Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

ATD 724-747

2008-07-14T01:06:50Z

Chemiazrit: /* Page 739 */

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

==Page 724==

'''Dolomites''' 
Mountains, a sub-chain of the Alps, northeast Italy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolomites Dolomites].

==Page 725==

'''Squarcione''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squarcione Francesco Squarcione] (c.1397-1468) was a Padovan artist. His pupils included Andrea Mantegna (with whom he had many legal battles), Cosimo Tura and Crivelli. There are only two works signed by him: the Madonna with Child (imaged here, Berlin) and an altarpiece (Padua).

'''Mantegna''' 
[http://www.wga.hu/bio/m/mantegna/biograph.html Andrea Mantegna] (1431-1505) was an Italian Renaissance artist. He was one of the foremost north Italian painters of the 15th century. A master of perspective and foreshortening, Mantegna made important contributions to the compositional technigues of Renaissance painting.

'''the famed Paduan collector and impresario''' 
ie. Mantegna. Mentegna studied and worked between 1441-1459 at Padua, a city of northeast Italy west of Venice. At that time in Padua there was much interest in collecting and studying Roman antiquities. Padua was an important cultural center during the Middle Ages and was known for its artistic and architectural works by Giotto, Mantegna and Donatello. Galileo taught at its university from 1592 to 1610.

'''On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away''' 
Indiana's state song; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Banks_of_the_Wabash,_Far_Away lyrics.]

==Page 726==

'''Lost Lands''' 
a fictitious place in the Lagoon?

'''''The Sack of Rome''''' 
a fictitious mural artwork?

'''''caorlina''''' 
I suspect this is a typo, and should be ''carolina'' which is a small boat, a skiff. In the context, this one is steam-powered.

"caorlina" in fact appears to be accurate according to this description: [http://www.doge.it/regata/regata50i.htm#9 caorlina]- 
Caorlina is indeed a kind of rowing boat, which derives its name from the town of Caorle, near Venice. Nowadays it can be seen exclusively during the traditional "Regata Storica" (Historical Regatta) held every year in Venice

'''Marco Zoppo''' 
[http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pbio?34000 Marco Zoppo] (1433-1478), another Paduan painter. An innovator with a very personal style with rich artistic inventiveness. His reputation as an artist diminished gradually in the past, but his contributions to Venetian painting and book illumination have now been recognized.

'''Haruspices''' 
Roman religious functionaries who looked for clues to the future in the entrails of sacrificed animals.

'''strung by one foot upside down''' 
The Hanged Man again.

'''Cassily Adam rendition''' 
It's Adams. Titled [http://www.ed-resources.net/guide/exhibit/2.39.htm "Custer's Last Fight,"] the picture was acquired by Anheuser-Busch, reproduced and placed in thousands of taverns. The company later gave the work to the 7th Cavalry Regiment.

==Page 727==

'''Cannareggio''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_573|page 573: Cannareggio]].

'''''lucciole''''' 
Italian: "fireflies", and common slang for "prostitutes"

'''''squadri''''' 
Italian: "teams", "gangs". It should be "squadre" because the word is feminine.

'''''soldi''''' 
Italian: "money"

'''''forcheta''''' 
Although on page 582 there is one ''foschetta'' here it doesn't fit in. It should be "forchetta" in Italian and the meaning is "fork", but here it refers obviously to the resting place of the oars on the side of the gondola (due to the form, similar to a fork). The omission of a double consonant is typical of the dialect of north-eastern Italy.

'''Hottentot''' 
Part of a series of zany distortions. French ''attentat'' = coup, assassination. 
Hottentot was the former, colonial name of the Khoekhoe of modern Namibia who together with the Hereros were the object of German genocide from 1904 to 1907. For Reef, it was a current event. Pynchon mentions the Hereros in both ''V.'' and ''GR''.

'''Antietam''' 
It refers to the Battle of Antietam in the American Civil War. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antietam The Battle of Antietam] was an important Union battle in the War and fought on September 17, 1862 near Antietam Creek in Maryland. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history with almost 23,000 casualties, and Union victory (although McClellan failed to follow up) permitted Lincoln to issue a preliminary Emancipation Declaration. Earlier important battles include Grant's successes at Ft. Donelson [February 1862] and Shiloh [April 1862](although this victory too was not followed up).

==Page 728==

'''San Polo''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_573|page 573: San Polo]].

'''Rialto bridge''' 
Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page_439|page 439: Nuovo Rialto]].

'''''bisi''''' 
Venetian dialect: "peas".

'''''campo''''' 
a large square.

'''Ca' Spongiatosta''' 
Casa Spongiatosta: House of Princess Spongiatosta. (see page 582).

'''Topinambur''' 
''Helianthus tuberosus'': Jerusalem Artichoke, or sunchoke. It is a variety of sunflower; tuberous root was used as a potato substitute in WWII [http://www.flickr.com/photos/nfoto/94369056/]. The name "topinambur" is used in Europe.

'''Friuli''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friuli Friuli] is a region in northeast Italy next to Slovenia and Austria.

'''Treviso''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treviso Treviso] is a town in the Veneto region of Italy.

'''radicchio''' 
a chicory of a red variety with variegated leaves.

'''verza''' 
Italian: cabbage.

'''''auguri, ragazzi''''' 
Italian: "all the best, folks" "good luck, boys"

==Page 729==

'''no . . . apiarian byproduct of hers''' 
I.e., none of her beeswax (American slang for "business").

'''pennsilvoney''' 
More foreign-language comedy. Italian ''pensione'' = pension (lodging with board included).

'''the Britannia, once known as the Palazzo Zucchelli''' 
Originally a 19th century residence, the Britannia hotel is situated behind Rome's famous Opera House. As far as its being once known as the Palazzo Zucchelli... 
A rich history in this 18th or 19th-century building on the Grand Canal. [http://www.willetholthuysen.nl/reizen.php?id=6 Here is a photo] of it, circa 1868, as the Hotel Barbesi. Apparently it and two contiguous properties have been [http://www.starwoodpressclub.com/index.php?id=35&no_cache=1&L=5&tx_ttnews%5Bhid%5D=82&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=776&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=54&cHash=6a654b2302 in hotel service ever since] (1868 Barbesi, 1881 Britannia, 1930s Regina, 1938 Europa & Britannia, 1976 Europa & Regina, now Westin Europa & Regina). [http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/photos/index.html?propertyID=75#photo_section_0Link This Westin page] contains many photos; click the very first thumbnail. The structure that used to be the Britannia is on the right.

'''offer old Barkie the light''' 
"offer the light" is a cricket term where the umpire asks the batsmen if they wish to continue playing in poor light conditions. But who's "old Barkie"? Often, wooden boats are affectionately nicknamed "old Barkie," but...

'''eighty-seven not out''' 
Cricket metaphor: having a banner day and not close to the end of it. It is also known as an unlucky number, thirteen away from century (100 runs), in which many batsmen get out.

'''Eleanora Duse''' 
Consensus spelling is ''Ele'''o'''nora.'' 1859-1924, Italian actress, pioneer of realism on the stage.

==Page 730==

'''Damned cowboy''' 
Same expletive used on [[ATD_615-643#Page_623|page 623 (see annotations).]]

'''Florian's''' 
A café in San Marco Sqaure.

'''''qualsiasi''''' 
Italian: "whatever"

==Page 731==

'''''camerieri''''' 
Italian: "chambermaids", but it should be "cameriere" since it is a plural feminine, while the ending -i is masculine plural. Usually the word means "waiter" / "waitress".
''In fact, "camerieri" is right: its literal meaning is indeed "chamber-servant", both male (cameriere/i) and female (cameriera/e), but nowadays it is most commonly used to indicate a waiter (waitress) or a butler''

'''''levante''''' 
Italian: "east wind"

'''the ancient family arms''' 
"[A] sponge couchant on a field chequy with flames at the foot." Pynchonian mock-heraldry. ''Couchant'' refers to an animal lying down with its erect head to the viewer's left. Well, at least sponges do belong to the animal kingdom. ''Chequy'' (one correct spelling) identifies the field or background of the shield as being divided into squares like a checkerboard. ''At the foot'' is a heraldic solecism; ''in base'' is preferable.

Taking two colors at random, say ''gules'' (red) and ''argent'' (silver or white), we could blazon the arms as "Chequy argent and gules, a sponge proper couchant above flames of fire of the third in base." Of course when the arms are carved in stone you can't see the colors. ''Proper'' means "in the color of the natural object," so . . . sponge-colored for the sponge, red and yellow for the flames.

Heraldists refer to "canting arms" when the charges on the shield pun on the bearer's name, as in this case: The flames are toasting the sponge. 
Which makes the device a toasted marshmallow?

==Page 732==

'''Pearl Street''' 
The location of the headquarters of Vibe Corp. [[ATD_318-335#Page_333|See annotations, p. 333.]]

'''daylit America . . . its steadfast denial of night''' 
An echo of the "daylit fiction" of the Columbian Exposition, is a vision of always-optimistic, boosterism, positive thinking America, in Pynchon's mind, which has not internalized its own darkness, it seems. Cf. The novel's epigraph, Thelonious Monk's "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light."

'''outnumbered . . . overwhelmingly''' 
One of Cantor's results. If aleph0 represents the "cardinality" of the rationals (a measure for infinite sets that corresponds to the number of elements for finite ones) and ''C'' represents the cardinality of the real numbers, then ''C'' + aleph0 = ''C.'' In words, the reals don't even notice if you take away the rationals, leaving just the irrational numbers. Pretty overwhelming.

'''Quadri's''' 
''Gran Caffè Ristorante'' in Venice. [http://www.venetia.it/quadri/index.htm Quadri] has been considered a symbol of gastronomic excellence directly overlooking St. Mark's Square. 
Quadri (like square or quad) is also a pun on the ever present "4."

'''Lavena''' 
[http://www.venetia.it/lavena/index.htm ''Caffè Lavena''] at Piazza St. Marco, Venice.

'''the D.and D.''' 

Deaf and Dumb

'''a Cavour''' 
A cigar brand.

==Page 733==

'''areeferdirtcheap''' 
Reef getting his Italian wrong again: ''arrivederci,'' goodbye.

==Page 734==
'''''osteria''''' 
Italian: "pub" or any other place where you can drink and eat at all hours.

zuppa di peoci 
Italian: Venetian mussel soup

==Page 735==

'''''Cazzo''''' 
Italian: vulgar for "penis" and used extensively as interjection in a manner similar to the English words "fuck" or "fucking."

==Page 736==

'''''vero''''' 
Italian: "true"

'''''appunto''''' 
Italian: "exactly"

'''''straccio''''' 
Italian: "rag"

'''Marienbad''' 
German for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari%C3%A1nsk%C3%A9_L%C3%A1zn%C4%9B Mariánské Lézně], a spa town in the Carlsbad Region of the Czech Republic. The town's Golden Era was in the second half of the 19th century, when many celebrities and top European rulers came to enjoy the curative carbon dioxide springs.

'''Salzburg''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salzburg Salzburg], the birthplace of Mozart, is the fourth-largest city in Austria. It is located in the western Austria at the border with Germany. Its "Old Town", a UNESCO World Heritge Site, is well-known for its baroque architecture. The 1965 movie ''The Sound of Music'' drew ambivalent reactions from the citizens of Salzburg: the film is too tacky for their taste but it is also Salzburg's fattest cash cow.

'''forty mule''' 
A Reefian parting shot: French ''faute de mieux,'' meaning "for lack of anything better."

'''hangers''' 
A kind of pocketbook or purse that hung from a wrist (not in the OED, however).

==Page 737==

'''Rigby Nitro Express''' 
A big game rifle cartridge. Black powder as the propellant in cartridges began to be replaced by smokeless powder/Cordite in the 1880s. Firearms maker John Rigby & Co. of Dublin, renowned for "elephant guns," got into the ammunition line late in the century, and some of the cartridges the firm brought out a century ago are still in use. The .350 Rigby Nitro Express came on the market in 1908. Other Rigby products are the .416 Rigby, still a standard, and the .470 Rigby, introduced in 1907. Problem: According to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rigby_(company) Wikipedia entry] on the company, the only .450 Rigby cartridge appeared in 1995. But (there's always a "but") the [http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rigby_&_Co ''Swedish'' Wikipedia] confirms a .450 Rigby Nitro Express produced from 1897 on.

These rounds could stop a rhino dead in his tracks and might have been effective against a plutocrat.

'''Henry Clay Frick''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Clay_Frick Henry Clay Frick] (1849-1919) was an American industrialist and art patron. In 1881, he and Andrew Carnegie formed a partnership between H.C. Frick & Co and Carnegie Steel Co. with Frick in charge of the Steel Company's operations. The 1892 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Steel_Strike Homestead Steel Strike] was mishandled by Frick, and he soon became a target of radical anarchists and others.

'''Brother Berkmann''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Berkman Alexander Berkmann] (1870-1936), also spelled Berkman, Anarchist and lover of Emma Goldman, with whom he plotted his unsuccessful 1892 attempt to assassinate Henry Clay Frick after the bitter Homestead Steel Strike. Dally dates this to "fifteen years ago", making it 1907 in book time.

'''drygulchin'd''' 
Cf [[ATD_615-643#Page_643|page 643: drygulched]].

==Page 738==

'''the San Marcuola stop''' 
[http://arglist.com/cgi-bin/image?gallery=venice&name=20050525-027 Photo of the Canal Grande at San Marcuola vaporetto stop].

'''Laguna Morte''' 
Dead Lagoon.

'''''macche''''' 
Italian: "no way". It should be "macché".

==Page 739==

'''''La macchina infernale''''' 
"Infernal machine"; a (particularly 19th century) term for explosive devices used for terrorist attacks. The most famous example is "La conspiration de la machine infernale", or "Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise", an assassination plot against Napoleon that failed in 1800
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_of_the_Rue_Saint-Nicaise wikipedia]).
Earlier in the book, we have encountered Tancredi working on "Preliminary Studies" toward such a machine (see page 585f.)

'''Bresci''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaetano_Bresci Gaetano Bresci] (1869-1901), an Italian-American anarchist who assassinated Italian King Umberto I on July 29, 1900. He died in prison.

'''Luccheni''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Lucheni Luigi Lucheni] (1873-1910), an Italian anarchist who stabbed, with a frayed file, to death the Austrian Empress Elizabeth in Geneva, Switzerland, on Septem 10, 1898. He later died in prison.

'''bad news rolling up the rails''' 
cf p. 41: "Most people have a wheel riding on a wire, or some rails in the street [...], to keep them moving in the direction of their destiny". Inevitability?

==Page 740==

'''Torino''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turin Torino], ''Turin'', is a major industrial city as well as a business and cultural center in northern Italy. It is the home of the headquarters of Fiat and host of the 2006 Winter Olympics. It was the first capital of Italy.

'''Lampo, Gaulois''' 
A very small firearm. Some great photos and a description (in French). [http://site.voila.fr/collectionarme/gaulois.htm Gaulois].

'''Riva''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_575|page 575: Riva]].

==Page 741==

'''the Procuratie''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procuratie_Nuove The Procuraties] are three connected buildings on St Mark's Square in Venice. They are historic buildings over arcades and also connected to St Mark's Clocktower.

'''''imprimatura''''' 
The first layer of paint applied to a canvas, a base color that helps establish and control tone in the painting.

'''susurrance''' 
A murmur or whisper. From the Latin ''susurrare'', to whisper.

'''Strauss Jr.''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Strauss_II Johann Strauss Jr.] (1825-1899) was an Austrian composer known especially for his waltzes, such as ''On the Beautiful Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Woods'' and ''Emperor Waltz''.

'''Luigi Denza''' 
Cf [[ATD_336-357#Page_353|page 353: Luigi Denza]].

'''Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ermanno_Wolf-Ferrari Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari] (1876-1948) was an Italian composer, best known for his comic operas.

==Page 742==

'''paletot''' 
an overcoat.

'''''piano nobile''''' 
In a large house, the level holding formal spaces, usually the first or second floor above ground level.

'''''teppisti''''' 
thugs.

'''his terrible intention''' 
moral judgment of the attempted assassin.

'''''Via, via!''''' 
Come on, come on!

'''like the glowing coal in the Buddhist parable''' 
The Buddha is said to have taught, "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned." Contributor researching source text.

'''Glisentis''' 
A pistol manufactured by Glisentis Company of Italy

==Page 743==

'''''assassini''''' 
hitmen; murderers

'''''Batti! batti la faccia''''' 
Beat! beat the face.

'''Vibe "takes on mass" (!) 
: his gravity increases! Cf. GR, of course.

'''rectified''' 
Set right, made square, rendered unidirectional.

:Here: self-justification into "iron impregnability". Pynchon does not use iron positively in ATD.

:"Rectification" is a buzzword used in Henry James' ''The Princess Casamassima,'' where it seems to mean doing away with the class system.

'''''foschia''''' 
Italian: "haze"

'''Empress Elisabeth''' 
Austrian Empress Elizabeth was stabbed to death by Luigi Lucheni on September 10, 1898. Cf page 739.

'''King Umberto''' 
Italian King Umberto was shot on July 29, 1900 by Gaetano Bresci. Cf page 739.

==Page 744==

'''the Bauer-Grünwald''' 
The Bauer-Grünwald Hotel in Venice. It is a five-star luxurious hotel located a few minutes walk from San Marco Square. Cf page 136 & page 576.

'''Pommery''' 
A high-class French champagne. [http://www.thewinedoctor.com/champagne/pommery.shtml Pommery].

==Page 745==

'''Somebody shopped him''' 
Betrayed him (in exchange for something). Shop= to trade 1) in buying and selling for profit. 2) To make an exchange of one thing for another. American Heritage.

'''''stranniki''''' 
Cf [[ATD_644-677#Page_663|page 663: ''stranniki'']]

==Page 746==

'''the Ponte degli Scalzi''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_degli_Scalzi The Ponte degli Scalzi] is one of the only three bridges in Venice to span the Grand Canal. It connects the districts of Santa Croce and Cannaregio. The Italian words mean ''Bridge of the Barefoot''.

'''Giudecca''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giudecca Giudecca] is an island in the Venetian Lagoon lying immediately south of the central islands, from which is is separated by the Giudecca Canal.

'''''Stromboli''''' 
An Italian warship. It was an Etna Class Protected Cruiser, launched on February 4, 1886 and sold for disposal on March 10, 1907. See [http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/italian_cruisers.htm Italian Cruisers].

'''''traghetti''''' 
ferries.

'''the Zattere''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_578|page 578: Zattere]]. The Zattere, a long ''riva'' (river bank) extending from the basin of San Marco to San Basilio, has a panoramic view of the island of San Giorgio and the whole of the Giudecca island with Palladio's churches.

==Page 747==

'''melancholy of departure''' 
Allusion to: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Chirico Giorgio de Chirico's] painting: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gare_Montparnasse_%28The_Melancholy_of_Departure%29 ''Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure)''], dated to 1913 or early 1914; the title was reused in works with the same theme of 1914, 1915 and 1916. The paintings reproduce the sadness of separations by depiciting haunting, empty railway stations, pictorially or in abstract [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Melancholy+of+Departure&btnG=Search+Images].

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

ATD 724-747

2008-07-14T00:25:09Z

Chemiazrit: /* Page 734 */

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

==Page 724==

'''Dolomites''' 
Mountains, a sub-chain of the Alps, northeast Italy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolomites Dolomites].

==Page 725==

'''Squarcione''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squarcione Francesco Squarcione] (c.1397-1468) was a Padovan artist. His pupils included Andrea Mantegna (with whom he had many legal battles), Cosimo Tura and Crivelli. There are only two works signed by him: the Madonna with Child (imaged here, Berlin) and an altarpiece (Padua).

'''Mantegna''' 
[http://www.wga.hu/bio/m/mantegna/biograph.html Andrea Mantegna] (1431-1505) was an Italian Renaissance artist. He was one of the foremost north Italian painters of the 15th century. A master of perspective and foreshortening, Mantegna made important contributions to the compositional technigues of Renaissance painting.

'''the famed Paduan collector and impresario''' 
ie. Mantegna. Mentegna studied and worked between 1441-1459 at Padua, a city of northeast Italy west of Venice. At that time in Padua there was much interest in collecting and studying Roman antiquities. Padua was an important cultural center during the Middle Ages and was known for its artistic and architectural works by Giotto, Mantegna and Donatello. Galileo taught at its university from 1592 to 1610.

'''On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away''' 
Indiana's state song; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Banks_of_the_Wabash,_Far_Away lyrics.]

==Page 726==

'''Lost Lands''' 
a fictitious place in the Lagoon?

'''''The Sack of Rome''''' 
a fictitious mural artwork?

'''''caorlina''''' 
I suspect this is a typo, and should be ''carolina'' which is a small boat, a skiff. In the context, this one is steam-powered.

"caorlina" in fact appears to be accurate according to this description: [http://www.doge.it/regata/regata50i.htm#9 caorlina]- 
Caorlina is indeed a kind of rowing boat, which derives its name from the town of Caorle, near Venice. Nowadays it can be seen exclusively during the traditional "Regata Storica" (Historical Regatta) held every year in Venice

'''Marco Zoppo''' 
[http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pbio?34000 Marco Zoppo] (1433-1478), another Paduan painter. An innovator with a very personal style with rich artistic inventiveness. His reputation as an artist diminished gradually in the past, but his contributions to Venetian painting and book illumination have now been recognized.

'''Haruspices''' 
Roman religious functionaries who looked for clues to the future in the entrails of sacrificed animals.

'''strung by one foot upside down''' 
The Hanged Man again.

'''Cassily Adam rendition''' 
It's Adams. Titled [http://www.ed-resources.net/guide/exhibit/2.39.htm "Custer's Last Fight,"] the picture was acquired by Anheuser-Busch, reproduced and placed in thousands of taverns. The company later gave the work to the 7th Cavalry Regiment.

==Page 727==

'''Cannareggio''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_573|page 573: Cannareggio]].

'''''lucciole''''' 
Italian: "fireflies", and common slang for "prostitutes"

'''''squadri''''' 
Italian: "teams", "gangs". It should be "squadre" because the word is feminine.

'''''soldi''''' 
Italian: "money"

'''''forcheta''''' 
Although on page 582 there is one ''foschetta'' here it doesn't fit in. It should be "forchetta" in Italian and the meaning is "fork", but here it refers obviously to the resting place of the oars on the side of the gondola (due to the form, similar to a fork). The omission of a double consonant is typical of the dialect of north-eastern Italy.

'''Hottentot''' 
Part of a series of zany distortions. French ''attentat'' = coup, assassination. 
Hottentot was the former, colonial name of the Khoekhoe of modern Namibia who together with the Hereros were the object of German genocide from 1904 to 1907. For Reef, it was a current event. Pynchon mentions the Hereros in both ''V.'' and ''GR''.

'''Antietam''' 
It refers to the Battle of Antietam in the American Civil War. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antietam The Battle of Antietam] was an important Union battle in the War and fought on September 17, 1862 near Antietam Creek in Maryland. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history with almost 23,000 casualties, and Union victory (although McClellan failed to follow up) permitted Lincoln to issue a preliminary Emancipation Declaration. Earlier important battles include Grant's successes at Ft. Donelson [February 1862] and Shiloh [April 1862](although this victory too was not followed up).

==Page 728==

'''San Polo''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_573|page 573: San Polo]].

'''Rialto bridge''' 
Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page_439|page 439: Nuovo Rialto]].

'''''bisi''''' 
Venetian dialect: "peas".

'''''campo''''' 
a large square.

'''Ca' Spongiatosta''' 
Casa Spongiatosta: House of Princess Spongiatosta. (see page 582).

'''Topinambur''' 
''Helianthus tuberosus'': Jerusalem Artichoke, or sunchoke. It is a variety of sunflower; tuberous root was used as a potato substitute in WWII [http://www.flickr.com/photos/nfoto/94369056/]. The name "topinambur" is used in Europe.

'''Friuli''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friuli Friuli] is a region in northeast Italy next to Slovenia and Austria.

'''Treviso''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treviso Treviso] is a town in the Veneto region of Italy.

'''radicchio''' 
a chicory of a red variety with variegated leaves.

'''verza''' 
Italian: cabbage.

'''''auguri, ragazzi''''' 
Italian: "all the best, folks" "good luck, boys"

==Page 729==

'''no . . . apiarian byproduct of hers''' 
I.e., none of her beeswax (American slang for "business").

'''pennsilvoney''' 
More foreign-language comedy. Italian ''pensione'' = pension (lodging with board included).

'''the Britannia, once known as the Palazzo Zucchelli''' 
Originally a 19th century residence, the Britannia hotel is situated behind Rome's famous Opera House. As far as its being once known as the Palazzo Zucchelli... 
A rich history in this 18th or 19th-century building on the Grand Canal. [http://www.willetholthuysen.nl/reizen.php?id=6 Here is a photo] of it, circa 1868, as the Hotel Barbesi. Apparently it and two contiguous properties have been [http://www.starwoodpressclub.com/index.php?id=35&no_cache=1&L=5&tx_ttnews%5Bhid%5D=82&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=776&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=54&cHash=6a654b2302 in hotel service ever since] (1868 Barbesi, 1881 Britannia, 1930s Regina, 1938 Europa & Britannia, 1976 Europa & Regina, now Westin Europa & Regina). [http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/photos/index.html?propertyID=75#photo_section_0Link This Westin page] contains many photos; click the very first thumbnail. The structure that used to be the Britannia is on the right.

'''offer old Barkie the light''' 
"offer the light" is a cricket term where the umpire asks the batsmen if they wish to continue playing in poor light conditions. But who's "old Barkie"? Often, wooden boats are affectionately nicknamed "old Barkie," but...

'''eighty-seven not out''' 
Cricket metaphor: having a banner day and not close to the end of it. It is also known as an unlucky number, thirteen away from century (100 runs), in which many batsmen get out.

'''Eleanora Duse''' 
Consensus spelling is ''Ele'''o'''nora.'' 1859-1924, Italian actress, pioneer of realism on the stage.

==Page 730==

'''Damned cowboy''' 
Same expletive used on [[ATD_615-643#Page_623|page 623 (see annotations).]]

'''Florian's''' 
A café in San Marco Sqaure.

'''''qualsiasi''''' 
Italian: "whatever"

==Page 731==

'''''camerieri''''' 
Italian: "chambermaids", but it should be "cameriere" since it is a plural feminine, while the ending -i is masculine plural. Usually the word means "waiter" / "waitress".
''In fact, "camerieri" is right: its literal meaning is indeed "chamber-servant", both male (cameriere/i) and female (cameriera/e), but nowadays it is most commonly used to indicate a waiter (waitress) or a butler''

'''''levante''''' 
Italian: "east wind"

'''the ancient family arms''' 
"[A] sponge couchant on a field chequy with flames at the foot." Pynchonian mock-heraldry. ''Couchant'' refers to an animal lying down with its erect head to the viewer's left. Well, at least sponges do belong to the animal kingdom. ''Chequy'' (one correct spelling) identifies the field or background of the shield as being divided into squares like a checkerboard. ''At the foot'' is a heraldic solecism; ''in base'' is preferable.

Taking two colors at random, say ''gules'' (red) and ''argent'' (silver or white), we could blazon the arms as "Chequy argent and gules, a sponge proper couchant above flames of fire of the third in base." Of course when the arms are carved in stone you can't see the colors. ''Proper'' means "in the color of the natural object," so . . . sponge-colored for the sponge, red and yellow for the flames.

Heraldists refer to "canting arms" when the charges on the shield pun on the bearer's name, as in this case: The flames are toasting the sponge. 
Which makes the device a toasted marshmallow?

==Page 732==

'''Pearl Street''' 
The location of the headquarters of Vibe Corp. [[ATD_318-335#Page_333|See annotations, p. 333.]]

'''daylit America . . . its steadfast denial of night''' 
An echo of the "daylit fiction" of the Columbian Exposition, is a vision of always-optimistic, boosterism, positive thinking America, in Pynchon's mind, which has not internalized its own darkness, it seems. Cf. The novel's epigraph, Thelonious Monk's "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light."

'''outnumbered . . . overwhelmingly''' 
One of Cantor's results. If aleph0 represents the "cardinality" of the rationals (a measure for infinite sets that corresponds to the number of elements for finite ones) and ''C'' represents the cardinality of the real numbers, then ''C'' + aleph0 = ''C.'' In words, the reals don't even notice if you take away the rationals, leaving just the irrational numbers. Pretty overwhelming.

'''Quadri's''' 
''Gran Caffè Ristorante'' in Venice. [http://www.venetia.it/quadri/index.htm Quadri] has been considered a symbol of gastronomic excellence directly overlooking St. Mark's Square. 
Quadri (like square or quad) is also a pun on the ever present "4."

'''Lavena''' 
[http://www.venetia.it/lavena/index.htm ''Caffè Lavena''] at Piazza St. Marco, Venice.

'''the D.and D.''' 

Deaf and Dumb

'''a Cavour''' 
A cigar brand.

==Page 733==

'''areeferdirtcheap''' 
Reef getting his Italian wrong again: ''arrivederci,'' goodbye.

==Page 734==
'''''osteria''''' 
Italian: "pub" or any other place where you can drink and eat at all hours.

zuppa di peoci 
Italian: Venetian mussel soup

==Page 735==

'''''Cazzo''''' 
Italian: vulgar for "penis" and used extensively as interjection in a manner similar to the English words "fuck" or "fucking."

==Page 736==

'''''vero''''' 
Italian: "true"

'''''appunto''''' 
Italian: "exactly"

'''''straccio''''' 
Italian: "rag"

'''Marienbad''' 
German for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari%C3%A1nsk%C3%A9_L%C3%A1zn%C4%9B Mariánské Lézně], a spa town in the Carlsbad Region of the Czech Republic. The town's Golden Era was in the second half of the 19th century, when many celebrities and top European rulers came to enjoy the curative carbon dioxide springs.

'''Salzburg''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salzburg Salzburg], the birthplace of Mozart, is the fourth-largest city in Austria. It is located in the western Austria at the border with Germany. Its "Old Town", a UNESCO World Heritge Site, is well-known for its baroque architecture. The 1965 movie ''The Sound of Music'' drew ambivalent reactions from the citizens of Salzburg: the film is too tacky for their taste but it is also Salzburg's fattest cash cow.

'''forty mule''' 
A Reefian parting shot: French ''faute de mieux,'' meaning "for lack of anything better."

'''hangers''' 
A kind of pocketbook or purse that hung from a wrist (not in the OED, however).

==Page 737==

'''Rigby Nitro Express''' 
A big game rifle cartridge. Black powder as the propellant in cartridges began to be replaced by smokeless powder/Cordite in the 1880s. Firearms maker John Rigby & Co. of Dublin, renowned for "elephant guns," got into the ammunition line late in the century, and some of the cartridges the firm brought out a century ago are still in use. The .350 Rigby Nitro Express came on the market in 1908. Other Rigby products are the .416 Rigby, still a standard, and the .470 Rigby, introduced in 1907. Problem: According to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rigby_(company) Wikipedia entry] on the company, the only .450 Rigby cartridge appeared in 1995. But (there's always a "but") the [http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rigby_&_Co ''Swedish'' Wikipedia] confirms a .450 Rigby Nitro Express produced from 1897 on.

These rounds could stop a rhino dead in his tracks and might have been effective against a plutocrat.

'''Henry Clay Frick''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Clay_Frick Henry Clay Frick] (1849-1919) was an American industrialist and art patron. In 1881, he and Andrew Carnegie formed a partnership between H.C. Frick & Co and Carnegie Steel Co. with Frick in charge of the Steel Company's operations. The 1892 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Steel_Strike Homestead Steel Strike] was mishandled by Frick, and he soon became a target of radical anarchists and others.

'''Brother Berkmann''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Berkman Alexander Berkmann] (1870-1936), also spelled Berkman, Anarchist and lover of Emma Goldman, with whom he plotted his unsuccessful 1892 attempt to assassinate Henry Clay Frick after the bitter Homestead Steel Strike. Dally dates this to "fifteen years ago", making it 1907 in book time.

'''drygulchin'd''' 
Cf [[ATD_615-643#Page_643|page 643: drygulched]].

==Page 738==

'''the San Marcuola stop''' 
[http://arglist.com/cgi-bin/image?gallery=venice&name=20050525-027 Photo of the Canal Grande at San Marcuola vaporetto stop].

'''Laguna Morte''' 
Dead Lagoon.

'''''macche''''' 
Italian: "no way". It should be "macché".

==Page 739==

'''''La macchina infernale''''' 
"Infernal machine"; a (particularly 19th century) term for explosive devices used for terrorist attacks. The most famous example is "La conspiration de la machine infernale", or "Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise", an assassination plot against Napoleon that failed in 1800
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_of_the_Rue_Saint-Nicaise wikipedia]).
Earlier in the book, we have encountered Tancredi working on "Preliminary Studies" toward such a machine (see page 585f.)

'''Bresci''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaetano_Bresci Gaetano Bresci] (1869-1901), an Italian-American anarchist who assassinated Italian King Umberto I on July 29, 1900. He died in prison.

'''Luccheni''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Lucheni Luigi Lucheni] (1873-1910), an Italian anarchist who stabbed, with a frayed file, to death the Austrian Empress Elizabeth in Geneva, Switzerland, on Septem 10, 1898. He late died in prison.

'''bad news rolling up the rails''' 
cf p. 41: "Most people have a wheel riding on a wire, or some rails in the street [...], to keep them moving in the direction of their destiny". Inevitability?

==Page 740==

'''Torino''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turin Torino], ''Turin'', is a major industrial city as well as a business and cultural center in northern Italy. It is the home of the headquarters of Fiat and host of the 2006 Winter Olympics. It was the first capital of Italy.

'''Lampo, Gaulois''' 
A very small firearm. Some great photos and a description (in French). [http://site.voila.fr/collectionarme/gaulois.htm Gaulois].

'''Riva''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_575|page 575: Riva]].

==Page 741==

'''the Procuratie''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procuratie_Nuove The Procuraties] are three connected buildings on St Mark's Square in Venice. They are historic buildings over arcades and also connected to St Mark's Clocktower.

'''''imprimatura''''' 
The first layer of paint applied to a canvas, a base color that helps establish and control tone in the painting.

'''susurrance''' 
A murmur or whisper. From the Latin ''susurrare'', to whisper.

'''Strauss Jr.''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Strauss_II Johann Strauss Jr.] (1825-1899) was an Austrian composer known especially for his waltzes, such as ''On the Beautiful Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Woods'' and ''Emperor Waltz''.

'''Luigi Denza''' 
Cf [[ATD_336-357#Page_353|page 353: Luigi Denza]].

'''Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ermanno_Wolf-Ferrari Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari] (1876-1948) was an Italian composer, best known for his comic operas.

==Page 742==

'''paletot''' 
an overcoat.

'''''piano nobile''''' 
In a large house, the level holding formal spaces, usually the first or second floor above ground level.

'''''teppisti''''' 
thugs.

'''his terrible intention''' 
moral judgment of the attempted assassin.

'''''Via, via!''''' 
Come on, come on!

'''like the glowing coal in the Buddhist parable''' 
The Buddha is said to have taught, "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned." Contributor researching source text.

'''Glisentis''' 
A pistol manufactured by Glisentis Company of Italy

==Page 743==

'''''assassini''''' 
hitmen; murderers

'''''Batti! batti la faccia''''' 
Beat! beat the face.

'''Vibe "takes on mass" (!) 
: his gravity increases! Cf. GR, of course.

'''rectified''' 
Set right, made square, rendered unidirectional.

:Here: self-justification into "iron impregnability". Pynchon does not use iron positively in ATD.

:"Rectification" is a buzzword used in Henry James' ''The Princess Casamassima,'' where it seems to mean doing away with the class system.

'''''foschia''''' 
Italian: "haze"

'''Empress Elisabeth''' 
Austrian Empress Elizabeth was stabbed to death by Luigi Lucheni on September 10, 1898. Cf page 739.

'''King Umberto''' 
Italian King Umberto was shot on July 29, 1900 by Gaetano Bresci. Cf page 739.

==Page 744==

'''the Bauer-Grünwald''' 
The Bauer-Grünwald Hotel in Venice. It is a five-star luxurious hotel located a few minutes walk from San Marco Square. Cf page 136 & page 576.

'''Pommery''' 
A high-class French champagne. [http://www.thewinedoctor.com/champagne/pommery.shtml Pommery].

==Page 745==

'''Somebody shopped him''' 
Betrayed him (in exchange for something). Shop= to trade 1) in buying and selling for profit. 2) To make an exchange of one thing for another. American Heritage.

'''''stranniki''''' 
Cf [[ATD_644-677#Page_663|page 663: ''stranniki'']]

==Page 746==

'''the Ponte degli Scalzi''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_degli_Scalzi The Ponte degli Scalzi] is one of the only three bridges in Venice to span the Grand Canal. It connects the districts of Santa Croce and Cannaregio. The Italian words mean ''Bridge of the Barefoot''.

'''Giudecca''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giudecca Giudecca] is an island in the Venetian Lagoon lying immediately south of the central islands, from which is is separated by the Giudecca Canal.

'''''Stromboli''''' 
An Italian warship. It was an Etna Class Protected Cruiser, launched on February 4, 1886 and sold for disposal on March 10, 1907. See [http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/italian_cruisers.htm Italian Cruisers].

'''''traghetti''''' 
ferries.

'''the Zattere''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_578|page 578: Zattere]]. The Zattere, a long ''riva'' (river bank) extending from the basin of San Marco to San Basilio, has a panoramic view of the island of San Giorgio and the whole of the Giudecca island with Palladio's churches.

==Page 747==

'''melancholy of departure''' 
Allusion to: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Chirico Giorgio de Chirico's] painting: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gare_Montparnasse_%28The_Melancholy_of_Departure%29 ''Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure)''], dated to 1913 or early 1914; the title was reused in works with the same theme of 1914, 1915 and 1916. The paintings reproduce the sadness of separations by depiciting haunting, empty railway stations, pictorially or in abstract [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Melancholy+of+Departure&btnG=Search+Images].

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

ATD 724-747

2008-07-14T00:20:09Z

Chemiazrit: /* Page 735 */

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

==Page 724==

'''Dolomites''' 
Mountains, a sub-chain of the Alps, northeast Italy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolomites Dolomites].

==Page 725==

'''Squarcione''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squarcione Francesco Squarcione] (c.1397-1468) was a Padovan artist. His pupils included Andrea Mantegna (with whom he had many legal battles), Cosimo Tura and Crivelli. There are only two works signed by him: the Madonna with Child (imaged here, Berlin) and an altarpiece (Padua).

'''Mantegna''' 
[http://www.wga.hu/bio/m/mantegna/biograph.html Andrea Mantegna] (1431-1505) was an Italian Renaissance artist. He was one of the foremost north Italian painters of the 15th century. A master of perspective and foreshortening, Mantegna made important contributions to the compositional technigues of Renaissance painting.

'''the famed Paduan collector and impresario''' 
ie. Mantegna. Mentegna studied and worked between 1441-1459 at Padua, a city of northeast Italy west of Venice. At that time in Padua there was much interest in collecting and studying Roman antiquities. Padua was an important cultural center during the Middle Ages and was known for its artistic and architectural works by Giotto, Mantegna and Donatello. Galileo taught at its university from 1592 to 1610.

'''On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away''' 
Indiana's state song; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Banks_of_the_Wabash,_Far_Away lyrics.]

==Page 726==

'''Lost Lands''' 
a fictitious place in the Lagoon?

'''''The Sack of Rome''''' 
a fictitious mural artwork?

'''''caorlina''''' 
I suspect this is a typo, and should be ''carolina'' which is a small boat, a skiff. In the context, this one is steam-powered.

"caorlina" in fact appears to be accurate according to this description: [http://www.doge.it/regata/regata50i.htm#9 caorlina]- 
Caorlina is indeed a kind of rowing boat, which derives its name from the town of Caorle, near Venice. Nowadays it can be seen exclusively during the traditional "Regata Storica" (Historical Regatta) held every year in Venice

'''Marco Zoppo''' 
[http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pbio?34000 Marco Zoppo] (1433-1478), another Paduan painter. An innovator with a very personal style with rich artistic inventiveness. His reputation as an artist diminished gradually in the past, but his contributions to Venetian painting and book illumination have now been recognized.

'''Haruspices''' 
Roman religious functionaries who looked for clues to the future in the entrails of sacrificed animals.

'''strung by one foot upside down''' 
The Hanged Man again.

'''Cassily Adam rendition''' 
It's Adams. Titled [http://www.ed-resources.net/guide/exhibit/2.39.htm "Custer's Last Fight,"] the picture was acquired by Anheuser-Busch, reproduced and placed in thousands of taverns. The company later gave the work to the 7th Cavalry Regiment.

==Page 727==

'''Cannareggio''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_573|page 573: Cannareggio]].

'''''lucciole''''' 
Italian: "fireflies", and common slang for "prostitutes"

'''''squadri''''' 
Italian: "teams", "gangs". It should be "squadre" because the word is feminine.

'''''soldi''''' 
Italian: "money"

'''''forcheta''''' 
Although on page 582 there is one ''foschetta'' here it doesn't fit in. It should be "forchetta" in Italian and the meaning is "fork", but here it refers obviously to the resting place of the oars on the side of the gondola (due to the form, similar to a fork). The omission of a double consonant is typical of the dialect of north-eastern Italy.

'''Hottentot''' 
Part of a series of zany distortions. French ''attentat'' = coup, assassination. 
Hottentot was the former, colonial name of the Khoekhoe of modern Namibia who together with the Hereros were the object of German genocide from 1904 to 1907. For Reef, it was a current event. Pynchon mentions the Hereros in both ''V.'' and ''GR''.

'''Antietam''' 
It refers to the Battle of Antietam in the American Civil War. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antietam The Battle of Antietam] was an important Union battle in the War and fought on September 17, 1862 near Antietam Creek in Maryland. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history with almost 23,000 casualties, and Union victory (although McClellan failed to follow up) permitted Lincoln to issue a preliminary Emancipation Declaration. Earlier important battles include Grant's successes at Ft. Donelson [February 1862] and Shiloh [April 1862](although this victory too was not followed up).

==Page 728==

'''San Polo''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_573|page 573: San Polo]].

'''Rialto bridge''' 
Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page_439|page 439: Nuovo Rialto]].

'''''bisi''''' 
Venetian dialect: "peas".

'''''campo''''' 
a large square.

'''Ca' Spongiatosta''' 
Casa Spongiatosta: House of Princess Spongiatosta. (see page 582).

'''Topinambur''' 
''Helianthus tuberosus'': Jerusalem Artichoke, or sunchoke. It is a variety of sunflower; tuberous root was used as a potato substitute in WWII [http://www.flickr.com/photos/nfoto/94369056/]. The name "topinambur" is used in Europe.

'''Friuli''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friuli Friuli] is a region in northeast Italy next to Slovenia and Austria.

'''Treviso''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treviso Treviso] is a town in the Veneto region of Italy.

'''radicchio''' 
a chicory of a red variety with variegated leaves.

'''verza''' 
Italian: cabbage.

'''''auguri, ragazzi''''' 
Italian: "all the best, folks" "good luck, boys"

==Page 729==

'''no . . . apiarian byproduct of hers''' 
I.e., none of her beeswax (American slang for "business").

'''pennsilvoney''' 
More foreign-language comedy. Italian ''pensione'' = pension (lodging with board included).

'''the Britannia, once known as the Palazzo Zucchelli''' 
Originally a 19th century residence, the Britannia hotel is situated behind Rome's famous Opera House. As far as its being once known as the Palazzo Zucchelli... 
A rich history in this 18th or 19th-century building on the Grand Canal. [http://www.willetholthuysen.nl/reizen.php?id=6 Here is a photo] of it, circa 1868, as the Hotel Barbesi. Apparently it and two contiguous properties have been [http://www.starwoodpressclub.com/index.php?id=35&no_cache=1&L=5&tx_ttnews%5Bhid%5D=82&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=776&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=54&cHash=6a654b2302 in hotel service ever since] (1868 Barbesi, 1881 Britannia, 1930s Regina, 1938 Europa & Britannia, 1976 Europa & Regina, now Westin Europa & Regina). [http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/photos/index.html?propertyID=75#photo_section_0Link This Westin page] contains many photos; click the very first thumbnail. The structure that used to be the Britannia is on the right.

'''offer old Barkie the light''' 
"offer the light" is a cricket term where the umpire asks the batsmen if they wish to continue playing in poor light conditions. But who's "old Barkie"? Often, wooden boats are affectionately nicknamed "old Barkie," but...

'''eighty-seven not out''' 
Cricket metaphor: having a banner day and not close to the end of it. It is also known as an unlucky number, thirteen away from century (100 runs), in which many batsmen get out.

'''Eleanora Duse''' 
Consensus spelling is ''Ele'''o'''nora.'' 1859-1924, Italian actress, pioneer of realism on the stage.

==Page 730==

'''Damned cowboy''' 
Same expletive used on [[ATD_615-643#Page_623|page 623 (see annotations).]]

'''Florian's''' 
A café in San Marco Sqaure.

'''''qualsiasi''''' 
Italian: "whatever"

==Page 731==

'''''camerieri''''' 
Italian: "chambermaids", but it should be "cameriere" since it is a plural feminine, while the ending -i is masculine plural. Usually the word means "waiter" / "waitress".
''In fact, "camerieri" is right: its literal meaning is indeed "chamber-servant", both male (cameriere/i) and female (cameriera/e), but nowadays it is most commonly used to indicate a waiter (waitress) or a butler''

'''''levante''''' 
Italian: "east wind"

'''the ancient family arms''' 
"[A] sponge couchant on a field chequy with flames at the foot." Pynchonian mock-heraldry. ''Couchant'' refers to an animal lying down with its erect head to the viewer's left. Well, at least sponges do belong to the animal kingdom. ''Chequy'' (one correct spelling) identifies the field or background of the shield as being divided into squares like a checkerboard. ''At the foot'' is a heraldic solecism; ''in base'' is preferable.

Taking two colors at random, say ''gules'' (red) and ''argent'' (silver or white), we could blazon the arms as "Chequy argent and gules, a sponge proper couchant above flames of fire of the third in base." Of course when the arms are carved in stone you can't see the colors. ''Proper'' means "in the color of the natural object," so . . . sponge-colored for the sponge, red and yellow for the flames.

Heraldists refer to "canting arms" when the charges on the shield pun on the bearer's name, as in this case: The flames are toasting the sponge. 
Which makes the device a toasted marshmallow?

==Page 732==

'''Pearl Street''' 
The location of the headquarters of Vibe Corp. [[ATD_318-335#Page_333|See annotations, p. 333.]]

'''daylit America . . . its steadfast denial of night''' 
An echo of the "daylit fiction" of the Columbian Exposition, is a vision of always-optimistic, boosterism, positive thinking America, in Pynchon's mind, which has not internalized its own darkness, it seems. Cf. The novel's epigraph, Thelonious Monk's "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light."

'''outnumbered . . . overwhelmingly''' 
One of Cantor's results. If aleph0 represents the "cardinality" of the rationals (a measure for infinite sets that corresponds to the number of elements for finite ones) and ''C'' represents the cardinality of the real numbers, then ''C'' + aleph0 = ''C.'' In words, the reals don't even notice if you take away the rationals, leaving just the irrational numbers. Pretty overwhelming.

'''Quadri's''' 
''Gran Caffè Ristorante'' in Venice. [http://www.venetia.it/quadri/index.htm Quadri] has been considered a symbol of gastronomic excellence directly overlooking St. Mark's Square. 
Quadri (like square or quad) is also a pun on the ever present "4."

'''Lavena''' 
[http://www.venetia.it/lavena/index.htm ''Caffè Lavena''] at Piazza St. Marco, Venice.

'''the D.and D.''' 

Deaf and Dumb

'''a Cavour''' 
A cigar brand.

==Page 733==

'''areeferdirtcheap''' 
Reef getting his Italian wrong again: ''arrivederci,'' goodbye.

==Page 734==
'''''osteria''''' 
Italian: "pub" or any other place where you can drink and eat at all hours.

zuppa di peoci 
Italian: Venetian mussel soup

==Page 735==

'''''Cazzo''''' 
Italian: vulgar for "penis" and used extensively as interjection in a manner similar to the English words "fuck" or "fucking."

==Page 736==

'''''vero''''' 
Italian: "true"

'''''appunto''''' 
Italian: "exactly"

'''''straccio''''' 
Italian: "rag"

'''Marienbad''' 
German for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari%C3%A1nsk%C3%A9_L%C3%A1zn%C4%9B Mariánské Lézně], a spa town in the Carlsbad Region of the Czech Republic. The town's Golden Era was in the second half of the 19th century, when many celebrities and top European rulers came to enjoy the curative carbon dioxide springs.

'''Salzburg''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salzburg Salzburg], the birthplace of Mozart, is the fourth-largest city in Austria. It is located in the western Austria at the border with Germany. Its "Old Town", a UNESCO World Heritge Site, is well-known for its baroque architecture. The 1965 movie ''The Sound of Music'' drew ambivalent reactions from the citizens of Salzburg: the film is too tacky for their taste but it is also Salzburg's fattest cash cow.

'''forty mule''' 
A Reefian parting shot: French ''faute de mieux,'' meaning "for lack of anything better."

'''hangers''' 
A kind of pocketbook or purse that hung from a wrist (not in the OED, however).

==Page 737==

'''Rigby Nitro Express''' 
A big game rifle cartridge. Black powder as the propellant in cartridges began to be replaced by smokeless powder/Cordite in the 1880s. Firearms maker John Rigby & Co. of Dublin, renowned for "elephant guns," got into the ammunition line late in the century, and some of the cartridges the firm brought out a century ago are still in use. The .350 Rigby Nitro Express came on the market in 1908. Other Rigby products are the .416 Rigby, still a standard, and the .470 Rigby, introduced in 1907. Problem: According to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rigby_(company) Wikipedia entry] on the company, the only .450 Rigby cartridge appeared in 1995. But (there's always a "but") the [http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rigby_&_Co ''Swedish'' Wikipedia] confirms a .450 Rigby Nitro Express produced from 1897 on.

These rounds could stop a rhino dead in his tracks and might have been effective against a plutocrat.

'''Henry Clay Frick''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Clay_Frick Henry Clay Frick] (1849-1919) was an American industrialist and art patron. In 1881, he and Andrew Carnegie formed a partnership between H.C. Frick & Co and Carnegie Steel Co. with Frick in charge of the Steel Company's operations. The 1892 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Steel_Strike Homestead Steel Strike] was mishandled by Frick, and he soon became a target of radical anarchists and others.

'''Brother Berkmann''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Berkman Alexander Berkmann] (1870-1936), also spelled Berkman, Anarchist and lover of Emma Goldman, with whom he plotted his unsuccessful 1892 attempt to assassinate Henry Clay Frick after the bitter Homestead Steel Strike. Dally dates this to "fifteen years ago", making it 1907 in book time.

'''drygulchin'd''' 
Cf [[ATD_615-643#Page_643|page 643: drygulched]].

==Page 738==

'''the San Marcuola stop''' 
[http://arglist.com/cgi-bin/image?gallery=venice&name=20050525-027 Photo of the Canal Grande at San Marcuola vaporetto stop].

'''Laguna Morte''' 
Dead Lagoon.

'''''macche''''' 
Italian: "no way". It should be "macché".

==Page 739==

'''''La macchina infernale''''' 
"Infernal machine"; a (particularly 19th century) term for explosive devices used for terrorist attacks. The most famous example is "La conspiration de la machine infernale", or "Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise", an assassination plot against Napoleon that failed in 1800
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_of_the_Rue_Saint-Nicaise wikipedia]).
Earlier in the book, we have encountered Tancredi working on "Preliminary Studies" toward such a machine (see page 585f.)

'''Bresci''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaetano_Bresci Gaetano Bresci] (1869-1901), an Italian-American anarchist who assassinated Italian King Umberto I on July 29, 1900. He died in prison.

'''Luccheni''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Lucheni Luigi Lucheni] (1873-1910), an Italian anarchist who stabbed, with a frayed file, to death the Austrian Empress Elizabeth in Geneva, Switzerland, on Septem 10, 1898. He late died in prison.

'''bad news rolling up the rails''' 
cf p. 41: "Most people have a wheel riding on a wire, or some rails in the street [...], to keep them moving in the direction of their destiny". Inevitability?

==Page 740==

'''Torino''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turin Torino], ''Turin'', is a major industrial city as well as a business and cultural center in northern Italy. It is the home of the headquarters of Fiat and host of the 2006 Winter Olympics. It was the first capital of Italy.

'''Lampo, Gaulois''' 
A very small firearm. Some great photos and a description (in French). [http://site.voila.fr/collectionarme/gaulois.htm Gaulois].

'''Riva''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_575|page 575: Riva]].

==Page 741==

'''the Procuratie''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procuratie_Nuove The Procuraties] are three connected buildings on St Mark's Square in Venice. They are historic buildings over arcades and also connected to St Mark's Clocktower.

'''''imprimatura''''' 
The first layer of paint applied to a canvas, a base color that helps establish and control tone in the painting.

'''susurrance''' 
A murmur or whisper. From the Latin ''susurrare'', to whisper.

'''Strauss Jr.''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Strauss_II Johann Strauss Jr.] (1825-1899) was an Austrian composer known especially for his waltzes, such as ''On the Beautiful Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Woods'' and ''Emperor Waltz''.

'''Luigi Denza''' 
Cf [[ATD_336-357#Page_353|page 353: Luigi Denza]].

'''Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ermanno_Wolf-Ferrari Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari] (1876-1948) was an Italian composer, best known for his comic operas.

==Page 742==

'''paletot''' 
an overcoat.

'''''piano nobile''''' 
In a large house, the level holding formal spaces, usually the first or second floor above ground level.

'''''teppisti''''' 
thugs.

'''his terrible intention''' 
moral judgment of the attempted assassin.

'''''Via, via!''''' 
Come on, come on!

'''like the glowing coal in the Buddhist parable''' 
The Buddha is said to have taught, "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned." Contributor researching source text.

'''Glisentis''' 
A pistol manufactured by Glisentis Company of Italy

==Page 743==

'''''assassini''''' 
hitmen; murderers

'''''Batti! batti la faccia''''' 
Beat! beat the face.

'''Vibe "takes on mass" (!) 
: his gravity increases! Cf. GR, of course.

'''rectified''' 
Set right, made square, rendered unidirectional.

:Here: self-justification into "iron impregnability". Pynchon does not use iron positively in ATD.

:"Rectification" is a buzzword used in Henry James' ''The Princess Casamassima,'' where it seems to mean doing away with the class system.

'''''foschia''''' 
Italian: "haze"

'''Empress Elisabeth''' 
Austrian Empress Elizabeth was stabbed to death by Luigi Lucheni on September 10, 1898. Cf page 739.

'''King Umberto''' 
Italian King Umberto was shot on July 29, 1900 by Gaetano Bresci. Cf page 739.

==Page 744==

'''the Bauer-Grünwald''' 
The Bauer-Grünwald Hotel in Venice. It is a five-star luxurious hotel located a few minutes walk from San Marco Square. Cf page 136 & page 576.

'''Pommery''' 
A high-class French champagne. [http://www.thewinedoctor.com/champagne/pommery.shtml Pommery].

==Page 745==

'''Somebody shopped him''' 
Betrayed him (in exchange for something). Shop= to trade 1) in buying and selling for profit. 2) To make an exchange of one thing for another. American Heritage.

'''''stranniki''''' 
Cf [[ATD_644-677#Page_663|page 663: ''stranniki'']]

==Page 746==

'''the Ponte degli Scalzi''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_degli_Scalzi The Ponte degli Scalzi] is one of the only three bridges in Venice to span the Grand Canal. It connects the districts of Santa Croce and Cannaregio. The Italian words mean ''Bridge of the Barefoot''.

'''Giudecca''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giudecca Giudecca] is an island in the Venetian Lagoon lying immediately south of the central islands, from which is is separated by the Giudecca Canal.

'''''Stromboli''''' 
An Italian warship. It was an Etna Class Protected Cruiser, launched on February 4, 1886 and sold for disposal on March 10, 1907. See [http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/italian_cruisers.htm Italian Cruisers].

'''''traghetti''''' 
ferries.

'''the Zattere''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_578|page 578: Zattere]]. The Zattere, a long ''riva'' (river bank) extending from the basin of San Marco to San Basilio, has a panoramic view of the island of San Giorgio and the whole of the Giudecca island with Palladio's churches.

==Page 747==

'''melancholy of departure''' 
Allusion to: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Chirico Giorgio de Chirico's] painting: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gare_Montparnasse_%28The_Melancholy_of_Departure%29 ''Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure)''], dated to 1913 or early 1914; the title was reused in works with the same theme of 1914, 1915 and 1916. The paintings reproduce the sadness of separations by depiciting haunting, empty railway stations, pictorially or in abstract [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Melancholy+of+Departure&btnG=Search+Images].

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

ATD 724-747

2008-07-14T00:18:42Z

Chemiazrit: /* Page 734 */

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

==Page 724==

'''Dolomites''' 
Mountains, a sub-chain of the Alps, northeast Italy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolomites Dolomites].

==Page 725==

'''Squarcione''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squarcione Francesco Squarcione] (c.1397-1468) was a Padovan artist. His pupils included Andrea Mantegna (with whom he had many legal battles), Cosimo Tura and Crivelli. There are only two works signed by him: the Madonna with Child (imaged here, Berlin) and an altarpiece (Padua).

'''Mantegna''' 
[http://www.wga.hu/bio/m/mantegna/biograph.html Andrea Mantegna] (1431-1505) was an Italian Renaissance artist. He was one of the foremost north Italian painters of the 15th century. A master of perspective and foreshortening, Mantegna made important contributions to the compositional technigues of Renaissance painting.

'''the famed Paduan collector and impresario''' 
ie. Mantegna. Mentegna studied and worked between 1441-1459 at Padua, a city of northeast Italy west of Venice. At that time in Padua there was much interest in collecting and studying Roman antiquities. Padua was an important cultural center during the Middle Ages and was known for its artistic and architectural works by Giotto, Mantegna and Donatello. Galileo taught at its university from 1592 to 1610.

'''On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away''' 
Indiana's state song; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Banks_of_the_Wabash,_Far_Away lyrics.]

==Page 726==

'''Lost Lands''' 
a fictitious place in the Lagoon?

'''''The Sack of Rome''''' 
a fictitious mural artwork?

'''''caorlina''''' 
I suspect this is a typo, and should be ''carolina'' which is a small boat, a skiff. In the context, this one is steam-powered.

"caorlina" in fact appears to be accurate according to this description: [http://www.doge.it/regata/regata50i.htm#9 caorlina]- 
Caorlina is indeed a kind of rowing boat, which derives its name from the town of Caorle, near Venice. Nowadays it can be seen exclusively during the traditional "Regata Storica" (Historical Regatta) held every year in Venice

'''Marco Zoppo''' 
[http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pbio?34000 Marco Zoppo] (1433-1478), another Paduan painter. An innovator with a very personal style with rich artistic inventiveness. His reputation as an artist diminished gradually in the past, but his contributions to Venetian painting and book illumination have now been recognized.

'''Haruspices''' 
Roman religious functionaries who looked for clues to the future in the entrails of sacrificed animals.

'''strung by one foot upside down''' 
The Hanged Man again.

'''Cassily Adam rendition''' 
It's Adams. Titled [http://www.ed-resources.net/guide/exhibit/2.39.htm "Custer's Last Fight,"] the picture was acquired by Anheuser-Busch, reproduced and placed in thousands of taverns. The company later gave the work to the 7th Cavalry Regiment.

==Page 727==

'''Cannareggio''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_573|page 573: Cannareggio]].

'''''lucciole''''' 
Italian: "fireflies", and common slang for "prostitutes"

'''''squadri''''' 
Italian: "teams", "gangs". It should be "squadre" because the word is feminine.

'''''soldi''''' 
Italian: "money"

'''''forcheta''''' 
Although on page 582 there is one ''foschetta'' here it doesn't fit in. It should be "forchetta" in Italian and the meaning is "fork", but here it refers obviously to the resting place of the oars on the side of the gondola (due to the form, similar to a fork). The omission of a double consonant is typical of the dialect of north-eastern Italy.

'''Hottentot''' 
Part of a series of zany distortions. French ''attentat'' = coup, assassination. 
Hottentot was the former, colonial name of the Khoekhoe of modern Namibia who together with the Hereros were the object of German genocide from 1904 to 1907. For Reef, it was a current event. Pynchon mentions the Hereros in both ''V.'' and ''GR''.

'''Antietam''' 
It refers to the Battle of Antietam in the American Civil War. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antietam The Battle of Antietam] was an important Union battle in the War and fought on September 17, 1862 near Antietam Creek in Maryland. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history with almost 23,000 casualties, and Union victory (although McClellan failed to follow up) permitted Lincoln to issue a preliminary Emancipation Declaration. Earlier important battles include Grant's successes at Ft. Donelson [February 1862] and Shiloh [April 1862](although this victory too was not followed up).

==Page 728==

'''San Polo''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_573|page 573: San Polo]].

'''Rialto bridge''' 
Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page_439|page 439: Nuovo Rialto]].

'''''bisi''''' 
Venetian dialect: "peas".

'''''campo''''' 
a large square.

'''Ca' Spongiatosta''' 
Casa Spongiatosta: House of Princess Spongiatosta. (see page 582).

'''Topinambur''' 
''Helianthus tuberosus'': Jerusalem Artichoke, or sunchoke. It is a variety of sunflower; tuberous root was used as a potato substitute in WWII [http://www.flickr.com/photos/nfoto/94369056/]. The name "topinambur" is used in Europe.

'''Friuli''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friuli Friuli] is a region in northeast Italy next to Slovenia and Austria.

'''Treviso''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treviso Treviso] is a town in the Veneto region of Italy.

'''radicchio''' 
a chicory of a red variety with variegated leaves.

'''verza''' 
Italian: cabbage.

'''''auguri, ragazzi''''' 
Italian: "all the best, folks" "good luck, boys"

==Page 729==

'''no . . . apiarian byproduct of hers''' 
I.e., none of her beeswax (American slang for "business").

'''pennsilvoney''' 
More foreign-language comedy. Italian ''pensione'' = pension (lodging with board included).

'''the Britannia, once known as the Palazzo Zucchelli''' 
Originally a 19th century residence, the Britannia hotel is situated behind Rome's famous Opera House. As far as its being once known as the Palazzo Zucchelli... 
A rich history in this 18th or 19th-century building on the Grand Canal. [http://www.willetholthuysen.nl/reizen.php?id=6 Here is a photo] of it, circa 1868, as the Hotel Barbesi. Apparently it and two contiguous properties have been [http://www.starwoodpressclub.com/index.php?id=35&no_cache=1&L=5&tx_ttnews%5Bhid%5D=82&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=776&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=54&cHash=6a654b2302 in hotel service ever since] (1868 Barbesi, 1881 Britannia, 1930s Regina, 1938 Europa & Britannia, 1976 Europa & Regina, now Westin Europa & Regina). [http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/photos/index.html?propertyID=75#photo_section_0Link This Westin page] contains many photos; click the very first thumbnail. The structure that used to be the Britannia is on the right.

'''offer old Barkie the light''' 
"offer the light" is a cricket term where the umpire asks the batsmen if they wish to continue playing in poor light conditions. But who's "old Barkie"? Often, wooden boats are affectionately nicknamed "old Barkie," but...

'''eighty-seven not out''' 
Cricket metaphor: having a banner day and not close to the end of it. It is also known as an unlucky number, thirteen away from century (100 runs), in which many batsmen get out.

'''Eleanora Duse''' 
Consensus spelling is ''Ele'''o'''nora.'' 1859-1924, Italian actress, pioneer of realism on the stage.

==Page 730==

'''Damned cowboy''' 
Same expletive used on [[ATD_615-643#Page_623|page 623 (see annotations).]]

'''Florian's''' 
A café in San Marco Sqaure.

'''''qualsiasi''''' 
Italian: "whatever"

==Page 731==

'''''camerieri''''' 
Italian: "chambermaids", but it should be "cameriere" since it is a plural feminine, while the ending -i is masculine plural. Usually the word means "waiter" / "waitress".
''In fact, "camerieri" is right: its literal meaning is indeed "chamber-servant", both male (cameriere/i) and female (cameriera/e), but nowadays it is most commonly used to indicate a waiter (waitress) or a butler''

'''''levante''''' 
Italian: "east wind"

'''the ancient family arms''' 
"[A] sponge couchant on a field chequy with flames at the foot." Pynchonian mock-heraldry. ''Couchant'' refers to an animal lying down with its erect head to the viewer's left. Well, at least sponges do belong to the animal kingdom. ''Chequy'' (one correct spelling) identifies the field or background of the shield as being divided into squares like a checkerboard. ''At the foot'' is a heraldic solecism; ''in base'' is preferable.

Taking two colors at random, say ''gules'' (red) and ''argent'' (silver or white), we could blazon the arms as "Chequy argent and gules, a sponge proper couchant above flames of fire of the third in base." Of course when the arms are carved in stone you can't see the colors. ''Proper'' means "in the color of the natural object," so . . . sponge-colored for the sponge, red and yellow for the flames.

Heraldists refer to "canting arms" when the charges on the shield pun on the bearer's name, as in this case: The flames are toasting the sponge. 
Which makes the device a toasted marshmallow?

==Page 732==

'''Pearl Street''' 
The location of the headquarters of Vibe Corp. [[ATD_318-335#Page_333|See annotations, p. 333.]]

'''daylit America . . . its steadfast denial of night''' 
An echo of the "daylit fiction" of the Columbian Exposition, is a vision of always-optimistic, boosterism, positive thinking America, in Pynchon's mind, which has not internalized its own darkness, it seems. Cf. The novel's epigraph, Thelonious Monk's "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light."

'''outnumbered . . . overwhelmingly''' 
One of Cantor's results. If aleph0 represents the "cardinality" of the rationals (a measure for infinite sets that corresponds to the number of elements for finite ones) and ''C'' represents the cardinality of the real numbers, then ''C'' + aleph0 = ''C.'' In words, the reals don't even notice if you take away the rationals, leaving just the irrational numbers. Pretty overwhelming.

'''Quadri's''' 
''Gran Caffè Ristorante'' in Venice. [http://www.venetia.it/quadri/index.htm Quadri] has been considered a symbol of gastronomic excellence directly overlooking St. Mark's Square. 
Quadri (like square or quad) is also a pun on the ever present "4."

'''Lavena''' 
[http://www.venetia.it/lavena/index.htm ''Caffè Lavena''] at Piazza St. Marco, Venice.

'''the D.and D.''' 

Deaf and Dumb

'''a Cavour''' 
A cigar brand.

==Page 733==

'''areeferdirtcheap''' 
Reef getting his Italian wrong again: ''arrivederci,'' goodbye.

==Page 734==
'''''osteria''''' 
Italian: "pub" or any other place where you can drink and eat at all hours.

zuppa di peoci 
Italian: Venetian mussel soup

==Page 735==

'''''Cazzo''''' 
Italian: "shit". It may translate as shit, but its lteral menaing is "penis" and it has a variety of uses in Italian. ''in fact, cazzo is vulgar for "penis" and it is used extensively as interjection in a manner similar to the english word "fuck" or "fucking"; while a proper rendition of "shit" would be "merda", used in a way similar to english''

==Page 736==

'''''vero''''' 
Italian: "true"

'''''appunto''''' 
Italian: "exactly"

'''''straccio''''' 
Italian: "rag"

'''Marienbad''' 
German for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari%C3%A1nsk%C3%A9_L%C3%A1zn%C4%9B Mariánské Lézně], a spa town in the Carlsbad Region of the Czech Republic. The town's Golden Era was in the second half of the 19th century, when many celebrities and top European rulers came to enjoy the curative carbon dioxide springs.

'''Salzburg''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salzburg Salzburg], the birthplace of Mozart, is the fourth-largest city in Austria. It is located in the western Austria at the border with Germany. Its "Old Town", a UNESCO World Heritge Site, is well-known for its baroque architecture. The 1965 movie ''The Sound of Music'' drew ambivalent reactions from the citizens of Salzburg: the film is too tacky for their taste but it is also Salzburg's fattest cash cow.

'''forty mule''' 
A Reefian parting shot: French ''faute de mieux,'' meaning "for lack of anything better."

'''hangers''' 
A kind of pocketbook or purse that hung from a wrist (not in the OED, however).

==Page 737==

'''Rigby Nitro Express''' 
A big game rifle cartridge. Black powder as the propellant in cartridges began to be replaced by smokeless powder/Cordite in the 1880s. Firearms maker John Rigby & Co. of Dublin, renowned for "elephant guns," got into the ammunition line late in the century, and some of the cartridges the firm brought out a century ago are still in use. The .350 Rigby Nitro Express came on the market in 1908. Other Rigby products are the .416 Rigby, still a standard, and the .470 Rigby, introduced in 1907. Problem: According to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rigby_(company) Wikipedia entry] on the company, the only .450 Rigby cartridge appeared in 1995. But (there's always a "but") the [http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rigby_&_Co ''Swedish'' Wikipedia] confirms a .450 Rigby Nitro Express produced from 1897 on.

These rounds could stop a rhino dead in his tracks and might have been effective against a plutocrat.

'''Henry Clay Frick''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Clay_Frick Henry Clay Frick] (1849-1919) was an American industrialist and art patron. In 1881, he and Andrew Carnegie formed a partnership between H.C. Frick & Co and Carnegie Steel Co. with Frick in charge of the Steel Company's operations. The 1892 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Steel_Strike Homestead Steel Strike] was mishandled by Frick, and he soon became a target of radical anarchists and others.

'''Brother Berkmann''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Berkman Alexander Berkmann] (1870-1936), also spelled Berkman, Anarchist and lover of Emma Goldman, with whom he plotted his unsuccessful 1892 attempt to assassinate Henry Clay Frick after the bitter Homestead Steel Strike. Dally dates this to "fifteen years ago", making it 1907 in book time.

'''drygulchin'd''' 
Cf [[ATD_615-643#Page_643|page 643: drygulched]].

==Page 738==

'''the San Marcuola stop''' 
[http://arglist.com/cgi-bin/image?gallery=venice&name=20050525-027 Photo of the Canal Grande at San Marcuola vaporetto stop].

'''Laguna Morte''' 
Dead Lagoon.

'''''macche''''' 
Italian: "no way". It should be "macché".

==Page 739==

'''''La macchina infernale''''' 
"Infernal machine"; a (particularly 19th century) term for explosive devices used for terrorist attacks. The most famous example is "La conspiration de la machine infernale", or "Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise", an assassination plot against Napoleon that failed in 1800
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_of_the_Rue_Saint-Nicaise wikipedia]).
Earlier in the book, we have encountered Tancredi working on "Preliminary Studies" toward such a machine (see page 585f.)

'''Bresci''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaetano_Bresci Gaetano Bresci] (1869-1901), an Italian-American anarchist who assassinated Italian King Umberto I on July 29, 1900. He died in prison.

'''Luccheni''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Lucheni Luigi Lucheni] (1873-1910), an Italian anarchist who stabbed, with a frayed file, to death the Austrian Empress Elizabeth in Geneva, Switzerland, on Septem 10, 1898. He late died in prison.

'''bad news rolling up the rails''' 
cf p. 41: "Most people have a wheel riding on a wire, or some rails in the street [...], to keep them moving in the direction of their destiny". Inevitability?

==Page 740==

'''Torino''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turin Torino], ''Turin'', is a major industrial city as well as a business and cultural center in northern Italy. It is the home of the headquarters of Fiat and host of the 2006 Winter Olympics. It was the first capital of Italy.

'''Lampo, Gaulois''' 
A very small firearm. Some great photos and a description (in French). [http://site.voila.fr/collectionarme/gaulois.htm Gaulois].

'''Riva''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_575|page 575: Riva]].

==Page 741==

'''the Procuratie''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procuratie_Nuove The Procuraties] are three connected buildings on St Mark's Square in Venice. They are historic buildings over arcades and also connected to St Mark's Clocktower.

'''''imprimatura''''' 
The first layer of paint applied to a canvas, a base color that helps establish and control tone in the painting.

'''susurrance''' 
A murmur or whisper. From the Latin ''susurrare'', to whisper.

'''Strauss Jr.''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Strauss_II Johann Strauss Jr.] (1825-1899) was an Austrian composer known especially for his waltzes, such as ''On the Beautiful Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Woods'' and ''Emperor Waltz''.

'''Luigi Denza''' 
Cf [[ATD_336-357#Page_353|page 353: Luigi Denza]].

'''Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ermanno_Wolf-Ferrari Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari] (1876-1948) was an Italian composer, best known for his comic operas.

==Page 742==

'''paletot''' 
an overcoat.

'''''piano nobile''''' 
In a large house, the level holding formal spaces, usually the first or second floor above ground level.

'''''teppisti''''' 
thugs.

'''his terrible intention''' 
moral judgment of the attempted assassin.

'''''Via, via!''''' 
Come on, come on!

'''like the glowing coal in the Buddhist parable''' 
The Buddha is said to have taught, "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned." Contributor researching source text.

'''Glisentis''' 
A pistol manufactured by Glisentis Company of Italy

==Page 743==

'''''assassini''''' 
hitmen; murderers

'''''Batti! batti la faccia''''' 
Beat! beat the face.

'''Vibe "takes on mass" (!) 
: his gravity increases! Cf. GR, of course.

'''rectified''' 
Set right, made square, rendered unidirectional.

:Here: self-justification into "iron impregnability". Pynchon does not use iron positively in ATD.

:"Rectification" is a buzzword used in Henry James' ''The Princess Casamassima,'' where it seems to mean doing away with the class system.

'''''foschia''''' 
Italian: "haze"

'''Empress Elisabeth''' 
Austrian Empress Elizabeth was stabbed to death by Luigi Lucheni on September 10, 1898. Cf page 739.

'''King Umberto''' 
Italian King Umberto was shot on July 29, 1900 by Gaetano Bresci. Cf page 739.

==Page 744==

'''the Bauer-Grünwald''' 
The Bauer-Grünwald Hotel in Venice. It is a five-star luxurious hotel located a few minutes walk from San Marco Square. Cf page 136 & page 576.

'''Pommery''' 
A high-class French champagne. [http://www.thewinedoctor.com/champagne/pommery.shtml Pommery].

==Page 745==

'''Somebody shopped him''' 
Betrayed him (in exchange for something). Shop= to trade 1) in buying and selling for profit. 2) To make an exchange of one thing for another. American Heritage.

'''''stranniki''''' 
Cf [[ATD_644-677#Page_663|page 663: ''stranniki'']]

==Page 746==

'''the Ponte degli Scalzi''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponte_degli_Scalzi The Ponte degli Scalzi] is one of the only three bridges in Venice to span the Grand Canal. It connects the districts of Santa Croce and Cannaregio. The Italian words mean ''Bridge of the Barefoot''.

'''Giudecca''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giudecca Giudecca] is an island in the Venetian Lagoon lying immediately south of the central islands, from which is is separated by the Giudecca Canal.

'''''Stromboli''''' 
An Italian warship. It was an Etna Class Protected Cruiser, launched on February 4, 1886 and sold for disposal on March 10, 1907. See [http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/italian_cruisers.htm Italian Cruisers].

'''''traghetti''''' 
ferries.

'''the Zattere''' 
Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page_578|page 578: Zattere]]. The Zattere, a long ''riva'' (river bank) extending from the basin of San Marco to San Basilio, has a panoramic view of the island of San Giorgio and the whole of the Giudecca island with Palladio's churches.

==Page 747==

'''melancholy of departure''' 
Allusion to: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Chirico Giorgio de Chirico's] painting: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gare_Montparnasse_%28The_Melancholy_of_Departure%29 ''Gare Montparnasse (The Melancholy of Departure)''], dated to 1913 or early 1914; the title was reused in works with the same theme of 1914, 1915 and 1916. The paintings reproduce the sadness of separations by depiciting haunting, empty railway stations, pictorially or in abstract [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Melancholy+of+Departure&btnG=Search+Images].

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

ATD 525-556

2007-07-23T01:53:49Z

Chemiazrit: /* Page 549 */

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

==Page 525==

'''Ostend''' 
Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing hardbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].

'''Fishermen's Quai''' 
Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.

'''Boulevard van Isenghem''' 
A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.

'''street-plausible''' 
Presentable.

'''Quai de l'empereur''' 
Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.

'''estaminet''' 
According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor.

'''twelve-centime''' 
one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.

'''Quaternions''' 
Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843). 

Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of "the ''ijk'' lot" of page 533 and "creature of ''i-j-k''" of page 534.

'''Kellner''' 
German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.

'''''demi''''' 
A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).

'''Lambic''' 
Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.

'''skimmer''' 
Straw hat ("Panama").

==Page 526==

'''biquaternion''' 
Or "octonion," an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]

'''Barry Nebulay''' 
Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with "starry," not "carry") refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized "cloud" shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.

'''University of Dublin''' 
The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.

If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902. 

'''Quaternioneers''' 
Quaternion believers.

'''Gibbsian Vectors''' 
Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]). 
A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',
where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions ("''xyz'' people" of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.
Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]). 
A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components): 
:''a'' = -g ''k'' 
Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v'' 
:''v'' = -g t ''k'' 
for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time. 
And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile 
:''h'' = -½ g t² ''k'' 
toward the sea level.

'''Quaternionists''' 
Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.

'''Tasmania''' 
Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s

'''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic''' 
In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.

'''Hamiltonian devotees''' 
The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.

'''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue''' 
There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon?

Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.

'''anterooms of death''' 
This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric "feel like I'm fixin' to die" seems more apposite.

'''Belgian Art Nouveau''' 
Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age. 
Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).

==Page 527==

'''dossing''' 
British slang for "sleeping", "staying overnight"

'''Russian nihilists''' 
:The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !

'''Eugénie''' 
Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.

'''Fatou''' 
Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).

'''Denis''' 
Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. "Montjoie St. Denis!" was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.

'''Policarpe''' 
Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.

'''Young Congo''' 
Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement

'''Garde Civique''' 
A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], "the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism."

'''French Second Bureau boys''' 
Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.

'''''phalange''''' 
French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. 

It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist
Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in "phalanxes" of a specific number based upon their "passions." His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]

'''"...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember..."''' 
Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.

'''the Digue''' 
French for "dyke"

'''Congo... Belgians''' 
The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.

'''Leopold, King of the Belgians''' 
1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase "crime against humanity."

'''co-conscious''' 
mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.

'''Force Publique''' 
Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). "King Leopold's private army" may be a more accurate description.

'''rubber worker''' 
See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.

==Page 528==

'''''khâgne''''' 
an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).

'''Reclus''' 
J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).

'''Stirnerite''' 
Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].

''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless "war of each against all" (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism]) 
Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy 
His major work:
The Ego and Its Own
Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)

This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.

The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.

Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world).

What about these "successive epochs" in understanding ATD?

Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)

'''''Anarcho-individualiste''''' 
i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and "Eigenheit".

'''Leopold''' 
See p. 527.

'''going down lately''' 
Being assassinated.

'''Sipido''' 
Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a "grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice." ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).

'''Prince... of Wales''' 
(Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)

'''Hippodrome''' 
Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).

'''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs''' 
A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.

'''twenty francs''' 
???

==Page 529==

'''picric family''' 
The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]

'''Brugère's powder''' 
See "picric family" above.

'''Designolle's''' 
See "picric family" above.

'''Monsieur Santos-Dumont''' 
Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his "trademark Panama hat".

'''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse''''' 
Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for "green."

'''Rocco and Pino''' 
Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.
:No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two "Italian naval renegades" !!
::"Rocco and Pino" are, in temperament, something like the "Mason and Dixon" of manned-torpedoes... cf. the "torpedo" (i.e., "Electrick-Eel") of ''Mason & Dixon''.

'''Whitehead works in Fiume''' 
Anticipating GR's V2 works.

''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].

''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].

Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.

'''''Alberta''''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]

'''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa''' 
or S.L.C. "slow course torpedo", "slow-running torpedo". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]

The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''

:I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and "Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars" in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.

==Page 530==

'''exfiltrate''' 
Make a surreptitious escape (as "infiltrate" means to make a surreptitious entrance).

'''''Macchè''''' 
Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.

'''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria''''' 
Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22

'''''mezzogiornismo''''' 
Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.

==Page 531==

'''Bruges''' 
An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but
started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).

'''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse''' 
French: Ralph's Speed Shop.

'''Ghent''' 
Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).

'''Daimler six-cylinder''' 
???

'''a hundred horsepower''' 
???

'''''guaglion''''' 
italian (dialectal) = boy, young person

'''Umeki Tsurigane''' 
Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for "plum" (ume) and "tree" (ki), though one has the ki being the character for "ghost/devil" and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is "plant" (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for "buried or embedded". Tsurigane, means a "temple bell", which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean "bellflower" (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, "Buried Temple Bell" seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.

Or, another terrible name-pun? "You make [m]e sore again." See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]

'''Professor Knott''' 
Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].

==Page 532==

'''Kimura''' 
Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].

'''drover's sombrero''' 
Cowboy hat.

'''furoshiki''' 
Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.

'''taupe''' 
A brownish gray.

'''boilermakers and their helpers''' 
[[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]

'''Anharmonic Pencil''' 
''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].

'''''Comptes rendus''''' 
''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify "French." Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).

'''De Forest''' 
Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].

'''Gibbs''' 
Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].

'''Maxwell Equations''' 
Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].

==Page 533==

'''aniline teal''' 
The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.

'''Heavisiders''' 
Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].

'''Grassmanniacs''' 
Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].

'''in the mood for a clambake''' 
Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently.

'''Monopole de la Maison''' 
Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink. 
There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch & Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]). 
Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.

'''Idiom Neutral''' 
An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another "auxiliary language." It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.

For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to "Browse sites devoted to constructed languages."

'''phatic''' 
Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.

'''''Kampf ums Dasein''''' 
German: struggle for existence.

'''Q-brother''' 
Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.

'''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' 
In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those "few" people within the Quaternionists "able to set out at unknown angles" are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic "journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens" (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.

Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these "Jews of Mathematics" worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.

==Page 534==

'''Poiret gown''' 
A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. "In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring." (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum],
New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].

'''''green and long''''' 
Pickle, or... what?
: A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).

==Page 535==

'''no-name wine''' 
1970s idiom for common European practice?

'''set theory''' 
Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers.

The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; "subset," "superset," "universe," "intersection" and "Venn diagram" have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.

'''Hamilton . . . early genius''' 
Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', "at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations". At twenty-two, "while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal"; at thirty "he was knighted".

'''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love''' 
??? 
Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.

'''the Walt Whitman of English physics''' 
Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].

==Page 536==

'''Oscar Wilde''' 
Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.

'''Kursaal''' 
Spa. Casino ?

'''vectors''' 
For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):
:''Many things have more than direction;''
:''The magnitude is also a question.''
:''With acceleration or force,''
:''And many more things, of course,''
:''It's vectors that make the connection.''

'''Curls''' 
Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.

'''Laplacians''' 
Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.

He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].

:Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .

'''scream''' 
Scream motif.

'''beginning to appal''' 
By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.

'''baize''' 
Baize is a coarse woolen felt.

==Page 537==

'''broken symmetries''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].

'''''sphinxe Khnopffienne''''' 
refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting "The Caress", in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]

'''Pléiade Lafrisée''' 
in French, "friser" means to curl or twist. "La frisée" could mean "curled," by extension "twisted." The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!

'''''Conseilleuse''''' 
Female consultant?

==Page 538==

'''retroversion matrix''' 
???

'''''Ma foi''''' 
Literally "My faith", i.e. "By my faith!", a mild exclamation of incredulity.

'''ten thousand francs''' 

Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to
about $30,000 US today.

'''piker''' 
Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.

'''what is a Quaternino?''' 
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is "a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.".

'''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell''' 
Mad Dog ??? 

[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], "the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox." (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in "recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thouhgt".

'''Hegel... puns''' 
Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.

==Page 539==

'''a vector quotient''' 
The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.

'''unit vector''' 
Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).

'''''square root of minus one''''' 
Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).

''''Triangle Asana'''' 
A basic yoga pose.

[http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]

''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished'''' 
Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s
[http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 "No-Sided Professor"]

''''Quadrantal Versor Asana'''' 
A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.

'''''"Uwe moer!"''''' 
Looks a lot like the Dutch "Uw moeder!" - a cry of astonishment ("Your mother!").

'''noncommutative''' 
A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.

'''reticule''' 
A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.
[http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm]
:Isn't that sort of a red herring? "[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch" doesn't really allow of that second meaning. 
:It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.

'''Vacheron & Constantin watch''' 
Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the & dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]

'''hunting-case''' 
For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called "hunter case" (and such a watch a "hunter").

==Page 540==

'''"haar rekening, ja?"''' 
The bill, yes? (Dutch)?

''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.

Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.

Strictly speaking "haar rekening" means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say "de hele rekening voor de dame".

'''Piet Woevre''' 
The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. "Piet" is Dutch for "rock" or "stone" and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.

If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a "V"-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe).

'''Force Publique''' 
The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]

'''made him reach''' 
Possible allusion to a famous line, "When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun." From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: "Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning," "Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!" (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free.

The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].

*In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character "Jeremy Prokosch," an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: "Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook."

'''not unambiguous''' 
Ie, ambiguous.

'''''rastaquoueres''''' 
8???

'''de Decker''' 
In Dutch/Flemish, the name means "roofer." (''De'' in these names almost never means "of, from" as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)

==Page 541==

'''''bobbejaan''''' 
Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)

The South African song "Bobbejaan klim die berg" ("Bobbejaan climbed the hill") is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, "Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê" ("Mama, I want a man"), which contains the line "No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork." He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.

'''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four''' 
This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, 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!'"

'''not part of your remit''' 
Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. "Remit" (noun) is usually a British usage.

'''''gatkruiper''''' 
Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.

'''one on her wrist''' 
All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.

'''over the day''' 
Title motif?

==Page 542==

'''trans-horizontic''' 
???
Across the horizon -- " a screaming comes across the sky"

'''Edmund Whittaker''' 
Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).

The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize].

'''louche''' 
The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: "of questionable taste or morality; decadent."

'''cheval-glass''' 
Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.

'''as if someone''' 
Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?

==Page 543==

'''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''

Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.

'''monitory''' 
Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.

'''Against....the day....'''
Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3

'''He Who Must Come''' 
The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2. 
Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant.
:When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:
:links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X

Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]

'''General Boulanger''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men "on a white horse" that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. "'Boulangisme'" threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.

'''what death and what transfiguration''' 
Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem "Death and Transfiguration" (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.

'''''"Zeker"''''' 
Dutch: certainly.

'''''dead cert''''' 
Dead certainty, sure thing.

'''Von Schlieffen''' 
Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.

'''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy''' 
[http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.

'''lowlands''' 
Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?

==Page 544==

'''Place d'Armes''' 
Main square of Ostend; literally "drill field".

'''peau de soie''' 
"Skin of silk" A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.

'''Krafft-Ebing''' 
Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].

'''toque''' 
Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.

Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works.

'''guipure''' 
Lace trim.

'''midinette''' 
A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.

'''Lambic''' 
A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]

'''sous''' 

Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.

Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France "sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent)." ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])

'''mayonnaise''' 
Brautigan's "Trout Fishing in America" famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&id=rbEjDovfyNMC&pg=RA2-PA111&lpg=RA2-PA111&ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&num=100&sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]

'''ovoöleaginous''' 
Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not "fecoventilatory collision" as seen in "Vineland," but it's nice.

'''Grenache''' 
Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.

'''Chantilly''' 

Region north of Paris.

Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.

'''attainder''' 
Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.
[www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html]

''''''Aux armes, citoyens'''''' 
''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise. 
Not "Le Marseillaise," you nitwit!

'''Louis XV''' 
King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV].

'''Cléo de Mérode''' 
Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.

'''Marquise de Pompadour''' 
Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].

==Page 545==

'''duc de Richelieu''' 
Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])

'''dubious 'victory' in 1756''' 
As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).

'''the ill-fated Admiral Byng''' 
John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure "to do his utmost" in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' "In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others."

'''cantharides''' 
"Spanish fly," contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.

'''Sadean''' 
Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex.

'''''n'est-ce pas?''''' 
Right? (Isn't that so?)

'''vetiver''' 
A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.
[www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.

Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''

'''pip''' 
A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.

'''Q.P. system''' 
Quaternion Probability, page 536.

'''Usine Régionale''' 
French: as translated in the text.

==Page 546==

'''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms''' 
Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).

'''cottonseed oil'''

Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of "'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il". Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo.

It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.

Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the "Twinkie defense."

'''lounge suit''' 
A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.

'''congress shoes''' 
ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)

'''invisible hand'''

Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.

'''dripping-heads''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.

'''''cuves d'agitation''''' 
Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.

'''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces''' 
French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.

==Page 547==

'''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''
The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].

'''''Cazzo, cretino''''' 
Literally, "Dick, cretin." ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. "Cazzo, cretino," is akin to someone saying, "Well shit, dummy," or "F-ing moron!"

'''''È il cowboy!''''' 
Italian: It's the cowboy!

'''''vero?''''' 
true? real?

'''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria''''' 
Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.

'''Oudenberg''' 
A southeast suburb of Ostende.

'''Quai de l'Entrepôt''' 
Warehouse Quay

'''''ragazzi''''' 
Italian: boys, guys.

==Page 548==

'''''timbres fictifs''''' 
French: fictive postage stamps. Cf "Lot 49".

'''"IIIb"''' 
As explained in the text

'''Germany might stand a better chance...''' 
That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history.

'''revanchist''' 
Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).

'''the somewhat discomposed General''' 
Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.

==Page 549==

'''cackled Darby''' 
(When did he lose his innocence?)

'''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive''' 
Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.

'''"Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–"''' 
Another Simpsons reference?

'''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk''' 
Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)

'''power-receivers''' 
Not information, energy.

==Page 550==

'''Lot's wife''' 
Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.

'''Italian grotto''' 
???an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.

'''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood''' 
Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel.

'''Carpathians''' 
Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.

'''Uhlans''' 
Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]

'''Temesvár''' 
Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.

==Page 551==

'''...separated by only a slice of Time...''' 
Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.

'''securing the mess decks''' 
The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with "Now") and shipboard activities ("secure" meaning "whatever you did before, undo it now," in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).

'''Ryder Thorn''' 
Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she "predicted the future of ECW." Yup, a stretch...

*The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

'''He was at Candlebrow.''' 
Presumably a 'trespasser.'

'''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness''' 
A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.
Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)

==Page 552==

'''knuckle-duster''' 
Brass knuckles.

'''Diksmuide''' 
20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).

==Page 553==

'''The terrain was flat...lowlands''' 
Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions.

'''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...''' 
Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of "time travel", or at least an expanded view of life and history.

'''retted''' 
soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.

==Page 554==

'''Ypres and Menin''' 
Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele].

'''Ten years from now''' 
(1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.

'''Bosch''' 
Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].

'''Brueghel''' 
Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].

'''League''' 
League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.

No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - "league on league" = tremendous masses

'''where the needles went and which way to rotate them''' 
I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.

==Page 555==

'''simpletons at the fair''' 
Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.

'''Chopin E-minor Nocturne''' 
Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)

'''owl-light''' 
???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.

''''plasmic hysteresis'''' 

A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape." Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis].

Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous
point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!]

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

ATD 525-556

2007-07-23T01:52:51Z

Chemiazrit: /* Page 547 */

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

==Page 525==

'''Ostend''' 
Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing hardbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].

'''Fishermen's Quai''' 
Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.

'''Boulevard van Isenghem''' 
A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.

'''street-plausible''' 
Presentable.

'''Quai de l'empereur''' 
Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.

'''estaminet''' 
According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor.

'''twelve-centime''' 
one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.

'''Quaternions''' 
Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843). 

Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of "the ''ijk'' lot" of page 533 and "creature of ''i-j-k''" of page 534.

'''Kellner''' 
German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.

'''''demi''''' 
A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).

'''Lambic''' 
Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.

'''skimmer''' 
Straw hat ("Panama").

==Page 526==

'''biquaternion''' 
Or "octonion," an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]

'''Barry Nebulay''' 
Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with "starry," not "carry") refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized "cloud" shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.

'''University of Dublin''' 
The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.

If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902. 

'''Quaternioneers''' 
Quaternion believers.

'''Gibbsian Vectors''' 
Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]). 
A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',
where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions ("''xyz'' people" of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.
Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]). 
A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components): 
:''a'' = -g ''k'' 
Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v'' 
:''v'' = -g t ''k'' 
for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time. 
And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile 
:''h'' = -½ g t² ''k'' 
toward the sea level.

'''Quaternionists''' 
Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.

'''Tasmania''' 
Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s

'''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic''' 
In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.

'''Hamiltonian devotees''' 
The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.

'''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue''' 
There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon?

Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.

'''anterooms of death''' 
This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric "feel like I'm fixin' to die" seems more apposite.

'''Belgian Art Nouveau''' 
Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age. 
Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).

==Page 527==

'''dossing''' 
British slang for "sleeping", "staying overnight"

'''Russian nihilists''' 
:The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !

'''Eugénie''' 
Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.

'''Fatou''' 
Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).

'''Denis''' 
Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. "Montjoie St. Denis!" was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.

'''Policarpe''' 
Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.

'''Young Congo''' 
Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement

'''Garde Civique''' 
A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], "the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism."

'''French Second Bureau boys''' 
Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.

'''''phalange''''' 
French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. 

It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist
Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in "phalanxes" of a specific number based upon their "passions." His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]

'''"...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember..."''' 
Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.

'''the Digue''' 
French for "dyke"

'''Congo... Belgians''' 
The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.

'''Leopold, King of the Belgians''' 
1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase "crime against humanity."

'''co-conscious''' 
mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.

'''Force Publique''' 
Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). "King Leopold's private army" may be a more accurate description.

'''rubber worker''' 
See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.

==Page 528==

'''''khâgne''''' 
an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).

'''Reclus''' 
J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).

'''Stirnerite''' 
Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].

''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless "war of each against all" (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism]) 
Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy 
His major work:
The Ego and Its Own
Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)

This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.

The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.

Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world).

What about these "successive epochs" in understanding ATD?

Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)

'''''Anarcho-individualiste''''' 
i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and "Eigenheit".

'''Leopold''' 
See p. 527.

'''going down lately''' 
Being assassinated.

'''Sipido''' 
Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a "grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice." ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).

'''Prince... of Wales''' 
(Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)

'''Hippodrome''' 
Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).

'''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs''' 
A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.

'''twenty francs''' 
???

==Page 529==

'''picric family''' 
The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]

'''Brugère's powder''' 
See "picric family" above.

'''Designolle's''' 
See "picric family" above.

'''Monsieur Santos-Dumont''' 
Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his "trademark Panama hat".

'''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse''''' 
Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for "green."

'''Rocco and Pino''' 
Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.
:No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two "Italian naval renegades" !!
::"Rocco and Pino" are, in temperament, something like the "Mason and Dixon" of manned-torpedoes... cf. the "torpedo" (i.e., "Electrick-Eel") of ''Mason & Dixon''.

'''Whitehead works in Fiume''' 
Anticipating GR's V2 works.

''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].

''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].

Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.

'''''Alberta''''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]

'''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa''' 
or S.L.C. "slow course torpedo", "slow-running torpedo". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]

The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''

:I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and "Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars" in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.

==Page 530==

'''exfiltrate''' 
Make a surreptitious escape (as "infiltrate" means to make a surreptitious entrance).

'''''Macchè''''' 
Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.

'''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria''''' 
Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22

'''''mezzogiornismo''''' 
Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.

==Page 531==

'''Bruges''' 
An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but
started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).

'''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse''' 
French: Ralph's Speed Shop.

'''Ghent''' 
Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).

'''Daimler six-cylinder''' 
???

'''a hundred horsepower''' 
???

'''''guaglion''''' 
italian (dialectal) = boy, young person

'''Umeki Tsurigane''' 
Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for "plum" (ume) and "tree" (ki), though one has the ki being the character for "ghost/devil" and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is "plant" (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for "buried or embedded". Tsurigane, means a "temple bell", which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean "bellflower" (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, "Buried Temple Bell" seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.

Or, another terrible name-pun? "You make [m]e sore again." See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]

'''Professor Knott''' 
Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].

==Page 532==

'''Kimura''' 
Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].

'''drover's sombrero''' 
Cowboy hat.

'''furoshiki''' 
Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.

'''taupe''' 
A brownish gray.

'''boilermakers and their helpers''' 
[[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]

'''Anharmonic Pencil''' 
''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].

'''''Comptes rendus''''' 
''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify "French." Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).

'''De Forest''' 
Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].

'''Gibbs''' 
Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].

'''Maxwell Equations''' 
Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].

==Page 533==

'''aniline teal''' 
The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.

'''Heavisiders''' 
Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].

'''Grassmanniacs''' 
Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].

'''in the mood for a clambake''' 
Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently.

'''Monopole de la Maison''' 
Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink. 
There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch & Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]). 
Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.

'''Idiom Neutral''' 
An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another "auxiliary language." It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.

For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to "Browse sites devoted to constructed languages."

'''phatic''' 
Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.

'''''Kampf ums Dasein''''' 
German: struggle for existence.

'''Q-brother''' 
Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.

'''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' 
In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those "few" people within the Quaternionists "able to set out at unknown angles" are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic "journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens" (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.

Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these "Jews of Mathematics" worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.

==Page 534==

'''Poiret gown''' 
A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. "In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring." (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum],
New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].

'''''green and long''''' 
Pickle, or... what?
: A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).

==Page 535==

'''no-name wine''' 
1970s idiom for common European practice?

'''set theory''' 
Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers.

The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; "subset," "superset," "universe," "intersection" and "Venn diagram" have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.

'''Hamilton . . . early genius''' 
Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', "at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations". At twenty-two, "while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal"; at thirty "he was knighted".

'''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love''' 
??? 
Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.

'''the Walt Whitman of English physics''' 
Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].

==Page 536==

'''Oscar Wilde''' 
Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.

'''Kursaal''' 
Spa. Casino ?

'''vectors''' 
For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):
:''Many things have more than direction;''
:''The magnitude is also a question.''
:''With acceleration or force,''
:''And many more things, of course,''
:''It's vectors that make the connection.''

'''Curls''' 
Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.

'''Laplacians''' 
Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.

He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].

:Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .

'''scream''' 
Scream motif.

'''beginning to appal''' 
By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.

'''baize''' 
Baize is a coarse woolen felt.

==Page 537==

'''broken symmetries''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].

'''''sphinxe Khnopffienne''''' 
refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting "The Caress", in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]

'''Pléiade Lafrisée''' 
in French, "friser" means to curl or twist. "La frisée" could mean "curled," by extension "twisted." The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!

'''''Conseilleuse''''' 
Female consultant?

==Page 538==

'''retroversion matrix''' 
???

'''''Ma foi''''' 
Literally "My faith", i.e. "By my faith!", a mild exclamation of incredulity.

'''ten thousand francs''' 

Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to
about $30,000 US today.

'''piker''' 
Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.

'''what is a Quaternino?''' 
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is "a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.".

'''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell''' 
Mad Dog ??? 

[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], "the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox." (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in "recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thouhgt".

'''Hegel... puns''' 
Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.

==Page 539==

'''a vector quotient''' 
The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.

'''unit vector''' 
Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).

'''''square root of minus one''''' 
Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).

''''Triangle Asana'''' 
A basic yoga pose.

[http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]

''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished'''' 
Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s
[http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 "No-Sided Professor"]

''''Quadrantal Versor Asana'''' 
A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.

'''''"Uwe moer!"''''' 
Looks a lot like the Dutch "Uw moeder!" - a cry of astonishment ("Your mother!").

'''noncommutative''' 
A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.

'''reticule''' 
A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.
[http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm]
:Isn't that sort of a red herring? "[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch" doesn't really allow of that second meaning. 
:It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.

'''Vacheron & Constantin watch''' 
Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the & dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]

'''hunting-case''' 
For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called "hunter case" (and such a watch a "hunter").

==Page 540==

'''"haar rekening, ja?"''' 
The bill, yes? (Dutch)?

''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.

Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.

Strictly speaking "haar rekening" means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say "de hele rekening voor de dame".

'''Piet Woevre''' 
The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. "Piet" is Dutch for "rock" or "stone" and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.

If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a "V"-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe).

'''Force Publique''' 
The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]

'''made him reach''' 
Possible allusion to a famous line, "When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun." From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: "Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning," "Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!" (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free.

The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].

*In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character "Jeremy Prokosch," an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: "Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook."

'''not unambiguous''' 
Ie, ambiguous.

'''''rastaquoueres''''' 
8???

'''de Decker''' 
In Dutch/Flemish, the name means "roofer." (''De'' in these names almost never means "of, from" as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)

==Page 541==

'''''bobbejaan''''' 
Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)

The South African song "Bobbejaan klim die berg" ("Bobbejaan climbed the hill") is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, "Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê" ("Mama, I want a man"), which contains the line "No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork." He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.

'''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four''' 
This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, 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!'"

'''not part of your remit''' 
Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. "Remit" (noun) is usually a British usage.

'''''gatkruiper''''' 
Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.

'''one on her wrist''' 
All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.

'''over the day''' 
Title motif?

==Page 542==

'''trans-horizontic''' 
???
Across the horizon -- " a screaming comes across the sky"

'''Edmund Whittaker''' 
Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).

The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize].

'''louche''' 
The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: "of questionable taste or morality; decadent."

'''cheval-glass''' 
Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.

'''as if someone''' 
Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?

==Page 543==

'''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''

Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.

'''monitory''' 
Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.

'''Against....the day....'''
Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3

'''He Who Must Come''' 
The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2. 
Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant.
:When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:
:links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X

Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]

'''General Boulanger''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men "on a white horse" that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. "'Boulangisme'" threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.

'''what death and what transfiguration''' 
Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem "Death and Transfiguration" (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.

'''''"Zeker"''''' 
Dutch: certainly.

'''''dead cert''''' 
Dead certainty, sure thing.

'''Von Schlieffen''' 
Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.

'''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy''' 
[http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.

'''lowlands''' 
Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?

==Page 544==

'''Place d'Armes''' 
Main square of Ostend; literally "drill field".

'''peau de soie''' 
"Skin of silk" A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.

'''Krafft-Ebing''' 
Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].

'''toque''' 
Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.

Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works.

'''guipure''' 
Lace trim.

'''midinette''' 
A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.

'''Lambic''' 
A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]

'''sous''' 

Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.

Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France "sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent)." ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])

'''mayonnaise''' 
Brautigan's "Trout Fishing in America" famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&id=rbEjDovfyNMC&pg=RA2-PA111&lpg=RA2-PA111&ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&num=100&sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]

'''ovoöleaginous''' 
Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not "fecoventilatory collision" as seen in "Vineland," but it's nice.

'''Grenache''' 
Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.

'''Chantilly''' 

Region north of Paris.

Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.

'''attainder''' 
Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.
[www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html]

''''''Aux armes, citoyens'''''' 
''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise. 
Not "Le Marseillaise," you nitwit!

'''Louis XV''' 
King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV].

'''Cléo de Mérode''' 
Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.

'''Marquise de Pompadour''' 
Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].

==Page 545==

'''duc de Richelieu''' 
Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])

'''dubious 'victory' in 1756''' 
As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).

'''the ill-fated Admiral Byng''' 
John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure "to do his utmost" in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' "In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others."

'''cantharides''' 
"Spanish fly," contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.

'''Sadean''' 
Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex.

'''''n'est-ce pas?''''' 
Right? (Isn't that so?)

'''vetiver''' 
A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.
[www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.

Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''

'''pip''' 
A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.

'''Q.P. system''' 
Quaternion Probability, page 536.

'''Usine Régionale''' 
French: as translated in the text.

==Page 546==

'''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms''' 
Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).

'''cottonseed oil'''

Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of "'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il". Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo.

It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.

Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the "Twinkie defense."

'''lounge suit''' 
A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.

'''congress shoes''' 
ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)

'''invisible hand'''

Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.

'''dripping-heads''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.

'''''cuves d'agitation''''' 
Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.

'''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces''' 
French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.

==Page 547==

'''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''
The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].

'''''Cazzo, cretino''''' 
Literally, "Dick, cretin." ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. "Cazzo, cretino," is akin to someone saying, "Well shit, dummy," or "F-ing moron!"

'''''È il cowboy!''''' 
Italian: It's the cowboy!

'''''vero?''''' 
true? real?

'''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria''''' 
Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.

'''Oudenberg''' 
A southeast suburb of Ostende.

'''Quai de l'Entrepôt''' 
Warehouse Quay

'''''ragazzi''''' 
Italian: boys, guys.

==Page 548==

'''''timbres fictifs''''' 
French: fictive postage stamps. Cf "Lot 49".

'''"IIIb"''' 
As explained in the text

'''Germany might stand a better chance...''' 
That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history.

'''revanchist''' 
Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).

'''the somewhat discomposed General''' 
Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.

==Page 549==

'''cackled Darby''' 
(When did he lose his innocence?)

'''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive''' 
Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.

'''"Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–"''' 
Another Simpsons reference?

'''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk''' 
???
Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)

'''power-receivers''' 
Not information, energy.

==Page 550==

'''Lot's wife''' 
Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.

'''Italian grotto''' 
???an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.

'''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood''' 
Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel.

'''Carpathians''' 
Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.

'''Uhlans''' 
Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]

'''Temesvár''' 
Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.

==Page 551==

'''...separated by only a slice of Time...''' 
Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.

'''securing the mess decks''' 
The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with "Now") and shipboard activities ("secure" meaning "whatever you did before, undo it now," in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).

'''Ryder Thorn''' 
Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she "predicted the future of ECW." Yup, a stretch...

*The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

'''He was at Candlebrow.''' 
Presumably a 'trespasser.'

'''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness''' 
A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.
Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)

==Page 552==

'''knuckle-duster''' 
Brass knuckles.

'''Diksmuide''' 
20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).

==Page 553==

'''The terrain was flat...lowlands''' 
Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions.

'''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...''' 
Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of "time travel", or at least an expanded view of life and history.

'''retted''' 
soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.

==Page 554==

'''Ypres and Menin''' 
Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele].

'''Ten years from now''' 
(1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.

'''Bosch''' 
Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].

'''Brueghel''' 
Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].

'''League''' 
League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.

No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - "league on league" = tremendous masses

'''where the needles went and which way to rotate them''' 
I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.

==Page 555==

'''simpletons at the fair''' 
Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.

'''Chopin E-minor Nocturne''' 
Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)

'''owl-light''' 
???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.

''''plasmic hysteresis'''' 

A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape." Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis].

Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous
point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!]

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

ATD 525-556

2007-07-23T01:45:39Z

Chemiazrit: /* Page 544 */

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

==Page 525==

'''Ostend''' 
Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing hardbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].

'''Fishermen's Quai''' 
Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.

'''Boulevard van Isenghem''' 
A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.

'''street-plausible''' 
Presentable.

'''Quai de l'empereur''' 
Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.

'''estaminet''' 
According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor.

'''twelve-centime''' 
one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.

'''Quaternions''' 
Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843). 

Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of "the ''ijk'' lot" of page 533 and "creature of ''i-j-k''" of page 534.

'''Kellner''' 
German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.

'''''demi''''' 
A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).

'''Lambic''' 
Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.

'''skimmer''' 
Straw hat ("Panama").

==Page 526==

'''biquaternion''' 
Or "octonion," an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]

'''Barry Nebulay''' 
Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with "starry," not "carry") refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized "cloud" shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.

'''University of Dublin''' 
The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.

If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902. 

'''Quaternioneers''' 
Quaternion believers.

'''Gibbsian Vectors''' 
Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]). 
A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',
where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions ("''xyz'' people" of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.
Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]). 
A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components): 
:''a'' = -g ''k'' 
Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v'' 
:''v'' = -g t ''k'' 
for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time. 
And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile 
:''h'' = -½ g t² ''k'' 
toward the sea level.

'''Quaternionists''' 
Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.

'''Tasmania''' 
Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s

'''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic''' 
In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.

'''Hamiltonian devotees''' 
The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.

'''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue''' 
There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon?

Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.

'''anterooms of death''' 
This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric "feel like I'm fixin' to die" seems more apposite.

'''Belgian Art Nouveau''' 
Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age. 
Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).

==Page 527==

'''dossing''' 
British slang for "sleeping", "staying overnight"

'''Russian nihilists''' 
:The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !

'''Eugénie''' 
Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.

'''Fatou''' 
Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).

'''Denis''' 
Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. "Montjoie St. Denis!" was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.

'''Policarpe''' 
Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.

'''Young Congo''' 
Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement

'''Garde Civique''' 
A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], "the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism."

'''French Second Bureau boys''' 
Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.

'''''phalange''''' 
French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. 

It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist
Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in "phalanxes" of a specific number based upon their "passions." His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]

'''"...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember..."''' 
Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.

'''the Digue''' 
French for "dyke"

'''Congo... Belgians''' 
The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.

'''Leopold, King of the Belgians''' 
1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase "crime against humanity."

'''co-conscious''' 
mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.

'''Force Publique''' 
Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). "King Leopold's private army" may be a more accurate description.

'''rubber worker''' 
See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.

==Page 528==

'''''khâgne''''' 
an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).

'''Reclus''' 
J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).

'''Stirnerite''' 
Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].

''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless "war of each against all" (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism]) 
Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy 
His major work:
The Ego and Its Own
Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)

This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.

The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.

Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world).

What about these "successive epochs" in understanding ATD?

Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)

'''''Anarcho-individualiste''''' 
i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and "Eigenheit".

'''Leopold''' 
See p. 527.

'''going down lately''' 
Being assassinated.

'''Sipido''' 
Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a "grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice." ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).

'''Prince... of Wales''' 
(Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)

'''Hippodrome''' 
Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).

'''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs''' 
A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.

'''twenty francs''' 
???

==Page 529==

'''picric family''' 
The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]

'''Brugère's powder''' 
See "picric family" above.

'''Designolle's''' 
See "picric family" above.

'''Monsieur Santos-Dumont''' 
Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his "trademark Panama hat".

'''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse''''' 
Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for "green."

'''Rocco and Pino''' 
Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.
:No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two "Italian naval renegades" !!
::"Rocco and Pino" are, in temperament, something like the "Mason and Dixon" of manned-torpedoes... cf. the "torpedo" (i.e., "Electrick-Eel") of ''Mason & Dixon''.

'''Whitehead works in Fiume''' 
Anticipating GR's V2 works.

''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].

''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].

Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.

'''''Alberta''''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]

'''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa''' 
or S.L.C. "slow course torpedo", "slow-running torpedo". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]

The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''

:I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and "Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars" in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.

==Page 530==

'''exfiltrate''' 
Make a surreptitious escape (as "infiltrate" means to make a surreptitious entrance).

'''''Macchè''''' 
Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.

'''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria''''' 
Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22

'''''mezzogiornismo''''' 
Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.

==Page 531==

'''Bruges''' 
An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but
started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).

'''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse''' 
French: Ralph's Speed Shop.

'''Ghent''' 
Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).

'''Daimler six-cylinder''' 
???

'''a hundred horsepower''' 
???

'''''guaglion''''' 
italian (dialectal) = boy, young person

'''Umeki Tsurigane''' 
Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for "plum" (ume) and "tree" (ki), though one has the ki being the character for "ghost/devil" and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is "plant" (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for "buried or embedded". Tsurigane, means a "temple bell", which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean "bellflower" (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, "Buried Temple Bell" seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.

Or, another terrible name-pun? "You make [m]e sore again." See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]

'''Professor Knott''' 
Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].

==Page 532==

'''Kimura''' 
Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].

'''drover's sombrero''' 
Cowboy hat.

'''furoshiki''' 
Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.

'''taupe''' 
A brownish gray.

'''boilermakers and their helpers''' 
[[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]

'''Anharmonic Pencil''' 
''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].

'''''Comptes rendus''''' 
''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify "French." Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).

'''De Forest''' 
Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].

'''Gibbs''' 
Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].

'''Maxwell Equations''' 
Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].

==Page 533==

'''aniline teal''' 
The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.

'''Heavisiders''' 
Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].

'''Grassmanniacs''' 
Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].

'''in the mood for a clambake''' 
Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently.

'''Monopole de la Maison''' 
Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink. 
There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch & Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]). 
Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.

'''Idiom Neutral''' 
An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another "auxiliary language." It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.

For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to "Browse sites devoted to constructed languages."

'''phatic''' 
Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.

'''''Kampf ums Dasein''''' 
German: struggle for existence.

'''Q-brother''' 
Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.

'''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' 
In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those "few" people within the Quaternionists "able to set out at unknown angles" are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic "journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens" (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.

Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these "Jews of Mathematics" worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.

==Page 534==

'''Poiret gown''' 
A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. "In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring." (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum],
New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].

'''''green and long''''' 
Pickle, or... what?
: A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).

==Page 535==

'''no-name wine''' 
1970s idiom for common European practice?

'''set theory''' 
Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers.

The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; "subset," "superset," "universe," "intersection" and "Venn diagram" have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.

'''Hamilton . . . early genius''' 
Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', "at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations". At twenty-two, "while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal"; at thirty "he was knighted".

'''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love''' 
??? 
Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.

'''the Walt Whitman of English physics''' 
Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].

==Page 536==

'''Oscar Wilde''' 
Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.

'''Kursaal''' 
Spa. Casino ?

'''vectors''' 
For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):
:''Many things have more than direction;''
:''The magnitude is also a question.''
:''With acceleration or force,''
:''And many more things, of course,''
:''It's vectors that make the connection.''

'''Curls''' 
Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.

'''Laplacians''' 
Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.

He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].

:Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .

'''scream''' 
Scream motif.

'''beginning to appal''' 
By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.

'''baize''' 
Baize is a coarse woolen felt.

==Page 537==

'''broken symmetries''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].

'''''sphinxe Khnopffienne''''' 
refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting "The Caress", in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]

'''Pléiade Lafrisée''' 
in French, "friser" means to curl or twist. "La frisée" could mean "curled," by extension "twisted." The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!

'''''Conseilleuse''''' 
Female consultant?

==Page 538==

'''retroversion matrix''' 
???

'''''Ma foi''''' 
Literally "My faith", i.e. "By my faith!", a mild exclamation of incredulity.

'''ten thousand francs''' 

Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to
about $30,000 US today.

'''piker''' 
Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.

'''what is a Quaternino?''' 
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is "a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.".

'''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell''' 
Mad Dog ??? 

[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], "the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox." (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in "recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thouhgt".

'''Hegel... puns''' 
Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.

==Page 539==

'''a vector quotient''' 
The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.

'''unit vector''' 
Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).

'''''square root of minus one''''' 
Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).

''''Triangle Asana'''' 
A basic yoga pose.

[http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]

''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished'''' 
Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s
[http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 "No-Sided Professor"]

''''Quadrantal Versor Asana'''' 
A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.

'''''"Uwe moer!"''''' 
Looks a lot like the Dutch "Uw moeder!" - a cry of astonishment ("Your mother!").

'''noncommutative''' 
A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.

'''reticule''' 
A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.
[http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm]
:Isn't that sort of a red herring? "[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch" doesn't really allow of that second meaning. 
:It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.

'''Vacheron & Constantin watch''' 
Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the & dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]

'''hunting-case''' 
For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called "hunter case" (and such a watch a "hunter").

==Page 540==

'''"haar rekening, ja?"''' 
The bill, yes? (Dutch)?

''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.

Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.

Strictly speaking "haar rekening" means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say "de hele rekening voor de dame".

'''Piet Woevre''' 
The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. "Piet" is Dutch for "rock" or "stone" and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.

If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a "V"-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe).

'''Force Publique''' 
The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]

'''made him reach''' 
Possible allusion to a famous line, "When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun." From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: "Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning," "Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!" (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free.

The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].

*In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character "Jeremy Prokosch," an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: "Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook."

'''not unambiguous''' 
Ie, ambiguous.

'''''rastaquoueres''''' 
8???

'''de Decker''' 
In Dutch/Flemish, the name means "roofer." (''De'' in these names almost never means "of, from" as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)

==Page 541==

'''''bobbejaan''''' 
Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)

The South African song "Bobbejaan klim die berg" ("Bobbejaan climbed the hill") is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, "Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê" ("Mama, I want a man"), which contains the line "No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork." He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.

'''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four''' 
This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, 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!'"

'''not part of your remit''' 
Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. "Remit" (noun) is usually a British usage.

'''''gatkruiper''''' 
Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.

'''one on her wrist''' 
All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.

'''over the day''' 
Title motif?

==Page 542==

'''trans-horizontic''' 
???
Across the horizon -- " a screaming comes across the sky"

'''Edmund Whittaker''' 
Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).

The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize].

'''louche''' 
The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: "of questionable taste or morality; decadent."

'''cheval-glass''' 
Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.

'''as if someone''' 
Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?

==Page 543==

'''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''

Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.

'''monitory''' 
Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.

'''Against....the day....'''
Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3

'''He Who Must Come''' 
The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2. 
Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant.
:When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:
:links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X

Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]

'''General Boulanger''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men "on a white horse" that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. "'Boulangisme'" threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.

'''what death and what transfiguration''' 
Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem "Death and Transfiguration" (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.

'''''"Zeker"''''' 
Dutch: certainly.

'''''dead cert''''' 
Dead certainty, sure thing.

'''Von Schlieffen''' 
Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.

'''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy''' 
[http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.

'''lowlands''' 
Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?

==Page 544==

'''Place d'Armes''' 
Main square of Ostend; literally "drill field".

'''peau de soie''' 
"Skin of silk" A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.

'''Krafft-Ebing''' 
Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].

'''toque''' 
Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.

Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works.

'''guipure''' 
Lace trim.

'''midinette''' 
A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner.

'''Lambic''' 
A distinctive Belgian style of beer. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic Wikipedia]

'''sous''' 

Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.

Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France "sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent)." ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])

'''mayonnaise''' 
Brautigan's "Trout Fishing in America" famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&id=rbEjDovfyNMC&pg=RA2-PA111&lpg=RA2-PA111&ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&num=100&sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]

'''ovoöleaginous''' 
Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not "fecoventilatory collision" as seen in "Vineland," but it's nice.

'''Grenache''' 
Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.

'''Chantilly''' 

Region north of Paris.

Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.

'''attainder''' 
Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.
[www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html]

''''''Aux armes, citoyens'''''' 
''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise. 
Not "Le Marseillaise," you nitwit!

'''Louis XV''' 
King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV].

'''Cléo de Mérode''' 
Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.

'''Marquise de Pompadour''' 
Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].

==Page 545==

'''duc de Richelieu''' 
Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])

'''dubious 'victory' in 1756''' 
As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).

'''the ill-fated Admiral Byng''' 
John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure "to do his utmost" in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' "In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others."

'''cantharides''' 
"Spanish fly," contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.

'''Sadean''' 
Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex.

'''''n'est-ce pas?''''' 
Right? (Isn't that so?)

'''vetiver''' 
A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.
[www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.

Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''

'''pip''' 
A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.

'''Q.P. system''' 
Quaternion Probability, page 536.

'''Usine Régionale''' 
French: as translated in the text.

==Page 546==

'''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms''' 
Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).

'''cottonseed oil'''

Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of "'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il". Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo.

It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.

Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the "Twinkie defense."

'''lounge suit''' 
A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.

'''congress shoes''' 
ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)

'''invisible hand'''

Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.

'''dripping-heads''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.

'''''cuves d'agitation''''' 
Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.

'''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces''' 
French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.

==Page 547==

'''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''
The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].

'''''Cazzo, cretino''''' 
Literally, "Dick, cretin." ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. "Cazzo, cretino," is akin to someone saying, "Well shit, dummy," or "F-ing moron!"

'''''È il cowboy!''''' 
Italian: It's the cowboy!

'''''vero?''''' 
true? real?

'''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria''''' 
Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.

'''Oudenberg''' 
A southeast suburb of Ostende.

'''Quai de l'Entrepôt''' 
???
Warehouse Quay

'''''ragazzi''''' 
Italian: boys, guys.

==Page 548==

'''''timbres fictifs''''' 
French: fictive postage stamps. Cf "Lot 49".

'''"IIIb"''' 
As explained in the text

'''Germany might stand a better chance...''' 
That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history.

'''revanchist''' 
Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).

'''the somewhat discomposed General''' 
Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.

==Page 549==

'''cackled Darby''' 
(When did he lose his innocence?)

'''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive''' 
Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.

'''"Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–"''' 
Another Simpsons reference?

'''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk''' 
???
Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)

'''power-receivers''' 
Not information, energy.

==Page 550==

'''Lot's wife''' 
Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.

'''Italian grotto''' 
???an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.

'''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood''' 
Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel.

'''Carpathians''' 
Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.

'''Uhlans''' 
Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]

'''Temesvár''' 
Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.

==Page 551==

'''...separated by only a slice of Time...''' 
Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.

'''securing the mess decks''' 
The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with "Now") and shipboard activities ("secure" meaning "whatever you did before, undo it now," in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).

'''Ryder Thorn''' 
Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she "predicted the future of ECW." Yup, a stretch...

*The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

'''He was at Candlebrow.''' 
Presumably a 'trespasser.'

'''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness''' 
A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.
Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)

==Page 552==

'''knuckle-duster''' 
Brass knuckles.

'''Diksmuide''' 
20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).

==Page 553==

'''The terrain was flat...lowlands''' 
Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions.

'''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...''' 
Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of "time travel", or at least an expanded view of life and history.

'''retted''' 
soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.

==Page 554==

'''Ypres and Menin''' 
Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele].

'''Ten years from now''' 
(1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.

'''Bosch''' 
Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].

'''Brueghel''' 
Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].

'''League''' 
League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.

No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - "league on league" = tremendous masses

'''where the needles went and which way to rotate them''' 
I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.

==Page 555==

'''simpletons at the fair''' 
Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.

'''Chopin E-minor Nocturne''' 
Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)

'''owl-light''' 
???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.

''''plasmic hysteresis'''' 

A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape." Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis].

Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous
point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!]

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

ATD 525-556

2007-07-22T05:39:19Z

Chemiazrit: /* Page 544 */

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

==Page 525==

'''Ostend''' 
Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 521|page 521:Ostend]], a seaport in northwest Belgium. Among English-speaking tourists, Ostend (or Ostende) is best known as a ferry port. Ships have shuttled between Dover and Ostend for more than 150 years, and today's high-speed catamarans move hundreds of passengers and vehicles between these two ports in just two hours. But this thousand-year-old city is a popular beach resort with Belgians, who flock to Ostend for sun, surfing, sailing and the ''Kursaal'' (Casino). The fishing hardbor and old town draw many visitors. Ostend is the only Belgian coastal resort that is as lively in the summer as in the winter. For more and pictures [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend Ostend].

'''Fishermen's Quai''' 
Fishermen's Quay, also called De Trap. The shrimp boats come home here from the sea in the morning. Along the quay many stands sell lots of seafoods.

'''Boulevard van Isenghem''' 
A major thoroughfare in Ostend, locally called ''Van Iseghemlaan'', extending diagonally from seafront southwest through the city.

'''street-plausible''' 
Presentable.

'''Quai de l'empereur''' 
Since Ostende is in the Flemish part of Belgium this should be the Keizerskaai, a street along the old part of the harbour, 1919 renamed Vindictivelaan.

'''estaminet''' 
According to the OED - A café in which smoking is allowed. Now, any small establishment selling alcoholic liquor.

'''twelve-centime''' 
one centime is the French eqivalent of one cent. A twelve-centime beer would cost 12/100 of a franc.

'''Quaternions''' 
Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 130|page 130:Quaternions]]. Quaternions are a non-communtative extension of compelx numbers (Hamilton, 1843). 

Analogy with the complex numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 132:complex number]]) being represented as a sum of real and imaginary parts, a + b''i'', where ''i''² = −1, a quaternion is defined as a combination a + b''i'' + c''j'' + d''k'', where ''i''² = ''j''² = ''k''² = ''i j k'' = −1, and a, b, c, d are ''four'' explicit real numbers. The non-commutative property refers to ''i j = −j i = k; j k = −k j = i; k i = −i k = j''. (i.e. ''i j ≠ j i; j k ≠ k j; k i ≠ i k''; etc.) The using of ''i, j, k'', the imaginary numbers (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:imaginary number]]), led to the phrases of "the ''ijk'' lot" of page 533 and "creature of ''i-j-k''" of page 534.

'''Kellner''' 
German: waiter, barman. Use of the German word would be insulting to the Belgian barman.

'''''demi''''' 
A half-pint glass (25 centilitres, actually).

'''Lambic''' 
Pron. ''lahm-BEEK.'' Unique Belgian beer style, sour and often thin in body.

'''skimmer''' 
Straw hat ("Panama").

==Page 526==

'''biquaternion''' 
Or "octonion," an innovation of English mathematician W.K. Clifford, [[ATD_243-272#Page_249|referred to on p. 249.]]

'''Barry Nebulay''' 
Pun on a term from heraldry, ''barry nebuly.'' Barry (rhymes with "starry," not "carry") refers to a shield divided into an even number of parts by horizontal lines. Nebuly signals that the lines are deformed into stylized "cloud" shapes. [http://www.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/heraldry/partitions.html Here you can see an example.] If a ''British'' author had a character with a heraldic name, it would suggest a pseudonym.

'''University of Dublin''' 
The Alma Mater of Hamilton, the father of Quaternion. He studied, graduated and taught at Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland's oldest university.

If University College, Dublin, then Joyce had graduated in 1902. 

'''Quaternioneers''' 
Quaternion believers.

'''Gibbsian Vectors''' 
Vector Analysis (or Vector Calculus) developed by Willard Gibbs (Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]]) in 1881 and 1884. It is a branch of calculus that deals with vectors and process involving vectors. It is much more easily applied to phsics and other applied sciences than Hamilton's Quaternions (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]). 
A vector is defined by not only a magnitude but also a direction, such as a velocity vector, ''v'' is defined by ''v'' = a''i'' + b''j'' + c''k'',
where a, b, and c are the magnitudes of the velocity components in directions of ''i, j'' and ''k'' which are unit vectors, (not imaginary numbers as in Quaternion), with magnitude of 1. In three dimensional cases and ''xyz'' coordinate system is used then ''i, j, k'' are related to ''x, y, z'' directions ("''xyz'' people" of page 533); but they, in general, may be used irrespective of the notation of the coordinates.
Mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication), differentiation (''curl'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]] and p. 536, ''Laplacian'' — Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]] and p. 536, etc) and integration can be applied to vectors. It is interesting to know that one of the two multiplication operations is called cross product; for unit vectors (''i, j, k'') perpendicular to each other, then, ''i × i = j × j = k × k = 0'', ''i × j = k'', ''j × i = -k'', etc. ([http://web.mit.edu/wwmath/vectorc/summary.html Vector Calculus]). 
A simple vector anyalysis example here: if ''k'', the unit vector, stands for the direction upward and g is the gravitational acceleration, then the acceleration vector, ''a'', for a projectile, is defined for downward action, (the ''i'' and ''j'' directions have zero components): 
:''a'' = -g ''k'' 
Integrating ''a'' would give the velocity vector, ''v'' 
:''v'' = -g t ''k'' 
for zero initial velocity case, and t standing for time. 
And integrating ''v'' would yield the position vector, ''h'', for the projectile 
:''h'' = -½ g t² ''k'' 
toward the sea level.

'''Quaternionists''' 
Quaternion believers, same as Quaternioneers.

'''Tasmania''' 
Tasmania is an island of the southern coast of Australia. Known for its relative isolation, it was a prison for English convicts in the 1800s

'''Having been inseparable from the rise of the electromagnetic''' 
In his 1865 work ''The Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field'', James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism. He put forth twenty equations, with twenty unknowns, in vector form (though different in notation and form than the equations that now bear his name) that completely described all known electromagnetic phenomena. In his 1873 treatise on the subject, he expressed the equations in the mathematics of quaternions. It appears that the quaternion form of the equations remained popular even though, at the behest of his publisher, Maxwell reverted to the 1865 form in the second edition (1881)--though they remain scattered throughout. In 1892 Oliver Heaviside (On the Forces, Stresses, and Fluxes of Energy in the Electromagnetic Field. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.'' A, Vol. 183. pp423-480), while spewing scientific vitriol at the Quaternionists, reformulated Maxwell's original 1865 equations (Heaviside chose to remove the vector potential and scalar fields from the equations; the inclusion of these terms had served as Maxwell's justification for the use of quaternions), and provided the notation still in use today. See this [http://www.zpenergy.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=60 PDF] for the evolution of Maxwell's equations.

'''Hamiltonian devotees''' 
The Quaternion faction, after William Hamilton, who devised the scheme.

'''Grand Hôtel de la Nouvelle Digue''' 
There is a Hotel Digue in the Seychelles; this is a New Hotel Digue by Pynchon?

Grand Hotel of New Dyke, may be a made up hotel name.

'''anterooms of death''' 
This metaphor is sometimes applied to concentration camps. Here the lyric "feel like I'm fixin' to die" seems more apposite.

'''Belgian Art Nouveau''' 
Art Nouveau, 1890(or 80) to 1914, explores a new style in the visual arts and architecture that developed in Europe and North America at the end of the 19th century. At its height (~1907), Art Nouveau was a concerted attempt to create an international style based on decoration. It was developed by a brilliant and energetic generation of artists and desisgners, who sought to fashion an art form appropriate to the post-Industrial Revolution modern age. 
Brussels was one of the Art Nouveau centers and represented different style from the others. The jewelers there, accepted as artists rahter than craftsmen, (together with those in Paris) defined Art Nouveau in jewelery and achieved the most renown. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau Art Nouveau]).

==Page 527==

'''dossing''' 
British slang for "sleeping", "staying overnight"

'''Russian nihilists''' 
:The following four are local, Belgian, not Russian, nihilists !

'''Eugénie''' 
Female. Possibly named for Empress Eugénie (1826-1920), consort of French Emperor Napoleon III. Ultimately for St. Eugenia, 3rd-century Roman martyr whose feast is celebrated on December 25.

'''Fatou''' 
Female. A pseudonym? In view of the date of the action, certainly not named after [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatou the mathematician Fatou] (1878-1929).

'''Denis''' 
Male. Named for St. Denis or Dionysius, patron saint of Paris and of France, 3rd-century bishop of Paris, martyr, beheaded on the hill now called Montmartre. "Montjoie St. Denis!" was a warcry used by French troops in the Middle Ages. His intercession is effective against demonic possession and headache.

'''Policarpe''' 
Male. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarp Saint Polycarp] was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now İzmir in Turkey) in the second century. He was stabbed and died a martyr after an attempt to burn him at the stake failed. His intercession is sought against earache and dysentery.

'''Young Congo''' 
Probably in reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks Young Turks], a Turkish revolutionary movement

'''Garde Civique''' 
A part of the Belgian army. According to the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Belgium 1911 Britannica], "the mass of the garde civique does not pretend to possess military value. It is a defence against sedition and socialism."

'''French Second Bureau boys''' 
Deuxieme Bureau; French Intelligence.

'''''phalange''''' 
French: phalanx. A military (here mock-military) group ready for combat. 

It also conjures up memories of the early 19th century utopian socialist
Charles Fourier, who theorized that people should live communally in "phalanxes" of a specific number based upon their "passions." His solid ideas included equality of the sexes, but he also taught wacky things such as the moon being made of lemonade. Of particular relevance is his rejection of industrial civilization. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_socialism]

'''"...until something had happened, something too terrible to remember..."''' 
Again this theme of an unknowable past transgression, here invoked almost as if the unknown signifies the other 'lateral' (a word which has cropped up at least a dozen times already) 'vector'.

'''the Digue''' 
French for "dyke"

'''Congo... Belgians''' 
The Belgian colonisation of the Congo was, as Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' makes clear, notable for its greed and brutality.

'''Leopold, King of the Belgians''' 
1835-1909, reigned 1865-1909. A man of almost Nixonian fiendishness. In the Congo he acted as sole proprietor and absolute ruler. The positive outcomes of his exploitation include ''Heart of Darkness'' and the phrase "crime against humanity."

'''co-conscious''' 
mental processes outside the main stream of consciousness but sometimes available to it — from Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary.

'''Force Publique''' 
Belgian armed forces operating in the Belgian Congo ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia]). "King Leopold's private army" may be a more accurate description.

'''rubber worker''' 
See above: One of the early missions of the FP was to increase rubber export quotas through forced labor and related atrocities.

==Page 528==

'''''khâgne''''' 
an informal term used by French students for Classes Préparatoires Littéraires, the two-year cycle of classes taken after the Baccalaureat (taken at age 17-18), to prepare for the entrance examination to the Ecole Normale Supeieure. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh%C3%A2gne khâgne]).

'''Reclus''' 
J. J. Élisée Reclus (1830-1905), French geographer but mainly educated in Germany. Several times he was forced to leave France because of his political views; he traveled widely in Europe, the British Isles, the United States, and South America and for many years lived in Switzerland. He was professor of comparative geography at the University of Brussels from 1895 to 1905. He had quite an extensive connection with various socialist and anarchist circles (met Bakunin while in Florence).Once he was imprisoned in Versailles in 1871 for his part in the ''Paris Commune''. In 1882 he initiated the ''Anti-marriage movement'' while in Geneva. [[http://academic.reed.edu/formosa/texts/reclusbio.html Reclus]).

'''Stirnerite''' 
Follower of Max Stirner, 19th century German philosopher and author of ''The Ego and Its Own,'' a work influential in anarchist thought. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner Wikipedia entry].

''Max Stirner'''s (1806-56) attacks on systematic philosophy, his denial of absulutes, and his rejection of abstract concepts of any kind often places him among the first philosophical nihilists. For Stirner, achieving individual freedom is the only law; and the state, which necvessarily imperils freedom, must be destroyed. Even beyond the oppression of the state, though, are the constraints imposed by others because their very existence is an obstable compromising individual freedom. Thus Stirner argues that existence is an endless "war of each against all" (1845). (taken from the paragraph about Max Stirner in [http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm#H1 Nihilism]) 
Sourcing here? Much complexity in properly understanding Stirner, who has some Pynchon-like qualities, to say the least. From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy 
His major work:
The Ego and Its Own
Much of Stirner's prose—which is crowded with aphorisms, italicisation, and hyperbole—appears calculated to disconcert. Most striking, perhaps, is the use of word play. Rather than reach a conclusion through the conventional use of argument, Stirner often approaches a claim that he wishes to endorse by exploiting words with related etymologies or formal similarities. For example, he associates words for property (such as ‘Eigentum’) with words connoting distinctive individual characteristics (such as ‘Eigenheit’) in order to promote the claim that property is expressive of selfhood. (Stirner's account of egoistic property—see below—gives this apparently orthodox Hegelian claim a distinctive twist.)

This rejection of conventional forms of intellectual discussion is linked to Stirner's substantive views about language and rationality. His unusual style reflects a conviction that both language and rationality are human products which have come to constrain and oppress their creators. Stirner maintains that accepted meanings and traditional standards of argumentation are underpinned by a conception of truth as a privileged realm beyond individual control. As a result, individuals who accept this conception are abandoning a potential area of creative self-expression in favour of adopting a subordinate role as servants of truth. In stark contrast, Stirner insists that the only legitimate restriction on the form of our language, or on the structure of our arguments, is that they should serve our individual ends. It is the frequent failure of ordinary meanings and standard forms of argument to satisfy his interpretation of this criterion which underpins Stirner's remorselessly idiosyncratic style.

The Ego and Its Own has an intelligible, but scarcely transparent, structure. It is organised around a tripartite account of human experience, initially introduced in a description of the stages of an individual life. The first stage in this developmental narrative is the realistic one of childhood, in which children are constrained by material and natural forces such as their parents. Liberation from these external constraints is achieved with what Stirner calls the self-discovery of mind, as children find the means to outwit those forces in their own determination and cunning. The idealistic stage of youth, however, contains new internal sources of constraint, as individuals once more become enslaved, this time to the spiritual forces of conscience and reason. Only with the adulthood of egoism do individuals escape both material (external) and spiritual (internal) constraints, learning to value their personal satisfaction above all other considerations.

Stirner portrays this dialectic of individual growth as an analogue of historical development, and it is a tripartite account of the latter which structures the remainder of the book. Human history is reduced to successive epochs of realism (the ancient, or pre-Christian, world), idealism (the modern, or Christian, world), and egoism (the future world).

What about these "successive epochs" in understanding ATD?

Stirner's major work, The Ego and Its Own has been reissued in English a number of times in Pynchon's lifetime,from the 60s on. (Not that TRP could not have read it in German!)

'''''Anarcho-individualiste''''' 
i.e. he has doctrinal differernces with Stirnerism, strictly speaking; see P. 324, and "Eigenheit".

'''Leopold''' 
See p. 527.

'''going down lately''' 
Being assassinated.

'''Sipido''' 
Jean-Baptiste Sipido (1884-1959), a Belgian socialist. Accusing the Prince of Wales of causing thousands of inocents were killed in the Boer War in South Africa, on April 5, 1900, Sipido leaped onto the foot board of the royal compartment right before the train left the North Railway Station (Gare du Nord), Brussel, and fired two (or one? as reported in ''The Manchester Guardian'', or four? as stated in the text here) shots through the window but missed everyone inside. He was arrested, tried and acquitted. The leader of the House of Commons called the acquittal a "grave and most unfortunate miscarriage of justice." ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Sipido Sipido]).

'''Prince... of Wales''' 
(Maud Gonne's husband claimed to have been involved in another such plot.)

'''Hippodrome''' 
Hippodrome Wellington, a horse racing track in Ostend built in 1883. The facility hosts both harness and flat racing events. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippodrome_Wellington Hippodrome]).

'''Royal Bathing Hut... twenty francs''' 
A bathing machine ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathing_machine bathing machine])? The King of Belgium certainly would not want to be seen in a swimsuit on a public beach... It seems unlikely, though, that such a royal bathing machine would be for hire.

'''twenty francs''' 
???

==Page 529==

'''picric family''' 
The explosive picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) and its derivatives. For picric acid, Brugère's powder and Designolle's powder, [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PER_PIG/PICRIC_ACID_or_TRINITROPHENOL_C.html see this Britannica article.]

'''Brugère's powder''' 
See "picric family" above.

'''Designolle's''' 
See "picric family" above.

'''Monsieur Santos-Dumont''' 
Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), a pioneer of aviation from Brasil. Check out [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont Wikipedia] to get a look at the way he was wearing his "trademark Panama hat".

'''Green Hour''' and '''''l'heure vertigineuse''''' 
Absinthe-drinking time. The liqueur is green. In French, ''l'heure verte,'' so ''vertigineuse'' (vertiginous, causing dizziness) is a pun on the word for "green."

'''Rocco and Pino''' 
Rabid Quaternionists and sudden friends of Kit Traverse.
:No, they were not mathematicians at all, let alone Quaternionists, but two "Italian naval renegades" !!
::"Rocco and Pino" are, in temperament, something like the "Mason and Dixon" of manned-torpedoes... cf. the "torpedo" (i.e., "Electrick-Eel") of ''Mason & Dixon''.

'''Whitehead works in Fiume''' 
Anticipating GR's V2 works.

''Robert Whitehead'' (1823-1905), an English engineer. He developed the first self-propelled torpedo in 1866. He attended Manchester's Mechanics Institute, worked in a shipyard in Toulon (1844), France, and as a consultant engineer in Milan (1847), Italy. Later he moved to Trieste and in 1856 became a manager of a company called ''Founderia Mettali'' (later, ''Stabilimento Tecnico di Fiume'') in Fiume producing ship steam boilers and engines which were the most advanced of that era. He also developed the first self-propelled torpedo which was very popular. Whitehead's torpedo was propelled by a compressed air engine, carried 18lbs dynamites and a self-regulating device which kept the torpedo cruising at a constant preset depth. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Whitehead Whitehead]].

''Fiume'' is now Rijeka, Croatia. Trieste is on the northwestern edge of the Istra Peninsula, Rijeka is east of it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rijeka Fiume]].

Interesting sidebar: Whitehead's fortune from Fiume and the torpedo went solely to his granddaughter Agatha Whitehead, who married Baron von Trapp. The Von Trapp money came from Robert Whitehead, and most of the von Trapp singers were his great-grandchildren.

'''''Alberta''''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_yacht Wikipedia] entry on royal yachts goes back to the 17th century but doesn't include ''Alberta.'' The craft does get a mention in [http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/people/nr_leopoldmorel.htm this page on Leopold and the Congo.]

'''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa''' 
or S.L.C. "slow course torpedo", "slow-running torpedo". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_torpedo Wikipedia] Italy‘s Navy was among the first to experiment with manned torpedos. Though according to [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/chariots.html this site] this did not happen until 1935, Italian frogmen as early as October 31, 1918 made it into the harbour of Pula with the help of a modified german torpedo and sank the former Austrian but by then since a few hours Croatian/Slovenian/Bosnian battleship SMS ''Viribus Unitis''. [http://www.geocities.com/tegetthoff66/viribus.html website]

The Wikipedia entry linked above doesn't contain the Italian word ''dirigibile'' (steerable), which sets up the torpedo as a counterpart of the dirigible ''Inconvenience.''

:I suspect there's a connection between the torpedo and "Not the usual lateener, in fact appearing to have neither sails, masts, nor oars" in Miles' reversed vision, [[ATD_243-272#Page_250|page 250.]] Needs work, though.

==Page 530==

'''exfiltrate''' 
Make a surreptitious escape (as "infiltrate" means to make a surreptitious entrance).

'''''Macchè''''' 
Italian: certainly not, not a chance. And in Pynchon's Italian is used as an all-purpose exclamation.

'''''Ehi, stu gazz', categoria''''' 
Stu gazz' is a dialect representation of ''sto cazzo'', literally meaning ''this dick here''. Normally you could translate the sense of the sentence as: ''yeah, why not, a fucking category! ''. -- blicero2 - 2007.02.22

'''''mezzogiornismo''''' 
Denigrating the Italian South. Mezzogiorno means ''midday'' in Italian but refers generally to Southern Italy.

==Page 531==

'''Bruges''' 
An exceptionally beautiful Belgian town of canals which is thus one of several towns known as the 'Venice of the north'. In the 14th cettury Burges already became an international finanacial and trading center, but
started to decline in the 15th century. In the 20th century, however, the city was discovered by the international tourism and the medieval heritage turned out to be a new source of wealth. A new harbor of Zeebrugge, 10 miles outside of Bruges at the North Sea coast, brought new developments and new industries to the region. For the city and its history see ([http://www.trabel.com/brugge.htm Bruges]).

'''Raoul's Atelier de la Vitesse''' 
French: Ralph's Speed Shop.

'''Ghent''' 
Belgian city, less than 30 miles southeast of Bruges, on the rail line about halfway between Ostend and Brussels. It is the fourth largest city of Belgium. It is bigger than Bruges but not as famous as a tourist attraction. But the city is a showcase of medieval Flemish wealth and commercial success. See ([http://www.trabel.com/gent.htm Ghent]).

'''Daimler six-cylinder''' 
???

'''a hundred horsepower''' 
???

'''''guaglion''''' 
italian (dialectal) = boy, young person

'''Umeki Tsurigane''' 
Umeki is typically made with some combination of the various kanji for "plum" (ume) and "tree" (ki), though one has the ki being the character for "ghost/devil" and one obscure reading that's entirely redundant, where ume is "plant" (usually read ue). There is one where ume is the kanji for "buried or embedded". Tsurigane, means a "temple bell", which can stand alone or be followed by the grass kanji to mean "bellflower" (lots of botanical stuff happening here, if that means anything; hardly the only example in ''AtD''). Given the search for Shambhala going on, "Buried Temple Bell" seems a likely translation, at least at this point; the botanical meanings could perhaps emerge later.

Or, another terrible name-pun? "You make [m]e sore again." See another on P. [[ATD_748-767#Page_757| 757]]

'''Professor Knott''' 
Cargill Knott (1856-1922), professor of physics; seismologist. See his biography [http://www.penicuikcdt.org.uk/Cargill_Knott.html here].

==Page 532==

'''Kimura''' 
Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Kimura]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318:Shunkichi Kimura]].

'''drover's sombrero''' 
Cowboy hat.

'''furoshiki''' 
Japanese all-purpose cloth. Can be worn, used as wrapping, or used as a bag.

'''taupe''' 
A brownish gray.

'''boilermakers and their helpers''' 
[[ATD_358-373#Page_360|See annotation to p. 360.]]

'''Anharmonic Pencil''' 
''Pencil'' is a term commonly used in Synthetic Geometry. Straight lines incident with a plane - coplanar lines - and passing through a common point are said to be concurrent lines and the set of all such concurrent coplanar lines is called the ''pencil''. (Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 456|page 456:Pencil]]). For a figure and a not quite precise definition see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Pencil.html pencil]. If a, b, c and d, are four distinct coplanar lines and their double ratio λ = (abcd) = -1, then a, b, c, d are called a harmonic quadruple of lines; they are said to constitute a ''harmonic pencil''. A ''pencil'' which is not harmonic then is known as ''anharmonic pencil''. See Pencil (lines 8-9), Double Ratio λ (lines 32-35) and Harmonic Pencil (line 39) of [http://ca.geocities.com/ingsaler6/mathworld.html Mathworld].

'''''Comptes rendus''''' 
''Comptes rendus des séances hebdomadaires,'' Proceedings of the weekly sessions (of the Academy of Sciences), published from 1835, later (ca. 1935) retitled ''Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences,'' Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. (Notice that the academy didn't see the need to specify "French." Take that, Royal Society of London!) For about a century, one of two journals so universally circulated and recognized that bibliographies nearly always cited them in nickname form: ''C.R.'' The other was ''Ber.,'' short for ''Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft,'' Reports of the German Chemical Society (from 1868).

'''De Forest''' 
Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:De Forest]].

'''Gibbs''' 
Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29:Professor Gibbs]].

'''Maxwell Equations''' 
Cf [[ATD_57-80#Page 58|page 58:Maxwell Field Equations]].

==Page 533==

'''aniline teal''' 
The wallpaper dye; aniline dyes were the first synthetic dyes, discovered by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Perkin William Perkin] in 1858. Their intense and fade-resistant colors were very fashionable at the end of the nineteenth century. The dyes are also significant in ''GR'' as the products of I.G. Farben.

'''Heavisiders''' 
Oliver Heaviside (May 18, 1850 – February 3, 1925) was a self-taught English electrical engineer, mathematician and physicist who adapted complex numbers to the study of electrical circuits, developed techniques for applying Laplace transforms to the solution of differential equations, reformulated Maxwell's field equations in terms of electric and magnetic forces and energy flux, and independently co-formulated vector analysis. Although at odds with the scientific establishment for most of his life, Heaviside changed the face of mathematics and science for years to come.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaviside].

'''Grassmanniacs''' 
Nineteenth century German mathematician and linguist, essentially the inventor/discoverer of vector space. Grassmann showed that once geometry is put into the algebraic form he advocated, then the number three has no privileged role as the number of spatial dimensions; the number of possible dimensions is in fact unbounded.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann].

'''in the mood for a clambake''' 
Anachronistic Broadway show tune? If so, the clambake in ''Carousel'' turns into a brawl; the assmebled factions of mathematicians could be in the mood for either a party or a brawl, apparently.

'''Monopole de la Maison''' 
Monopole of the House, a fanciful name of a fanciful drink. 
There is, since 1898, a well known restaurant called ''Monopole Lunch & Sea Grill'' in Plattsburgh of upper New York state. ([http://www.monopole.org Monopole Restaurant]). 
Most probably, it's the Magnetic monopole being referred here. In physics, a monopole is a magnet with a net magnetic charge, i.e. there is only one pole instead of two (so no net magnetic charge) as usual. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole Monopole]). It's existence had been theoretically predicted by various particle theories (superstring theory, etc) but never been proved experimentally. Proving the existence of a monopole would certainly earn a Nobel Prize.

'''Idiom Neutral''' 
An invented language, like Esperanto. Idiom Neutral dictionaries first appeared in 1902. It looks like a simplified Latinate language and it grew out of Volapuk, another "auxiliary language." It was abandoned by the ''Akademi Internasional de Lingu Universal'' in 1908.

For a list of all the invented languages that linguists are keeping track of, including Klingon, try [http://linguistlist.org/forms/langs/GetListOfConstructedLgs.html Eastern Michigan's Linguist List]. And don't forget to click on the link to "Browse sites devoted to constructed languages."

'''phatic''' 
Basically, small talk or chatter. Words used to convey fellow-feeling rather than to impart information.

'''''Kampf ums Dasein''''' 
German: struggle for existence.

'''Q-brother''' 
Fellow Quaternioneer or Fellow Quaternionist.

'''We are the Jews of mathematics, wandering out here in our diaspora--some destined for the past, others the future, even a few able to set out at unknown angles from the simple line of Time, upon journeys that no one can predict''' 
In keeping with the analogy of Judaism, those "few" people within the Quaternionists "able to set out at unknown angles" are most likely being compared to Kabbalists who claim to partake in a mystic "journey to the Throne of God through the mythological realm of the seven heavens" (Armstrong, A History of God--p. 247). Throne Mysticism in Kabbalah is explored extensively in Gravity's Rainbow.

Perhaps this is obvious to some, but these "Jews of Mathematics" worship the Hamiltonian Tetractys [http://www.math.ucr.edu/home/baez/dublin/]; those other Jews worshipped the Tetragrammatron. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton] The proliferation of 4s continues.

==Page 534==

'''Poiret gown''' 
A gown designed by Paul Poiret (1879-1944), a French fashion designer based in Paris. "In the annals of fashion history, Paul Poiret is best remembered for freeing women from corsets and further liberating them through pantaloons . . . it was Poiret's remarkable innovations in the cut and construction of cloting . . . Working with fabric directly onto the body, Poiret helped to pioneer a radical approach to dressmakeing that relied more on the skills of drapery than on those of tailoring." (from [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0DC3D00F-4611-4F91-8DC2-CC3C1A5C48D5} MetMuseum],
New York Metropolitan Museum's Special Exhibitions, ''Poiret: King of Fashion'', May 9, 2007 to August 5, 2007). For a picture of Poiret gown see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Poiretgown.jpg Poiret Gown]. ''The New York Times'' reported on February 1, 2007 that A Poiret Gown Brings $5,500 at [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07EFDA1538F93AA15756C0A967948260 Christie's Auction] - the gown was made in 1913 when Poiret was at the height of his career. For his bio see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Poiret Poiret].

'''''green and long''''' 
Pickle, or... what?
: A green and long ''gherkin'' (a small, immature fruit of a variety of cucumber used in pickling).

==Page 535==

'''no-name wine''' 
1970s idiom for common European practice?

'''set theory''' 
Set theory deals with the properties of well-defined collections, or ''sets'', of entities - the ''elements'' or ''members'' of the set - conceived as a whole. The elements may be of a mathematical nature or non-mathematical. The set theory grew out of the German mathematician Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) study of infinite sets of real numbers.

The ''language of sets'' has become an important tool for all branches of mathematics, but is of very little relevance to the practice of mathematics in everyday life. As a source of metaphors, however, it's been quite productive; "subset," "superset," "universe," "intersection" and "Venn diagram" have found varying degrees of acceptance. Recasting Aristotle's syllogisms in set-theoretic language also makes them easier for many people to understand.

'''Hamilton . . . early genius''' 
Hamilton, according to ''Chambers Biographical Dictionary'', "at fifteen knew thirteen languages, had read Newton's ''Principia'', and commenced original investigations". At twenty-two, "while still an undergraduate, he was appointed professor of Astronomy at Dublin and Irish Astronomer-Royal"; at thirty "he was knighted".

'''Hamilton . . . in the grip of a first love''' 
??? 
Pynchon probably didn't mean Quaternion was Hamilton's first love, but its effect on him was similar to that of a first love. In 1843 at the age of 38 Hamilton invented the Quaternion, the first non-communtative algebra to be studied. He felt this would revolutionise mathematical physics, and he spent the rest of his life working on it. In 1853 he published a large volume, ''Lectures on Quaternions'', on his grand invention. The last seven years of his life, Hamilton was writing an 800-page book ''Elements of Quaternions'' modeling on Euclid's ''Elements''. The last chapter of the book was completed by his son after his death.

'''the Walt Whitman of English physics''' 
Whitman pops up again, last seen on [[ATD_489-524#Page_491|page 491]].

==Page 536==

'''Oscar Wilde''' 
Note that Wilde's Dorian Gray also undergoes a kind of bilocation.

'''Kursaal''' 
Spa. Casino ?

'''vectors''' 
For serious minds see Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]], but let's follow Pynchon's lighter mood, here is a non-mathematical definition by Kamen (1995):
:''Many things have more than direction;''
:''The magnitude is also a question.''
:''With acceleration or force,''
:''And many more things, of course,''
:''It's vectors that make the connection.''

'''Curls''' 
Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Curl]]: curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.

'''Laplacians''' 
Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (March 23, 1749 – March 5, 1827); French mathematician and astronomer who summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799-1825), translating the geometrical study of mechanics used by Isaac Newton to one based on calculus, known as physical mechanics.

He is also the discoverer of Laplace's equation. Although the Laplace transform is named in honor of Laplace, who used the transform in his work on probability theory, the transform was discovered originally by Leonhard Euler. The Laplace transform appears in all branches of mathematical physics — a field he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, much relied-upon in applied mathematics, is likewise named after him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace].

:Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 326|page 326:Laplacian]]: Laplacian is a differential operator named after Laplace. The text here was talking about mathematical operations and operators — rates of change, rotations, partial differentials, Curls, ''Laplacians'', . . .

'''scream''' 
Scream motif.

'''beginning to appal''' 
By 1905 there had been years of outrage at conditions in the Belgian Congo, King Leopold's private fief. Conrad's ''Heart of Darkness'' had been published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in 1899 and as a book in 1902. There were missionaries' accounts of the brutality, and newspaper reports. Leopold and his apologists published rebuttals. The Norton Critical Edition of ''Heart of Darkness'' contains an extensive collection of both.

'''baize''' 
Baize is a coarse woolen felt.

==Page 537==

'''broken symmetries''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_symmetry Broken symmetry] is a concept used widely in mathematics and physics. For a simplest explanation (good enough for the text here), this term means that an object breaks either rotational symmetry or translational sysmetry - when one can only rotate an object in certain angles or when one is able to tell if the object has been shifted sideways. For a little bit more detailed explanation see [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/OrderParameters/BrokenSymmetry.html Identify the Broken Symmetry]; or even more [http://scienceweek.com/2005/sw050708-6.htm On Broken Symmetry].

'''''sphinxe Khnopffienne''''' 
refers to the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), famous for his painting "The Caress", in which a female sphinx erotically lures a young man. The painting can be seen in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff wikipedia entry]

'''Pléiade Lafrisée''' 
in French, "friser" means to curl or twist. "La frisée" could mean "curled," by extension "twisted." The Pleiades is a cluster of hundreds of stars, though only a few are visible, sometimes referred to as The Seven Sisters. If Pleiades are Sisters, Pléiade is ''one'' Sister, so her name means Twisted Sister!

'''''Conseilleuse''''' 
Female consultant?

==Page 538==

'''retroversion matrix''' 
???

'''''Ma foi''''' 
Literally "My faith", i.e. "By my faith!", a mild exclamation of incredulity.

'''ten thousand francs''' 

Based on currency conversions relative to gold, this is equivalent to
about $30,000 US today.

'''piker''' 
Someone cheap or cautious, possibly named after people from PIke County, Missouri, who came to California in the 1800s, looking for work. They were poor, hence cheap.

'''what is a Quaternino?''' 
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]] for a mathematical definition. From ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Languages'', The Unabridged Edition (1966): Quaternion is "a quantity or operator expressed as the sum of a real number and three complex numbers, equivalent to the ''quotient of two vectors''. The field of quaternions is not commutative under multiplication.".

'''Bertie ('Mad Dog') Russell''' 
Mad Dog ??? 

[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html Bertrand Russell] (1872-1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician and social critic. Best known for his work in mathermatical logic and analytic philosophy. In late spring of 1901 he discovered the so-called [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/russell-paradox/ Russell Paradox], "the most famous of the logical or set-theoretical paradoxes. The paradox arises within naive set theory by considering the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. Such a set appears to be a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, hence the paradox." (On-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature in "recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thouhgt".

'''Hegel... puns''' 
Probably refers to the fact that quite a lot of Hegel's philosophy deals with the is-ness of the world as we know and experience it.

==Page 539==

'''a vector quotient''' 
The result of one vector divided by another. According to the English dictionary definition of previous page this is just a Quaternion.

'''unit vector''' 
Unit vector is a vector with magnitude of one. The unit vectors in 3-dimensional space, ''i, j, k'', associated with ''x, y, z'' directions are used in defining a general 3D vector (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 526|page 526:Gibbsian Vectors]]).

'''''square root of minus one''''' 
Imaginary number (Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 132|page 133:Imaginary Number]]). The imaginary numbers ''i, j, k'' are used in defining a Quaternion (Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 525|page 525:Quaternions]]).

''''Triangle Asana'''' 
A basic yoga pose.

[http://yoga.org.nz/postures/yoga_positions_images_page.htm Here are images of several basic poses.]

''''Dr Rao abruptly vanished'''' 
Might be a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner Martin Gardner]'s
[http://www.amazon.com/No-Sided-Professor-Fantasy-Mystery-Philosophy/dp/0879753900 "No-Sided Professor"]

''''Quadrantal Versor Asana'''' 
A triangle pose taken that extra dimension.

'''''"Uwe moer!"''''' 
Looks a lot like the Dutch "Uw moeder!" - a cry of astonishment ("Your mother!").

'''noncommutative''' 
A term typical to mathematics. A commutative equation is one that can operate in exact reverse and still yield the same results. 'Noncommutative' then suggests unidirectionality. The ability to go from point A to point B, but not from B to A.

'''reticule''' 
A woman's drawstring handbag; usually made of net or beading or brocade; also: A system of lines forming a pattern of squares at the focal plane of a telescope, used in micrometers.
[http://www.astunit.com/tutorials/glossary.htm]
:Isn't that sort of a red herring? "[P]roducing from her reticule a . . . watch" doesn't really allow of that second meaning. 
:It could be a pun, since a reticule/ handbag always shows its pattern of lines, and a watch (timepiece) is drawn from it. Remember that, e.g. railroad lines of tracks, are a sign of industrialism encroaching on the natural and the spiritual.

'''Vacheron & Constantin watch''' 
Made by a Swiss company founded in 1755. From 1819 to 1970 the name was as in the text, then the & dropped out. See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacheron_Constantin Wikipedia entry.]

'''hunting-case''' 
For a pocket watch, a case with a hinged metal cover. More often called "hunter case" (and such a watch a "hunter").

==Page 540==

'''"haar rekening, ja?"''' 
The bill, yes? (Dutch)?

''Her'' bill, yes? I.e., give the check to the lady.

Given the presence of Chris 'Kit' Traverse here, this very much suggests a reference to Christopher 'Kit' Marlowe, Elizabethan poet, playwright and contemporary of Shakespeare. Marlowe was stabbed to death in 1593, in murky circumstances, ostensibly over a bill or 'reckoning', though he was widely believed to have been involved in some form of espionage.

Strictly speaking "haar rekening" means that the lady pays for herself only. If Root wanted to make sure that Pléiade pays for the whole company he would have to say "de hele rekening voor de dame".

'''Piet Woevre''' 
The Woëvre is a natural region of Lorraine in north-east France. It forms part of Lorraine plateau and lies largely in the department of Meuse. During World War I, there was much fighting there due to vast mineral resources that had been discovered in the Briey basin or Eastern Woevre at the end of the 19th century. "Piet" is Dutch for "rock" or "stone" and is a fairly common Dutch name, the English equivalent being Peter.

If the surname is pronounced as in Dutch, Woevre is another Pynchon villain with a "V"-name (Vond, Weissman, Vibe).

'''Force Publique''' 
The Force Publique (FP) was the official armed force for what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885, (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of direct Belgian rule (1908-60), until the beginning of the Second Republic in 1965. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Publique Wikipedia entry]

'''made him reach''' 
Possible allusion to a famous line, "When I hear the word culture I reach for my gun." From Hanns Johst's biographical play ''Schlageter''. The original line is slightly different: "Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning," "Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!" (Act 1, Scene 1). It is spoken by another character in conversation with the young Schlageter. In the scene Schlageter and his wartime comrade Friedrich Thiemann are studying for a college examination, but then start disputing whether it's worthwhile doing so when the nation is not free.

The line is often misattributed to better-known Nazis and others [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst].

*In Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film [http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/0997/09057.html ''Le Mépris'' (''Contempt'')], Jack Palance's character "Jeremy Prokosch," an American movie-producer, intones to Fritz Lang: "Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my checkbook."

'''not unambiguous''' 
Ie, ambiguous.

'''''rastaquoueres''''' 
8???

'''de Decker''' 
In Dutch/Flemish, the name means "roofer." (''De'' in these names almost never means "of, from" as in French; it's nearly always the definite article.)

==Page 541==

'''''bobbejaan''''' 
Afrikaans: baboon. (Afrikaans is the language spoken by descendants of Dutch colonists in present-day South Africa. Some items identified as Dutch or Flemish in this wiki may really be Afrikaans.)

The South African song "Bobbejaan klim die berg" ("Bobbejaan climbed the hill") is the source of the stage name of Belgium's most famous country and western musician, Bobbejaan Schoepen (b. 1925). In 1943 he was suppressed by the Nazis after performing a South African song, "Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê" ("Mama, I want a man"), which contains the line "No, Mama, I don't want a German, because I don't like pork." He founded the Bobbejaanland theme park in Belgium, where he still lives.

'''MKIV/ODC... Mark Four''' 
This would be the Mark IV Ohmic Drift Compensator ([[ATD 557-587#Page 565|Page 565]]), a key component of the Q-weapon, 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!'"

'''not part of your remit''' 
Not included in your job description, instructions, authorization. "Remit" (noun) is usually a British usage.

'''''gatkruiper''''' 
Dutch/Flemish: brownnose, ass-kisser.

'''one on her wrist''' 
All the bruises reflect some refinement or artistry except this one, which may have been inflicted crudely.

'''over the day''' 
Title motif?

==Page 542==

'''trans-horizontic''' 
???
Across the horizon -- " a screaming comes across the sky"

'''Edmund Whittaker''' 
Edmund Whittaker (1873-1956), an English mathematician. He is best known for his work in numerical analysis. And he contributed widely to applied mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of special functions. He also worked on celestial mechanics and the history of applied mathermatics and physics. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._T._Whittaker Whittaker]).

The Sir Edmund Whittaker Memorial Prize is awarded every four years by the Edinburgh Mathematical Society to an outstanding young mathematician having a specified connection with Scotland [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Edmund_Whittaker_Memorial_Prize].

'''louche''' 
The cloudy effect caused by the addition of water to absinthe. Dictionary definition: "of questionable taste or morality; decadent."

'''cheval-glass''' 
Standing mirror in a freestanding vertical frame.

'''as if someone''' 
Sound-cancelling vs opacity-cancelling?

==Page 543==

'''wraith of Pleiade Lafrisee'''

Pleiade manifests one of her not-visible stars. Perhaps this sister has somehow twisted herself on an imaginary axis ala Dr. V. Ganesh Rao.

'''monitory''' 
Warning, giving advice, by extension ominous or menacing.

'''Against....the day....'''
Note: this phrase happens at the exact halfway point of the novel: p.542.3

'''He Who Must Come''' 
The evil-doer who must come might be Adolf Hitler. It would make sense. The implication being that Europe is precipitating into a no-return situation. Capitalism cannot but end in WW2. 
Ah, a lot more and less than capitalism going on here, especially if anyone specific like Hitler is meant.
:When French writers use this phrase (''celui qui doit venir'') they '''do''' mean the Messiah . . . although a few devout quibblers point out that the Messiah has already come. It's rather tiresome Googling the phrase; the first 83 hits definitely refer to Christ and most of them quote the first verses of Matthew 11. But there's also a Camus reference (in English, I think) down at No. 90, if anyone has a JSTOR account:
:links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0361-1299(1985)39%3A4%3C251%3ACFS%22M%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X

Recalls Yeats' 'The Second Coming' once again: "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/05/casino-royale-in-flanders-field.html#c3637134446204467798 ]

'''General Boulanger''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Boulanger Georges Boulanger], French military man, and War Minister in the late 19th century. He was one of those men "on a white horse" that some conservatives looked to, as he urged an attack on Germany and the end of the French Republic with a return to monarchy. He was also notorious for his harsh reprisals against workers' demonstrations. "'Boulangisme'" threatened a coup in 1889, but the general's procrastination brought the crisis to an end.

'''what death and what transfiguration''' 
Allusion to Richard Strauss' tone poem "Death and Transfiguration" (''Tod und Verklärung''), premiered in 1890.

'''''"Zeker"''''' 
Dutch: certainly.

'''''dead cert''''' 
Dead certainty, sure thing.

'''Von Schlieffen''' 
Alfred von Schlieffen was the author of a German war plan to win a two-front war against both France and Russia by quickly defeating France before Russian troops could be mobilized. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan Schlieffen Plan] included an attack on France through Belgium, disregarding its neutrality.

'''Wilhelm has offered Leopold part of France, the ancient Duchy of Burgundy''' 
[http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-bg.html History of the duchy.] [http://www.freiburg-madison.de/freiburg_history/1386-1517_The%20Early%20Habsburgs.htm Map,] with portrait of Duke Charles the Rash.

'''lowlands''' 
Title of Pynchon's first published story. Here, ass?

==Page 544==

'''Place d'Armes''' 
Main square of Ostend; literally "drill field".

'''peau de soie''' 
"Skin of silk" A heavy, smooth satin with very fine ribbing; somewhat dull in sheen compared with traditional silk finishes.

'''Krafft-Ebing''' 
Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, Austro-German psychiatrist and author of ''Psychopathia Sexualis'' (1886), a pioneering study of deviant sexual behavior and fetishism. Coined both ''sadism'' and ''masochism'' as terms for these respective behaviors. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Freiherr_von_Krafft-Ebing Wikipedia entry].

'''toque''' 
Toque here refers to a lady's hat, originally of fur but here in velvet, which is rather like a flattened chef's hat in shape.

Proust: in ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' the narrator first sees Albertine wearing a toque. There seem to be quite a few Proust themes and references running throughout the novel. Indeed '''Pliade''' is the French publisher of Proust's works.

'''guipure''' 
Lace trim.

'''midinette''' 
A shopgirl or dressmakers apprentice. A milliner

'''sous''' 

Coins. Originally Roman gold coins, latterly any kind of coin.

Specifically small change. She is affecting modesty by claiming that a hat like hers can be had for pennies in any unpretentious shop. In France "sou is used as slang for money, as in ''sans le sou''. 'I'm broke', 'without money'. It is also a slang term for the Canadian cent (standard French, cent)." ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sou Wikipedia])

'''mayonnaise''' 
Brautigan's "Trout Fishing in America" famously ends with the word mayonnaise. [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0395500761&id=rbEjDovfyNMC&pg=RA2-PA111&lpg=RA2-PA111&ots=ELKl5b_6Tx&dq=mayonnaise+trout.fishing&num=100&sig=BiyXRqJXRGrMWbrBNgn8de2kpCo#PRA2-PA112,M1 GoogleBooks]

'''ovoöleaginous''' 
Another Pynchonic word combination, here denoting the two main ingredients of mayonnaise: 1) eggs, and 2) oil. It's not "fecoventilatory collision" as seen in "Vineland," but it's nice.

'''Grenache''' 
Grape commonly used in Rhone Valley wines e.g. Chateauneuf du Pape.

'''Chantilly''' 

Region north of Paris.

Here the reference is to crème chantilly otherwise known as whipped cream. Chantilly mayonnaise is made by incorporating the beaten egg whites for extra lightness.

'''attainder''' 
Legislative act declaring that a person is guilty of a crime and setting punishment without the benefit of a formal trial. The Constitution forbids the federal government (Article I, Section 9, clause 3) and the state governments (Article I, Section 10, clause 1) from passing bills of attainder.
[www.historycentral.com/Civics/B.html]

''''''Aux armes, citoyens'''''' 
''To arms, citizens'', from the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise'' (1792). Kit confused La Mayonnaise with La Marseillaise. 
Not "Le Marseillaise," you nitwit!

'''Louis XV''' 
King of France 1715-1774 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XV].

'''Cléo de Mérode''' 
Glamorous French ballerina (1875-1966), later Follies Bergere dancer and famous beauty. Her reputed intimacy with King Leopold was only a rumor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_de_Merode]. The character Madame Leonora Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim's ''A Little Night Music'' has some features in common with her.

'''Marquise de Pompadour''' 
Mistress of Louis XV,once friend of Voltaire and a power behind official scenes.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour].

==Page 545==

'''duc de Richelieu''' 
Duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), marshal of France, was a grandnephew of Cardinal Richelieu, and born in Paris. Apart from his reputation as a man of exceptionally loose morals, he attained, in spite of a defective education, distinction as a diplomatist and general. ([http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Louis_Francois_Armand_du_Plessis,_duc_de_Richelieu duc de Richelieu] and cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 490|page 490:duc de Richelieu]])

'''dubious 'victory' in 1756''' 
As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), duc de Richelieu (1696-1788), a Marshal of France, won a victory in the Battle of Minorca (May 20, 1756) over John Byng (1704-1757), a British Admiral. In spring of 1756 John Byng was sent with a small and undermanned fleet to relieve the British ''Port Mahon'' on the Mediterranean island of Minorca. During the battle ensued, several British ships were badly damaged by the French squadron while others, including Byng's flagship, were still out of effective firing range. Instead of engaging the enemy directly, Byng decided to keep the formation, allowing the French fleet to get away undamaged. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Minorca Battle of Minorca]).

'''the ill-fated Admiral Byng''' 
John Byng, convicted by court-martial of failure "to do his utmost" in the battle, shot in 1757. Remembered because of (1) his being the last officer of flag rank to be put to death for conduct in battle and (2) Voltaire's gag in ''Candide:'' "In this country it is good to kill an admiral from time to time in order to encourage the others."

'''cantharides''' 
"Spanish fly," contact irritant sometimes ill-advisedly used as aphrodisiac.

'''Sadean''' 
Pertaining to the Marquis de Sade. The acts the chef performs on the egg and oil have the same names as acts of Sadean sex.

'''''n'est-ce pas?''''' 
Right? (Isn't that so?)

'''vetiver''' 
A grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) of tropical India, cultivated for its aromatic roots that yield an oil used in perfumery.
[www.answers.com/topic/vetiver]. So, a perfume with, llterallly, roots in India.

Vetiver makes frequent appearances throughout ''À la recherche du temps perdu.''

'''pip''' 
A beaut; in current parlance, a hottie.

'''Q.P. system''' 
Quaternion Probability, page 536.

'''Usine Régionale''' 
French: as translated in the text.

==Page 546==

'''disjunctive effects of thunderstorms''' 
Folk wisdom says a thunderstorm will cause mayonnaise to separate (oil from yolks).

'''cottonseed oil'''

Mayonnaisse like Smegmo and Crisco is a hydrogenated fat; cottonseed oil is a common factor to all three. Indeed, the name Crisco derives from the intial sounds of "'''crys'''tallized '''c'''ottonseed '''o'''il". Note in the next few pages a mention of Candlebrow -- underscoring a tie-in between Mayonnaisse and Smegmo.

It may be of interest to note that hydrogenation may have a symbolic use for Pynchon. The process entails bubbling hydrogen through oil in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, platinum, aluminum at 248 to 410 degrees. Remnants of these metals stay in the finished product, and when consumed can lead to an increase in heavy metals in the human body.

Eating hydrogenated oils is like eating plastic. The body does not recognize that these molecules have been mutated and tries to use them as essential fatty acids. But they cannot perform the same function, and as a result hydrogenated oils can cause short circuits in the electrical flow that controls the heartbeat, nerve functions, cell division and mental balance. They also create free radicals (anarchists!) that are linked to cancers. Free radicals plus metal remnants are a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, immune system dysfunction, osteoporosis, depression, chronic fatigue, Alzheimers, and neurological diseases. It is estimated that over 200 million people have died prematurely because of the hydrogenated oils found in our diets. [http://www.drz.org/asp/newsletter/default.asp?xt2id=23] Not to mention innocent bystanders killed by mentally imbalanced people whose imbalance may stem from the ingestion of hydrogenated oils -- there may be some underlying reality to the "Twinkie defense."

'''lounge suit''' 
A lounge suit is another name for business suit consisting of a matching jacket and trousers or skirt.

'''congress shoes''' 
ankle high shoes with elastic gussets in the sides (wordweb online)

'''invisible hand'''

Suggestive of Adam Smith's metaphor for market forces in economics.

'''dripping-heads''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayonnaise To make mayonnaise,] beat together egg yolks, salt, mustard and vinegar, then drip in oil while beating to form the emulsion. If you scale the process up for industrial production, you will automate the introduction of the oil, using nozzles that release it a drop at a time—but in a large vat you can have many such nozzles.

'''''cuves d'agitation''''' 
Vat or tank in which the mayonnaise is agitated or beaten.

'''Clinique d'Urgence pour Sauvetage des Sauces''' 
French: Emergency Clinic for Salvage of Sauces.

==Page 547==

'''' ...engulfed in thick, slick, sour-smelling mayonnaise. ''''
The whole Kit's experience in the mayonnaise factory is very much reminiscent to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl Roald Dahl]'s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory].

'''''Cazzo, cretino''''' 
Literally, "Dick, cretin." ''Cazzo'' is a common Italian interjectionary obscenity, especially in the south. "Cazzo, cretino," is akin to someone saying, "Well shit, dummy," or "F-ing moron!"

'''''È il cowboy!''''' 
Italian: It's the cowboy!

'''''vero?''''' 
true? real?

'''''Le bambole anarchiste, porca miseria''''' 
Italian: Anarchist babes, oh boy.

'''Oudenberg''' 
A southeast suburb of Ostende.

'''Quai de l'Entrepôt''' 
???
Warehouse Quay

'''''ragazzi''''' 
Italian: boys, guys.

==Page 548==

'''''timbres fictifs''''' 
French: fictive postage stamps. Cf "Lot 49".

'''"IIIb"''' 
As explained in the text

'''Germany might stand a better chance...''' 
That is, if the French were to push into Alsace (per Boulanger) as the Germans executed the Schlieffen Plan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_plan] for the encirclement of Paris, it would put the French at an even greater disadvantage...as actually happened in 1914. Had the Belgians and British not delayed the Germans in Flanders, and had the French railroads not performed speedily to bring the French troops back to the Marne, World War I could have had a very different outcome...an alternate history.

'''revanchist''' 
Policies based on revenge, or a person following such policies. In General Boulanger's case, revenge against Germany for the Franco-Prussian War (that is, retaking Alsace, lost in 1871).

'''the somewhat discomposed General''' 
Having died in 1891, the General by the time of the action is certainly somewhat '''de'''composed; brief biographies do not suggest he was ''non compos mentis,'' that is, mentally discomposed.

==Page 549==

'''cackled Darby''' 
(When did he lose his innocence?)

'''a modification of any salsician metaphor toward the diminutive''' 
Salsician: pertaining to sausage. Lindsay says Suckling's penis is better compared to a wiener than a knockwurst.

'''"Why you little–and I do mean 'little'–"''' 
Another Simpsons reference?

'''dunes between Nieuport and Dunkirk''' 
???
Nieuport is a Belgian seaport about 10 miles southwest of Ostend. Dunkirk is a French port (less than 10 miles inside the French border) about 20 miles southwest of Nieuport. The latter was a site of one of the bloodest battle in World War I. The general area between Niewport and Dunkirk was the well traversed battle fields of two world wars. (Dunkirk was (in)famous for the British Army's escape from the Nazi German's assault in World War II.)

'''power-receivers''' 
Not information, energy.

==Page 550==

'''Lot's wife''' 
Angels of God led Lot and his family out of Sodom as it was being destroyed and told them not to look back at the mayhem. Lot's wife, Edith, imprudently looked back and was transfigured into a pillar of salt.

'''Italian grotto''' 
???an imitating recess or structure made to resemble a natural Italian grotto.

'''a highly developed taste, moreover, for human blood''' 
Since Pugnax developed this taste in the Carpathians, home of Castle Dracula, this seems a clear reference to Bram Stoker's novel.

'''Carpathians''' 
Major mountain range running northwest-southeast through Poland, Slovakia, western Ukraine and Romania.

'''Uhlans''' 
Uhlan regiments belonged to the light cavalry. They wore splendid uniforms (model for some U.S. marching band uniforms). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhlan Wikipedia article.]

'''Temesvár''' 
Now Timişoara, extreme western Romania.

==Page 551==

'''...separated by only a slice of Time...''' 
Miles is beginning to experience Time almost as a spatial dimension, his personal vector as traversing (!) 4-dimensional space, or perhaps multidimensional space, the mathematics for which is being debated in Ostend.

'''securing the mess decks''' 
The Chums follow U.S. Navy idiom in orders (frequently prefixed with "Now") and shipboard activities ("secure" meaning "whatever you did before, undo it now," in this case put away the dishes and fold up the tables).

'''Ryder Thorn''' 
Tolkienesque name? Or perhaps it's a nod to the Ryder-Waite Tarot deck and to Kevin Thorn (Kevin Matthew Fertig, 1977-), the American professional wrestler better known by his ring name Kevin Thorn who is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its ECW brand. He has appeared in vigniettes with Ariel (Shelly Martinez, 1980-), the tarot card reader, who spits blood at the camera while she "predicted the future of ECW." Yup, a stretch...

*The name also evokes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

'''He was at Candlebrow.''' 
Presumably a 'trespasser.'

'''the four-note chord in the context of timelessness''' 
A melody is formed by notes following one another in time; a chord on the ukulele violates that practice by having all the notes sound at once. A really clever little passage.
Note: Jazz musicians describe musical improvisations as horizontal (with the melody) or vertical (with the chord)

==Page 552==

'''knuckle-duster''' 
Brass knuckles.

'''Diksmuide''' 
20 kilometers south of Ostend (about halfway to Ypres).

==Page 553==

'''The terrain was flat...lowlands''' 
Not, this time, a reference to Pynchon's ''Lowlands'', but to the two-dimensionality of Flanders, as in Edwin A. Abbott's ''Flatland'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland]; most humans, like the inhabitants of Flanders and Abbott's Flatlanders, experience life in two dimensions.

'''Somewhere up in the sky was Miles' home...''' 
Whereas Miles and the Chums of Chance, in contrast, live in three dimensions. The mathematicians gathered in Ostend are trying to calculate how to experience and use vectors to live in four dimensions; in a way, to experience Time as a kind of spatial dimension. Miles, on P. 551, is demonstrating the beginnings of an intuitive discovery of how to experience Time as an almost spatial dimension. Which would be a sort of "time travel", or at least an expanded view of life and history.

'''retted''' 
soaked in water or exposed to moisture (as flax or hemp) to facilitate the removal of the fiber from the woody tissue by partial rotting.

==Page 554==

'''Ypres and Menin''' 
Municipalities in West Flanders that were sites of some of the bloodiest battles of WWI. At the beginning of the war, the British and Belgian stand helped save Paris from encirclement by the Germans, and saved the Channel ports, but as Thorn points out, the area became the western anchor of the Western Front trench system. The several Battles of Ypres saw the first uses of poison gas (Mustard Gas, dichlorodiethylsulfide, was first called Yperite), the use of enormous mines, and the legendary mud of Passchendaele [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele].

'''Ten years from now''' 
(1914?) through 1918? and beyond?. Another paramorphic mirror--what do we now face. Whatever it is, it is nuclear.

'''Bosch''' 
Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter of nightmares. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hieronymus_Bosch Wikipedia entry].

'''Brueghel''' 
Pieter Brueghel the Elder(1525-1569), Flemish painter.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Brueghel_the_Elder Wikipedia entry].

'''League''' 
League of Nations? The League of Nations was formed after WWI to prevent future wars. Didn't succeed.

No. In this case a historical unit of length, approximately three miles - "league on league" = tremendous masses

'''where the needles went and which way to rotate them''' 
I.e., how to push Thorn's buttons; the image is from acupuncture.

==Page 555==

'''simpletons at the fair''' 
Making Pynchon's metaphor explicit.

'''Chopin E-minor Nocturne''' 
Frédéric Chopin (1810-49), a Polish pianist and composer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin Chopin]). He was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Polish morther and a French father. He went to Paris at the age of 20 and died there at the age of 39. He was widely regarded as one of the most famous and influential composers for the piano. From 1837-47 he had a 10-year stormy relationship with the French writer George Sand. His E-minor Nocturne is a 4-minute long Romantic style piano solo composed in 1827. (A ''nocturne'' is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturne Nocturne].)

'''owl-light''' 
???glimmering or imperfect light or twilight hours.

''''plasmic hysteresis'''' 

A coined term, apparently similar in meaning to Miles’ phrase “failure of physical translation.” Plasma would take an older meaning of “form” or “shape." Hysteresis, according to Webster's, refers to “a retardation in effect when the forces on an object are changed.” Hysteresis is used to describe magnetic phenomenon as well as plastic or elastic materials, that involve changes to a rest state that last beyond the forces that cause them. Examples include recordings on magnetic tape or a thumbprint slowly disappearing from putty. In the context of this passage, plasmic hysteresis appears to describe the lingering visage of someone who is no longer present – a hysteresis of form only and thus a failed physical translation. See [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=plasma&searchmode=none etymology of plasma] and this nifty explanation of [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/WhatIsHysteresis.html hysteresis].

Hysteresis has also been used to refer to “loops” in time, certainly apropos in this case. I stumbled across an excellent example in a 1980 episode of Dr. Who, in which the eponymous Dr. is trapped in “chronic hysteresis,” an endless loop or return to a previous
point in time – very similar to the situation of Ryder Thorn. [http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_5q.htm Check it out for yourself!]

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

ATD 336-357

2007-05-26T22:02:02Z

Chemiazrit: /* Page 345 */

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

==Page 336==

'''R-girls''' 
Rail girls?

Makes me think of b-girls, or bar girls [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=B-girls]. Seems appropriate, given the context, to imagine r-girls are the rails' equivalent.

'''White City''' 
The neighbourhood of extravagant buildings made for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. (First mentioned on [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25#Page_3 page 3]).

'''Jackson Park''' 
The site of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Park_%28Chicago%29 Wikipedia]

'''"hoping for some glimpse of her White City, but saw only the darkened daytime one"''' 
"The White City... impressed everyone who saw it (at least before air pollution began to darken the façades) that plans were considered to refinish the [alabaster] exteriors in marble or some other material. These plans had to be abandoned in July 1894 when much of the fair grounds was destroyed in a fire. The fire occurred at the height of the Pullman Strike; since the strikers set other fires that very week, it is possible the fire was set by disgruntled Pullman employees." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbian_Exposition_of_1893 Wikipedia]

Pynchon has mentioned the decay of the White City earlier in the novel.

==Page 337==

'''Mrs. Dragsaw''' 
??? Speculation: dragsaw [http://www.webshots.com/explains/home-and-garden/dragsaw-case.html (pic)] is a real word [http://www.answers.com/topic/dragsaw (definition)] and certainly a funny name, especially for a woman hiring waitresses in a restaurant that serves lunch. Pynchon has a penchant for funny, if not outrageous, names.

'''Chillicothe''' 
City in Ross County, Ohio. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chillicothe,_Ohio wiki]

==Page 338==

'''grubstake''' 
funds or supplies advanced to a mining prospector (or a person starting a business) in return for a promised share of the profits.

'''Maude Adams''' 
American actress, 1872-1953. First to play Peter Pan on the American stage (1905). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maude_Adams Wikipedia article.] '''Not to be confused with Bond Girl Maud Adams!'''

'''Mock Duck's boys''' 
In the era of soysage, sunburgers and seitan, Mock Duck has just about dropped from public consciousness. A gluten-based vegetarian substance with at least an imagined resemblance to roast duck. Oriental grocers sometimes still carry it.

==Page 339==

'''''en deshabille''''' 
partly dressed in a loose manner.

'''Modestine''' 
???

'''let's say a ''short vacation''''' 
Maternity leave.

'''Hop Fung''' 
Not sure, but "wing hop fung" supposedly means "together forever prosper" [http://www.winghopfung.com/about.html]. Anyone?

: Wing=Forever, Hop=Together, Fung=Prosper

'''Celestial''' 
Chinese. "Celestial Empire" is a translation of one of the native names for China.

'''lobbygow''' 
"A hanger-on, go-between, or message runner, particularly one involved in the drug traffic—the speculation being that such persons usually hang about in lobbies" [http://mouthfulsfood.com/forums//lofiversion/index.php/t15.html cite]

'''"Chop Suey stories!"''' 
The Chinese in America making an industry out of fulfilling the natives' fantasies. Both the white-slavery dramatizations ("comediettas") and the dish chop suey itself are inauthentic but expected by Anglo tourists.

'''On Leong''' 
One of the many Chinese-American societies originally created for mutual support and protection (a ''tong'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tong_%28organization%29]) that became a criminal organization. The On Leong were influential in many major American cities around the turn of the century.

Also known as the On Leong Laborer and Merchant Association [http://usinfo.state.gov/eap/Archive_Index/Chinese_Criminal_Enterprises.html]

==Page 340==

'''Hip Sing''' 
Like the On Leong, an influential Chinese-American criminal organization [http://usinfo.state.gov/eap/Archive_Index/Chinese_Criminal_Enterprises.html].

Perhaps also a "hip" parody of the cook in ''Bonanza'', Hop Sing.

'''Bloody Angle''' 
Site of 20 hours of sustained combat at the Battle of Spotsylvania, 1864, thought possibly the most severe sustaned engagement of the American Civil War [http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/ABPP/BATTLES/va048.htm].

'''Word had gotten around''' 
Dahlia's experiences on Broadway play out like a perverse parody of Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie. Like Dahlia, Dreiser's heroine is a small town girl who makes the transition from bit-part player to star. Furthermore, Dahlia arrives in New York City in 1900, the same year that Sister Carrie was published.

'''morning-hat''' 
???

==Page 341==

'''highbinders''' 
Members of a Chinese-American criminal gang. (The word later came to apply to corrupt politicians.)

'''day club''' 
??? Speculation: what Pynchon is humorously calling a [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nightstick nightstick] used in the daytime.

'''''Glans penis'''''-'''shaped helmets''' 
[[Image:glans-penis-shaped-helmet.jpg|thumb|''Glans penis''-shaped police helmet|right]] The odd, short-brimmed helmets worn by police officers in New York around the turn of the century and still worn by English police today [http://policehelmets.homestead.com/].

'''Mock Duck...firing two revolvers at a time in all directions''' 
Incredibly, Pynchon seems to be referencing the Hong Kong films of John Woo. The image of the Chinese gangster firing two guns simultaneously is a Woo trademark, first popularized in the 1986 film ''A Better Tomorrow'' and repeated in subsequent Woo films such as ''The Killer'' (1989) and ''Hard-Boiled'' (1992). The image was so closely associated with Woo's favorite leading man, Chow Yun-Fat, that it was even reprised for Chow's subsequent films in Hollywood.
According to Woo, the image of the outlaw firing two guns simultaneously was inspired by the final scene of ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid''. This is interesting in light of the Butch Cassidy references in the Telluride section of ATD. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Woo#Trivia [wikipedia]]

==Page 342==

'''acid magenta''' 
???

'''Con McVeety''' 
???

'''worst acts''' 
Itself a cliche, ''e.g'', Woody Allen's ''Broadway Danny Rose.''

==Page 343==

'''..seven-fifty a week..silent discussion.. "Ten?" and the deal was done.''' 
Curious deal here inluding the oxymoron but surely not cents nor dollars. 
Ten dollars in 1900 has the purchasing power in 2005 of
: $239.93 using the Consumer Price Index
: $205.36 using the GDP deflator

'''dime museum''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dime_museum Wikipedia]

'''Olio''' 
A random collection (very roughly equivalent to the Spanish word ''zarzuela''). In music halls and variety theater an olio, here an act or acts unrelated to the "real" show, would go up in front of the curtain during long scene changes.

'''Bogoslaw Borowicz''' 
???

==Page 344==

'''strange tilings...mathematical issues''' 
This passage alludes to aperiodic tilings [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperiodic_tiling Wikipedia] such as the one discovered by Roger Penrose [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_tiling Wikipedia]. See "The wallpaper in particular presented not a repeating pattern at all" [[ATD_171-198#Page_182|in annotations to p. 182.]]

'''Dr. Ictibus''' 
The Latin word ''ictus'' is from the past participle of īcere, to stike, blow, stab, wound; it can also refer to the wound itself. ''Ictibus'', is the ablative plural case for ''ictus'', thus we have Dr. Took-away-the-wounds.

'''Safe-Deflector Hat''' 
Dave Garroway supposedly had a hat that calculated the angle to be safe from falling bricks, if I recall correctly. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Garroway Wikipedia]

'''Odo''' 
Something to do with [http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sainto26.htm Saint Odo], patron saint of rain?

Perhaps a reference to ''Star Trek'': Odo was the shape-shifting security officer of the space station ''Deep Space 9''. [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Odo Star Trek Wiki]

Or to the anarchist Odo in Ursula LeGuin's novel ''The Dispossessed.''

In any case, Odo's onstage speech reflects the Mad Scientist's lab assistant in dozens of horror movies.

'''''figurante''''' 
a dancer; a ballet girl.

'''a coon revue''' 
Musical entertainment with African-American performers—or just as likely white performers in blackface—doing skits and singing songs that perpetuated a range of stereotypes: step-dancing, exaggerated dialect, lax morals, etc. Coon material was extremely popular in New York and elsewhere in the Jim Crow era (and it hasn't disappeared yet).

'''Williams and Walker''' 
Bert Williams and George Walker, well-known vaudevillians who sometimes billed themselves as "The Two Real Coons." Williams was first to cross the color line as a headliner in the Ziegfeld Follies. [http://www.si.umich.edu/chico/Harlem/text/williams_walker.html Here] is a good account of their careers.

'''Calpurnia... Mrs. Caesar''' 
Calpurnia was the wife of Julius Caesar and is a minor character in Shakespeare's play. She's a model of rectitude and courage, not someone who would like the subordinating title 'Mrs' which is thus a joke.

==Page 345==

'''Liu Bing''' 
Lubing? Like Lew Basnight as Lube-ass night [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_26-56#Page_36 see notes for page 36].

'''''Courage,'' Camille''' 
''Coo-RAZH,'' of course. The play ''Camille'' was adapted from ''The Lady of the Camellias'' (''La dame aux camélias,'' 1848) by Alexandre Dumas the Younger. In all French versions the character's name is Marguerite, so this gag only works in English-speaking countries.

'''Lillian Russell''' 
American actress and singer (1860-1922) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Russell Wikipedia entry]. Yes, she generally did wear a hat in her photos.

'''Verbena''' 
Continuing Pynchon's running joke of naming AtD's women after flowering herbs.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbena Wikipedia]

'''I.J. & K. Smokefoot''' 
Speculation: Smokefoot is the name of a song written by Bobby Keys, Jim Gordon, and Jim Price. It appears on the 1972 album "Bobby Keys." [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wjfixqw5ldae~T1 Bobby Keys] was a very much in demand session sax player, appearing on many well-known albums, including the Stones' "Sticky Fingers" where he plays an extended solo on "Can't You Hear Me Knockin." While this is not at all related to what's going on in AtD at the moment, it is a way that Pynchon comes up with names and Pynchon surely knows who Bobby Keys is.

:''Along with speculation,'' the name Smokefoot has some nonmusical grounding. There's a fairly numerous and widespread American clan named Rauchfuss. Their surname, obviously, is German—like those of some nonfictional department store magnates (Gimbel, Bergdorf, Saks). If the first immigrant Rauchfuss had translated his name into English it would have come out Smokefoot. Although a moderately large Google search does not turn up a Rauchfuss or Smokefoot in the business, it is '''not''' irrelevant that one form of this name is current in the population.

Quaternions based on 'i * j * k'.
:Not too sure about this connection: the choice of ''i'', ''j'', and ''k'' in the definition of quaternary space is arbitrary, as are ''x'', ''y'', and ''z'' in more conventional definitions of three-dimensional space. Could just be that Pynchon just wrote a little three letter sequence in alphabetical order. Is there anything in the text that would support the connection between the department store and quaternions?
::Well, ''x, y'' and ''z'' are just as arbitrary—but when you see the sequence you think "coordinates, 3-space, vectors." So ''i j k'' in the book's context does suggest a link to quaternion notation. This merits a closer look.

'''Ladies' Mile''' 
Broadway from 9th to 23rd Streets, Gilded Age location of all the most fashionable shops [http://www.preserve2.org/ladiesmile/]

==Page 346==

'''sussurant''' 
Whispering, making a low continuous indistinct sound [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=susurrant].

'''Jachin and Boaz''' 
The two pillars on the porch of Solomon's Temple. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaz_and_Jachin Wikipedia entry]. They also appear on the Tarot card of The High Priestess in the A.E. Waite Rider deck, whose designer, Pamela Colman Smith, is mentioned in ''ATD'' at p. 186. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_Priestess Wikipedia entry].

'''just a kid''' 
Dally was born c1889, so 14 or 15?

'''newly introduced''' 
Paris 1900? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalator Wikipedia]

==Page 347==

'''Yosemite Falls''' 
For pictures see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_Falls Wikipedia].

'''"Her Mother Never Told Her"''' 
"Her mother never told her the things a young girl should know. 
About the ways of college men, and how they come and go, (mostly....go). 
Now age has taken her beauty, and sin has left its sad scar; 
So remember your mothers and sisters, boys, and let her sleep under the bar" [http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=2332 Lyrics]

'''the Tombs''' 
NYC prison.

==Page 348==

'''Saturday night in Kipperville''' 
Most likely a reference to the story ''Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel'' by Virginia Lee Burton, wherein Mike and promises to dig the cellar for Popperville's new town hall in one day using his steam shovel Mary Anne. The citizens from Kipperville and other nearby towns all come to watch. [[Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel|Read the Amazon description]].

'''arecas''' 
Areca is a genus of about 50 species of single-stemmed palms in the family Arecaceae, found in humid tropical forests from Malaysia to the Solomon Islands. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areca wikipedia]

'''demimondaine''' 
A [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/demimondaine woman] belonging to the [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/demimonde demimonde]; a woman whose sexual promiscuity places her outside respectable society.

'''Perrier Jouet''' 
Brand of expensive Champagne.

'''ticker-tape machines''' 
Before the crawl at the bottom of the screen, you could get a Dow-Jones ticker installed in your home or office to bring you the latest from the market. Other ticker services delivered news, sports scores, etc., all printed out on a narrow paper tape. On days of special celebration, New York City allowed people to throw ticker tape from buildings—which on any other day would be a misdemeanor—hence the fossil expression "ticker-tape parade."

==Page 349==

'''Oomie Vamplet''' 
??? Pure speculation: [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=oomie oomie]. Vamplet has a [http://onlinedictionary.datasegment.com/word/vamplet definition], but also sounds like a vamp (a woman who uses her sex appeal to entrap and exploit men) who is small. Also, to vamp in music is to improvise simple accompaniment or variation of a tune.

'''Kate Chase Sprague''' 
Kate Chase Sprague was the daughter of Civil War era cabinet member Salmon P. Chase and wife of Rhode Island Governor William Sprague. She was accused of having had an affair with New York Senator Roscoe Conkling. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Chase wikipedia]

'''Congo violet''' 
evidently a real color: Violet dyes: trisulphon violet 2B, Congo violet;
from a patent application, # 4025164. www.patentsonline. A quite dark violet, I think, is implied...lots of associations to Congo.

'''"Funiculi, Funicula"''' 
A very popular Neapolitan song composed in 1880 by Italian composer Luigi Denza (cf p.353) to commemorate the opening of the first '''funicular''' (inclined railway) on Mount Vesuvius. The song's huge success made the Neapolitan songs spreading all over the world. In the '50s Mario Lanza made this song popular in the US but with slightly changed English lyrics. For the lyrics in its original Neapolitan dialect and English see [http://www.vesuvioinrete.it/funicolare/e_funicolare_funiculi.htm].

At least three times in ''AtD'' we have an instrumental tag to identify the nationality of a person entering the scene. Here it's the Italian one (never mind that Zombini's family comes from northern Italy, not Naples); there's also a four-note plinka-plinka to announce a Chinese person (on page ???) and an alphorn solo to cue a Swiss person (page ???).

==Page 350==

'''Chinchito''' 
"Little Bug." (Wasn't Herve Villachaise supposed to be well endowed?)

'''in the wallpaper''' 
Cf Lew on cyclomite.

'''Mickey Finn''' 
Mickey Finn in the punch is a drug-laced (clasically chloral hydrate) knockout drink. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Finn_%28drugs%29 Wikipedia].

==Page 351==

'''Sweet Caporal''' 
A [http://www.adclassix.com/ads/55sweetcaporal.htm brand] of cigarette.

'''came for me''' 
On page 69 Erlys left this note: "I'll be back for her when I can."

'''"French flat"''' 
Used to describe a chiffon made in India; and a kind of sequin (now antique, of course). Source: Ebay and online sites.
:Based on the context, it did not have anything to do with fabric. It referred to a special style apartment. The question is what style?

'''Pitti Palace''' 
Late fifteenth century Florentine palace, possibly designed by Brunelleschi.

'''''grattacielo''''' 
Italian: skyscraper.

'''Bria''' 
Daughter of Erlys Mills and Luca Zombini.

==Page 352==

'''''Little Nemo''''' 
A full-page color cartoon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Nemo_in_Slumberland Wikipedia] by Winsor McCay, started on October 15, 1905. Published in the New York Herald until 1911.

'''melted icebox ice''' 
(How nasty would this have been?)

'''majolica''' 
Tin-glazed earthenware [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majolica wikipedia]

'''Fletcher's Castoria''' 
A patent medicine composed of senna, sodium bicarbonate, essence of wintergreen, taraxicum, sugar and water, used as a laxative. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castoria Wikipedia entry].

'''three-cent pieces''' 
The U.S. minted three-cent coins until 1889.

'''''La Forza del Destino''''' 
Literally, the "force of destiny." An opera by Verdi [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Forza_del_Destino wikipedia]

'''''cretino''''' 
Cretin

==Page 353==

'''Luigi Denza''' 
Luigi Denza (2846-1922) was an Italian composer. In 1898, he moved to London and became a professor of singing at at the Royal Academy of Music.
Among the hundreds of songs he wrote, the most popular one was the Neapolitan song (1880) ''Funiculi, Funicula'' (cf 349). [http://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Denza Wikipedia].

'''Psyche knot''' 
The knot in which Psyche kept her hair, as shown in ads for White Rock mineral water during this time frame. [http://www.whiterocking.org/pcw.html Pictures here].

==Page 354==

'''''"bella"''''' 
sweetheart; beauty.

'''Friuli''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friuli Border area of Italy,Austria and Slovenia, N. of Trieste]. Its main provinces are Udine, Gorizia, Pordenone and Trieste. It's not part of the South Tyrol. It's been part of post WWII disputes with Jugoslavia and it's subject to still ongoing polemics on the conflicts between antifascist groups and local fastist-supporting population (s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foibe Foibe])

'''donkey salami''' 
Italian sausage-makers do use donkey meat; look for ''salame d'asino'' or ''mortadella di asino.'' It is not imported into the U.S.

'''like Austria, with gestures''' 
:One of the finest news films ever shown on TV concerned a regional election in this part of Italy. The candidates spoke excellent German but used their arms and hands in a highly un-German way.

'''platinum black''' 
"a fine black powder of platinum; used as a catalyst in chemical reactions" [http://www.answers.com/topic/platinum-black cite]

This whole paragraph describes what amounts to a Black Hole, from which not even light can emerge.

:No. It describes the "Black Body Radiation" discovered around 1900. It's quite different from a black hole. Of course, the latter is much much more popular. In physics a black body is an ideal body that absorbs without reflection all of the electromagnetic radiation (light is one of them) incident on its surface. Since in here there is no extreme gravity involved but blackness, with the author's engineering educational background and with the topic of "light" frequently discussed in the book, and Zombini here is talking about light reflection, clearly reference to black body radiation is more appropriate. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbody_radiation Wikipedia].

'''''affondato, vero?''''' 
Italian for "Sunk, isn'it?" as in the battleship game.

'''bloody horror shows''' 
A reference to the Grand Guignol theater in Paris, which opened in 1897, known for its gory shows. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_guignol Wikipedia entry].

==Page 355==

'''Doubles the image...''' 
Suggestive of quantum doubling, i.e. universe splitting in one version/solution of the Multiverse problem.

'''''capisci?''''' 
Italian: you understand?

'''Houdini''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Houdini Wikipedia]

'''''Porca miseria''''' 
All-purpose Italian expletive, not too crude. Translates into English as damn!

'''Teatro Malibran''' 
The 900-seat theather was built in 1677 for drama, opera and classical concerts. It was originally named Teatro di San Giovanni Crisostomo and later changed to Teatro Malibran to honor Maria Malibran, a well-known soprano of the early 19th century. During its long history the theather has been refurbished and rennovated numerous times, most recently in 2001. It is a beautiful landmark theather. It's doubtful Teatro Malibran is a proper venue for magic shows. For the beautiful indoor and outdoor pictures [http://www.noehill.com/med/med2002/malibran.asp Teatro Malibran].

==Page 356==

'''''Stupendica''''' 
Example of Pynchon's marvelous ship names (e.g. ''USS Scaffold'' and ''Susannah Squaducci'' in ''V.''); perhaps a play on ''Titanic''.

'''Chinese Gong Effect''' 
???

'''East Rumelian''' 
East Rumelia was an autonomous Bulgarian province, fomerly an Ottoman dependency south of the Balkans. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 it was to be ruled by Turkey but with a Christian prince as part of a complex territorial power-balance agreeable to all Powers at the 1878 Congress of Berlin. Interestingly, an area in which the Glagolitic alphabet was propounded (see P.252).

'''Erlys remembered''' 
(Why not Dally?)

==Page 357==

'''Bert Snidell''' 
Bert Snidell was first mentioned on page 75.

'''Hindoo shuffle''' 
Hindoo, or Hindu, shuffle is one of numerous ways of shuffling playing cards. For a description [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuffling_playing_cards#Hindu_shuffle Wikipedia].

'''French drop''' 
A well-known vanishing act of a small object involving sleight of hands. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_drop Wikipedia].

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