.com/archive/index.php/t-838215.html Dungeons and Dragons] bulletin board: 

:''When a star is born, it violently tears apart the void that was there before its creation, ripping the nihility into hundreds of pieces and sending them hurtling through space. Occasionally, one finds its way to a planet, where it stays, consuming creatures to fill the unending emptiness inside it. These are noctials, rare but dangerous creatures that usually dwell in the wilderness.''
:''Noctials prefer open environments at night, making use of their Made of Sky ability to blend in with the night sky and drop down on unsuspecting prey. They are reclusive during the day, hiding in caves and other dark places. If it is clear that a noctial will lose a battle, a noctial will, rather than show a sense of self-preservation and flee, instead move to a position where its death throes will hurt its attackers as much as possible.''
:''Made of Sky (Ex): Noctials are made of the blackness between the stars, and so blend in perfectly. If the sun has set and a creature looking at a noctial sees nothing behind it except the sky, the noctial can hold perfectly still and automatically succeed on a Hide check, effectively being invisible to that creature as long as it remains immobile. True Seeing and the like have no effect on this ability.
:''Death Throes (Su): When a noctial dies, it explodes in a manner not unlike that of a dying star. Transforming into a raging inferno of white fire, it deals 4d6 damage to all creatures within 10 feet and 1d6 to all creatures within 20 feet. This will also ignite most flammable material within 20 feet.'' 
:''Ooze traits: Noctials are immune to all mind-affecting effects, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, stunning, critical hits, flanking, and all effects relying on sight''. 
:''Incorporeal subtype: All nonmagical weapons miss noctials. All magical attacks have a 50% miss chance, unless they are based on positive energy, negative energy, or force or have Ghost touch. Noctials can partially enter objects, but must always be within 5 feet of the object's exterior. A noctial's attacks pass through natural armor, armor, and shields unless they are force-based (Mage Armor) or have a deflection bonus. They also can't manipulate objects, be grappled, or really interact with matter at all.''

'''"with oceangoing ships we left flat surfaces and went into Riemann space"''' 
One of Riemann's major contributions was the mathematics of manifolds, geometrical constructs that on a local scale are indistinguishable from flat space, and yet on a global scale may be very different. A standard example is the surface of the earth or of a torus, which appear to be flat locally but which cannot be globally deformed to a flat plane. Riemann's differential geometry quantifies the distortion produced by the curve of the surface and was instrumental in the mathematical formulation of Einstein's general theory of relativity.

'''first few wingbeats...invasion routes" 
An extraordinary paragraph. ''wingbeats'': in context has a demonic overtone of bats and Rebel Angels. Vormance and Vibe his sponsor here seem more intent on storming Heaven than exploring the artic -- shades of the ''Book of Revelation'' and Milton's ''Paradise Lost''.

'''Outer Hebrides''' 
or Western Isles comprise an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The population today is only 26,370, and there is no University.

==Page 132==

'''it described the present journey as being taken "at right angles to the flow of time"''' 
Fittingly, as the discussion immediately following makes clear, this means into an imaginary time.

Interestingly enough, in quantum field theory one often treats time as a complex number, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wick_rotation Wick rotation].

'''Vormance . . . Otto Ghloix . . . a heckler''' 
Members of the Transnoctial Discussion Group are Alden Vormance, V. Ganesh Rao, Dodge Flannelette, Fleetwood Vibe, Templeton Blope, Hastings Throyle, Otto Ghloix, and an extra man (heckler).

Without trying to read too much into the names, consider two parallel discussion groups in stories by the science fiction writer R.A. Lafferty, both collected in ''Nine Hundred Grandmothers'' (1970). "Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne" features Gregory Smirnov, Valery Mok, her husband Charles Cogsworth, a person called Glasser, Aloysius Shiplap, Willy McGilly, Audifax O'Hanlon and Diogenes Pontifex. The brilliant "Narrow Valley" brings in "the eminent scientists, Dr. Velikof Vonk, Arpad Arkabaranan and Willy McGilly. That bunch turns up every time you get on a good one." Vonk, Arkabaranan and McGilly are a stable group with many other credits in Lafferty's fiction. These groups share more than just capricious names with the T.D.G.; the members have a hypothesis ready for any observation, and the hypotheses never agree.

'''an ''additional axis'' whose unit is (-1)¹/²''' 
The usual form of representing a complex number ''z = b + ai'', (see below for explanation) graphically is by presenting its real part, ''b'', along the horizontal real axis and its imaginary part, ''a'', on the vertical imaginary (''additional'') axis of a Cartesian coordinate system. For a graph illustion of [http://www-xray.ast.cam.ac.uk/~jgraham/hypo/h13/images/image118.gif z = 1 + 2i].

'''complex number''' 
The complex number is of the form ''b + ai'', where ''a'' and ''b'' are real numbers and ''i'' is defined as the square root of -1, i.e. ''i'' = (-1)¹/². According to the definition, Cf page 133 Imaginary Number, ''ai'' is an imaginary number. Therefore, a complex number is a sum of real and imaginary numbers. Commonly, one use ''z'' to denote the whole expression ''b + ai'', i.e. ''z = b + ai''. And now ''z'' is called a complex number. Besides ''z'', the letter ''w'' is often used to denote complex numbers.

'''complex variable''' 
In mathematics, a 'variable' is a symbolic representation, usually a letter of the English (such as x and y), Greek or Roman alphabet, denoting an 'unkown' quantity which may vary during the course of calculation or investigation. For example, the speed of a jetliner,''v'', flying from Los Angeles to New York varies during the course of its flight. So,''v'' here is a variable. While 'c', the speed of light, unvaried, is a constant. In the algebraic equation y = ax² + bx + c where a, b and c are constants, x and y are ''variables''. When x and y involve complex numbers, then they are called complex variables.

'''''w'' = exp ''z''''' 
Here ''w'' is a complex-valued function of a complex variable; exp ''z''—written ''ez'' in the text—is a generalization of the exponential function to the base ''e''. The expression ''w'' = exp ''z'' gives the relationship of the independent (complex) variable ''z'' to the dependent (complex) variable ''w'', i.e., mapping ''z'' onto ''w''. This relationship may not be one-to-one.

:Mathematicians, please check this: In general, ''w'' = ''ez'' maps a line in the ''z'' plane to a spiral, not a circle, in the ''w'' plane. In the special case of a line parallel to the real axis, the map is either a line or a ray. In the special case of a line parallel to the imaginary axis, the map is indeed a circle. If this assertion is correct, it plays hob with Prof. Rao's metaphor.

:I don't think so. First Blope argues that only forward and backward motion in time is consistent with Quaternionism, in which the time axis is real. A new complex time axis, pure imaginary for 90 degree motion, would be required for any other motions. This to him is heresy. Rao is presumably Hindu and believes in eternal recurrence, so he argues for a complex time axis because it can accomodate eternal recurrence, his view of time. Rao says: "mappings in which a ''linear axis'' becomes curvilinear ... functions such as ''w'' = exp(''z'')"(my italics). All Rao needs is a mapping that takes the time axis to a circle, not an arbitrary line to a circle. So if you choose the imaginary axis to be the time axis (which Quaternionists do not) and apply exp then, as you point out, time is mapped to a circle.

The number ''e'' is the base of the natural logarithm, approximately equals to 2.71828. After ''Pi'', ''e'' is the most important
constant in mathematics. See the popular article about the history, definition and 10,000-place value of [http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/e.html ''e''].

'''as Fitzgerald maintained, a shrinkage of dimension''' 
Irish physicist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_FitzGerald George FitzGerald] proposed a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Length_contraction contraction of length] parallel to the direction of motion, to explain the negative result of the Michelson-Morley experiment. Quantitavely, the contraction is identical with the one predicted later by Einstein's special theory of relativity.

[http://musr.physics.ubc.ca/~jess/p200/str/str.html Here] is a concise and satisfying discussion of the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction in the context of late 19th and early 20th-century physics.

==Page 133==

'''a heckler . . . whom nobody . . . seemed quite able to locate''' 
The [[ATD_119-148#Page_125|Extra Man]] has followed the team indoors. 
Or maybe it is the ''Voice of God'' heckling those who just heckeled him!

'''Ynglingasaga''' 
See also Ynglinga Saga, or the story of the ancient Norse kings. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ynglinga_saga Wikipedia entry]

'''''The Book of Iceland Spar''''', '''commonly described as "like the ''Ynglingasaga'' only different"''' 
" 'Thanatoid' means 'like death, only different.' " [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_9#Page_170 (''Vineland'', p. 170)]

'''... even of days not yet transpired.''' 
Reminiscent of the Borges short story "The Library of Babel" about an "infinite library" which contains every possible book. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_babel Wikipedia entry].

'''Imaginary Number''' 
Imaginary number is of the form ''ai'', where ''a'' is a real number, and ''i'' is defined such that ''i² = -1'', 
i.e. i = (-1)¹/² (sqare root of minus 1). For example, ''-16¹/²'', (square root of minus 16) is an imaginary number since it can be expressed as ''4i'' by definition. In the novel ''The Da Vinci Code'' (2003), the character Robert Langdon jokes that character Sophie Neveu "believes in the imaginary number ''i'' because it helps her break code". In Issac Asimov's short story ''The Imaginary'' (1942), eccentric psychologist Tan Porus explains the behavior of a mysterious species of squid by using imaginary numbers in the equations which describe its psychology.

Probably the literary appearance of imaginary numbers most relevent to ATD is in the 1906 novel ''The Confusions of Young Törless'' ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Confusions_of_Young_Törless book], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Törless movie]) by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Musil Robert Musil]. It mixes philosophical speculation about imaginary numbers with a story of homo-sadistic relations between students at a military school, and is viewed by many as prophetic about World War I and fascism.

==Page 134==

'''that all-important ninety-degree twist to their light, so they can exist alongside our own world but not be seen''' 
Seems to echo Merle Rideout's theory on the "double refraction" of Blinky Morgan and Ed Morley from p.62. 
It's also a reference to the discussion of complex numbers in the previous pages, the implication being that the double refraction due to the Iceland Spar ("ninety-degree twist") puts the "Hidden People" into an imaginary space analogous to the imaginary axis of the space of complex numbers--[[User:Gobbag|Gobbag]] 12:55, 11 February 2007 (PST)
It could also be the angle at which light is polarized.

Also, this technique of bending light is similar to the technology The Predator has for a cloaking device. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predator_%28alien%29 Wikipedia]

'''visitors from elsewhere, of non-human aspect''' 
Extraterrestrials, perhaps? "Visitors", in popular culture, is a term sometimes used to describe ETs. The alien race from the television miniseries ''V'' was named The Visitors. In the fictional world of ''South Park'', aliens are referred to as "visitors".

:I'd opt for visitors from another dimension, a spiritual or an imaginary dimension, such as the dimension or axis upon which imaginary numbers reside (see above).
In his 1919 book, The Book of the Damned, Charles Fort uses the term to describe extra-terrestrials.

'''infinitesimal circle''' 
Cf p58. Reference to epsilon neighbourhoods, an essential tool in mathematical proofs.

'''bad ice''' 
Uneven ice formed by pressure, currents and wind in the dynamic Arctic environment

'''a device immediately recognizable yet unnamable''' 
"Device" here means an emblem. Irrelevantly, the rising sun on the Japanese flag is a device in this sense.

'''neutral-density gray''' 
Photography term. A neutral-density filter is designed to reduce the amount of light entering the lens without introducing a colour cast.

'''the sea-green, the ice-green, glass-green sea.''' 
In ''Ulysses'', James Joyce repeatedly describes the "snotgreen sea" (cf. Gabler edition, p. 4), itself an allusion to Homer's evocation of the "wine-dark sea". Cf., also, ATD, p.127: " . . . a green headland, sheer green walls of ice, the greenness nearest the water . . . . " and GR, V131: "the sea, which at sunset tonight shone green and smooth as iron-rich glass". In previous novels, Pynchon's use of color is almost always advised, as N.K. Hayles and M.B. Eiser note in their essay, "Coloring Gravity's Rainbow," in which green is frequently associated with the natural world, uncontaminated by humanity. 
Also, the repetition itself has a Joyceian feel.--[[User:Gobbag|Gobbag]] 13:52, 11 February 2007 (PST) and possibly a feel of Dylan Thomas' Milk Wood "sloe black, slow, black, crow black fishing boat-bobbing sea"
:Who but an artist like Hunter would catalog greens this way?

'''Narvik''' 
is a town in Norway, above the Arctic Circle.
Narvik was also the site of the first allied victory against Germany during WWII.

==Page 135==

'''in the offing''' 
Extended meaning: imminent. Originally a ship was said to be in the offing when she was visible from land but not yet (or no longer) in the area of safe anchorage.

'''Mush-It-Away''' 
Takeaway (takeout fast food) for dogsledders.

'''cloudberries''' 
[http://www.chem.ucla.edu/~alice/explorations/churchill/cloudb.htm ''Rubus chamaemorus,''] edible fruit, yellow when ripe, related to raspberries, found growing wild in northern parts. Indigenous peoples may indeed eat them with blubber, but nowadays they also go into preserves and liqueurs.

'''skua eggs any style''' 
The [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9068130/skua skua] is a predatory seabird, ''Catharacta skua.''

For those not familiar with American diner lingo, "any style" means they will be served fried, scrambled, poached or boiled, as you request.

'''Arctic humor''' 
If Narvik's three jokes are Arctic humor, give me the temperate kind any time.

==Page 136==

'''Venice of the Arctic''' 
Many cities have been compared with Venice in Italy, usually due to a high density of waterways (especially inner city canals) and/or maritime trade connections. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_city_nicknames#.27Venice_of_....27 Wikipedia entry on Venice of the X comparisons]

The Venice passage contains three themes that have appeared often in ''Against the Day'' so far: that of doubles (such as Foley Walker and Scarsdale Vibe, Randolph and his Russian counterpart, etc) and that of chance or randomness (the Chums, the meeting of Vibe and Walker, etc).

Also the double versions of the map of Asia, double versions of elements that can be seen when they are viewed with Iceland Spar.

Finally, the thinnest of veils between two locations allowing for bi-location. The first is the salsa label which when looked at the right way will transport you to the sunny clime immediately; the second is here on the ice, for when the cracks perfectly match the map of Venice, you can step through it and be translated directly to Italy.

A-and, since the ice in Iceland sometimes arranges itself into a map of Venice, and it's said that you can pass directly from Iceland to Venice, it's highly appropriate that you can do something similar with the very names of the places themselves: venICE to ICEland. A typicaly wonderful piece of Pynchonalia.

And Pynchon seems to love Venice, a very positive place in one short story

'''multiply-connected spaces''' 
Mathematical expression. In the crassest terms, Venice is multiply connected because some paths from one dry place to another pass through water. Without much risk of a spoiler, [[ATD_615-643#Page_618|see the definition on p. 618.]]

'''Bauer-Grünewald''' 
Famous hotel in Venice.

'''kedgework''' 
A set of pilings used to move a ship by hauling on its mooring or anchoring lines.

==Page 138==

In the period of ATD, museums around the world sought spectacular meteorites, e.g. the Cape York meteorite recovered by Arctic explorer Robert Peary.
[http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/meteorites/what/capeyork.php]

'''From the Journals...''' 
This passage marks the first break in the narration to a first-person style. Pynchon thus briefly adopts the form of an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistolary_novel epistolary novel], a style popular during the period with which ATD is concerned--see for instance ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula Dracula]''.

'''Rapture of the North''' 
Coined phrase, after "Rapture of the Deep," a [http://www.deep-six.com/page74.htm nitrogen narcosis] experienced by deep-sea divers.

'''Nesselrode pudding''' 
From ''The Penguin Book of Food and Drink'', ed. Paul Levy: 
"An iced pudding flavoured with chestnuts and dried fruit was invented by Monsieur Mony, chef for many years to the Russian diplomat, Count Nesselrode, in Paris [...] Glacé fruit and peel were a further embellishment to the Nesselrode by the time Proust was old enough to notice such things.

==Page 139==

'''scarcely enough of us to handle the lines''' 
Compare Darby's singlehanded feat, [[ATD_1-25#Page_14|annotations to p. 14.]]

Note that the increase in the size of the semi-fictional ''Inconvenience'' appears to be consistant with that of the larger fiction.

'''Dr. Counterfly... bearded''' 
Last seen as a boy with low rank. Six years have elapsed, 1893-1899.

'''lenses proved to be...Nicol prisms''' 
A Nicol Prism is a device to produce polarized light. It is made from a crystal of calcite (Iceland spar), which is cut along a precisely determined plane and then cemented back together with Canada balsam. A picture can be found [http://web.grinnell.edu/physics/PMuseum/Nicol%20Prisms.html here], detailed diagrams of Nicol and other polarizing prisms are availabe [http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/phyopt/polpri.html here].

:Glasses like the ones described here are used for viewing 3-D movies.

'''''nunatak''''' 
A nunatak (plural: nunataks) is a mountain top that is not covered by land ice (see glaciation and ice age), and protrudes out of a surrounding glacier. The wildlife on a nunatak can be isolated by the glacier, just like an island is in the ocean. Nunataks are generally angular and jagged because of freeze-thaw weathering, and can be seen to contrast strongly with the softer contours of the glacially eroded land below if the glacier retreats. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunatak [Wikipedia]]

Pynchon's translation, "land connected" would seem to be at 180 degrees to Wikipedia's "lonely peak" (which is supported by Bates & Jackson, ''Glossary of Geology,'' 2nd ed.). Which is correct?

Perhaps "land connected" because it is a connection to the land beneath the glacier? --[[User:Kirkm|Kirkm]] 13:09, 19 February 2007 (PST)

Perhaps both are correct? Connected and isolated: a classic Pynchon duality.

==Page 140==

'''an ark . . . and life resume its dominion''' 
Ecologists use the word [http://biology.usgs.gov/s+t/SNT/noframe/zy198.htm#R ''refugium''] (plural ''refugia'') for an area protected from drastic changes in the surrounding region and preserving species and communities in just the way described in the text.

'''overhead . . . bulkheads''' 
And on p. 144 '''purchase . . . hawser . . . strand . . . starboard quarter''' 
Fleetwood either has a nautical background or is using these terms (for ceiling; walls; strong point of attachment; very heavy rope product; unravel; and behind and on the right side) in order to sound like an old salt.

'''sensitive-flames''' 
The term has a specific technical meaning: [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Sensitive+flame External link]

And, qv Gravity's Rainbow - Snoxalls, mediums, Milton Gloaming, etc.

'''a large brass speaking-trumpet''' 
Somewhat reminiscent of the ubiquitous W.A.S.T.E. symbolism in ''The Crying of Lot 49''.

[[image:Breguethands.jpg|thumb|Breguet hands|right]]'''Breguet-style arrowheads''' 
A distinctive fine watch of French design, usually with open circles ('moons') near the ends of the hands. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breguet_(watch) Wikipedia entry]

'''Poulsen's Telegraphone''' 
Invented in 1898, the first magnetic recording machine was patented by Valdemar Poulsen. The theory behind this machine was worked out theoretically by Oberlin Smith of the UK in 1888. Poulsen's machine recorded by passing a thin wire across an electromagnet. Each minute section of the wire would retain its electromagnetic charge, thus recording the sound. Sound could be both recorded and played back. Unfortunately, because the machine's output wasn't very loud and there was no way to amplify the signal, the Telegraphone was not much of a success. [http://www.wou.edu/las/creativearts/music/MUS%20206%20Text.pdf External link]

'''a human caul''' 
caul (Latin: Caput galeatum, literally, "head helmet") is a thin, filmy membrane, the remnants of the amniotic sac, that covers or partly covers the newborn mammal immediately after birth. It is also the membrane enclosing the paunch of mammals, particularly as in pork and mutton butchery. In butchery, the caul is used as offal. A third meaning refers to a type of women's headdress.

To be "born with a caul" is meant to indicate a great future. The superstition attached to birth cauls has figured into numerous works of fiction, including ''David Copperfield,'' Stephen King's ''The Shining'' (wherein the child Danny Torrance, born with a caul, is possessed with the eponymous supernatural power), and Alan Moore's short graphic novel, ''The Birth Caul''.

Caul births are rare. Two [http://doctorpotato.blogdrive.com/archive/32.html superstitions linked to them] are (1) that possession of a human caul (preferably one's own, but not necessarily) protects one against drowning and, by extension, protects one's ship against being wrecked; (2) that the child born in a caul will have second sight, the thinness of the membrane signifying the closeness of the natural and supernatural worlds. Midwives sometimes abstracted and sold cauls.

==Page 141==

'''''camera lucida''''' 
A drawing aid sometimes used with an optical instrument; it is worthwhile to read the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_lucida Wikipedia entry] in order to understand what's going on here.

'''misfortunes of certain Egyptologists''' 
Possibly a reference to the curse supposed to be attendant on the tomb of Tutankhamen, and upon which the death of George Herbert, who financed the expedition, was blamed. The tomb was breached in Feb 1923, though, and that seems later than this episode, so it may just be a reference to general myth or just one more anachronism. [http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/curse.htm [history]]

'''odalisque of the snows''' 
An odalisque was a virgin female slave who tended to the harem of the Turkish sultan. Numerous paintings of the 19th century portrayed them as reclining beauties. The most famous of these is Ingres' ''La grande odalisque'' (1814):

[[Image:odalisque.jpg|thumb|caption|''La grande odalisque''|300px|right]]

'''mongoloid features''' 
Perhaps a reference to images of the Buddha, in which he is often seen reclining?

Lord Vishnu is often depicted lying or sleeping like an odalisque upon the serpent (naga) Lord Sesha who represents widom, power, energy. Vishnu is the Preserver in the Trimurti of Brahma/Vishnu/Siva. Some legends associate him with the primeval waters that pervaded the world before creation and as the mover of waters. Vishnu is also the restorer of dharma and has ten avatars that have/will come to re-establish righteousness over chaos, one of which is Lord Krishna. In many depictions, a lotus or the four-faced Brahma rises from the navel of the reclining god. It is said that when Vishnu is depicted in this manner good and evil are in proper balance throughout the cosmos.

That this faux nunatak has mongoloid or serpent eyes brings to mind the passage in the ''Book of Revelation'' where Archangel Michael defeats Satan/the dragon:
:12:7-9 - ''The war broke out in Heaven. Michael and his angels battled with the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they did not prevail and they were expelled from Heaven. So the huge dragon, the serpent of ancient times, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, was hurled down upon the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him.''

That this serpent is encased in ice at the North Pole is suggestive of Satan at the bottom of hell, in Dante's Ninth Circle, also encased in ice.

It would appear that the Vormance expedition, in search of profits, is about to undo the work of Heaven and unleash Satan upon the world.

While Dante and Virgil escape the center of hell at the bottom of the world (a zone of emergency if ever there was one) by passing through the center of the earth, Chick and the Chums "fly counter" to this -- through the center of the earth -- to get to the zone of emergency, the lake of ice, at the top of the world to witness the liberation of Destruction.
A cosmic reversal.

'''Tolkien?''' 
From FleetwoodVibe's journal of the Vormance expedition where his crew and the ChumsOfChance are assembled in the Inconvenience, observing the "''nunatak''" through some strange instrument (p141):

"...we were bound in a common terror of that moment at which it might ''become aware of our interest'' and smoothly pivot its awful head to stare us full in the face"

Startlingly, this is highly reminiscent of more than one passage in Lord of the Rings where transfixed good guys observe Sauron or his lair through a crystal ball, in terror of attracting his attention

:Reminiscent, yes, but not concrete enough to be interpreted as intentional, IMO. [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]]

==Page 142==

'''Eddas''' 
Refers to the Old Norse Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, both of which were written down in Iceland during the 13th century, although some of the poems included in them may be centuries older.

'''which of us . . . had not performed''' 
Using the subjunctive mood, not the past perfect tense. A writer of today might say, "which of us . . . would not have performed."

'''we intrepid innocents . . . destiny.''' 
This Vormance expedition calls to mind the 2004 film [http://imdb.com/title/tt0370263/ AVP: Alien Vs. Predator], in which an exploratory expedition funded by nefarious corporate elements discovers an ancient polar pyramid which they descend into, getting more than they bargain for in the process. Good stupid camp. See p. 134 in regards to Predator's cloaking device.

The idea of a scientific expedition awakening a destructive monster is a scifi-adventure cliche (archetype?). Think King Kong, Forbidden Planet, The Thing, Alien, Babylon 5, several H.P. Lovecraft stories, etc.

'''scentless snow walls''' 
An interesting literary parallel: Richard Powers' novel ''Gain'' (1998) tells of a botanist who sails with the first U.S. Antarctic expedition:
<blockquote>A scent wafted upon him, a redolence for all the world like the smell of a forgotten existence. . . . the thing he smelled, out on the ice, was the sachet of scentlessness: air before the employment of lungs.</blockquote>
Congress, it's revealed, has funded the journey in hopes of discovering Symmes' Hole in the southern continent. The scientist belongs to a candle- and soap-manufacturing family that makes a fortune, establishes a conglomerate, invents a cooking fat substitute, exhibits at the 1893 Columbian World's Exposition in Chicago, endows a college, and extends the benefits of industrial society (cleanliness, Americanism and cancer clusters) throughout the world.

The name of the family and the company is Clare, but plainly there are several parallels to the Candlebrow saga. Scroll back to the annotations on p. 130, or (risking spoilers) [[ATD_397-428#Page_405|jump ahead to the annotations on p. 405]] and succeeding pages.

==Page 143==

'''Tungus''' 
Old name for the Siberian language Evenki; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungusic_languages see Wikipedia.]

'''bilocation''' 
Doubtless to be an important concept in the novel, judging by the title of Part Three. Latin bis, twice, and locatio, place. Bilocation is as Pynchon explains, the ostensibly supernatural act of appearing or being in two or more locations simultaneously. Bilocation is claimed to have been experienced, and even practiced at will, by mystics, ecstatics, saints, monks, and magical adepts. Notably, Icelandic sagas also speak of warriors who were able to fall into a trance and appear thousands of miles away in battle. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilocation Wikipedia on bilocation] Is also obviously related to the physical properties of Iceland Spar.

'''Arctic hysteria . . . Northern melancholia''' 
We have three "scientifically" named psychological disorders: Rapture of the North (scroll back to annotations on p. 138), Arctic hysteria and Northern melancholia. Whatever happens, Ghloix will claim he predicted it.

If it's psychological disorders we are talking about, why not include Narvik's "Arctic humor" (p. 135)?

'''Christian Time''' 
That is, linear time, a concept first introduced by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo St. Augustine of Hippo] (354-430), in his autobiographical [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/augustine/confessions/confessions.html ''Confessions'']. Augustine argued that the inevitability and singularity of Christ's return demanded that all history must be viewed as a linear progression toward the apocalypse and the ascendancy of Christ on Earth, after which time would effectively stop, an event described as the "End of Days." From this decidedly deterministic view of time, Augustine derived his doctrine of predestination, that is, of a world in which each soul, even as it is born, is already pre-defined as saved or unsaved. While the Catholic Church would eventually reject this doctrine, the protestant reformer and theologian John Calvin resurrected it, and it became an important part of Calvinist theology, notably as practiced by the Puritans.

'''Their notion of time is spread out not in a single dimension but over many, which all exist in a single, timeless instant.''' 
Recalls the Tralfamadorian notion of time in both The Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut. Might also be worth mentioning that W.N. Rumfoord, of the first novel, is also capable of bilocation, as he has been transformed by the chrono-synclastic infundibula into a wave phenomenon originating in the Sun and terminating in Betelgeuse.

==Page 144==

'''"we measured, and remeasured, and each time the dimensions kept coming out different - not just slightly so but drastically."''' 
Cf. Mark Danielewski's debut novel ''House Of Leaves'' (2000), where a house interior dimensions keep changing, while the exterior remains unaltered. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_leaves Wikipedia entry]

Compare ''Mason & Dixon'' wherein the interiors of a coach (and one house, at least?) is more spacious than the measured dimensions.

While TRP writes only of the dimensions of the thing and not its actual shape, there is the sense of something protean, of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proteus Proteus] in the hold. In reading the wiki entry one learns that Proteus is associated in alchemy with Philosophical Mercury, "the light of nature," the ''anima mundi '' (spirit of the world), and much later Carl Jung associated it with the unconscious. Homer, Milton, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Joyce, Vonnegut among others make use of this "Old Man of the Sea" god.

'''"its gaze had remained directed solely, personally, to each of us, no matter where we stood or moved."''' 
Supposedly a standard feature of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church portrait-icons.

Also brings to mind [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_lisa Mona Lisa]
:[http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/eyefolow.htm Here is a scientific account] (though less coherent than we might like) of how the artist makes the subject of a painting seem to be looking at the viewer. It's very simple: paint the eyes looking along a line perpendicular to the canvas. But what's described in the text here is a little different and may be related to a phenomenon in public speaking: If the speaker makes eye contact with a few people in the audience, even skipping randomly around the house, ''many'' will report "He was looking directly at me!"

'''misplaced moon''' 
The moon simile is not far-fetched; ''Inconvenience'' viewed head-on must have looked quite moonlike.

'''something, down there, below our feet... where it lay patient and thawing, was terribly, and soon to be more terribly, amiss.''' 
This is all extremely Lovecraftian, and especially brings to mind Lovecraft's story, "At The Mountains Of Madness". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Mountains_of_Madness Wikipedia] Although what happens once at harbor is more like Lovecraft's "Nyarlathotep."

'''Returned to harbor at last''' 
Not in Iceland but in the city from where the expedition first sailed.

'''impersonal momenta of the Commercial''' 
Momentum (plural momenta) must be a metaphor for the constant buzz of commerce; in physics, of course, the word means a well-defined quantity of motion, but that does not seem to fit here.

==Page 145==

'''upstate security of Matteawan''' 
I.e., committed to the Matteawan Asylum at Fishkill, N.Y. Does this leave any doubt as to the name of the great city?

[[image:Evangelion.jpg|right|175px|thumb|The apocalyptic giant of light unearthed in the Arctic in Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'''the man-shaped light shall not deliver you''' 
Reminiscent of the famous Japanese anime ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' (1994-95), in which mankind unearths a mysterious creature from the Arctic ice that appears as a man-shaped giant of light, gets out of man's control and triggers an apocalypse. Probably not an intentional reference, but if Pynchon plays Tetris, who knows? 
:-sinister variant of GR's Kirghiz Light? Those who see the Light find their words dismissed "as the meaningless sounds of a baby" (GR 358) just as witnesses to ATD's light are sent to the sanitorium. Note also the line's similarity to the Aqyn's warning from GR: "And the Light will never find you." (359)

The "man of light" is also a term from ancient Iranian gnosticism, representing the [http://www.kheper.net/topics/augeoides/Higher_Self.html higher self], the heavenly twin, the guide of light of every individual.
"The quest for the dawning of light in the cosmic North symbolizes the mystic's search for realization. In this spiritual journey, the light arising in man's inner darkness- the Northern Light or Midnight Sun- represents the impartial but brilliant light of Truth, that which sets us free from egotism and from slavery to material existence." Please see Henry Corbin's wonderful book [http://www.booklightinc.net/omegapub/detail.html?session=2a71a6af38a06d45076b5355e0eb5fd5&id=0930872487 ''The Man of Light in Iranian Sufism''] though be advised that it is written for the specialist.

A simpler explanation is that the monster is saying the Christian God, personified as a luminous Christ, shall not deliver you, and that the flames of Hell are your destiny.

c.f. the man-shaped light on 153

'''those starfish corridors where they suffer…''' 
“they” are the witnesses who heard the Figure speak. Pynchon here refers to the radial structure of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham Jeremy Bentham’s] designs for his [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon panopticon], a penal/containment facility wherein many individuals can be observed from a central unit, giving the illusion of constant surveillance. The witnesses in “the upstate security of Matteawan” appear to be detained in just such a facility.
:That unfortunately doesn't hold up. The panopticon doesn't have radiating corridors, as the floor plan in the Wikipedia article (link above) shows. And Matteawan was not built to the panopticon design anyway; it was an accretion of fairly conventional rectangular structures. [http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/docs2day/fishkill.html Here is an aerial view] of Matteawan at a time later than the action; [http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/loaded.html this web page] has exterior and interior views; the asylum was even pictured on [http://www.rootsweb.com/~asylums/matteawan_ny/index.html colored postcards.] The direct reference of "starfish" is probably to long wings running in scattered directions.

Through the use of the word “starfish” the narrator further invokes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovecraft H. P. Lovecraft’s] novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Mountains_of_Madness ''At The Mountains of Madness''], wherein starfish- and star-shaped patterns abound in the culture and physiology of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elder_Things Elder Ones].

==Page 146==

'''lines''' 
The description of the single-file line at the train station basically describes current security conditions at American airports.
A single line (i.e. linear thinking) does not seem to be a 'positive' in the Pynchon world. (See too the slaughterhouse on page 10.)

'''Explorers' Club''' 
Apparently in South Africa (the famous NYC one wasn't founded until 1904).
:In Washington, D.C. ("the District"), though this doesn't help with the timing since the D.C. chapter wasn't formed till 1924. But "in Africa," "out there" and the word "British" in referring to the poet laureate—these all rule out Africa as the site.

'''Dr. Jim's little adventure''' 
A reference to the so-called "Jameson Raid" spearheaded by Dr. L. S. Jameson. The raid was intended to trigger an uprising among the British expatriate workers (the Uitlanders) in the Transvaal, but failed, and instead served to further destabilize the region and catalyze the Second Boer War. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jameson_Raid Wikipedia entry] (From Wikipedia: “The Jameson Raid (December 29, 1895 - January 2, 1896) was a raid on Paul Kruger's Transvaal Republic carried out by Leander Starr Jameson and his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen over the New Year weekend of 1895-96. It was intended to trigger an uprising by the primarily British expatriate workers (known as Uitlanders) in the Transvaal but failed to do so. The raid was ineffective and no uprising took place, but it did much to bring about the Second Boer War and the Second Matabele War.”)

'''"War any moment"''' 
The Second Boer War started in October 1899. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War [Wikipedia]]

'''Rand shares''' 
Not the currency, but rather the gold fields near Johannesburg. The following page confirms this: "In the Rand, some of the shafts go down four thousand feet."

'''the British poet-laureate’s commemorative verse''' 
Reference to Alfred Austin. From Wikipedia: “As poet-laureate, his topical verses did not escape negative criticism; a hasty poem written in praise of the Jameson Raid in 1896 being a notable instance.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Austin Wikipedia entry]

The questionable rhyme referred to is from that “hasty poem” --

::They went across the veldt,
::As hard as they could pelt.

==Page 147==

'''Borchardt''' 
[[image:borchardt.jpg|thumb|200px|Borchardt pistol|right]]1894 forerunner of Luger.

'''Nansen''' 
Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (1861-1930) was a Norwegian explorer, scientist and diplomat. Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his work as a League of Nations High Commissioner. In 1893, he sailed to the Arctic in a ship which was deliberately allowed to drift north through the sea ice, a journey that took more than three years. During this first crossing of the Arctic Ocean the expedition became the first to discover the existence of a deep polar basin. When, after more than one year in the ice it became apparent that the ship would not reach the North Pole, Nansen continued north on foot and, in April 1895, reached 86° 14´ N, the highest latitude then attained. The two men were forced to spend the winter, surviving on walrus blubber and polar bear meat. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fridtjof_Nansen Wikipedia entry on Nansen] Cf. p. 138.

'''Suppose it were to happen to us . . . an innocence they knew how to circumvent''' 
"Art" is supposed, among other things, to help us interpret our world. This passage is Art as brilliant and hardnosed as anything Goya or Picasso or Shostakovich ever created. Just one man's opinion. --[[User:Volver|Volver]] 15:19, 5 February 2007 (PST)

This passage, "use humans for similar purposes", ie, for food, recalls the classic Twilight Zone episode, To Serve Man, as well as the movie Soylent Green.

==Page 148==

'''"Evolution. Ape evolves to man, well, what's the next step - human to what? Some ''compound organism'', the American Corporation, for instance"''' 
Cf. the following excerpt from William Gibson's 1981 short story "New Rose Hotel":

:Imagine an alien, Fox once said, who's come here to identify the planet's dominant form of intelligence. The alien has a look, then chooses. What do you think he picks? I probably shrugged.
:The zaibatsus, Fox said, the multinationals. The blood of a zaibatsu is information, not people. The structure is independent of the individual lives that comprise it. Corporation as life form.

'''the American Corporation, for instance, in which even the Supreme Court has recognized legal personhood ''' 
Refers to Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company (1886), during which Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite announced: "The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County_v._Southern_Pacific_Railroad Wikipedia entry] Corporations are routinely recognized as "persons" in the law nowadays. For more on the recognition of corporation as legal persons, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood Wikipedia entry on corporate personhood]. A recent documentary film, ''The Corporation'' (2003), tried to make the case that if a corporation is a "person," it has the personality of a psychopath.

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

ATD 1-25

2016-07-24T12:09:49Z

C-Melody: /* Page 15 */

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==cover text==
[[image:Ispar.jpg|right|thumb|125px|An alphabet viewed through Iceland spar ('birefringence')]]
Words viewed through the translucent crystal known as 'Iceland spar,' look like this-- with multiple 'ghost' images. Note that here, the ghost images appear in multiple typefaces. The combination of traditional serif fonts with modern sans-serif fonts suggests the themes of time, past/present, etc.

==cover seal==
The seal is written in Tibetan. Someone going by the name 'Ya Sam' [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0612&msg=112066&keywords=Namgyal posted] on the Pynchon-l message board:

"I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate
the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my
request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we
owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.

It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan
Government Chamber of Commerce.

Read their response below:

:Dear Ya Sam, 
:I showed the seal you sent to our Tibetan translator, Tenzin Namgyal. He says the word to word translation is: Tibetan Government Commerce Chamber in other words: Tibetan Government Chamber of commerce. Why Pynchon has chosen to place this on the cover of his book is anyones guess. Reading the book reviews gave no insight into the reason. Perhaps after one has read it?

:Best wishes,

:Sandy Belth 
:Tibetan Cultural Center"

The seal also bears some resemblance to the doubloon in ''Moby-Dick'' that Ahab nails to the mainmast as a prize to the first crew member to sight the white whale. Melville's description runs thus:

:"''It so chanced that the doubloon of the Pequod was a most wealthy example of these things. On its round border it bore the letters, REPUBLICA DEL ECUADOR: QUITO. So this bright coin came from a country planted in the middle of the world, and beneath the great equator, and named after it; and it had been cast midway up the Andes, in the unwaning clime that knows no autumn. Zoned by those letters you saw the likeness of three Andes' summits; from one a flame; a tower on another; on the third a crowing cock; while arching over all was a segment of the partitioned zodiac, the signs all marked with their usual cabalistics, and the keystone sun entering the equinoctial point at Libra.''" (Ch.99, "The Doubloon")

The seal draws attention in Pynchonian fashion to a rarely discussed aspect of Tibet. In the West Tibet is regarded as a land of mysticism and supernatural events, far removed from the materialistic concerns of the spiritually immature West. But the seal shows: even Tibet had a Chamber of Commerce. "There is money everywhere", even in Shambhala.

==copyright page==
The copyright page states that ''Against the Day'' is published by Viking Penguin, but on the title page and elsewhere we can read that the book is published by Penguin Press. The copyright pages of other books from Penguin Press state "Penguin Press" as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of "Penguin Press" with "Viking" is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]).
I have confirmed from inside Penguin Press that this is a copyediting mistake. Here is a direct e-mail answer about the Viking Penguin listing: "this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book."

==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 Fariña")-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words "Dedication TK" in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for "dedication to come." It is unknown whether Pynchon ever considered inclusion of a dedication or whether the publisher simply left the page open just in case, but the ultimate lack of a dedication may suggest that Pynchon feels he's thanked everyone he needs to thank.

==Epigraph==
'''"It's always night, or we wouldn't need light." - 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 “spent a lot of time in jazz clubs, nursing the two-beer minimum,” by his own admission (''Slow Learner'', Introduction). The Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/that-thelonious-monk-epigraph.html notes] that: 1) in his youth, Pynchon allegedly referred to Monk as a "God"; 2) [[file:Monk-Time-022864_cover.jpg|left|150px|caption|Time Magazine, Feb 28, 1964]]the character McClintic Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere (although, reportedly, Pynchon at the time didn't know Sphere was Monk's middle name); and 3) "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light" was apparently something Monk was given to saying, rather than something he once said.

On [[ATD_724-747#Page 732|page 732]]: "...daylit America ... its steadfast denial of night."

The epigraph's possible source: [http://aphelis.net/portrait-thelonious-monk-boris-chaliapin-1964/ Time magazine, February 28, 1964] article titled [http://www.monkzone.com/Profiles_interviews/Time%20Magazine%20article.htm “The Loneliest Monk”] written by Barry Farrell (pp. 84-88).

'''NOTE:''' There's no reason to believe that the above-linked article is the "possible source" of Monk's oft-repeated quote. Perhaps Pynchon saw this article, perhaps he encountered that quote via more esoteric channels. Whatever. It's all just speculation.

In 1960, Saxophonist Steve Lacy transcribed a [http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/02/thelonious-monks-advice.html list of advice] from Monk. One of the items reads: "It must be always night, otherwise they wouldn't need <del>any</del> the lights.

'''NOTE:''' Reading Charles Hollander's [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Does_McClintic_Sphere_in_V._stand_for_Thelonious_Monk%3F excellent article on Thelonious Monk and McClintic Sphere], a character in Pynchon's ''V.''.

==Page 1==
'''"Now single up all lines!""''' 
Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and "single up all lines" is a common nautical term. Ships are docked with lines doubled -- that is, with two sets of ropes or chains holding the vessel to the dock. To "single up all lines" is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.

But 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."

:"single up all lines" is used in its normal nautical context in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#single_up_all_lines ''V.'', pp. 11 and 438]; [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#single_up_all_lines ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.31]; [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_488-491#single_up_all_lines ''Gravity's Rainbow'', p.489]; [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258 ''Mason & Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]; [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_8#Page_119 ''Inherent Vice'', p. 119-120]. Perhaps we can understand this "line" as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''Vineland'']?) in preparation for a voyage to...?

Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling (with the word "Single"!) "single up all lines" as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: "only in straight lines and at right angles and a progressive reduction of choices, until the final turn through the final gate that led to the killing-floor." Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. Both represent "a progressive reduction of choices" a collapsing of many possibilities into one "reality." ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].

The missing quotation mark indicates continuation. Are we holding in our hands the latest boy's adventure tale featuring our favorites, "the Chums of Chance."? (While in all likelihood purely coincidental, it is nevertheless interesting to note the following from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake "boys to your bellybone and chuck a chum of chance!" p. 85 Penguin Books, 1999)

:The ''Finnegans Wake'' line you quote is actually "be British, boys to your bellybone and chuck a chum '''a''' chance!" but close enough anyway to suspect a source [[User:WikiAdmin|WikiAdmin]] 07:38, 16 April 2010 (PDT)

Henry Veggian in [http://boundary2.dukejournals.org/cgi/reprint/35/1/197.pdf his paper entitled "Thomas Pynchon Against the Day"] makes the same point:
:"The novel begins quietly, almost without irony, with a typographical lapse. A set of quotation marks are missing before the first lines of ''Against the Day''." Veggian playfully intimates that it is the authorial "hot air" which takes the "Inconvenience" aloft.

:'''The "missing quotation mark" is not a typo or any sort of Authorial Intention'''; it's simply the publisher's style for the large-font first letter of each section to stand outside the punctuation and font style. On page 588, there is no quotation mark before the "S" in "Smells" and on page 318 the "T" in "Tengo" is not italicized whereas the rest of the word is. Veggian's interpretation is a great example of reading a bit too much into Pynchon's work. I'm surprised that he missed something that seems to me fairly obvious. [[User:WikiAdmin|WikiAdmin]] 11:55, 4 April 2009 (PDT)

'''The Light Over the Ranges''' 
"Range" is defined in the ''Oxford American Dictionary'' as "a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest," so "range" or "ranges" can be used to denote a number of mountains. Some other connotations may include:

:'Ranges' may also refer to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. "Home, home on the range".

:"celebrating in song the wider range of life..." Thomas Pynchon on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Waddell Helen Waddell's] ''The Wandering Scholars'', p. 8, Introduction to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Learner ''Slow Learner], 1984.

:In addition, light over ranges is an issue throughout the novel: exploitation and development of electrical and electronics was a concern of the Raymond, Pynchon & Company and Pynchon and company, an investment firm run by yacht enthusiast George M. Pynchon. Pynchon & Company invested in Edison's work.

:I wonder whether "light over the ranges" could refer to space-time along the line of the theories of general relativity, particularly since the voyage of ''inconvenience'' appears at times to take place under that conceptual framework. In addition, keeping in mind Pynchon's educational background, I would add to the above definitions and considerations that "range" is also a mathematical concept.

==Page 3==

'''"Now single up all lines!"''' 
Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and "single up all lines" is a common nautical term. Ships are docked with lines doubled -- that is, with two sets of ropes or chains holding the vessel to the dock. To "single up all lines" is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.

But 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."

:"single up all lines" is used in its normal nautical context in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#single_up_all_lines ''V.'', p.11]; [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#single_up_all_lines ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.31]; [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_488-491#single_up_all_lines ''Gravity's Rainbow'', p.489]; and [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258 ''Mason & Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]. Perhaps we can understand this "line" as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''Vineland''] and ''Bleeding Edge'') in preparation for a voyage to...?

Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling (with the word "Single"!) "single up all lines" as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: "only in straight lines and at right angles and a progressive reduction of choices, until the final turn through the final gate that led to the killing-floor." Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. Both represent "a progressive reduction of choices" a collapsing of many possibilities into one "reality." ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].

'''"Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!"''' 
Cheerly means "heartily," and was traditionally used as cry of encouragement among sailors. Handsomely (in nautical context): carefully, in good order, unhurriedly.

:Pynchon uses nautical language in most of his novels. ''Mason & Dixon'': "Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads..." (54).

William Shakespeare, ''The Tempest,'' Act I Sc. 1, line 5: "Heigh, my hearts! Cheerly, cheerly, my hearts!"

'''"Windy City, here we come!"''' 
The nickname for Chicago, of course; here of particular relevance, given the nature of the ship. The earliest known references to the "Windy City" are from 1876. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City,_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago)| Origin of name "Windy City" at Wikipedia]

'''"Up we go!"''' 
"Up" is an unexpected direction in the context of nautical language, and the anonymous character's observation gives the narrator an excuse to explain that this is no ordinary ship.

'''Randolph St. Cosmo, the ship commander''' 
[[image:ex-voti-isernia.jpg|thumb|175px|Ex voti of Wax, from Isernia|right]]Historically, there are two versions of the 3rd century CE figure St. Cosmo (aka St. Cosmas): the "randy" St. Cosmo, aka the "modern Priapus," and the saintly martyred St. Cosmo of Church lore (associated with healing cult, in some places succeeding Greek Askleipios cult). Pynchon, it seems, is connecting Randolph St. Cosmo to the former. "Randy," as astute observers will note, is an adjective which means, well, "horny." There's a distinct sexual thread woven throughout ''Against the Day'' [[The Sexual Angle|(See the ''beginnings'' of exploring this angle...]]) a-and Heartsease, St. Cosmo's mate, is the first to get pregnant! so this seems to fit right in. [[St. Cosmo|Read more about the historical St. Cosmo...]]; and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sts._Cosmas_and_Damian Wikipedia entry]; [[Randolph St. Cosmo|More on Randolph St. Cosmo]]

In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V#veery ''Mason & Dixon''], Pynchon has the Veery brothers, Cosmo and Damian, who are professional effigy makes in Philadelphia! And, just to make it interesting, "He's a rare Wax Artist, our Cosmo is." ([http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_29:_289-295#Page_290 p. 290]) (Note: Wax phallus effigies were offered by the women to St. Cosmo at the festivals held in his name, as shown above.) [[St. Cosmo|Read more about the historical St. Cosmo]]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sts._Cosmas_and_Damian Wikipedia entry]

The commander's name also evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in Chicago. Perhaps also saint(liness) and cosmos?

'''Now secure the Special Sky Detail''' 
When a naval vessel is departing from port or returning to port, a specially trained team is put in charge of the complicated process. The command is, [http://tpub.com/content/administration/12968a/css/12968a_41.htm "Now set the Special Sea Detail."] 'Once the ship is aloft and clear of ground obstructions, the command comes, "Now secure the Special Sky Detail," meaning disband the team for the time being and all return to regular duties.

'''"scuttlebutt" . . . thousand . . . wonders''' 
A most vigorous campaign [to host the Columbian Exposition] was then inaugurated, the three other cities making a common cause against Washington, whose claim was based on the fact that the proposed exposition was to be held under auspices of the national government, and hence that the capital was the most appropriate place.... By each of the claimants every advantage was urged, and by each of their rivals every defect was exaggerated. Congressional committees accorded a hearing to the several delegations, that of Chicago being represented, among others, by DeWitt C. Cregier, Thomas B. Bryan, and Edward T. Jeffery. from "Book of the Fair" by Hubert Bancroft, 1893.
:"Scuttlebutt" is a very close equivalent to "water-cooler gossip." [http://www.jacksjoint.com/sailor_terminology.htm Here is a glossary] of nautical terms with some of the etymologies.

'''''Inconvenience''''' 
Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold, Impulsive, and the Susanna Squaducci (''V.''), and the John E. Badass (''GR''). Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-single-up-all-lines.html notes] that the British Royal Navy has a long tradition of warships with names like Impulsive, Incendiary, Inconstant, Indignant, etc.

Here a possible pun on the homonym "in" ("not", as "in-credible", or just "in", as "in-side"); "in-convenience" is a fitting name for a vehicle ("convey in").

In other Pynchon novels: 1) In ''Mason & Dixon'', the H.M.S. Inconvenience is the ship of Fender-Belly Bodine. [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience More]. 2) In ''Mason & Dixon'', the word is applied to the difficulties of an Other, other human beings as we act, interact. See citations at the ''M & D'' wiki. 2) In ''Gravity's Rainbow'': "the gift of Daedalus that allowed him [Pokler] to put as much labyrinth as required between himself and the
''inconveniences of caring''. [Italics mine] They had sold him convenience, so much of it, all on credit, and now They were collecting." (435)

'''patriotic bunting''' 
TRP reminds again that this is a very American skyship. Compare the Chums' uniform below. 

AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's "Ragtime": Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood.

'''aeronautics''' 
It has been suggested that Pynchon relied to the Britannica 11th as a major reference for his treatment of early aeronautics. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Aeronautics|Brittanica 11th on Aeronautics] 

'''five-lad crew''' 
Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly.

'''The [[Chums of Chance]]''' 
To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, adventurous, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident.

The names of the Chums may also be derived from famous Jazz musicians: Miles (Davis), Chick (Corea), Darby (Hicks), (Boots) Randolph, and (Vachel) Lindsay (a stretch here?), notes the [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-single-up-all-lines.html#c116587978292060684 Chumps of Choice blog].

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."

[[image:dart-explorigator.jpg|thumb|120px|right]]The Chums are reminiscent of two comics of the early 20th century, [[Little Nemo|''Little Nemo in Slumberland'']], by Windsor McCay, and ''The Explorigator'', by Harry Grant Dart. "The Explorigator" was the name of a fantastic airship that traversed the universe. It was manned by Admiral Fudge, a youthful adventurer and inventor, accompanied by a group of friends, also children his age (around nine or ten): Detective Rubbersole, Maurice Mizzentop, Nicholas Nohooks, Grenadier Shift, Teddy Typewriter, and Ah Fergetitt. [[The Explorigator|More on ''The Explorigator'']]

'''Chicago''' 
It has been suggested that Pynchon relied on the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/ 1911 Edition of the Encycl[[http://www.example.com link title]]opaedia Britannica] as a major reference for his treatment of 1890s Chicago. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago 1911 Britannica entry on Chicago]

'''World's Columbian Exposition''' 
also called The Chicago World's Fair, was held in 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. The International Exposition was held in a building which for the first time was devoted to electrical exhibits. It was a historical moment and the beginning of a revolution, as Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse introduced the public to electrical power by providing alternating current to illuminate the Exposition. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_Columbian_Exposition Wikipedia entry]. This World's Fair was enveloped in optimism for the future. "The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there." p.3. See also the 2004 bestseller, ''The Devil in the White City'', a non-fiction work that details the building of the Fair, the growth of Chicago, and the first serial murderer in America.

'''Ferris wheel''' 
The first of its kind, designed for the Exposition [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferris_wheel]

'''...temples of commerce and industry''' 
evocative of Chicago's Museum of ''Science and Industry'', which rests on the very site of the Exposition's White City, overlooking its "sparkling lagoon" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Science_and_Industry_(Chicago)]. A central theme of the text is the relationship between Science and Commerce.

'''Since their orders had come through . . .''' 
A first intimation of the shadowy power structure behind the Chums' operations.

'''lifelines''' 
Called "manropes" on sailing ships. Ropes running fore-and-aft above the gunwales to prevent sailors getting blown overboard. They were held up by short stanchions inserted into holes in the rails. Source: ''The Ashley Book of Knots,'' 1944.

'''as my faithful readers will remember''' 
Pynchon here is immediately inserting this story into a larger canon of Chums of Chance fictions, titles of which are mentioned in subsequent pages.

'''mascotte''' 
The English word 'mascot' has its origin from French mascotte: an operetta first performed in 1880 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_mascotte], with the virginal mascotte a sort of good luck charmer. The spelling may also be a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 Wikipedia]

==Page 4==

'''Professor''' 
Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor.
"Professor" was a common title for early hot-air balloonists. [EC]

'''"Turn to"''' 
a shipboard expression, "put your back into it". Evokes the "Go to!" of Majistral and compatriots, ''V.'', chapter 11.

'''"a form of monomania"''' 
an overdetermined obsession with a single idea or goal. In ''Moby Dick,'' which Pynchon references in several of his novels, Ahab suffers from monomania in his obsessive quest for the white whale; aboard the ''Inconvenience,'' Lindsay Noseworth is a parodic version of the Melvillian disciplinary autocrat, exemplified by Ahab or, even more, by Claggart, the Master-at-Arms in ''Billy Budd.'' --[[User:POD|POD]] 16:07, 9 June 2009 (PDT)

'''Perhaps its familiarity... rendered it temporarily invisible to you." 
Perhaps an admonition from the author that familiar things will be easily overlooked?
I think the fact that they were picnic baskets matters... TRP perhaps saying, as he seems to suggest elsewhere, that we overlook the simple pleasures too often.
:There's more to this, as becomes apparent shortly. Here are more opposites; things seen vs unseen, visible vs. invisible.

'''Chick Counterfly''' 
Rich with meaning or just another goofy Pynchon name? Some possibilities include: (1) A counter fly is an annoyance in (say) the butcher's shop. (2) Chick always speaks "counter" to anyone else's "flight" of imagery. (3) The only non-''AtD''-related uses of this word that I've found came in patents describing mechanisms; "the counterfly direction" means contrary to the direction everything else is flying in, hence this character counters the flying of the craft? (4) He is the only Chum we know who was "rescued" from the "real" world. Meaning there? To be counter to flying is to be earthbound, where he started and he is the one with whom the conversation about relanding on a different "earth" happens.

==Page 5==
'''picklesome''' 
Having the nature of a pickle, i.e, a boy who is inclined to mischief.

'''Pugnax''' 
'Pugnax' is Latin for, "combative, fond of fighting, stubborn, contentious" (i.e. one who is pugnacious). Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent Pynchon dog, the Learned English Dog (referred to as "LED") in ''Mason & Dixon''. Perhaps Pugnax is the Chums's sixth "lad": "Learned American Dog." His manner of speech is somewhat reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0612&msg=112507&sort=date members of PYNCHON-L] have speculated that his eyebrows and reading habits allude to Gromit, from the [http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/ Wallace and Gromit] claymation films.

Perhaps, in keeping with a very strong [[Birds|"bird" theme]] (the original aeronauts!) in ''Against the Day'', Pynchon may have named Pugnax after a bird called the Ruff (''Philomachus pugnax'') which is a medium-sized wader. Note that Pugnax's first "utterance" is "Rr Rff-rff Rr-rr-rff-rrf-rrf"... You can even make a semiserious case that the Aeronauts are named for a bird, the white-throated swift, ''Aeronautes saxatalis'' [[ATD_243-272#Page_266|(mentioned on p. 266)]].

'''"...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')..."''' 
This could be seen as a criticism of an American President, present or past. President Bush is a candidate, considering the Pynchon-authored [[Against the Day description|Amazon.com book description]] which included "With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

The Chums "rescued Pugnax, then but a pup"--an innocent, a child creature--"from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs".
The wild dogs equal both political parties?

'''Washington Monument''' 
Begun 1848, completed 1884 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_monument]]

'''lavatorial assaults''' 
recalls jokes and urban legends regarding frozen waste from leaky airplane lavatories (i.e., "you can still be hit by an icy B.M.")

Loosely reminiscent of the V-2 rockets in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', "from the sky, which no one can "begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of"... That is, pee from the sky is "folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious" in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.

==Page 6==

'''''Princess Casamassima''''' 
''The Princess Casamassima'' is an 1886 novel by Henry James. It is the story of an intelligent but confused young London bookbinder, Hyacinth Robinson, who becomes involved in radical politics and a terrorist assassination plot. The novel certainly does have notable relevance in today's climate of terrorism and political violence. While the book's details are not directly applicable to current issues, the central theme admiration for the beautiful if imperfect world vs. a desire to change it through terrorism will seem all too familiar to contemporary readers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Casamassima Wikipedia] [[Princess Casamassima|Discussion of ''The Princess Casamassima'']]

'''Placing . . . an emphasis''' 
Lapse of authorial control? Surely the creator of the ''Chums'' novels would not write such a Pynchonian sentence fragment!

'''Pugnax sniffed . . . as always this scent eluded him''' 
It is unclear so far why Pugnax would detect no scent from Lindsay.

'''''Krakatoa''''' 
Erupted 1883. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa Wikipedia entry.]

'''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven''' 
Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. "Vanderjuice" is a Dutch-sounding name suggesting "fond o' juice," "wonder juice", and "wander juice". "Heino" is a man's given name [http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=heino meaning 'home'] in German, Dutch, Finnish, and Estonian. Perhaps an allusion to the German pop star, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heino Heino].

'''no better than a perpetual-motion machine''' 
A perpetual-motion machine is not just one that runs forever, but one that ''performs work'' forever without any input of energy. All PM machines ever invented have been either hoaxes ("secret free energy source the government doesn't want you to know about") or mistakes. The hydrogen generator/engine is neither, which is why the disdainful phrase "no better than" is crucial.

By the way, how does one generate hydrogen? In high school chem lab we used zinc filings and hydrochloric acid, but that seems unsuitable with Miles around. Is it possible Vanderjuice has invented a photovoltaic electrolysis cell?

'''Miles, with his marginal gifts of coördination, and Chick, with a want of alacrity fully as perceptible''' 
Like the old gag: The food in this restaurant isn't any good, but the service is awful. Miles and Chick's telepathic intercourse during Bitches Brew era.

'''ratlines and shrouds''' 
''Inconvenience'' is rigged like a sailing ship of the period, though it's hard to see why she needs to be. Shrouds fan out from a masthead down to a rail; ratlines run horizontally to join them. The whole affair serves the sailors as a ladder.

'''". . . anemometer of the Robinson's type"''' 
Cup anemometer (> Grk. ''anemos,'' "wind"; cf. Lat. ''animus,'' "spirit") invented in 1846 by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thomas_Romney_Robinson Dr. John Thomas Romney Robinson]. Cup anemometers are still commonly used to measure wind speed because of their simplicity and reliability in a variety of environmental conditions. [http://www.arm.ac.uk/annrep/annrep2000/node13.html pic]

'''how rapidly the ship was proceeding''' 
But you can't measure the craft's progress by measuring wind speed at a point on the craft itself. All you get from the anemometer is a speed relative to the air, which is in variable motion. Since the craft is moving at the speed of the wind plus the speed of its propulsion device, the speed found by the anemometer is basically useless.

==Page 7==

'''Porfirio Díaz''' 
President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]

In most countries, the Interior Ministry (Ministry of Internal Affairs, Home Office, etc.) ran programs like secret police. Are the Chums working for forces of conservativism?

'''"beside a black-water river of the Deep South". 
Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south; but there are numerous rivers in swampy areas that run black with organic matter. 
Given that it was founded in 1997, and is military-related and in the South, see ''Blackwater USA'', a private military company founded by Erik Prince and Al Clark.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_USA]
Thousands of news stories in September/October 2007.

'''a bitter and unresolved "piece of business"''' 
Rather than give a proper reason for the Chums to be in the Deep South, the narrator cops out by pleading that it's "not advisable" to specify.
:It's not a cop-out, it sets the question of what is going on in the mysterious organization to which the Chums belong.

'''"the Rebellion of thirty years previous"''' 
The Civil War ended in 1865. The South called the Civil War "the war between the states" to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it "the Rebellion" and thus the soldiers were "rebels" or "rebs." The official papers of the war have the title of "Official Records of the War of Rebellion," emphasizing that the South had no right to secede.

'''"one still not advisable to set upon one's page"''' 
The American Civil War, that "rebellion of thirty years previous," has not yet become a suitable subject for an adventure tale such as the Chums' series.

'''absquatulated''' 
Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, "to go off and squat somewhere else." [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm A brief article] on the history and etymology of "absquatulate." 
The word is used in [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Vineland''].

'''commonly known as "Dick"''' 
So together they would be Chick with Dick.

'''to approach the gates of the Penitentiary''' 
A genuine saying. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Quay Matthew Quay,] a political kingmaker of the 1880s and 90s, said of Benjamin Harrison's squeaker victory over Grover Cleveland in 1888 that Harrison would "never know how many Republicans were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president."

'''posse comitatus''' 
What Western movie fans know as a "posse," i.e., citizens conscripted by a sheriff to assist in law enforcement. (See the Wikipedia entry on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_comitatus_(common_law) Posse Comitatus].) Remember that the ''Chums'' author gets paid by the word.

==Page 8==

'''a pocketful of specie''' 
Specie means coins as opposed to paper money.

'''the town of Thick Bush''' 
Aside from whether this phrase might apply to some political figure of the past or present, "thick bush" is the literal meaning of the Spanish Matagorda, the name of many towns in Latin America and one on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

'''carpetbagger''' 
A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpetbagger carpetbagger] is a derogatory term used by southerns to describe northerners who, like Dick, move down South.

'''"which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched"''' 
Like the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_directive Prime Directive] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek ''Star Trek'']. Lindsay's fussy syntax echoes Winston Churchill's exasperated "This is the kind of carping criticism up with which I will not put."

'''legal customs''' 
Legal = pertaining to law, in this case lynch law. The Chums are interpreting their Prime Directive pretty broadly here.

'''Katie bar the door''' 
An expression that means that there's trouble brewing. (See [http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kat1.htm this article] about the expression's etymology.)

'''Ku Klux Klan''' 
Reminiscent of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan Klan] encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' ''O Brother, Where Art Thou''.

'''tupelo, cypress, and hickory''' 
The trees are no help in locating the town; all three kinds like bottom land and grow all over the South.

'''speed . . . made it nearly invisible from the ground''' 
Few people in 1893 had seen a manmade object moving at 60 miles an hour, and many thought such a speed was lethal anyway. The ''Chums'' author suggests such an outlandish speed would make ''Inconvenience'' just a blur in the sky. Of course you can read the fin numbers on an airliner landing at 150 knots, but he didn't know that.

''Pedantry alert:'' In perfectly transparent air a ship flying a mile off the ground is visible about 125 miles away. If its flight path takes it right over your head, you can follow it for 250 miles. If it is making a groundspeed of 60 miles per hour, it takes 4 hours and change to go from horizon to horizon. In typical "clear" air (visibility say 30 miles), you will see the ship in your sky for a solid hour. These rough figures show how wrong the narrator is about speed.

'''way better than a mile a minute''' 
The Chums' point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning "wind blowing from the south." The Chums surpass 60 miles an hour here, but as their previous speed was unknown, it's difficult to know where they were leaving from. (New Orleans to Chicago is 834 miles, slightly less than 14 hours at 60 miles/hour, so a possibility.)

'''"Crackerjack!" exclaimed Chick.''' 
Cracker Jack, the food, was first sold at the Chicago Exhibition of 1893, though it did not bear its present name. As one word here, however, it is not the candy: "Crackerjack" entered English first as a noun referring to "a person or thing of marked excellence," then as an adjective. The foodstuff gained its present name, according to the [http://www.crackerjack.com/history.php official Cracker Jack website], in 1896. The OED lists the first written use of "crackerjack" as 1895, two years after the present scene. It is by no means impossible, however, that the term would have been current in the spoken language in 1893.

'''"rookies"''' 
Again, the vocabulary is carefully chosen from the narrative period: wikipedia, citing the OED, "the earliest example [of 'rookie']... is from Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads (published 1892): So 'ark an' 'eed, you rookies, which is always grumblin' sore'"

==Page 9==

'''locker''' 
On board ship, any cabinet with a door or lid.

'''"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 [[Against_the_Day_description|book description]] 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. 
Cf. Pynchon's own relevant words in the introduction to Slow Learner. He remarks that in non-realistic fiction, he had to learn that not anything went.

A-and it must mean, coming from the commander, that all aboard the ''Inconvenience'' are also subject to the 'facts' of the world. "The World is All that is the Case", from Wittgenstein. [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=W]

'''"Going up is like going north."''' 
Air gets cooler as the ship ascends into higher altitudes, and therefore like travelling northward. This page also suggests some further mystery of the Chums may be revealed to Chick and the reader in time.

North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life coldness as here compared to the South.

==Page 10==
'''Columbian Exposition''' 
aka The Chicago World's Fair. It was called "Columbian" because it was supposed to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in North America. They missed it by a year because of delays.

'''butchery unremitting''' 
One is reminded of Carl Sandburg's [http://carl-sandburg.com/chicago.htm famous poem] about Chicago. The first line: "Hog butcher for the world."

'''rationalized into movement only in straight lines and at right angles and a progressive reduction of choices, until the final turn through the final gate that led to the killing-floor.''' 

See [[#Page 3| p.3 entry, above]] for a comparison of this passage with "single up all lines." The Rationalization/Routinization of Charisma is a common trope in Pynchon, particularly in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Routinization_of_Charisma ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

==Page 11==

'''plummet''' 
In the real world, this might be bad physics, as closing the valve wouldn't slow the descent. Objects in a fluid medium like air float if their weight is less than the weight of the fluid they displace (hence why one fills a balloon with a light gas such as hydrogen or helium). Once the ''Inconvenience'' loses its buoyancy, it will continue to fall, unless its weight is reduced to what a lesser amount of hydrogen could support. The Inconvenience, however, has a hydrogen producing apparatus that could kick in, slow, and eventually stop their descent.

'''bear a hand''' 
Nautical: help out.

==Page 12==

'''Liverpool Kiss''' 
A head butt.

'''''your'' mother''' 
A possible forerunner to the "yo mama" jokes, which appear in ''Mason & Dixon'' (pg. 445) and ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_10 (pg. 155)]. See also pg. 48 of this novel.

'''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].

'''''Mr.'' Noseworth''' 
Lindsay insisting on proper naval forms: an ensign, lieutenant (junior grade), lieutenant or lieutenant commander in the U.S. navy is correctly addressed as "Mister Surname."

'''"topological genius"''' 
Riemann's differential geometry goes beyond the Cartesian grid. See conic sections and dimensionality above, page 10.

==Page 13==

'''There was an "eager stampede" to the rail''' 
Why is eager stampede in quotation marks? The sentence reads fine without it. Does it seem to show ironic knowingness on the part of the narrator? If so, why and who is the narrator?
: I suspect this is a stylistic device from the turn of the century light literature that Pynchon is emulating-- placing a novel term in quotation marks. [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 01:35, 23 December 2006 (PST)

:insightfully true, I suspect, but it still shows 'narratorial knowingness', yes?

: Cf. Flaubert's use of quotations in ''Madame Bovary'' to isolate what he deemed the contemptible argot of the bourgeoisie.

::Apparently not a cliche: [http://books.google.com//books?num=100&q=eager.stampede&as_brr=0 GoogleBooks]

'''"...among the brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast bags..."''' 
Recalls the opening line of ''Mason & Dixon'': "Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr‘d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins..."

'''"...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure."''' 
This is strikingly reminiscent of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odilon_Redon Odilon Redon's] 1882 Lithograph ''L'Oeil, comme un ballon bizarre se dirige vers l'infini (The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity).'' [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ADE%3AI%3A2&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]
Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.
:The Odilon Redon lithograph appears on the cover of the 1998 Vintage paperback edition of Ian McEwan's Enduring Love, whose first unforgettable chapter triggers the novel with a ballooning incident leaving the reader dangling over the edge of suspense and suspension.

The giant eyeball is also [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:We_never_sleep.jpg the logo] of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which plays an important role later in the novel. A similar image appears in ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#Page_14 (pg. 14)].

Not to mention a potent symbol from classic 1960s counterculture, often associated with psychedelia and the Grateful Dead _ yet another proud American institution with a penchant for hidden meanings, obsession with minute symbolic details, and many passionate followers. From what Deadheads have told me, the Flying Eyeball symbol is associated with both dissociative drugs and Zen Buddhist thinking _ the detached observer free of an ego and all physical entrapments, the traveling trickster-voyeur, the absolutely freed soul.

'''the indecorous couple . . . foliage''' 
Adam and Eve? We have a man and a naked woman hiding in the foliage from an all-seeing eye in the sky.

==Page 14==

'''charmed into docility''' 
If it took only one small lad to moor the ship, she was indeed docile. A wiki contributor once saw a Goodyear blimp in Houston, Texas, landing. The craft had half a dozen long falls of rope hanging from her nose, and a ground crew of nearly two dozen men ready to take hold of them. The blimp approached nose-low, the crew took the ropes, and a gust of wind suddenly moved the ship. The crew chief gave a safety command and all the men let loose their ropes at once. On the third pass, all hands working together managed to stop the ship and get her moored. If ''Inconvenience'' was a fraction as changeable and hard to control, Darby made a great job of getting the ship staked out by himself.

'''Jacob's-ladder''' 
Used here as "a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs" (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:

Genesis 28:12 And he [Jacob] dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. (King James version)

'''a giant sack of soiled laundry''' 
Perhaps ''freshly'' soiled during the great hydrogen valve disaster.

'''''vol-à-voile''''' 
The narrator has turned the French phrase ''vol-à-voiles'' (gliding) into a verb (removing the ''s'').

'''gold-beaters' skin''' 
Very thin vellum (membrane taken from the caecum or blind stomach of an ox). To prepare gold for gilding, it was placed between sheets of vellum and hammered thin.

'''Evening Quarters''' 
Naval practice of mustering the crew at the end of the day's work.

'''Hawaii''' 
Hawaii appears in ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_12#Page_191 (p. 191)] and ''Vineland'' [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_5#Page_60 {pg. 60)] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=H ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

==Page 15==

'''ukulelist''' 
Ukuleles ([http://www.thomaspynchon.com/hawaiian-vacations-pynchon.html and Hawaii references]) also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', ''Vineland'', ''Mason & Dixon'', ''Inherent Vice'', and ''Bleeding Edge''. According to Jules Siegel's article, "Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?", Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college. [[Hawaii|More on Hawaii &c. in ''Against the Day'']]...

'''Vagabonds of the Void''' 
The song performed by the Chums of Chance reflects the Rock and Roll attitude of the group towards the groundworld upon arrival. It's also the first time in the book we truly encounter the hipness of the group with some sort of Nine Inch Nails fronting edge to it. 

[[image:Macassar-Oil.jpg|thumb|175px|''Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads''|right]]'''Beaufort Scale''' 
A scale for measuring wind strength, developed 1805.

'''"Let the lightning lash ~ And the thunder trash" 
Again, the Chums are rock stars, the coolest cats in town.

'''"...forty-four buttons...one for each State of the Union." 
Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the union in 1890. Recall the patriotic bunting and red-white-blue uniforms of the opening page.

'''port section of the crew''' 
The half of the crew permitted to go freely ashore this time. The other half tomorrow. "Port" and "starboard": are these simply either/or words that sailors remember easily?

'''Macassar oil''' 
Macassar oil is an oil used primarily by men in Victorian and Edwardian times to smooth their hair. It was advertised as containing oil from Macassar, which is the former name of Ujung Pandang, a district on the island of Celebes in Indonesia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macassar_oil Wikipedia entry]
 This is why the ornamental doily-like linen cloths on the upper backs and arms of upholstered furniture were called '''''antimacassars'''''.

==Page 16==

'''mufti''' 
civvies, with an Arabic root [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mufti_(dress)]

'''ascot''' 
formal morning dress of the period, with a later counter-culture comeback (witness Fred in Scooby Doo) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascot_tie]

'''Kentucky hemp''' 
hemp was once a primary cash crop of Kentucky[http://www.kentuckyhemp.com/library/museum.html]; and, given Randy St. Cosmo's dual nature, a further counter-culture reference may be detected.

'''About the fringes,' Randolph reminded the liberty-goers, 'of any gathering on the scale of this Exposition, are apt to lurk vicious and debased elements, whose sole aim is to take advantage of the unwary.''' 
Indeed, the Chicago World's Fair was haunted by one of America's more prolific and original serial killers, H.H. Holmes. Born in 1861, Holmes came to Chicago as a pharmacist and built an office building that was eventually dubbed 'The Castle'. Consisting of commercial stores on the first floor, and offices and apartments on the upper floors, the building also housed hidden rooms where Holmes murdered his victims, chutes that conveyed the bodies to the basement, and a chamber of horrors in the basement where he destroyed the corpses. Holmes took advantage of the World's Columbian Exposition to lure victims, primarily females who had come unaccompanied to Chicago, to the Castle for torture and murder. It is estimated that he killed over 200 people at the Castle while the Exposition was in operation. Two very good books about Holmes are The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson and Depraved by Harold Schechter. It is doubtful that Pynchon was thinking explicitly of Holmes when he wrote this passage, although he must be aware of the story. Randolph could not have known about Holmes since Holmes was not captured until after the Fair was over. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._H.H._Holmes Wikipedia entry] 

This also sets up oppositions between dark vs light (of the White City), order vs disorder; good vs evil.

'''tension of the gas''' 
I.e., the pressure in the bag.

==Page 17==

'''"as if it were something the stripling had only read about, in some boys' book of adventures...as if that page of their chronicles lay turned and done"''' 
The narrator makes us aware that Darby's adventures are as if/will be written down...the 'reality' of almost killing all of them is now just words on a page.

'''"and the order 'About-face' had been uttered by some potent though invisible Commandant of Earthly Days, toward whom Darby, in amiable obedience, had turned again."''' 
Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to
all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? 
:Related Q: Do the Chums receive their orders from the author of their books?

'''we were usually out the door and on the main road''' 
Dick and Chick knew the judge was more likely to order them out of town than into the lockup.

'''Chinese foofooraw''' 
Also spelled foofaraw, a great deal of fuss, or useless frills. Cf folderol. However, why Chinese?
:Chick's father tried to sell Mississippi to a Chinese syndicate.

'''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 an herbal remedy. [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/pepper The Free Dictionary] Also appears in ''Gravity's Rainbow,'' page 118.

'''"...goldurn Keeley Cure"''' 
A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of "bichloride" or "double chloride" of gold, and also known as the "gold cure" (note the curious use of the euphemism 'goldurn' for 'goddamn' and the recurring preoccupation with the gold standard). Named for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Keeley Dr. Leslie E. Keeley,] who opened the first of many Keeley Institutes in [http://www.dwighthigh.k12.il.us/dwight/dwight.htm Dwight, Illinois], not far from Chicago, in 1879.

==Page 18==

'''headgear''' 
Description vaguely reminiscent of "Madame Bovary". [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]

'''indigo''' 
An influential and ancient dye, not synthetic until 1878 (commercially 1897)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_dye]. Dare we mention the indigo and scarlet (πορφυροῦν καὶ κόκκινον) of Revelation 17.4's 'great prostitute'? The colors, at least, seem more ancient than the Chums' red-white-blues (and the Chums are "runts of the organization", p. 19); add in the oriental fez reference with the Shriners' Masonic/Arabic overtones [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shriners] and Arabic Mohair (angora goat, easily dyed)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohair]

'''eclipse green''' 
Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]

'''Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.''' 
Bindlestiff means hobo; hence, the Hoboes of the Sky Aeronautical Club.

'''("Penny") Black''' 
The Penny Black was the world's first official adhesive postage stamp, issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1840. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black Wikipedia entry]; See also [[ATD_219-242#Page 231|p.231]].

'''Tzigane''' 
French for "gypsy". Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) Wikipedia entry]

'''Egypt''' 
Little Egypt is the southern area of the state of Illinois in the United States of America. Named so because it has a considerable river delta and a metropolis called Cairo (KAY-roe). The region is and was sometimes called simply "Egypt," especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) Wikipedia entry]

==Page 19==

'''goin all blue from the light of that electric fluid''' 
Their ship was beset by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo%27s_fire St. Elmo's fire,] a low-energy electrical discharge often seen on surface vessels and occasionally on aircraft. Electric charge does behave in some respects like a fluid and was long described in such terms.

'''Voices calling out together''' 
There is no reason to doubt they heard the voices, but an aural hallucination is not out of the question: a chorus of voices is one of the easiest effects to produce with a synthesizer.

[[image:balloons-paris.jpg|thumb|200px|Garçons de '71|right]]'''Garçons de '71''' 
French: The Boys of '71; During the Siege of Paris in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War Franco-Prussian War], 1870-1871, balloons were manufactured within railroad stations in Paris. The balloons were used to get mail and passengers out of Paris. The ''Garçons de '71'' are a (probably) fictional cadre of young men who operated such balloons [[Garçons de '71|Read on...]]

'''a condition of ''permanent siege''''' 
Surely no one has failed to notice what a "wartime president" is allowed to get away with. "No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

'''pétroleurs de Paris''' 
An early form of Molotov cocktail thrower during the Siege of Paris. There were pétroleurs and pétroleuses.

==Page 20==

'''they'll fly wherever they're needed''' 
While the Chums obey orders from above, the Garçons de '71 follow a different imperative.

'''energy we could feel, directed personally at us''' 
Someone may be trying to influence what the Bindlestiffs do, or keep them away from the Garçons' work of mercy.

==Page 21==

'''electrical glow of the Fair''' 
Electricity played an important role at the Fair. There was a battle between Edison's direct current and Tesla's alternating current. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition#Electricity_at_the_fair here].

'''admissions gate''' 
Apparently a break in the fence, capitalized on by freelance impresarios.

'''fifty-cent pieces''' 
Odd. According to [http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Columbian/columbian.html this remarkable Columbian Exposition site,] regular admission was just half a dollar. Maybe Lindsay and Miles could have negotiated with the midget.[The link is broken.]

==Page 22==
'''quatercentennial celebration''' 
The Fair was supposed to take place in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in North America. That's why it's called the "World's Columbian Exposition."

'''Columbus's advent''' 
"advent" means something like "arrival." It's often used in relation to Christmas, which is Christ's "advent."

'''music . . . unusually syncopated''' 
nascent jazz

'''Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show''' 
Buffalo Bill's show was very popular at the time, but for some reason he was not allowed to be part of the Fair, so he set up his own exhibition right near the Fair and drew a large audience. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill here].

'''''white'' exhibits . . darkness and savagery''' .
Nice play on whiteness here. The "White City" (the center of the Fair) was so called because of the white stucco used. But the novel points out here that whiteness (aka--cultural, racial whiteness) held the center of the fair while exhibits from people/cultures of color were relegated to the perimeters of the Fair--literally marginalized.

'''Kodaks''' 
The word Kodak was trademarked in 1888, and the first Kodak camera was sold with the slogan, "You press the button - we do the rest." In 1891, the company released the first daylight-loading camera, so film could be changed without a darkroom. Kodaks would have been a novelty at the fair in 1893.

'''half-light . . . in the interests of mercy . . . the safety of the lights''' 
Interesting contrast suggesting a tradeoff between comfort/solace in the shadows and safety in the bright light.

'''Isandhlwana''' 
Isandlwana is an isolated hill in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. On January 22, 1879, it was the site of the Battle of Isandlwana, where over 20,000 Zulu warriors defeated a contingent of British soldiers in the first engagement of the Anglo-Zulu War. Almost the entire column of about 1,200 British soldiers was killed. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isandhlwana [Wikipedia]] You will find a chapter on Isandhlwana in any book that has the words "military" and "blunders" in the title.

==Page 23==

'''Tarahumara''' 
Indian tribe of Northern New Mexico, in the Sierra Madres, known for cave-dwelling in the late 19th century. [[Tarahumare_Indians|About the Tarahumara]]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarahumara [Wikipedia]]

'''"geek"''' 
A geek's act comprised things no one would do who had not sunk all the way to the bottom of the carnie world: eating live creatures, throwing fits, and so forth. Much like the television show "Fear Factor," but sad rather than stultifying.

'''Negro in a "pork-pie" hat''' 
A type of hat made of felt or straw which has a cylindrical crown and flat top, originated in mid-19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork-pie_hat Wikipedia] What with all the jazz references in Pynchon's work, this may be a tip of the hat to Charles Mingus, composer of the timeless ''Goodbye Pork Pie Hat'', or Lester Young, to whom Mingus dedicated the tune. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye_Pork_Pie_Hat Wikipedia] In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', McMingus is a partner in a law firm representing Pierce Inverarity.

'''monte''' 
Three-card monte.

==Page 24==

'''the curse of Scotland''' 
A term used in poker, bridge and various other card games for the nine of diamonds. Dates from 1710. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curse_of_Scotland [Wikipedia]]

'''nine of diamonds''' 
The name of a club in ''Inherent Vice''. See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=N here]. The nine of diamonds is also famous for possibly being the fifth card in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bill_Hickok#Death "Dead Man's Hand"]. When Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead in 1876, he was playing poker. He was holding two pairs (aces and eights), which is called the "Dead Man's Hand." The fifth card was rumored to be a nine of diamonds.

'''like the electricity coming on... how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though.''' 
From something as random as calling out a card trick comes this extremely profound quote by Miles Blundell (full quote edited here). The heart of this quote/thought seems to be crucial.

What Miles describes is also the symptoms of a mild seizure - could he be epileptic? Epileptics were often credited with shamanic or prophetic powers, and many sightings of religious figures have been attributed to seizures. On [[#Page 4|page 4]], Miles is also said to suffer from "confusion in his motor processes", which may be related.

Although seizures are electrical discharges from the brain, epileptics rarely describe sensing electricity. They see altered light, hear altered sounds, or feel auras, though usually described as inside of themselves, not around them. They also feel confusion, not clarity. The full description seems to better represent that of a "peak experience", or a transcendental state. I also wonder whether, "Pretty soon, I'm just back to tripping over my feet again", refers to more earth-bound means of attaining mind-altered states.

This is one of several early suggestions that Miles and Lew Basnight experience similar states.

'''Cracker Jack''' 
First sold at the at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]

'''New Levee district''' 
Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]

'''Epworth League''' 
A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]

==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].

'''if the Governor decides to pardon that gang of anarchistic murderers''' 
In May of 1886, 350,000 workers, including 70,000 in Chicago were taking to the streets to rally for the eight hour work day. After four workers were killed by the police on May 3, the anarchist leaders in Chicago called for a meeting in Haymarket Square. Although the rally was peaceful, the police came in on horseback to break it up and an unknown individual in the crowd hurled a homemade bomb into the air. After the explosion, which killed a policeman, the police opened fire on the crowd. Subsequently, the anarchist leaders deemed responsible for the rally were arrested and tried for the murder of the policeman. The Eight men were convicted of the bombing and seven of them sentenced to death. Governor Richard J. Oglesby commuted two death sentences to life. Four were hanged and a fifth committed suicide. A later governor, John P. Altgeld, pardoned the three survivors on June 26, 1893, concluding that all eight of them were innocent. The last words of anarchist August Spies before he was hanged were 'The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.' Two very good books on the Haymarket Riot and the events surrounding it include The Haymarket Tragedy by Paul Avrich and Death In The Haymarket by James Green.

'''Pinkertons''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkertons Pinkerton National Detective Agency] was established in 1850 and soon became the most famous and ubiquitous detective agency in the country. At one point, there were more Pinkerton agents than US soldiers. They were especially used by federal and state agencies to break up union organizations and protests.

'''mixture of contempt and pity''' 
This is ''definitely'' not from one of the Chums' adventure stories.

'''embonpoint''' 
Convexity of body; what used to be called a "prosperous" look.

'''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. Many of the Marx Brothers early movies had animal references in the title: Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup. The titles usually had nothing at all to do with the plot, although they contributed to the lunatic nature of the comedy. The expression 'Horse Feathers' is used a few times later on in Against The Day.

==References==
<references />

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

ATD 26-56

2016-07-23T12:22:32Z

C-Melody: /* Page 40 */ added a connection for remembrance stick

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page 26==

'''egret plumes''' 
Some species of egrets were threatened with extinction in the 19th century because their plumes (also called ''aigrettes'') were much used in millinery. Problem is, the egrets grew the showy feathers only in breeding season, so that's when they were killed, hence no little egrets (egretlets?).

'''Little Egypt''' 
was the stage name for two popular exotic dancers, Ashea Wabe who danced at the Seeley banquet at the 1893 World's Fair and Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(dancer) Wikipedia entry] Also a 1961 [[Little_Egypt|song]] by the Coasters.

==Page 27==

'''“I greatly admire the music of the region,” said Miles, “the ukulele in particular.”''' 
[http://www.thomaspynchon.com/hawaiian-vacations-pynchon.html The Hawaiian Islands and culture] (particularly ukuleles) have a strong presence in [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Hawaiian_Islands_and_Ukuleles ''Vineland''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Hawaiian_Islands_and_Ukuleles ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. [[Hawaii|More on Hawaiian references in ''Against the Day'']]...

'''Bacchanale''' 
From ''Samson et Dalila'', op. 47 (1877) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Delilah_%28opera%29 Wikipedia entry]. Listen to a [http://themodernword.com/wiki/bacchanale.mp3 30 second MP3 sample]

"Bacchanalia" describes not just the music but the dance too, in this context.

'''from here to Timbuctoo''' 
Now known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbuktu Timbuktu,] a standard figure of speech for the other end of Creation.

'''Maxim whirling machines...''' 
This paragraph describes a number of real flying apparati: [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Chanute/library/Prog_Aero_Oct1893.html This article] from October 1893 describes the Maxim whirling machine and others.

'''wing-flapping miracles of ornithurgy''' 
"ornithurgy" appears to be a Pynchon neologism meaning "bird-works" (Greek: ''ornis'', ''ornithos'', "bird" + ''-ourgia'' work, working). This entire passage seems proleptic, prefiguring the appearance of the [[ATD_1018-1039#Page_1030|Sodality of Ǣtheronauts]].

'''Dally''' 
Merle's relationship with Dally is reminiscent of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's characters in the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, "Paper Moon". Merle's family situation (single father, smart aleck daughter, mother who took off) is identical to that of ''Vineland's'' protagonist Zoyd Wheeler.

==Page 28==

'''''Imbottigliata!''''' Italian for "bottled".

'''in Randolph's face a degree of stupefaction one regrets to term characteristic''' 
Randolph "froze" previously, on page 12; evidently this is a trait already established in the ''Chums'' novels.

'''fulminate me if she ain't''' 
What an odd turn of phrase: "set me off explosively." Actually, fulminate is derived from the Latin ''fulminat'' - "struck by lightning" - so it's more, May I be struck by lightning if she ain't.

'''this Trouvé-screw unit over here''' 
Gustave Trouvé built advanced machinery from the 1860s to the 1890s; [http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Chanute/library/Prog_Screws_May1892.html his work on airscrews] was pivotal, and he also invented [http://www.electricrecordteam.com/history.htm the outboard motor.] Before Trouvé's design studies, propulsion in the air used sail-rotors like windmills or depended on slightly modified marine propellers.

==Page 29==

'''Midway Plaisance''' 
The big central concourse of the White City. "Plaisance" is an alternative (or Frenchified) spelling of "pleasance," an esthetically appealing spot. According to [http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Columbian/columbian.html this very good site] on the Columbian Exposition, the Midway Plaisance lent its name to the midways of circuses ever after.

'''a l'étouffée''' 
French, meaning braised. So, braised alligator meat. Braised food, for instance crawfish, is a culinary specialty of New Orleans.

In the New Orleans context, a recipe is pertinent because "braise" doesn't exactly tell the story of this Cajun preparation. The following is drastically abridged from, of all things, the obituary of Joe Daole ("Joe Dale") in the ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution,'' April 21, 2007:
:Saute onion, green pepper, celery, parsley and garlic in a great deal of butter. Add peeled and chopped tomatoes and seasonings. Simmer, covered, 5-10 minutes. Make a dark brown roux with oil and flour; add to vegetables. Add seafood stock and bring to a boil. Add peeled shrimp or crawfish tail meat and cook just 2-3 minutes. Serve over rice.

'''Sloane Laboratory''' 
Yale's physics lab built 1882. Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page_33|page 33]].

'''Professor Gibbs''' 
Josiah Williard Gibbs (1839-1903), American mathematical physicist. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1854 he went to Yale and won prizes for excellence in Latin and mathematics. He undertook research in engineering and received his Ph.D in 1863, the first doctorate in engineering to be conferred in the US. From 1866 to 1869 Gibbs studies in Europe - first in Paris, then in Berlin and finally in Heidelberg. He was professor at Yale from 1871 to 1903. He contributed substantially to the study of thermodynamics, and his most important work, ''On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances'' (1876 and 1878) and his "phase rule" established him as a founder of physical chemistry. Gibbs' work on vector analysis was also of major importance in pure mathematics. Gibbs was one of the greatest American scientists in the 19th century. ([http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Mathematicians/Gibbs.html Gibbs].)

'''De Forest''' 
Lee De Forest (1873-1961), American inventor. He was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa and educated at Yale and Chicago. A pioneer of radio, he introduced the grid into the therm-ionic valve, and invented the audion (1907), feedback circuit (1912) and the four-electrode valve. He involved in first news by radio (1916). He also did much early work on sound reproduction and on television. He patented over 300 inventions in wireless telegraphy, radio, telephony, talking pictures, high-speed facsimile transmission, television, radiotherapy, radar, etc. He was called, sometimes, "the father of radio." ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_De_Forest De Forest].)

'''Kimura''' 
He received his Ph.D degree in mathematics from Yale University in 1896. (Dissertation: ''Studies on General Spherical Functions''.) He published a paper ''On the Nabla of Quaternions'' in ''The Annals of Mathermatics'', Vol 10, No. 1/6 (1895-1896). In 1912, he published a paper called ''One-Waveness in Wireless Telegraphy; Pseudo-Impact Excitation'' in ''Physical Review'' of May 1912. (''Nabla'' is an early name for the "del" operator, symbolized by the inverted Greek letter Δ.)

'''Ray Ipsow''' 
In Latin ''re ipso'' means "the thing itself." "To the thing itself" was the motto and rallying cry of the investigational method known as phenomenology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology Wikipedia entry] developed by Edmund Husserl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Husserl Wikipedia entry]. As the phrase indicates, it is a plea against abstraction--a theme of GR--- and for reality 'itself'.

'''Outer Indianoplace''' 
Derogatory nickname for Indianapolis.

'''down in New Orleans . . . that Khartoum business''' 
Evidently two Chums of Chance books we didn't know about. Perhaps ''The Chums of Chance and the Voodoo Priest'' and ''The Chums of Chance and the Mussulman Hordes.''

'''Khartoum... Mahdi's army''' 
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army refered to here was an Islamic group in the 1880s that advocated a return to strict Islamic values and battled with the government of Khartoum and Egyptian armies.More on these convoluted events at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sudan_(1884-1898) Wikipedia entry].

The concept of the Mahdi is far beyond this one historic event, however.
In point of fact, the U.S. is fighting the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi_Army Mahdi Army] in Iraq right now.

==Page 30==

'''contrary wind . . . Oltre Giubba, instead of down at Alex''' 
From Khartoum you fly north by west to Alexandria. That wind was about as contrary as it could be: from Khartoum to Oltre Giuba is south by east. Now called [http://www.jubaland.org/ Jubaland,] Oltre Giuba (just one B, please, this isn't ''Pagliacci'') is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oltre_Giuba the southwesternmost part of Somalia,] across the Juba River from the rest. Not to be confused with Juba province in southern Sudan.
:Oh, and the Oltre Giuba diversion must have taken place before ''Inconvenience'' was fitted with hydrogen steam power, else she could have flown against the wind.

'''railroad watch''' 
High-quality pocket watch. [http://www.pockethorology.org/Railroad/Railroad.htm [pix and info]]

'''The Palmer House''' 
A beautiful old Chicago hotel, still in operation. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_House here].

==Page 31==

'''Scarsdale Vibe''' 
Scarsdale NY boasts that it's Westchester County's wealthiest community, so a 'Scarsdale vibe' implies 'stinking of money'. Vibe is another Pynchon baddie whose last name starts with "V", ''e.g.'', Brock Vond in ''Vineland.''

'''"The Juggernaut"''' 
The name of Vibe's private train derives from the Sanskrit Jagannātha, meaning "Lord of the Universe" one of the many names of Lord Krishna. "Krishna" itself means "black" or "dark" skinned. British colonial "urban" legend had it that Hindus sought to be crushed under the wheels of giant cars in Krishna's "chariot procession" at Puri as a way of gaining salvation. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut see the Wikipedia entry.]

Capitalism has often been described as a juggernaut. One of numerous uses:
"Even as leaders of nation states compete for power and prestige, the juggernaut of capitalism diminishes borders, weakens governments and, eventually," ...
http://www.southpacific.arts.unsw.edu.au/resources/resource_nissology.htm - 
:A leading sociologist, Anthony Giddens, is also responsible for the phrase, "the juggernaut of modernity". See this incredibly relevant definition and analysis of this phrase: "The most defining property of modernity, according to Giddens, is '''that we are disembedded from time and space'''. In pre-modern societies, space was the area in which one moved, time was the experience one had while moving. In modern societies, however, the social space is no longer confined by the boundaries set by the space in which one moves. One can now imagine what other spaces look like, even if he has never been there. In this regard, Giddens talks about virtual space and virtual time. Another distinctive property of modernity lies in the field of knowledge. In pre-modern societies, it were the elders who possessed the knowledge: they were definable in time and space. In modern societies we must rely on expert systems. These are not present in time and space, but we must trust them. Even if we trust them, we know that something could go wrong: there's always a risk we have to take. Also the technologies which we use, and which transform constraints into means, hold risks. Consequently, there is always a heightened sense of uncertainty in contemporary societies. It is also in this regard that Giddens uses the image of a 'juggernaut': modernity is said to be like an unsteerable juggernaut traveling through space." Wikipedia [[http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Giddens]]

'''in disguise . . . bodyguards and secretaries . . . ebony stick''' 
Some great disguise!

'''establishment defined by State, Monroe, and Wabash''' 
aka, The Palmer House (see note on previous page above).

'''Foley Walker''' 
"Foley walker" is a term used to indicate a sound-effects expert. Also known as a foley artist [http://www.natf.org/wad/foley.htm [cite]]. One of the foley walker's main jobs is to add the sound of footsteps to movies where required, imitating the way the character would walk. So, a kind of 'stand-in'.

'''Forty-seventh and Ashland''' 
[[image:47th-Ashland.jpg|right|thumb|caption|47th & Ashland Avenue, 1935| 200px]][...] First, the story [...] about Ashland being named for the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire is an urban legend. Ashland Avenue, first known as Reuben Street, was already developed before the fire and was considered the height of suburban living on the West Side in the 1860s.
[http://www.gapersblock.com/airbags/archives/ashland_the_great_fire_and_the_ruins_of_chicago/ [cite]] [...] The spread of movie palaces in the automobile age presaged the spread of commercial buildings from the Loop to the neighborhoods and suburbs. By 1930, Marshall Field & Co. had created smaller versions of its downtown store in Evanston and Oak Park, while neighborhood retailers like Goldblatt's and Wieboldt's were moving downtown. Chicago developed regional shopping districts at 47th and Ashland, 63rd and Halsted, Irving Park and Pulaski, and many other locations. Certain areas catered to specialized industries, such as “Automobile Row” on South Michigan Avenue, or the Maxwell Street Market, an open-air European-style market that resisted every effort at modernization until its destruction in the 1990s. [...]
[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/316.html [cite]]

==Page 32==

'''Second Corinthians''' 
This exchange between Vibe and Ipsow refers specifically to 2 Corinthians 11:19 -- For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html [cite]]

'''Ipsow's response to S. Vibe on lines 21-23( ...in these days need arises directly from criminal acts of the rich)''' can be seen as a direct paraphrase of Ch. 5 of the book of James:
Now listen you rich.. you have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! the wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields cry out against you... you have lived in luxury and fattened yourself in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed innocent men ... James 5

==Page 33==

'''"Old Zip Coon"''' 
"Old Zip Coon" dates from as early as 1834 and is considered the original name for the 19th-century American folk song, 'Turkey in the Straw'. [[Old Zip Coon | lyrics]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Straw Wikipedia] See also [http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/Amsong59.htm] and [http://www.csufresno.edu:80/folklore/ballads/RJ19258.html]. 
The word "coon" may originate in America as a derogatory name for a Negro, but it was current in England too (therefore not "for an African-American"). For other occurrences of the word, with show business associations in every case, see text and annotations: [[#Page_48|page 48]], [[ATD_336-357#Page_344|page 344]], [[ATD_358-373#Page_369|page 369]] and [[ATD_397-428#Page 424|page 424.]]
:In this contributor's boyhood, a brand of chewing tobacco heavily advertised on East Tennessee radio and television used the tune in its jingle, with lyrics close to:
<blockquote>If you like a spicy taste 
Every morning, night and noon, 
Then you're bound to like the taste 
When you chew Red Coon.</blockquote>
:The package at this time portrayed a raccoon, but it's possible a different image had come before.

'''Dr. Tesla''' 
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), American inventor. He was born in Croatia of Serbian parents. He studied at Graz (Austria), Prague and Paris. He discovered (1881) principle of rotating magnetic field, basis of practically all alternating-current (AC) machinery. Between 1882-1884 he was an engineer in Paris (1882-84) and constructed his first induction motor (1883). He emigrated to the United States (1884, naturalized in 1889). Worked for Thmoas Edison (1884-85) but left the Edison Works at Menlo Park (Edison opposed to AC idea) to concentrate on his own inventions, which include improved dynamos, transformers, electric bulbs, wireless communication (1897) and the high-frequency coil which bears his name. (Cf [[ATD_97-118#Page_97|page 97]] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla Tesla].)

<div id="rewrite">'''violate . . . the essence of everything modern history is supposed to be''' 
Notice what he ''doesn't'' say: the principles of the free market, the essence of the capitalist economic system. As if modern history has already been written and such research would somehow undermine it.</div>

'''Sloane Lab''' 
Completed in 1912, was the gift of Henry T. Sloane, BA 1866, and William D. Sloane, MA HON. 1889. Of Longmeadow stone, it is Collegiate Gothic in style. Charles C. Haight was the architect. (An underground addition was constructed in 1958 to house a Van de Graaff machine-now removed. The John A. Hartford Foundation, Inc., and the U.S. Public Health Service financed it. Sloane Lab was the first University constructed on the Hillhouse Estate (less the three acres adjoining Sachem’s Wood). The property was a gift in 1910 of Mrs. Russell Sage, and called Pierson Sage Square. The University had wanted to acquire the land to develop into a turn-of-the-century “science park”. The well-known landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmstead advised in the land’s development. [217 Prospect Street]
[http://www.facilities.yale.edu/campus/Building1.asp?lstBldg=1075 [cite]] and [http://www.facilities.yale.edu/images/BFS/1075.jpg [photo]].

Interestingly, Frederick Law Olmstead was also pivital in the development of the grounds for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. His famous "Wooded Isle" remains a centerpiece in Chicago's Jackson Park. [http://www.hydepark.org/parks/jpac/jpkhistoryandfair.htm [link]] and
[http://www.hydepark.org/parks/pics/laggen4.JPG [photo]].

For a more detailed account of Olmstead's landscape architecture as it relates to the 1893 World's Fair, see Erik Larson's ''The Devil in the White City''.

:These would be anachronistic, but as the note for p29 above mentions, a lab existed by 1882.

'''World-System''' 
Dr. Tesla's idea of providing electrical power that anyone could tap in for free alludes the birth of wireless internet before being monopolized by b(p)ig companies and corporate greed.

==Page 34==

'''the most terrible weapon the world has seen . . . rational systems of control''' 
This statement defines the threat—as the plutocrats see it—of free power (anarchy) and their justification for bending government and every other compelling force to stamp it out.

'''out of the fish-market anarchy of all battling all''' 
Vibe quotes Thomas Hobbes, who in ''Leviathan'' (1651) described the primitive state of the human race as ''bellum omnium contra omnes,'' the war of all against all, which was ended only by the creation of the State. Note the change of "war" to "anarchy."

'''Pierpont''' 
John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker, who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation.
[...]
In 1900, Morgan financed inventor Nikola Tesla and his Wardenclyffe Tower with $150,000 for experiments in radio. Tesla was unsuccessful and, in 1904, Morgan pulled out. Later, Tesla created an AC generator
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan [cite]]

'''his arrangement with Edison''' 
Tesla and Edison were essentially enemies, both jockeying for position in the world of electricity.

'''non-linear phenomena of scale''' 
Linear scaling means, for example, store twice as much charge, get twice as much voltage. An instance of behavior becoming nonlinear is when air insulation breaks down (arcs, lightning); here adding charge may lead to a ''decrease'' in voltage.

'''Somble, Strool & Fleshway''' 
Law firms in Pynchon have such charming names; compare Salitieri, Poore, Nash, de Brutus, and Short in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] or Warpe, Wistfull, Kubitschek and McMingus in [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49'']. This one has more of a Dickensian sound. Somble could be a portmanteau of ''somber'' and ''tremble'' or ''some bull''; Strool, perhaps, of ''strait'' (= narrow) and ''cruel,'' or ''stool'' and ''drool''. "Fleshway" might suggest a reference to Samuel Butler's ''The Way of All Flesh,'' which was not published until 1903, but it seems more likely to go back to [http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/brush_excerpts/brush_20041027.shtml a biblical phrase] associated with death.

Using the onomatapeia technique such as in the ''Gravity's Rainbow'' law firm, we start to get 'Some Bull, is ('t) Drool And.......Help needed! How about "some bull's strool and fleshway." Strool being the portmanteau of stool and drool, and fleshway being the meaty part of the flushway (g.i. tract, anus) -- you know, something like bullshit with the consitency of diarrhea.

Incidentally, Strool is an actual surname as well as the name of a town in South Dakota.

By the way, Thomas Hobbes' ''Leviathan'' (see "all against all" entry toward the top of this page) is also the source of Salitieri et al. ("solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short," describing the life of human beings in their primitive state). 

'''vestiary''' 
Of, or relating to, clothing.

==Page 36==

'''Fairgoers would see the ship overhead and yet not see it''' 
Useful property for a surveillance platform. And a perfect description of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon Panopticon], which is a prison design in which prisoners can see the tower watching them but never know exactly when they're being watched. Michel Foucault discusses this in his book ''Discipline and Punish''.

'''Ferris Wheel''' 
Debuted at the Fair.

'''Lew Basnight''' 
"Bas" is French for "low", though "bas nuit" means nothing in French.

A detective named 'Lew' reminds us (who is "us"?) of Ross Macdonald's character Lew Archer which in turn recalls another detective, Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade in San Francisco detective agency Spade & Archer. This may be a bad pun on 'lube-ass night' and also might refer to the incident causing Lew to be shunned by his peers.

[[image:beaver-on-the-brain.jpg|thumb|Beaver on the Brain T-Shirt|right]]Very possibly, Pynchon is having some fun here, working a whole sexual angle, naming his character after the phrase "BAS night," meaning a boys' night out, "BAS" being an acronym for "Bitches Ain't Shit" from the [http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/drdre/bitchesaintshit.html "song" by Dr. Dre] (featuring Snoop Dogg, Dat Nigga Daz, Kurupt, Jewel). And, hey, Lew meets Nicholas Nookshaft, Grand Cohen of T.W.I.T. (Nookie Shaft? Twat crossed w/clit? A-and isn't that tetractys an inverted beaver?), where he meets Yashmeen, a ''very'' sexual woman. And then there's that whole "Beavers of the Brain" cyclomite episode ([[ATD 171-198#Page 183|p. 183]]) (Beavers, fercrissakes!). Perhaps something worth following up ... or not!

It is possible Basnight is an Americanization of the German "Fasnacht". "Fastnacht or Fasnacht is the pre-Lenten carnival in Alemannic folklore in Switzerland, southern Germany, Alsace and western Austria. It is also known in parts of Pennsylvania Dutch Country as Fauschnaut Day and is celebrated on the day before Ash Wednesday, or the last Tuesday before Lent." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasnacht]

"A likely derivation is from PIE pwo- "purify" (cognate to pava-mana), or alternatively connected with Middle High German vaselen "prosper, bud" and interpreted as a fertility rite."

Fasnacht Day is known in English as Shrove Tuesday. "The word shrove is a past tense of the English verb "shrive," which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by confessing and doing penance." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrove_Tuesday] All of this seems to tally well with the Basnight character.

Another pun theory: on page 38, Lew is described as being in an ignorance "black as night." This can be abbreviated to "Basnight."
Lew is pronounced "loo," which of course is the British toilet.
Lew Basnight then means, "toilet, black as night." Just a thought...

'''White City Investigations''' 
Since the White City dates from 01 May 1893, this ought to be later.

The name recalls the White Visitation of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. Any connection?

==Page 37==
'''fictitiousness''' 
On this and the previous page, there is a question raised of whether the Chums are fictional. Or it could be saying that such fantastical sights as the airship are easy to miss at the fair.

It seems more likely that the comparison here is simply between that of the fair, a small, self-contained world of marvels (like all World's Fairs) and the "real world" outside its gates.

There is lots more going on (and it's ''lots'' more interesting). Consider these passages on pages 36-37:
*the . . . celebration possessed the exact degree of fictitiousness to permit the boys access and agency
*The harsh nonfictional world waited outside the White City's limits
*he (Lew) had not . . . heard of the Chums of Chance
*every boy knows the Chums of Chance
*you're not storybook characters. . . . Are you?
Too much back-and-forth about fiction to be '''just''' about the exposition and the real world. Some premises that are implicit here:
*The Chums know that they live in literature whether they have a "real" existence or not.
*They know their books are popular with an audience of boys. (Lindsay is surprised that Lew didn't read them earlier, not that he isn't reading them now.)
*Lew doesn't regard objective evidence (they are standing before him, he's ascended in their ship) as sufficient to rule out ambiguity (". . . Are you?").
*The lads are able to experience and act only in a quasi-fictitious environment. Off the fairgrounds (in the WCI office), Randolph gives nothing but answers scripted for him by National.
All this suggests that even the Chums aren't sure on what level they exist. They definitely have adventures, as recorded in their books, but they don't seem to have adventures ''not'' contained in the novels.
What will happen if they come to the end of a ''Chums'' book while we are still reading ''AtD''?

'''No more than Wyatt Earp or Nellie Bly''' 
See the next two entries. Earp had a "real" life but people remember him chiefly because of stories written about him (and by him through ghostwriters, [http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/zpub2000/sfentries&cmd=list&range=0,50&Title~=E&cmd=all&Id=98 link 1], [http://www.ferncanyonpress.com/tombston/robbery.shtml link 2]). Bly entertained masses of people by having adventures and then writing about them. Each "lived" through a body of literature.

'''Wyatt Earp''' 
(1848–1929), was a teamster, sometime buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, and saloon-keeper in the Wild West and the U.S. mining frontier from California to Alaska. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp Wikipedia]

'''Nellie Bly''' 
(1864-1922) was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly Wikipedia]

'''Regarding Lew Basnight's malady...''' 
Again, there seems to be a character with a neurological illness; in this case it is presented as amnesia, but seizures also result in "lost time". (See comments on Miles' "electricity coming on" on page 24.) Such maladies are more common than one supposes, and can offer a glimpse of other-worldliness akin to that of hallucinogenics, and epileptics have, at times, been considered to have access to past or future lives.
:OR it could be the case that Lew has fallen through a crack in time-space and entered a parallel universe; in the previous universe (which he simply remembers as the past), he had not done anything wrong, which explains his perplexity. The same might be the case with Miles, which would be why he did not expect baskets of crockery near his feet. Such moving among worlds is a thread in this work.

'''making a point of pronouncing his name disrespectfully''' 
The only way it could be done is, apparently, by saying Lube Ass Night. Well, that or tone of voice.

'''the Upstate-Downstate Beast''' 
Illinois is one of three states with an Upstate, though one of them doesn't use the term Downstate (South Carolina divides itself into Upstate and Lowcountry). The nickname points to a traveling man, perhaps. "Moral horror," "denounced," "revulsion" probably fit with many crimes, though most of those would have led to a prison sentence and we don't have any information of Lew's serving time.

'''"Although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction."''' 
May express Pynchon's reaction to the press' treatment of him over the years. In 1964, when Pynchon heard that the ''New York Herald Tribune'' was writing an article about him, Pynchon wrote to his agent that he assumed the piece "will be riddled with the same lies, calumnies and all-around knavish disregard for my privacy" as previous articles. ("Pynchon's Letters Nudge His Mask," ''New York Times,'' 4 Mar 1998).

'''Wensleydale''' 
A type of cheese made in Yorkshire, England.

==Page 38==

'''"You have destroyed your name."''' 
Wensleydale using very strong language. He doesn't say "destroyed your reputation" or "discredited your name" but "''destroyed'' your name." Does anyone else see this as suggesting Lew's name was not Lew Basnight before his sin?

'''to plead with him to come back''' 
A strange response, that Troth should ask the Upstate-Downstate Beast to return to her. You would think she'd prefer him as far away as he could get.

'''one of your other wives''' 
A direct reference to Lew's sin, or is Troth just pelting Lew with anything that's in reach?

==Page 39==

'''kazoos''' 
This silly instrument appears in several Pynchon novels.

'''slow ritual movement''' 
Maybe tai chi, or anachronistic Gurdjieffian dance?

'''Drave''' 
A noun meaning, according to the OED, a "fishing expedition in which several men take part, each supplying a net and receiving a share of the profits made. Later, A haul (of fish); also, a shoal." There is also a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drave Drave river] in south central Europe, though there seems to be no textual evidence to support this association.

'''Saratoga chips''' 
Potato chips were invented in Saratoga Springs, NY, and were often called Saratoga chips in the 19th century.

'''Esthonia Hotel''' 
How the country Estonia was spelled in English during the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Atonia is a lack of normal muscle tension, but also, "A frightening form of paralysis that occurs when a person suddenly finds himself or herself unable to move for a few minutes, most often upon falling asleep or waking up. Commonly called sleep paralysis, the condition is due to an ill-timed disconnection between the brain and the body." [http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=9811 Definition] This could mean that the hotel in question is nothing more than an internal hallucination of Basnight's, further suggesting that his problem is one of neurological rather than simply moral or spiritual cause.

'''"liable for criminal penalties"''' 
Law and the legal profession so far appear in AtD more than any other Pynchon novel (perhaps save ''The Crying of Lot 49''), and so far, like here, in a negative or confusing light. Perhaps Pynchon sees law as part of the general establishment the novel seems to criticize/oppose.--("Seems to?" Is there some way in which, in the end, that this novel is SUPPORTING the "general establishment?" That would be an interesting hypothesis.)

==Page 40==

'''lofty regions no high-iron pioneer had yet dared''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wainwright_Building In the early 1890s] anything taller than about 10 stories would have qualified.

'''remembrance stick''' 
Similar to keisaku in Zen Buddhism, an attempt by a sensei to alert students to their mindlessness in zazen (sitting meditation), usually administered by a stick. An English translation is stick of compassion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyosaku [Wikipedia]]

Lew's performance of commonplace and strange chores is also similar to the way Zen training can proceed for novitiates.

Of course, a memory stick is also a flash memory for the computer, i.e. a thumb drive. On [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_81-96#Page_84 p. 84], there appears a ''minneskort'', Swedish for a computer memory card.

==Page 41==

'''you keep bouncing free. Avoiding penance and thereby definition''' 
It is hard to tie Drave down philosophically. No connection between sin and penance, penance as destiny, penance happens or doesn't, and now this idea that penance ''defines'' one's existence.

'''Delirium literally means going out of a furrow''' 
Drave is right. Here's the [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=delirium&searchmode=none etymology of the word].

==Page 42==

'''Spring arrived''' 
We've seen Lew pretty well through a year: summertime (p. 38) when Troth followed him to Chicago, autumn (p. 40) when he checked in at the Esthonia, winter (p. 41) as his bank account starved, now in the spring his moment of grace.

'''a condition he had no memory of having sought, which he later came to think of as grace''' 
"grace" is the last word of this novel.

'''scorcher cap''' 
The cap of an early bicycling enthusiast. According to [http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288 this site]:

:"In […]1892 [… a] bicyclist to be considered genuine had to be dressed in bicycle clothes. A man had to wear bicycle pants which were baggy at the top and tight to the legs below. Then he had to have bicycle socks and shoes. The shoes were made of canvass. Then he had to have a loose fitting grey colored short which we would designate now as a sport shirt. Then on his head he had to wear a tight fitting cap with a long bill in front, the longer the better up to a certain ceiling length. With this outfit and a bicycle with drop handlebars he was ready to appear in public as a real cyclist. If he could make 20 miles an hour on a good track he was called a 'scorcher,' the idea being that he was going so fast that he would scorch at least the end of his nose if nothing else."

'''shirtwaists with huge shoulders''' 
[[image:shirtwaist.jpg|thumb|caption|Shirtwaists|150px|right]]Fashionable the year of the Fair, the shirtwaist is a dress with a bodice (waist) like a tailored shirt and an attached straight or full skirt, the huge shoulders being the sort of "puffy" look of the sleeves. They are now called blouses. Compare Chevrolette McAdoo's outfit, [[ATD_26-56#Page 26|p. 26]].

'''He understood that things were exactly what they were.''' 
This sentence sums up the entire experience at the Esthonia hotel, which seems to be a Zen-like initiation. Here, Lew Basnight seems to have attained some form of enlightenment, and the description ("a condition...which he later came to think of as grace"), along with this sentence, are almost textbook examples of Zen enlightenment. No lights flash, no changes are seen; one merely understands that things are what they are. After this experience, he leaves the hotel, and no longer needs to be there. He then embarks on his new career, in part because of his extreme ability to notice minute details; something that he was not said to have had before.
:The sentence can also serve as a guide to readers of ''AtD.'' Even when it is tempting to speculate that "this paragraph is about Richard Nixon" or protest that "you can't see Sirius on a summer evening," it is worth the effort to let the text mean what it means.

'''descended to the sidewalk''' 
Most of the public trains in Chicago are above street level. They are ''elevated'', which is why even today the train is called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_L "the L" or "the El."] Here's a good [http://www.cera-chicago.org/images/a001_Chicago_L_tn.jpg picture].

==Page 43==

'''transfigured''' 
In Lew's time of grace, he shows a changed face.

'''leisurely rips through the fabric of the day''' 
See below

'''working for the Eye''' 
aka, working for the Pinkertons, whose logo was [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/We_never_sleep.jpg an eye].

==Page 44==

'''He had learned to step to the side of the day.''' 
Through the book there are juxtapositions of things with and against the day (the 'title motif'). Here, we are told that Lew has learned to step "to the side" of the day. Possibly he is able to enter another plane? This is possible considering the dream-like hotel sequence on previous pages.
:I think that the "other plane" interpretation is a bit of a stretch. The passage seems to imply that Lew has learned to will and maintain a degree of detachment from his surroundings, perhaps a relinquishment of his perceived control over events or his attempts to control them.
: -- I don't see it as a stretch if we accept that he now recognizes that there are alternate, parallel, universes.

'''it was apparently not as easy for anyone in "Chicago" to be that certain of his whereabouts''' 
The quotes here may be to distinguish the fact that while technically living in Chicago, Lew sometimes exists or moves within a place or plane that others also living there don't see, or have access to.
:Yes, or universes rather than planes.

'''Not exactly invisibility. Excursion.''' 
Excursion is from the Latin roots "ex" (out, outside) and "currere" (to run). Pynchon doesn't mean "excursion" in the current sense of "outing," but in this archaic sense of "running outside" or "traveling alongside" the real world in the parallel universe of the book's fiction.

==Page 45==

'''two-headed eagle''' 
As Holy Roman Emperor, the Austro-Hungarian emperor bore a two-headed eagle (each head crowned) as part of his arms. The Tsar of Russia also used a two-headed eagle, but it was triply crowned (one crown between the heads). The Serbian two-headed eagle appeared on a shield with one crown above it, and the Montenegrin one had a single crown between the heads. Other details of the envelope would serve to disambiguate.

'''Trabants''' 
"Trabanten" (German for 'satellites') originally - during the Thirty Years' War - were lightly armed foot soldiers; later this term was used for servants and/or bodyguards of high-ranking persons.

'''"have a lawyer explain civil liability to you"''' 
Again, law.

'''gumshoe''' 
Perhaps a bit too early to use this term; the Dictionary of American Slang dates it as "by 1906".

'''a couple a thousand hunkies''' 
"Hunkies" was a slur against Hungarians and other eastern Europeans. The word may have morphed into "honkies."

'''Francis Ferdinand'''[[Image:FranzFerdinand.jpg|thumb|Archduke Franz Ferdinand|right]] 
This is indeed the same Franz Ferdinand whose assassination in 1914 triggered World War I. At the time of his appearance in ''AtD'', he would have been 30, and his two passions throughout young adulthood and his 20s were travel and hunting (it is estimated that he shot more than 5,000 deer in his lifetime). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria Wikipedia entry]. He did indeed attend the Chicago Exposition. [http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/ch27.html]

Click for [[The Habsburgs in Against the Day]]...

See the annotation about Austria-Hungary on the next page.

'''shive artist''' 
Someone proficient with a knife (shive=knife or razor).

'''to rewrite history''' 
Hold on, '''re'''write? As Vibe did on [[#rewrite|page 33,]] Privett seems to reason that history has already been decided and some action would change it rather than generate a valid new history.

==Page 46==

'''"staff," a mixture of plaster and hemp fibers''' 
[http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Columbian/columbian.html One source] says it was jute, not hemp.

According to [http://www.buildingstonemagazine.com/summer-06/historic.html ''Building Stone'' magazine,] the buildings were meant to be painted in bright colors, but the Chicago climate put the kibosh on that. Even keeping them white called for continuous repainting.

The Museum of Science and Industry is the only structure surviving from the exposition. Built as the Palace of Fine Arts, it started out faced in staff but was later [http://www.aviewoncities.com/chicago/museumofscienceandindustry.htm rebuilt] to the original exterior design in limestone and marble.

'''to counterfeit some deathless white stone''' 
Most of the buildings constructed for the Fair were finished with white stucco.
Given the many references throughout ''AtD'' to "white" and "stones" to ''counterfeit'' a ''deathless'' white stone seems portentous.

'''"In Austria," the Archduke was explaining, ". . . the Chicago Stockyards might possibly be rented out . . . for a weekend's amusement"''' 

Pynchon continues his linking of the Stockyard killing-floor with the genocidal horrors of the 20th Century, it seems. See above. Heidegger (sic) made this connection somewhere and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maxwell_Coetzee J.M Coetze's] novel ''Elizabeth Costello'' uses it in a key chapter that was published separately.

'''beaters who drive the animals toward the hunters . . . waiting to shoot them''' 
Skillful use of ambiguity: waiting to shoot the animals or the beaters?

'''"Hungarians occupy the lowest level of brute existence"''' 
Even if the quote might be fictive, the Archduke's characterization is close to the point. Franz Ferdinand, a dour reactionary with aggressive ideas in foreign policy, had the reputation of an avowed Hungarophobe. The Compromise of 1867 created a dualistic Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, which the Archduke sought to transform in a "trialistic" way, giving an enivsioned southern Slav union of Croatia (which was united in a sub-confederation with Hungary), Bosnia and Dalmatia a status similar to that of the Kingdom of Hungary. Note how the Czechs, a population about twice as large as southwestern Slavs, were omitted from this scheme. The idea was evidently to weaken the Hungarian establishment, and recentralize power in Vienna.

'''Mannlicher''' 
A double-barreled rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. It is reported that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had several of these made special for him.

Interestingly enough, the rifle is also mentioned in ''Green Hills of Africa'' and ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' by Ernest Hemingway, who used it extensively on hunting.

Franz was eventually assassinated in Sarajevo. Coincidentally (?), fellow assassinee JFK was initially claimed to have been a victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher rifle.

==Page 47==

'''K&K Special Security''' 
"K&K" stands for "Kaiserlich und Königlich," German for "imperial and royal (kingly)," to indicate the Austrian two titles of the ruler of the Dual Monarchy: King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserlich_und_königlich Wikipedia entry].

'''Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit''' 
This is not a German word as far as I know and most likely not even a degenerate Habsburg or one of his officers would have used it (but then I haven't read Franz Ferdinand's account of his travels...). Sounds more like some Babelfish machine translation of "pastry-depravity" to me. I wonder what the German translator will make of this. My guess is, s/he will not make a "typical German" combined noun out of it, but turn the phrase to be able to use an adverb like "mehlspeisennarrisch" instead (what with in Austria and Bavaria there is a word for (mostly sweet) pastry: "Mehlspeise" (literally "flour-meal), and "narrisch" is Austrian/Viennese for being (slightly) mad). But then, of course, there might be a pun intended I as a bad english-speaker just dont get. Maybe via the pronounciation? Check out this [http://www.dict.cc/?s=Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit dictionary], head for "continue searching" and press "voice output" - voila, thats what "Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit" sounds like.

The term probably is made up, but the meaning is more like "shameful addiction to cookie dough." In the context of detectives, what may be happening here is this: The Austrians have heard the canard that American policemen are addicted to doughnuts, but they misunderstand both ''doughnut'' and ''addicted.''

Another possibility: Austrians have read that American detectives will do anything for dough.

'''Boll Weevil Lounge''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boll_weevil The boll weevil], a destructive cotton pest, first arrived in America (via Mexico) in 1892, only one year before the opening section of ATD. It is a fitting name for a "Negro Bar" as the boll weevil is the subject of dozens of blues songs. The Boll Weevil Lounge might also be a reference to the famous Prohibition-era New York nightclub known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Club_(New_York_City) the Cotton Club]

1893 is too soon for the songs and probably for the lounge too. Cotton was still king in the South; the big [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_States_and_International_Exposition_%281895%29 Atlanta exposition] was two years in the future, and the economic dislocation had not properly begun. The boll weevil songs date from the teens-20s and later.

'''...the only place in Chicago a man could find a decent orange phosphate...''' 
A reference to the modern stereotype that black people like orange soda, here called a phosphate.

==Page 48==

'''Wassermelone''' 
Watermelon; another black stereotype...

'''grip cars''' 
The lead cars in cable-car systems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_City_Railway [Wikipedia]]

'''''deine Mutti'', as you would say''' 
Franz Ferdinand is attempting to engage the patrons of the Boll Weevil Lounge in a game of "the dozens", an insult contest in which opponents make fun of each other's mothers. "The dozens" has its origins in the New Orleans slave trade. As with the boll weevil, "the dozens" is closely associated with blues music. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dozens [Wikipedia]]

"yo mama" jokes also appear in ''Mason & Dixon'' (pg. 445) and ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_10 (pg. 155)].

'''one has to take the 'El'''' 
The "EL" or the "L" is the nickname for the train system in downtown Chicago. Many of the train tracks are above the street--or '''EL'''evated.

'''the World's Fair, not the World's Ugly''' 
A fairly sophisticated pun, if F.F.'s English is so rudimentary.

'''''...'st los, Hund?''''' 
German for "'s up, dog?"

'''All Pimps Look Alike to Me''' 
An early rag by Ernest Hogan was entitled All Coons Look Alike to Me; "Hogan was evidently not the originator of the song's lyrics, having appropriated them after hearing a pianist in a Chicago salon playing a song titled "All Pimps Look Alike to Me"". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hogan See this article.] 
For more "coon" references see text and annotations: [[#Page_33|page 33]], [[ATD_336-357#Page_344|page 344]], [[ATD_358-373#Page_369|page 369]] and especially [[ATD_397-428#Page 424|page 424]].

'''scapegrace''' 
Scoundrel.

'''And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!''' 
A remarkably concise and prophetic summary of the subsequent 20th century.

'''keester''' 
Buttocks.
<ref><references/></ref>

==Page 49==

'''Kinsley's''' 
A famous steakhouse at 105-107 Adams St. in downtown Chicago. The building was erected in 1885.

'''At first Lew took it for a church''' 
This could be an allusion to the film, ''On The Waterfront'', and a similar scene when Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is sent by Johnny Friendly and Co. to eavesdrop on a meeting being held in a church by local priest Father Barry (Karl Malden) along with workers from the docks who are fed up with Friendly and the Mob, especially in light of a recent death. Social themes of film seem apt as well. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_waterfront].

Karl Malden (Mladen Sekulovich)incidentally was a product of this milieu, born in Chicago in 1912 to a Serb steelworker father and Czech seamstress mother. The Sekulovich family hails from Herzegovina.

'''Welsbach mantles''' 
One of the most important advances in the history of lighting, the Welsbach mantle (for a period so ubiquitous it became more commonly known simply as 'gas mantle') was first sold commercially in 1892 and quickly spread throughout Europe. It remained an important part of street lighting until the widespread introduction of electric lighting in the early 1900s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle Wikipedia entry].

'''Reverend Moss Gatlin''' 
A fictional character. Is he connected to Rev. Cherrycoke? They are both Reverends with strong political opinions and you can hear Pynchon's voice here very strong.

Possible allusion to Reverend Fr. John M. Corridan, the real-life counterpart of Father Barry in ''On The Waterfront''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Corridan Wikipedia]

Some real, or anyway nonfictional, anarchist preachers:
*[http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard107.html Thomas Olney,] 17th-century Baptist anarchist who was influential in Rhode Island
*[http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/hol055/96047023.html Rudolf Rocker] (1873-1958), nicknamed the "anarchist rabbi"
*[http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/gallery/galleryindex.htm Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis,] Dutch minister who came to anarchism in 1897
*[http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_archives/critics/mckinley/chap4.html Albert Dahlquist and Joseph A. Wildman,] caught up in persecutions after the McKinley assassination (Dahlquist was nearly lynched; Wildman was tarred and feathered)
*[http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301208.shtml Father Frank Morales,] participant in Portland anti-globalization demonstrations
*[http://www.deadanarchists.org/anton.html Hugh O. Pentecost,] who in 1889 was slated to address a meeting in commemoration of the Haymarket; Philadelphia authorities suppressed the gathering

'''fascinators''' 
Hair adornments. [http://www.ribbonsandpearls.co.uk/catalogue/fascinators/fascinator_hair_accessories_intro.htm [pix]]

'''bearing the insults of the day''' 
See notes on [[ATD_26-56#Page_43|pages 43 and 44]] above.

'''the ''Workers' Own Songbook''''' 
Perhaps a forerunner to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Red_Songbook ''Little Red Songbook'']?

'''Blake's Jerusalem''' 
The original lines From William Blake's poem are:

I will not cease from mental fight, 
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand 
Till we have built Jerusalem 
In England's green and pleasant land.

The Hubert Parry mention is an apparent anachronism, as, according to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_%28hymn%29 Wikipedia], the hymn was composed in 1916.

'''Fierce as the winter's tempest . . . Death's for the bought and sold!''' 
This lyric does not come up in a Google search. It doesn't flow like any other lyric in Pynchon but reads like a rather good hymn text. No variations in the meter, no words broken for the sake of rhyme, no punctuation to show lengthened or chopped syllables. And yet thematically it is a seamless fit with the text around it. Are the lines original in ''AtD,'' or can their source be identified?

==Page 50==

'''Picardy third''' 
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third Wikipedia entry]

==Page 51==

'''deadfalls''' 
Low points where refuse collects? Cf. Pynchon's story, Low-Lands?[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deadfalls [def]]

'''prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate''' 
Coupled with the cover blurb Pynchon wrote: "If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction." Could ''Against the Day'' be Pynchon's prophecy of a future America?

[[image:we_never_sleep.jpg|thumb|175px|right]]'''The Unsleeping Eye''' 
Reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency. Pinkerton's National Detective Agency had a logo with an eye in the center, and below it read, "We Never Sleep." See also [[ATD_1-25#Page_13|page 13]].

'''bay rum''' 
A type of cologne or after-shave. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_rum Wikipedia article]

==Page 52==

'''''Inconvenience''''' 
Lew Basnight's temporary presence on the airship may be the first clue as to why it's called ''Inconvenience''. Perhaps his growing sympathy for the anarchists will lead to greater involvement by him, the Chums, or at least the book in portraying the anarchist movement, which is viewed as an inconvenience to the ruling classes. Pynchon may consider his novel's message, similarly, as an inconvenient truth about America's past, present or both.

:I thought it was just a polysyllable that sounds stately but means the opposite.--[[User:Robot|Robot]] 13:18, 5 December 2006 (PST)

In ''Mason & Dixon'', the willful reality of other people are referred to as inconveniences more than once.

'''the whiteness of the place nearly unbearable''' 
Causing an effect something like snow blindness.

'''some weeks till the fair closes''' 
30 October 1893.

'''our future's all a blank''' 
Whoever the Chums get their orders from, they have not received any new ones yet. They look ahead and see a blank page.

'''Freddie Turner''' 
Frederick Jackson Turner (1861 - 1932) was, with Charles A. Beard, the most influential American historian of the early 20th century. He is best known for ''The Significance of the Frontier in American History'', an essay which describes his views on how the idea of the frontier shaped the American character, and how the frontier drove American history and America's westward expansion. Excerpt: "In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave the meeting point between savagery and civilization."
[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1893turner.html eText here...]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Jackson_Turner Wikipedia]

==Page 53==

'''Here's where the Trail comes to an end at last''' 
With the advent of the railroad, the West changed dramatically. Chicago became the stockyards and slaughterhouse of America, and cowboys only funneled their cattle in that direction, no longer simply following them on the range or leading them to more local places of slaughter. The cowboy had become a cog in the wheel of a mechanism of death.

'''Blitz Instruments and Wackett Punches''' 
Mentioned in 1911 Britannica article 'Slaughter-house' [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Slaughter-house [etext]]

'''charabanc''' 
An open-topped bus for tourists.

'''"The frontier ends and disconnection begins"''' 
Here, the free cowboy myth of Buffalo Bill's show is replaced by the grim reality of the stockyard worker.

'''Cause and effect''' 
A major theme in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.

'''How the dickens do I know?''' 
A possible reference to the novels of Charles Dickens, who critiques in such works as ''Hard Times'' (1854) the onset of urban decay, and the choked living and working conditions of the proletariat as the Industrial Revolution steams onward. 
Or it may just be a standard euphemism; polite speakers were enjoined not to name the Devil.

'''hob-raising years''' 
Hell-raising years; his early years. [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hob Definition of "hob".]

==Page 54==

'''where you knew you could stand and piss would flow two ways at once.''' 
The Professor is talking about growing up in Colorado, where the Continental Divide passes. On one side of the divide, rivers flow west into the Pacific; on the other, rivers flow east. Thus, it would be logical to suggest that, at the precise location of this divide, piss would indeed flow both east and west.
:For Easterners at least, it's a well-known tourist ritual to pee right on the line.

The best place to do this, for tourists, is at Cache La Poudre Lake, headwaters of the Colorado River on Trail Ridge Road (US 34) in Rocky Mountain National Park—it is exactly on the Divide, and water exits to East and West, Atlantic and Pacific.

'''into the control of potent operatives who did not wish him well''' 
Describing Lew's movement now, but a few pages previously that of the stock at the slaughterhouse.

'''Cheerfulness . . . a precarious commodity''' 
The original narrator of the Chums passages has definitely been pushed aside now. They seem to be in a totally different book.

==Page 55==

'''. . . they continued in a fragmented reverie which, . . . often announced some change in the works''' 
Good to notice when the Chums get like this again: i.e. unfocused, depressed, without direction, it may lead to patterns in the plot.
:No Fair, no orders, no adventures: The Chums are between books!

'''Bear east''' 
As if on the Continental Divide (see note on previous page above), Lew goes West and the Chums go East.

'''Speculation began to fill the day.''' 
See note on [[ATD_26-56#Page_43|pages 43 and 44]] above.

'''the ill-famed Hawk''' 
In deepening autumn it is ''rehearsing'' "swift descent, merciless assault, rapture of souls"; at the end of the passage "the temperature head[s] down." The Hawk appears to be a metaphor for winter or its storms. ([http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/the_hawk/ possible definition?]) 
:That is pretty conclusive. ''Hawk'' an established and documented metaphor for the winter wind.
The Hawk is also one of the ubiquitous birds of prey in ATD. The words showing its lethal effect and the drop in temperature are Pynchon themes
for evil. Evil comes from the lands of low temperatures. See GR.

In addition to these meanings, TRP also demonstrates local knowledge here, as the Hawk is the name of a specific wind in Chicago. The Hawk is the name of a northeast wind, one that comes off Lake Michigan usually in the spring. A meteorologist will tell you that a northeast wind is somewhat unusual, contrary to (or against) the prevailing winds that generally come from the west. The effects of the Hawk can be seen at Wrigley Field in Chicago, where centerfield is on the northeast corner of Sheffield and Waveland. When the Hawk is blowing hits that, given a usual southwest wind, have a chance at being home runs will die in the outfield and are easily caught. The Hawk is a reminder that, though winter has left town, it will be back. The wind has a very particular resonance for a Chicagoan, and it's very impressive that Pynchon, not a native, should make use of it, especially in such an offhand manner.

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

ATD 1-25

2016-07-23T09:43:04Z

C-Melody: /* Epigraph */ added another possible source

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==cover text==
[[image:Ispar.jpg|right|thumb|125px|An alphabet viewed through Iceland spar ('birefringence')]]
Words viewed through the translucent crystal known as 'Iceland spar,' look like this-- with multiple 'ghost' images. Note that here, the ghost images appear in multiple typefaces. The combination of traditional serif fonts with modern sans-serif fonts suggests the themes of time, past/present, etc.

==cover seal==
The seal is written in Tibetan. Someone going by the name 'Ya Sam' [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0612&msg=112066&keywords=Namgyal posted] on the Pynchon-l message board:

"I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate
the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my
request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we
owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.

It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan
Government Chamber of Commerce.

Read their response below:

:Dear Ya Sam, 
:I showed the seal you sent to our Tibetan translator, Tenzin Namgyal. He says the word to word translation is: Tibetan Government Commerce Chamber in other words: Tibetan Government Chamber of commerce. Why Pynchon has chosen to place this on the cover of his book is anyones guess. Reading the book reviews gave no insight into the reason. Perhaps after one has read it?

:Best wishes,

:Sandy Belth 
:Tibetan Cultural Center"

The seal also bears some resemblance to the doubloon in ''Moby-Dick'' that Ahab nails to the mainmast as a prize to the first crew member to sight the white whale. Melville's description runs thus:

:"''It so chanced that the doubloon of the Pequod was a most wealthy example of these things. On its round border it bore the letters, REPUBLICA DEL ECUADOR: QUITO. So this bright coin came from a country planted in the middle of the world, and beneath the great equator, and named after it; and it had been cast midway up the Andes, in the unwaning clime that knows no autumn. Zoned by those letters you saw the likeness of three Andes' summits; from one a flame; a tower on another; on the third a crowing cock; while arching over all was a segment of the partitioned zodiac, the signs all marked with their usual cabalistics, and the keystone sun entering the equinoctial point at Libra.''" (Ch.99, "The Doubloon")

The seal draws attention in Pynchonian fashion to a rarely discussed aspect of Tibet. In the West Tibet is regarded as a land of mysticism and supernatural events, far removed from the materialistic concerns of the spiritually immature West. But the seal shows: even Tibet had a Chamber of Commerce. "There is money everywhere", even in Shambhala.

==copyright page==
The copyright page states that ''Against the Day'' is published by Viking Penguin, but on the title page and elsewhere we can read that the book is published by Penguin Press. The copyright pages of other books from Penguin Press state "Penguin Press" as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of "Penguin Press" with "Viking" is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]).
I have confirmed from inside Penguin Press that this is a copyediting mistake. Here is a direct e-mail answer about the Viking Penguin listing: "this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book."

==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 Fariña")-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words "Dedication TK" in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for "dedication to come." It is unknown whether Pynchon ever considered inclusion of a dedication or whether the publisher simply left the page open just in case, but the ultimate lack of a dedication may suggest that Pynchon feels he's thanked everyone he needs to thank.

==Epigraph==
'''"It's always night, or we wouldn't need light." - 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 “spent a lot of time in jazz clubs, nursing the two-beer minimum,” by his own admission (''Slow Learner'', Introduction). The Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/that-thelonious-monk-epigraph.html notes] that: 1) in his youth, Pynchon allegedly referred to Monk as a "God"; 2) [[file:Monk-Time-022864_cover.jpg|left|150px|caption|Time Magazine, Feb 28, 1964]]the character McClintic Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere (although, reportedly, Pynchon at the time didn't know Sphere was Monk's middle name); and 3) "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light" was apparently something Monk was given to saying, rather than something he once said.

On [[ATD_724-747#Page 732|page 732]]: "...daylit America ... its steadfast denial of night."

The epigraph's possible source: [http://aphelis.net/portrait-thelonious-monk-boris-chaliapin-1964/ Time magazine, February 28, 1964] article titled [http://www.monkzone.com/Profiles_interviews/Time%20Magazine%20article.htm “The Loneliest Monk”] written by Barry Farrell (pp. 84-88).

'''NOTE:''' There's no reason to believe that the above-linked article is the "possible source" of Monk's oft-repeated quote. Perhaps Pynchon saw this article, perhaps he encountered that quote via more esoteric channels. Whatever. It's all just speculation.

In 1960, Saxophonist Steve Lacy transcribed a [http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/02/thelonious-monks-advice.html list of advice] from Monk. One of the items reads: "It must be always night, otherwise they wouldn't need <del>any</del> the lights.

'''NOTE:''' Reading Charles Hollander's [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Does_McClintic_Sphere_in_V._stand_for_Thelonious_Monk%3F excellent article on Thelonious Monk and McClintic Sphere], a character in Pynchon's ''V.''.

==Page 1==
'''"Now single up all lines!""''' 
Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and "single up all lines" is a common nautical term. Ships are docked with lines doubled -- that is, with two sets of ropes or chains holding the vessel to the dock. To "single up all lines" is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.

But 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."

:"single up all lines" is used in its normal nautical context in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#single_up_all_lines ''V.'', pp. 11 and 438]; [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#single_up_all_lines ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.31]; [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_488-491#single_up_all_lines ''Gravity's Rainbow'', p.489]; [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258 ''Mason & Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]; [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_8#Page_119 ''Inherent Vice'', p. 119-120]. Perhaps we can understand this "line" as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''Vineland'']?) in preparation for a voyage to...?

Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling (with the word "Single"!) "single up all lines" as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: "only in straight lines and at right angles and a progressive reduction of choices, until the final turn through the final gate that led to the killing-floor." Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. Both represent "a progressive reduction of choices" a collapsing of many possibilities into one "reality." ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].

The missing quotation mark indicates continuation. Are we holding in our hands the latest boy's adventure tale featuring our favorites, "the Chums of Chance."? (While in all likelihood purely coincidental, it is nevertheless interesting to note the following from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake "boys to your bellybone and chuck a chum of chance!" p. 85 Penguin Books, 1999)

:The ''Finnegans Wake'' line you quote is actually "be British, boys to your bellybone and chuck a chum '''a''' chance!" but close enough anyway to suspect a source [[User:WikiAdmin|WikiAdmin]] 07:38, 16 April 2010 (PDT)

Henry Veggian in [http://boundary2.dukejournals.org/cgi/reprint/35/1/197.pdf his paper entitled "Thomas Pynchon Against the Day"] makes the same point:
:"The novel begins quietly, almost without irony, with a typographical lapse. A set of quotation marks are missing before the first lines of ''Against the Day''." Veggian playfully intimates that it is the authorial "hot air" which takes the "Inconvenience" aloft.

:'''The "missing quotation mark" is not a typo or any sort of Authorial Intention'''; it's simply the publisher's style for the large-font first letter of each section to stand outside the punctuation and font style. On page 588, there is no quotation mark before the "S" in "Smells" and on page 318 the "T" in "Tengo" is not italicized whereas the rest of the word is. Veggian's interpretation is a great example of reading a bit too much into Pynchon's work. I'm surprised that he missed something that seems to me fairly obvious. [[User:WikiAdmin|WikiAdmin]] 11:55, 4 April 2009 (PDT)

'''The Light Over the Ranges''' 
"Range" is defined in the ''Oxford American Dictionary'' as "a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest," so "range" or "ranges" can be used to denote a number of mountains. Some other connotations may include:

:'Ranges' may also refer to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. "Home, home on the range".

:"celebrating in song the wider range of life..." Thomas Pynchon on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Waddell Helen Waddell's] ''The Wandering Scholars'', p. 8, Introduction to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Learner ''Slow Learner], 1984.

:In addition, light over ranges is an issue throughout the novel: exploitation and development of electrical and electronics was a concern of the Raymond, Pynchon & Company and Pynchon and company, an investment firm run by yacht enthusiast George M. Pynchon. Pynchon & Company invested in Edison's work.

:I wonder whether "light over the ranges" could refer to space-time along the line of the theories of general relativity, particularly since the voyage of ''inconvenience'' appears at times to take place under that conceptual framework. In addition, keeping in mind Pynchon's educational background, I would add to the above definitions and considerations that "range" is also a mathematical concept.

==Page 3==

'''"Now single up all lines!"''' 
Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and "single up all lines" is a common nautical term. Ships are docked with lines doubled -- that is, with two sets of ropes or chains holding the vessel to the dock. To "single up all lines" is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.

But 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."

:"single up all lines" is used in its normal nautical context in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#single_up_all_lines ''V.'', p.11]; [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#single_up_all_lines ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.31]; [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_488-491#single_up_all_lines ''Gravity's Rainbow'', p.489]; and [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258 ''Mason & Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]. Perhaps we can understand this "line" as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''Vineland''] and ''Bleeding Edge'') in preparation for a voyage to...?

Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling (with the word "Single"!) "single up all lines" as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: "only in straight lines and at right angles and a progressive reduction of choices, until the final turn through the final gate that led to the killing-floor." Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. Both represent "a progressive reduction of choices" a collapsing of many possibilities into one "reality." ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].

'''"Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!"''' 
Cheerly means "heartily," and was traditionally used as cry of encouragement among sailors. Handsomely (in nautical context): carefully, in good order, unhurriedly.

:Pynchon uses nautical language in most of his novels. ''Mason & Dixon'': "Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads..." (54).

William Shakespeare, ''The Tempest,'' Act I Sc. 1, line 5: "Heigh, my hearts! Cheerly, cheerly, my hearts!"

'''"Windy City, here we come!"''' 
The nickname for Chicago, of course; here of particular relevance, given the nature of the ship. The earliest known references to the "Windy City" are from 1876. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City,_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago)| Origin of name "Windy City" at Wikipedia]

'''"Up we go!"''' 
"Up" is an unexpected direction in the context of nautical language, and the anonymous character's observation gives the narrator an excuse to explain that this is no ordinary ship.

'''Randolph St. Cosmo, the ship commander''' 
[[image:ex-voti-isernia.jpg|thumb|175px|Ex voti of Wax, from Isernia|right]]Historically, there are two versions of the 3rd century CE figure St. Cosmo (aka St. Cosmas): the "randy" St. Cosmo, aka the "modern Priapus," and the saintly martyred St. Cosmo of Church lore (associated with healing cult, in some places succeeding Greek Askleipios cult). Pynchon, it seems, is connecting Randolph St. Cosmo to the former. "Randy," as astute observers will note, is an adjective which means, well, "horny." There's a distinct sexual thread woven throughout ''Against the Day'' [[The Sexual Angle|(See the ''beginnings'' of exploring this angle...]]) a-and Heartsease, St. Cosmo's mate, is the first to get pregnant! so this seems to fit right in. [[St. Cosmo|Read more about the historical St. Cosmo...]]; and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sts._Cosmas_and_Damian Wikipedia entry]; [[Randolph St. Cosmo|More on Randolph St. Cosmo]]

In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V#veery ''Mason & Dixon''], Pynchon has the Veery brothers, Cosmo and Damian, who are professional effigy makes in Philadelphia! And, just to make it interesting, "He's a rare Wax Artist, our Cosmo is." ([http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_29:_289-295#Page_290 p. 290]) (Note: Wax phallus effigies were offered by the women to St. Cosmo at the festivals held in his name, as shown above.) [[St. Cosmo|Read more about the historical St. Cosmo]]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sts._Cosmas_and_Damian Wikipedia entry]

The commander's name also evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in Chicago. Perhaps also saint(liness) and cosmos?

'''Now secure the Special Sky Detail''' 
When a naval vessel is departing from port or returning to port, a specially trained team is put in charge of the complicated process. The command is, [http://tpub.com/content/administration/12968a/css/12968a_41.htm "Now set the Special Sea Detail."] 'Once the ship is aloft and clear of ground obstructions, the command comes, "Now secure the Special Sky Detail," meaning disband the team for the time being and all return to regular duties.

'''"scuttlebutt" . . . thousand . . . wonders''' 
A most vigorous campaign [to host the Columbian Exposition] was then inaugurated, the three other cities making a common cause against Washington, whose claim was based on the fact that the proposed exposition was to be held under auspices of the national government, and hence that the capital was the most appropriate place.... By each of the claimants every advantage was urged, and by each of their rivals every defect was exaggerated. Congressional committees accorded a hearing to the several delegations, that of Chicago being represented, among others, by DeWitt C. Cregier, Thomas B. Bryan, and Edward T. Jeffery. from "Book of the Fair" by Hubert Bancroft, 1893.
:"Scuttlebutt" is a very close equivalent to "water-cooler gossip." [http://www.jacksjoint.com/sailor_terminology.htm Here is a glossary] of nautical terms with some of the etymologies.

'''''Inconvenience''''' 
Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold, Impulsive, and the Susanna Squaducci (''V.''), and the John E. Badass (''GR''). Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-single-up-all-lines.html notes] that the British Royal Navy has a long tradition of warships with names like Impulsive, Incendiary, Inconstant, Indignant, etc.

Here a possible pun on the homonym "in" ("not", as "in-credible", or just "in", as "in-side"); "in-convenience" is a fitting name for a vehicle ("convey in").

In other Pynchon novels: 1) In ''Mason & Dixon'', the H.M.S. Inconvenience is the ship of Fender-Belly Bodine. [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience More]. 2) In ''Mason & Dixon'', the word is applied to the difficulties of an Other, other human beings as we act, interact. See citations at the ''M & D'' wiki. 2) In ''Gravity's Rainbow'': "the gift of Daedalus that allowed him [Pokler] to put as much labyrinth as required between himself and the
''inconveniences of caring''. [Italics mine] They had sold him convenience, so much of it, all on credit, and now They were collecting." (435)

'''patriotic bunting''' 
TRP reminds again that this is a very American skyship. Compare the Chums' uniform below. 

AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's "Ragtime": Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood.

'''aeronautics''' 
It has been suggested that Pynchon relied to the Britannica 11th as a major reference for his treatment of early aeronautics. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Aeronautics|Brittanica 11th on Aeronautics] 

'''five-lad crew''' 
Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly.

'''The [[Chums of Chance]]''' 
To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, adventurous, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident.

The names of the Chums may also be derived from famous Jazz musicians: Miles (Davis), Chick (Corea), Darby (Hicks), (Boots) Randolph, and (Vachel) Lindsay (a stretch here?), notes the [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-single-up-all-lines.html#c116587978292060684 Chumps of Choice blog].

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."

[[image:dart-explorigator.jpg|thumb|120px|right]]The Chums are reminiscent of two comics of the early 20th century, [[Little Nemo|''Little Nemo in Slumberland'']], by Windsor McCay, and ''The Explorigator'', by Harry Grant Dart. "The Explorigator" was the name of a fantastic airship that traversed the universe. It was manned by Admiral Fudge, a youthful adventurer and inventor, accompanied by a group of friends, also children his age (around nine or ten): Detective Rubbersole, Maurice Mizzentop, Nicholas Nohooks, Grenadier Shift, Teddy Typewriter, and Ah Fergetitt. [[The Explorigator|More on ''The Explorigator'']]

'''Chicago''' 
It has been suggested that Pynchon relied on the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/ 1911 Edition of the Encycl[[http://www.example.com link title]]opaedia Britannica] as a major reference for his treatment of 1890s Chicago. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago 1911 Britannica entry on Chicago]

'''World's Columbian Exposition''' 
also called The Chicago World's Fair, was held in 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. The International Exposition was held in a building which for the first time was devoted to electrical exhibits. It was a historical moment and the beginning of a revolution, as Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse introduced the public to electrical power by providing alternating current to illuminate the Exposition. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_Columbian_Exposition Wikipedia entry]. This World's Fair was enveloped in optimism for the future. "The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there." p.3. See also the 2004 bestseller, ''The Devil in the White City'', a non-fiction work that details the building of the Fair, the growth of Chicago, and the first serial murderer in America.

'''Ferris wheel''' 
The first of its kind, designed for the Exposition [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferris_wheel]

'''...temples of commerce and industry''' 
evocative of Chicago's Museum of ''Science and Industry'', which rests on the very site of the Exposition's White City, overlooking its "sparkling lagoon" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Science_and_Industry_(Chicago)]. A central theme of the text is the relationship between Science and Commerce.

'''Since their orders had come through . . .''' 
A first intimation of the shadowy power structure behind the Chums' operations.

'''lifelines''' 
Called "manropes" on sailing ships. Ropes running fore-and-aft above the gunwales to prevent sailors getting blown overboard. They were held up by short stanchions inserted into holes in the rails. Source: ''The Ashley Book of Knots,'' 1944.

'''as my faithful readers will remember''' 
Pynchon here is immediately inserting this story into a larger canon of Chums of Chance fictions, titles of which are mentioned in subsequent pages.

'''mascotte''' 
The English word 'mascot' has its origin from French mascotte: an operetta first performed in 1880 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_mascotte], with the virginal mascotte a sort of good luck charmer. The spelling may also be a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 Wikipedia]

==Page 4==

'''Professor''' 
Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor.
"Professor" was a common title for early hot-air balloonists. [EC]

'''"Turn to"''' 
a shipboard expression, "put your back into it". Evokes the "Go to!" of Majistral and compatriots, ''V.'', chapter 11.

'''"a form of monomania"''' 
an overdetermined obsession with a single idea or goal. In ''Moby Dick,'' which Pynchon references in several of his novels, Ahab suffers from monomania in his obsessive quest for the white whale; aboard the ''Inconvenience,'' Lindsay Noseworth is a parodic version of the Melvillian disciplinary autocrat, exemplified by Ahab or, even more, by Claggart, the Master-at-Arms in ''Billy Budd.'' --[[User:POD|POD]] 16:07, 9 June 2009 (PDT)

'''Perhaps its familiarity... rendered it temporarily invisible to you." 
Perhaps an admonition from the author that familiar things will be easily overlooked?
I think the fact that they were picnic baskets matters... TRP perhaps saying, as he seems to suggest elsewhere, that we overlook the simple pleasures too often.
:There's more to this, as becomes apparent shortly. Here are more opposites; things seen vs unseen, visible vs. invisible.

'''Chick Counterfly''' 
Rich with meaning or just another goofy Pynchon name? Some possibilities include: (1) A counter fly is an annoyance in (say) the butcher's shop. (2) Chick always speaks "counter" to anyone else's "flight" of imagery. (3) The only non-''AtD''-related uses of this word that I've found came in patents describing mechanisms; "the counterfly direction" means contrary to the direction everything else is flying in, hence this character counters the flying of the craft? (4) He is the only Chum we know who was "rescued" from the "real" world. Meaning there? To be counter to flying is to be earthbound, where he started and he is the one with whom the conversation about relanding on a different "earth" happens.

==Page 5==
'''picklesome''' 
Having the nature of a pickle, i.e, a boy who is inclined to mischief.

'''Pugnax''' 
'Pugnax' is Latin for, "combative, fond of fighting, stubborn, contentious" (i.e. one who is pugnacious). Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent Pynchon dog, the Learned English Dog (referred to as "LED") in ''Mason & Dixon''. Perhaps Pugnax is the Chums's sixth "lad": "Learned American Dog." His manner of speech is somewhat reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0612&msg=112507&sort=date members of PYNCHON-L] have speculated that his eyebrows and reading habits allude to Gromit, from the [http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/ Wallace and Gromit] claymation films.

Perhaps, in keeping with a very strong [[Birds|"bird" theme]] (the original aeronauts!) in ''Against the Day'', Pynchon may have named Pugnax after a bird called the Ruff (''Philomachus pugnax'') which is a medium-sized wader. Note that Pugnax's first "utterance" is "Rr Rff-rff Rr-rr-rff-rrf-rrf"... You can even make a semiserious case that the Aeronauts are named for a bird, the white-throated swift, ''Aeronautes saxatalis'' [[ATD_243-272#Page_266|(mentioned on p. 266)]].

'''"...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')..."''' 
This could be seen as a criticism of an American President, present or past. President Bush is a candidate, considering the Pynchon-authored [[Against the Day description|Amazon.com book description]] which included "With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

The Chums "rescued Pugnax, then but a pup"--an innocent, a child creature--"from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs".
The wild dogs equal both political parties?

'''Washington Monument''' 
Begun 1848, completed 1884 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_monument]]

'''lavatorial assaults''' 
recalls jokes and urban legends regarding frozen waste from leaky airplane lavatories (i.e., "you can still be hit by an icy B.M.")

Loosely reminiscent of the V-2 rockets in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', "from the sky, which no one can "begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of"... That is, pee from the sky is "folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious" in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.

==Page 6==

'''''Princess Casamassima''''' 
''The Princess Casamassima'' is an 1886 novel by Henry James. It is the story of an intelligent but confused young London bookbinder, Hyacinth Robinson, who becomes involved in radical politics and a terrorist assassination plot. The novel certainly does have notable relevance in today's climate of terrorism and political violence. While the book's details are not directly applicable to current issues, the central theme admiration for the beautiful if imperfect world vs. a desire to change it through terrorism will seem all too familiar to contemporary readers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Casamassima Wikipedia] [[Princess Casamassima|Discussion of ''The Princess Casamassima'']]

'''Placing . . . an emphasis''' 
Lapse of authorial control? Surely the creator of the ''Chums'' novels would not write such a Pynchonian sentence fragment!

'''Pugnax sniffed . . . as always this scent eluded him''' 
It is unclear so far why Pugnax would detect no scent from Lindsay.

'''''Krakatoa''''' 
Erupted 1883. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa Wikipedia entry.]

'''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven''' 
Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. "Vanderjuice" is a Dutch-sounding name suggesting "fond o' juice," "wonder juice", and "wander juice". "Heino" is a man's given name [http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=heino meaning 'home'] in German, Dutch, Finnish, and Estonian. Perhaps an allusion to the German pop star, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heino Heino].

'''no better than a perpetual-motion machine''' 
A perpetual-motion machine is not just one that runs forever, but one that ''performs work'' forever without any input of energy. All PM machines ever invented have been either hoaxes ("secret free energy source the government doesn't want you to know about") or mistakes. The hydrogen generator/engine is neither, which is why the disdainful phrase "no better than" is crucial.

By the way, how does one generate hydrogen? In high school chem lab we used zinc filings and hydrochloric acid, but that seems unsuitable with Miles around. Is it possible Vanderjuice has invented a photovoltaic electrolysis cell?

'''Miles, with his marginal gifts of coördination, and Chick, with a want of alacrity fully as perceptible''' 
Like the old gag: The food in this restaurant isn't any good, but the service is awful. Miles and Chick's telepathic intercourse during Bitches Brew era.

'''ratlines and shrouds''' 
''Inconvenience'' is rigged like a sailing ship of the period, though it's hard to see why she needs to be. Shrouds fan out from a masthead down to a rail; ratlines run horizontally to join them. The whole affair serves the sailors as a ladder.

'''". . . anemometer of the Robinson's type"''' 
Cup anemometer (> Grk. ''anemos,'' "wind"; cf. Lat. ''animus,'' "spirit") invented in 1846 by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thomas_Romney_Robinson Dr. John Thomas Romney Robinson]. Cup anemometers are still commonly used to measure wind speed because of their simplicity and reliability in a variety of environmental conditions. [http://www.arm.ac.uk/annrep/annrep2000/node13.html pic]

'''how rapidly the ship was proceeding''' 
But you can't measure the craft's progress by measuring wind speed at a point on the craft itself. All you get from the anemometer is a speed relative to the air, which is in variable motion. Since the craft is moving at the speed of the wind plus the speed of its propulsion device, the speed found by the anemometer is basically useless.

==Page 7==

'''Porfirio Díaz''' 
President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]

In most countries, the Interior Ministry (Ministry of Internal Affairs, Home Office, etc.) ran programs like secret police. Are the Chums working for forces of conservativism?

'''"beside a black-water river of the Deep South". 
Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south; but there are numerous rivers in swampy areas that run black with organic matter. 
Given that it was founded in 1997, and is military-related and in the South, see ''Blackwater USA'', a private military company founded by Erik Prince and Al Clark.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_USA]
Thousands of news stories in September/October 2007.

'''a bitter and unresolved "piece of business"''' 
Rather than give a proper reason for the Chums to be in the Deep South, the narrator cops out by pleading that it's "not advisable" to specify.
:It's not a cop-out, it sets the question of what is going on in the mysterious organization to which the Chums belong.

'''"the Rebellion of thirty years previous"''' 
The Civil War ended in 1865. The South called the Civil War "the war between the states" to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it "the Rebellion" and thus the soldiers were "rebels" or "rebs." The official papers of the war have the title of "Official Records of the War of Rebellion," emphasizing that the South had no right to secede.

'''"one still not advisable to set upon one's page"''' 
The American Civil War, that "rebellion of thirty years previous," has not yet become a suitable subject for an adventure tale such as the Chums' series.

'''absquatulated''' 
Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, "to go off and squat somewhere else." [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm A brief article] on the history and etymology of "absquatulate." 
The word is used in [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Vineland''].

'''commonly known as "Dick"''' 
So together they would be Chick with Dick.

'''to approach the gates of the Penitentiary''' 
A genuine saying. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Quay Matthew Quay,] a political kingmaker of the 1880s and 90s, said of Benjamin Harrison's squeaker victory over Grover Cleveland in 1888 that Harrison would "never know how many Republicans were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president."

'''posse comitatus''' 
What Western movie fans know as a "posse," i.e., citizens conscripted by a sheriff to assist in law enforcement. (See the Wikipedia entry on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_comitatus_(common_law) Posse Comitatus].) Remember that the ''Chums'' author gets paid by the word.

==Page 8==

'''a pocketful of specie''' 
Specie means coins as opposed to paper money.

'''the town of Thick Bush''' 
Aside from whether this phrase might apply to some political figure of the past or present, "thick bush" is the literal meaning of the Spanish Matagorda, the name of many towns in Latin America and one on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

'''carpetbagger''' 
A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpetbagger carpetbagger] is a derogatory term used by southerns to describe northerners who, like Dick, move down South.

'''"which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched"''' 
Like the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_directive Prime Directive] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek ''Star Trek'']. Lindsay's fussy syntax echoes Winston Churchill's exasperated "This is the kind of carping criticism up with which I will not put."

'''legal customs''' 
Legal = pertaining to law, in this case lynch law. The Chums are interpreting their Prime Directive pretty broadly here.

'''Katie bar the door''' 
An expression that means that there's trouble brewing. (See [http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kat1.htm this article] about the expression's etymology.)

'''Ku Klux Klan''' 
Reminiscent of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan Klan] encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' ''O Brother, Where Art Thou''.

'''tupelo, cypress, and hickory''' 
The trees are no help in locating the town; all three kinds like bottom land and grow all over the South.

'''speed . . . made it nearly invisible from the ground''' 
Few people in 1893 had seen a manmade object moving at 60 miles an hour, and many thought such a speed was lethal anyway. The ''Chums'' author suggests such an outlandish speed would make ''Inconvenience'' just a blur in the sky. Of course you can read the fin numbers on an airliner landing at 150 knots, but he didn't know that.

''Pedantry alert:'' In perfectly transparent air a ship flying a mile off the ground is visible about 125 miles away. If its flight path takes it right over your head, you can follow it for 250 miles. If it is making a groundspeed of 60 miles per hour, it takes 4 hours and change to go from horizon to horizon. In typical "clear" air (visibility say 30 miles), you will see the ship in your sky for a solid hour. These rough figures show how wrong the narrator is about speed.

'''way better than a mile a minute''' 
The Chums' point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning "wind blowing from the south." The Chums surpass 60 miles an hour here, but as their previous speed was unknown, it's difficult to know where they were leaving from. (New Orleans to Chicago is 834 miles, slightly less than 14 hours at 60 miles/hour, so a possibility.)

'''"Crackerjack!" exclaimed Chick.''' 
Cracker Jack, the food, was first sold at the Chicago Exhibition of 1893, though it did not bear its present name. As one word here, however, it is not the candy: "Crackerjack" entered English first as a noun referring to "a person or thing of marked excellence," then as an adjective. The foodstuff gained its present name, according to the [http://www.crackerjack.com/history.php official Cracker Jack website], in 1896. The OED lists the first written use of "crackerjack" as 1895, two years after the present scene. It is by no means impossible, however, that the term would have been current in the spoken language in 1893.

'''"rookies"''' 
Again, the vocabulary is carefully chosen from the narrative period: wikipedia, citing the OED, "the earliest example [of 'rookie']... is from Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads (published 1892): So 'ark an' 'eed, you rookies, which is always grumblin' sore'"

==Page 9==

'''locker''' 
On board ship, any cabinet with a door or lid.

'''"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 [[Against_the_Day_description|book description]] 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. 
Cf. Pynchon's own relevant words in the introduction to Slow Learner. He remarks that in non-realistic fiction, he had to learn that not anything went.

A-and it must mean, coming from the commander, that all aboard the ''Inconvenience'' are also subject to the 'facts' of the world. "The World is All that is the Case", from Wittgenstein. [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=W]

'''"Going up is like going north."''' 
Air gets cooler as the ship ascends into higher altitudes, and therefore like travelling northward. This page also suggests some further mystery of the Chums may be revealed to Chick and the reader in time.

North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life coldness as here compared to the South.

==Page 10==
'''Columbian Exposition''' 
aka The Chicago World's Fair. It was called "Columbian" because it was supposed to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in North America. They missed it by a year because of delays.

'''butchery unremitting''' 
One is reminded of Carl Sandburg's [http://carl-sandburg.com/chicago.htm famous poem] about Chicago. The first line: "Hog butcher for the world."

'''rationalized into movement only in straight lines and at right angles and a progressive reduction of choices, until the final turn through the final gate that led to the killing-floor.''' 

See [[#Page 3| p.3 entry, above]] for a comparison of this passage with "single up all lines." The Rationalization/Routinization of Charisma is a common trope in Pynchon, particularly in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Routinization_of_Charisma ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

==Page 11==

'''plummet''' 
In the real world, this might be bad physics, as closing the valve wouldn't slow the descent. Objects in a fluid medium like air float if their weight is less than the weight of the fluid they displace (hence why one fills a balloon with a light gas such as hydrogen or helium). Once the ''Inconvenience'' loses its buoyancy, it will continue to fall, unless its weight is reduced to what a lesser amount of hydrogen could support. The Inconvenience, however, has a hydrogen producing apparatus that could kick in, slow, and eventually stop their descent.

'''bear a hand''' 
Nautical: help out.

==Page 12==

'''Liverpool Kiss''' 
A head butt.

'''''your'' mother''' 
A possible forerunner to the "yo mama" jokes, which appear in ''Mason & Dixon'' (pg. 445) and ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_10 (pg. 155)]. See also pg. 48 of this novel.

'''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].

'''''Mr.'' Noseworth''' 
Lindsay insisting on proper naval forms: an ensign, lieutenant (junior grade), lieutenant or lieutenant commander in the U.S. navy is correctly addressed as "Mister Surname."

'''"topological genius"''' 
Riemann's differential geometry goes beyond the Cartesian grid. See conic sections and dimensionality above, page 10.

==Page 13==

'''There was an "eager stampede" to the rail''' 
Why is eager stampede in quotation marks? The sentence reads fine without it. Does it seem to show ironic knowingness on the part of the narrator? If so, why and who is the narrator?
: I suspect this is a stylistic device from the turn of the century light literature that Pynchon is emulating-- placing a novel term in quotation marks. [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 01:35, 23 December 2006 (PST)

:insightfully true, I suspect, but it still shows 'narratorial knowingness', yes?

: Cf. Flaubert's use of quotations in ''Madame Bovary'' to isolate what he deemed the contemptible argot of the bourgeoisie.

::Apparently not a cliche: [http://books.google.com//books?num=100&q=eager.stampede&as_brr=0 GoogleBooks]

'''"...among the brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast bags..."''' 
Recalls the opening line of ''Mason & Dixon'': "Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr‘d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins..."

'''"...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure."''' 
This is strikingly reminiscent of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odilon_Redon Odilon Redon's] 1882 Lithograph ''L'Oeil, comme un ballon bizarre se dirige vers l'infini (The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity).'' [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ADE%3AI%3A2&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]
Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.
:The Odilon Redon lithograph appears on the cover of the 1998 Vintage paperback edition of Ian McEwan's Enduring Love, whose first unforgettable chapter triggers the novel with a ballooning incident leaving the reader dangling over the edge of suspense and suspension.

The giant eyeball is also [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:We_never_sleep.jpg the logo] of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which plays an important role later in the novel. A similar image appears in ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#Page_14 (pg. 14)].

Not to mention a potent symbol from classic 1960s counterculture, often associated with psychedelia and the Grateful Dead _ yet another proud American institution with a penchant for hidden meanings, obsession with minute symbolic details, and many passionate followers. From what Deadheads have told me, the Flying Eyeball symbol is associated with both dissociative drugs and Zen Buddhist thinking _ the detached observer free of an ego and all physical entrapments, the traveling trickster-voyeur, the absolutely freed soul.

'''the indecorous couple . . . foliage''' 
Adam and Eve? We have a man and a naked woman hiding in the foliage from an all-seeing eye in the sky.

==Page 14==

'''charmed into docility''' 
If it took only one small lad to moor the ship, she was indeed docile. A wiki contributor once saw a Goodyear blimp in Houston, Texas, landing. The craft had half a dozen long falls of rope hanging from her nose, and a ground crew of nearly two dozen men ready to take hold of them. The blimp approached nose-low, the crew took the ropes, and a gust of wind suddenly moved the ship. The crew chief gave a safety command and all the men let loose their ropes at once. On the third pass, all hands working together managed to stop the ship and get her moored. If ''Inconvenience'' was a fraction as changeable and hard to control, Darby made a great job of getting the ship staked out by himself.

'''Jacob's-ladder''' 
Used here as "a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs" (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:

Genesis 28:12 And he [Jacob] dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. (King James version)

'''a giant sack of soiled laundry''' 
Perhaps ''freshly'' soiled during the great hydrogen valve disaster.

'''''vol-à-voile''''' 
The narrator has turned the French phrase ''vol-à-voiles'' (gliding) into a verb (removing the ''s'').

'''gold-beaters' skin''' 
Very thin vellum (membrane taken from the caecum or blind stomach of an ox). To prepare gold for gilding, it was placed between sheets of vellum and hammered thin.

'''Evening Quarters''' 
Naval practice of mustering the crew at the end of the day's work.

'''Hawaii''' 
Hawaii appears in ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_12#Page_191 (p. 191)] and ''Vineland'' [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_5#Page_60 {pg. 60)] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=H ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

==Page 15==

'''ukulelist''' 
Ukuleles ([http://www.thomaspynchon.com/hawaiian-vacations-pynchon.html and Hawaii references]) also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', ''Vineland'', and ''Mason & Dixon''. According to Jules Siegel's article, "Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?", Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college. [[Hawaii|More on Hawaii &c. in ''Against the Day'']]...

'''Vagabonds of the Void''' 
The song performed by the Chums of Chance reflects the Rock and Roll attitude of the group towards the groundworld upon arrival. It's also the first time in the book we truly encounter the hipness of the group with some sort of Nine Inch Nails fronting edge to it. 

[[image:Macassar-Oil.jpg|thumb|175px|''Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads''|right]]'''Beaufort Scale''' 
A scale for measuring wind strength, developed 1805.

'''"Let the lightning lash ~ And the thunder trash" 
Again, the Chums are rock stars, the coolest cats in town.

'''"...forty-four buttons...one for each State of the Union." 
Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the union in 1890. Recall the patriotic bunting and red-white-blue uniforms of the opening page.

'''port section of the crew''' 
The half of the crew permitted to go freely ashore this time. The other half tomorrow. "Port" and "starboard": are these simply either/or words that sailors remember easily?

'''Macassar oil''' 
Macassar oil is an oil used primarily by men in Victorian and Edwardian times to smooth their hair. It was advertised as containing oil from Macassar, which is the former name of Ujung Pandang, a district on the island of Celebes in Indonesia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macassar_oil Wikipedia entry]
 This is why the ornamental doily-like linen cloths on the upper backs and arms of upholstered furniture were called '''''antimacassars'''''.

==Page 16==

'''mufti''' 
civvies, with an Arabic root [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mufti_(dress)]

'''ascot''' 
formal morning dress of the period, with a later counter-culture comeback (witness Fred in Scooby Doo) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascot_tie]

'''Kentucky hemp''' 
hemp was once a primary cash crop of Kentucky[http://www.kentuckyhemp.com/library/museum.html]; and, given Randy St. Cosmo's dual nature, a further counter-culture reference may be detected.

'''About the fringes,' Randolph reminded the liberty-goers, 'of any gathering on the scale of this Exposition, are apt to lurk vicious and debased elements, whose sole aim is to take advantage of the unwary.''' 
Indeed, the Chicago World's Fair was haunted by one of America's more prolific and original serial killers, H.H. Holmes. Born in 1861, Holmes came to Chicago as a pharmacist and built an office building that was eventually dubbed 'The Castle'. Consisting of commercial stores on the first floor, and offices and apartments on the upper floors, the building also housed hidden rooms where Holmes murdered his victims, chutes that conveyed the bodies to the basement, and a chamber of horrors in the basement where he destroyed the corpses. Holmes took advantage of the World's Columbian Exposition to lure victims, primarily females who had come unaccompanied to Chicago, to the Castle for torture and murder. It is estimated that he killed over 200 people at the Castle while the Exposition was in operation. Two very good books about Holmes are The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson and Depraved by Harold Schechter. It is doubtful that Pynchon was thinking explicitly of Holmes when he wrote this passage, although he must be aware of the story. Randolph could not have known about Holmes since Holmes was not captured until after the Fair was over. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._H.H._Holmes Wikipedia entry] 

This also sets up oppositions between dark vs light (of the White City), order vs disorder; good vs evil.

'''tension of the gas''' 
I.e., the pressure in the bag.

==Page 17==

'''"as if it were something the stripling had only read about, in some boys' book of adventures...as if that page of their chronicles lay turned and done"''' 
The narrator makes us aware that Darby's adventures are as if/will be written down...the 'reality' of almost killing all of them is now just words on a page.

'''"and the order 'About-face' had been uttered by some potent though invisible Commandant of Earthly Days, toward whom Darby, in amiable obedience, had turned again."''' 
Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to
all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? 
:Related Q: Do the Chums receive their orders from the author of their books?

'''we were usually out the door and on the main road''' 
Dick and Chick knew the judge was more likely to order them out of town than into the lockup.

'''Chinese foofooraw''' 
Also spelled foofaraw, a great deal of fuss, or useless frills. Cf folderol. However, why Chinese?
:Chick's father tried to sell Mississippi to a Chinese syndicate.

'''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 an herbal remedy. [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/pepper The Free Dictionary] Also appears in ''Gravity's Rainbow,'' page 118.

'''"...goldurn Keeley Cure"''' 
A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of "bichloride" or "double chloride" of gold, and also known as the "gold cure" (note the curious use of the euphemism 'goldurn' for 'goddamn' and the recurring preoccupation with the gold standard). Named for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Keeley Dr. Leslie E. Keeley,] who opened the first of many Keeley Institutes in [http://www.dwighthigh.k12.il.us/dwight/dwight.htm Dwight, Illinois], not far from Chicago, in 1879.

==Page 18==

'''headgear''' 
Description vaguely reminiscent of "Madame Bovary". [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]

'''indigo''' 
An influential and ancient dye, not synthetic until 1878 (commercially 1897)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_dye]. Dare we mention the indigo and scarlet (πορφυροῦν καὶ κόκκινον) of Revelation 17.4's 'great prostitute'? The colors, at least, seem more ancient than the Chums' red-white-blues (and the Chums are "runts of the organization", p. 19); add in the oriental fez reference with the Shriners' Masonic/Arabic overtones [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shriners] and Arabic Mohair (angora goat, easily dyed)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohair]

'''eclipse green''' 
Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]

'''Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.''' 
Bindlestiff means hobo; hence, the Hoboes of the Sky Aeronautical Club.

'''("Penny") Black''' 
The Penny Black was the world's first official adhesive postage stamp, issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1840. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black Wikipedia entry]; See also [[ATD_219-242#Page 231|p.231]].

'''Tzigane''' 
French for "gypsy". Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) Wikipedia entry]

'''Egypt''' 
Little Egypt is the southern area of the state of Illinois in the United States of America. Named so because it has a considerable river delta and a metropolis called Cairo (KAY-roe). The region is and was sometimes called simply "Egypt," especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) Wikipedia entry]

==Page 19==

'''goin all blue from the light of that electric fluid''' 
Their ship was beset by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo%27s_fire St. Elmo's fire,] a low-energy electrical discharge often seen on surface vessels and occasionally on aircraft. Electric charge does behave in some respects like a fluid and was long described in such terms.

'''Voices calling out together''' 
There is no reason to doubt they heard the voices, but an aural hallucination is not out of the question: a chorus of voices is one of the easiest effects to produce with a synthesizer.

[[image:balloons-paris.jpg|thumb|200px|Garçons de '71|right]]'''Garçons de '71''' 
French: The Boys of '71; During the Siege of Paris in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War Franco-Prussian War], 1870-1871, balloons were manufactured within railroad stations in Paris. The balloons were used to get mail and passengers out of Paris. The ''Garçons de '71'' are a (probably) fictional cadre of young men who operated such balloons [[Garçons de '71|Read on...]]

'''a condition of ''permanent siege''''' 
Surely no one has failed to notice what a "wartime president" is allowed to get away with. "No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

'''pétroleurs de Paris''' 
An early form of Molotov cocktail thrower during the Siege of Paris. There were pétroleurs and pétroleuses.

==Page 20==

'''they'll fly wherever they're needed''' 
While the Chums obey orders from above, the Garçons de '71 follow a different imperative.

'''energy we could feel, directed personally at us''' 
Someone may be trying to influence what the Bindlestiffs do, or keep them away from the Garçons' work of mercy.

==Page 21==

'''electrical glow of the Fair''' 
Electricity played an important role at the Fair. There was a battle between Edison's direct current and Tesla's alternating current. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition#Electricity_at_the_fair here].

'''admissions gate''' 
Apparently a break in the fence, capitalized on by freelance impresarios.

'''fifty-cent pieces''' 
Odd. According to [http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Columbian/columbian.html this remarkable Columbian Exposition site,] regular admission was just half a dollar. Maybe Lindsay and Miles could have negotiated with the midget.[The link is broken.]

==Page 22==
'''quatercentennial celebration''' 
The Fair was supposed to take place in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in North America. That's why it's called the "World's Columbian Exposition."

'''Columbus's advent''' 
"advent" means something like "arrival." It's often used in relation to Christmas, which is Christ's "advent."

'''music . . . unusually syncopated''' 
nascent jazz

'''Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show''' 
Buffalo Bill's show was very popular at the time, but for some reason he was not allowed to be part of the Fair, so he set up his own exhibition right near the Fair and drew a large audience. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill here].

'''''white'' exhibits . . darkness and savagery''' .
Nice play on whiteness here. The "White City" (the center of the Fair) was so called because of the white stucco used. But the novel points out here that whiteness (aka--cultural, racial whiteness) held the center of the fair while exhibits from people/cultures of color were relegated to the perimeters of the Fair--literally marginalized.

'''Kodaks''' 
The word Kodak was trademarked in 1888, and the first Kodak camera was sold with the slogan, "You press the button - we do the rest." In 1891, the company released the first daylight-loading camera, so film could be changed without a darkroom. Kodaks would have been a novelty at the fair in 1893.

'''half-light . . . in the interests of mercy . . . the safety of the lights''' 
Interesting contrast suggesting a tradeoff between comfort/solace in the shadows and safety in the bright light.

'''Isandhlwana''' 
Isandlwana is an isolated hill in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. On January 22, 1879, it was the site of the Battle of Isandlwana, where over 20,000 Zulu warriors defeated a contingent of British soldiers in the first engagement of the Anglo-Zulu War. Almost the entire column of about 1,200 British soldiers was killed. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isandhlwana [Wikipedia]] You will find a chapter on Isandhlwana in any book that has the words "military" and "blunders" in the title.

==Page 23==

'''Tarahumara''' 
Indian tribe of Northern New Mexico, in the Sierra Madres, known for cave-dwelling in the late 19th century. [[Tarahumare_Indians|About the Tarahumara]]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarahumara [Wikipedia]]

'''"geek"''' 
A geek's act comprised things no one would do who had not sunk all the way to the bottom of the carnie world: eating live creatures, throwing fits, and so forth. Much like the television show "Fear Factor," but sad rather than stultifying.

'''Negro in a "pork-pie" hat''' 
A type of hat made of felt or straw which has a cylindrical crown and flat top, originated in mid-19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork-pie_hat Wikipedia] What with all the jazz references in Pynchon's work, this may be a tip of the hat to Charles Mingus, composer of the timeless ''Goodbye Pork Pie Hat'', or Lester Young, to whom Mingus dedicated the tune. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye_Pork_Pie_Hat Wikipedia] In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', McMingus is a partner in a law firm representing Pierce Inverarity.

'''monte''' 
Three-card monte.

==Page 24==

'''the curse of Scotland''' 
A term used in poker, bridge and various other card games for the nine of diamonds. Dates from 1710. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curse_of_Scotland [Wikipedia]]

'''nine of diamonds''' 
The name of a club in ''Inherent Vice''. See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=N here]. The nine of diamonds is also famous for possibly being the fifth card in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bill_Hickok#Death "Dead Man's Hand"]. When Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead in 1876, he was playing poker. He was holding two pairs (aces and eights), which is called the "Dead Man's Hand." The fifth card was rumored to be a nine of diamonds.

'''like the electricity coming on... how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though.''' 
From something as random as calling out a card trick comes this extremely profound quote by Miles Blundell (full quote edited here). The heart of this quote/thought seems to be crucial.

What Miles describes is also the symptoms of a mild seizure - could he be epileptic? Epileptics were often credited with shamanic or prophetic powers, and many sightings of religious figures have been attributed to seizures. On [[#Page 4|page 4]], Miles is also said to suffer from "confusion in his motor processes", which may be related.

Although seizures are electrical discharges from the brain, epileptics rarely describe sensing electricity. They see altered light, hear altered sounds, or feel auras, though usually described as inside of themselves, not around them. They also feel confusion, not clarity. The full description seems to better represent that of a "peak experience", or a transcendental state. I also wonder whether, "Pretty soon, I'm just back to tripping over my feet again", refers to more earth-bound means of attaining mind-altered states.

This is one of several early suggestions that Miles and Lew Basnight experience similar states.

'''Cracker Jack''' 
First sold at the at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]

'''New Levee district''' 
Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]

'''Epworth League''' 
A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]

==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].

'''if the Governor decides to pardon that gang of anarchistic murderers''' 
In May of 1886, 350,000 workers, including 70,000 in Chicago were taking to the streets to rally for the eight hour work day. After four workers were killed by the police on May 3, the anarchist leaders in Chicago called for a meeting in Haymarket Square. Although the rally was peaceful, the police came in on horseback to break it up and an unknown individual in the crowd hurled a homemade bomb into the air. After the explosion, which killed a policeman, the police opened fire on the crowd. Subsequently, the anarchist leaders deemed responsible for the rally were arrested and tried for the murder of the policeman. The Eight men were convicted of the bombing and seven of them sentenced to death. Governor Richard J. Oglesby commuted two death sentences to life. Four were hanged and a fifth committed suicide. A later governor, John P. Altgeld, pardoned the three survivors on June 26, 1893, concluding that all eight of them were innocent. The last words of anarchist August Spies before he was hanged were 'The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.' Two very good books on the Haymarket Riot and the events surrounding it include The Haymarket Tragedy by Paul Avrich and Death In The Haymarket by James Green.

'''Pinkertons''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkertons Pinkerton National Detective Agency] was established in 1850 and soon became the most famous and ubiquitous detective agency in the country. At one point, there were more Pinkerton agents than US soldiers. They were especially used by federal and state agencies to break up union organizations and protests.

'''mixture of contempt and pity''' 
This is ''definitely'' not from one of the Chums' adventure stories.

'''embonpoint''' 
Convexity of body; what used to be called a "prosperous" look.

'''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. Many of the Marx Brothers early movies had animal references in the title: Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup. The titles usually had nothing at all to do with the plot, although they contributed to the lunatic nature of the comedy. The expression 'Horse Feathers' is used a few times later on in Against The Day.

==References==
<references />

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

ATD 1-25

2013-08-04T22:34:32Z

C-Melody: /* Page 3 */

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==cover text==
[[image:Ispar.jpg|right|thumb|125px|An alphabet viewed through Iceland spar ('birefringence')]]
Words viewed through the translucent crystal known as 'Iceland spar,' look like this-- with multiple 'ghost' images. Note that here, the ghost images appear in multiple typefaces. The combination of traditional serif fonts with modern sans-serif fonts suggests the themes of time, past/present, etc.

==cover seal==
The seal is written in Tibetan. Someone going by the name 'Ya Sam' [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0612&msg=112066&keywords=Namgyal posted] on the Pynchon-l message board:

"I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate
the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my
request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we
owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.

It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan
Government Chamber of Commerce.

Read their response below:

:Dear Ya Sam, 
:I showed the seal you sent to our Tibetan translator, Tenzin Namgyal. He says the word to word translation is: Tibetan Government Commerce Chamber in other words: Tibetan Government Chamber of commerce. Why Pynchon has chosen to place this on the cover of his book is anyones guess. Reading the book reviews gave no insight into the reason. Perhaps after one has read it?

:Best wishes,

:Sandy Belth 
:Tibetan Cultural Center"

The seal also bears some resemblance to the doubloon in ''Moby-Dick'' that Ahab nails to the mainmast as a prize to the first crew member to sight the white whale. Melville's description runs thus:

:"''It so chanced that the doubloon of the Pequod was a most wealthy example of these things. On its round border it bore the letters, REPUBLICA DEL ECUADOR: QUITO. So this bright coin came from a country planted in the middle of the world, and beneath the great equator, and named after it; and it had been cast midway up the Andes, in the unwaning clime that knows no autumn. Zoned by those letters you saw the likeness of three Andes' summits; from one a flame; a tower on another; on the third a crowing cock; while arching over all was a segment of the partitioned zodiac, the signs all marked with their usual cabalistics, and the keystone sun entering the equinoctial point at Libra.''" (Ch.99, "The Doubloon")

The seal draws attention in Pynchonian fashion to a rarely discussed aspect of Tibet. In the West Tibet is regarded as a land of mysticism and supernatural events, far removed from the materialistic concerns of the spiritually immature West. But the seal shows: even Tibet had a Chamber of Commerce. "There is money everywhere", even in Shambhala.

==copyright page==
The copyright page states that ''Against the Day'' is published by Viking Penguin, but on the title page and elsewhere we can read that the book is published by Penguin Press. The copyright pages of other books from Penguin Press state "Penguin Press" as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of "Penguin Press" with "Viking" is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]).
I have confirmed from inside Penguin Press that this is a copyediting mistake. Here is a direct e-mail answer about the Viking Penguin listing: "this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book."

==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 Fariña")-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words "Dedication TK" in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for "dedication to come." It is unknown whether Pynchon ever considered inclusion of a dedication or whether the publisher simply left the page open just in case, but the ultimate lack of a dedication may suggest that Pynchon feels he's thanked everyone he needs to thank.

==Epigraph==
'''"It's always night, or we wouldn't need light." - 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 “spent a lot of time in jazz clubs, nursing the two-beer minimum,” by his own admission (''Slow Learner'', Introduction). The Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/that-thelonious-monk-epigraph.html notes] that: 1) in his youth, Pynchon allegedly referred to Monk as a "God"; 2) [[file:Monk-Time-022864_cover.jpg|left|150px|caption|Time Magazine, Feb 28, 1964]]the character McClintic Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light" was apparently something Monk was given to saying, rather than something he once said.

On [[ATD_724-747#Page 732|page 732]]: "...daylit America ... its steadfast denial of night."

The epigraph's possible source: [http://aphelis.net/portrait-thelonious-monk-boris-chaliapin-1964/ Time magazine, February 28, 1964] article titled [http://www.monkzone.com/Profiles_interviews/Time%20Magazine%20article.htm “The Loneliest Monk”] written by Barry Farrell (pp. 84-88).

'''NOTE:''' There's no reason to believe that the above-linked article is the "possible source" of Monk's oft-repeated quote. Perhaps Pynchon saw this article, perhaps he encountered that quote via more esoteric channels. Whatever. It's all just speculation...

'''NOTE:''' Reading Charles Hollander's [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Does_McClintic_Sphere_in_V._stand_for_Thelonious_Monk%3F excellent article on Thelonious Monk and McClintic Sphere], a character in Pynchon's ''V.''.

==Page 1==
'''"Now single up all lines!""''' 
Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and "single up all lines" is a common nautical term. Ships are docked with lines doubled -- that is, with two sets of ropes or chains holding the vessel to the dock. To "single up all lines" is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.

But 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."

:"single up all lines" is used in its normal nautical context in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#single_up_all_lines ''V.'', pp. 11 and 438]; [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#single_up_all_lines ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.31]; [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_488-491#single_up_all_lines ''Gravity's Rainbow'', p.489]; [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258 ''Mason & Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]; [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_8#Page_119 ''Inherent Vice'', p. 119-120]. Perhaps we can understand this "line" as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''Vineland'']?) in preparation for a voyage to...?

Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling (with the word "Single"!) "single up all lines" as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: "only in straight lines and at right angles and a progressive reduction of choices, until the final turn through the final gate that led to the killing-floor." Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. Both represent "a progressive reduction of choices" a collapsing of many possibilities into one "reality." ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].

The missing quotation mark indicates continuation. Are we holding in our hands the latest boy's adventure tale featuring our favorites, "the Chums of Chance."? (While in all likelihood purely coincidental, it is nevertheless interesting to note the following from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake "boys to your bellybone and chuck a chum of chance!" p. 85 Penguin Books, 1999)

:The ''Finnegans Wake'' line you quote is actually "be British, boys to your bellybone and chuck a chum '''a''' chance!" but close enough anyway to suspect a source [[User:WikiAdmin|WikiAdmin]] 07:38, 16 April 2010 (PDT)

Henry Veggian in [http://boundary2.dukejournals.org/cgi/reprint/35/1/197.pdf his paper entitled "Thomas Pynchon Against the Day"] makes the same point:
:"The novel begins quietly, almost without irony, with a typographical lapse. A set of quotation marks are missing before the first lines of ''Against the Day''." Veggian playfully intimates that it is the authorial "hot air" which takes the "Inconvenience" aloft.

:'''The "missing quotation mark" is not a typo or any sort of Authorial Intention'''; it's simply the publisher's style for the large-font first letter of each section to stand outside the punctuation and font style. On page 588, there is no quotation mark before the "S" in "Smells" and on page 318 the "T" in "Tengo" is not italicized whereas the rest of the word is. Veggian's interpretation is a great example of reading a bit too much into Pynchon's work. I'm surprised that he missed something that seems to me fairly obvious. [[User:WikiAdmin|WikiAdmin]] 11:55, 4 April 2009 (PDT)

'''The Light Over the Ranges''' 
"Range" is defined in the ''Oxford American Dictionary'' as "a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest," so "range" or "ranges" can be used to denote a number of mountains. Some other connotations may include:

:'Ranges' may also refer to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. "Home, home on the range".

:"celebrating in song the wider range of life..." Thomas Pynchon on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Waddell Helen Waddell's] ''The Wandering Scholars'', p. 8, Introduction to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Learner ''Slow Learner], 1984.

:In addition, light over ranges is an issue throughout the novel: exploitation and development of electrical and electronics was a concern of the Raymond, Pynchon & Company and Pynchon and company, an investment firm run by yacht enthusiast George M. Pynchon. Pynchon & Company invested in Edison's work.

:I wonder whether "light over the ranges" could refer to space-time along the line of the theories of general relativity, particularly since the voyage of ''inconvenience'' appears at times to take place under that conceptual framework. In addition, keeping in mind Pynchon's educational background, I would add to the above definitions and considerations that "range" is also a mathematical concept.

==Page 3==

'''"Now single up all lines!"''' 
Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and "single up all lines" is a common nautical term. Ships are docked with lines doubled -- that is, with two sets of ropes or chains holding the vessel to the dock. To "single up all lines" is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.

But 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."

:"single up all lines" is used in its normal nautical context in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#single_up_all_lines ''V.'', p.11]; [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#single_up_all_lines ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.31]; [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_488-491#single_up_all_lines ''Gravity's Rainbow'', p.489]; and [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258 ''Mason & Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]. Perhaps we can understand this "line" as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''Vineland''] and ''Bleeding Edge'') in preparation for a voyage to...?

Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling (with the word "Single"!) "single up all lines" as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: "only in straight lines and at right angles and a progressive reduction of choices, until the final turn through the final gate that led to the killing-floor." Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. Both represent "a progressive reduction of choices" a collapsing of many possibilities into one "reality." ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].

'''"Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!"''' 
Cheerly means "heartily," and was traditionally used as cry of encouragement among sailors. Handsomely (in nautical context): carefully, in good order, unhurriedly.

:Pynchon uses nautical language in most of his novels. ''Mason & Dixon'': "Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads..." (54).

'''"Windy City, here we come!"''' 
The nickname for Chicago, of course; here of particular relevance, given the nature of the ship. The earliest known references to the "Windy City" are from 1876. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City,_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago)| Origin of name "Windy City" at Wikipedia]

'''"Up we go!"''' 
"Up" is an unexpected direction in the context of nautical language, and the anonymous character's observation gives the narrator an excuse to explain that this is no ordinary ship.

'''Randolph St. Cosmo, the ship commander''' 
[[image:ex-voti-isernia.jpg|thumb|175px|Ex voti of Wax, from Isernia|right]]Historically, there are two versions of the 3rd century CE figure St. Cosmo (aka St. Cosmas): the "randy" St. Cosmo, aka the "modern Priapus," and the saintly martyred St. Cosmo of Church lore (associated with healing cult, in some places succeeding Greek Askleipios cult). Pynchon, it seems, is connecting Randolph St. Cosmo to the former. "Randy," as astute observers will note, is an adjective which means, well, "horny." There's a distinct sexual thread woven throughout ''Against the Day'' [[The Sexual Angle|(See the ''beginnings'' of exploring this angle...]]) a-and Heartsease, St. Cosmo's mate, is the first to get pregnant! so this seems to fit right in. [[St. Cosmo|Read more about the historical St. Cosmo...]]; and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sts._Cosmas_and_Damian Wikipedia entry]; [[Randolph St. Cosmo|More on Randolph St. Cosmo]]

In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V#veery ''Mason & Dixon''], Pynchon has the Veery brothers, Cosmo and Damian, who are professional effigy makes in Philadelphia! And, just to make it interesting, "He's a rare Wax Artist, our Cosmo is." ([http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_29:_289-295#Page_290 p. 290]) (Note: Wax phallus effigies were offered by the women to St. Cosmo at the festivals held in his name, as shown above.) [[St. Cosmo|Read more about the historical St. Cosmo]]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sts._Cosmas_and_Damian Wikipedia entry]

The commander's name also evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in Chicago. Perhaps also saint(liness) and cosmos?

'''Now secure the Special Sky Detail''' 
When a naval vessel is departing from port or returning to port, a specially trained team is put in charge of the complicated process. The command is, [http://tpub.com/content/administration/12968a/css/12968a_41.htm "Now set the Special Sea Detail."] 'Once the ship is aloft and clear of ground obstructions, the command comes, "Now secure the Special Sky Detail," meaning disband the team for the time being and all return to regular duties.

'''"scuttlebutt" . . . thousand . . . wonders''' 
A most vigorous campaign [to host the Columbian Exposition] was then inaugurated, the three other cities making a common cause against Washington, whose claim was based on the fact that the proposed exposition was to be held under auspices of the national government, and hence that the capital was the most appropriate place.... By each of the claimants every advantage was urged, and by each of their rivals every defect was exaggerated. Congressional committees accorded a hearing to the several delegations, that of Chicago being represented, among others, by DeWitt C. Cregier, Thomas B. Bryan, and Edward T. Jeffery. from "Book of the Fair" by Hubert Bancroft, 1893.
:"Scuttlebutt" is a very close equivalent to "water-cooler gossip." [http://www.jacksjoint.com/sailor_terminology.htm Here is a glossary] of nautical terms with some of the etymologies.

'''''Inconvenience''''' 
Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold, Impulsive, and the Susanna Squaducci (''V.''), and the John E. Badass (''GR''). Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-single-up-all-lines.html notes] that the British Royal Navy has a long tradition of warships with names like Impulsive, Incendiary, Inconstant, Indignant, etc.

Here a possible pun on the homonym "in" ("not", as "in-credible", or just "in", as "in-side"); "in-convenience" is a fitting name for a vehicle ("convey in").

In other Pynchon novels: 1) In ''Mason & Dixon'', the H.M.S. Inconvenience is the ship of Fender-Belly Bodine. [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience More]. 2) In ''Mason & Dixon'', the word is applied to the difficulties of an Other, other human beings as we act, interact. See citations at the ''M & D'' wiki. 2) In ''Gravity's Rainbow'': "the gift of Daedalus that allowed him [Pokler] to put as much labyrinth as required between himself and the
''inconveniences of caring''. [Italics mine] They had sold him convenience, so much of it, all on credit, and now They were collecting." (435)

'''patriotic bunting''' 
TRP reminds again that this is a very American skyship. Compare the Chums' uniform below. 

AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's "Ragtime": Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood.

'''aeronautics''' 
It has been suggested that Pynchon relied to the Britannica 11th as a major reference for his treatment of early aeronautics. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Aeronautics|Brittanica 11th on Aeronautics] 

'''five-lad crew''' 
Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly.

'''The [[Chums of Chance]]''' 
To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, adventurous, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident.

The names of the Chums may also be derived from famous Jazz musicians: Miles (Davis), Chick (Corea), Darby (Hicks), (Boots) Randolph, and (Vachel) Lindsay (a stretch here?), notes the [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-single-up-all-lines.html#c116587978292060684 Chumps of Choice blog].

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."

[[image:dart-explorigator.jpg|thumb|120px|right]]The Chums are reminiscent of two comics of the early 20th century, [[Little Nemo|''Little Nemo in Slumberland'']], by Windsor McCay, and ''The Explorigator'', by Harry Grant Dart. "The Explorigator" was the name of a fantastic airship that traversed the universe. It was manned by Admiral Fudge, a youthful adventurer and inventor, accompanied by a group of friends, also children his age (around nine or ten): Detective Rubbersole, Maurice Mizzentop, Nicholas Nohooks, Grenadier Shift, Teddy Typewriter, and Ah Fergetitt. [[The Explorigator|More on ''The Explorigator'']]

'''Chicago''' 
It has been suggested that Pynchon relied on the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/ 1911 Edition of the Encycl[[http://www.example.com link title]]opaedia Britannica] as a major reference for his treatment of 1890s Chicago. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago 1911 Britannica entry on Chicago]

'''World's Columbian Exposition''' 
also called The Chicago World's Fair, was held in 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. The International Exposition was held in a building which for the first time was devoted to electrical exhibits. It was a historical moment and the beginning of a revolution, as Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse introduced the public to electrical power by providing alternating current to illuminate the Exposition. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_Columbian_Exposition Wikipedia entry]. This World's Fair was enveloped in optimism for the future. "The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there." p.3. See also the 2004 bestseller, ''The Devil in the White City'', a non-fiction work that details the building of the Fair, the growth of Chicago, and the first serial murderer in America.

'''Ferris wheel''' 
The first of its kind, designed for the Exposition [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferris_wheel]

'''...temples of commerce and industry''' 
evocative of Chicago's Museum of ''Science and Industry'', which rests on the very site of the Exposition's White City, overlooking its "sparkling lagoon" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Science_and_Industry_(Chicago)]. A central theme of the text is the relationship between Science and Commerce.

'''Since their orders had come through . . .''' 
A first intimation of the shadowy power structure behind the Chums' operations.

'''lifelines''' 
Called "manropes" on sailing ships. Ropes running fore-and-aft above the gunwales to prevent sailors getting blown overboard. They were held up by short stanchions inserted into holes in the rails. Source: ''The Ashley Book of Knots,'' 1944.

'''as my faithful readers will remember''' 
Pynchon here is immediately inserting this story into a larger canon of Chums of Chance fictions, titles of which are mentioned in subsequent pages.

'''mascotte''' 
The English word 'mascot' has its origin from French mascotte: an operetta first performed in 1880 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_mascotte], with the virginal mascotte a sort of good luck charmer. The spelling may also be a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 Wikipedia]

==Page 4==

'''Professor''' 
Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor.
"Professor" was a common title for early hot-air balloonists. [EC]

'''"Turn to"''' 
a shipboard expression, "put your back into it". Evokes the "Go to!" of Majistral and compatriots, ''V.'', chapter 11.

'''"a form of monomania"''' 
an overdetermined obsession with a single idea or goal. In ''Moby Dick,'' which Pynchon references in several of his novels, Ahab suffers from monomania in his obsessive quest for the white whale; aboard the ''Inconvenience,'' Lindsay Noseworth is a parodic version of the Melvillian disciplinary autocrat, exemplified by Ahab or, even more, by Claggart, the Master-at-Arms in ''Billy Budd.'' --[[User:POD|POD]] 16:07, 9 June 2009 (PDT)

'''Perhaps its familiarity... rendered it temporarily invisible to you." 
Perhaps an admonition from the author that familiar things will be easily overlooked?
I think the fact that they were picnic baskets matters... TRP perhaps saying, as he seems to suggest elsewhere, that we overlook the simple pleasures too often.
:There's more to this, as becomes apparent shortly. Here are more opposites; things seen vs unseen, visible vs. invisible.

'''Chick Counterfly''' 
Rich with meaning or just another goofy Pynchon name? Some possibilities include: (1) A counter fly is an annoyance in (say) the butcher's shop. (2) Chick always speaks "counter" to anyone else's "flight" of imagery. (3) The only non-''AtD''-related uses of this word that I've found came in patents describing mechanisms; "the counterfly direction" means contrary to the direction everything else is flying in, hence this character counters the flying of the craft? (4) He is the only Chum we know who was "rescued" from the "real" world. Meaning there? To be counter to flying is to be earthbound, where he started and he is the one with whom the conversation about relanding on a different "earth" happens.

==Page 5==
'''picklesome''' 
Having the nature of a pickle, i.e, a boy who is inclined to mischief.

'''Pugnax''' 
'Pugnax' is Latin for, "combative, fond of fighting, stubborn, contentious" (i.e. one who is pugnacious). Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent Pynchon dog, the Learned English Dog (referred to as "LED") in ''Mason & Dixon''. Perhaps Pugnax is the Chums's sixth "lad": "Learned American Dog." His manner of speech is somewhat reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0612&msg=112507&sort=date members of PYNCHON-L] have speculated that his eyebrows and reading habits allude to Gromit, from the [http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/ Wallace and Gromit] claymation films.

Perhaps, in keeping with a very strong [[Birds|"bird" theme]] (the original aeronauts!) in ''Against the Day'', Pynchon may have named Pugnax after a bird called the Ruff (''Philomachus pugnax'') which is a medium-sized wader. Note that Pugnax's first "utterance" is "Rr Rff-rff Rr-rr-rff-rrf-rrf"... You can even make a semiserious case that the Aeronauts are named for a bird, the white-throated swift, ''Aeronautes saxatalis'' [[ATD_243-272#Page_266|(mentioned on p. 266)]].

'''"...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')..."''' 
This could be seen as a criticism of an American President, present or past. President Bush is a candidate, considering the Pynchon-authored [[Against the Day description|Amazon.com book description]] which included "With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

The Chums "rescued Pugnax, then but a pup"--an innocent, a child creature--"from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs".
The wild dogs equal both political parties?

'''Washington Monument''' 
Begun 1848, completed 1884 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_monument]]

'''lavatorial assaults''' 
recalls jokes and urban legends regarding frozen waste from leaky airplane lavatories (i.e., "you can still be hit by an icy B.M.")

Loosely reminiscent of the V-2 rockets in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', "from the sky, which no one can "begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of"... That is, pee from the sky is "folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious" in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.

==Page 6==

'''''Princess Casamassima''''' 
''The Princess Casamassima'' is an 1886 novel by Henry James. It is the story of an intelligent but confused young London bookbinder, Hyacinth Robinson, who becomes involved in radical politics and a terrorist assassination plot. The novel certainly does have notable relevance in today's climate of terrorism and political violence. While the book's details are not directly applicable to current issues, the central theme admiration for the beautiful if imperfect world vs. a desire to change it through terrorism will seem all too familiar to contemporary readers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Casamassima Wikipedia] [[Princess Casamassima|Discussion of ''The Princess Casamassima'']]

'''Placing . . . an emphasis''' 
Lapse of authorial control? Surely the creator of the ''Chums'' novels would not write such a Pynchonian sentence fragment!

'''Pugnax sniffed . . . as always this scent eluded him''' 
It is unclear so far why Pugnax would detect no scent from Lindsay.

'''''Krakatoa''''' 
Erupted 1883. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa Wikipedia entry.]

'''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven''' 
Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. "Vanderjuice" is a Dutch-sounding name suggesting "fond o' juice," "wonder juice", and "wander juice". "Heino" is a man's given name [http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=heino meaning 'home'] in German, Dutch, Finnish, and Estonian. Perhaps an allusion to the German pop star, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heino Heino].

'''no better than a perpetual-motion machine''' 
A perpetual-motion machine is not just one that runs forever, but one that ''performs work'' forever without any input of energy. All PM machines ever invented have been either hoaxes ("secret free energy source the government doesn't want you to know about") or mistakes. The hydrogen generator/engine is neither, which is why the disdainful phrase "no better than" is crucial.

By the way, how does one generate hydrogen? In high school chem lab we used zinc filings and hydrochloric acid, but that seems unsuitable with Miles around. Is it possible Vanderjuice has invented a photovoltaic electrolysis cell?

'''Miles, with his marginal gifts of coördination, and Chick, with a want of alacrity fully as perceptible''' 
Like the old gag: The food in this restaurant isn't any good, but the service is awful. Miles and Chick's telepathic intercourse during Bitches Brew era.

'''ratlines and shrouds''' 
''Inconvenience'' is rigged like a sailing ship of the period, though it's hard to see why she needs to be. Shrouds fan out from a masthead down to a rail; ratlines run horizontally to join them. The whole affair serves the sailors as a ladder.

'''". . . anemometer of the Robinson's type"''' 
Cup anemometer (> Grk. ''anemos,'' "wind"; cf. Lat. ''animus,'' "spirit") invented in 1846 by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thomas_Romney_Robinson Dr. John Thomas Romney Robinson]. Cup anemometers are still commonly used to measure wind speed because of their simplicity and reliability in a variety of environmental conditions. [http://www.arm.ac.uk/annrep/annrep2000/node13.html pic]

'''how rapidly the ship was proceeding''' 
But you can't measure the craft's progress by measuring wind speed at a point on the craft itself. All you get from the anemometer is a speed relative to the air, which is in variable motion. Since the craft is moving at the speed of the wind plus the speed of its propulsion device, the speed found by the anemometer is basically useless.

==Page 7==

'''Porfirio Díaz''' 
President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]

In most countries, the Interior Ministry (Ministry of Internal Affairs, Home Office, etc.) ran programs like secret police. Are the Chums working for forces of conservativism?

'''"beside a black-water river of the Deep South". 
Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south; but there are numerous rivers in swampy areas that run black with organic matter. 
Given that it was founded in 1997, and is military-related and in the South, see ''Blackwater USA'', a private military company founded by Erik Prince and Al Clark.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_USA]
Thousands of news stories in September/October 2007.

'''a bitter and unresolved "piece of business"''' 
Rather than give a proper reason for the Chums to be in the Deep South, the narrator cops out by pleading that it's "not advisable" to specify.
:It's not a cop-out, it sets the question of what is going on in the mysterious organization to which the Chums belong.

'''"the Rebellion of thirty years previous"''' 
The Civil War ended in 1865. The South called the Civil War "the war between the states" to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it "the Rebellion" and thus the soldiers were "rebels" or "rebs." The official papers of the war have the title of "Official Records of the War of Rebellion," emphasizing that the South had no right to secede.

'''"one still not advisable to set upon one's page"''' 
The American Civil War, that "rebellion of thirty years previous," has not yet become a suitable subject for an adventure tale such as the Chums' series.

'''absquatulated''' 
Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, "to go off and squat somewhere else." [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm A brief article] on the history and etymology of "absquatulate." 
The word is used in [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Vineland''].

'''commonly known as "Dick"''' 
So together they would be Chick with Dick.

'''to approach the gates of the Penitentiary''' 
A genuine saying. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Quay Matthew Quay,] a political kingmaker of the 1880s and 90s, said of Benjamin Harrison's squeaker victory over Grover Cleveland in 1888 that Harrison would "never know how many Republicans were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president."

'''posse comitatus''' 
What Western movie fans know as a "posse," i.e., citizens conscripted by a sheriff to assist in law enforcement. (See the Wikipedia entry on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_comitatus_(common_law) Posse Comitatus].) Remember that the ''Chums'' author gets paid by the word.

==Page 8==

'''a pocketful of specie''' 
Specie means coins as opposed to paper money.

'''the town of Thick Bush''' 
Aside from whether this phrase might apply to some political figure of the past or present, "thick bush" is the literal meaning of the Spanish Matagorda, the name of many towns in Latin America and one on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

'''carpetbagger''' 
A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpetbagger carpetbagger] is a derogatory term used by southerns to describe northerners who, like Dick, move down South.

'''"which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched"''' 
Like the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_directive Prime Directive] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek ''Star Trek'']. Lindsay's fussy syntax echoes Winston Churchill's exasperated "This is the kind of carping criticism up with which I will not put."

'''legal customs''' 
Legal = pertaining to law, in this case lynch law. The Chums are interpreting their Prime Directive pretty broadly here.

'''Katie bar the door''' 
An expression that means that there's trouble brewing. (See [http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kat1.htm this article] about the expression's etymology.)

'''Ku Klux Klan''' 
Reminiscent of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan Klan] encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' ''O Brother, Where Art Thou''.

'''tupelo, cypress, and hickory''' 
The trees are no help in locating the town; all three kinds like bottom land and grow all over the South.

'''speed . . . made it nearly invisible from the ground''' 
Few people in 1893 had seen a manmade object moving at 60 miles an hour, and many thought such a speed was lethal anyway. The ''Chums'' author suggests such an outlandish speed would make ''Inconvenience'' just a blur in the sky. Of course you can read the fin numbers on an airliner landing at 150 knots, but he didn't know that.

''Pedantry alert:'' In perfectly transparent air a ship flying a mile off the ground is visible about 125 miles away. If its flight path takes it right over your head, you can follow it for 250 miles. If it is making a groundspeed of 60 miles per hour, it takes 4 hours and change to go from horizon to horizon. In typical "clear" air (visibility say 30 miles), you will see the ship in your sky for a solid hour. These rough figures show how wrong the narrator is about speed.

'''way better than a mile a minute''' 
The Chums' point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning "wind blowing from the south." The Chums surpass 60 miles an hour here, but as their previous speed was unknown, it's difficult to know where they were leaving from. (New Orleans to Chicago is 834 miles, slightly less than 14 hours at 60 miles/hour, so a possibility.)

'''"Crackerjack!" exclaimed Chick.''' 
Cracker Jack, the food, was first sold at the Chicago Exhibition of 1893, though it did not bear its present name. As one word here, however, it is not the candy: "Crackerjack" entered English first as a noun referring to "a person or thing of marked excellence," then as an adjective. The foodstuff gained its present name, according to the [http://www.crackerjack.com/history.php official Cracker Jack website], in 1896. The OED lists the first written use of "crackerjack" as 1895, two years after the present scene. It is by no means impossible, however, that the term would have been current in the spoken language in 1893.

'''"rookies"''' 
Again, the vocabulary is carefully chosen from the narrative period: wikipedia, citing the OED, "the earliest example [of 'rookie']... is from Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads (published 1892): So 'ark an' 'eed, you rookies, which is always grumblin' sore'"

==Page 9==

'''locker''' 
On board ship, any cabinet with a door or lid.

'''"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 [[Against_the_Day_description|book description]] 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. 
Cf. Pynchon's own relevant words in the introduction to Slow Learner. He remarks that in non-realistic fiction, he had to learn that not anything went.

A-and it must mean, coming from the commander, that all aboard the ''Inconvenience'' are also subject to the 'facts' of the world. "The World is All that is the Case", from Wittgenstein. [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=W]

'''"Going up is like going north."''' 
Air gets cooler as the ship ascends into higher altitudes, and therefore like travelling northward. This page also suggests some further mystery of the Chums may be revealed to Chick and the reader in time.

North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life coldness as here compared to the South.

==Page 10==
'''Columbian Exposition''' 
aka The Chicago World's Fair. It was called "Columbian" because it was supposed to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in North America. They missed it by a year because of delays.

'''butchery unremitting''' 
One is reminded of Carl Sandburg's [http://carl-sandburg.com/chicago.htm famous poem] about Chicago. The first line: "Hog butcher for the world."

'''rationalized into movement only in straight lines and at right angles and a progressive reduction of choices, until the final turn through the final gate that led to the killing-floor.''' 

See [[#Page 3| p.3 entry, above]] for a comparison of this passage with "single up all lines." The Rationalization/Routinization of Charisma is a common trope in Pynchon, particularly in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Routinization_of_Charisma ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

==Page 11==

'''plummet''' 
In the real world, this might be bad physics, as closing the valve wouldn't slow the descent. Objects in a fluid medium like air float if their weight is less than the weight of the fluid they displace (hence why one fills a balloon with a light gas such as hydrogen or helium). Once the ''Inconvenience'' loses its buoyancy, it will continue to fall, unless its weight is reduced to what a lesser amount of hydrogen could support. The Inconvenience, however, has a hydrogen producing apparatus that could kick in, slow, and eventually stop their descent.

'''bear a hand''' 
Nautical: help out.

==Page 12==

'''Liverpool Kiss''' 
A head butt.

'''''your'' mother''' 
A possible forerunner to the "yo mama" jokes, which appear in ''Mason & Dixon'' (pg. 445) and ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_10 (pg. 155)]. See also pg. 48 of this novel.

'''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].

'''''Mr.'' Noseworth''' 
Lindsay insisting on proper naval forms: an ensign, lieutenant (junior grade), lieutenant or lieutenant commander in the U.S. navy is correctly addressed as "Mister Surname."

'''"topological genius"''' 
Riemann's differential geometry goes beyond the Cartesian grid. See conic sections and dimensionality above, page 10.

==Page 13==

'''There was an "eager stampede" to the rail''' 
Why is eager stampede in quotation marks? The sentence reads fine without it. Does it seem to show ironic knowingness on the part of the narrator? If so, why and who is the narrator?
: I suspect this is a stylistic device from the turn of the century light literature that Pynchon is emulating-- placing a novel term in quotation marks. [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 01:35, 23 December 2006 (PST)

:insightfully true, I suspect, but it still shows 'narratorial knowingness', yes?

: Cf. Flaubert's use of quotations in ''Madame Bovary'' to isolate what he deemed the contemptible argot of the bourgeoisie.

::Apparently not a cliche: [http://books.google.com//books?num=100&q=eager.stampede&as_brr=0 GoogleBooks]

'''"...among the brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast bags..."''' 
Recalls the opening line of ''Mason & Dixon'': "Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr‘d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins..."

'''"...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure."''' 
This is strikingly reminiscent of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odilon_Redon Odilon Redon's] 1882 Lithograph ''L'Oeil, comme un ballon bizarre se dirige vers l'infini (The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity).'' [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ADE%3AI%3A2&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]
Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.
:The Odilon Redon lithograph appears on the cover of the 1998 Vintage paperback edition of Ian McEwan's Enduring Love, whose first unforgettable chapter triggers the novel with a ballooning incident leaving the reader dangling over the edge of suspense and suspension.

The giant eyeball is also [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:We_never_sleep.jpg the logo] of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which plays an important role later in the novel. A similar image appears in ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#Page_14 (pg. 14)].

Not to mention a potent symbol from classic 1960s counterculture, often associated with psychedelia and the Grateful Dead _ yet another proud American institution with a penchant for hidden meanings, obsession with minute symbolic details, and many passionate followers. From what Deadheads have told me, the Flying Eyeball symbol is associated with both dissociative drugs and Zen Buddhist thinking _ the detached observer free of an ego and all physical entrapments, the traveling trickster-voyeur, the absolutely freed soul.

'''the indecorous couple . . . foliage''' 
Adam and Eve? We have a man and a naked woman hiding in the foliage from an all-seeing eye in the sky.

==Page 14==

'''charmed into docility''' 
If it took only one small lad to moor the ship, she was indeed docile. A wiki contributor once saw a Goodyear blimp in Houston, Texas, landing. The craft had half a dozen long falls of rope hanging from her nose, and a ground crew of nearly two dozen men ready to take hold of them. The blimp approached nose-low, the crew took the ropes, and a gust of wind suddenly moved the ship. The crew chief gave a safety command and all the men let loose their ropes at once. On the third pass, all hands working together managed to stop the ship and get her moored. If ''Inconvenience'' was a fraction as changeable and hard to control, Darby made a great job of getting the ship staked out by himself.

'''Jacob's-ladder''' 
Used here as "a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs" (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:

Genesis 28:12 And he [Jacob] dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. (King James version)

'''a giant sack of soiled laundry''' 
Perhaps ''freshly'' soiled during the great hydrogen valve disaster.

'''''vol-à-voile''''' 
The narrator has turned the French phrase ''vol-à-voiles'' (gliding) into a verb (removing the ''s'').

'''gold-beaters' skin''' 
Very thin vellum (membrane taken from the caecum or blind stomach of an ox). To prepare gold for gilding, it was placed between sheets of vellum and hammered thin.

'''Evening Quarters''' 
Naval practice of mustering the crew at the end of the day's work.

'''Hawaii''' 
Hawaii appears in ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_12#Page_191 (p. 191)] and ''Vineland'' [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_5#Page_60 {pg. 60)] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=H ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

==Page 15==

'''ukulelist''' 
Ukuleles ([http://www.thomaspynchon.com/hawaiian-vacations-pynchon.html and Hawaii references]) also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', ''Vineland'', and ''Mason & Dixon''. According to Jules Siegel's article, "Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?", Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college. [[Hawaii|More on Hawaii &c. in ''Against the Day'']]...

'''Vagabonds of the Void''' 
The song performed by the Chums of Chance reflects the Rock and Roll attitude of the group towards the groundworld upon arrival. It's also the first time in the book we truly encounter the hipness of the group with some sort of Nine Inch Nails fronting edge to it. 

[[image:Macassar-Oil.jpg|thumb|175px|''Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads''|right]]'''Beaufort Scale''' 
A scale for measuring wind strength, developed 1805.

'''"Let the lightning lash ~ And the thunder trash" 
Again, the Chums are rock stars, the coolest cats in town.

'''"...forty-four buttons...one for each State of the Union." 
Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the union in 1890. Recall the patriotic bunting and red-white-blue uniforms of the opening page.

'''port section of the crew''' 
The half of the crew permitted to go freely ashore this time. The other half tomorrow. "Port" and "starboard": are these simply either/or words that sailors remember easily?

'''Macassar oil''' 
Macassar oil is an oil used primarily by men in Victorian and Edwardian times to smooth their hair. It was advertised as containing oil from Macassar, which is the former name of Ujung Pandang, a district on the island of Celebes in Indonesia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macassar_oil Wikipedia entry]
 This is why the ornamental doily-like linen cloths on the upper backs and arms of upholstered furniture were called '''''antimacassars'''''.

==Page 16==

'''mufti''' 
civvies, with an Arabic root [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mufti_(dress)]

'''ascot''' 
formal morning dress of the period, with a later counter-culture comeback (witness Fred in Scooby Doo) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascot_tie]

'''Kentucky hemp''' 
hemp was once a primary cash crop of Kentucky[http://www.kentuckyhemp.com/library/museum.html]; and, given Randy St. Cosmo's dual nature, a further counter-culture reference may be detected.

'''About the fringes,' Randolph reminded the liberty-goers, 'of any gathering on the scale of this Exposition, are apt to lurk vicious and debased elements, whose sole aim is to take advantage of the unwary.''' 
Indeed, the Chicago World's Fair was haunted by one of America's more prolific and original serial killers, H.H. Holmes. Born in 1861, Holmes came to Chicago as a pharmacist and built an office building that was eventually dubbed 'The Castle'. Consisting of commercial stores on the first floor, and offices and apartments on the upper floors, the building also housed hidden rooms where Holmes murdered his victims, chutes that conveyed the bodies to the basement, and a chamber of horrors in the basement where he destroyed the corpses. Holmes took advantage of the World's Columbian Exposition to lure victims, primarily females who had come unaccompanied to Chicago, to the Castle for torture and murder. It is estimated that he killed over 200 people at the Castle while the Exposition was in operation. Two very good books about Holmes are The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson and Depraved by Harold Schechter. It is doubtful that Pynchon was thinking explicitly of Holmes when he wrote this passage, although he must be aware of the story. Randolph could not have known about Holmes since Holmes was not captured until after the Fair was over. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._H.H._Holmes Wikipedia entry] 

This also sets up oppositions between dark vs light (of the White City), order vs disorder; good vs evil.

'''tension of the gas''' 
I.e., the pressure in the bag.

==Page 17==

'''"as if it were something the stripling had only read about, in some boys' book of adventures...as if that page of their chronicles lay turned and done"''' 
The narrator makes us aware that Darby's adventures are as if/will be written down...the 'reality' of almost killing all of them is now just words on a page.

'''"and the order 'About-face' had been uttered by some potent though invisible Commandant of Earthly Days, toward whom Darby, in amiable obedience, had turned again."''' 
Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to
all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? 
:Related Q: Do the Chums receive their orders from the author of their books?

'''we were usually out the door and on the main road''' 
Dick and Chick knew the judge was more likely to order them out of town than into the lockup.

'''Chinese foofooraw''' 
Also spelled foofaraw, a great deal of fuss, or useless frills. Cf folderol. However, why Chinese?
:Chick's father tried to sell Mississippi to a Chinese syndicate.

'''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 an herbal remedy. [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/pepper The Free Dictionary] Also appears in ''Gravity's Rainbow,'' page 118.

'''"...goldurn Keeley Cure"''' 
A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of "bichloride" or "double chloride" of gold, and also known as the "gold cure" (note the curious use of the euphemism 'goldurn' for 'goddamn' and the recurring preoccupation with the gold standard). Named for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Keeley Dr. Leslie E. Keeley,] who opened the first of many Keeley Institutes in [http://www.dwighthigh.k12.il.us/dwight/dwight.htm Dwight, Illinois], not far from Chicago, in 1879.

==Page 18==

'''headgear''' 
Description vaguely reminiscent of "Madame Bovary". [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]

'''indigo''' 
An influential and ancient dye, not synthetic until 1878 (commercially 1897)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_dye]. Dare we mention the indigo and scarlet (πορφυροῦν καὶ κόκκινον) of Revelation 17.4's 'great prostitute'? The colors, at least, seem more ancient than the Chums' red-white-blues (and the Chums are "runts of the organization", p. 19); add in the oriental fez reference with the Shriners' Masonic/Arabic overtones [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shriners] and Arabic Mohair (angora goat, easily dyed)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohair]

'''eclipse green''' 
Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]

'''Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.''' 
Bindlestiff means hobo; hence, the Hoboes of the Sky Aeronautical Club.

'''("Penny") Black''' 
The Penny Black was the world's first official adhesive postage stamp, issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1840. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black Wikipedia entry]; See also [[ATD_219-242#Page 231|p.231]].

'''Tzigane''' 
French for "gypsy". Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) Wikipedia entry]

'''Egypt''' 
Little Egypt is the southern area of the state of Illinois in the United States of America. Named so because it has a considerable river delta and a metropolis called Cairo (KAY-roe). The region is and was sometimes called simply "Egypt," especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) Wikipedia entry]

==Page 19==

'''goin all blue from the light of that electric fluid''' 
Their ship was beset by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo%27s_fire St. Elmo's fire,] a low-energy electrical discharge often seen on surface vessels and occasionally on aircraft. Electric charge does behave in some respects like a fluid and was long described in such terms.

'''Voices calling out together''' 
There is no reason to doubt they heard the voices, but an aural hallucination is not out of the question: a chorus of voices is one of the easiest effects to produce with a synthesizer.

[[image:balloons-paris.jpg|thumb|200px|Garçons de '71|right]]'''Garçons de '71''' 
French: The Boys of '71; During the Siege of Paris in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War Franco-Prussian War], 1870-1871, balloons were manufactured within railroad stations in Paris. The balloons were used to get mail and passengers out of Paris. The ''Garçons de '71'' are a (probably) fictional cadre of young men who operated such balloons [[Garçons de '71|Read on...]]

'''a condition of ''permanent siege''''' 
Surely no one has failed to notice what a "wartime president" is allowed to get away with. "No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

'''pétroleurs de Paris''' 
An early form of Molotov cocktail thrower during the Siege of Paris. There were pétroleurs and pétroleuses.

==Page 20==

'''they'll fly wherever they're needed''' 
While the Chums obey orders from above, the Garçons de '71 follow a different imperative.

'''energy we could feel, directed personally at us''' 
Someone may be trying to influence what the Bindlestiffs do, or keep them away from the Garçons' work of mercy.

==Page 21==

'''electrical glow of the Fair''' 
Electricity played an important role at the Fair. There was a battle between Edison's direct current and Tesla's alternating current. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition#Electricity_at_the_fair here].

'''admissions gate''' 
Apparently a break in the fence, capitalized on by freelance impresarios.

'''fifty-cent pieces''' 
Odd. According to [http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Columbian/columbian.html this remarkable Columbian Exposition site,] regular admission was just half a dollar. Maybe Lindsay and Miles could have negotiated with the midget.[The link is broken.]

==Page 22==
'''quatercentennial celebration''' 
The Fair was supposed to take place in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in North America. That's why it's called the "World's Columbian Exposition."

'''Columbus's advent''' 
"advent" means something like "arrival." It's often used in relation to Christmas, which is Christ's "advent."

'''music . . . unusually syncopated''' 
nascent jazz

'''Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show''' 
Buffalo Bill's show was very popular at the time, but for some reason he was not allowed to be part of the Fair, so he set up his own exhibition right near the Fair and drew a large audience. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill here].

'''''white'' exhibits . . darkness and savagery''' .
Nice play on whiteness here. The "White City" (the center of the Fair) was so called because of the white stucco used. But the novel points out here that whiteness (aka--cultural, racial whiteness) held the center of the fair while exhibits from people/cultures of color were relegated to the perimeters of the Fair--literally marginalized.

'''Kodaks''' 
The word Kodak was trademarked in 1888, and the first Kodak camera was sold with the slogan, "You press the button - we do the rest." In 1891, the company released the first daylight-loading camera, so film could be changed without a darkroom. Kodaks would have been a novelty at the fair in 1893.

'''half-light . . . in the interests of mercy . . . the safety of the lights''' 
Interesting contrast suggesting a tradeoff between comfort/solace in the shadows and safety in the bright light.

'''Isandhlwana''' 
Isandlwana is an isolated hill in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. On January 22, 1879, it was the site of the Battle of Isandlwana, where over 20,000 Zulu warriors defeated a contingent of British soldiers in the first engagement of the Anglo-Zulu War. Almost the entire column of about 1,200 British soldiers was killed. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isandhlwana [Wikipedia]] You will find a chapter on Isandhlwana in any book that has the words "military" and "blunders" in the title.

==Page 23==

'''Tarahumara''' 
Indian tribe of Northern New Mexico, in the Sierra Madres, known for cave-dwelling in the late 19th century. [[Tarahumare_Indians|About the Tarahumara]]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarahumara [Wikipedia]]

'''"geek"''' 
A geek's act comprised things no one would do who had not sunk all the way to the bottom of the carnie world: eating live creatures, throwing fits, and so forth. Much like the television show "Fear Factor," but sad rather than stultifying.

'''Negro in a "pork-pie" hat''' 
A type of hat made of felt or straw which has a cylindrical crown and flat top, originated in mid-19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork-pie_hat Wikipedia] What with all the jazz references in Pynchon's work, this may be a tip of the hat to Charles Mingus, composer of the timeless ''Goodbye Pork Pie Hat'', or Lester Young, to whom Mingus dedicated the tune. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye_Pork_Pie_Hat Wikipedia] In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', McMingus is a partner in a law firm representing Pierce Inverarity.

'''monte''' 
Three-card monte.

==Page 24==

'''the curse of Scotland''' 
A term used in poker, bridge and various other card games for the nine of diamonds. Dates from 1710. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curse_of_Scotland [Wikipedia]]

'''nine of diamonds''' 
The name of a club in ''Inherent Vice''. See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=N here]. The nine of diamonds is also famous for possibly being the fifth card in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bill_Hickok#Death "Dead Man's Hand"]. When Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead in 1876, he was playing poker. He was holding two pairs (aces and eights), which is called the "Dead Man's Hand." The fifth card was rumored to be a nine of diamonds.

'''like the electricity coming on... how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though.''' 
From something as random as calling out a card trick comes this extremely profound quote by Miles Blundell (full quote edited here). The heart of this quote/thought seems to be crucial.

What Miles describes is also the symptoms of a mild seizure - could he be epileptic? Epileptics were often credited with shamanic or prophetic powers, and many sightings of religious figures have been attributed to seizures. On [[#Page 4|page 4]], Miles is also said to suffer from "confusion in his motor processes", which may be related.

Although seizures are electrical discharges from the brain, epileptics rarely describe sensing electricity. They see altered light, hear altered sounds, or feel auras, though usually described as inside of themselves, not around them. They also feel confusion, not clarity. The full description seems to better represent that of a "peak experience", or a transcendental state. I also wonder whether, "Pretty soon, I'm just back to tripping over my feet again", refers to more earth-bound means of attaining mind-altered states.

This is one of several early suggestions that Miles and Lew Basnight experience similar states.

'''Cracker Jack''' 
First sold at the at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]

'''New Levee district''' 
Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]

'''Epworth League''' 
A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]

==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].

'''if the Governor decides to pardon that gang of anarchistic murderers''' 
In May of 1886, 350,000 workers, including 70,000 in Chicago were taking to the streets to rally for the eight hour work day. After four workers were killed by the police on May 3, the anarchist leaders in Chicago called for a meeting in Haymarket Square. Although the rally was peaceful, the police came in on horseback to break it up and an unknown individual in the crowd hurled a homemade bomb into the air. After the explosion, which killed a policeman, the police opened fire on the crowd. Subsequently, the anarchist leaders deemed responsible for the rally were arrested and tried for the murder of the policeman. The Eight men were convicted of the bombing and seven of them sentenced to death. Governor Richard J. Oglesby commuted two death sentences to life. Four were hanged and a fifth committed suicide. A later governor, John P. Altgeld, pardoned the three survivors on June 26, 1893, concluding that all eight of them were innocent. The last words of anarchist August Spies before he was hanged were 'The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.' Two very good books on the Haymarket Riot and the events surrounding it include The Haymarket Tragedy by Paul Avrich and Death In The Haymarket by James Green.

'''Pinkertons''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkertons Pinkerton National Detective Agency] was established in 1850 and soon became the most famous and ubiquitous detective agency in the country. At one point, there were more Pinkerton agents than US soldiers. They were especially used by federal and state agencies to break up union organizations and protests.

'''mixture of contempt and pity''' 
This is ''definitely'' not from one of the Chums' adventure stories.

'''embonpoint''' 
Convexity of body; what used to be called a "prosperous" look.

'''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. Many of the Marx Brothers early movies had animal references in the title: Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup. The titles usually had nothing at all to do with the plot, although they contributed to the lunatic nature of the comedy. The expression 'Horse Feathers' is used a few times later on in Against The Day.

==References==
<references />

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

A

2012-04-24T21:53:44Z

C-Melody: added a question about why P. uses "all but" so often.

'''A-and''' 
5; 13; 109; 183; 420; 666
:Notable as a verbal tick of Tyrone Slothrop's in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'''].

'''absquatulate''' 
8; run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along; 343; appears Latinate but is actually a 19th c. Americanism (compounded of two words), often used jocularly; thus deception & doubleness & humor in a single word, very Pynchonian!

'''Ace, Mr.''' 
415; visitor from the future (Trespasser); 555;

'''''Achphanomen''''' 
616;

[[image:Custers-Last-Fight.jpg|thumb|Custer's Last fight|right]]'''Adam, Cassily''' 
726; Should be Adams. "Custer’s Last Fight" painting was originally produced in 1884 by Cassily Adams (1843 - 1921), a St. Louis artist. Adams painted his version of Custer's last stand in the 1880s, and it hung in a St. Louis saloon which was acquired by the Anheuser-Busch brewing company. Anheuser-Busch then produced a lithographic print of the painting and gave prints to their distributors, bars, and other outlets. Through its display, it became widely known to diverse audiences.

'''Adam of Bremen''' 
128; (also: Adam Bremensis) One of the most important German medieval chroniclers. He lived and worked in the second half of the 11th century. He is most famous for his chronicle ''Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum'' (''Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church''); [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_of_Bremen Wikipedia entry]

'''Adams, Maude (1872-1953)''' 
338; American stage actress, most noted for her signature role, Peter Pan; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maude_Adams Wikipedia entry]

'''Addle, Ed''' 
60; regular at Oil Well Saloon;

'''Aerenthal, Alois Lexa von (1854-1912)''' 
809; "Austria's reptilian foreign minister"; usually Aehrenthal; as Austrian Foreign Minister, Aehrenthal annexed Bosnia for Austria in a preemptive move against Turkey and the Young Turks; 871;
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alois_Lexa_von_Aerenthal Wikipedia entry]

'''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]

'''Aether''' 
55; 58; 132-133; 140; 306; 320; "sounds like light" 426; 458; 557; 565-66; 595; aka ''Akasa'', 613; 620; aka ''Luminiferous aether ''; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminiferous_aether Wikipedia article on Luminferous aether]; [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Aether 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica]

'''against the day''' 
"yes, night does return now and then to Creede" 305; "...within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark itinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the names Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist." 566; "its steadfast denial of night" (refuted by the Monk epigraph, "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light."!), 732; "and went back once again to seeking only orgasm, hallucination, stupor, sleep, to fetch them through the night and prepare them against the day" 805; "the boys expressed wonder at how much more infected with light the night-time terrains passing below them had become [...] they felt themselves in uneasy witness to some final conquest, a triumphy over night whose motive none could quite grasp" 1032;

'''aigrette''' 
456; 721; 748; 813; Aigrette (from the French for egret, or lesser white heron), the tufted crest, or head-plumes of the egret, used for adorning a woman's head-dress, the term being also given to any similar ornament, in gems, &c. An aigrette is also worn by certain ranks of officers in the French army. By analogy the word is used in various sciences for feathery excrescences of like appearance, as for the tufts on the heads of insects, the feathery down of the dandelion, the luminous rays at the end of electrified bodies, or the luminous rays seen in solar eclipses, diverging from, the moon's edge. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aigrette Wikipedia entry]

'''Akashi, Baron''' 
294; "roving military attaché" and "famous international spy"

'''''akousmata''''' 
232; Greek: "things heard"; holds a much more secretive connotation like ‘signs’, or even perhaps ‘passwords’. These were explained as a set of rules of conduct used by the Pythagoreans. A few examples as given by Aristotle’s testimonies, like “abstain from beans as being due either to the fact that they resemble the genitals in shape, or because they resemble the gates of Hades." Also noted in this passage was “not to touch a white cock” and “not to touch any sacred fish” probably due to the earlier discussion on sacrifice.

'''Albert Lea''' 
71; Pronounced "Albert Lee," a town in south-central Minnesota. It is also mentioned in passing in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' as the unlikely hometown of Pig Bodine: ''"Just a humble guy," the swarthy doughboy of the deep scratching in his groin after an elusive crab with a horn finger, rippling the ballooning pleats and fabric of his trousers, "just a freckleface kid from Albert Lea, Minnesota, down there on Route 69 where the speed limit's lickety-split.."''; [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Albert+Lea,+MN+56007&ie=UTF8&z=9&ll=43.65123,-93.369026&spn=1.007532,2.768555&om=1 Google Map]

'''alchemy''' 
76-77; Alchemy refers to both an early form of the investigation of nature and an early philosophical and spiritual discipline, both combining elements of chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, spiritualism, and art; and photography, 80; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy Wikipedia entry]

'''Alfonsito''' 
310; [[ATD-D#drop|Jimmy Drop's]] lieutenant

'''Algernon''' 
369; Ruperta's driver (?); in Venice, 729;

'''Algie''' 
672; "flaneur of Ruperta's acquaintance"; a flaneur is a detached pedestrian observer of a metropolis, a 'gentleman stroller of city streets', first identified by Charles Baudelaire; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fl%C3%A2neur Wikipedia entry]

'''Alkali''' 
Any of a group of basic, soluble salts. The term is derived etymologically from the Arabic for calcined ashes, from which the first alkalis were derived. They form a principle ingredient in soap production. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkali Citation]. "alkali dust, 207; "all the alkaline day," 214;

'''All but''' 
In ATD, Pynchon uses the expression ''"all but" + adjective'' over and over. Any interpretations?

'''"All Pimps Look Alike to Me"''' 
48; an 1896 barroom ditty that was "cleaned up" to become "All Coons Look Alike to Me" and recorded by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Collins Arthur Collins] in 1899 and considered by some to be the First Rock 'n' Roll Record. [[All_Pimps_Look_Alike_to_Me|Read the whole story...]]

'''Amber Islands''' 
825;

'''A.M.E.''' 
702; Alternate Means of Egress

'''America''' 
219; "innocent, all but oppressively wholesome"; "they lack the cultural equipment [to die of shame] ... As if, somehow, your country is just mechanically destined to move forward regaradless of who is in the way or under foot" 567; American light, 580; "delivered yourselves into the hands of capitalists and Christers" 643; "its steadfast denial of night" (refuted by the Monk epigraph, "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light."!), 732

'''Amsterdam''' 
107; Indian Ocean island; M''egaera'' shipwrecked, 108;

[[image:anamorphoscope.jpg|thumb|100px|Anamorphoscope|right]]'''anamorphoscope''' 
249; a curved mirror or other optical device for giving a correct image of a picture or the like distorted by anamorphosis; paramorphic, 249;

'''Anagrams''' 
4;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.” <div class="references small">[http://blog.brian-fitzgerald.net?p=156 Brian Fitzgerald] </div>

'''Anarchism''' 
6; "the inexorable rising tide of World Anarchism..."; 37; 43; 49-51; 60; 66; 87; 175 (as terrorists); 179; bomb factory in London, 235; 370; Barcelona in 1890s, 372;  [http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/index.html Anarchy Archives]

'''Anarcho-syndicalists''' 
14; Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labor movement. ''Syndicalisme'' is a French word meaning "trade unionism" – hence, the "syndicalism" qualification. Anarcho-syndicalists view labor unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the State with a new society democratically self-managed by workers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-syndicalism Wikipedia entry]

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

[[image:The-Angel.jpg|thumb|100px|The Angel of Independence|right]]'''Angel, The''' 
989; Monument to National Independence, in Mexico City, designed by Antonio Rivas Mercado. A winged female figure, perched on a column, holding a crown. This ensemble forms the official Independence Monument erected in 1910 by the dictator Porfirio Diaz to celebrate the centenary of Mexico’s independence from Spain and inspired by the Bastille Column in Paris. The monument occupies a roundabout on the city’s most prestigious thoroughfare, Paseo de la Reforma, which runs down the middle of the business district. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_%C3%81ngel Wikipedia entry]

'''Angels''' 
10; "''helpless angel''," 27; 42; "Archangels of municipal vengence," 150; "God's wing" (?), 211; "agencies of the angelic," 221; "Avenging Angels" 271; creatures, 277; H. Vanderjuice, 322; 332; birds, 336; 379; 389; Angel Street, 446; 531; in Venice, 575; "too bright to look at directly" 616; of deep shit, 619; 632; 642; Gentleman Bomber, as "messenger" 692; wings, 699; 725; 740; of death, 752; Tunguska blast radius, 780; in Tunguska, 785; A.O.D., 894; 993; 1030

'''Angel's Field''' 
720; aka Angyalföld, a district in Budapest, along the Danube

'''Anglo-Russian Entente''' 
631; the 1907 diplomatic accord between England and Russia to respect the integrity and independence of Persia; 718

'''Anharmonic Pencil''' 
455; a "pencil" in this context refers to a figure formed by a set of straight lines or light rays meeting at a point, a figure that is not harmonic, i.e., not a multiple of its component parts; 532; 593;

'''Annexation Crisis''' 
808; aka the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_Crisis "Bosnian Crisis," 1908-1909, was caused by the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in October, 1908. It increased tensions amongst the Great Powers and led to a controversy between the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Ottoman Empire. It also led to international complications, which for several weeks in early 1909 threatened to end in a general European war and helped sow the seeds for World War I; 809;

''anti-Semitism''' 
807-808; "Modern anti-Semitism ... had become a source of energy, tremendous dark energy that could be tapped in to like an electric main for specific purposes..."

'''Anti-Stone''' 
78;

'''Apostles' Creed''' 
58; The Apostles' Creed (circa 700 AD) (Latin: Symbolum Apostolorum), sometimes titled Symbol of the Apostles, is an early statement of Christian belief, a creed or "symbol." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostles'_Creed Wikipedia entry]

'''Arbuckles''' 
638; It was in the United States where coffee initially started to be commercialized. In 1865, John Arbuckle marketed the first commercially available packages of ground, roasted coffee. His brand, 'Ariosa', was sold over a far larger area then any other coffee roaster. Instead of being confined to a small area close to his roasting factory, Arbuckle was able to establish his coffee as a regional brand. Others soon followed suit and, by World War I, there were a number of regional roasters including companies such as Folgers, Hill Brothers, and Maxwell House; [http://www.gallacoffee.co.uk/acatalog/History_of_Coffee_Pt_IV.html From Galla Coffee website]

'''Archer, Mr.''' 
467;

'''argentaurum''' 
305-07; 375;

[[Image:arkansas-toothpick1.jpg|thumb|Arkansas Toothpick, made by Harvey McBurnette - 9.5" blade|left]]'''Arkansas Toothpick''' 
31; The Arkansas Toothpick is essentially a heavy dagger with a pointed, straight 12-20 inch blade. The "toothpick" is balanced and weighted for throwing and can also be used for thrusting and slashing; 725; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkansas_toothpick Wikipedia entry]

'''arnophilia''' 
211; A word invented by Pynchon. According to this [http://www.basarchive.org/sample/bswbBrowse.asp?PubID=BSBR&Volume=19&Issue=6&ArticleID=5 website] the greek word ''arnos'' generally refers to a lamb or sheep, but occasionally to a goat, too. Suffixes with the common part -phil- (-phile, -philia, -philic) are used to specify some kind of attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-phil- Wikipedia]

'''Arriaga, Camilo''' 
381; ''potosino''; a leader of Mexican anarchist group founded by Enrico and Ricardo Flores Magon in 1882; on August 30, 1900, he published the manifesto ''Invitación al Partido Liberal'' in San Luis Potosi. This document sparked a movement leading to formation of the ''Partido Liberal Mexicano'' (PLM) five years later, and was Ricardo Flores Magón's main vehicle for organizing the anti-Diaz struggle and for spreading the ideals of anarchism throughout Mexico; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_in_Mexico Wikipedia - Anarchism in Mexico]

[[Image:Arsenal.jpg|thumb|Arsenale di Venezia|right]]'''Arsenale''' 
706; 854; The Venetian Arsenal (Italian: Arsenale di Venezia) is a shipyard and naval depot that played a leading role in Venetian empire-building. It was one of the most important areas of Venice, lying in the Castello sestiere; where Theign keeps a pied-àcute-terre, 865; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenale Wikipedia entry]

'''Arvin''' 
264; in the Nonpareil;

'''aryq''' 
441; The Russian Turcologists Malov and Tenishev mention a Western Yugur word ''Aryq'', meaning Chinese or muslim Turk. This is a loanword from Tibetan, ''A-rig'', the name of a country of nomadic herdsmen situated to the west of Amdo. It originally may have referred to the local Tibetan population. But Pynchon's use suggests it is a drink. Hmmm. 
Arak or araq is an anise-flavored liquor popular in the Middle East; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arak_(liqueur) Wikipedia entry]

'''ässalamu äläykum''' 
441; As-Salāmu `Alaykum (السلام عليكم) is an Arabic language greeting used in both Muslim and Christian cultures. It means "Peace be upon you." It is also transliterated as Assalamu 'Alaikum or As-salaamu Alaikum. The traditional response is "wa `Alaykum As-Salām", meaning "and peace on you". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As-Salamu_Alaykum Wikipedia entry]

'''"as above [...] so below"''' 
439; 797; This phrase comes from the beginning of [http://www.alchemylab.com/what_is_the_tablet.htm The Emerald Tablet] and embraces the entire system of traditional and modern magic which was inscribed upon the tablet in cryptic wording by Hermes Trismegistus. The significance of this phrase is that it is believed to hold the key to all mysteries. All systems of magic are claimed to function by this formula. "'That which is above is the same as that which is below'...Macrocosmos is the same as microcosmos. The universe is the same as God, God is the same as man, man is the same as the cell, the cell is the same as the atom, the atom is the same as...and so on, ad infinitum." [http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/a/below_above.html]

'''Ashkil, Danilo''' 
827; "wearing a Turkish fez whenever the situation demanded ... Danilo Ashkil was descended from Sephardic Jews who had fled the Spanish Inquisition three and a half centuries earlier, eventually settling in Salonica"; multilingual Jew in Sarajevo, 841;

'''Assunta''' 
728; with Dally Rideout in Venice

'''Astarte-Bad''' 
714; in Vienna, with lurid mosaics of pre-biblical orgies; Astarte is a pre-biblical goddess of fertility, sexuality and war; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astarte Wikipedia entry]

'''Astrology''' 
810;

'''Atchinoff''' 
904; Cossack adventurer - "1889 occupation of the fort at Sagallo";

:Sagallo, a small settlement on the north shore of the Gulf of Tajura, French Somaliland. A dismantled fort built by the Egyptians (who occupied the place between 1875 and 1884). In January 1889 Sagallo was occupied by a Cossack chief named Achinov, who was accompanied by the archimandrite Paisi and some 200 people, including priests, women and children. Paisi had been entrusted by the metropolitan of Novgorod with an evangelistic mission to the Abyssinian Church; while Achinov stated that he had a commission from the Negus for the purchase of arms and ammunition. The presence of Achinov at Sagallo (where he occupied the fort, which he found deserted) was regarded by the French government as an invasion of French territorial rights. The Russian foreign office having disavowed (7th of February) any connexion with Achinov, instructions were sent from Paris to secure the removal of the Cossacks. On the 17th of February French warships appeared off the port, and an ultimatum was sent to Achinov calling on him to surrender, but without effect. The fort was bombarded, and seven persons killed, two being women and four children. The Cossacks then surrendered, not having fired a shot. They were subsequently deported to Suez, whence they returned to Russia. Achinov was interned by the Russian government for some months (until October 1889). In 1891 he returned to Abyssinia. Paisi was promoted by his ecclesiastical superiors. In Paris the incident caused great excitement amongst the Russophils, and the consequent demonstrations led to the suppression of the League of Patriots and the prosecution of M. Paul Deroulede. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Sagallo 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica] (likely Pynchon's source)

'''"at silly point"''' 
222; "silly point" is a position in the game of cricket, played close to the batsman

'''Aubergine, Madame''' 
367, gives Reef Traverse dancing lessons in Denver, "aubergine" means eggplant, both the vegetable and the color;

[[Image:Audumla.jpg|thumb|Audhumla -
N. A. Abilgaard, 1790|right]]'''Audumla''' 
142; The primeval cow. Audumla (Audhumla) was born from rime at Ginnungagap. The primeval giant Ymir (Aurgelmir) lived on the milk that flow from the cow's teats. Audumla also provided nourishment to Ymir's six-headed son. Audumla received nourishment through licking the salty rime-stones. Audumla licked the stone until it was shaped into a man. This stone became Buri, grandfather of the Aesir gods: Odin, Vili and Ve.

'''Aughrim''' 
231; The Battle of Aughrim was the decisive battle of the Williamite War in Ireland. It was fought between the Jacobites and the forces of William III on 12 July 1691, near the village of Aughrim in County Galway; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aughrim Wikipedia entry]

'''August, Ernst''' 
230; Crown Prince Ernst August II of Hanover, 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, (Ernst August Wilhelm Adolf Georg Friedrich) (21 September 1845-14 November 1923), was the eldest child and only son of King George V of Hanover and his wife, Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg. Ernst August had the misfortune of being deprived of the thrones of Hanover upon its annexation by Prussia in 1866 and later the Duchy of Brunswick in 1884. Although he was the senior male-line great grandson of King George III, the Duke of Cumberland was deprived of his British peerages and honours for having sided with Germany in World War I; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_August_of_Hanover%2C_3rd_Duke_of_Cumberland]

'''Automorphic Dispensation''' 
453;

'''Avery''' 
193; a company inspector or spy (indeterminate)

'''Aychrome, Police Inspector Vance''' 
605; at Chunxton Crescent;

'''Azeff, Monsieur Yevno''' 
720; Yevno Azef (also spelled Azev) was a double agent in a big way, working for both Russia's turn-of-the-century revolutionaries and the Czar's Okhrana. He was convicted of attempting to assassinate Tsar Nicholas II and was executed in 1911. He was also a founder of the Social Revolutionary Party.

'''Aziz, Abdel''' 
520; "young sultan" in Morocco

'''Aztecs''' 
394; "foundation story of the eagle and the serpent"

'''Aztlàn''' 
214; Aztlán (believed to mean "place of whiteness" or "place of herons," derived from the Nahuatl words "aztatl" (herons or white-plumed birds) and "tlan" ("place among") is the legendary ancestral home of the Nahua peoples, one of the main cultural groups in Mesoamerica. "Azteca" is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan." While some legends describe Aztlán as a paradise, the Aubin Codex says that the Aztecs were subject to a tyrant elite called the Azteca Chicomoztoca. Guided by their priest, the Aztec fled, and on the road, their god Huitzilopochtli forbade them to call themselves Azteca, telling them that they should be known as Mexica (pronounced /meʃiko/). Ironically, the scholars of the 19th century would name them Aztec; "ghosts of..."; 277; "mythical homeland of" 923; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztl%C3%A1n Wikipedia]

{{ATD_Alpha_Nav}}

ATD 792-820

2012-04-24T21:41:19Z

C-Melody: /* Page 813 */ added information about specchio

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page XX==

'''Sample entry''' 
Please format like this.

==Page 792==

'''''rishta''-doctors . . . guinea-worms''' 
From the context, ''rishta''-doctors means Guinea worm disease doctors. 
During 12th to 13th centuries the word in Arabic-speaking countries for macaroni was ''rishta'', but the context clearly indicates that it means ''worm'', or specifically, ''Guinea worm''. 
The Guinea worm is a threadlike parasitic worm that grows and matures inside the human body growing as long as 3 feet long. After a year, the worm emerges through a painful blister in the skin causing long-term suffering and sometimes crippling after-effects. People get infected when they drink standing water containing a tiny water flea that is infected with the even tinier larvae of the Guinea worm. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculiasis The disease] occurs mainly in Africa. 
Pynchon uses the word "Dracunculiasis" in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=D a-And this use is an OED citation for the word. OED: 1942 D. L. Belding Clin. Parasitol. xxii. 375 Dracunculus medinensis+. Disease.—Dracontiasis, dracunculosis, dracunculiasis. 1967 Amer. Jrnl. Trop. Med. & Hygiene XVI. 23/1 Dracunculiasis occurs commonly in and around Kurnool. 1973 T. Pynchon ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (1975) i. 13 "Dracunculiasis and Oriental sore rampant among the troops, no beer for a month." 1990 Lancet 8 Sept. 630/1 Several studies have reported on the prevalence of permanent disability resulting from poliomyelitis but dracunculiasis (guineaworm disease), another preventable cause of permanent disease, has not received the same attention.

'''drumfire''' 
Intense, continuous artillery fire, characteristic of the bombardments that preceded the attempted advances on the Western Front in World War I. The word is a calque of German ''Trommelfeuer.''

'''to get in out of it''' 
A typo? Should be "to get out of it"?? Not really: this is actually common English usage; for example, "to get in out of the rain."

==Page 793==

'''Tierra del Fuego''' 
Not exactly the other side of the world, but the closest land to that point. Tierra del Fuego translates as "Land of the Fire."

:This may not be suitable as a permanent feature of the wiki, but there is a strange web site where you can click on a location and see what's exactly on the opposite side of the world: http://www.antipodemap.com/

==Page 794==

'''communicate with the explorer Peary, then in the Arctic''' 
Robert Peary did not even leave New York City at the start of his polar expedition until July 6, 1908, 6 days '''after''' the Tunguska Event of 6-30-08, and did not reach Ellesmere Island until the summer of 1909(see[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_Event] section on Wardenclyffe Tower).
: But this was one of the 'theories' around the time and long after attempting to explain the Tunguska Event. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event Tunguska event in Wikipedia].

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Peary Robert Peary] (1856-1920) was an American explorer who claimed to have been the first person to reach the geographic North Pole on April 6, 1909. He made several attempts to reach the North Pole between 1898 and 1905. His final assault set off from New York City on july 6, 1908 and wintered near
Cape Sheridan on Ellesmere Island and from there departed for the pole on March 1, 1909. He established Camp Jesup near the Pole on April 6. In his diary for April 7, Peary wrote "The Pole at alst !!! The prize of 3 centuries, ... ''Mine'' at last ..."

'''Tesla . . . his tower at Wardenclyffe''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower Nikola Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower] (1901-1917) was an early wireless telecommunications aerial tower intended for commercial wireless trans-Atlantic telephony, broadcasting and to demonstrate the transmission of power without interconnecting wire. The tower was named after James Warden, a lawyer and banker, who had purchased the land in Shoreham, Long Island, about 60 miles from Manhattan. The Tesla Tower was never fully operational and was not completed due to economic problems. The property is now owned by [[Q-weapon_and_Photography#gevaert|Agfa-Gevaert]].

Paramorphic Alert: Thursday, June 7, 2007, an [http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-06/miot-mdw060107.php MIT research group headed by Marin Soljacic] is making wireless power transfer happen in their lab. Tesla redux.

'''Ellsmere Island''' 
Commonly spelled [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellesmere_Island Ellesmere Island]. Lying within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and with Cape Columbia, Ellesmere Island is the most northerly point of land in Canada. With an area of over 75,000 square miles, it is the world's 10th largest island and Canada's third largest.

'''Brother Tom Swift. He spends more time these days in court than in the laboratory.''' 
Tom Swift is the young protagonist in several series of juvenile adventure novels starting in the early twentieth century and continuing to the present. More exactly, each such series stars a young protagonist named Tom Swift who is a genius inventor and whose breakthroughs in technology (especially transport technology) drive the plots of the novels. Besides the similarity (or "brotherhood") between the adventuring youths, the Chums' stories have titles similar to the Tom Swift novels, eg ''Tom Swift and His Motor Boat; or, The Rivals of Lake Carlopa''; ''Tom Swift and His Airship; or, The Stirring Cruise of the Red Cloud''; &c &c.

Although the Tom Swift novels weren't published until 1910 an ''apparent'' anachronism we should remember that Tom Swift, in this context, is as "real" as the Chums of Chance, and thus the events in the first novel, ''Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle; or, Fun and Adventure on the Road'' -- which included patent disputes and lawsuits -- would have "happened" prior to the novel being published.

'''Semipalatinsk''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semey Semipalatinsk] is a city on the Irtysh River, a ''long'' way southwest of Vanavara. Soviet nuclear tests were administered from here.

'''Irbit''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irbit Irbit] is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia on the right bank of the Nitsa River. It is located about 120 miles east of Yekaterinburg.

'''''obstanovka''''' 
Russian: situation.

==Page 795==

'''''Zdorovo!''''' 
Russian: If the stress falls on the first syllable it means ''great!''

If the stress falls on the second syllable it means ''hello!''

'''Neutral Moresnet''' 
Tiny "country" between Belgium and Germany; existed 1816-1919; see, oh ''do'' see, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_Moresnet Wikipedia entry.] 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto#Official_use Another Wikipedia article] refers to a plan, early in the 20th century, to declare Esperanto the official language of the country.

'''''tchudak''''' 
Now transliterated ''chudak.'' Russian: crank.

'''Kiakhta''' 
Or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyakhta ''Kyakhta''], only two syllables. Town on Russian (Buriat)-Mongolian border south of Lake Baikal, a center of Russian trade with China.

'''Not even Russian army does that!''' 
And it cost them dearly in 1914 when intercepted "clear" radio traffic helped the Germans crush them at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1914_Battle_of_Tannenberg Battle of Tannenberg.]

==Page 796==

'''By dusk . . . running-lights''' 
An enigma. The ordinary way of analyzing it: Make a model, say a flashlight, an orange and a toothpick mooring line with a raisin balloon at the top. As the orange rotates toward the east and the flashlight appears to set in the west, what gets dark first? The base of the toothpick, the shadow progressing upward. But the text says the raisin does, the shadow arc moving downward.

It's very curious that immediately following this apparently topsy-turvy paragraph Miles says "As above, so below." Significant?

:I hope nobody minds having most of this quite good conversation moved to [[Talk:ATD_792-820|the Discussion tab]] (and a spoiler added there).

'''Slowly as God's justice''' 
Must be noted given title and everything religious in ATD.

==Page 797==

'''upriver from Vanavara''' 
"Ground zero" of the Event was 40 miles north of Vanavara. Cf [[ATD_768-791#Page_779|page 779: A heavenwide blast of light.]]

'''"simultaneity" . . . Special Relativity''' 
Einstein's special theory of relativity (1905) refutes the idea that two observers seeing two events can ever agree on whether the events were simultaneous. Adopters of the theory (and in 1908 they were all ''early'' adopters) would be asking one another if it applied to this phenomenon.

'''the error of the seismograph recordings . . . singularity''' 
"Error" doesn't mean mistake or wrongness. It measures the variability within each instrument; every measurement comes with a plus-or-minus figure. If the Event happened instantaneously, each of the charts would record it as a more or less spread-out peak. The energy released in a process is calculated from the area under the curve of intensity versus time; to get the power (rate of energy release), divide the energy by the duration of the process. Even though he states the math wrongly, Vanderjuice suspects the seismographs of the world have responded to a titanic release of energy that took place in essentially no time at all, so that power = energy divided by zero. When physicists see a ''real'' process apparently demanding division by zero, they call it a singularity and go looking for an explanation.

'''the equations of history''' 
Perhaps an allusion to Isaac Asimov's ''Foundation Trilogy'', in which the Psychohistorian Harry Selden calculates equations of history. His equations are (seemingly) thrown off by the advent of a mutant with unusual powers that his predictive equations do not take into account--not unlike the advent of the Tunguska Event.

'''Tchernobyl, the star of Revelation''' 
Tchernobyl is the Ukraine translation (perhaps mistranslation) for Wormwood "the destroying star in the book of Revelation" (page 784). And, as we all know, in 1986 there was a nuclear meltdown in the Ukranian city of Chernobyl.

'''something that had not quite happened yet''' 
In short, an Omen. The Tunguska Event could be seen as an omen of the destructive forces unleashed over the entire course of the 20th Century.

'''Circassian slave''' 
Common figure in European literature about the "Lustful Turk." Circassia is a region in the Caucasus. 

In the early 1860s, after Russian conquest of their region of the Caucasus, nearly half a million Circassians migrated to Turkey. Many Circassian women, prized for their beauty, were sold into slavery.

'''teppisti''' 
Italian: hooligans, hoodlums, thugs

==Page 798==

'''Krakatoa''' 
Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page_506|page 506: Krakatoa]].

'''''mala vita''''' 
Italian: evil life. With more specific reference to Mafia style criminal organizations like the Malavita del Brenta of Venice. There is also a genre of songs glorifying Mafia life called canto di Malavita.

'''brides picotees''' 
A Venetian lace with a hexagonal pattern. French: tickle straps

==Page 799==

'''"Bevis Moistleigh"''' 
Bevis Mostly? Bevis Wetly?
Cf. Sir Bevis from Lang's Red Romance Book around this time. Or a Twilight Zone story, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twilight_Zone/Mr._Bevis Mr. Bevis 1960]. 
Or, see later in ''AtD'', Bevis is an allusion to Beavis & Butthead. ([[Idiots and Idiocy in Against the Day|Idiot]])

Possibly, given what follows, an allusion to the Bevis Marks Synagogue in London, oldest extant Jewish house of worship in Britain [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevis_Marks_Synagogue], but more likely a reference to (p.800)''Bevis,the Story of a Boy.''

'''''macchinette''''' 
Italian for small devices.

'''Glagolitic alphabet''' 
See excellent annotation to [[ATD_243-272#Page_252|page 252]] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glagolitic_alphabet this].

'''gematria''' 
As described in the text, each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is also a number. In the simplest form of Gematria, words, phrases and sentences with eqivalent numerical value are somehow linked, in a way promoting exegesis of Torah and Midrash (Torah commentary). More complex, mystical gematria systems are described in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gematria].
Not strictly gematria, but, there is also the so-called "Bible Code" based on another sort of numerical reading of Torah.

==Page 800==

'''''fatkeqëse''''' 
Albanian: translated in the text as "disaster." Is this correct?

'''gongs''' 
Medals.

'''Irredentism''' 
A policy appealing to the idea that "our" lands are unredeemed, i.e., ruled by some outsider, and must be brought into our domain. See annotation to "Eurasia Irredenta" ([[ATD_748-767#Page_761|page 761).]]

'''''Bevis . . . the Story of a Boy''''' 
Theign taunts Bevis with the title of a popular novel, ''Bevis, the Story of a Boy'' (1882), by Richard Jefferies.

This contributor, with a keen sense of sacrifice for the greater good, actually ''read'' the three-volume novel. Jefferies writes in a good plain style but seems not to have thought of putting a plot in his book. Bevis, of what would later be recognized as Boy Scout age, spends several hundred pages of a southern English summer exploring and naming the world within a dozen miles of his home (Africa, Ceylon, the East Indies, South America are all there). He is rich and has, sadly, what we must call criminally negligent parents who don't even look for him when he vanishes into the South Seas for a week at a time. Most of the highlights of the book concern Bevis' killing some creature (to eat it, more often than not) or kicking his faithful dog Pan. Bevis doesn't know the meaning of fear, and my guess is that he went into the Army and got his self-reliant head blown off in South Africa. If ''Bevis'' shares any thematic point with ''AtD'' it is pretty well limited to geographic exhaustiveness; his journeys of exploration are set forth in as much detail as any of the Traverses'.

Bevis takes his name from a hero of [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Romance medieval romance,] [http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cinder/images/LANG12.htm Sir Bevis of Hampton.]

==Page 801==

'''unprovided for in the future tense of any language''' 
I.e., we have no simple way to describe future events in a chaotic system. You can't say that Chinese butterfly '''will''' cause a windstorm in Brazil.

'''High susceptibility to primordial variables''' 
Chaos theorists talk about "extreme sensitivity to initial conditions."

'''"an emigration of reason itself".......Crusade"''' 
Notice war talk and natural destruction around the Event. 
As well, the Crusades were a series of western European Christian attacks on Islam, the Mideast (with the establishment of Crusader Kingdoms), and even Christian Byzantium/Constantinople, linking the text to 19th and 20th century Imperialist ventures. For a map of the medieval kingdoms, see [http://www.medievaltymes.com/courtyard/images/crusades/first/crusader_states.jpg]

'''Railway Brain''' 
A recognized disorder at one time, explained in the text following in AtD.

==Page 802==

'''croakers''' 
Slang: [http://www.classiccrimefiction.com/hardboiled-slang.htm doctors, especially quacks.]

Also: One who croaks, murmurs, grumbles, or complains
unreasonably; one who habitually forebodes evil.

The doctors (performing ''curative activities'' to earn their fees but not really curing anything) feel they are putting one over on everybody else.

'''radioactive mud-bath slime''' 
Treatment with naturally radioactive waters from hot springs was thought to cure many ailments. An example of a radioactive hot spring resort in Austria is Badgastein.

'''Mentone''' 
Mentone, Italy or across the border, Menton (Italian name ''Mentone''), France, in the Riviera. In fact there was no Menton, France, for a long time until 1860 the former Grimaldi town of Mentone, Italy, was bought by France. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menton Menton] is much better known than Mentone; this small town on the Franco-Italian border, about 45 miles northeast of Nice, is the most beautiful town on the French Riviera—''La perle de la France'' (The Pearl of France). It's warm climate makes it a favorite tourist destination. Menton is also a city of gardens; it won the competition for the best city of flowers in France five different times.

'''...an evening sky which had refused the dusk...''' 
Inverse of Against the Day?

'''the boulevard Carnolès''' 
There is a ''Palais Carnolès'' at 3 Avenue de la Madone, Menton (or ''Mentone''). But couldn't locate the Boulevard Carnolès. 
-Carnolès is a village that's just outside Menton, and though there is no boulevard Carnolès, it might refer to the street leading to Carnolès.

'''Mariahilf''' 
The Sixth District of Vienna, known as a shopping district.

==Page 803==

'''midinettes''' 
salesgirls (of Paris).

'''Facharbeiter''' 
German: technician, specialist, skilled worker.

'''Gabika''' 
"Cute" double diminutive for the Hungarian male name Gábor (Gabriel) and also, more commonly, for the female name Gabriella. The ambiguity (also his looks) fits finely the subversion of gender roles in his relationship to Noellyn Fanshawe.
*Wouldn't it be his relationship to Yashmeen? [[User:Jpicco|Jpicco]] 13:16, 11 April 2007 (PDT)

==Page 804==

'''Maida Vale''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maida_Vale Maida Vale] is a street in north-west London. The area, also known as Little Venice, is mostly residential and often extremely affluent.

'''eleven''' 
Vienna is 86 degrees west of the Event, more or less. Converting longitude to time at 15 degrees = 1 hour, we get a time difference of 5 hours 44 minutes. At 7:17 a.m. Event time, it was 1:33 a.m. in Vienna. Now, at 11:00 p.m. the same day, Vienna time, it is 21 hours and 27 minutes after the event. The atmospheric effect has propagated west (possibly against the high-level winds?) from Siberia to Central Europe in quite a short time. All these numbers are rough!

==Page 805==

'''prepare them against the day''' 
Here the phrase means "in anticipation of" or "to be ready for." 
And more. Thematic.
Given what has been said about the Tunguska Event, colored by accounts of the atmospheric effects of the Krakatoa eruption, highly suggestive of Judgment Day.

I shoulda been keepin' notes, dammit! I am sure that regularly through the book I have been spotting deliberate sentences ending with "... ''something'' the day"...but not, until now, with "''against'' the day". And a few score pages ago I'm sure there was a sentence what ended w' "...against the night...", then Tunguska happens, and we now need to be wary o'the day..?

I didn't catch occurrences of "the day" but I did catch a lot of "against the..." Of course I noticed it about halfway through. I would like to read it again and make note of all of the things against some other thing. Also, I believe this is the only place in the book where the title occurs. But then, I do have 6 pages left.

:I wouldn't get too hung up on that. You can find 'em all, but then what? Pynchon loves red herrings. More interesting to track more oblique references to the title, some of which are on the [[Against the Day Title#Title References Oblique and Otherwise|Title Speculations page]]

==Page 806==

'''Toward the end of October all Hell broke loose . . . annex Bosnia''' 
The Bosnian Crisis began with the fear on the part of Austria-Hungary of possible reverses of Turkish concessions since the Russo-Turkish War of 1878 by the newly-resurgent Young Turk movement. The answer to this was annexation of Bosnia, which it had ruled as a colony since 1878. Knowing such a move would be opposed by Serbia, in turn supported by Russia, the Austrians offered to support the right of Russia to move warships through the Bosporus, and to support a declaration of independence from Turkey by Bulgaria. This provoked a general crisis [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_Crisis] from which Serbia had to back down, lacking Russian support. All had been settled in secret meetings in the months before; the Bulgarian (Glagolitic) traffic intercepted by Bevis Moistleigh, above, is thus explained. So is the sense of Grand Conspiracy; all the Great Powers were eventuallly involved. 
See [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/boshtml/bos127.htm The Annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1908.]

Brigitte Hamann in her book ''Hitler's Vienna'' writes:
"Diplomatic observers explained [the annexation] as an attempt 'to help the country get over its internal calamity'....To be sure, the real reason was indeed a patriotic one: annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina was meant to be an anniversary present to the old emperor [1908 marked the 60th annivesary of FJ's reign]. After all, in wars that had brought much loss, the empire had become smaller and smaller during Franz Josef's reign...Now the empire finally was supposed to become larger again for a change, in a way that was erroneously deemed simple. The consequences of such a step on European politics were vastly underestimated, and preparation for the annexation was flawed on an interntational level." ''Hitler's Vienna'', p. 104. [[User:Sideming|Sideming]]

'''coconut-shy''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_shy 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.
The origins of the game are unclear, although the term is first listed in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1903.
The word 'shy' in this context is a colloquial English term, meaning 'to throw' or toss.

'''šljivovica''' 
One of the spellings of this word for plum brandy (also slivovica, slivovitz, etc.). Serbian culture (perhaps others) seems to attribute almost nationalist cultural significance to the drink (the contributor is Serbian-American).

'''one to fifty million . . . mile-to-the-inch sheets''' 
Two extremes of mapmaking. A 1:50,000,000 map of the United States would fit comfortably on a page of ''AtD'' with most of Mexico and several Canadian provinces. Austria-Hungary at that scale would be about as big as your two thumbprints side by side.

The British Ordnance Survey produced a famous series of inch-to-the-mile sheets (1:63,360); the detail is about fine enough to show the left-turn lane of a city street. At this scale it would take some 200 unhandily large sheets to cover Austria-Hungary.

'''F.O.''' 
Foreign Office: the British equivalent of the US State Department.
Also found in ''V.''

'''Decisions of the utmost gravity''' 
that lead to Gravity's rainbows'''

==Page 807==

'''Major B. F. Vumb''' 
Major Bum Fuck Vumb, as in Dumb? Another Pynchonian V-name
with the usual associations.

'''''Judensau''''' 
German: Jewish pig.

'''the Vienna Woods''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wienerwald The Vienna Woods] is a low, wooded section of the Alps in eastern Lower Austria and far into the city of Vienna, covering over nearly 390 square miles and including the northermost parts of the entire Alpine chain. It is a favourite outdoor destination for people living around Vienna.

'''Christian Socialists . . . Dr. Karl Lueger''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Lueger Karl Lueger] (pronounced in three syllables, LOO eh ger) (1844-1910) was a Viennese politician, Burgomeister (mayor) of Vienna, and founder of the anti-Semitic Christian Social Party. He was a role model for Adolf Hitler.

'''Burgomeister''' 
This is the English form of the German Burgermeister -- mayor.

'''Reichsrath''' 
Austrian parliament.

'''''Wer Jude ist, bestimme ich''''' 
German: as translated in text.
Lueger used anti-Semitism as the rocket fuel to launch and maintain his political career, yet he himself had Jewish friends and backers. When confronted on this point his retort was this line -- essentially meaning the opposite of how it is used in the text. Instead of non-Jews being labelled Jews indiscriminately, Lueger meant it in the sense that his Jewish friends were ''not'' Jews -- and therefore exempt from persecution. His anti-Semitism was based on religion, not race -- which Hitler later faulted as leading to a situation where Jews would convert in name only.

'''''der schöne'' Karl''' 
German: the handsome, or the nice, Karl. Deeply sarcastic.

==Page 808==

'''"Well actually . . ."''' 
Shanghai, which because of its international status did not require a passport or visa for entry, would become a refuge for Jews made stateless by Nazi Germany or were otherwise refugees in the 1930s. Many tens of thousands were able to reach it, and survived the war and the Holocaust under Japanese occupation. Large numbers reached it using so-called Sugihara Passports, letters of transit issued by the Japanese vice-consul to Lithuania in 1940, with the connivance of Dutch diplomats[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugihara]. Obviously an anachronism, but actually...this is about portents and other bends in Time, perhaps things that echo up and down the Timelines (ours and alternates).

'''Graz''' 
Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page_519|page 519: Graz]].

'''Elefant Hotel''' 
The only listed Elefant Hotel in Austria, a building described as "ancient", is in Salzburg, not Graz; it is currently a Best Western. There is also a Hotel Elefant in Prague, once part ot the Empire; perhaps there was a chain?

'''. . . common Anglo-Habsburg interests...''' 
All the Great Powers found ways to benefit from the Bosnian Crisis, perhaps explaining Theign providing Italian naval decodes to the Austrians. Or, as Latewood accuses below, he is a double agent; McHugh is at least suspicious here. Either way, sending Latewood and Moistleigh on a suicide mission to Bosnia is one way to cover his tracks.

'''Murgasse''' 
Street in Graz. The Murgasse was first mentioned in a document from 1346. The part of town to the south was occupied by the farmers.
Murgasse
8490 Bad Radkersburg, Austria

==Page 809==

'''the Treaty of Berlin''' 
Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page_495|page 495: the Treaty of Berlin]].

'''Novi Pazar''' 
Novi Pazar also figures briefly in ''GR'' (P.14-15, Viking eds.): "...on this obscure sanjak had once hinged the entire fate of Europe" The Novi Pazar desk is manned by Lord Blatherard Osmo. The crisis passed, but Lord Osmo has an adenoid, and this mucoid "lymphatic monster", now independently alive in 1939, is confronted by an agent of The Firm (an outfit very like its temporal predecessor the T.W.I.T. in its interests in the paranormal) , one "Pirate" Prentice; it is "now as big as St Paul's and growing by the hour" threatening all London, but confined successfully--leading to Lord Osmo's neglect of Novi Pazar...A bizarre satiric experience of Crisis Management by Great Power foreign ministries, and the literally sticky mess they created. Currently, some obscure ex-Ottoman sanjaks, cobbled together as Iraq in 1919, are something of a hinge of history; another paramorphic mirroring of 1900/2000.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novi_Pazar Novi Pazar] is now a city of Serbia, about 110 miles directly south of Belgrade. Its name means "a new bazaar" in the local language. It was administered by Austria-Hungary from 1878 to 1908, and by Turkey (Ottoman Empire) from 1908 to 1912, and by Serbia 1912 to now.

'''Constantinople''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople Constantinople] was the capital of the Roman Empire (330-395), the Byzantine Empire (395-1204 and 1261-1453), the Latin Empire (1204-1261) and the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922). It is strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara on the Bosphorous Strait. It extends both on the European (Thrace) and on the Asian (Anatolia) side of the Bosphorus, and is thereby the only metropolis in the world which is situated on two continents. It was officially renamed to Istanbul in 1930.

'''the Young Turks with their revolution''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks The Young Turks] was a coalition of various reform groups in favor of reforming the administration of Ottoman Empire. Their movement brought about the second constitutional era through a revolution against the monarchy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turk_Revolution The Young Turk Revolution] of 1908 restored the suspended parliament and was a landmark in the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. The Revolution arose from the Ottoman peoples' near-universal opposition to the tyranny and corruption of the Sultan, which forged an unlikely union of reform-minded pluralists, Turkish nationalists, and Western-oriented secularists.

'''the vile Aerenthal''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alois_Lexa_von_Aehrenthal Aloys (or Alois) von Aerenthal] (1854-1912), Austrian foreign minister (1906-1912) who engineered the annexation of Bosnia in 1908.

'''in three-quarter time''' 
Waltzes are in 3/4 time and so the national powers are waltzing into a European war. Note the chain-like sliding/closing/turning step sequence in Viennese Waltz, and also the rhythm itself represented by the repeated dactyl "and so on, and so on".

Two plausible references: events driven by Vienna, the world's waltz capital, and a dark comic song recorded by the Kingston Trio in the 1960s: "Merry Minuet." In 3/4 time, it includes lyrics commenting on ethnic hatred, irredentism and inevitable nuclear catastrophe.

In fact, the sequence of events described here as a possibility in 1908 were realized in 1914, when Russia, in the crisis provoked by a Serbian youth group's assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, this time backed Serbia, resulting in the cascade of troop mobilizations that became World War I.

'''Mitrovitsa''' 
A Serbian town near the Turkish-Serbian border (now in Kosovo), about 25 miles southeast of Novi Pazar and 140 miles southeast of Sarajevo. The full Serbian name now is Kosovska Mitrovica, the Albanian name is Mitrovicë, and the population is mostly Albanian nowadays. (Some precognition about Novi Pazar.)

'''a railroad link from Sarajebo to Mitrovitsa, and thus to the Ægean Sea''' 
A railroad of 210 miles long linking Mitrovitsa (Turkish-Serbian border) throuhg Skopje (Macedonia) to Salonica (Greece) by the Ægean Sea alredy existed since December 1874.

'''Isvolsky''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Izvolski Alexander Petrovich Izvolsky] (Izvolski, Izvolskii) (1856-1919), Russian foreign minister (1906-1910), a major architect of the Anglo-Russian Entente, who on September 15, 1908, traded Bosnia-Herzegovina to Austria in exchange for Austria's help in opening the Bosporus and Dardanelles to Russian ships. Pynchon's spelling may well be from a contemporary source; consistent transliteration is a more recent fetish.

'''Grey''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Grey,_1st_Viscount_Grey_of_Fallodon Sir Edward Grey] (1862-1933), British Foreign Secretary 1905-16. He was the other major architect of the Anglo-Russian Entente (1907).

'''The Dardanelles''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dardanelles The Dardanelles], an international waterway, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It separates Europe (Gallipoli peninsula) and the mainland of Asia. With the Bosporus, Dardanelles connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.
Talk about a hinge of history! The Dardanelles were the site of the Trojan War; Troy being located on the western, Asian side of the strait.
Xerxes and Alexander marched through. It has figured in the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War and is the site of the Battle of Gallipoli in WWI.

==Page 810==

'''It's like having the lights brought up for a bit...''' 
As the crisis wound down to war in 1914, Sir Edward Grey (still Foreign Minister) is famously quoted as having said, "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Grey,_1st_Viscount_Grey_of_Fallodon]

'''Vlado Clissan''' 
His name comes from his hometown of Clissa, but this is the Italian name of the place. In Serbo-Croatian it is ''Klis.'' A pseudonym?

'''Blutwurst Special''' 
German: blood sausage.

'''toad-in-the-hole''' 
a traditional British dish. It consists of sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter, usually served with vegetables and gravy.

==Page 811==

'''"iron convergences and receding signal-lamps"''' 
our 'free choices' in . . . life; so ironic at this point.

Kurt Vonnegut, in ''Slaughterhouse Five'', described the human point of view as from consciousness strapped to a railroad car, forever facing only backward; from this vantage, history looks single and inevitable, whereas in reality the train of history is moving over unknown numbers of (from this perspective unseen) switch points, the settings of which are in fact changeable (the more complex view being taken by an extraterrestrial species, the Tralfamadorians, who can see forward to the many possibilities), alternate histories possible at every switch. The character Pointsman in ''GR'' in some ways embodies these possibilities.

'''The Semmering tunnel''' 
It refers to the Semmering mountain-peak tunnel of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmering_Railway the Semmering Railway]. The tunnel, with a length of 4,700 ft, was opened on May 15, 1854. (A new Semmering tunnel, through the mountain base, was built in 1952). The Semmering Railway, having a total of 15 tunnels, is a part of the Austrian Souther Railway (Südbahn) connecting Vienna to Trieste. The world's first mountain railway with a standard gauge, it was built between 1848 and 1854 and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

'''the Mur Valley''' 
The valley of the Mur River which, about 300 miles long, runs through the south-central Austria, northeast Slovenia and northern Croatia, where it flows into the Drava River. The biggest city in the Mur Valley is Graz, Austria.

'''Slavonian''' 
Today the name applies to the eastern part of Croatia, but a map will confirm that the route passes through the Slovenian plain. Writers before the World War must have had difficulty keeping Slovenia, Slovakia and Slavonia straight, especially since all were inhabited by Slavonic peoples.

'''the Slavonian plain''' 
The Slavonian plain (actually the historical region called Srem/Srijem/Sirmium minus the Fruška Hills) is an agricultural lowland in eastern Croatia and beyond. It is part of the larger Pannonia plain. It is bounded by the Papuk Mountains in the west, the river Drava in the north, the Sava in the south, and the Danube in the east. It was part of Croatia-Slavonia until 1918; the eastern section now belongs to Serbia.

'''Ljubljana''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ljubljana Ljubljana] is the capital of Slovenia. It is also the cultural and economical center of the country. It is located in central Slovenia.

'''the Karst''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kras The Karst] is a limestone borderline plateau region of southwestern Slovenia and northeastern Italy. It rises quite steeply above the neighboring landscape and is famous for its caves including Vilenica in Slovenia, the oldest tourist cave in the world. In addition to caves, erosion has produced in the Karst fissures, sinkholes and underground streams.

'''Općina''' 
A village about 4 miles northeast of Trieste.

'''the Piazza Grande''' 
Trieste's central square, a great rectangle lined on three sides by stately imperial buildings, its fourth, short side, revealing the Adriatic sea.

'''the Piazza Cavana''' 
Trieste's "Nighttown" before World War I.

'''Austrian double''' 
Latewood, in light of Theign's treatment of Yashmeen, and the apparent passing of Italian naval decrypts to Austria, accuses Theign of being an Austrain double agent.

==Page 812==

'''a Fortuny gown''' 
[http://www.chick.net/proust/fortuny.html Mariano Fortuny] (1871-1949), a Spanish fashion designer worked mostly in Venice, created some of the most remarkable fabrics and dresses of 20th century. His pleated silk gowns and velvet cloaks are regarded by collectors and museums around the world as the unique expression and embodiment of a craft at its best. He was one of the source of inspiration to Marcel Proust.

'''Mestre Bridge''' 
Mestre is a town in Veneto, northern Italy, a frazione of the comune of Venice. Located on the mainland,the city is connected to Venice by a large rail and road bridge, called Ponte della Libertà (Freedom Bridge). Cf [[ATD_695-723#Page_706|Page 706: Mestre bridge]].

'''Cloisters Court''' 
Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page_490|page 490: Cloisters Court]].

'''King's''' 
Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page_497|page 497: King's]]

==Page 813==

''''And England's far, and honour a name'''' 
Cyprian quoting from the 1897 poem [[Vitai Lampada|"Vitaï Lampada"]] ("They Pass the Torch of Life") by Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938), previously quoted on page 236 [[ATD_219-242#Page_236|(also see annotation)]]. (Discussed in this wiki's article by Peter Vernon, [[Cricket in Against the Day|It Just Isn't Cricket: Cricket As Metaphor in ''Against the Day'']])

Cf. "Cricket is 'chess made flesh'"--John Fowles

'''"honour"''' 
Cf. Falstaff on.

'''the Caffè degli Specchi''' 
Trieste was one of the first European cities took to coffee in a big way.
It is the leading coffee port on the Mediterranean and is renowned for its cafes and coffee. The first coffe houses in Trieste opened at the beginning of the 18th century. They become very popular with artists and intellecturals. Several of the original coffe houses are still going strong; the Caffè degli Specchi, located in the Piazza Unità d'Italia and opened since 1839, is one of them.

''Specchio'' (plural: ''specchi'') is Italian for mirror.

==Page 814==

'''Lateeners''' 
A lateener is a boat with a lateen sail: a triangular sail with one edge tied to a long spar, which is supported in the middle on a mast.

'''''Strichmädchen''''' 
German: streetwalker, hooker, prostitute.

'''LLoyd Austriaco''' 
A ship line. Lloyd Triestino was formed in 1919 as the successor to Lloyd Austriaco following the incorporation of Trieste into the Kingdom of Italy on January 3rd 1919.

'''Molo San Carlo''' 
A pier (''molo'') in Trieste. See [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Molo_San_Carlo.jpg Molo San Carlo']picture around 1900.

==Page 815==

'''"Nimrod" . . . from Elgar's ''Enigma Variations''''' 
"Nimrod" is the ninth section of this major 1899 work by English composer Edward Elgar (1857-1934). Like the other 13 sections, it characterizes a family friend; this one is A. J. Jaeger (whose name means "hunter" in German, hence "Nimrod," the name of a hunter mentioned in the Bible). [http://www.elgar.org/3enigma.htm Here is a very good description of the work and "Nimrod" in particular.]

The "Nimrod" variation is perhaps the most poignant of the piece; it rises to a cresendo and slowly, sadly, fades; an anthem for the fading of the 19th century.

'''"La Gazza Ladra"''' 
Overture by Rossini to an opera whose title means "The Thieving Magpie." It is as bright and impersonal as "Nimrod" is serious and sentimental.

''Gazza'' (Italian) specifically identifies the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Magpie European Magpie] (''Pica pica''), while ''magpie'' designates any of a dozen species.

'''"The Volga Boatmen" . . . "Auld Lang Syne"''' 
The puzzle in the "Enigma" Variations is this: Variations are based on a theme, but Elgar never states the theme; what is the melody? These are two of the popular guesses.

'''Gonzalo''' 
Gonzalo who?

Probably not the elderly adviser shipwrecked in ''The Tempest,'' by Shakespeare, considering the in-joke connection to Millicent.

It's a stretch, but some searching turns up a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millicent_Silver Millicent Silver] and a [http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzalo_Soriano Gonzalo Soriano], two among many musicians on a series of recordings by Victoria De Los Angeles of songs of Spain. Otherwise no connection between them.

'''Millicent''' 
? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millicent_Fawcett Millicent Fawcett] (1847-1929), a British suffragist and an early feminist. Is this the right person?

'''Δt''' 
Mathematical symbol used to represent a short length of time.

In addition, Pynchon is very concerned with dt,(little delta-t) the time differential, an infinitesimal change in time; to quote Pynchon from ''Lot 49'' (Lippincott, 1965 p.129): "a vanishingly small instant in which change had to be confronted at last for what it was, where it could no longer disguise itself as something innocuous like an average rate; where the velocity dwelled in the projectile though the projectile be frozen in midflight, where death dwelled in the cell though the cell be looked in on at its most quick." But, the paragraph goes on, "dt" also suggests DTs, Delirium Tremens (alcohol withdrawal) a state giving access to hallucinatory experiences, "spectra beyond the known Sun, music made purely of Antarctic loneliness and fright." Which is the general mood in the wake of the Tunguska Event and the Bosnian Crisis, or should be, if the characters were not so dutifully repressing it. (In ''Lot 49'' the realization of the dt/DTs connection has to do with Oedipa Maas' realization of the finality of death, and what inaccessible realms of experience are lost with each individual's death).

:Are you confusing Δ''t'', symbolizing a finite duration, with ''dt,'' a duration shrunk to an infinitesimal? 
(Possibly--my physics/calculus may be rusting. The connection may still hold; note emendation above--thanks. Edit further if necessary!).

'''Davos''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davos Davos] is a municipality in the eastern part of Switzerland. A popular destination for the rich and ailing because its high valley climate has long been considered excellent by doctors for curing lung desease. It is the setting of Thomas Mann's ''The Magic Mountain''. Davos is famous as the host of the World Economic Forum, an annual meeting of global political and business elites.

'''Föhn''' 
German. [http://www.bom.gov.au/lam/glossary/fpagegl.shtml#fo Wind] warmed and dried by descent on the lee side of a mountain. Germans even today acknowledge that its presence (say, in Munich) affects mood and emotions.

'''co-conscious with the everyday''' 
again. Linked to creativity here.

'''Ramanujan's Formula''' 
an elegant hyperbolic summation, Ramanujan's formula for the Riemann zeta function evaluated at the odd positive integers. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page_498|page 498: Rumanujan]] didn't come to the attention of Western mathematicians until he wrote to Hardy in late 1912 - early 1913 and travelled to Cambridge in 1914. Is Yashmeen prescient?

==Page 816==

'''''dolce far niente''''' 
Italian: sweet idleness (literally, sweet to do nothing).

'''divided second''' 
A dt.

'''of his entry''' 
Vlado the Impaler?

'''the Karst''' 
Cf [[ATD_792-820#Page_811|page 811: the Karst]]. 
Generic "karst topography" takes its name from this area of Slovenia and Italy (locally called ''kras'' and ''carso''). The terrain features limestone with fissures and cavities eroded by water. Caves as well as underground streams and lakes are common.

'''''osmizza''''' 
These are informal eating places out in rural areas, where farmers sell their meats, cheeses, olives and wines.

'''Illyria''' 
The Roman province in which modern Trieste is located.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illyria Illyria] was in Clssical antiquity a region in the western part of today's Balkan Peninsula, found by the tribes and clans of Illyrian, an ancient people who spoke the Illyrian languages. Illyria was a formidable local power in the 4th century BC, only after the Roman conquest in 168 BC did Illyria become one of the Roman provinces, Illyricum. In the context "ancient before Illyria" referrs to the period before the Roman conquest.

==Page 817==

'''quiet spaces between trams, unpredictable, even, she imagined, mathematically so''' 
An observation that might have seemed "foreign" to mathematics at the time she made it. A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisson_distribution Poisson distribution] expresses the probability that a specific number of trams arrive during a given time interval but cannot determine the exact arrival time of the next tram. The length of the "quiet space" varies in a ''chaotic'' way—which doesn't at all mean that the transit system is random.

The appearance of "chaos theory" in the second half of the 20th century provided a vehicle for interpreting the process, and observations like that of the trams were incorporated into mathematics. Two familiar "rhythms" have this quality of chaotic intervals: the beating of the human heart and the sound of water dripping from a faucet. The second part of the phrase is subtle: the time of the next tram/thud/drip can't be mathematically predicted (to arbitrary accuracy), but it is possible to describe in mathematical terms the ''way'' in which it's unpredictable. James Gleick's [http://www.around.com/chaos.html ''Chaos, Making a New Science,''] is just one of the good sources on this new theory.

'''never farther than half a block from the counter-soporific fluid''' 
Perhaps an allusion or parallel to the 21st century ubiquity of Starbucks.

:Cf [[ATD_792-820#Page_813|page 813: the Caffe degli Specchi]].

'''''Svr šavam!''''' 
Croatian/Serbian: I'm finishing. Here it means ''I'm coming''. Should be: ''Svršavam.''

'''Velebit''' 
Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page_326|page 326: Velebit]].
A ridge that runs parallel to the Croatian Adriatic coast a few tens of miles south of Trieste. Lying a short distance inland, it is made up of limestone karst.

==Page 818==

'''Zengg''' 
Cf [[ATD_695-723#Page_697|page 697: Zengg]].

'''Veglia''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krk_(island) Veglia], the second largest Adriatic island, is a Croatian island (''Krk'') in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Fiume.

'''persisted from day to day''' 
The image again of the storm that retains its identity over a long time.

'''Stationary waves''' 
Crests and troughs that don't move. Seen more often where water is flowing (up/downstream of rocks in rapids), but also where waves coming onshore interact with those reflected from the shore.

'''Novlian''' 
A family from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novi_Vinodolski Novi], a town on the Adriatic coast in Croatia about 10 miles north of Zengg (''Senj'') and 22 miles southeast of Fiume (''Rijeka'').

'''Uskok''' 
Cf [[ATD_695-723#Page_697|page 697: Uskok]]. 
Serbian/Croatian: fugitive. Writers even in antiquity noted that piracy was a main economic activity along this coast.

In all, Vlado seems very like the Traverse brothers, set against the modern world, or anyway modern power arrangements, a bit of an anarchist in his own way. But his grievances have historic depth and resonance, more of what Pynchon in ''V.'' called "Temporal Bandwidth".

Uskok is also a place's name.

'''the Argonauts''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argonauts The Argonauts], in Greek mythology, were a band of heroes who, in the years before the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_war Trojan War], accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_fleece Golden Fleece]. Their name comes from their ship ''Argo'' which in turn was named after its builder Argus.

'''Split''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split Split], situated on a small peninsula on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea about 150 miles southeast of Zengg, is the largest and most important city in Dalmatia, Croatia.

'''Clissa''' 
Town from which Vlado Clissan takes his ''nom de guerre.'' Locally called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klis Klis] which is located inland just 5 miles northeast of Split near the eponymous mountain pass. Because of its geographical position, Clissa is susceptible to a rather strong bora wind.

==Page 819==

'''You know the play by Shakespeare, ''The Merchant of Venice''? [...] We keep hoping till the end for Antonio to come to grief.''' 
In ''The Merchant of Venice'', Antonio, the protagonist, is a wealthy merchant in Venice, his wealth coming from the ships he owns, which could easily be at peril from pirates. So, natch, Vlado and his comrades who attack Venetian ships are pulling for the pirates.

'''''mala vita''''' 
bad life

'''palačinka''' 
Serbo-Croatian for crepe or thin pancake.

==Page 820==

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

ATD 768-791

2012-04-24T21:36:21Z

C-Melody: /* Page 782 */ apparati: wrong plural

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page 768==

'''fourteeners''' 
Affectionate name applied by Coloradans to mountain peaks 14,000 feet (approx. 4200 m) high.

'''Lake Baikal''' 

Another bi-location: one world out here, another reflected one in the lake. Oh, and the first syllable of the name is pronounced BY. 

Incidentally, "bai" is the Chinese word for "white" and is written 白. Could "bi-location" imply a "white" location?
Cf. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_946-975 Byal Sredets] p. 956.

Photos of Lake Baikal: [http://angara.net/photo/album/122] & [http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/lakebaikal/]

An Article on the Oddities of Lake Baikal: [http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF9/986.html] 

Wikipedia Entry: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Baikal]

==Page 769==

'''Mount Kailash''' 
Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page_437|page 437: Mount Kailash]].

'''Tengri Khan''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Tengri Tengri Khan] is a mountain, the second-highest peak (23,000 ft) of the Tian Shan mountain range.

'''Hassan was of course no longer there.''' 
OK, I have no idea what happened here. Since this is the non-spoiler section, maybe we can talk about it here: [[Hassan's Dissappearance Discussion|DISCUSSION]]

'''a maze of slot canyons''' 
The ground is crumpled rather like Kovalevskaia's handkerchief on page 634.

==Page 770==

'''stand before the Gate . . . Kit looked up . . .''' 
See the picture here: Cf [[ATD_748-767#Page_764|page 764: Tushuk Tash]].

'''followed by the whizzing sound''' 
As the impact of the V-2 was in ''Gravity's Rainbow.''

==Page 771==

'''You are released''' 
Echoes ''Ite, missa est'' on page 668.

'''samovars . . . gasping and puffing''' 
Samovar: a double urn containing a large amount of hot water and a small amount of super-strong tea. Passengers mixed their own to taste. The hot-water urn (the samovar proper) was in fact a small charcoal boiler; there ''was'' much steam. Many Russian railroad cars had samovars.

'''Ak-su''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aksu_City Ak-su] (White Water) is a city in Xinjiang, China. It is located in the Southern foothills of Tian Shan. The economy of Ak-su is mostly agricultural, with cotton, in particular the long-staple cotton, as the main product.

'''Kucha''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kucha Kucha] is a city in Xinjiang. It was an ancient Buddhist kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the northern edge of the Takalmakan desert in the Tarim Basin.

'''Korla''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korla Korla], also spelled as Kurla, is a city south of Karashahr. The Iron Gate Pass, 4 miles north of the city, played an important part in protecting the ancient Silk Road from rading nomads from the north.

'''Karasahr''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karasahr Karasahr] (Black City) is located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the northern edge of the Taklamakan desert.

'''nephrite''' 
Fibrous silicate mineral, one of the constituents of jade.

'''Turfan''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turfan Turfan] is an oasis city located about 90 miles southeast of Ürümqi, the capital of Xinjiang, China, in a mountain basin on the northern side of the Turfan Depression. Even though it has only 0.9 inch rainfall per year, Turfan has long been the center of a fertile oasis, producing great quatities of high-quality fruits, and an imprtant trade center.

'''Flaming Mountains''' 
[http://www.chinaetravel.com/attraction/att27c.html Flaming Mountains] are red sandstone hills on the northern edge of the Turfan Basin. The red of the hills has been likened to burning flames, and temperatures often reach a sweltering 130° F. The Mountains were made famous by the 16th-century Chinese classic novel ''Journey to the West''.

'''the Sangre de Cristos''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangre_de_Cristo_Mountains The Sangre de Cristos] (Blood of Christ) are the southermost subrange of the Rocky Mountains located in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.

==Page 772==
'''the ancient kingdom of Khocho . . . to be the historical Shambhala''' 
Dr Edwin Bernbaum, a Research Associate of the University of California, Berkeley, claimed, in his book [http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FWay-Shambhala-Mythical-Kingdom-Himalayas%2Fdp%2F1570628742%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1180372355%26sr%3D1-1&tag=hyperartspynchon&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325 ''The Way to Shambhala: A Search for the Mythical Kingdom Beyond the Himalayas''] (1980, 2001), that Shambhala is not in the Himalayas, but far to the north, in the Turfan Depression, "Established by the Uighurs, a Turkish perople, around 850, the kingdom of Khocho flourished for four hundred years as a remarkable oasis of culture and learning. A predominantly Buddhist country, with numerous monasteries, it also had active centers of Manicheanism and Nestorian Christianity . . . At the time the ''Kalackra'' appreared in India, the kingdom of Khocho probably possessed the most advanced civilization of any country in Central Asia. Well-irrigated fields and orchards produced enough surplus food to allow the Uighurs to run welfare programs for the poor. Living together in peaceful harmony, people of different races, relgions and languages stimulated each other's thought and culture. Paintings found in the ruins of Turfan show houses built in the Chinese style, men and women dressed in embroidered silk, and a chamber ensemble complete with harps, guitar, and flutes. Even the Chinese, the most fastidious connoisseurs of culture, were impressed by the grace of Uihur society." (pp.42-43)

Bernbaum's [http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FWay-Shambhala-Mythical-Kingdom-Himalayas%2Fdp%2F1570628742%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1180372355%26sr%3D1-1&tag=hyperartspynchon&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325 ''The Way to Shambhala: A Search for the Mythical Kingdom Beyond the Himalayas''] is an excellent resource and a likely backgrounder for Pynchon when writing about Shambhala in ''Against the Day''.

Interesting connection between Shambala and bi-location: According to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalachakra Kalachakra Tantra], the King of Shambhala requested teaching from the Buddha that would allow him to practice the dharma without renouncing his worldly enjoyments and responsibilities. In response to his request, the Buddha appeared in two places at once to teach the first Kālachakra tantra. (Wikipedia)

'''Urumchi''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cr%C3%BCmqi Urumchi] or Ürümqi, is the capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. With a population of 2.1 million (75% are Han Chinese) and located in the northwest of the country, it is the largest city in the western half of China. Ürümqi is the most remote city from any sea in the world at a distance of about 1,400 miles from the nearest coastline.

'''lowlands of Dzungaria''' 
A region of 300,000 sq mi in Xinjiang, NW China. It is a largely steppe and semidesert basin surrounded by high mountains: the Tian Shan in the south and the Altai in the north. Urumchi and Yining are the main cities with other smaller oasis towns dot the piedmont areas. The region passed to the Chinese only in the mid-18th century.

==Page 773==

'''Lake Zaisan''' 
Lake Zaisan, in Russian Central Asia near the Chinese border, is located in an open valley between the Altai range on the northeast and the Tarbagatai on the south at an altitude of 1,355 ft.

'''The Irtysh . . . the Ob''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irtysh_River The Irtysh] is the chief tributary of the Ob which is a major river in western Siberia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ob_river The Ob] is Russia's fourth longest river. The Ob-Irtysh form a major basin in Asia, encompassing most of western Siberia and the Altai Mountains.

'''Novosibirsk''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novosibirsk Novosibirsk] lies along the Ob river in the West Siberian Plain. It is Russia's 3rd largest city, after Moscow and St.Petersburg. It was founded in 1893 as the future site of the Trans-Siberian Railway bridge crossing the Ob. In early 20th century the Turkestan-Siberia Railway, connecting Novosibirsk to Central Asia and the Caspian Sea, was completed.

'''The Paris of Siberia''' 
By 1900 Irkutsk (Cf [[ATD_748-767#Page_764|page 763: Irkutsk]]) had been nicknamed as such.

'''''kupechestvo''''' 
Russian: the merchant community.

'''Glaskovsk''' 
A suburb in Irkutsk across the Irkut river.

==Page 774==

'''Club Golomyanka''' 
A golomyanka is a viviparous fish of the perch family, unique to Lake Baikal.

'''NAUSHNIKI''' 
As translated in the text.

'''1895 model Nagant revolver''' 
[http://world.guns.ru/handguns/hg102-e.htm Nagant revolver] was designed in Belgium by Nagant brothers in the late 1880s and was adopted by numerous countries. The major user and manufacturer was Russia which adopted it in 1895.

'''British gold sovereigns''' 
The world's most popular gold coins, [http://www.goldsovereigns.co.uk/firstsovereign.html British gold sovereign] first came to existence in 1489 under Henry VII. There was a major change in 1816 for the so-called Modern Soverign which are continure to the present day. It has a value of one pound sterling (but with a much higher trading market value) and is made of 15.55 grams of standard gold coinage alloy of 23 carat, equal to 95.83% pure gold. (Another source [http://www.onlygold.com/Coins/BritishSovereignsFullScreen.asp British gold sovereigns2] said they have a 91.7% gold.)

==Page 775==

'''Tower Hill''' 
[http://www.royalmint.com/RoyalMint/web/site/Corporate/AboutUs/History/TowerHill.asp The Royal Mint at Tower Hill], London, between 1812-1968. Now the Royal mint is at Liantrisant (10 miles west of Cardiff), Wales.

'''Young Vic''' 
Image of young Queen Victoria on the British sovereign (1 pound) piece. The first portrait for Queen Victoria was the "Youg Head", which was used on sovereigns from 1838 to 1887 inclusive. For a picture for this coin see [http://www.goldsovereigns.co.uk/heads.html Victoria Young Head]. 
Contrast with [http://www.rvhf.org/history.html Old Vic,] the theater, originally the Royal Coburg, renamed Royal Victoria in 1833—when Vic was Young. The name Old Vic "eventually" became customary and is now official. This is the house that Kevin Spacey runs.

'''Upper Tunguska, Stony Tunguska, Lower Tunguska''' 
They are the three eastern tributaries of the Yenisei River in Siberia. They cut across the swampy forests of east-central Siberia, draining the Tunguska Basin. Furthest north is the Lower Tunguska (1,590 mile long). The Stony Tunguska (980 mile long) rises west of the headwaters of the Lower Tunguska. The Upper Tunguska is the name given to the lower course of the Angara and it joins the Yenisei at Strelka. The area of the three rivers is the home of the Tungus. ([http://www.bartelby.com/65/tu/Tunguska.html Tunguska]).

'''the Ilimpiya''' 
Presumably the Ilimpeya River, a left-bank tributary of the Lower Tunguska, is named for them.

:It refers to the Tungus people from the Ilimpiya river.

'''the Shanyagir''' 
A clan of the Tungus people who lives along the Stony Tunguska.

'''Magyakan''' 
Shaman of the Ilimpiya clan, also spelled Magankan. His greatest feat was summoning a huge flock of ''agdi'', the birds made of iron that produce the thunder, for the explosion over the land of the Shanyagir clan. It flattened nearly a thousand square miles of forest and started a fire that burned for weeks, sending ash so high that it circled the Northern Hemisphere, making sunsets bright. See [http://www.answers.com/topic/shaman shaman].

'''''siberyaki''''' 
Standard spelling ''sibiryaki.'' Russian: Siberians.

'''Bratsk''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bratsk Bratsk], located on the Angara River near the vast Bratsk Reservoir, is a city in Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia, Russia.

'''Yeniseisk''' 
[http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Yeniseisk,_Siberia_(Capital) Yeniseisk], on the right bank of the Yenisei, is a Siberian city 170 miles northwest of Krasnoyarsk, capital of the government of the same name.

'''embouchure''' 
French word denoting the conformation of the mouth (in speaking, playing the clarinet, etc.).

==Page 776==

'''Dorzhieff''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agvan_Dorjiev Agvan Dorjiev] (1853/54–1938) was an ethnic Buriat who trained as a Buddhist monk in Tibet.He was one of the tutors of the 13th Dalai Lama and was his representative at the Russian court. [[Agvan Dorjie|More »]]

'''taiga''' 
Coniferous boreal forest; supports logging, trapping, hunting/gathering.

'''iron creatures of Agdy . . . their eyes flashing . . .''' 
"The Tungus have only one expression for the thunder - ''agdy''-, by which they also describe the old man, the lord of the thunder as well as all the thunderbirds that come down to earth and cause the thunder. The ''Agdy'' birds are as big as black grouses, are made of iron, and their eyes are fiery. The thunder arises from their flight above the earth and their eyes flash like lightning." (from a quotation in [http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/evenkiv.html Tungus eye-witnesses reports of Tunguska Event]).

'''Hindu fire-god Agni''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agni Fire-god Agni] is a Hindu and Vedic deity. The word ''Agni'' is Sanskrit for "fire". Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods. He is ever-young and immortal, because the fire is re-lit every day.

'''Ogdai Khan''' 
Cf [[ATD_748-767#Page_765|page 765: Ogdai]].

==Page 777==

'''The Church of England''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_England The Church of England] is the officially established Christian church in England, and acts as the "mother" and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion.

'''Shamanism''' 
Decentralized religion. The village shaman engaged in spirit travel and communicated with animals, ancestors, etc., for the benefit of the people, often using bizarrely excessive amounts of drugs.

'''The Cherokee''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee The Cherokee] are a people indigenous to North American, who at the time of European contact in the 16th century inhabited what is now the Eastern and Southeastern United States. Most were forcibly moved westward to the Ozark Plateua. They were one of the tribes referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes.

'''the Apache''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache The Apache] is the collective name for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the US. They formerly lived over eastern Arizona, north-western Mexico, New Mexico, parts of Texas.

'''the massacre of the Sioux Ghost Dancers at Wounded Knee''' 
They were the largest and most important Indian tribe north of Mexico, with the exception of Chippewa, who, however, lack the solidarity of the Sioux. [http://www.indians.org/articles/sioux-indians.html The Sioux] actually came to North America from Asia about 30,000 years ago. The name Sioux means "little snake". They were generally nomadic, typically followed the pattern of the buffalo. [http://www.sonofthesouth.net/union-generals/sioux-indians/sioux-indians.htm The Sioux Indians] occupied the vast domain extending from the Arkansas River, in the south, to the western tributary of Lake Winnipeg, in the north, and westward to the eastern slopes of the Rocky. The Sioux battled the white men and fought against the government in orer to keep their land. There was a general uprising in 1862. Later there were many more fierce armed conflicts involved the Sioux. One of the better known was ''The Battle of Little Big Horn'' on June 25, 1876, in which General Custer and all of his immediate command were killed. This was one of the most significant victories, led by [http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/bigfoor.htm Sitting Bull] (1831-1890), of the Indian Nations. 
A new Indian's religion that promised to rid the land of white people and restore the Indians' way of life evolved in 1880s-1890s as a reaction to the Indians being forced to submit to government authority and reservation life. The new religion was called [http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/WKghost.html the Ghost Dance] by the white because of its ceremonial ritual dance and its precepts of resurrection and reunion with the dead. The Sioux were the most enthusiastic believers. But the Bureau of Indian Affairs banned the Ghost Dance feared that the swelling numbers of Ghost Dancers and believed that the ritual was a precusor to renwered Indian militancy and violent rebellion. The confrontation led to [http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/WKmscr.html The Wounded Knee Massacre] on December 29, 1890 in which over 350 Ghost Dancers were slained. And this was the last major armed conflict between the Indian Nations and the US Government.

==Page 779==

'''A heavenwide blast of light''' 
It refers to the greatest cosmic impact of the century, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event the Tunguska Event], happened at 7:17 A.M. on June 30, 1908 near the Stony Tunguska River at Tunguska basin in central Siberia, Russia. With no warning, a small comet or meteor about 100 ft in diameter, coming from the direction of Western China and glowing with the heat of 5,000 degrees, hurtling through space about 3-6 miles above the Earth and exploded in the sky 40 miles north of Vanavara settlement by the Stony Tunguska. It was so powerful that the seismograph at Irkutsk, some 550 miles away, registered what looked like an earthquake. The impact had a force of 20 million tons of TNT, equivalent to 1,000 Hiroshima bombs. It is estimated that 60-80 million trees were felled over an area of 830 square miless but left no obvious crater. If the explosion had occurred over St Petersburg hundreds of thousands of people would have been killed. But the Event occurred at such a remote and isolated location that no scientist bothered to investigate the "rumors" of the event for 13 years. (See also [http://www.unmuseum.org/siberia.htm Tunguska Event from UnMuseum].)
:Check your TV schedule for a History Channel special, ''Siberian Apocalypse,'' which presents old movie footage of Soviet explorations (my guess: re-enacted in the 1930s) and analyses by present-day scientists and UFOlogists, along with the usual Slo-Mo Channel animations repeated ad nauseam. The program ran on March 18, 2007. The best current information, according to a team from the University of Bologna, points to a stony asteroid (a "carbonaceous chondrite") that disintegrated some miles above the surface, leaving no fragments to be found but loading the local vegetation with elements not typical of the taiga.
:Two of the stranger hypotheses about the Event have special ''AtD'' connections. (1) The cosmic object was a chunk of antimatter, and the energy it released was due to annihilation when it came into contact with terrestrial matter (air). This would make the object, in a sense, [[ATD_57-80#Page_78|the Anti-Stone (p. 78).]] (2) The Event was the explosion produced by dissipation of a huge [[ATD_57-80#Page_73|ball lightning (p. 73).]] Both these notions are pretty remote, though, and the stony asteroid holds up better.

'''poods''' 
Russian measure of weight. One pood = 16.38 kilograms; 30 poods = 491 kg = 1081 pounds, pretty close to half a ton.

'''''ekipazh''''' 
Russian: crew, team.

'''''Právil'no''''' 
Russian: all ''right!''

'''Russian design philosophy''' 
. . . which is perpetuated in Soviet and Russian space technology.

'''Razvedka''' 
Russian: intelligence (in the military-political sense).

'''pogroms''' 
Terror campaigns, usually against Jews.

==Page 780==

'''Ofitser Nauchny''' 
Russian: science officer.

'''this Event''' 
The Tunguska Event. Cf 779: A heavenside blast of light.

'''''umnik''''' 
Russian: clever man.

'''General Sukhomlinoff''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Sukhomlinov Vladimir Alexandrovich Sukhomlinoff] (1848-1926), Russian cavalry officer, Chief of General Staff 1908-9, Minister of War 1909-15, imprisoned 1917-18 for failure to prepare the Russian Army for World War, emigrated to Finland and then to Germany.

'''''Zi!''''' 
Might be an error. "Wait" in the imperative mode is ''zhdi'' or ''podozhdi'' in Russian.

'''butterfly . . . angel''' 
The description of the damage pattern is accurate; see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event Tunguska Event.]

==Page 781==

'''''zastolye''''' 
Russian: group of regulars.

'''''Khuy''''' 
Impolite Russian: cock!

'''Bezumyoff''' 
The name derives from Russian ''bezumets'': madman.

'''''vseznaǐka''''' 
Russian: as translated in text. In keeping with the sources he must have used—many of them contemporary—Pynchon applies a bewildering assortment of rules in transliterating Russian words.

'''"potentially a hole in the earth"''' 
One of the theories regarding the real Tungaska Event is that a small black hole entered the earth. Flaw in theory: an exit has never been found. See Wikipedia ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event Tunguska Event]).

'''. . . ''at any moment'', directly beneath St Petersburg . . .''' 
"According to the Guinness Book of World Records (1966 edition), if the collision had occurred 4 hours 47 minutes later, it would have wiped out St. Petersburg, the starting point of the Bolshevik revolution." See (Wikipedia article, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event Tunguska Event]).

'''Tsarskoe Selo''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsarskoe_Selo Tsarskoe Selo], ''Tsar's Village'', was the "country" home of the Russian Tsars. It is now part of the town of Pushkin about 15 miles south from the center of St.Petersburg.

==Page 782==

'''''mental apparati''''' 
This is probably an error, deliberate or not, as the plural of ''apparatus'' in Latin and English is also ''apparatus''. (In Italian, the plural of ''apparato'' is ''apparati'' but there's no indication it was meant to be Italian.) The wrong plural here contrasts with Cyprian's being peculiar about the ablative of Latin ''limbus'' on p. 814.

'''''Nichevo''''' 
Russian: nothing.

'''Vanavara''' 
[http://www.evenkya.ru/eng/?id=obsh&sid=admterdel&ssid=41 Vanavara] is the adminstrative center, a settlement with a population of 3,000, of Tungusko-Chunsky region. It is situated on the right bank of the Stony Tunguska river. Vanavara was 40 miles south of the Tunguska Event blast center.

'''Transfinitum''' 
Cantor's mathematical concept of transfinite numbers, indefinitely large but distinct from one another.

==Page 783==

'''...to reaffirm allegiance to its limits, including mortality...''' 
That is, to reaffirm the allegiance of the inhabitants of this world to the "something's" limits, remind Man of mortality and transcendent laws and limits.

'''''dungur''''' 
A ''dungur'' is a shamanic drum.

'''homeopathic echoes to protect from its return''' 
The homeopathic principle is that small doses of what kills will cure or prevent; drumming prevents return of the huge sound.

==Page 784==

'''Raskol'niki''' 
Russian: schismatics, dissenters. Raskol'nikov in ''Crime and Punishment'' derives his name from this word.

'''Tchernobyl . . . Wormwood''' 
Now rendered more commonly as Chernobyl (Russian), Chornobyl (Ukrainian). 

Wormwood, a star that falls onto the Earth poisoning the fresh water sources per Book of Revelation 8:10-11. 

Dostoyevsky explores Tchernobyl/Wormwood, the meaning of the Book of Revelation in ''[[Idiots and Idiocy in Against the Day|The Idiot]]'', where Wormwood is also linked to the newly built net of railroads ([http://www.google.de/books?id=AWMyvJTUoFYC&pg=RA1-PA423&ots=eUY1cTqyvg&dq=idiot+wormwood&sig=9e2YFxWCZU568-eHjz_nHMM345A#PRA1-PA423,M1 Google Books]).

Absinthe, Neville and Nigel's favourite spirit, "comes from the medicinal plant Artemisia absinthium, also called grand wormwood or Absinth wormwood."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe]

'''Reindeer discovered again their ancient powers of flight, which had lapsed over the centuries since humans had invaded the North. Some were stimulated by the accompanying radiation into an epidermal luminescence at the red end of the spectrum, particularly around the nasal area.''' 
In other words, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and his airborne squadron mates. Seriously: magic and the possibility of change is reintroduced into the world.

'''heat . . . tended to flow unpredictably''' 
The Laws of Thermodynamics have taken a brief holiday.

'''Old Slavonic''' 
Or Old Church Slavonic; liturgical language of Russian Orthodox Church, closely related to Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Serbian (Tesla's father was a Serbian priest who worked in this language).

'''Aspects of the landscape of Tierra del Fuego . . . sea ernes''' 
Not exactly. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_Eagle White-tailed Eagle] (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), also known as the Erne or the Sea Eagle, is actually a bird of Eurasia.

==Page 785==

'''''izba''''' 
Russian: hut.

'''Ssagan''' 
In Burkhanism, a Russian religious movement that flourished among the indigenous people of Russia's Gorno Altai region between 1904 and the 1930s, Ak-Burkhan ("White Burkhan) is a deity who is depicted as an old man with white hair, a white coat, and white headgear, who rides a white horse, and is possibly analogous to the Mongolian "white old man," Tsagan Ebugen. The Buryat language (or Buriat) is a Mongolic language spoken by the Buryats of Siberia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkhanism]

Sacred white reindeer parallels Native American's reverence for white buffalos.

And the white stag as Christ-symbol in Renaissance paintings.

A more accurate romanization of Ssagan would be "Tsagaan", reflecting the long vowel present in the original Mongolian Цагаан.

==Page 786==

'''the Sayan''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayan_Mountains The Sayan] is a mountain range in southern Siberia. The eastern Sauan extends 600 miles from the Yenisei to the southwest end of Lake Baikal, and the western Sayan forms the eastern continuation of the Altay Mountains.

'''Tannu-Ola''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannu-Ola_Mountains The Tannu-Ola] mountain range is in southern Siberia extending east-west direction and curves along the Mongolian border.

'''Tuva''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuva Tuva] is located in extreme southern Siberia bordering with Mongolia. Its eastern part is forested and elevated, and the west is a drier lowland.

'''if a fellow was going to come riding in anywhere on a white reindeer''' 
Suggestive of Jesus riding an ass into Jerusalem

'''an unearthly guttural singing''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtone_singing Overtone singing], also known as throat singing, overtone chanting, or harmonic singing, is a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the harmonic resonances created as air travels from the lungs... The best-known of the traditional forms comes from Tuva... Ethnomusicologists studying throat singing in these areas mark (it) as an integral part in the ancient pastoral animism that is still practised today. (Wikipedia) 
It is unearthly and fascinating. Tuvan throat singing can be seen and heard in the movie "Genghis Blues," a documentary about American musician Paul Pena's trip to Tuva to compete in a throat singing contest.
:In the early 1970s the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen got some students together and made a one-piece album called ''Stimmung'' (German: tuning up). It's '''choral''' overtone singing. "Unearthly" is right.

'''"borbanngadyr"''' 
The Wikipedia entry linked in the previous annotation mentions, but doesn't describe, a style of overtone singing called ''borbangnadyr.'' Same letters arranged differently. It doesn't follow that there is a typo; transliteration from languages like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvan_language Tuvan] without "literary" histories is often controversial.

'''"the heart of Earth" 
'''"all's I see's a bunch of sheep" 
'''"Exactly." 
This is Shambhala. Sheep may safely graze.

==Page 787==

'''the Wheel of Life''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavacakra The Wheel of Life] is a complex symbolic representation of "continuous movement" in the form of a circle, used primarily in Tibetan Buddhism. "Continuous movement", ''samsāra'', is the continuous cycle of birth, life, and death from which one liberates oneself through enlightenment.

'''"Are you kind deities? or wrathful deities?"''' 
Here the interaction between Prance and the Chums of Chance resembles that between Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, and Dorothy Gale in the 1939 film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_%281939_film%29 The Wizard of Oz.] After descending from the sky in a pink bubble and encountering Dorothy in Munchkinland, Glinda asks "Are you a good witch or a bad witch?" Dorothy replies that she's not a witch at all, just as Randolph St. Cosmo replies that the Chums "endeavor to be kind." Darby's reference to Bo Peep seems Munchkinlandian too, as Glinda is a sort of shepherd to the Munchkins themselves. --[[User:Jpicco|Jpicco]]

Also a reference to the Buddhist hierarchy of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrathful_deities enlightened beings].
A notable feature of Tibetan Buddhism is the emphasis on wrathful deities, often alternative manifestations of normally peaceful deities. They symbolize the dynamic activity of an enlightened being, brought forth to tame negative or unsettling impulses in the human mind. (Wikipedia)

'''"Bo Peep" 
she who has lost her sheep, as in the rhyme.

'''"Never work,", muttered Darby. "They'll squash you like bugs." 
Darby, now a lawyer, now cynical, presents the archetypal response to
Prance's visiting " deities" as in classic sci-fi books and movies.

'''the Tengyur''' 
Cf [[ATD_748-767#Page_766|page 766: Tengyur]].

==Page 788==

'''band of''' '''''brodyagi''''' 
This entire passage is a reference to ''Don Quixote'', namely the incident with Gines de Pasamonte and the galley slaves. In ''Don Quixote'', Gines acts as a metafictional representation of Cervantes, as well as a symbol of the author/writer. Here, Topor acts as Gines, representing TRP (notice the name similarity). The hallucinogenic mushrooms represent the ''Quixote''--with a two part narrative, the first pleasant and wonderous, the second full of horrors--as well as AtD and novels, generally. The urine-drinking seems to be a crack at literary critics and literature fans who write about books and read what others write--essentially, drinking each other's urine: the after-products of the consumption of books. --[[User:Specklebelly|Specklebelly]]

Yes, and urophagia is certainly prevalent around here.

'''''brodyagi''''' 
Russian: tramps.

'''"Topor"''' 
Russian: The Ax.

'''fusel oils''' 
Cf [[ATD_748-767#Page_756|page 756: fusel oils]]. 
Toxic byproducts of fermentation, sometimes still present in bad liquor.

'''strange mottled red mushrooms''' 
''Amanita muscaria'', an hallucinogenic mushroom. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_muscaria Wikipedia entry].

'''drank one another's urine''' 
Shamanistic practice also observed in some "mystery" religions. The person who ingests the drug (e.g., toxic mushroom) partly metabolizes it and excretes it; followers can get a, hrmm, watered-down dose by drinking his urine. Source: [http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/abcde/allegro_john.html ''The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross''] by John M. Allegro (1970).

==Page 789==

'''''brodyagi''''' 
See page 788.

'''Christian propaganda mill down south''' 
A college?

'''Pacific Coast League''' 
Minor league (Triple-A) baseball league that at the time was the only professional baseball league west of St. Louis. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Coast_League Wikipedia entry].

Perhaps Colfax Vibe has become Sandy Koufax, pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1960's.

'''barmaid from Oakland''' 
Oakland has a Pacific Coast Brewing Company with some very sweet barmaids.

==Page 790==

'''the wilderness Creature that feeds on all other creatures . . .''' 
Described by Captain Padzhitnoff on p.124

'''Krasnoyarsk''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk], the third largest city in Siberia, is on the Yenisei River upstream of Yeniseisk. It is an important junction on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

'''arival''' 
Misspelling of ''arrival.''

'''remittance man''' 
A man living on remittances, i.e. family funds from home, a trust fund, etc. It is also time to note that a Fleetwood is a model of Cadillac.

==Page 791==

'''the Vormance people''' 
The Vormance polar expedition was mentioned on page 130 and elsewhere.

'''taken by the wind''' Included in refrain/hook from popular Fleetwood Mac [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleetwood_Mac]song "Rhiannon"[http://www.lyricsfreak.com/f/fleetwood+mac/rhiannon_20054400.html]Perhaps an alternative to the Fleetwood/Cadillac reference.
[[User:Wagyu|Wagyu]] 15:52, 1 July 2007 (PDT)

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

M

2012-04-21T12:32:23Z

C-Melody: typos

'''Macassar Oil''' 
16; Macassar oil is an oil used primarily by men in Victorian and Edwardian times to smooth their hair. It was advertised as containing oil from Macassar, which is the former name of Ujung Pandang, a district on the island of Celebes in Indonesia. Exotic hair oil was quite the rage in the first half of the 19th century, another popular hair pomade being made from bear fat! (This gave rise to the curious practice of placing stuffed bears outside English barber shops.) <ref>[http://takeourword.com/Issue050.html Take Our Word For It Website]</ref>; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macassar_oil Wikipedia entry]

'''Macchiavelli, Niccolò di Bernardo dei (1469-1527)''' 
669; an Italian political philosopher, musician, poet and romantic comedic playwright. He is a figure of the Italian Renaissance and a central figure of its political component, most widely known for his treatises on realist political theory ([http://www.constitution.org/mac/prince00.htm ''The Prince'']) on the one hand and republicanism ([http://www.constitution.org/mac/disclivy_.htm ''Discourses on Livy'']) on the other. In ''The Prince'' Macchiavelli describes the arts by which a Prince (a ruler) can retain control of his realm. He focuses primarily on what he calls the ''principe nuovo'' or "new prince", under the assumption that a hereditary prince has an easier task since the people are accustomed to him. All a hereditary prince needs to do is carefully maintain the institutions that the people are used to; a new prince has a much more difficult task since he must stabilize his newfound power and build a structure that will endure. This task requires the Prince to be publicly above reproach but privately may require him to do things of an evil nature in order to achieve the greater good; 669; Italian "facility for creeping about" 706; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchiavelli Wikipedia]

'''Macedonian Question''' 
690; The dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is a symbolic struggle concerning legitimate rights over "Macedonia"-- the name, the territory, and the loyalty of its inhabitants. The dispute was created by two conflicting national narratives. In the Balkans, nation-building has emphasized particularistic over universalistic criteria. Local national narratives were instrumental in establishing the legitimate possession of a territory by a particular ethnic group. Historically, these narratives are tied to local nationalisms since their function is to designate a territory as the exclusive homeland of a particular nation. The Macedonian narrative views Macedonia as occupied by the Macedonian nation and suggests the existence of national minorities in Bulgaria and Greece. The Greek narrative does not acknowledge the existence of a Macedonian nation and considers the existence of a Macedonian minority within Greece to be a manifestation of Macedonian irredentism. The Macedonian narrative directly questions the Greek narrative's assumption of historical continuity. The strong Greek reaction against FYROM's declaration of independence is a response to this implicit threat to modern Greek identity <ref>Victor Roudometof, [http://www.gate.net/~mango/JHS1.htm Nationalism and Identity Politics in the Balkans: Greece and the Macedonian Question], ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies'' 14.2 (1996) 253-301</ref>; 697; 845; 871;

'''Mach, Ernst (1838-1916)''' 
412; 616; Austrian physicist and philosopher, best known as namesake of the Mach number. Mach number, M, is the '''ratio''' of the speed of flow of a gas to the speed of sound. When M = 1, it means the gas flow speed reaches the sonic speed; M > 1 the gas flows at supersonic speed and M < 1 subsonic speed. When ''Concord'' jetliner cruised at M = 2.2 that means she was flying at the speed of 2.2 times the speed of sound. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach%2C_Ernst Wikipedia entry.]

'''"Macking for a mack"''' 
359; a mack is slang for seducer, usually of women but in this case of potential investors; "mack" is also slang for a pimp. Reef is the bunco steerer, hence a mack in either sense. Stray is steering marks to him, hence acting as ''his'' mack.

'''Madali''' 
756; This refers to Mohammed 'Ali Khan (1822-1841) who ruled the Central Asian state of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khanate_of_Kokand Khanate of Kokand], ascending to the throne in 1821 at the age of 12. During his reign, the Khanate of Kokand reached its greatest territorial extent.

'''Madame Butterfly (opera)''' 
567;

'''Madero, Francisco I. (1873-1913)''' 
Madero was a politician, writer and revolutionary who served as President of Mexico from 1911 to 1913. As a respectable upper-class politician he supplied a center around which opposition to the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz could coalesce. However, once Díaz was deposed, the Mexican Revolution quickly spun out of Madero's control. He was deposed and executed by the Porfirista military that he neglected to replace with his revolutionary supporters. His death was followed by the most violent period of the revolution (1913-1917) until the Constitution of 1917 and revolutionary president Venustiano Carranza achieved some degree of stability; his force at Casas Grandes, 919; Revolution, 982; [http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/history/jtuck/jtmaderofi.html Article by Jim Tuck at Mexico Connect]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_I._Madero Wikipedia entry]

'''Magdika''' 
802; "blond wife of a Hungarian cavalry officer" with whom Reef is sleeping

'''Magic Crystal''' 
133;

'''magnetism''' 
97; 121;

'''Mags and Nuncs and Matins''' 
497; different types of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canticles canticles]

'''Magonistas''' 
982; in Chihuahua; "politics through chemistry" 984;

'''Magyakan''' 
143; "a shaman of great regional fame ... who has been active on behalf of the Ilimpiya" 775; disappears after Tunguska, 785;

'''Mahdi''' 
29; "the expected one" - a Muslim leader who assumes a messianic role; [http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/v/alpha/m.html#mahdi The mahdi in ''V.''] 
From Islamic eschatology in general and Shiiate Twelver Imam mysticism in particular, the Mahdi is similar to the coming avatar of Vishnu, Kalki, the Christian idea of the Second Coming of Christ or the Jewish idea of the Messiah -- a cosmic, divine figure who comes to defeat the principle of Evil (in Christian terms, The Antichrist, in Islam the ''Dajjal'' ) and restore the righteous to their proper place. The Mahdi will fight alongside Jesus to bring about the perfect and just Islamic society just prior to the "Day of the Resurrection" at the end of time.

Throughout Muslim history there have been leaders who proclaimed themselves the Mahdi, similar to Christians from time to time proclaiming themselves the Messiah.

'''mail''' 
173; [[mail|DISCUSSION]]

'''Malus, Etienne-Louis (1775-1812)''' 
126; "Napoleonic army engineer and physicist [...] looking through a piece of Iceland spar [...] discovered polarized light"; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etienne-Louis_Malus Wikipedia entry]

'''Maman Tant Gras Hall''' 
369; concert saloon in New Orleans

'''Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building''' 
24; at the Chicago World's Fair

'''Manicheans''' 
437-39; Followers of Mani, who taught that the universe is controlled by two antagonistic powers, light or goodness (identified with God), and darkness, chaos, or evil. One of Mani's claims was that, though Christ had been sent into the world to restore it to light and banish darkness, His apostles had perverted his doctrine, and he, Mani, was sent as the Paraclete to restore it; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeism Wikipedia entry]

'''Manning, Professor Henry Parker (1859-1956)''' 
511; In 1889 he entered Johns Hopkins University to study mathematics, astronomy and physics. When he received his Ph.D. degree in 1891, his first printed paper had already appeared in the American Journal of Mathematics. He was appointed instructor in mathematics at Brown that same year, and “with his advent,” Professor Raymond C. Archibald would later write, “a new era in the development of mathematics at Brown was ushered in.” From 1893 to 1908 Manning offered courses in higher mathematics never previously available at Brown, courses with names like “Theory of functions: algebraic functions, Riemann surfaces, and Abelian functions,” “Substitutions and transformation groups,” and “Quaternions, non-Euclidean geometry, and hyperspace.” After 1908 there were others in the department able to teach higher mathematics. His publications included Non-Euclidean Geometry in 1901, the first English language text in this subject, ''Irrational Numbers and their Representation by Sequences and Series'' in 1906, and ''Geometry of Four Dimensions'' in 1914. [http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=M0090]

'''Mantegna, Andrea (1431-1506)''' 
725; an Italian Renaissance artist. A serious student of Roman archaeology and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective as he thought best, e.g., by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality. At the age of eleven he became the apprentice of Francesco Squarcione, Paduan painter. Squarcione, whose original vocation was tailoring, appears to have had a remarkable enthusiasm for ancient art, and a faculty for acting. Like his famous compatriot Petrarca, Squarcione was something of a fanatic for ancient Rome: he travelled in Italy, and perhaps Greece, collecting antique statues, reliefs, vases, etc., forming a collection of such works, making drawings from them himself, and throwing open his stores for others to study from, and then undertaking works on commission for which his pupils no less than himself were made available. As many as 137 painters and pictorial students passed through his school, established towards 1440 and which became famous all over Italy. Mantegna was Squarcione's favorite pupil. Squarcione taught Mantegna the Latin language and instructed him to study fragments of Roman sculpture. He also preferred forced perspective; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Mantegna Wikipedia]

'''Mañuela''' 
642; waitress at Doña Cecilia; also the name assumed by the prostitute Major Marvy is engaging just before his orchidectomy in GR.

'''Maps''' 
town becomes an unreadable, 461;

'''Maraca, Miss Jardine''' 
1042; "canary" with the Vertex Club house band; photo animated, 1049;

'''maragogype''' 
638; a kind of arabica coffee with grains twice to 3 times as big as arabica grains. In Mexico, it is grown at 1400 meters high in the chiapas State close to the Pacific coast and the Guatemala border; sweet and nicely shaped;

'''Marcello''' 
667; with Ruperta

'''Marching Academy Harmonica Band''' 
418-424; "aberration in <nowiki>[Chums of Chance's]</nowiki> history"

'''Mar-Fuad, Al''' 
757; "noted Uyghur trouble-maker"; the Uyghur are a Turkic people of Central Asia. They are one of China's 56 officially recognized ethnicities. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_people Wikipedia]

'''Marin, Officer C.''' 
477; reporting officer at cantina where Sloat was killed by Frank Traverse

'''Marinetti''' 
584; Futurists; 587;

'''Martinmas''' 
1028; St. Martin's Day (or Martinmas) is November 11, the feast day of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_of_Tours Martin of Tours], who started out as a Roman soldier. He was baptized when he was grown up and became a monk. It is understood that he was a kind man who lead a quiet and simple life. The most famous legend of his life is that he once cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar during a snowstorm, to save the beggar from dying of the cold; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin's_Day Wikipedia entry]

'''Marx, Groucho (Julius)''' 
467-468; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_marx Wikipedia entry][[ATD-J#julius|See also Julius]]

'''Marx, Karl (1818-1883)''' 
359; immensely influential philosopher, political economist, and socialist revolutionary. While Marx addressed a wide range of issues, he is most famous for his analysis of history in terms of class struggles, summed up in the opening line of the introduction to the ''Communist Manifesto'': "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." 624. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx Wikipedia entry]

'''Mascaregna''' 
"piratically bearded youth" with Tancredi, in Venice;

'''Mascotte''' 
3, 128

'''Maskelyne cabinet''' 
571;

'''Mathematics''' 
122; 147;

'''Matteawan''' 
145; Matteawan State Hospital, originally the Asylum for Insane Criminals in Auburn, relocated to the village of Matteawan (between the Hudson River and the Fishkill Mountains) in 1891 and renamed the following year.

'''Mauve''' 
226; 269; [[ATD-C#color|See also Color]]

'''Mavrovlachi of Croatia''' 
870; "Vlado's own"; the Morlachs, aka the Mavrovlachi ("Black Vlachs"), were a population of Vlach shepherds that lived in the Dinaric Alps (western Balkans in modern use), constantly migrating in search for better pastures for their sheep flocks. They were probably a blend of Romanized indigenous peoples and Roman colonists. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morlachs Wikipedia]

The adjective "black" is used here with the meaning of "northern", this metaphor probably deriving from the Turkic practice of naming cardinal directions after colours.

'''Maxim whirling machines''' 
27;

'''Maxwell Field Equations''' 
58; In electromagnetics, Maxwell's equations are a set of four equations, developed by James Clerk Maxwell, that describe the behavior of both the electric and magnetic fields, as well as their interactions with matter. Maxwell's four equations express, respectively, how electric charges produce electric fields (Gauss' law), the experimental absence of magnetic monopoles, how currents and changing electric fields produce magnetic fields (the Ampere-Maxwell law), and how changing magnetic fields produce electric fields (Faraday's law of induction). 318; 330; 438; 532; 533; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell's_equations Wikipedia entry]

<div id="maxwell"></div>'''Maxwell, James Clerk (1831-1879)''' 
98; Scottish mathematical physicist, born in Edinburgh. Maxwell formulated a set of equations expressing the basic laws of electricity and magnetism and developed the Maxwell distribution in the kinetic theory of gases. He was the last representative of a younger branch of the well-known Scottish family of Clerk of Penicuik. He is also credited with developing the first permanent colour photograph in 1861. "''Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism'' of 1873", 98; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell Wikipedia entry]

'''Mayas''' 
The "Mayas" mentioned on [[ATD_374-396#Page_389|p. 389]] are probably Mayos.

'''mayonnaise''' 
284; thunderstorm-proof; 544; cult of, in Belgium; etymology, 545; 560; and potato salad, 1048;

'''Maza, Benito Juárez''' 
987; governor of Oaxaca

'''McAdoo, Chevrolette''' 
26;

'''McDivott, Katie''' 
337; 505;

'''McGonigal, Bridget''' 
365; a slide in the San Juans named after a mine owner's wife;

'''McHugh, "Jenny"''' 
932; Ratty's wife, aka [[I#invert|Jenny Invert]]

'''McHugh, Reginald "Ratty"''' 
491; friend of Cyprian Latewood's; in Vienna, 700; 717-18; in Vienna, 808; in Venice, 865; aka "Reg" 932;

'''McKim, Mead and White''' 
326; The most dazzling architect triumvirate in America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was that of of New York City's Charles Follen McKim, William Rutherford Mead, and Stanford White. The brilliance of McKim, Mead, and White changed the course of American architecture. Of the three, it was the genius of Stanford White that most importantly influenced the architectural scene in Buffalo. McKim, Mead, and White was formed in 1878 when Charles Follen McKim (1847-1909) formed a partnership with William Rutherford Mead (1846-1928) and William B. Bigelow. Bigelow retired the following year when Stanford White (1853-1906) joined the firm and the firm's name was established.

'''McKinley, President William (1843-1901)''' 
109; the 25th President of the United States; figurehead, 109; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley Wikipedia entry]

<div id="mcnamaras">'''McNamara, John L. and James B.'''</div>
1058; the McNamaras were accused of dynamiting the Los Angeles Times building on October 1, 1910, resulting in the death of 21 persons. The crime was one of a nation-wide series intended to prevent the use of non-union materials and non-union labor. The defendants were strongly supported by the American Federation of Labor. Later the accused pleaded guilty, and James B. McNamara was sentenced to life imprisonment and John McNamara to imprisonment for 15 years. The pro-McNamara forces claimed that escaping gas, not a bomb, had destroyed the Times building. More extremist labor sympathizers charged that Otis himself had arranged the explosion.

Harrison Gray Otis was an American newspaper publisher who directed the Los Angeles Times from 1886 until after World War I, which he edited with an iron hand, becoming one of the most powerful figures in southern California. He made his newspaper a voice of Republican interests, and he opposed labor unions.

The McNamara brothers trial, which ended just as it began with confessions of guilt by the McNamaras, set the cause of organized labor on the West Coast back by decades. [http://law.jrank.org/pages/2770/McNamara-Brothers-Trial-1911.html More...]

It also nearly ruined the career of Clarence Darrow, one of America's leading criminal defense lawyers. Bert Franklin, on Darrow's payroll, was caught bribing two of the jurors in the McNamara trial. He plead ed guilty to jury tampering and he testified that Darrow had known and approved of the bribery efforts.

Darrow was arrested and put on trial. When organized labor turned its back on Darrow's request for financial assistance, Darrow had to pay all the legal costs of the 13-week trial out of his own pocket. Darrow denied the charges, and on August 14 and 15, 1912, gave an impassioned closing speech to the jurors, in which he claimed that:

:"I am not on trial for having sought to bribe a man named Lockwood. I am on trial because I have been a lover of the poor, a friend of the oppressed, because I have stood by Labor for all these years."

On August 15, 1912, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty after deliberating for less than an hour. [http://law.jrank.org/pages/2768/McNamara-Brothers-Trial-1911-Darrow-Tried-Bribing-Jurors.html More about Darrow's trial...]

'''McTaggart Hall''' 
452; headquarters of Metaphysics Department at Candlebrow

'''McTaggart, John McTaggart Ellis (1866-1925)''' 
239; a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1891 to 1925; an Idealist metaphysician of great range, invention, precision, and power. McTaggart developed his own, highly original, metaphysical system. In his two-volume ''Nature of Existence'', the most famous element is his argument for the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unreality_of_Time unreality of time]. In a famous paper The Unreality of Time (1908), McTaggart had [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/#4 argued] that our perception of time is an illusion, and that time itself is merely ideal, 412; professor at Cambridge, 749; "The senior combination-room of a college without a master" 933; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.M.E._McTaggart Wikipedia entry]

'''McVeety, Con''' 
342; works for R. W. Vibe; "Olio of Oddities" 343;[[Con McVeety DISCUSSION| DISCUSSION]]

'''Meat''' 
the Chicago Stockyards, 10; "those famous Chicago beefsteaks," 29; Meat Olaf, 129; Meat Olaf, 135; "details of his 'steak'," 182; steaks; "''slab o' that bull meat''," 337; Alonzo R. Meatman, 405; "the great Lard Scandal of the 80's," 406; "meat lozenges," 444; See also [[ATD-S|'''Shambles''']].

'''Meat Olaf''' 
129; a fictional Norwegian dish, a variant of meatloaf, perhaps; 135;

'''Meatman, Alonzo R.''' 
405; (first appearance misspelled "Meattman"); sold Zoot the time machine; 410; 412; ''lycopodium'' type, 413; Mr. Ace's tool, 414; at the Harmonica Academy, 419-422;

'''Meldrum, Bob''' 
282; 383; aka Hair-Trigger Bob, in Colorado. Not much is known about the real life Robert D. Meldrum. Born in 1866 in England, Meldrum walked a fine line between gun-for-hire and law officer and was said to have shot over 14 men. He was employed by the Pinkerton's and was Deputy Town Marshal of Telluride during the early 1900s. Eventually arrested in 1912 for murder, although he only received a sentence of five to seven years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary. [http://www.museumnwco.org/lookBackArticle.php?lookBackID=35 "Bad Man" Bob Meldrum]

'''Melpómene''' 
990; girl from Palenque Frank Traverse meets in Tapachula

'''Merriwell, Frank''' 
100; fictional, Yale attending, football playing, pulp magazine character created by Burt L. Standish, alluded to by Kit Traverse.

'''Metaphor''' 
230, "Death is a region of metaphor"; 299; "passing into metaphorical identities," 418; "some not strictly metaphorical way," 431;

'''Metropole''' 
705; hotel in Trieste where Derrick Theign stays, previously known as Buon Pastore

[[image:Michelangelo-Pieta.jpg|thumb|Michelangelo's ''Pieta''|200px|right]]'''Michelangelo''' 
1011; The ''Pietà'' (1498-1499) by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo Michelangelo] is a marble sculpture in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the first of a number of works of the same theme by the artist. The statue was commissioned by the French cardinal Jean de Billheres, who was a representative in Rome. The statue was made for the cardinal's funeral monument, but was moved to its current location, the first chapel on the right as one enters the basilica, in the 18th century; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0_(Michelangelo) Wikipedia on the Pieta];

'''Michelson, Albert Abraham (1852-1931)''' 
58; Polish-born American physicist known for his work on the measurement of the speed of light and especially for the Michelson-Morley experiment. In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, the first American to receive the Nobel in the sciences; 132; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Michelson Wikipedia entry]

'''Michelson-Morley Experiment''' 
59; The Michelson–Morley experiment, one of the most important and famous experiments in the history of physics, was performed in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University. It is generally considered to be the first strong evidence against the theory of a luminiferous aether. Primarily for this work, Albert Michelson was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1907; 1031; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson-Morley_experiment Wikipedia entry]

For a good discussion of the Michelson-Morley Experiment and Pynchon's use of it in ''Against the Day'', click [http://adaptivecomplexity.blogspot.com/2007/01/science-of-light-space-time-and-vectors.html here].

'''Midway Plaisance''' 
29;

'''Mikimoto, Dr.''' 
114; cultured pearls;

'''Miklós''' 
913; desk clerk at Grand-Hôtel-Tisza in Szeged;

'''Minié ball''' 
101; Prior to the development of the minie ball, rifles were not used in combat due to the difficulty in loading. The ammunition used by rifles was the same diameter as the barrel in order for the bullet to engage the groves of the rifled barrel. As a result the ball had to be forced into the barrel. The minie ball, originally designed by Captain Claude-Etienne Minie of France and improved on by manufacturers in the United States, changed warfare. Since the minie ball was smaller than the diameter of the barrel, it could be loaded quickly by dropping the bullet down the barrel. This conical lead bullet had two or three grooves and a conical cavity in its base. The gases, formed by the burning of powder once the firearm was fired, expanded the base of the bullet so that it engaged the rifling in the barrel. Thus, rifles could be loaded quickly and yet fired accurately; 620; [http://www.civilwar.si.edu/weapons_minieball.html From the Smithsonian website]

'''Minkowski, Hermann (1864-1909)''' 
324; mathematician who developed the geometrical theory of numbers and who used geometrical methods to solve difficult problems in number theory, mathematical physics, and the theory of relativity; Hilbert's co-adjutor; at Candlebrow, 458; 1020; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Minkowski Wikipedia entry]

'''Mirrors''' 
Isola degli Specchi (Isle of Mirrors), 244; symmetry, 337; 347; 351; 353; 354; Isle of Mirrors "in that Lagoon over in Venice" where they make the "finest conjuror's mirrors" 422; 463; 498; 537; 553; 564; 569; 651; 706; 728; 877;

'''Miskolci''' 
713; vampirish

'''Miserere, Vincenzo''' 
569; sales rep from mirror factory

'''Misha and Grisha''' 
699; in Prater with Cyprian; in Sarajevo, 829;

'''Mitze''' 
915; best friend of the "horrible little bourgeoise, Heidi" in ''The Burgher King''

'''MKIV/ODC''' 
541; "Mark Four something or other"; actually, it's the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator, which "regulates how much light is allowed to enter the silvering of the mirror! Special kind of refraction! Calibrated against imaginary index! Dangerous! Of the essence!'" - a component of the Q-weapon; 565;

'''Modestine ("Moddie")''' 
339; actress Dally's replacing, in New York City; 342;

'''Mahommedans''' 
772; aka Muslims

'''Moises''' 
521; "resident Jewish mystic" in Morocco

'''Moistleigh, Bevis''' 
799; crytographer in Venice;

'''Mondragön semiautomatics''' 
640; from Germany

[[image:Monte-Nuovo.jpg|thumb|300px|Monte Nuovo|right]]'''Montenuovo, Count''' 
681; "Emperor's chamberlain"; Monte Nuovo ("new mountain") is a cinder cone volcano within the Campi Flegrei caldera, on the Bay of Naples. It last erupted in 1538. [http://boris.vulcanoetna.com/Montenuovo.html More...]

'''Morgan, Blinky''' 
59; "a walking interferometer", 62; Charles "Blinky" Morgan, fur store burglar and cop killer, arrested June 1887, hanged Columbus, Ohio, March 1888; [http://www.clevelandmemory.org/ebooks/kennedy/c17.html From ''A History of the City of Cleveland'' by James Harrison Kennedy]; execution of, 65;

'''Morgan, John Pierpont (J.P.) (1837-1913) 
34; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan J.P. Morgan] originally provided Tesla $150,000 (although he needed $1M) in 1900 to build the Wardenclyff laboratory, but abandoned Tesla when he found out what Tesla's true purpose for Wardenclyff was &151; Tesla's vision of free power did not agree with Morgan's financial worldview; [http://educate-yourself.org/fe/radiantenergystory.shtml From Educate-Yourself.com:] "Undreamed of therapeutic applications to improve human health and to eliminate disease conditions could have been achieved fully 100 years ago had Tesla been allowed to complete his commercial development of Radiant Energy. But powerful barons of industry, chiefly in the person of John Pierpont Morgan, colluded to deny him the financial backing he needed and in doing so, effectively denied mankind one of Nature’s most abundant and inexhaustible gifts of free energy"; 326; "safe as the Morgan Bank" 379; a prince of capital, 734;

'''Morley, Professor Edward''' 
62; and Blinky Morgan, 62;

'''Moss, Reverend''' 
91; Webb Traverse's minister

'''Motorcycles''' 
463;

'''''mouchard''''' 
560; a police spy;

'''Mouffette''' 
665; French: "skunk"; Ruperta's sexy poodle

'''Mount Kailash''' 
769; a peak in the Gangdisê mountains in the Tibet region of China, the source of some of the longest rivers in Asia — the Indus River, the Sutlej River — is considered a sacred place in four religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Bön faith. In Hindu mythology, it is considered to be the abode of Lord Shiva. The mountain lies near Lake Manasarowar and Lake Rakshastal in Tibet. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kailash Wikipedia]

'''''mousmée''''' 
560; a type of hydrangea (flower)

'''Movay, E. Percy''' 
1077; "strangely possessed algebraist"

'''mufti''' 
16; civilian dress worn by a person who is entitled to wear a military uniform

'''Mulciber, Victor''' 
557; "arms tycoon" at the Kursaal, in Pera (Istanbul); No benign associations with "Mulciber"! Mulciber is an alternative name of the Roman god Vulcan, the god of fire and volcanoes, and the manufacturer of art, arms, iron, and armor for gods and heroes. Mulciber is also the name of a character in John Milton's Paradise Lost, the architect of the demon city of Pandemonium. In [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter the Harry Potter books], Mulciber is a Death Eater, a minor Dark Wizard; 911;

'''Multiple Worlds or Dimensions''' 
See [[ATD-L|Lateral World Sets]].

'''Murray Hill''' 
68; in Cleveland

'''Museums''' 
"Museum of Hat History," 43; 145; "Museum of Museumology," 149-151; "Museum der Monstrositäten, . . . dedicated to the current 'Crisis' in European mathematics," 632; "museum of bad taste" (Hotel Neue Mutzenbacher), 702;
:Museums, with their High Culture sensibility and insistence on removing artifacts from the dynamic ebb and flow of culture, serve as a direct contrast to the Chums' popular "dime novels."

'''Mushtaq''' 
754; Auburon Halfcourt's "colleague of many years"

'''Music''' 
ukulele: 15 (Miles plays it), 324, 408, 410, 451, 553, 567, 678 (quartet), 684; accordion, 49; 52; 57; 126; singing, 138; in ''The Inconvenience'', 140; 160; 163; 178; 266; 315; "That Göttingen Rag" 324; Tin Pan Alley, 342; harpist, 347; "Her Mother Never Told Her" 347; "Oh, When You Talk That Talk" 349; "Funiculí, Funiculá" 349; ''La Forza del Destino'', 352; in New Orleans, 368; "Jass" 370; "La Cucaracha" 375, 389; 399; song in Lollipop Lounge, 400; 418; "El Capitán" 419; "Whistling Rufus" 419; "My Country 'Tis of Thee" 419; "'Zo Meatman's Gone A-WOL" 420; "At a Georgia Camp Meeting" 423; "After the Ball" 425; 436; Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky" 463; "For It Is Thou, Lord" 477; hymn-writing, 497-98; "five-pound note" song, 503; 510; 522; 524; "Quizzical Queer Quaternioneer" 534; and Q-waves, 566; Puccini's ''Madame Butterfly'', 567; Borel-Clerc's "La Matchiche" 567; Günther's song, 598; "O Tempora, O Mores" and "The Black Whale of Askalon" 625-26; house band, 642; "Daisy, Daisy" 647; alpenborn figure, 665; ''Waltzing in Whitechappel'' 679; ''liebestod'' (German: "love death"), 681; "Chinese harmony" 682; [[Spitalfields|"Singing Bird of Spitalfields"]] 684; "Ritter Georg Hoch!" (old German anthem), 700; ''Fiakerlieder'', 703; Mozart Adagio, 712; 714; 716; "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" 725; 746; 754; drums, 783; Tuvan throat singers, 786; 797; "Nimrod" from Elgar's ''Enigma Variations'', 815; "La Gazza Ladra," "The Volga Boatmen," "Auld Lang Syne," Gonzalo and Millicent, 815; campanile bells, 818; "The Idiotic" 823; 831; "oud, baglamas, and a kind of hammered dulcimer called a santouri" 843; ukes - "I Love You Truly" 866; "Very nice, very nice, very j''nice-in-deed'', 888; accordians, 891; Brownian motion in waltzing, 902; Austro-Hungarian Blues, 915; Lydian mode, Phrygian mode, 940; Phrygian, 945; 946-47; "Jim Along " on a clarinet, 971; Chinese fourths, 1054; in Lake's dream, 1056; "Bicycle Built for Two" 1067; throat singing, 1079-1080; "jazz-inflected ''hopak''" 1079; "Vegetaria-no" 1082

'''Muspellheim''' 
128; In Norse/Germanic cosmology, Muspellheim is the Land of Fire. It is one of the first two primal worlds created in a vortex around the World Tree, and the collision between Muspellheim and Niflheim - fire and water, fire and ice, heat and cold - created the energy that formed the basis for the other seven worlds; [http://www.cauldronfarm.com/nine/index.html Website on Norse/German cosmology]

'''Myrna''' 
473;

==References==
<references/>

{{ATD_Alpha_Nav}}

R

2012-04-21T11:11:03Z

C-Melody: added speculation on the name "Merle"

'''radius of annihilation''' 
95; area to be destroyed in a bomb explosion, as imagined by Reef Traverse
[[radius of annhilation|DISCUSSION]]

'''Rafaello''' 
855; at the Excelsior in Venice

'''Ragtime''' 
a "small house band . . . tirelesssly 'ragging,'" 399;

'''Rahman''' 
521; barkeep at Tawil Balak

'''Railway Brain''' 
802;

'''Ramanujan (1887-1920)''' 
498; mathematician; Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar was an Indian mathematician who is considered to be amongst the most talented mathematicians in recent history. With almost no formal training in pure mathematics, Ramanujan made substantial contributions in the areas of analysis, number theory, infinite series and continued fractions; his formula, 815-816; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan Wikipedia entry]

'''Ramiz''' 
653; in the Swiss Alps; and the Tatzelwurm, 658; tunnel mate of Reef's in Albania;

'''Rand shares''' 
146; 167;

'''Ranji and C. B. Fry''' 
497; cricketeers

'''Rao, V. Ganeshi''' 
130; "noted Quaternionist" of Calcutta University; disappearing act at Kursaal, 539; "metamorphosed as an American Negro" 557;

'''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse''' 
531; in Ostend, Belgium

'''Rapée, Erno''' 
1042; author of "movie-theme book"

'''rationalization / routinization''' 
10: "unshaped freedom being rationalized into movement..."; Venice, 575;

<div id="veikko">'''Rautavaara, Veikko'''</div>
82, 89; Finn who Webb Traverse finds "holding a vodka jug in one hand while battling a number of camp guards with the other"; 197; Veikko, diminutive of Veli meaning "brother." His last name ''could'' be a nod to the modern Finnish composer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einojuhani_Rautavaara Einojuhani Rautavaara] (1928- ). Although Rautavaara experimented with modernist styles, including [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serialism serialism], his later works are quite accessible and often have a mystical element (such as in several works with titles making reference to angels). A characteristic 'Rautavaara sound' might be a rhapsodic string theme of austere beauty, with whirling flute lines, gently dissonant bells, and perhaps the suggestion of a pastoral horn. A number of his works have parts for magnetic tape, including ''Cantus Arcticus'' (1972, also known as ''Concerto for Birds & Orchestra'') for taped bird song and orchestra:

:''Cantus Arcticus'' is unique in that it is the marriage of sounds produced by a live orchestra and pre-recorded bird sounds. Rautavaara himself taped the bird of Finland both in the marshlands as well as above the Arctic Circle. The result is the sound of peaceful nature, the harmony of what surrounds us when we venture off into the unspoiled wild. [http://callmeclassical.blogspot.com/2007/03/einojuhani-rautavaara-1972.html]

This [[Birds|bird connection]] may be a factor in Pynchon naming Veikko thus.

'''Rayleigh, Lord (1842-1919)''' 
565; John William Strutt, third Baron Rayleigh, was born on November 12, 1842 at Langford Grove, Maldon, Essex, as the son of John James Strutt, second Baron, and his wife Clara Elizabeth La Touche, eldest daughter of Captain Richard Vicars, R. E. He was one of the very few members of higher nobility who won fame as an outstanding scientist. Lord Rayleigh's first researches were mainly mathematical, concerning optics and vibrating systems, but his later work ranged over almost the whole field of physics, covering sound, wave theory, colour vision, electrodynamics, electromagnetism, light scattering, flow of liquids, hydrodynamics, density of gases, viscosity, capillarity, elasticity, and photography. From [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1904/strutt-bio.html NobelPrize.org]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Strutt,_3rd_Baron_Rayleigh Wikipedia entry]

The specific reference in ''ATD'' is to Lord Rayleigh's paper published in the ''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character'', Vol. 98, No. 692 (Jan. 3, 1921), pp. 284-296, entitled "Double Refraction and Crystalline Structure of Silica Glass." The introduction:

:Silica glass, as is well known, may be produced by the fusion of clear crystalline quartz. In this way a clear transparent product is obtained. The present paper deals only with this kind of silica glass. The cruder variety, known as vitreosil, which is prepared from sand, is not free enough from bubbbles and striae to allow satisfactory observation.

:That silica glass may be doubly refracting was noticed in casual observations, made to test its suitability for windows, in my experiments on the scattering of light by gases. It soon become clear that this double refraction could not in all cases be due to stress, but was to be attributed to something of the nature of crystalline structure. At the same time, the double refraction is very weak indeed compared with that of crystalline quartz.

:Glasses have generally been considered essentially amorphous, and, indeed, this property would usually be invoked in the definition of a glass. It may be that, in view of the present results, the definition will need to be modified, though this point is hardly ripe for discussion. In the meantime, I still use the term silica glass.

:I have not met with similar effects in any of the ordinary complex glasses. When these are doubly refracting, it is always attributable to strain. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0950-1207(19210103)98%3A692%3C284%3ADRACSO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-7]

'''Razvedka''' 
779; Russian: Intelligence/Reconnaissance;

'''Rebellion, The''' 
7; aka the Civil War; the Civil War was not called such during the time it was happening; the South called it "the war between the states" to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it "the Rebellion of 1861" or, after termination of hostilities, "the Rebellion of 1861-1865," appellations that did not recognize the South's right to secede; 61; 92;

'''Reclus''' 
528;  See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lis%C3%A9e_Reclus Élisée Reclus on Wikipedia]

'''Red Onion''' 
371; club in New Orleans where the Merry Coons played and survived;

'''Red Scare''' 
1075; The term "Red Scare" has been retroactively applied to two distinct periods of strong anti-Communism in United States history: first from 1917 to 1920, and second from the late 1940s through the late 1950s. These periods were characterized by heightened suspicion of Communists and other radicals, and the fear of widespread infiltration of Communists in U.S. government; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_scare Wikipedia entry];
[[M#mcnamaras|See also '''McNamaras, John L. and James B.''']];

'''Reindeer''' 
23, 84, 784–6

'''René''' 
1065; in Paris, "smoking Gauloises one after another, studying [Dally] through the smoke"

<div id="renfrew">'''Renfrew, Professor P. Jotham'''</div>
226; as "opposite number" of Professor Werfner; 495; at Cambridge; 602; "co-tenant of Tarot card XV" 679; Balkans map, 689; "his web" 936; [[W#werfner|See also '''Werfner''']]

'''Renzo''' 
1069; friend of Kit's in Torino

'''Repeal''' 
89; of the Silver Act in 1893; [[ATD-S#silveract|See Silver Act]]

'''Replevin, Lamont''' 
606; antiques dealer; "communication by means of coal-gas" 607; has map of Shambhala, 608; "life-size sculpture groups exhibited the more disreputable of classical and biblical themes" 610; Replevin is an Ango-French law term signifing the recovery of stolen goods by means of a special form of legal process; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replevin Wikipedia]

'''Republicans''' 
93; victors, 334; 469;

'''Reynolds Number''' 
1031; In fluid mechanics, the Reynolds number is the ratio of inertial forces (vsρ) to viscous forces (μ/L) and consequently it quantifies the relative importance of these two types of forces for given flow conditions. Thus, it is used to identify different flow regimes, such as laminar or turbulent flow; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_number Wikipedia entry]

'''Richardsonian Romanesque''' 
419; the architectural style of American Henry Hobson Richardson, who, as did many Victorian architects, modeled his style on a past age, in his case the rounded arches, thick stone, and small windows of the Romanesque of the early Middle Ages. For examples and biography, see [http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Henry_Hobson_Richardson.html].

'''Rideout, Dahlia ("Dally")''' 
27; daughter "4 or 5", ''helpless angel''; in New York City, 336; "white-slave simulation industry" 339; red hair and freckles, 339; rescued by magicians, 350; to Europe with Erlys and the Zombini's, 505; "I am Beppo" 729; the rage in London theatre, 898-899; living in London, a star of the stage, 1046; as La Jarretie&grave;re before the war, 1066;

'''Rideout, Erlys''' 
28; wife of Merle who ran off with [[ATD-XYZ#zombini|Zombini]]; 57, aka Erlys Mills; 67, aka Erlys Mills Snidell; in Smokefoot's, 347; at R. W. Vibe's party, 350; to Europe on ''Stupendica'', 506; 573;

'''Rideout, Merle''' 
26; photographer; Museum dream, 57; from NW Connecticutt, 59; lightning rod salesman, 73; heading east, 449; arrives at Candlebrow, 451; fixture at summer Tim bazaar at Candlebrow, 451; and Chick Counterfly and Roswell Bounce, 454; in Los Angeles, 1035;

The name Merle can either mean "blackbird" from the Old French or "sparkling sea" from the Irish Gaelic Muirgheal and [http://www.babynamer.com/Merle Scots Gaelic Muireall]. Seeing how Pynchon likes mashups of musician's names, it's interesting to note that four out of eight "Merle" first names Wikipedia lists belong to musicians ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merle Merle Wikipedia Entry]). Furthermore, Merle Johnston (who isn't listed) was a popular sax player in the 1920s and 1930s and devised a sax mouthpiece ([http://www.network54.com/Forum/27140/message/1305997261/Merle+Johnston+Redux. Bixography]) mentioned in passing in Charles Mingus's autobiography ''Beneath the Underdog'' (p. 155).

The name "Merle Rideout" is a near anagram of "Muybridge", a 19th century photographer obsessed with capturing motion in images, who exhibited at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge Muybridge Wikipedia Entry]

'''Reilly, Sidney''' 
630; aka Chong

'''Riemann, Georg Friedrich Bernhard (1826-1866)''' 
12; (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; space, 131; "göttingen eminence" 496; Riemann sphere, 565, 628; Riemann's Hypothesis, 589; 596; ''Habilitationsschrift'' of 1854, 616; 618; Riemann Elipsoid, 626; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann Wikipedia entry]. Riemann's geometry allowed for additional dimensions, which is relevant to several aspects of AtD, such as bilocation and travellers from another time.

'''Riley''' 
18; member of the Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.

'''Rinehart''' 
156;

'''Rinpungpa''' 
750;

'''''rishta''''' 
792; In Arabic-speaking countries, the word for macaroni during the 12th and 13th centuries was either ''rishta'' (or ''erishte'' in Turkish), from the Persian word for "threads," or ''itriya'', as well as a few other words mentioned above. The fourteenth-century Arab traveler Ibn Batutta described the rishta he encountered in Anatolia as a kind of ''shu’ayriya'', a word that even today means vermicelli. Also, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urdu Urdu] word for engagement (as in pre-marriage commitment) is ''rishta'', but Pynchon's use here suggests the Arabic word for "worm" or "snake", although "threads" and "tying the knot" seem related, so perhaps ''rishta'', meaning "engagement," is later meaning of the word.

'''River of Time''' 
412;

'''Rocco and Pino''' 
529; Italian naval renegades; 546; 561;

'''Rodolfo''' 
656; with Ruperta Chirpingdon-Groin;

'''Rodrigo''' 
920; Stray's beau, an "impossibly good-looking Mexican dude"

''''Roscoe Conkling'''' 
349; a musical production by R. Wilshire Vibes; Roscoe Conkling (1829 – 1888) was a politician from New York who served both as a member of the United States House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Conkling Wikipedia entry]

'''Rosie's Cantina''' 
649; in El Paso, just like that [[El Paso|Marty Robbins song...]]

'''Routinization of Charisma''' 
as pertains to art, 738;

'''Roxana''' 
67; Zombini's stage assistant

<div id="rudolf"></div>'''Rudolf, Archduke, Crown Prince of Austria (1858-1889)''' 
681; the son of Emperor Franz Joseph I. In 1887, Rudolf bought Mayerling and adapted it into a hunting lodge. In the autumn of 1888, the 30-year-old crown prince met the 17-year-old Baroness Marie Vetsera, known by the more fashionable Anglophile name Mary. From the start, Mary adored him, and was ready to do anything for him. It was almost certainly not the great romance of his life, but Rudolf did have feelings for her, and was touched by her limitless, almost fanatical, love for him. When Franz Joseph demanded that Rudolf end the relationship, the Crown Prince, as part of a suicide pact, shot his mistress in the head, then himself. This has been referred to as the "Tragedy of Mayerling." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Rudolf Wikipedia entry]

<div id="rush">'''R.U.S.H.'''</div>
708; "Rapid Unit for Shadowing and Harassment" - motorcyclist crew in Vienna

'''Ruskin''' 
578;

'''Russell, Bertrand''' 
538; 594; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_russell Wikipedia entry]

'''Russell, Lillian''' 
345; hat [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Russell Wikipedia entry]

{{ATD_Alpha_Nav}}

ATD 397-428

2012-04-07T11:45:21Z

C-Melody: /* Page 399 */ Changed link from saxophone to contrabass saxophone; added a bit of information.

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==Page 397==

'''syntonic wireless''' [[Image:Columbian1892_obv.jpg|thumb|United States Mint image]][[Image:Columbian1892_rev.jpg|thumb|United States Mint image]]
syn·ton·ic (sĭn-tŏn'ĭk) adj.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.
[From Greek suntonos, high-strung, intense, attuned, from sunteinein, to draw tight : sun-, syn- + teinein, to stretch.]

Syntonic Wireless Telegraphy. [http://earlyradiohistory.us/1901ayrt.htm Ayrton Prediction]. Electrical Review, June 29, 1901, p. 820.

'''street-Arab''' 
a homeless boy who has been abandoned and roams the streets.
[http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn wordnet].

'''some koindt of a ''sailboat'' pitchuhv on it''' 
The reverse of the coin shows Columbus' flagship ''Santa Maria'' (the obverse has the navigator's portrait).

'''1893''' 
Columbian half dollars were struck in 1892 and 1893. [http://www.coinlink.com/CoinGuide/commemoratives/1892-1893-columbian-exposition-half-dollar/ CoinLink]

'''Columbian ''Half-Dollar''''' 
The 1892 Columbian Exposition half dollar was the first commemorative coin authorized by Congress. [http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/commemoratives/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=premodern]

'''"ten yeeuhz ago"''' 
Places this action in or around 1903.

==Page 398==

'''nuncio''' 
Casually, a messenger; more formally, a permanent official Papal representative at a foreign court.

'''Evening Quarters''' 
A muster of the ship's company at the end of the day. 
Is this at 1800 Hours?

'''H.G. Wells''' 
Herbert George Wells (1866-1946), one of the 19th Century science fiction writers whom Pynchon is both emulating and parodying in ''ATD''. H.G. Wells was an English novelist, sociologist, journalist, and historian. He wrote series of fantastic scientific romances ''The Time Machine'' (1895), ''The Invisible Man'' (1897), etc. In combination with scientific speculation he developed a strain of sociological idealism in ''The War of the Worlds'' (1898), ''First Men on the Moon'' (1901) and many others. He also wrote the well-known ''Outline of History'' (1920). For more see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.G._Wells Wikipedia entry].

'''jeu d'esprit''' 
French: play of wits. Witticism.
Here, Lindsay places Wells' masterful Time Machine (see above) in opposition with the more flashy and vulgar versions ("adulterated") of time travel offered in dime novels. Interesting that this comment would be made by someone who is himself a character in a dime novel.

'''National Imprest''' 
An imprest system is a system using loans as control against fraud and theft. The most common imprest system known is the petty cash system. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprest_system Wikipedia]. Interesting that the Chums' petty cash system goes
under the rubric National, not International?

'''"Plug" Loafsley''' 
Plug-ugly loafer/oaf?

'''Lollipop Lounge''' 
Lollipop is vulgar slang for an underage girl. There is at least one 'pornographic' magazine called Lollipops featuring supposedly underage girls.

'''Tenderloin''' 
2) A city district notorious for vice and graft. [After 'the Tenderloin', an area of New York City (from the easy income it once offered corrupt policeman). Cf p.334.
From the American Heritage Dictionary.

'''squalid empire''' 
Cf Alan Parker's 1976 movie "Bugsy Malone". [http://imdb.com/title/tt0074256/ IMDb]

==Page 399==

'''indigo... yellow''' 
Clashing-colors motif. Bright full-of-life colors.

'''dicer''' 
A hat [http://books.google.com/books?id=CUQSAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16&dq=dicer+hat&source=web&ots=3K_D1BkmBP&sig=xhzWDfgmMitS2mGUzL4ee8MHzTo], perhaps of the style now known as "baseball cap"[http://www.skateamerica.com/store/KR3W-Youth-Hat-Dicer-Black-ID_P15118C62.cfm].

'''opopanax and vervain''' 
Two fragrant, medicinal substances derived from flowering plants. They bloom yellow and violet, respectively. Wikipedia pages for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opoponax opopanax] and for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vervain vervain].
:Though Wikipedia prefers the spelling ''opoponax'', the ''OED'' suggests Pynchon's.

'''contrabass saxophone''' 
A rare but spectacular piece of hardware, somewhat taller than the person playing it, patented by Adolphe Sax in 1846. Pitched in E-flat—if you are keeping track—two octaves below the alto sax. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrabass_saxophone Wikipedia]

'''slide cornet''' 
A brass instrument with the voice of a cornet but using a slide instead of valves. Very, very rare.

'''mandola''' 
An eight-stringed instrument shaped like a mandolin but tuned the same as a viola. It is originally an Irish instrument.

'''"tin pan" piano''' 
A reference to New York's Tin Pan Alley. Probably, the tag means to indicate that the piano was out of tune or sounded 'cacophonous'. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_pan_alley Wikipedia entry]

'''anchored by . . . piano''' 
It's hard to imagine the sound of the ensemble: big reedy bass, lots of rhythm from the mandola, the abandoned wailing of the cornet, fuzzy arpeggios on the piano. Like a children's Fourth of July parade, plus hallucinogens.

'''houris''' 
According to the ''OED'', a "nymph of the Muslim Paradise. Hence applied allusively to a voluptuously beautiful woman." <ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary''' 2nd Ed. 1989.</ref>

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, "houris" is the plural of 'houri', as defined above.

'''Darby''' 
Over 21yo, if he's aged.

'''chanteuse''' 
A female singer of popular songs, esp. in France. <ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary''' 2nd. Ed. 1989.</ref>

==Page 400==

'''paillettes''' 
2. a spangle used to ornament a dress or costume. [from Old French,diminutive of
paille,straw]. American Heritage Dictionary.

'''louche''' 
of questionable taste or morality. From Old French, losche= squint-eyed,
ultimately from Latin, luscus = blind in one eye. Source: American Heritage Dictionary.

''OED'' Oblique, not straightforward. Also, dubious, shifty, disreputable. <ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary''' 2nd. Ed. 1989.</ref>

'''"jazz"''' 
The ''OED'' suggests that the spelling here was always more popular than ''jass'', as used on [[Pages 358-373#Page 370|p. 370]]. It makes sense that a musician like "Dope" Breedlove might use a less conventional spelling, as he would be familiar with the term before common usage had regularized its spelling. By contrast, within the "dime novel" idiom of the Chums of Chance narration (dime novelists not necessarily being, especially in those days, the swingin'-est of cats), while ''jazz'' still registers as a slang term, its spelling has already been regularized.

'''Dey high-hats us uptown''' 
They scorn or snub us.

'''Dey low-balls us downtown''' 
They underestimate us.

'''Missus Grundy''' 
Mrs. Grundy, proverbial looker-askance at any improper activity. "[A]n extremely conventional or priggish person" after a character alluded to in the play ''Speed The Plough,'' by Thomas Morton (1764-1838), British playwright. Source: American Heritage Dictionary.

''''ying'''' 
"Yen"? And play/contrast with yang?

==Page 401==

'''Angela Grace''' 
I.e., Angel of Grace

'''Gophiz... Hudson Dustuhs''' 
Gophers, Hudson Dusters. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Dusters New York street gangs.]

'''bushwahs''' 
Bourgeois.

'''slickin up''' 
Gentrification.

'''Mr. Mawgin''' 
J. Pierpont Morgan. Dr. Zoot has funding from the same source that supported Tesla earlier.

'''stanchion''' 
Upright structural member, here part of the El trestle.

'''find it''' 
(Small-penis joke.)

'''time-corroded''' 
Actually, on [[ATD 149-170#Pages 154-155|p. 154]] we learn that when these structures were erected, they were intentionally antiqued, "deliberately burned, attempts being made to blacken the stylized wreckage in aesthetic and interesting ways," a description that applies also to Pynchon's historical fiction with its antiquated language and its generally favorable view of all things black. Though, of course it's been a decade since the shrine was erected, and some actual time-corrosion may have occurred.

'''seeming to date from some ancient catastrophe, far older than the city.''' 
When, what is that catastrophe in ATD, pages 149-170?
:There's more than a hint in the geography. From Central Park to the Tenderloin, on a street where you can smell the waterfront; west and south till you hit (literally) the Ninth Avenue El; south on the El line. Eventually you get to the World Trade Center site.

'''I AM THE WAY INTO THE DOLEFUL CITY''' 
Italian: "Per me si va nella città dolente". Phrase first appears on [[ATD 149-170#Pages 154-155|p. 154]], where it is inscribed over the shrine that the citizens erect to the Destroyer. It is a quote from Canto III of Dante's ''Il Inferno,'' where it is emblazoned over the gates to Hell.

'''triatomic''' 
I.e., ozone or O3, which is a molecule composed of three bonded oxygen molecules. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone Wikipedia.]

==Page 402==

'''solenoidal relay''' 
Solenoid: a cylindrical coil of wire hollow in the center. To make a relay, stick an iron rod partway into the middle. Turn the current on, and the magnetic field pulls the iron in. Attach the rod to the bolt on the gate and you can unlock it by pushing a button.

'''Dr. Zoot''' 
homage to Zoot Sims, jazzman? 
Most often combined with Suit, as in
Zoot suit - Wikipedia. Often zoot suiters wear a felt hat with a long feather (called a tapa or ... By their dress, Zoot suiters expressed defiance, at a time when fabric was ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_suit
There is a contemporary "zootsuit" radio station devoted to old radio shows. Historically, much later than the period of ATD here, there were riots in Los Angeles called the Zoot Suit riots (alluded to in, wasn't it, ''The Crying of Lot 49''?)(Edit- nope, GR.)

'''pale''' 
Even tough-guy Plug fears the time machine.
Pynchon's perspective on artificial light, "already harsh illumination".

'''dynamo''' 
Electrical generator. Converts any rotational motion to AC or DC power.

'''Grandmother's day''' 
Pre-Civil War.

'''Breguet''' 
A distinctive fine watch of French design, usually with open circles ('moons') near the ends of the hands. (See also p.140) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breguet_(watch) Wikipedia entry]

'''shimming''' 
Insertion of thin material to make two parts line up. Think of the matchbook under the table leg.

'''revenue diverted''' 
(Why not no-revenue?)because revenue was spent---very cheaply: in only "the simplest upkeep."

==Page 403==

'''gutta-percha gasketry''' 
Gutta-percha (Palaquium) is genus of tropical trees native to southeast Asia and northern Australasia, from Taiwan south to Malaya and east to the Solomon Islands. It is also an inelastic natural latex produced from the sap of these trees. One use of gutta-percha was the "guttie" golf ball with a solid gutta-percha core, which appears [[ATD_919-945#Page 934|later in ''Against the Day'']]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutta-percha Wikipedia]

'''coaming''' 
Bodywork. Panels concealing frame, wiring, etc.

'''undog this hatch''' 
Nautical: disengage whatever is holding the door shut.

'''faith''' 
(Blind, not humble.)

'''nervous organizations''' 
Cf drugs. Cf. sympathetic vibrations, a physical kind of empathy.

'''pillioned''' 
Riding two to a horse.
Refers specifically to the "passenger seat", separated from the main saddle. Also applies to motorcycle riding where the small passenger seat is called a "pillion". Metonymically, pillion can be used to describe the passenger.

'''horses''' 
8 million horses were killed in WW1. At first battle of war, Mons, cavalry used extensively. This was before the war became fought through trench warfare. Shows how blindsided the direction the war took and how out of control it became for all involved. Note that "galloping" calvary has often been associated with romanticizing and glorifying of war in American lit. Cf. Rev Hightower in Faulkner's Light in August. (Recall, too, that Pynchon nicked AtD's title from Faulkner's famous Nobel Prize speech.)
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/horses_in_world_war_one.htm
Cavalry?

'''arrays of metallic points''' 
Bayonets? Appears to be a depiction of the (still future) Great War, WWI.

Or, if we are observing the future dead, the metallic points are the bullets fired, now holding static in the places where they interrupted the living.

==Page 404==

'''shockwaves of the Creation''' 
Anachronistic Big Bang theory? 
I must say that in the Big Bang theory, stars
were first created out of the bang; here the metaphor seems to accept that the stars already exist and "are blown through by the shockwaves of the Creation", capitalized, a common Pynchon touch, as in a Biblical allusion.

'''chamber shook''' 
(It didn't on p403.)

'''not beasts''' 
Airplanes?
Or Missiles/rockets? 'A screaming comes across the sky'....

'''smell''' 
Cf GR on Passchendaele.

==Page 405==

'''latest Oldsmobile''' 
(Dates.) 1903.

'''Candlebrow U.''' 
So what is a "candlebrow"? Consider those phallic ''ex voti'' candles offered up to [[St. Cosmo]]. The head of the candle-phallus, brow shaped, sits atop the cyclindrical 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 [[#Page 407|"Smegmo,"]] the "Messiah of kitchen fats" (Imperial Margarine was advertised as "The King of Margarines") [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 the "cheesy secretion" that collects atop the "candlebrow" beneath the foreskin. [[ATD 374-396#Page 374|Ewball Oust's name]] has similar connotations.

Maybe I'm pointing out the obvious, but it seems to me like Pynchon's way of saying Dickhead University. --[[User:Pomopaulrevere|Pomopaulrevere]]

'''double-domes''' 
'dome' is slang for the human brain, of course. [Amer Heritage] and seems to mean, in humorous context, two-headed or double-brained thinkers...(more doubling motif--as joke?)

:Or possibly a sexual ''double entendre''...consistent with the [[The Sexual Angle|rampant sexuality]] in ''AtD''. Why, several double-dome images come to mind, almost faster than "egghead"...

:also possibly a reference to numerous "mad scientist" contraptions that connect two (unwilling?) patients, hooked together by metallic helmets (domes), in order to "switch" "souls" from one body to another. Seems far-fetched, but in a book dominated by the idea of dopplegangers created by the refraction from Iceland spar, not so much...

:Also a possible reference to phrenology, the pseudo-science of skull shape in relation to personality traits. "Dome" in phrenology seems to refer to a desirable head shape, with the top of the skull large and rounded, like an egg with the larger end up. This seems to indicate morality, reason and self-restraint, in phrenology. Thus, could "double-dome" refer to someone with two possibly conflicting systems of morality, or reason? It seems a bit of a reach. But phrenology is probably something Pynchon would've paid attention to in his survey of the riot of pseudo-sciences clamoring for respect during that era.

'''drumming''' 
Traveling salesmanship.

<div id="balinhan"></div>'''a saloon down by the river called the Ball in Hand''' 
The Ball in Hand isn't the river, it's the saloon. Still, the name does have an English ring to it. The Bird in Hand is a common pub name in Britain.

Another cricket allusion? If so, rather obvious. Surely a straightforward sexual joke.
:Oh yes. As discussed a couple paragraphs down!

Ball in Hand might refer to the "orb," an emblem of sovereignty held in the monarch's left hand in many state portraits; the orb is a small globe usually surmounted by a cross. Or a physics allusion, though anachronistic by some 30 years: the dome of a Van de Graaff generator. The museum visitor places her hand on it, the docent cranks the machine, and the victim's hair flies into an [[ATD_26-56#Page_26|aigrette.]] Or a more carnal connotation, not anachronistic at all. Or fortunetelling. These remote connections do make cricket sound pretty good:

A term used in pocket billiards (especially 9-ball) when a player has scratched (sunk the cue ball) and the player who follows is allowed to place the cue ball wherever he/she wants.

:Given all the other [[The Sexual Angle|sexual references]] in ''AtD'', this definitely has a sexual ring to it. Consider that the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines "ball" as "5. Any rounded protuberant part of the body." It is thought that "ball" is derived from the Indo-European word ''bhel'', meaning to blow, swell; with derivatives referring to various round objects and to the notion of tumescent masculinity. Derivatives include ''boulevard'', ''boulder'', ''phallus'', ''balloon'', ''ballot'', and ''fool''. [http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/roots/zzb01800.html]

<div id="meatman">'''Alonzo Meatman'''</div>
Meatman translated to German is Fleischmann, as in [http://www.fleischmanns.com/products/index.jsp Fleischmann's], makers of yeast, margarine, and assorted spreads.

:Yes, perhaps a cheesy spread, like that smegmo! In 1973, Jerry Lee Lewis recorded an homage to his oral talents entitled "Meat Man" in which he brags of having "a maytag tongue with a sensitive taste." This fits in with [[The Sexual Angle]] in AtD. [[Meat Man|Read the lyrics...]]. And there ''are'' those [[ATD 57-80#Page 73|great balls of fire]] known as ball lightning.

'''they don't like to cross running water''' 
A preference shared by witches, vampires and in some accounts the Devil.

==Page 406==

'''counterfeit of the Timeless''' 
Thematic. Whole sentence seems the sharpest indictment of 'the Academy' as exemplified by Candlebrow U.

'''fatal discovery''' 
Note the contrast with "fateful discovery" on [[ATD 397-428#Page 398|p.398]].

'''''Imum Coeli''''' 
Latin for "bottom of the sky." In Astrology, it is the point in space where the ecliptic crosses the meridian in the north, exactly opposite the Midheaven. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imum_Coeli Wikipedia entry]

'''rusticated''' 
Of masonry, parts of buildings, etc.: Rendered rustic in appearance. <ref>Def. 3a. '''The Oxford English Dictionary''' 2nd. Ed. 1989.</ref>

'''managing somehow...to present an aspect of terrible antiquity''' 
Perhaps because [very mild one-page spoiler ahead:] there's some truth to the conjecture of Professor Vanderjuice on the next page that "there's nothing to keep us from going back as far as we like, and holding the Conferences then, even back when this was all prehistoric around here, dinosaurs, giant ferns, flammivomous peaks everywhere sort of thing..."

'''Gideon Candlebrow''' 
made-up founder whose scandalous fortune underlay Candlebrow U?

'''Grossdale''' 
a gross dale?

'''great Lard Scandal of the '80s'''' 
Real event? (There were a couple of 'Lard Scandals" in last ten years but in countries other than Great Britain.) 

Since Gideon had to testify before congress about it, said Scandal must have happened in the States. He seems to have shipped lard that was deemed too "adulterated" to be sold in the US to good old Britain, thereby, as Pynchon puts it with a good dose of mean-spirited humor, "compromising further an already debased national cuisine". What did he use to adulterate the lard? The secret ingredient in Smegmo, maybe?

In [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_5#113 ''V.''] Pynchon mentions the "Great Sewer Scandal of 1955."

'''Christmas pudding controversy'''' 
Lard could certainly be used while making Christmas Pudding, aka Plum Pudding [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_pudding Wikipedia entry], the quintessential British holiday treat. The traditional ingredient, though, is suet. Some families might have tried to substitute lard in the recipe, which would have radically altered the taste of the pudding, sparking bitter fights about the importance of culinary tradition. Could this "controversy" be a metaphor of the effects of American cultural imperialism? Maybe I should just do a taste test...

==Page 407==

'''"Smegmo"''' 
Smegma is a secretion of mammalian genitals [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smegma Wikipedia].

The word derives from a transliteration of the Greek word σμήγμα for soap.

As an "artificial substitute for everthing in the edible-fat category" pronounced kosher by an "eminent Rabbi of world hog capital Cincinnati, Ohio," Smegmo may be a code name for Crisco, a Procter & Gamble creation invented in Cincinnati in 1911 -- an anarchronism or time shift in the text -- and marketed through various ethnic cookbooks, including a Yiddish/English kosher cookbook published in 1933 with the "Hechsher (or certificate) of a prominent Orthodox rabbi, "denoting that Crisco contained nothing animal-based."
[http://www.crisco.com/about/history/1930.asp]

"Smegm"a + crisc "O" = Smegmo

:Interesting(?) sideline: Here in Denmark the slang word for smegma is 'nakkeost' -i.e. 'neck-cheese'. And of course anyone who's seen 'Red Dwarf' will know about the current British use of 'smeg' (Not smeggin'likely, get the smeg outa here! Smeg off!). What do Americans call it?

Smegmo and Candlebrow:
"The initial purpose [for Crisco] was to create a cheaper substance to make candles than the expensive animal fats in use at the time. Electricity began to diminish the candle market, and since the product looked like lard, they began selling it as a food." Yet another Lard Scandal? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisco]

Also P&G was founded as a candle (Procter) and soap (Gamble) company, making profits from the fat of slaughtered pigs in "Porkopolis," Cincinnati.

Finally, the stock ticker for P&G is PG which is pretty close to one of Pynchon's favorite animals -- PIG.

Cf. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556 cottonseed oil] p. 546.

'''margarine''' 
1887 saw the introduction of the Margarine Act in Great Britain, which required margarine to be labeled as such. This was in response to the adulteration of butter by oleomargarine (made from animal fats).

Candlebow + margarine reminds me of Camille Paglia on Renee Zellwegger as "margarine-browed" (which I don't really understand).

'''four thousand years''' 
Refers to the time believed to have elapsed since Abraham and the foundation of Judaism [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham Wikipedia]. Under kosher laws Jews are not allowed to mix milk and meat products in the same meal. The rabbi's proclamation about having waited 4000 years refers to the arrival of Smegmo as a non-milk substitute for butter that can be eaten with meat dishes.

'''"you kept hearing different stories about exactly what was in it"''' 
Refers to wide range of urban legend-like attributions as to the origins and/or makeup of smegma that exist especially among children.

There's a resonance with Coca-Cola, too: exaggerated secrecy about the formula, fanatical market development, endowment of a university (Emory in the case of the Woodruff and Candler fortunes).

'''First International Conference on Time-Travel''' 
MIT students held a [http://web.mit.edu/adorai/timetraveler/ Time Traveler Convention] on May 7, 2005. The organizers did only modest publicity, claiming that the event would be reported and people in the future would read about it and decide to attend. One of the principals pointed out that only one such convention would ever need to take place. Vanderjuice's reasoning is almost a mirror image of that.

'''''The Time Machine''''' 
A short novel by H. G. Wells, written as a series of articles in 1888 for ''The Science Schools Journal'', and published as a book in 1895. The central character, ''Time Traveller'', tells a group of friends that he has invented a machine which can travel through time, enabling him to investigate the destiny of the human species. In the year 802,701, where he is temporarily stranded, he finds the meek and beautiful ''Eloi'' ling in apparently idyllic circumstances, but discovers that they are the prey of the degenerate ''Morlocks'', descendants of laborers who have lived underground for centuries. In later eras he sees the life-forms which survive the extinction of man, and thirty million years hence he is witness to the world's final decline as the sun cools. (Taken from ''The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English'', 1988 Edition.) For more information from other source see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine The Time Machine].

Wells' The Time Machine portrays the splitting of the Human Species between the Upper-worlders and the subterranean species called Morlocks. Wells compares the Upper-worlders and Morlocks to our own social differences between the Capitalist and the Laborer, the Haves and the Have-nots. When the Time Traveler first encounters a Morlock in chapter 5, he sees "A pair of eyes, luminous by reflection ''against the daylight'' without,...."

'''this year''' 
??? 1903.

'''back when this was all prehistoric around here''' 
See previous page "managing somehow..."

'''flammivomous''' 
Vomiting out flame. <ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary''' 2nd. Ed. 1989.</ref>

'''sophomoric slogs''' 
Slog can be a forceful hit and a Cricket term. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slog Link]

'''nooky''' 
"nooky" is synonymous with "pussy" both of which are used metonymically to denote either the sex act or, in this case, women who are desirable as sex partners.

'''1925 or thereabouts''' 
Lindsay's unfamiliarity with the term "nooky" ''could'' continue until it becomes an accepted part of the English language, which occurred, according to the ''OED'', with its first substantiative written usage in 1928. The ''OED'', by the way, prefers the spelling ''nookie'' (the ''Shorter OED'' prefers "nooky"). However, the term was certainly in the vernacular long before it made it into the ''OED'' and is speculated to be of British origin, perhaps derived from "nugging" (having sex) or "nook" which a vagina could be considered, I suppose.

Most likely a simple "chummy" joke, implying that poor old Lindsay wouldn't get to experience the pleasures of the flesh for another 25 years. Considering that the Chums don't seem to age, I really can't say how old he will be when the blessed event finally comes.

:Actually, this seems like a fairly obvious poke at exactly the kind of scholarship we're participating in here-- Miles admits and acknowledges that the use of "nooky" here is an anachronism, which will only be of a concern to readers who were actively trying to get laid in 1903, and the kind of people who look up the origin of a word 100 years later to say "...but they didn't say 'nooky' in '03!"

'''Randolph''' 
(Has he been absent?)

==Page 408==

'''telegraphic messages''' 
(Why at night, particularly? Email parody?) Seems many telegraphic messages were delivered at night, perhaps because they could be picked up during the daytime and many came after evening began.

When telegrams were a customary means of communication, you could send a "straight wire," which would go right on the wire and get delivered promptly, or a "night letter," which would go into a queue for transmission in low-traffic times and be delivered the next morning. The rate for night letters was lower than that for straight wires.

'''"Goes with everything"''' 
Cf Al Capp's Shmoos?

'''a ''million'' uses for Smegmo''' 
Tracing out just one parallel: Coke—foundation of the Candler fortune and the Emory U. endowment—is a beverage, a sweetener and flavoring agent (Coca-Cola Cake a Southern favorite), a solvent (best thing for removing bugs from windshields) and a cleanser (''MythBuster''-tested for polishing automotive chrome). In an emergency you can fill your radiator with it, and used with care it will raise bread dough.

Tracing out another parallel: Crisco, not only the first but also emblamatic of all synthetic shortening, is "ubiquitous in the cuisine and among the table condiments..." It is found in baked products (breads, cakes, muffins, etc.), salad dressings, soups, potato chips, mayonnaise, cheese spreads, peanut butter, cake and biscuit mixes. Raisins are sometimes coated with it. You will find them in most processed foods.

'''in the way that certain odors can instantly return us to earlier years''' 
Recalls Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu in which the taste and smell of a madeleine cookie summons a collection of childhood memories.

'''"There's a seminar on that tomorrow ... Or do I mean day before yesterday?"''' 
Are all the folks at Candlebrow time travellers? Unlikely. This remark seems to be a typical collegiate witticism about classes. Seems about everyone can STUDY time travelling at Candlebrow.

'''Finney Hall''' 
Probably a Hall/Auditorium/Room in Candlebrow U. named after American author Jack Finney (1911-1995), who wrote a famous time travel novel, ''Time and Again'' (1970). See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Finney Jack Finney] for more.

'''florescent''' 
flowering, blooming.From florescense. Amer Heritage Dictionary

==Page 409==

'''Gibson Girls''' 
From illustrations of a kind of woman first made by Charles Dana Gibson. Besides certain physical features--see wikipedia---such women were thought
to be 'independent', often college girls, although not suffragettes.

'''"Why you insufferable little --"''' 
This line, paired with St. Cosmo's observation at the end of the following paragraph: "And might I add, Mr. Noseworth, that these constant attempts to strangle Suckling do our public image little good," seem a fairly direct reference to a well-worn trope from the ''Simpsons'' [http://www.snpp.com/guides/homer.file.html#strangle], in which the splenetic Homer, as played here by Noseworth, expresses his no-longer-controllable frustration with Bart, here the increasingly smartalecky Suckling.

Pynchon, as has been widely reported, has appeared on ''The Simpsons'' a couple times.

More than even "Vineland," it seems, this book is fraught with pop culture/low comedy asides. 

'''Wellesianism''' 
Typo, unless he means Orson. Should be Wellsianism. On page 412 the term
''''Wellsian''' optimism' was used.

:Orson Wellesianism seems correct: The scene, an immense inventory of discarded time machines, is reminiscent of the final scenes of ''Citizen Kane'' which show Kane's enormous collection of objects in rows of stacks extending seemingly to infinity.

Also, Orson did the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast that sent people shooting in the streets. The Wells/Welles blurring would imply Vanderjuice knew of a future event/movie and I don't think such characterological foreknowledge (in the prof's case) or authorial intrusion is active in this text. So I agree that it's a typo and not a really obvious/belabored pun.

'''Asimov Transecular''' 
Interesting to find one of Isaac Asimov's time travel machines on the pile of "picked-over hulks of failed time machines." Of course, it would have to have been deposited there from some time in the future.

transecular 
Adj "that is made through the centuries" (Portuguese) [[User:Btchakir|Btchakir]] 16:48, 19 December 2006 (PST)

Rather than troubling to search for a Portuguese word, isn't it more likely that Asimov or Pynchon coined this in a nearly trivial way? ''Trans,'' across, plus ''secular,'' ages or centuries (from Latin [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=s&p=11 ''sæculum,''] an age, a generation, 120 years; also yielding French ''siècle,'' a century).

'''Asimov''' 
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), Russian born American biochemist and science fiction writer. His family emigrated to the US in 1923 and he was naturalised in 1928. He graduated from Columbia University and had been Professor of Biochemistry of the University of Boston since 1979. He began contributing stories to science fiction magazines in 1939 and his first book ''Pebble in the Sky'' was published in 1950. Many others followed. ''The Foundation Trilogy'' (1963) made an international reputation as the master of science fiction. Since 1958 he had published few novels, preferring to concentrate on text books and works of popularized science such as ''Intelligent Man's Guide to Science'' (2 Vols. 1960). And he also wrote ''Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare'' (1970). In his life time he wrote over 500 books that spanned the realm of human knowledge. [http://www.asimovonline.com/ Asimov Home Page] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issac_Asimov Isaac Asimov].

'''Tempomorph''' 
Tempo + morph = Time change

'''Q-98s''' 
FM station? The weapon used by Loony Tunes character Marvin the Martian is called the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator

'''Flow''' 
Flow of Time.

'''vulcanite''' 
Star Trek allusion? A kind of mineralized rubber.
:a hard, readilly cut and polished rubber, obtained by vulcanizing rubber with a large amount of sulfur or some sulfur compound under a moderate heat (110-140 degree C), used in the manufacture of combs, buttons, and for electric insulation.

'''Heusler's alloy''' 
any of various alloys of manganese and other nonferromagnetic metals that exhibit ferromagnetism. Named after Conrad Heuslet, 19th-century German mining engineer and chemist.

'''bonzoline''' 
Synthetic ivory, used to make billiard balls.

'''electrum''' 
An alloy of gold and silver, presumably not the same as ''argentaurum''.

'''lignum vitae''' 
The very hard heavy wood of any of several tropical American guaiacum trees. In Latin, literally "wood of life."

'''platinoid''' 
An alloy of copper, nickel, tungsten and zinc, formerly used in elecric coils.

'''magnalium''' 
Magnesium-aluminum alloy.

'''packfong silver''' 
A Chinese alloy of nickel, zinc and copper, resembling German silver. [http://dict.die.net/packfong/ packfong].

'''The Ball in Hand''' 
[[#balinhan|See annotations to p. 405.]]

'''safe harbor''' 
Paradoxical, I think.

'''automorphic''' 
auto = Self,same. Morph = to change. The theory of automorphic functions concerns a generalization of periodic functions such as the Earth's revolution.

'''Eternal Return''' 
A fascinating interpretation of history in which Time is a single cycle and once it has reached its conclusion begins anew, and each repetition of the cycle is utterly identical to the first. Perhaps originating in ''The New Science'' by Giambattista Vico, though made most famous by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who used it as the basis for his moral philosophy. Cf. Nietzsche, ''The Will to Power''.

Notice that at Candlebrow, the conferences converged to a "form' of Eternal Return. The almost instantaneous way the conferees can be "resurrected' and seem never to age, makes this form of the Eternal
Return a lot like Never-Never Land. 
A-and perhaps a Pynchon jape at Nietzsche's vision of history?

==Page 410==

'''revenance''' 
Related to revenant, a ghost, a returner from the dead.

'''River of Time''' 
cf "the invisible river, the flow of Time", p.252. Herein a 'parable' drawn from the flowing of a literal river, by some Candlbrow conferees.

Cf. "The River of Time" (first published in 1981 as "Coexistence" in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine) 

Cf. M&D's "in America, time is a river that goes through hell"

Cf. Heraclitus's Flux and Fire Philosophy. [http://www.thebigview.com/greeks/heraclitus.html]

'''Symmes Street''' possible reference to the Symme's Hole which leads into the hollow earth, i. e. a street on the extreme fringe

Symmes Street = Symmetry ?

'''gaslit''' 
Lightfuel motif.

'''St. Louis Fair''' 
1904.

Also "Pygmy boyfriends escaped from the St. Louis Fair" - in the book Ota Benga, about a pygmy who appeared in the St. Louis Fair, there is a reference to pygmies escaping from their exhibit and disappearing into neighborhoods of St. Louis, never to be found

'''''kielbasa sausage''''' 
Often referred to as Polish sausage (which is uncooked), Kielbasa sausage is a precooked, smoked, traditionally made of pork that is highly seasoned with garlic.

also used to describe a very large penis. Judging from the "disreputable" nature of the Ball in Hand, it wouldn't seem too far-fetched to imagine Polish comedians hitting themselves over the head with their own appendages.

'''fantan''' 
Traditional Chinese gambling game; also a card game [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan-Tan].

'''"preserver"''' 
Or "life-preserver": slang, a blackjack or cosh.

'''magenta-and-green''' 
Clashing-colors motif. This combination appears in a bandana in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] (Viking p. 69 line 14). 
Life colors in Pynchon, it might be argued?, as is a bandana. 
The clashing of (anarchic) life motif, maybe? 

magenta is a color that was renamed for a battle, the Battle of Magenta!
see wikipedia.

There's something else striking about magenta and green: In the field of [http://www.rgbworld.com/color.html color mixing,] these are complementary in the sense that magenta results from filtering all the green out of white light and vice versa. Green is an additive primary (red-green-blue), while magenta is a subtractive primary (cyan-magenta-yellow). This does not hold for some other ''AtD'' color schemes (red/indigo comes to mind, but there are a dozen or so of these binary combinations).

==Page 411==

'''Finding of Unusual Circumstances Questionaire''' 
Also, presumably, known as the "F.U.C.Q." or "fucq" for short.

'''Hawaiian volcano''' 
Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, established in 1916, displays the results of 70 million years of volcanism, migration, and evolution — processes that thrust a bare land from the sea and clothed it with complex and unique ecosystems, and a distinct human culture.

The park encompasses 333,000 acres and ranges from sea level to the summit of the earth's most massive volcano, Mauna Loa at 13,677 feet. ''Kilauea, the world's most active volcano, offers scientists insights on the birth of the Hawaiian Islands'' and visitors views of dramatic volcanic landscapes. Over half of the park is designated wilderness and provides unique hiking and camping opportunities. [[Hawaii|More on Hawaiian references in ''Against the Day'']]...

'''Zennist''' 
Practitioners of Zen Buddhism.

'''''Caged Women of Yokohama''''' 
Possible: Yokohama was one of the first Japanese cities with the heaviest
industrialization...wherein many young women from the surrounding rural
areas came to work in dreadful working and living conditions? "The early 20th century was marked by rapid growth of industry. Entrepreneurs built factories along reclaimed land to the north of the city towards Kawasaki, which eventually grew to be the Keihin Industrial Area. The growth of Japanese industry brought affluence to Yokohama, and many wealthy trading families constructed sprawling residences there, while the rapid influx of population from Japan and Korea also led to the formation of Kojiki-Yato, the largest slum in Japan at the time." Wikipedia. 
Misc. Like Telluride in the U.S., Yokohama had the first gaslit streetlamps in Japan. Wikipedia.

==Page 412==

'''koan''' 
Japanese. A ko-an is a story, dialogue, question or statement in the lore of Zen Buddhism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koan koan].

'''"Does a dog possess the Buddha-nature?" [...] "Yes, obviously"''' 
According to the Zen parable the answer to the question is "Mu", which is both "No" and the sound of a dog's bark, thus neither simply yes nor no. See the explanantion given by the Learned English Dog in Mason & Dixon (Ch. 3, p. 22).

'''apricot and aquamarine''' 
Clashing-colors motif.

'''F.I.C.O.T.T.''' 
As Alonzo Meatman goes right on to explain, F.I.C.O.T.T. is the acronym for the First International Conference On Time Travel, but readers of ''Gravity's Rainbow'' will recall also "Fickt" from the line "Fickt nicht mit dem Raketemensch," or "Don't f--k with the Rocketman."

'''hootnanny''' 
Typo? Should be hootenanny, an informal performance by folk singers, typically with participation by the audience. The OED says that it can be spelled either way, and also hootananny.

'''Bohr... Mach... young Einstein... Spengler... Wells... McTaggart''' 
All of these people did work involving either speculation about time (Wells) or other subjects that reached their highest expression in Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which had implications regarding the nature of time and spacetime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity Wikipedia]. Pynchon refers to the fact that this work was underway and 'in the air' at the time of the novel. [[Bohr, Mach, Einstein, et al.|History and Discussion...]]

Notice how, among this stellar cast of scientists, Wells seems to be placed above the rest (cf: "Mr. Wells himself"), as if the writer of fiction trumped "real" scientists when it came to the idea of time travel.

'''dismissing . . . the ''existence'' of Time''' 
In a 1908 essay, ''The Unreality of Time'', McTaggart said "Our ground for rejecting time . . . is that time cannot be explained without assuming time." For the full text of the essay [http://www.ditext.com/mctaggart/time.html The Unreality of Time (1)] and other information [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unreality_of_Time The Unreality of Time (2)].

'''the McTaggartite''' 
disciple of Mctaggart?

'''neo-Augustinian''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo St. Augustine of Hippo] (354-430), in his autobiographical [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/augustine/confessions/confessions.html ''Confessions''], is credited with reconceptualizing the notion of time in Christian terms. Throyle, on [[ATD 119-148#Page 143|p.143]], summarizes what he terms "Christian time," as a "linear way of regarding time, a simple straight line from past, through present, into the future." See also [[ATD E|'''Eschatology''']].

<div id="pudding">'''fatal steamed pudding'''</div>
Presumably the subject of the "Christmas-pudding controversy" mentioned on p. 406. In the context of Prof. Taggart's disbelief in time and the Augustinian's presumed belief that time moves inevitably toward Christ's return, a Christmas pudding (which, one should mention, is prepared with suet or similar animal fat, though presumably Smegmo can be substituted) is a symbol, insofar as it invokes the birth of Christ, of a pivotal moment in the proper sequence of Augustinian time. The pudding, which context here suggests the neo-Augustinian dropped on the McTaggartite, at once symbolizes the Fall of Man, as well as the McTaggartite's inevitable descent into Hell. The whole arrangement is problematized, however, by the comments of the County Coroner, who describes the outcome of the event dependent on "wagering," chance being irreconcilable with Augustinian time.

'''vertical distance''' 
Of pudding-drop?

<div id="stearinery">'''Old Stearinery Bell Tower'''</div>
A stearinery (probably made-up word) is a facility where stearin is made. Chemically, stearin is an ester of glycerol with stearic acid, or stearic acid itself. The name also denotes the solid component of a fat. Smegmo undoubtedly contains stearin, so the Old Stearinery was a key part of the original production process.

"Until 1863 lard stearin was used to produce the stearic acid for candle making. With lard expensive and in short supply, a new method was discovered to produce the stearic acid using tallow. What lard and lard stearin was available was instead developed into a cooking compound. The same process was later adapted to create Crisco, the first all-vegetable shortening." [http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/The-Procter-amp;-Gamble-Company-Company-History.html]

==Page 413==

'''322 feet''' 
The ''average'' acceleration produced by gravity at the Earth's surface (sea level) is 32.2 (or 32.17405 to be exact) feet per second per second. This apllies "in any direction out to the curve of the Earth, notorious locally for exerting a fascination upon minds healthy and disordered alike."

''Pedantry Alert:'' From a height of 322 feet, you see the horizon at a distance of 22 miles.

'''disordered''' 
Eg clocktower assassins?
:Also people who may be moved to ''knock towers down.''

'''homeopathist''' 
One who practices homeopathy.

'''"the ''lycopodium'' type"... Fear''' 
Lycopodium is a common homeopathic remedy for many disorders. Homeopathy being the introduction into the body, in infinitesimal amounts, of a possibly toxic or irritating agent that ends up stimulating the body to heal itself.

'''sky-brother''' 
???
My take was that he was assuaging any hurt feelings with Meatman by placing him on the level of a fellow "Chum of Chance".

Hmm... maybe Chick is implying that he and Meatman are indeed of the same cloth, not bound by the earthly realm, the former spending most of his time in the air and the latter being able to travel to other dimensions.

'''other Promise... resurrected... two millennia''' 
???
:maybe this refers simply to the Resurrection (and therefore the end of Time); the Promise is that the trumpet (Chick's?) shall sound, and the dead shall be raised.

God's promise of eternal life vs. Time Travel's promise of making you immortal.

'''speaking trumpet''' 
Brass forerunner of the megaphone. [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1671RSPT....6.3056M Abstract] of a 1671 paper; [http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conMediaFile.2647 photo] of a ship's speaking trumpet, 1799; [http://www.auroraregionalfiremuseum.org/giftshop/1850figure/source/horn.htm catalog entry] for a replica American fire brigade speaking trumpet, mid-19th century.

==Page 414==

'''purlieus''' 
outskirts, outlying areas; also (OED) "meaner streets about some main thoroughfare; a mean, squalid or disreputable street or quarter."

This whole section is a progress into the outlying areas, the fringes
(Cf. Pynchon's story ''Low-lands'', which takes place at a town dump)

'''millwork''' 
woodwork, doors, molding, wainscotting, etc, but cheap, prefabricated, not custom-fabricted on site.

'''penumbrae''' 
A penumbra is the outer and lighter part of the shadow created by an eclipse. "Penumbrae" is the plural form.

'''quiescence''' 
His name suggests a purveyor of meat, and he does "deliver" Chick to Mr. Ace.

==Page 415==

'''"Mr. Ace"''' 
This could be a nod to the 1946 film [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038752/ ''Mr. Ace''] starring Sylvia Sidney and George Raft who plays Eddie Ace, the head man of a crooked political machine who intends to scuttle the gubernatorial campaign of female senator Margaret Wyndham Chase (Sylvia Sidney). He uses every dirty trick in the book to destroy Margaret, but she perseveres on the strength of sheer honesty and integrity. Through her example, Ace mends his own ways, earning Margaret's love as a bonus, and he helps her to run as an independent on a clean-government ticket.

It may, more specifically, refer to the old-time radio show called ''The Cases of Mr. Ace'' which had a very limited run mostly on WNEW in New York in the late forties. Raft played Eddie Ace, the sole owner of Ace Detective Agency on 6th Avenue. In the episode from June 25, 1945, Ace described one gangster thus:

:"The face of a small fragile old man. His hair was glossy and deep black. His eyes were glossy and deep black."

Compare this to Pynchon's Mr. Ace: "Glossy black eyes, presented like weapons in a duel."

'''phatic''' 
Relating to speech that serves to establish social relationships rather than to inform.

'''Those of us who spoke this truth were denounced as heretics''' 
Yes, the old Pynchon theme of those in control, the oligarchs, silencing the counterforce.

Taking of refuge in a planet's past was the plot of a Captain Kirk-era ''Star Trek'' episode; the unintentionally transported Kirk is taken to be a religious dissenter; fortunately his judge is one of the "refugees".

'''certain of your great dynamos''' 
Cf. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Brooks_Adams Henry Adams], author of ''The Virgin and The Dynamo''. Pynchon has written of being influenced deeply by Adams, and his ideas are particularly evident in Pynchon's [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''V.''].

'''Fraternity of the Venturesome''' 
Mistranslated 'Chums of Chance'.

'''''nzzt''''' 
Electrical short?

Suggests "he" could be a holographic image. Time traveling holograms were one feature of the "Temporal Cold War" subplot of ''Star Trek: Enterprise''; one such manifestation (complete with "nzzt's") is set in a huge dynamo station in a Nazi-occupied New York. This is two possible ''Star Trek'' allusions in a single page.

Electrical short is certainly relevant. The mistranslation is a kind-of short-circuit, then he gets the right phrase from his data bank. Bit like C3P0 in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_wars ''Star Wars'']?

'''You are not aware that each of your mission assignments is intended to prevent some attempt of our own to enter your time-regime.''' 
Aha! A little peek into the True Mission of the Chums. Time to take another look at those various adventures:

* ''Chums of Chance and The Evil Halfwit'' ([[ATD_1-25#Page_5|p.5]])
* ''Chums of Chance and The Curse of the Great Kahuna'' ([[ATD_1-25#Page_5|p.5]])
* ''Chums of Chance at Krakatoa'' ([[ATD_1-25#Page_6|p.6]])
* ''Chums of Chance Search for Atlantis'' ([[ATD_1-25#Page_6|p.6]])
* ''Chums of Chance in Old Mexico'' ([[ATD_1-25#Page_7|p.7]])
* ''Chums of Chance and the Bowels of the Earth'' ([[ATD_97-118#Page_117|p.117]])
* ''The Chums of Chance and the Ice Pirates'' ([[ATD_119-148#Page_123|p.123]])
* ''The Chums of Chance Nearly Crash into the Kremlin'' ([[ATD_119-148#Page_123|p.123]])
* ''Chums of Chance at the Ends of the Earth'' ([[ATD_199-218#Page_214|p.214]])
* ''Chums of Chance and the Caged Women of Yokahama'' ([[ATD_397-428#Page_411|p.411]])
* ''Chums of Chance and the Wrath of the Yellow Fang'' ([[ATD_1018-1039#Page_1019|p.1019]])

==Page 416==

'''ZZnrrt''' 
Cf 415.

'''"irreversible processes"''' 
In thermodynamics, an irreversible process is one in which the intermediate states cannot be specified by any set of macroscopic variables, and which are not equilibrium states. Since the intermediate states are unknown this process cannot be reversed.

'''Squanto and the Pilgrims''' 
Squanto (Tisquantum) was one of the two Native American Indians (Samoset being the other) that assisted the Pilgrims during their first winter in the New World. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squanto Squanto].

Ironic (although Chick means it sincerley) since in this case the Chums of C are "Squanto" and their strange interlocutors from another dimension are the pilgrims. Chick innocently suggests that the strangers from the future just want help (as, like the pilgrims, they have just arrived and are low on supplies, so to speak). It is implied that just as the Indian's helping the pilgrims was re-payed with disease, genocide and war, the payback the Chums reap for helping these visitors from another dimension may not be what they expect.

'''entropy''' 
A term first used in 1850s by the German physicist Rudolf Clausius (1822-1888). It is the name of a quantity in thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and information theory variously representing the degree of disorder in a physical system, the extent to which the energy in a system is available for doing work, the distribution of the energy of a system between different modes, or the uncertainty in a given item of knowledge. In thermodynamics absolut entropies cannot be determined, only ''changes'' in entropy. One way of stating the second law of thermodynamics (Cf [[ATD_219-242#Page 238|page 238]]) is to say that in any change in an isolated system, the entropy increases. This increase in entropy represents the energy that is no longer available for doing work in that system. See [http://www.entropylaw.com/ Entropy & Laws of Thermodynamics.]

'''"It's our innocence . . . ."''' 
Speculation about the motives of people who come from the future claiming to need something from the past. It is a common fallacy in all ages to think back to the past as a 'golden age' and an age of 'innocence'. Lindsay elaborates further down the page: "[I]magine ''them''... so fallen, so corrupted, that we — even we — seem to them pure as lambs. And their own time so terrible that it's sent them desparately back...." Think also of the kind of 'golden age' rhetoric often employed by certain politicians.

==Page 417==

'''"we're totally"''' 
...fucked.

'''"He is not what he says he is."''' 
Pynchon denies Chums backstory/explanation.

In addition, his story would be plausible almost too plausible in terms of the thermodynamic theories of the day, i.e. the Heat Death of the Universe (about which Pynchon has written before: see [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''V.''] and ''Entropy'').

'''trespassers''' 
Presumably individuals in the company of Mr. Ace and Alonzo Meatman, whose intentions toward the Chums of Chance are apparently sinister and for their own benefit. They appear to travel back through the stream of time without any kind of permission to execute their plans, thus making them trespassers (or parasites).

The idea of trespass could be thought of in another way too. Miles mentions Mr. Ace knowing him as a 'peeper' who observes the trespassers as they come to his time. We could think of the 'trespassers' as anyone in any time who looks back at a point in history. As such, they are actually 'peepers'. That these seem to have found a way not just to peep but actually to participate makes them more than peepers, in fact, it is this that constitutes their 'trespass'.

Pynchon seems to be playing with how we view history and the past, a theme common to all his work. The Chums, whose existence is, to an extent, fictional even within the work of fiction, are a nexus meant to control boundaries between points in time (e.g. the future and the present, or its past). Historians and other future observers want to use the past for their own purposes. If they become visible to the people in that past, they will appear as 'trespassers' and violators. As Miles says, they do "not have our best interests in mind".

We ourselves (readers and perhaps even more, Wiki authors) are also trespassers from the standpoint of the Chums. We read about them in the novel, which takes us to the past, to their present, and inserts us in a way that is invisible to them. We then write up entries and think thoughts about what they do. We are in their world in some way that to them is utterly mysterious and sinister because, again, we have own agendas in mind and not theirs.

Right: And what about the biggest trespasser of all - the author himself. After all, he's the one who can offer them immortality.

As opposed to Tyrone Slothrop, who seemed to have taken on a life of his own and escaped from the book totally in GR.

'''I see them ''pointing something'' back at me not exactly a weapon an enigmatic object.''' 
Hmmm. Could this have anything to do with the [[Q-weapon_and_Photography|Q-weapon]]?

— – – mmm... does anyone think that it might be just a remote control, and that the window through which the trespassers and the Chums see each other might be just a TV set? [[[User:Sonni|Sonni]] 09:19, 21 February 2008 (PST)]

==Page 418==

'''Trespass''' 
With a capital T.

'''evidence... everywhere''' 
Cf [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Crying of Lot 49''].

'''neuropathy''' 
An abnormal and usually degenerative state of the nervous system or nerves.

'''contracts''' 
With Devil.
More specifically, like Faust with Mephistopheles.

'''Other Units''' 
(So our five gossiped to others?)

'''exhaustive''' 
Cf Trekkies.

'''came to recall''' 
Cf PK Dick.

'''red and indigo''' 
Clashing?

'''Marching Academy Harmonica Band''' 
In this episode the academy goes by seven permutations of the name:
*Marching Academy Harmonica Band
*Harmonica Band Marching Academy
*Marching Harmonica Band Academy
*Harmonica Marching Band Academy
*Harmonica Band Marching Academy
*Marching Harmonica Band activities
*Harmonica Marching Band Training Academy
Its identity is not very securely tied down.
Clearly it's mutable, a kind of mirage. And surely there's a resonance with 'laughing academy'? And a hint of the Hogwarts train in 'Harry Potter'?

Pynchon devotes enough attention to that whole baffling "Academy" episode to make it appear fairly pivotal. The word order variations suggest an anagram _ "ham," as in "pig" again? "MBA," as in academic initiation into capitalism? "Bam!?" Maybe that whole episode hints at a naive, early 20th-century romanticized myth of military service _ boys seeking some adventure story, equated with a goofy lark like a harmonica band, but being thrust into the horrific mechanized slaughter of WWI. All the while, though, the anarchic jazz symbol of the harmonica, that other side of classic American soul, is trying to sneak through.

==Page 419==

'''"El Capitán"''' 
Sousa march. "El Capitán" was played by a military band on the deck of Admiral Dewey's battleship as he steamed into the Bay of Manila in 1898, to "liberate" the Philippines from Spain and also, not coincidentally, achieve access for U.S. capital and goods to East Asian markets once the Philippines became a colony. Thus the references to the "intricacies of greed as then being practiced by global capitalism" a few sentences later on p. 419 is hardly out of place for TRP, particularly when mixed with comments on how patriotic bromides and marching tunes go together. The harmonicas and the comment that improvisation is definitely NOT welcome in marching band arrangements, of course, provide Pynchon's own inimitable caustic/satiric touch; cf. the kazoos in GR. On "El Capitán": see Hess, Carol A. “John Philip Sousa’s ‘El Capitan’: Political Appropriation and the Spanish-American War.” ''American Music'' (Spring 1998).

'''"Whistling Rufus"''' 
[http://hetzler.homestead.com/NBCakeWalk.html A cakewalk song] written in 1899.

'''consecrated''' 
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/consecrate] "1. To declare or set apart as sacred: consecrate a church."

'''Richardson Romanesque''' 
Style of American Romanesque architecture from 1880s-1890s, named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, notable for use of brown stone, rounded corners, arches and cylindrical turrets. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richardson_Romanesque Wikipedia Entry].

'''modal theory''' 
Context is suggestive of music theory, types of scales and keys of tonal music. However, Modal Realism is the view, notably propounded by David Lewis, that possible worlds are as real as the actual world. Possible worlds exist; the actual world is merely one among an infinite set of logically possible worlds, some nearer to the actual world and some more remote. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_realism]

'''chit''' 
Piece of military or bureaucratic paperwork; context suggests "request for transfer".

'''Bing Spooninger''' 
Like "Bing" Crosby, a crooner.

'''rack''' 
Current military and collegiate slang for "bed"--an anachronism.

==Page 420==

'''every note''' 
Om?

'''say "Wall"''' 
???

'''Yippy dippy dippy, doo!''' 
cf. ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (p. 66) where Slothrop goes down the toilet after, appropriately, a harmonica.

'''Now, it ain't that I wouldn't, 'cause I can but I won't,''' 
'''And I would if I wasn't, but I am so I don't''' 
This sounds very similar to a lyric from Frank Zappa's 'Stink-Foot:'

He said:
"IT DOESN'T, 'n YOU CAN'T!

I WON'T, 'n IT DON'T!

IT HASN'T, IT ISN'T, IT EVEN AIN'T

'N IT SHOULDN'T . . .

IT COULDN'T!"

He told me NO NO NO!

I told him YES YES YES!

I said: "I do it all the time . . .

Ain't this boogie a mess!"

'''difficult vocal feat''' 
???

'''segueing''' 
A deejaying term for moving from one song/track to another with no noticeable break if done correctly. 
Cf. [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow,''] Viking p. 70, line 36, where the phonetic spelling "segway" appears.

'''cakewalk''' 
An African-American entertainment having a cake as prize for the most accomplished steps and figures in walking; also, a stage dance developed from walking steps and figures typically involving a high prance with backward tilt. From this, slang for a one-sided contest or an easy task.

'''draw-note''' 
Note played on harmonica by "drawing" air through reed by sucking in rather than blowing out (insert crude sex joke here).

==Page 421==

'''popularity''' 
Masochistic love of oppressors.

'''''cover identity''''' 
Burden of resistance.

'''unannounced punishments . . . Combat-Inside-Ten-Meters''' 
Points up the Kafkaesque nature of the Academy.

:This bit in re: the Academy-- including the Combat-Inside-Ten-Meter-- could echo the Enfield Tennis Academy, one of the central locations in D.F. Wallace's "Infinite Jest."

'''Lombardy poplars.''' 
A large deciduous tree, reaching 30-40 m tall. They resemble large shrubs, due to their tall, slender appearance. They grow tall very quickly and usually die within 15 years of first planting. 

'''Out the window...''' 
The longest sentence so far in ATD.

'''Chromatic Harp''' 
A harmonica that plays all notes in an octave rather than a scale in a certain key. [http://www.hohnerusa.com/hchromatic.htm Examples].

'''Pitch Integrity Guard''' 
To prevent tampering with the notes in the ways described below - i.e. monitoring any tendency towards the 'Negroid'. 
= PIG - pigs long have held a fascination over Pynchon. 
A-and a Pitch Integrity Guard is a kind of cop, right? 

'''harmonica-reed files''' 
Filing the reeds would alter the notes slightly, allowing you to get 'in-between' notes that aren't in the normal major or minor scale.

'''sucking the tonic chords...Negroid sound''' 
Standard technique for playing blues harmonica ('harp'), also known as cross-blowing. The sucked notes are easier to 'bend' and wail with, so you can get the blues 'third', not quite minor, not quite major. Another technique that helps you get the 'Negroid sound' is soaking the harmonica, which gives the reeds a rougher, more bendable quality. That's probably the point of the 'late night visits to the latrine'. Compare with GR, where Slothrop (at college!) loses his harmonica down the toilet (he finds it much later in a stream in Germany! Gone back home, so to speak). There's a harmonica-soaking scene in Pennebaker's Dylan film 'Don't look Back'.
It wouldn't surprise me if there was some kind of folk wisdom that piss is even better than water for soaking the harp. Pee-culiar.

==Page 422==

'''I.G. Mundharfwerke''' 
Interessen-Gemeinschaft Mundharfwerke (Harmonica-works Association of Common Interests). "Mundharf" is Swabian German for "Harmonica". By analogy with I.G. Farben in ''GR'': the Mouth-Harp Cartel.

'''drifted''' 
Cf. Slothrop's desk in ''GR''.

'''the sprightly Offenbach air "Halls of Montezoo-HOO-ma!"''' 
The "Marines' Hymn" borrows the tune of the "Gendarmes' Duet" from the opera ''Geneviève de Brabant'' (1859) by French composer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Offenbach Jacques Offenbach] (1819-1880). 
The lyrics of which are not entirely irrelevant: 
And if we meet a helpless woo-o-man 
Or little boys who do no harm 
We run them in, we run them in, 
We run them in, we run them in 
Because we are the bold gen-darmes! 

'''into the Latrine''' 
Cf. Slothrop's hallucination in ''GR''.

'''dentifrice''' 
A powder or other preparation for rubbing or cleansing the teeth; a tooth-powder or tooth-paste; also applied to liquid preparations.<ref>'''Oxford English Dictionary''' 2nd. ed. 1989.</ref>

'''vapor bearing...minerals''' 
Rows of mirrors facing each other (thus creating regular patterns, "chaining away for uncounted leagues") have been stained with images formed by regular use: breath, tiny bits of toothpaste or powder ("atomized dentifrice"), "shaving preparations," and mineral deposits from tapwater.

'''A.D.C.''' 
Aide-de-camp, administrative assistant to a commanding officer.

'''but they could find no entries in any of the daily Logs to help them remember''' 
Their situation has no precedent in any of the ''Chums'' novels. They have been betrayed, isolated and brainwashed, and they even doubt whether they are the authentic Chums. The following is not a spoiler: Any elementary handbook of plotting will tell you that they can't just single up all lines at the end of this episode and fly their ship "cheerly" on to the next adventure.

==Page 423==

'''revisit places where destinies took a wrong turn, or revisit in dreams the dreaming body of one loved more than either might have known...''' 
As far as we know, none of the Chums has actually experienced this. Sounds to me like an allusion to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust Faust] and Gretchen/Marguerite, since this actually happens in several of the Faust versions. Especially in the context of the Faustian bargain they have made with Mr. Ace.

'''None of them...''' 
Cf [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuangzi#The_butterfly_dream Chuang Tzu's dream]: is he a man dreaming he's a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he's a man? On the rhetorical level of the story, this passage reiterates the dreamlike, near-delusional nature of the Chums' latest escape from what seems to have become their most dangerous foe. (418: "As if in a dream...").

'''volunteer decoys''' 
Fan-meme. 
Decoy = is usually a person, device or event meant as a distraction to conceal what an individual or a group might be looking for. 
I think this surprising phrase has Pynchonian meaning about the meaning of fiction like the Chums': 'escape', 'adventure' fiction is a decoy from
reality?

'''"At a Georgia Camp Meeting"''' 
a song by a Kerry Mills originally published in 1897.
Became a very popular 'cakewalk' tune. 
Lyrics: 
A camp meeting took place, by the colored race; way down in Georgia.
There were folks large and small, lanky, lean, fat and tall, at this great Georgia camp meeting.
When church was out, how the "sisters" did shout, they were so happy.
But the young folks were tired and wished to be inspired, and hired a big brass band.

Chorus: When the big brass band began to play pretty music so gay, hats were thrown away.
Thought them foolish people their necks would break,
When they quit their laughing and talking and went to walking for a big choc'late cake.

The old "sisters" raised sand, when they first heard the band; way down in Georgia.
The preacher did glare and the deacons did stare, at the young people prancing.
The band played so sweet that nobody could eat, 'twas so entrancing.
So the church folks agreed it was not a sinful deed, and they joined in with the rest. 

''':definition within above definition: 'cakewalk'''' 
Cakewalk is a traditional African American form of music and dance which originated among slaves in the US South. A cake, or slices of cake, were offered as prizes for the best dancers — a rare treat during slavery — giving the dance its name.
The dance was invented as a satirical parody of the formal European dances preferred by white slaveowners, and featured exaggerated imitations of the dance ritual, combined with traditional African dance steps. One common form of cakewalk dance involved couples (one male and one female, with their arms linked at the elbows) lined up in a circle, dancing forward alternating a series of short hopping steps with a series of very high kicking steps. Costumes worn for the cakewalk often included large, exaggerated bowties, suits, canes, and top hats....
The dance became nationally popular among whites and blacks for a time at the end of the 19th century. The syncopated music of the cakewalk became a nationally popular force in American mainstream music, and with growing complexity and sophistication evolved into ragtime music in the mid 1890s. The music was adopted into the works of various white composers, including John Philip Sousa and Claude Debussy; the latter wrote Golliwog's Cakewalk as the final movement of the Children's Corner suite (1908).

'''"deps"''' 
Dep. from American Heritage Dictionary = 1. department 2. departure 3. dependency 4. deponent 5. deposed 6. deposit 7. depot 8. deputy 
barring any other allusion, I think 'deps' here might stand for 1) departures or 2) departments (given words about other Chums above.
:Surrogates, decoys, escape: Surely these all make it certain that "deps" means "deputies."

'''route out of the past''' 
The nostalgia trap.

'''We wish we could tell you about everything that's been going on, but it's not over yet, it's at such a critical stage, and the less said right now the better. But someday . . . ''' 
The Chums imagine "the real Chums" as being engaged in a secret war that demands only one sacrifice from "the people," that of their innocence.

==Page 424==

''''coon' material''' 
Songs and humor in which African-Americans were stereotyped (as lazy, immoral, stupid, vain, etc.) and held in contempt. The most popular coon song, though, was written by an African-American, Ernest Hogan; titled "All Coons Look Alike to Me," it has an ''AtD'' resonance. Coon material was extremely popular between about 1880 and 1910; stripped of the word "coon," a diluted form still appears nightly on your TV. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coon_song Wikipedia] has a strikingly good article. For a partial list of coon references in ''AtD,'' [[ATD_26-56#Page_48|see annotation to p. 48.]]

'''isotropy''' 
the quality or condition of being equal along all directions. For more technical information see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotropy isotropy].

'''presently''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Crumb R. Crumb] did a comic like this: [http://crumbproducts.com/prints_images/sha.gif pic] 
Nice find. That comic succintly summarizes TRP's view of the effects of railroads and "civilization."

'''opposition''' 
(Was unconscious, now conscious?)Are the Chums now able to intercede
in 'human' affairs, unlike their earlier mandate?
:That's exactly it, their stretch in the camp—sorry, the harmonica academy—has modified the terms of the C of C Prime Directive.

'''dropped from altitudes''' 
(Cf pudding above, Padzhitnoff's four-block fragments)

==Page 425==

'''"After the Ball"''' 
Music and lyrics by Charles K. Harris. This number was interpolated into the score of the hit musical ''A Trip to Chinatown'' (1892) during its record-setting Broadway run. It was introduced by J. Aldrich Libbey. When Kern and Hammerstein wanted to add period flavor to ''Show Boat'' (1927), they used "After the Ball" in the Trocadero scene where it was performed by Norma Terris. [[After the Ball|Read the lyrics...]]

See also the [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_174-177 pantomime song] in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (pages 174-175):
<blockquote>"And the lamps in the stairway are dying, 
It's the season just after the ball . . ."</blockquote>

'''Bukhara''' 
Either the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirate_of_Bukhara Emirate of Bukhara], a former country in Central Asia or its [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukhara capital]

'''T.D.Y.''' 
Abbrevation for Temporary Duty. [http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r614_11.pdf weblink]

'''Subdesertine''' 
submerge beneath the desert or sand.

'''''Saksaul''''' 
A plant/tree native to the deserts of Central Asia, particularly the Gobi desert; it has a very hard wood and is covered with knobs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxaul Wikipedia] [http://www.pbase.com/william_sokolenko/image/68724037 pic]

It may be significant that the saksaul tree is often planted in order to stabilize the sands. Part of western Europe's civilizing mission?

'''Q. Zane Toadflax''' 
(Sounds like Douglas Adams?). Toadflax is the name of an [http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/weedfeeders/toadflax.html invasive plant species]

'''Hypopsammotic... Hypops''' 
''Hypo-'' (under) + ''psammot-'' (sand, from Greek ''psammos'') + ''-ic.'' Pynchon explains the device's function on the next page (426).

==Page 426==

'''beating their prices''' 
Contradicts p. 425 "no further expenditure".
:P. 425 merely says that "no further expenditure for that purpose [i.e. for Hypops rigs] will be approved." Presumably, the Chums have some additional discretionary fund from which to draw cash for emergency purchases such as these.

'''that medium which is wavelike as the sea, yet also particulate''' 
Alluding to the æther theory and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave-particle_duality dual (wave/particle) nature of light].

==Page 427==

'''temporarily lapsing into English''' 
Contrasts with the technical jargon the Chums have been steeped in over the past few days, including lectures by Roswell Bounce (they're only boys, after all). Often, mathematicians, physicists, and their students fail to explain their theories "in English." This little phrase can be taken as a professorial joke, aimed at both the author (for always coming back to obscure or difficult theories) and the reader (for never understanding them). 
I thought it was contrasting with Miles' frequent babbling habit. 

'''''pigs fly''''' 
Lindsay = pig. "When (or until) pigs fly" = never.

But Darby's surname is "suckling," which of course is highly suggestive of a young, maturing "pig," and he does seem to be exhibiting some legalistic _ fascist? _ tendencies.

'''X.O.''' 
The Executive Officer (XO) is the second-in-command, reporting to the Commanding Officer (CO).

'''legalistic''' 
Yes, Darby is now Legal Counsel.

==Page 428==
'''ill-starred Bell Tower''' 
Referring back of course to the [[#stearinery|Old Stearinery Bell Tower]] and the [[#pudding|Fatal Pudding]], and in turn to the [[Campanile]].

:The Campanile picture has me wondering. According to the sources, the old picture of the collapse of the Campanile is actually a fake. And it doesn't have the airship. It's a fun picture, but what is its status? There doesn't seem to be an appropriate place for this information in the wiki, or have I missed something?

:The Campanile picture is an illustration. Doubtful that anyone had their camera all set up for the awesome event. The airship was photoshopped in for, um, color...

::See also last paragraph of page 255.

Cf. Renata's tarot reading on [[ATD 243-272#Page 253|p. 253]], the last card of which is The Tower.

Cf. ''The Bell-Tower'' by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Melville Herman Melville], a famous short story from ''The Piazza Tales'' (1856) with an "ill-starred
bell tower" for sure. "Glancing backwards, they saw the groined belfry crashed sideways in.", a line from it which echos the picture used for the pynchonwiki home page. [http://www.melville.org/belltowr.htm Full text of ''The Bell-Tower'']

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}

ATD 1-25

2012-04-07T11:34:39Z

C-Melody: /* Page 23 */ added speculation of pork-pie hat

:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>''' 

==cover text==
[[image:Ispar.jpg|right|thumb|125px|An alphabet viewed through Iceland spar ('birefringence')]]
Words viewed through the translucent crystal known as 'Iceland spar,' look like this-- with multiple 'ghost' images. Note that here, the ghost images appear in multiple typefaces. The combination of traditional serif fonts with modern sans-serif fonts suggests the themes of time, past/present, etc.

==cover seal==
The seal is written in Tibetan. Someone going by the name 'Ya Sam' [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0612&msg=112066&keywords=Namgyal posted] on the Pynchon-l message board:

"I contacted the Tibetan Cultural Centre with the request to translate
the mysterious legend on the AtD seal. They were kind enough to forward my
request to the Tibetan tranlsator Tenzin Namgyal to whose generosity we
owe the solution of one more ATD related mystery.

It is the Tibetan language, alright, and it means ...... Tibetan
Government Chamber of Commerce.

Read their response below:

:Dear Ya Sam, 
:I showed the seal you sent to our Tibetan translator, Tenzin Namgyal. He says the word to word translation is: Tibetan Government Commerce Chamber in other words: Tibetan Government Chamber of commerce. Why Pynchon has chosen to place this on the cover of his book is anyones guess. Reading the book reviews gave no insight into the reason. Perhaps after one has read it?

:Best wishes,

:Sandy Belth 
:Tibetan Cultural Center"

The seal also bears some resemblance to the doubloon in ''Moby-Dick'' that Ahab nails to the mainmast as a prize to the first crew member to sight the white whale. Melville's description runs thus:

:"''It so chanced that the doubloon of the Pequod was a most wealthy example of these things. On its round border it bore the letters, REPUBLICA DEL ECUADOR: QUITO. So this bright coin came from a country planted in the middle of the world, and beneath the great equator, and named after it; and it had been cast midway up the Andes, in the unwaning clime that knows no autumn. Zoned by those letters you saw the likeness of three Andes' summits; from one a flame; a tower on another; on the third a crowing cock; while arching over all was a segment of the partitioned zodiac, the signs all marked with their usual cabalistics, and the keystone sun entering the equinoctial point at Libra.''" (Ch.99, "The Doubloon")

The seal draws attention in Pynchonian fashion to a rarely discussed aspect of Tibet. In the West Tibet is regarded as a land of mysticism and supernatural events, far removed from the materialistic concerns of the spiritually immature West. But the seal shows: even Tibet had a Chamber of Commerce. "There is money everywhere", even in Shambhala.

==copyright page==
The copyright page states that ''Against the Day'' is published by Viking Penguin, but on the title page and elsewhere we can read that the book is published by Penguin Press. The copyright pages of other books from Penguin Press state "Penguin Press" as the publisher, as could be expected, and it seems likely that the substitution of "Penguin Press" with "Viking" is one of many typographical errors in the book (see [[errata]]).
I have confirmed from inside Penguin Press that this is a copyediting mistake. Here is a direct e-mail answer about the Viking Penguin listing: "this was a copyediting mistake that will be corrected. There was never a Viking contract for this book."

==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 Fariña")-- but not so ''Against the Day,'' as published. Advance reading copies of the book did contain the words "Dedication TK" in italics, but this is simply [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Come publisher-speak] for "dedication to come." It is unknown whether Pynchon ever considered inclusion of a dedication or whether the publisher simply left the page open just in case, but the ultimate lack of a dedication may suggest that Pynchon feels he's thanked everyone he needs to thank.

==Epigraph==
'''"It's always night, or we wouldn't need light." - 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 “spent a lot of time in jazz clubs, nursing the two-beer minimum,” by his own admission (''Slow Learner'', Introduction). The Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/that-thelonious-monk-epigraph.html notes] that: 1) in his youth, Pynchon allegedly referred to Monk as a "God"; 2) the character McClintic Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light" was apparently something Monk was given to saying, rather than something he once said. For more on McClintic Sphere and Monk, see Charles Hollander's essay [http://www.howardm.net/tsmonk/pynchon.php Does McClintic Sphere in ''V.'' stand for Thelonious Monk?]. On [[ATD_724-747#Page 732|page 732]]: "...daylit America ... its steadfast denial of night."

==Page 1==
'''"Now single up all lines!""''' 
Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and "single up all lines" is a common nautical term. Ships are docked with lines doubled -- that is, with two sets of ropes or chains holding the vessel to the dock. To "single up all lines" is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.

But 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."

:"single up all lines" is used in its normal nautical context in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#single_up_all_lines ''V.'', pp. 11 and 438]; [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#single_up_all_lines ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.31]; [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_488-491#single_up_all_lines ''Gravity's Rainbow'', p.489]; [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258 ''Mason & Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]; [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_8#Page_119 ''Inherent Vice'', p. 119-120]. Perhaps we can understand this "line" as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''Vineland'']?) in preparation for a voyage to...?

Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling (with the word "Single"!) "single up all lines" as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: "only in straight lines and at right angles and a progressive reduction of choices, until the final turn through the final gate that led to the killing-floor." Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. Both represent "a progressive reduction of choices" a collapsing of many possibilities into one "reality." ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].

The missing quotation mark indicates continuation. Are we holding in our hands the latest boy's adventure tale featuring our favorites, "the Chums of Chance."? (While in all likelihood purely coincidental, it is nevertheless interesting to note the following from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake "boys to your bellybone and chuck a chum of chance!" p. 85 Penguin Books, 1999)

:The ''Finnegans Wake'' line you quote is actually "be British, boys to your bellybone and chuck a chum '''a''' chance!" but close enough anyway to suspect a source [[User:WikiAdmin|WikiAdmin]] 07:38, 16 April 2010 (PDT)

Henry Veggian in [http://boundary2.dukejournals.org/cgi/reprint/35/1/197.pdf his paper entitled "Thomas Pynchon Against the Day"] makes the same point:
:"The novel begins quietly, almost without irony, with a typographical lapse. A set of quotation marks are missing before the first lines of ''Against the Day''." Veggian playfully intimates that it is the authorial "hot air" which takes the "Inconvenience" aloft.

:'''The "missing quotation mark" is not a typo or any sort of Authorial Intention'''; it's simply the publisher's style for the large-font first letter of each section to stand outside the punctuation and font style. On page 588, there is no quotation mark before the "S" in "Smells" and on page 318 the "T" in "Tengo" is not italicized whereas the rest of the word is. Veggian's interpretation is a great example of reading a bit too much into Pynchon's work. I'm surprised that he missed something that seems to me fairly obvious. [[User:WikiAdmin|WikiAdmin]] 11:55, 4 April 2009 (PDT)

'''The Light Over the Ranges''' 
"Range" is defined in the ''Oxford American Dictionary'' as "a line or series of mountains or hills : the coastal ranges of the northwest," so "range" or "ranges" can be used to denote a number of mountains. Some other connotations may include:

:'Ranges' may also refer to farms, homesteads and ranches in 1893 America. America was predominantly that in 1893. Cf. "Home, home on the range".

:"celebrating in song the wider range of life..." Thomas Pynchon on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Waddell Helen Waddell's] ''The Wandering Scholars'', p. 8, Introduction to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Learner ''Slow Learner], 1984.

:In addition, light over ranges is an issue throughout the novel: exploitation and development of electrical and electronics was a concern of the Raymond, Pynchon & Company and Pynchon and company, an investment firm run by yacht enthusiast George M. Pynchon. Pynchon & Company invested in Edison's work.

:I wonder whether "light over the ranges" could refer to space-time along the line of the theories of general relativity, particularly since the voyage of ''inconvenience'' appears at times to take place under that conceptual framework. In addition, keeping in mind Pynchon's educational background, I would add to the above definitions and considerations that "range" is also a mathematical concept.

==Page 3==

'''"Now single up all lines!"''' 
Pynchon was in the Navy for a spell and "single up all lines" is a common nautical term. Ships are docked with lines doubled -- that is, with two sets of ropes or chains holding the vessel to the dock. To "single up all lines" is to remove the redundant second lines in preparation to make way.

But 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."

:"single up all lines" is used in its normal nautical context in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#single_up_all_lines ''V.'', p.11]; [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#single_up_all_lines ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.31]; [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_488-491#single_up_all_lines ''Gravity's Rainbow'', p.489]; and [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258 ''Mason & Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]. Perhaps we can understand this "line" as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''Vineland'']?) in preparation for a voyage to...?

Also, in the very first sentence, Pynchon introduces the concept of doubling (with the word "Single"!) "single up all lines" as a call to journey, to movement and expansion, a beginning. Then, on [[#Page_10|page 10]]: "only in straight lines and at right angles and a progressive reduction of choices, until the final turn through the final gate that led to the killing-floor." Thus, a progressive singling or reduction of all lines/paths, a rationalization/routinization unto death. Both represent "a progressive reduction of choices" a collapsing of many possibilities into one "reality." ''See also'' [[ATD_557-587#Page_585|annotation, page 585]] and more on [[Routinization of Charisma]].

'''"Cheerly now...handsomely...very well!!"''' 
Cheerly means "heartily," and was traditionally used as cry of encouragement among sailors. Handsomely (in nautical context): carefully, in good order, unhurriedly.

:Pynchon uses nautical language in most of his novels. ''Mason & Dixon'': "Cheerly. Cheerly, then, Lads..." (54).

'''"Windy City, here we come!"''' 
The nickname for Chicago, of course; here of particular relevance, given the nature of the ship. The earliest known references to the "Windy City" are from 1876. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windy_City,_Origin_of_Name_(Chicago)| Origin of name "Windy City" at Wikipedia]

'''"Up we go!"''' 
"Up" is an unexpected direction in the context of nautical language, and the anonymous character's observation gives the narrator an excuse to explain that this is no ordinary ship.

'''Randolph St. Cosmo, the ship commander''' 
[[image:ex-voti-isernia.jpg|thumb|175px|Ex voti of Wax, from Isernia|right]]Historically, there are two versions of the 3rd century CE figure St. Cosmo (aka St. Cosmas): the "randy" St. Cosmo, aka the "modern Priapus," and the saintly martyred St. Cosmo of Church lore (associated with healing cult, in some places succeeding Greek Askleipios cult). Pynchon, it seems, is connecting Randolph St. Cosmo to the former. "Randy," as astute observers will note, is an adjective which means, well, "horny." There's a distinct sexual thread woven throughout ''Against the Day'' [[The Sexual Angle|(See the ''beginnings'' of exploring this angle...]]) a-and Heartsease, St. Cosmo's mate, is the first to get pregnant! so this seems to fit right in. [[St. Cosmo|Read more about the historical St. Cosmo...]]; and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sts._Cosmas_and_Damian Wikipedia entry]; [[Randolph St. Cosmo|More on Randolph St. Cosmo]]

In [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=V#veery ''Mason & Dixon''], Pynchon has the Veery brothers, Cosmo and Damian, who are professional effigy makes in Philadelphia! And, just to make it interesting, "He's a rare Wax Artist, our Cosmo is." ([http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_29:_289-295#Page_290 p. 290]) (Note: Wax phallus effigies were offered by the women to St. Cosmo at the festivals held in his name, as shown above.) [[St. Cosmo|Read more about the historical St. Cosmo]]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sts._Cosmas_and_Damian Wikipedia entry]

The commander's name also evokes Randolph St., a main thoroughfare in Chicago. Perhaps also saint(liness) and cosmos?

'''Now secure the Special Sky Detail''' 
When a naval vessel is departing from port or returning to port, a specially trained team is put in charge of the complicated process. The command is, [http://tpub.com/content/administration/12968a/css/12968a_41.htm "Now set the Special Sea Detail."] 'Once the ship is aloft and clear of ground obstructions, the command comes, "Now secure the Special Sky Detail," meaning disband the team for the time being and all return to regular duties.

'''"scuttlebutt" . . . thousand . . . wonders''' 
A most vigorous campaign [to host the Columbian Exposition] was then inaugurated, the three other cities making a common cause against Washington, whose claim was based on the fact that the proposed exposition was to be held under auspices of the national government, and hence that the capital was the most appropriate place.... By each of the claimants every advantage was urged, and by each of their rivals every defect was exaggerated. Congressional committees accorded a hearing to the several delegations, that of Chicago being represented, among others, by DeWitt C. Cregier, Thomas B. Bryan, and Edward T. Jeffery. from "Book of the Fair" by Hubert Bancroft, 1893.
:"Scuttlebutt" is a very close equivalent to "water-cooler gossip." [http://www.jacksjoint.com/sailor_terminology.htm Here is a glossary] of nautical terms with some of the etymologies.

'''''Inconvenience''''' 
Pynchon's fictional navy includes the USS Scaffold, Impulsive, and the Susanna Squaducci (''V.''), and the John E. Badass (''GR''). Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-single-up-all-lines.html notes] that the British Royal Navy has a long tradition of warships with names like Impulsive, Incendiary, Inconstant, Indignant, etc.

Here a possible pun on the homonym "in" ("not", as "in-credible", or just "in", as "in-side"); "in-convenience" is a fitting name for a vehicle ("convey in").

In other Pynchon novels: 1) In ''Mason & Dixon'', the H.M.S. Inconvenience is the ship of Fender-Belly Bodine. [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=I#inconvenience More]. 2) In ''Mason & Dixon'', the word is applied to the difficulties of an Other, other human beings as we act, interact. See citations at the ''M & D'' wiki. 2) In ''Gravity's Rainbow'': "the gift of Daedalus that allowed him [Pokler] to put as much labyrinth as required between himself and the
''inconveniences of caring''. [Italics mine] They had sold him convenience, so much of it, all on credit, and now They were collecting." (435)

'''patriotic bunting''' 
TRP reminds again that this is a very American skyship. Compare the Chums' uniform below. 

AtD has many echoes of Doctorow's "Ragtime": Doctorow fictionalises the same era, including anarchists, bombings, and early Hollywood.

'''aeronautics''' 
It has been suggested that Pynchon relied to the Britannica 11th as a major reference for his treatment of early aeronautics. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Aeronautics|Brittanica 11th on Aeronautics] 

'''five-lad crew''' 
Randolph St. Cosmo (ship commander), Lindsay Noseworth (master-at-arms), Miles Blundell (handyman apprentice), Darby Suckling (factotum and mascot), and Chick Counterfly.

'''The [[Chums of Chance]]''' 
To be chummy with chance might mean lucky, fond of gambling, fond of chaos, irrational, adventurous, or anarchist. Or maybe they became chums by accident.

The names of the Chums may also be derived from famous Jazz musicians: Miles (Davis), Chick (Corea), Darby (Hicks), (Boots) Randolph, and (Vachel) Lindsay (a stretch here?), notes the [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/now-single-up-all-lines.html#c116587978292060684 Chumps of Choice blog].

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."

[[image:dart-explorigator.jpg|thumb|120px|right]]The Chums are reminiscent of two comics of the early 20th century, [[Little Nemo|''Little Nemo in Slumberland'']], by Windsor McCay, and ''The Explorigator'', by Harry Grant Dart. "The Explorigator" was the name of a fantastic airship that traversed the universe. It was manned by Admiral Fudge, a youthful adventurer and inventor, accompanied by a group of friends, also children his age (around nine or ten): Detective Rubbersole, Maurice Mizzentop, Nicholas Nohooks, Grenadier Shift, Teddy Typewriter, and Ah Fergetitt. [[The Explorigator|More on ''The Explorigator'']]

'''Chicago''' 
It has been suggested that Pynchon relied on the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/ 1911 Edition of the Encycl[[http://www.example.com link title]]opaedia Britannica] as a major reference for his treatment of 1890s Chicago. [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Chicago 1911 Britannica entry on Chicago]

'''World's Columbian Exposition''' 
also called The Chicago World's Fair, was held in 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. The International Exposition was held in a building which for the first time was devoted to electrical exhibits. It was a historical moment and the beginning of a revolution, as Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse introduced the public to electrical power by providing alternating current to illuminate the Exposition. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_Columbian_Exposition Wikipedia entry]. This World's Fair was enveloped in optimism for the future. "The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there." p.3. See also the 2004 bestseller, ''The Devil in the White City'', a non-fiction work that details the building of the Fair, the growth of Chicago, and the first serial murderer in America.

'''Ferris wheel''' 
The first of its kind, designed for the Exposition [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferris_wheel]

'''...temples of commerce and industry''' 
evocative of Chicago's Museum of ''Science and Industry'', which rests on the very site of the Exposition's White City, overlooking its "sparkling lagoon" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Science_and_Industry_(Chicago)]. A central theme of the text is the relationship between Science and Commerce.

'''Since their orders had come through . . .''' 
A first intimation of the shadowy power structure behind the Chums' operations.

'''lifelines''' 
Called "manropes" on sailing ships. Ropes running fore-and-aft above the gunwales to prevent sailors getting blown overboard. They were held up by short stanchions inserted into holes in the rails. Source: ''The Ashley Book of Knots,'' 1944.

'''as my faithful readers will remember''' 
Pynchon here is immediately inserting this story into a larger canon of Chums of Chance fictions, titles of which are mentioned in subsequent pages.

'''mascotte''' 
The English word 'mascot' has its origin from French mascotte: an operetta first performed in 1880 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_mascotte], with the virginal mascotte a sort of good luck charmer. The spelling may also be a tribute to the Dutch brand of rolling papers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascotte_%28rolling_papers%29 Wikipedia]

==Page 4==

'''Professor''' 
Randolph St. Cosmo is called Professor.
"Professor" was a common title for early hot-air balloonists. [EC]

'''"Turn to"''' 
a shipboard expression, "put your back into it". Evokes the "Go to!" of Majistral and compatriots, ''V.'', chapter 11.

'''"a form of monomania"''' 
an overdetermined obsession with a single idea or goal. In ''Moby Dick,'' which Pynchon references in several of his novels, Ahab suffers from monomania in his obsessive quest for the white whale; aboard the ''Inconvenience,'' Lindsay Noseworth is a parodic version of the Melvillian disciplinary autocrat, exemplified by Ahab or, even more, by Claggart, the Master-at-Arms in ''Billy Budd.'' --[[User:POD|POD]] 16:07, 9 June 2009 (PDT)

'''Perhaps its familiarity... rendered it temporarily invisible to you." 
Perhaps an admonition from the author that familiar things will be easily overlooked?
I think the fact that they were picnic baskets matters... TRP perhaps saying, as he seems to suggest elsewhere, that we overlook the simple pleasures too often.
:There's more to this, as becomes apparent shortly. Here are more opposites; things seen vs unseen, visible vs. invisible.

'''Chick Counterfly''' 
Rich with meaning or just another goofy Pynchon name? Some possibilities include: (1) A counter fly is an annoyance in (say) the butcher's shop. (2) Chick always speaks "counter" to anyone else's "flight" of imagery. (3) The only non-''AtD''-related uses of this word that I've found came in patents describing mechanisms; "the counterfly direction" means contrary to the direction everything else is flying in, hence this character counters the flying of the craft? (4) He is the only Chum we know who was "rescued" from the "real" world. Meaning there? To be counter to flying is to be earthbound, where he started and he is the one with whom the conversation about relanding on a different "earth" happens.

==Page 5==
'''picklesome''' 
Having the nature of a pickle, i.e, a boy who is inclined to mischief.

'''Pugnax''' 
'Pugnax' is Latin for, "combative, fond of fighting, stubborn, contentious" (i.e. one who is pugnacious). Pugnax's fantastic intelligence recalls another intelligent Pynchon dog, the Learned English Dog (referred to as "LED") in ''Mason & Dixon''. Perhaps Pugnax is the Chums's sixth "lad": "Learned American Dog." His manner of speech is somewhat reminiscent of the mystery-solving cartoon dog Scooby-Doo, and [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0612&msg=112507&sort=date members of PYNCHON-L] have speculated that his eyebrows and reading habits allude to Gromit, from the [http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/ Wallace and Gromit] claymation films.

Perhaps, in keeping with a very strong [[Birds|"bird" theme]] (the original aeronauts!) in ''Against the Day'', Pynchon may have named Pugnax after a bird called the Ruff (''Philomachus pugnax'') which is a medium-sized wader. Note that Pugnax's first "utterance" is "Rr Rff-rff Rr-rr-rff-rrf-rrf"... You can even make a semiserious case that the Aeronauts are named for a bird, the white-throated swift, ''Aeronautes saxatalis'' [[ATD_243-272#Page_266|(mentioned on p. 266)]].

'''"...during a confidential assignment in Our Nation's Capitol (see ''The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit'')..."''' 
This could be seen as a criticism of an American President, present or past. President Bush is a candidate, considering the Pynchon-authored [[Against the Day description|Amazon.com book description]] which included "With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

The Chums "rescued Pugnax, then but a pup"--an innocent, a child creature--"from a furious encounter..between rival packs of the city's wild dogs".
The wild dogs equal both political parties?

'''Washington Monument''' 
Begun 1848, completed 1884 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_monument]]

'''lavatorial assaults''' 
recalls jokes and urban legends regarding frozen waste from leaky airplane lavatories (i.e., "you can still be hit by an icy B.M.")

Loosely reminiscent of the V-2 rockets in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', "from the sky, which no one can "begin to try to record, much less coordinate reports of"... That is, pee from the sky is "folklore, superstition, or perhaps...the religious" in ATD compared to rockets screaming across the sky and the destruction in GR.

==Page 6==

'''''Princess Casamassima''''' 
''The Princess Casamassima'' is an 1886 novel by Henry James. It is the story of an intelligent but confused young London bookbinder, Hyacinth Robinson, who becomes involved in radical politics and a terrorist assassination plot. The novel certainly does have notable relevance in today's climate of terrorism and political violence. While the book's details are not directly applicable to current issues, the central theme admiration for the beautiful if imperfect world vs. a desire to change it through terrorism will seem all too familiar to contemporary readers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_Casamassima Wikipedia] [[Princess Casamassima|Discussion of ''The Princess Casamassima'']]

'''Placing . . . an emphasis''' 
Lapse of authorial control? Surely the creator of the ''Chums'' novels would not write such a Pynchonian sentence fragment!

'''Pugnax sniffed . . . as always this scent eluded him''' 
It is unclear so far why Pugnax would detect no scent from Lindsay.

'''''Krakatoa''''' 
Erupted 1883. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa Wikipedia entry.]

'''Heino Vanderjuice of New Haven''' 
Scientist who designed the ''Inconvenience's'' hydrogen engine. "Vanderjuice" is a Dutch-sounding name suggesting "fond o' juice," "wonder juice", and "wander juice". "Heino" is a man's given name [http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=heino meaning 'home'] in German, Dutch, Finnish, and Estonian. Perhaps an allusion to the German pop star, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heino Heino].

'''no better than a perpetual-motion machine''' 
A perpetual-motion machine is not just one that runs forever, but one that ''performs work'' forever without any input of energy. All PM machines ever invented have been either hoaxes ("secret free energy source the government doesn't want you to know about") or mistakes. The hydrogen generator/engine is neither, which is why the disdainful phrase "no better than" is crucial.

By the way, how does one generate hydrogen? In high school chem lab we used zinc filings and hydrochloric acid, but that seems unsuitable with Miles around. Is it possible Vanderjuice has invented a photovoltaic electrolysis cell?

'''Miles, with his marginal gifts of coördination, and Chick, with a want of alacrity fully as perceptible''' 
Like the old gag: The food in this restaurant isn't any good, but the service is awful. Miles and Chick's telepathic intercourse during Bitches Brew era.

'''ratlines and shrouds''' 
''Inconvenience'' is rigged like a sailing ship of the period, though it's hard to see why she needs to be. Shrouds fan out from a masthead down to a rail; ratlines run horizontally to join them. The whole affair serves the sailors as a ladder.

'''". . . anemometer of the Robinson's type"''' 
Cup anemometer (> Grk. ''anemos,'' "wind"; cf. Lat. ''animus,'' "spirit") invented in 1846 by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thomas_Romney_Robinson Dr. John Thomas Romney Robinson]. Cup anemometers are still commonly used to measure wind speed because of their simplicity and reliability in a variety of environmental conditions. [http://www.arm.ac.uk/annrep/annrep2000/node13.html pic]

'''how rapidly the ship was proceeding''' 
But you can't measure the craft's progress by measuring wind speed at a point on the craft itself. All you get from the anemometer is a speed relative to the air, which is in variable motion. Since the craft is moving at the speed of the wind plus the speed of its propulsion device, the speed found by the anemometer is basically useless.

==Page 7==

'''Porfirio Díaz''' 
President of Mexico 1876-1880, 1884-1911. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porfirio_D%C3%ADaz Wikipedia]

In most countries, the Interior Ministry (Ministry of Internal Affairs, Home Office, etc.) ran programs like secret police. Are the Chums working for forces of conservativism?

'''"beside a black-water river of the Deep South". 
Blackwater River is in lower central Florida, pretty deep south; but there are numerous rivers in swampy areas that run black with organic matter. 
Given that it was founded in 1997, and is military-related and in the South, see ''Blackwater USA'', a private military company founded by Erik Prince and Al Clark.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_USA]
Thousands of news stories in September/October 2007.

'''a bitter and unresolved "piece of business"''' 
Rather than give a proper reason for the Chums to be in the Deep South, the narrator cops out by pleading that it's "not advisable" to specify.
:It's not a cop-out, it sets the question of what is going on in the mysterious organization to which the Chums belong.

'''"the Rebellion of thirty years previous"''' 
The Civil War ended in 1865. The South called the Civil War "the war between the states" to emphasize both their right to secede from the union and that this was a war between sovereign states; the North called it "the Rebellion" and thus the soldiers were "rebels" or "rebs." The official papers of the war have the title of "Official Records of the War of Rebellion," emphasizing that the South had no right to secede.

'''"one still not advisable to set upon one's page"''' 
The American Civil War, that "rebellion of thirty years previous," has not yet become a suitable subject for an adventure tale such as the Chums' series.

'''absquatulated''' 
Means to move away quickly, usually to avoid capture. Apparently a mock-Latinate formation, "to go off and squat somewhere else." [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm A brief article] on the history and etymology of "absquatulate." 
The word is used in [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Vineland''].

'''commonly known as "Dick"''' 
So together they would be Chick with Dick.

'''to approach the gates of the Penitentiary''' 
A genuine saying. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Quay Matthew Quay,] a political kingmaker of the 1880s and 90s, said of Benjamin Harrison's squeaker victory over Grover Cleveland in 1888 that Harrison would "never know how many Republicans were compelled to approach the gates of the penitentiary to make him president."

'''posse comitatus''' 
What Western movie fans know as a "posse," i.e., citizens conscripted by a sheriff to assist in law enforcement. (See the Wikipedia entry on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_comitatus_(common_law) Posse Comitatus].) Remember that the ''Chums'' author gets paid by the word.

==Page 8==

'''a pocketful of specie''' 
Specie means coins as opposed to paper money.

'''the town of Thick Bush''' 
Aside from whether this phrase might apply to some political figure of the past or present, "thick bush" is the literal meaning of the Spanish Matagorda, the name of many towns in Latin America and one on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

'''carpetbagger''' 
A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpetbagger carpetbagger] is a derogatory term used by southerns to describe northerners who, like Dick, move down South.

'''"which directs us never to interfere with legal customs of any locality down at which we may happen to have touched"''' 
Like the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_directive Prime Directive] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek ''Star Trek'']. Lindsay's fussy syntax echoes Winston Churchill's exasperated "This is the kind of carping criticism up with which I will not put."

'''legal customs''' 
Legal = pertaining to law, in this case lynch law. The Chums are interpreting their Prime Directive pretty broadly here.

'''Katie bar the door''' 
An expression that means that there's trouble brewing. (See [http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kat1.htm this article] about the expression's etymology.)

'''Ku Klux Klan''' 
Reminiscent of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan Klan] encounter scenes in the Coen Brothers' ''O Brother, Where Art Thou''.

'''tupelo, cypress, and hickory''' 
The trees are no help in locating the town; all three kinds like bottom land and grow all over the South.

'''speed . . . made it nearly invisible from the ground''' 
Few people in 1893 had seen a manmade object moving at 60 miles an hour, and many thought such a speed was lethal anyway. The ''Chums'' author suggests such an outlandish speed would make ''Inconvenience'' just a blur in the sky. Of course you can read the fin numbers on an airliner landing at 150 knots, but he didn't know that.

''Pedantry alert:'' In perfectly transparent air a ship flying a mile off the ground is visible about 125 miles away. If its flight path takes it right over your head, you can follow it for 250 miles. If it is making a groundspeed of 60 miles per hour, it takes 4 hours and change to go from horizon to horizon. In typical "clear" air (visibility say 30 miles), you will see the ship in your sky for a solid hour. These rough figures show how wrong the narrator is about speed.

'''way better than a mile a minute''' 
The Chums' point of departure is unknown, but they arrived in Chicago after catching a southerly wind (pg 3), southerly meaning "wind blowing from the south." The Chums surpass 60 miles an hour here, but as their previous speed was unknown, it's difficult to know where they were leaving from. (New Orleans to Chicago is 834 miles, slightly less than 14 hours at 60 miles/hour, so a possibility.)

'''"Crackerjack!" exclaimed Chick.''' 
Cracker Jack, the food, was first sold at the Chicago Exhibition of 1893, though it did not bear its present name. As one word here, however, it is not the candy: "Crackerjack" entered English first as a noun referring to "a person or thing of marked excellence," then as an adjective. The foodstuff gained its present name, according to the [http://www.crackerjack.com/history.php official Cracker Jack website], in 1896. The OED lists the first written use of "crackerjack" as 1895, two years after the present scene. It is by no means impossible, however, that the term would have been current in the spoken language in 1893.

'''"rookies"''' 
Again, the vocabulary is carefully chosen from the narrative period: wikipedia, citing the OED, "the earliest example [of 'rookie']... is from Rudyard Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads (published 1892): So 'ark an' 'eed, you rookies, which is always grumblin' sore'"

==Page 9==

'''locker''' 
On board ship, any cabinet with a door or lid.

'''"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 [[Against_the_Day_description|book description]] 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. 
Cf. Pynchon's own relevant words in the introduction to Slow Learner. He remarks that in non-realistic fiction, he had to learn that not anything went.

A-and it must mean, coming from the commander, that all aboard the ''Inconvenience'' are also subject to the 'facts' of the world. "The World is All that is the Case", from Wittgenstein. [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=W]

'''"Going up is like going north."''' 
Air gets cooler as the ship ascends into higher altitudes, and therefore like travelling northward. This page also suggests some further mystery of the Chums may be revealed to Chick and the reader in time.

North is not a positive place in Pynchon's world. It is associated with anti-life coldness as here compared to the South.

==Page 10==
'''Columbian Exposition''' 
aka The Chicago World's Fair. It was called "Columbian" because it was supposed to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in North America. They missed it by a year because of delays.

'''butchery unremitting''' 
One is reminded of Carl Sandburg's [http://carl-sandburg.com/chicago.htm famous poem] about Chicago. The first line: "Hog butcher for the world."

'''rationalized into movement only in straight lines and at right angles and a progressive reduction of choices, until the final turn through the final gate that led to the killing-floor.''' 

See [[#Page 3| p.3 entry, above]] for a comparison of this passage with "single up all lines." The Rationalization/Routinization of Charisma is a common trope in Pynchon, particularly in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Routinization_of_Charisma ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

==Page 11==

'''plummet''' 
In the real world, this might be bad physics, as closing the valve wouldn't slow the descent. Objects in a fluid medium like air float if their weight is less than the weight of the fluid they displace (hence why one fills a balloon with a light gas such as hydrogen or helium). Once the ''Inconvenience'' loses its buoyancy, it will continue to fall, unless its weight is reduced to what a lesser amount of hydrogen could support. The Inconvenience, however, has a hydrogen producing apparatus that could kick in, slow, and eventually stop their descent.

'''bear a hand''' 
Nautical: help out.

==Page 12==

'''Liverpool Kiss''' 
A head butt.

'''''your'' mother''' 
A possible forerunner to the "yo mama" jokes, which appear in ''Mason & Dixon'' (pg. 445) and ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_10 (pg. 155)]. See also pg. 48 of this novel.

'''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].

'''''Mr.'' Noseworth''' 
Lindsay insisting on proper naval forms: an ensign, lieutenant (junior grade), lieutenant or lieutenant commander in the U.S. navy is correctly addressed as "Mister Surname."

'''"topological genius"''' 
Riemann's differential geometry goes beyond the Cartesian grid. See conic sections and dimensionality above, page 10.

==Page 13==

'''There was an "eager stampede" to the rail''' 
Why is eager stampede in quotation marks? The sentence reads fine without it. Does it seem to show ironic knowingness on the part of the narrator? If so, why and who is the narrator?
: I suspect this is a stylistic device from the turn of the century light literature that Pynchon is emulating-- placing a novel term in quotation marks. [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 01:35, 23 December 2006 (PST)

:insightfully true, I suspect, but it still shows 'narratorial knowingness', yes?

: Cf. Flaubert's use of quotations in ''Madame Bovary'' to isolate what he deemed the contemptible argot of the bourgeoisie.

::Apparently not a cliche: [http://books.google.com//books?num=100&q=eager.stampede&as_brr=0 GoogleBooks]

'''"...among the brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast bags..."''' 
Recalls the opening line of ''Mason & Dixon'': "Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr‘d the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins..."

'''"...quite as if were some giant eyeball, perhaps that of Society itself, ever scrutinizing from above, in a spirit of constructive censure."''' 
This is strikingly reminiscent of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odilon_Redon Odilon Redon's] 1882 Lithograph ''L'Oeil, comme un ballon bizarre se dirige vers l'infini (The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity).'' [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3ADE%3AI%3A2&page_number=4&template_id=1&sort_order=1 At MoMa's Online Collection]
Notice that society = censure, if constructive. Gamboling nude on a summer day was OK until the ''Inconvenience'', as eyeball, appeared.
:The Odilon Redon lithograph appears on the cover of the 1998 Vintage paperback edition of Ian McEwan's Enduring Love, whose first unforgettable chapter triggers the novel with a ballooning incident leaving the reader dangling over the edge of suspense and suspension.

The giant eyeball is also [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:We_never_sleep.jpg the logo] of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which plays an important role later in the novel. A similar image appears in ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#Page_14 (pg. 14)].

Not to mention a potent symbol from classic 1960s counterculture, often associated with psychedelia and the Grateful Dead _ yet another proud American institution with a penchant for hidden meanings, obsession with minute symbolic details, and many passionate followers. From what Deadheads have told me, the Flying Eyeball symbol is associated with both dissociative drugs and Zen Buddhist thinking _ the detached observer free of an ego and all physical entrapments, the traveling trickster-voyeur, the absolutely freed soul.

'''the indecorous couple . . . foliage''' 
Adam and Eve? We have a man and a naked woman hiding in the foliage from an all-seeing eye in the sky.

==Page 14==

'''charmed into docility''' 
If it took only one small lad to moor the ship, she was indeed docile. A wiki contributor once saw a Goodyear blimp in Houston, Texas, landing. The craft had half a dozen long falls of rope hanging from her nose, and a ground crew of nearly two dozen men ready to take hold of them. The blimp approached nose-low, the crew took the ropes, and a gust of wind suddenly moved the ship. The crew chief gave a safety command and all the men let loose their ropes at once. On the third pass, all hands working together managed to stop the ship and get her moored. If ''Inconvenience'' was a fraction as changeable and hard to control, Darby made a great job of getting the ship staked out by himself.

'''Jacob's-ladder''' 
Used here as "a marine ladder of rope or chain with wooden or iron rungs" (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged) but is suggestive of Jacob's ladder in Genesis:

Genesis 28:12 And he [Jacob] dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. (King James version)

'''a giant sack of soiled laundry''' 
Perhaps ''freshly'' soiled during the great hydrogen valve disaster.

'''''vol-à-voile''''' 
The narrator has turned the French phrase ''vol-à-voiles'' (gliding) into a verb (removing the ''s'').

'''gold-beaters' skin''' 
Very thin vellum (membrane taken from the caecum or blind stomach of an ox). To prepare gold for gilding, it was placed between sheets of vellum and hammered thin.

'''Evening Quarters''' 
Naval practice of mustering the crew at the end of the day's work.

'''Hawaii''' 
Hawaii appears in ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_12#Page_191 (p. 191)] and ''Vineland'' [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_5#Page_60 {pg. 60)] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=H ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

==Page 15==

'''ukulelist''' 
Ukuleles ([http://www.thomaspynchon.com/hawaiian-vacations-pynchon.html and Hawaii references]) also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', ''Vineland'', and ''Mason & Dixon''. According to Jules Siegel's article, "Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?", Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college. [[Hawaii|More on Hawaii &c. in ''Against the Day'']]...

'''Vagabonds of the Void''' 
The song performed by the Chums of Chance reflects the Rock and Roll attitude of the group towards the groundworld upon arrival. It's also the first time in the book we truly encounter the hipness of the group with some sort of Nine Inch Nails fronting edge to it. 

[[image:Macassar-Oil.jpg|thumb|175px|''Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads''|right]]'''Beaufort Scale''' 
A scale for measuring wind strength, developed 1805.

'''"Let the lightning lash ~ And the thunder trash" 
Again, the Chums are rock stars, the coolest cats in town.

'''"...forty-four buttons...one for each State of the Union." 
Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the union in 1890. Recall the patriotic bunting and red-white-blue uniforms of the opening page.

'''port section of the crew''' 
The half of the crew permitted to go freely ashore this time. The other half tomorrow. "Port" and "starboard": are these simply either/or words that sailors remember easily?

'''Macassar oil''' 
Macassar oil is an oil used primarily by men in Victorian and Edwardian times to smooth their hair. It was advertised as containing oil from Macassar, which is the former name of Ujung Pandang, a district on the island of Celebes in Indonesia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macassar_oil Wikipedia entry]
 This is why the ornamental doily-like linen cloths on the upper backs and arms of upholstered furniture were called '''''antimacassars'''''.

==Page 16==

'''mufti''' 
civvies, with an Arabic root [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mufti_(dress)]

'''ascot''' 
formal morning dress of the period, with a later counter-culture comeback (witness Fred in Scooby Doo) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascot_tie]

'''Kentucky hemp''' 
hemp was once a primary cash crop of Kentucky[http://www.kentuckyhemp.com/library/museum.html]; and, given Randy St. Cosmo's dual nature, a further counter-culture reference may be detected.

'''About the fringes,' Randolph reminded the liberty-goers, 'of any gathering on the scale of this Exposition, are apt to lurk vicious and debased elements, whose sole aim is to take advantage of the unwary.''' 
Indeed, the Chicago World's Fair was haunted by one of America's more prolific and original serial killers, H.H. Holmes. Born in 1861, Holmes came to Chicago as a pharmacist and built an office building that was eventually dubbed 'The Castle'. Consisting of commercial stores on the first floor, and offices and apartments on the upper floors, the building also housed hidden rooms where Holmes murdered his victims, chutes that conveyed the bodies to the basement, and a chamber of horrors in the basement where he destroyed the corpses. Holmes took advantage of the World's Columbian Exposition to lure victims, primarily females who had come unaccompanied to Chicago, to the Castle for torture and murder. It is estimated that he killed over 200 people at the Castle while the Exposition was in operation. Two very good books about Holmes are The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson and Depraved by Harold Schechter. It is doubtful that Pynchon was thinking explicitly of Holmes when he wrote this passage, although he must be aware of the story. Randolph could not have known about Holmes since Holmes was not captured until after the Fair was over. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._H.H._Holmes Wikipedia entry] 

This also sets up oppositions between dark vs light (of the White City), order vs disorder; good vs evil.

'''tension of the gas''' 
I.e., the pressure in the bag.

==Page 17==

'''"as if it were something the stripling had only read about, in some boys' book of adventures...as if that page of their chronicles lay turned and done"''' 
The narrator makes us aware that Darby's adventures are as if/will be written down...the 'reality' of almost killing all of them is now just words on a page.

'''"and the order 'About-face' had been uttered by some potent though invisible Commandant of Earthly Days, toward whom Darby, in amiable obedience, had turned again."''' 
Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to
all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? 
:Related Q: Do the Chums receive their orders from the author of their books?

'''we were usually out the door and on the main road''' 
Dick and Chick knew the judge was more likely to order them out of town than into the lockup.

'''Chinese foofooraw''' 
Also spelled foofaraw, a great deal of fuss, or useless frills. Cf folderol. However, why Chinese?
:Chick's father tried to sell Mississippi to a Chinese syndicate.

'''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 an herbal remedy. [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/pepper The Free Dictionary] Also appears in ''Gravity's Rainbow,'' page 118.

'''"...goldurn Keeley Cure"''' 
A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of "bichloride" or "double chloride" of gold, and also known as the "gold cure" (note the curious use of the euphemism 'goldurn' for 'goddamn' and the recurring preoccupation with the gold standard). Named for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Keeley Dr. Leslie E. Keeley,] who opened the first of many Keeley Institutes in [http://www.dwighthigh.k12.il.us/dwight/dwight.htm Dwight, Illinois], not far from Chicago, in 1879.

==Page 18==

'''headgear''' 
Description vaguely reminiscent of "Madame Bovary". [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]

'''indigo''' 
An influential and ancient dye, not synthetic until 1878 (commercially 1897)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_dye]. Dare we mention the indigo and scarlet (πορφυροῦν καὶ κόκκινον) of Revelation 17.4's 'great prostitute'? The colors, at least, seem more ancient than the Chums' red-white-blues (and the Chums are "runts of the organization", p. 19); add in the oriental fez reference with the Shriners' Masonic/Arabic overtones [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shriners] and Arabic Mohair (angora goat, easily dyed)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohair]

'''eclipse green''' 
Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]

'''Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.''' 
Bindlestiff means hobo; hence, the Hoboes of the Sky Aeronautical Club.

'''("Penny") Black''' 
The Penny Black was the world's first official adhesive postage stamp, issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1840. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black Wikipedia entry]; See also [[ATD_219-242#Page 231|p.231]].

'''Tzigane''' 
French for "gypsy". Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) Wikipedia entry]

'''Egypt''' 
Little Egypt is the southern area of the state of Illinois in the United States of America. Named so because it has a considerable river delta and a metropolis called Cairo (KAY-roe). The region is and was sometimes called simply "Egypt," especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) Wikipedia entry]

==Page 19==

'''goin all blue from the light of that electric fluid''' 
Their ship was beset by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo%27s_fire St. Elmo's fire,] a low-energy electrical discharge often seen on surface vessels and occasionally on aircraft. Electric charge does behave in some respects like a fluid and was long described in such terms.

'''Voices calling out together''' 
There is no reason to doubt they heard the voices, but an aural hallucination is not out of the question: a chorus of voices is one of the easiest effects to produce with a synthesizer.

[[image:balloons-paris.jpg|thumb|200px|Garçons de '71|right]]'''Garçons de '71''' 
French: The Boys of '71; During the Siege of Paris in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War Franco-Prussian War], 1870-1871, balloons were manufactured within railroad stations in Paris. The balloons were used to get mail and passengers out of Paris. The ''Garçons de '71'' are a (probably) fictional cadre of young men who operated such balloons [[Garçons de '71|Read on...]]

'''a condition of ''permanent siege''''' 
Surely no one has failed to notice what a "wartime president" is allowed to get away with. "No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

'''pétroleurs de Paris''' 
An early form of Molotov cocktail thrower during the Siege of Paris. There were pétroleurs and pétroleuses.

==Page 20==

'''they'll fly wherever they're needed''' 
While the Chums obey orders from above, the Garçons de '71 follow a different imperative.

'''energy we could feel, directed personally at us''' 
Someone may be trying to influence what the Bindlestiffs do, or keep them away from the Garçons' work of mercy.

==Page 21==

'''electrical glow of the Fair''' 
Electricity played an important role at the Fair. There was a battle between Edison's direct current and Tesla's alternating current. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition#Electricity_at_the_fair here].

'''admissions gate''' 
Apparently a break in the fence, capitalized on by freelance impresarios.

'''fifty-cent pieces''' 
Odd. According to [http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Columbian/columbian.html this remarkable Columbian Exposition site,] regular admission was just half a dollar. Maybe Lindsay and Miles could have negotiated with the midget.[The link is broken.]

==Page 22==
'''quatercentennial celebration''' 
The Fair was supposed to take place in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in North America. That's why it's called the "World's Columbian Exposition."

'''Columbus's advent''' 
"advent" means something like "arrival." It's often used in relation to Christmas, which is Christ's "advent."

'''music . . . unusually syncopated''' 
nascent jazz

'''Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show''' 
Buffalo Bill's show was very popular at the time, but for some reason he was not allowed to be part of the Fair, so he set up his own exhibition right near the Fair and drew a large audience. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill here].

'''''white'' exhibits . . darkness and savagery''' .
Nice play on whiteness here. The "White City" (the center of the Fair) was so called because of the white stucco used. But the novel points out here that whiteness (aka--cultural, racial whiteness) held the center of the fair while exhibits from people/cultures of color were relegated to the perimeters of the Fair--literally marginalized.

'''Kodaks''' 
The word Kodak was trademarked in 1888, and the first Kodak camera was sold with the slogan, "You press the button - we do the rest." In 1891, the company released the first daylight-loading camera, so film could be changed without a darkroom. Kodaks would have been a novelty at the fair in 1893.

'''half-light . . . in the interests of mercy . . . the safety of the lights''' 
Interesting contrast suggesting a tradeoff between comfort/solace in the shadows and safety in the bright light.

'''Isandhlwana''' 
Isandlwana is an isolated hill in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. On January 22, 1879, it was the site of the Battle of Isandlwana, where over 20,000 Zulu warriors defeated a contingent of British soldiers in the first engagement of the Anglo-Zulu War. Almost the entire column of about 1,200 British soldiers was killed. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isandhlwana [Wikipedia]] You will find a chapter on Isandhlwana in any book that has the words "military" and "blunders" in the title.

==Page 23==

'''Tarahumara''' 
Indian tribe of Northern New Mexico, in the Sierra Madres, known for cave-dwelling in the late 19th century. [[Tarahumare_Indians|About the Tarahumara]]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarahumara [Wikipedia]]

'''"geek"''' 
A geek's act comprised things no one would do who had not sunk all the way to the bottom of the carnie world: eating live creatures, throwing fits, and so forth. Much like the television show "Fear Factor," but sad rather than stultifying.

'''Negro in a "pork-pie" hat''' 
A type of hat made of felt or straw which has a cylindrical crown and flat top, originated in mid-19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork-pie_hat Wikipedia] What with all the jazz references in Pynchon's work, this may be a tip of the hat to Charles Mingus, composer of the timeless ''Goodbye Pork Pie Hat'', or Lester Young, to whom Mingus dedicated the tune. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye_Pork_Pie_Hat Wikipedia] In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', McMingus is a partner in a law firm representing Pierce Inverarity.

'''monte''' 
Three-card monte.

==Page 24==

'''the curse of Scotland''' 
A term used in poker, bridge and various other card games for the nine of diamonds. Dates from 1710. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curse_of_Scotland [Wikipedia]]

'''nine of diamonds''' 
The name of a club in ''Inherent Vice''. See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=N here]. The nine of diamonds is also famous for possibly being the fifth card in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bill_Hickok#Death "Dead Man's Hand"]. When Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead in 1876, he was playing poker. He was holding two pairs (aces and eights), which is called the "Dead Man's Hand." The fifth card was rumored to be a nine of diamonds.

'''like the electricity coming on... how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though.''' 
From something as random as calling out a card trick comes this extremely profound quote by Miles Blundell (full quote edited here). The heart of this quote/thought seems to be crucial.

What Miles describes is also the symptoms of a mild seizure - could he be epileptic? Epileptics were often credited with shamanic or prophetic powers, and many sightings of religious figures have been attributed to seizures. On [[#Page 4|page 4]], Miles is also said to suffer from "confusion in his motor processes", which may be related.

Although seizures are electrical discharges from the brain, epileptics rarely describe sensing electricity. They see altered light, hear altered sounds, or feel auras, though usually described as inside of themselves, not around them. They also feel confusion, not clarity. The full description seems to better represent that of a "peak experience", or a transcendental state. I also wonder whether, "Pretty soon, I'm just back to tripping over my feet again", refers to more earth-bound means of attaining mind-altered states.

This is one of several early suggestions that Miles and Lew Basnight experience similar states.

'''Cracker Jack''' 
First sold at the at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]

'''New Levee district''' 
Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]

'''Epworth League''' 
A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]

==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].

'''if the Governor decides to pardon that gang of anarchistic murderers''' 
In May of 1886, 350,000 workers, including 70,000 in Chicago were taking to the streets to rally for the eight hour work day. After four workers were killed by the police on May 3, the anarchist leaders in Chicago called for a meeting in Haymarket Square. Although the rally was peaceful, the police came in on horseback to break it up and an unknown individual in the crowd hurled a homemade bomb into the air. After the explosion, which killed a policeman, the police opened fire on the crowd. Subsequently, the anarchist leaders deemed responsible for the rally were arrested and tried for the murder of the policeman. The Eight men were convicted of the bombing and seven of them sentenced to death. Governor Richard J. Oglesby commuted two death sentences to life. Four were hanged and a fifth committed suicide. A later governor, John P. Altgeld, pardoned the three survivors on June 26, 1893, concluding that all eight of them were innocent. The last words of anarchist August Spies before he was hanged were 'The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.' Two very good books on the Haymarket Riot and the events surrounding it include The Haymarket Tragedy by Paul Avrich and Death In The Haymarket by James Green.

'''Pinkertons''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkertons Pinkerton National Detective Agency] was established in 1850 and soon became the most famous and ubiquitous detective agency in the country. At one point, there were more Pinkerton agents than US soldiers. They were especially used by federal and state agencies to break up union organizations and protests.

'''mixture of contempt and pity''' 
This is ''definitely'' not from one of the Chums' adventure stories.

'''embonpoint''' 
Convexity of body; what used to be called a "prosperous" look.

'''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. Many of the Marx Brothers early movies had animal references in the title: Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup. The titles usually had nothing at all to do with the plot, although they contributed to the lunatic nature of the comedy. The expression 'Horse Feathers' is used a few times later on in Against The Day.

==References==
<references />

==Annotation Index==
{{ATD PbP}}