Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

ATD 588-614

2010-09-01T03:45:27Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 604 */

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

==Page 588==

'''tannery''' 
In ancient history, tanning was considered a noxious or "odiferous trade" and relegated to the outskirts of town, amongst the poor. Indeed, tanning by ancient methods is so foul smelling that tanneries are still isolated from those towns today where the old methods are used.

'''Gottlob''' 
Literally "praise to God", as an exclamation also "Thank God!". Though it is rare, it is a real German name. 
Very much so: for example of mathematician/philospher Gottlob Frege, who did study at Göttingen, but not at this time.

'''Humfried''' 
A German translation of Humphrey. This was not an existing German name any time after the medieval, though.

'''Gauss's brain''' 
After Carl Friedrich Gauss died in 1855, his brain was preserved for research purposes. To this day, it is in the possession of the University of Göttingen. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].

'''impervious to the wind''' 
(Attribute of tanned leather?)

'''''"Heiliger Bimbam!"''''' 
A German expression of surprise, translated elsewhere as "Holy Moly!"

'''It is she, she!''' 
probably an allusion to H. Rider Haggard's She. See Wikipedia entry. She has been purified by a pillar of fire. In ''Against the day'', she rises from the swamp. Carl Jung, who used the novel ''She'' (1887) as an example of anima, posited the anima is an archetypical form, expressing the fact that a man has a minority of female genes. Haggard's Queen Ayesha is an unmistakable anima type the ultimate guide and mediator to the inner world. The idea has also connections with the observations of James Frazer in his classical study ''The Golden Bough''. Haggard's idea of a journey into the "darkest Africa," which turns into a spiritual search, has been used by a number of writers, including Joseph Conrad in ''Heart of Darkness'' (1902). 
"My empire is of thy imagination", She says in the novel, "She". Cf. a line, [which I am checking] in "The Crying of Lot 49".

She is 'discovered' somewhere in unknown Africa by some British 'explorers' in a hidden kingdom, and she first appears in a sort of late 19th century private boudoir there. She came to that place via a complicated story some 2000 years earlier, and is of Yemenite origin, having come to the world in pretty much the normal fashion. Yashmeen seems indeed to be based on some fin-de-siecle imaginations of the 'ideal' woman (her looks in general, and the often mentioned streaming black hair of hers), but unlike Haggard's She, Yashmeen is rather powerless in the long run, despite her obvious erotic influence on the men and women in ATD. - Tommaso

:Powerless is a term worth lots of discussion here. [User: MKOHUT]

:It is certainly possible that the line is an allusion, but I think it may simply be a set-up to another goofy Pynchonian linguistic joke-- "Not 'chichi,' idiot..."

'''rim''' 
Kit pretends to think he's referring to monocle as 'chichi' (stylish).

'''Kovalevskaia''' 
Sofia Kovalevskaia, 1850-1891. Russian mathematician, in 1884 appointed professor in Stockholm. The third female professor in Europe ever. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Sofia Kovalevskaia]] and (Wikipedia)

'''Roentgen-ray spectacles''' 
The X-ray glasses that used to be advertised in comic books.

'''''natürlich''''' 
German: naturally.

==Page 589==

'''Those curves are everywhere continuous but nowhere differentiable''' 
This is exactly a description of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weierstrass_function Weierstrass function] (1872), a pathological example of a real-valued function on the real line. This function was cited on page 594 by Yashmeen as one of the crises in mathermatics. Also see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/WeierstrassFunction.html Weierstrass function from MathWorld] and Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Karl Weierstrass]].

'''Those curves . . . ''Noli me tangere''''' 
A well-turned wordplay: The operation of differentiating a curve involves drawing ''tangents'' to it at selected points. The curves in question are continuous, but the injunction ''Noli me tangere'' means you can't draw the tangents.

:If a curve is nowhere differentiable then there will be no tangents anywhere. The curve is everywhere ''untouchable''.

'''''Noli me tangere''''' 
Latin for 'don't touch me'

or, in the immortal words of MC Hammer; "You can't touch this"

'''And is that a revolver you're carrying''' 
Implying, perhaps, an unvocalized "or are you just happy to see me?" Which would be in accord with Kit's reaction to the sight of a woman wearing a toque.

'''''Hausknochen''''' 
German: a giant housekey, as defined, literally House Bone,with perhaps a
double entendre on bone?

Also, slang for [http://www.russki-mat.net/page.php?l=DeFr&a=H penis].

==Page 590==

'''Hadamard... Poussin... Prime Number Theorem''' 
Jacques Hadamard and Charles de la Vallée-Poussin independently proved the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem prime number theorem] in 1896, relying on Riemann's Zeta function. The prime number theorem makes assertions about the distribution of prime numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hadamard.html Jacques Hadamard] (1865-1963), a French mathematician best known for his proof of the Prime Number Theorem in 1896.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Vallee_Poussin.html de la Vallée Poissin] (1866-1962), a Belgian mathematician best known for his proof (independently) of the Prime Number Theorem and his major work ''Cours d'Analyse''.

The Prime Number Theorem defied proof for several decades, and legend at the time had it that whoever did prove it would live forever. Examination of the dates of birth and death of both Hadamard and de la Vallée-Poussin show that this was not too far from the truth.

'''patent ''Kühlbox''''' 
''Kühlbox'' here just means "icebox" or "cooler." Refrigerators were available at the time of the action but not widely used, so an icebox is more likely. It's upstairs in Kit's room, so not necessarily portable.

"Patent," attached to a noun like [[ATD_429-459#Page_457|leather or pencil,]] could mean really, officially patented ''or'' novel and gimmicky. Patent medicines are sold under protected names but not genuine patents in most cases. So the icebox features some radical or distinctive design. My money's on asbestos insulation between the zinc sheets.

[http://www.dhm.de/datenbank/index.html?/datenbank/rb00/rb000891.html Pic of a ca. 1920 Eiskiste-model]. According to German Wikipedia, the mobile "Eiskiste" (icebox) had to be filled with (natural) ice, while its successor, the Kühlbox, worked/works with "Kühlaggregate" (cooling units). The contributor is not sure if suchlike were around at that time. German Wikipedia on [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiskiste Eiskiste] and [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BChlbox Kühlbox].

'''beleaguered subset''' 
a group (from the whole) under attack

'''That is, is it was ''some smile''''' 
Typo, for That is, it was ''some smile''.

'''Prime Number Theorem''' 
The Prime Number Theorem constitutes any number of equivalent statements concerning the distribution of prime numbers. Let ''π(n)'' be the number of primes that are less than ''n'', and let ''p''''n'' denote the ''n''th prime number. The Prime Number Theorem states that ''π(n) ~ n/ln(n)'' as ''n'' approaches infinity, or equivalently that ''p''''n'' ''~ n ln(n)''.

==Page 591==

'''prats''' 
Literally the buttocks. As a slang term, a 'prat' is an [[Idiots and Idiocy in Against the Day|idiot]].

'''''Die Nullstellen der ζ-Funktion''''' 
German: the zeroes of the ζ function. (Null = zero; Stelle = location.) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_zeta_function#Zeros_of_the_Riemann_zeta_function Wikipedia] on the "Zeros of the Riemann zeta-function".

'''not all that hard to prove''' 
Kit will upset the applecart if he can prove the Riemann Hypothesis; Yashmeen's research topic will shrink to triviality. No one has proved the Riemann hypothesis to the satisfaction of the mathematical community at large yet; eternal fame and a fat wad of money await he or she who does.

'''"Richard Harding Davis"''' 
Popular writer of fiction and drama, journalist/war-correspondent and a major male-role-model of his time (1864 - 1916). He was considered the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's dashing Gibson man, the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. He is also referenced early in Sinclair Lewis's book, ''Dodsworth'' as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Harding_Davis Wikipedia]. Among other things, he reported on Belgian atrocities in the Congo.

'''seldom, if ever''' 
Cf p559 re Umeki!?

'''tetralatry''' 
made up from greek "tettares" (prefix -tetra) = four and "latreia" = worship

'''C. Howard Hinton''' 
Charles Howard Hinton (1853 – 1907) was a British mathematician and writer of science fiction works titled ''Scientific Romances''. He was interested in higher dimensions, particularly the fourth dimension, and is known for coining the word ''tesseract'' and for his work on methods of visualising the geometry of higher dimensions. He also had a strong interest in theosophy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard_Hinton Wikipedia Entry]

'''Johann K.F. Zöllner''' 
Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (1834–1882) was a German astrophysicist. Studied Photometrie and optical illusions. He insisted a fourth dimension should be considered in Physics and tried to scientifically explain spiritist phenomena.

'''vogue... 'vague'''' 
Nice wordplay as Yashmeen seems to think the vogue of mysticism is not very precise, is 'vague' intellectually. Further play on "vague" = wave, as in an intellectual fad, e.g. in film, the French "Nouvelle Vague" (New Wave).

==Page 592==

'''upside-down triangles''' 
Also Pléiade p538. In mathematics that would be the operator ''del'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del Wikipedia]. Since pre-history and across most cultures the upside-down triangle is a symbol for the female (genitals).

Florian Cajori's ''A History of Mathematical Notations'' (v.2 p.135) states that the del (aka Hamiltonian operator) was introduced by William Hamilton in his 1853 lecture on Quaternions. Rumour has it that it is supposed to be a drawing of an ancient Hebrew harp (nabla). It is also known as the atled (backword delta).

This in turn suggests (within the context of AtD (atled??) a reversal of time or a mirror image of change.

'''screamingly obvious fallacy in this . . . "proof" of yours''' 
Yashmeen reacts in a slight panic to Kit's threat (page 591).

'''metallic banging''' 
Hausknochen on doors, with 'banging' entendre.

'''"metric interval"''' 
In Euclidean (three-dimensional) space a distance is just what you think it is. In other geometrical systems the term "metric interval" is preferred as a generalized distance.

'''social life is unpredictable''' 
mirrors the situation in the "Hotel Noctambulo", p. 462. Are all these guys "chums of chance"?

[Not sure about the "chums" idea, but more confusion between public and private space on pg. 155 -- Hunter Penhallow leaving the ruined city, presumably in a time machine: "At some point he must have come indoors, entering a sort of open courtyard....Without intending to, he was walking through inhabited rooms."]

'''Weenderstrasse '''
The main shopping street in Göttingen.

'''Prinzenstrasse and Weenderstrasse''' 
A street corner at the very center of Göttingen ([http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=g%C3%B6ttingen,+germany&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=17&ll=51.534284,9.935417&spn=0.006107,0.010793&t=h Google Maps]), "known to mathematicians here as the origin of the city of Göttingen's coordinate system". 
The intersection of these two streets is colloquial called "the navel". For visitors it is not that spectacular, but it's the number one meeting point for people who live in Göttingen before going to a cafe or pub. (I don't know, why we allways meet there, but we allways do!) So Pynchon definitley knows, why he compares this street corner with the origin of Göttingen's coordinate system. 
By the way, one of the oldest bookstores of Göttingen is situated right at the described corner of Prinzen- and Weenderstrasse.

==Page 593==

'''twenty marks''' 
A mark is short for deutschemark, a German monetary unit. 
That was the case after the Second World War, but the unit was just called the mark until at least the end of the empire. [http://www.thegoldcoinstore.com/WorldGold/German_Gold_20_Marks_Kaizer_Wilhelm_II.php Here] is a picture of a 20 mark coin from the period of the action.

'''''der Pistolenheld''''' 
German: the pistol hero. Meaning: the gunman. 'Pistolenheld' seems rather funny, the correct German word is: der Revolverheld.

'''automorphic functions and the Anharmonic Pencil''' 
[http://mathworld.wolfram.com/AutomorphicFunction.html Automorphic Functions] are generalizations of trigonometric functions and elliptic functions.

Anharmonic Pencil see [[ATD_525-556#Page 532|page 532:Anharmonic Pencil]].

'''''das Nichtharmonischestrahlenbündel''''' 
Or ''das nichtharmonische Strahlenbündel.'' German: the anharmonic pencil. A "pencil" is the set of lines passing through a point.

'''Euler''' 
Leonhard Euler (pronounced Oiler; IPA [ˈɔʏlɐ]) (April 15, 1707 – September 7, 1783) was a Russian-German mathematician and physicist of Swiss descent. From Wikipedia and below:

Euler made important discoveries in fields as diverse as calculus, number theory, and topology. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function. [1] He is also renowned for his work in mechanics, optics, and astronomy.

Euler is considered to be the preeminent mathematician of the 18th century and one of the greatest of all time.

'''Felix Klein''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Klein.html Felix Klein] (1849-1925), a German mathematician, best known for his work in non-Euclidean goemetry, for his work on the connections between geometry and group theory, and for results in function theory. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 565|page 565:Felix Klein]].

'''''Mathematical Theory of the Top''''' 
Published in the U.S. in 1897. Compare Felix Klein and Arnold Sommerfeld, ''Über die Theorie des Kreisels,'' 4 volumes, 1897-1910.

'''Leopold Kronecker''' and '''Cantor''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Kronecker.html Leopold Kronecker] (1823-1891), a German mathematician, primary contributions were in the theory of equations. He made major contributions in elliptic functions and the theory of algebraic numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Cantor.html Georg Cantor] (1845-1918), a German mathematician. He founded set theory and introduced the concept of infinite numbers with his discovery of cardinal numbers. He also advanced the study of trigonometric series. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 250|page 250:Dr. Cantor]]).

The "monumental quarrel between Kronecker and Cantor" is also referred to as a "religious war," appropriately enough. It's based in a disagreement over the legitimacy of numbers. Kronecker held that "'the positive integers were created by God, and all else is the work of man.'" This is contradicted by "'Cantor with his ''Kontinuum'', professing an equally strong belief in just those regions, infinitely divisible, which lie ''between'' the whole numbers so demanding of all Kronecker's devotion.'"

The disagreement between the two mathematicians is reminiscent of (or does it anticipate?) the rift between Pointsman and Mexico in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Kronecker's integers "created by God" have become a Pavlovian digital binary for Pointsman, but the two oppositions track faithfully right down to the italicized "between."

"The young statistician [Mexico] is devoted to number and to method, not table-rapping or wishful thinking. But in the domain of zero to one, not-something to something, Pointsman can only possess the zero and the one. He cannot, like Mexico, survive anyplace in between. Like his master I. P. Pavlov before him, he imagines the cortex of the brain as a mosaic of tiny on/off elements.... But to Mexico belongs the domain ''between'' zero and one." [Page 55]

It should be noted, however, that the continuous number line was a modern innovation. In Greek number theory, a number is a collection of indivisible units. Irrationals, such as the square root of 2 are not numbers but "magnitudes." One is not even a number for it is not a number of units. There are no negative numbers as well. (see Klein's Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra.) So Kronecker's position may be less of a crazy innovation as much as a maintenance of ancient theory.

:That last paragraph makes an excellent point.

'''the square root of minus one''' 
The imaginary number ''i''. Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:Imarginary Number]].

'''the square root of ''plus two''' 
From Carl B. Boyer's ''A History of Mathematics'', 2nd Ed. 1991, pp.564 & 565): 
The domain of rational numbers can be extended to form a continuum of real numbers if one assumes Cantor-Dedekind axiom that the points on a line can be put into one-to-one correspondence with the real numbers. "Arithmetically expressed, this means that for every division of the rational numbers into two classes A and B such that every number of the first class, A, is less than every number of the second class, B, there is one and only one real number producing this ''Schnitt'', or . . . cut. If A has a largest number, or if B contains a smallest number, the cut defines a rational number; but if A has no largest number and B no smallest, then the cut defines an irrational number. If, for example, we put in A all negative rational numbers and also all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2, and in B all positive rational numbers whose squares are more than 2, we have subdivided the entire field of rational numbers in a manner defining an irrational number—in this case the number that we usually write as" ''suqare root of 2''. In fact, the squae root of ''plus two'' "can be defined simply as that segment or subclass of the set of rational numbers made up of all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2 and also of all negative rational numbers." —— This is what Kronecker did not believe.

'''''Kontinuum''''' 
This passage closely parallels the one about the "microcosm of Venice" on page 575.

==Page 594==

'''''Nervenklinik''''' 
German: nerve clinic. Three-dollar word for a mental hospital.

'''boundless epsilonic world''' 
Epsilon, Greek letter like E. In mathematics (particularly calculus), an arbitrary (or nearly so) small positive quantity is commonly denoted ε; see limit.
By analogy with this, the late mathematician Paul Erdős also used the term "epsilons" to refer to children (Hoffman 1998, p. 4). Wikipedia; of Huxley's five classes of citizens in ''Brave New World'' epsilons were purposely stunted physically and intellectually.

'''Der Finsterzwerg''' 
The choice of the tavern "The Dwarf of Darkness" may have been meant as a dig at five-foot-tall Kronecker.

'''chloral hydrate''' 
A/k/a "knockout drops" a/k/a a "Mickey Finn". Hence the ''Mickifest''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloral_hydrate Wikipedia entry].

'''''Kneipe''''' 
German: pub

'''Gauss passing to Weber a remark''' 
Carl Friedrich Gauss (Gauß) (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician and scientist of profound genius who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy and optics. Sometimes known as "the prince of mathematicians" and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", Gauss had a remarkable influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians. (Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].)

That influence is seen in the field of statistics where the Gaussian distribution (also known as the normal distribution, popularly known as the bell curve) is named after him. With its ability to correctly model "psychological measurements and physical phenomena" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution] and its resemblance to both the rainbow and the rocket's arc, there's no surprise Pynchon references it often in GR, even having Roger Mexico quote the formula as "an old saying among my people" (p.709, the Mexico quotation is actually some strange variant of the Normal distribution).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Eduard_Weber Wilhelm Weber] (1804-91), a noted German physicist. He studied magnetism with Gauss and in 1831, on the recommendation of Gauss, he was appointed as professor of physics at Göttingen. And in 1833 Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph. The SI unit of magnetic flux, the ''weber'', is named after him.

In 1831 Gauss developed a fruitful collaboration with the physics professor Wilhelm Weber; it led to new knowledge in the field of magnetism (including finding a representation for the unit of magnetism in terms of mass, length and time) and the discovery of Kirchhoff's circuit laws in electricity. Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph in 1833, which connected the observatory with the institute for physics in Göttingen. Gauss ordered a magnetic observatory to be built in the garden of the observatory and with Weber founded the magnetischer Verein ("magnetic club"), which supported measurements of earth's magnetic field in many regions of the world. He developed a method of measuring the horizontal intensity of the magnetic field which has been in use well into the second half of the 20th century and worked out the mathematical theory for separating the inner (core and crust) and outer (magnetospheric) sources of Earth's magnetic field

'''Göttingen . . . in the war with Prussia''' 
This refers to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Prussian_war Austro-Prussian War], (also called Seven Weeks' War), June 15–August 23, 1866, between Prussia, allied with Italy, and Austria, allied with Bavaria, Wüttemberg, Saxony (where Göttingen is located), Hanover, Baden and several other smaller German states. It was Bismarck's aim to expel, by force, Austria from the German Confederation as a step toward the unification of Germany under Prussian dominace.
:Göttingen is in Saxony now (specifically the state of ''Niedersachsen'' or Lower Saxony), but until 1866 it was an important city in the Kingdom of Hanover.

'''political crisis in Europe''' 
The period of 1870 to 1914 was characterized by the Anglo-German naval race and European powers - Germany, Italy, Belgium, Britain and France - scrambled for Africa. The major events in Europe were: 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War; 1905 Russian Revolution; 1908 Bosnia Crisis; 1911-12 Italian Turkish War; 1912-13 Balkan War; 1914 World War I began.

'''crisis in mathematics . . . Weierstrass functions, Cantor's continuum, Russell's inexhaustible capacity for mischief''' 
A genuine crisis as well-established ideas were challenged. Weierstrass functions have the unheard-of property that they are "continuous but nowhere differentiable." Cantor's ideas about the continuum violated a longstanding prohibition against infinite quantities. Bertrand Russell around this time was setting the cat among the pigeons by identifying paradoxes and inconsistencies in set theory and number theory.

'''"the infinite" was all but a conjuror's convenience''' 
There is a very good book relating how the infinite, between the 18th and early 20th centuries, finally found a place in mathematics: ''In Search of Infinity'' by N.Ya. Vilenkin (translated by Abe Shenitzer).

==Page 595==

'''That winter, in St. Petersburg . . . Hundreds were killed and wounded.''' 
22 Jan 1905, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281905%29 Bloody Sunday]. 

The event on January 22, 1905, ''Bloody Sunday'', was a watershed in the Russian history. 
Russia's armies were losing to the Japanese in the Far East. Her workers at home were challenging the rule of Romanov's Autocracy. At the beginning of 1905, the workers of ''Putilov Works'' of St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, went on stike for better living and working conditions. They were joined by many from other factories. Father Gapon, a priest, urged the striking workers to present directly to the Tsar on January 22, 1905 a petition to seek justice and protection. They would beg Nicholas II to come to their aid. The morning of January 22 was very cold (about five degrees below freezing) and some 200,000 workers and their wives and children came peacefully and orderly carrying icons, portraits of Nicholas, and no revolutionary placards not even red handkerchiefs. To stop the workers' march upon the Palace Square barricades were set across several avenues that connected to the city center. At each of these points, soldiers tried to turn back the marchers and, at several of them, officers ordered to fire into the crowds. The worst slaughter took place on the Winter Palace Square itself, between 150 and 200 men, women, and children lay shot dead and another 450 to 800 had been wounded while the Cossacks charged into the dispersing crowds with sabers drawn. 
Bloody Sunday, as that tragic day soon became known, marked the beginning of what the Tsar's mother called the "year of nightmares", and the beginning of what many others called the "year of revolution". (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)).

'''Grand Duke Sergei''' 
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (1857-1905) was the uncle and brother-in-law of Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918, Reign: 1894-1917). In 1891 he was appointed as Moscow Governor General. In 1894 he also was a member of the State Council. He resigned from the Governorship on January 1, 1905 but continued as Commander of the Moscow military district. In the afternoon of February 17, 1905, in a carriage leaving the Kremlin Grand Duke Sergei was killed by a nitroglycerine bomb thrown by a Socialist Revolutionary terrorist directly into his lap. He was literally blown to bits and pieces. The assassination of Grand Duke Sergei signaled the beginning of a broader wave of popular unrest that had been sparked by the events of Bloody Sunday and swept the whole nation. Many more assassinations, strikes, disorders and uprisings followed during the year.
(Grand Duke Sergei's replacement, Shurvalov, was assassinated on July 11 of the same year.)

'''More strikes . . . peasant and military insurections . . . into the summer''' 
In January-February, turbulent reaction to Bloody Sunday spread across neighboring regions, especially the industrial centers which experienced spontaneous workers' strikes: Vilno, Kovno, Kiev, Moscow were paralyzed. In February-March the labor unrests reached Saratov Province and the Caucasus, and Siberia. Labor unrests were persistent throughout Russia into August. In early March university students left their classrooms, and at the end of the month the authorities closed down all the universities throughout the whole country for the rest of the academic year. (Student unrest even reached Orthodox seminaries.) 
In March, peasant unrests erupted widely, especially in Kursk, and Chernigov and Orel provinces and northwest regions of European Russia. In June, the Battleship ''Potemkin'' mutinied and in the Black Sea port city Odessa there was a large scale uprising by the sailors, soldiers, workers and ordinary citizens. On June 28 afternoon hundreds of protesters were killed on the Odessa Steps which was immortalized by the classic movie sequence in the 1925 Eisenstein's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Batlleship_Potemkin ''The Battleship Potemkin''] (considered by some one of the greatest films of all time). In summer widespread peasants' attacks on landowners' estates dramatically increased throughout Russia. The Peasant Union was organized at a secret August 13-14 Moscow conference.

'''Kronstadt''' 
Kronstadt was a naval fortress in the Gulf of Finland 18 miles west of St. Petersburg. Following the destruction of the Baltic Fleet by the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318: The Russo-Japanese War]]) Kronstadt joined the general uprising which swept the whole Russian country. The first Kronstadt uprising on November 8-9, 1905, participated in by the majority of Kronstadt's 13,000 sailors and soldiers, was basically a large armed riot accompanied by liberal political demands. It lasted only two days. Kronstadt's second uprising took place in July 1906 but was brutally suppressed.

'''Sebastopol''' 
A port city of Russia (now, Sevastopol of Ukrain), located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimean peninsula west of Yalta. Sebastopol was associated with rebellion, mutiny and civil war. 
On June 27, 1905 the battleship ''Potemkin'' sailed from Sebastopol to Odessa and to mutiny against the ship's oppressive officers. The mutineers killed seven of the eighteen officers, including the Captain and the Second in Command. The ship eventually sailed to Romania and turned over to the authority there on July 7. (Sergei Eisenstein's ''The Battlehip Potemkin'' made her famous well beyond Russia.) 
On October 1, 1905, citizen of Sebastopol and sailors from the Black Fleet demonstrated in the city center demanding the authority to free political prisoners, etc, but were met with gun fire. Wide spread unrest and naval mutinies followed. In November the cruiser ''Ochakov'' led a rebellion joined by several other warships. The rebellion was eventually suppressed by a stronger government force a couple of months later.

'''Black Hundreds''' 
Anti-Semitic vigilantes.

The name was a derogatory one, adapted from the term "White Hundreds", which was used in medieval Russia for the privileged caste of nobles and wealthy merchants. The lower-class types who joined the Black Hundreds were not in this class hence their ironic nomenclature. It was formed in response to the October Manifesto by those who had either lost or were afraid of losing their petty status in the social hierachy as a result of modernization and reform. They blamed the Jews as the ultimate cuase for Tsar's retreat. Fighting revolution in the streets was their way of revenging themselves, a means of putting the clock back and restoring the social and racial hierarchy. (Based on Orlando Figes' ''A People's Tragedy'' (1996))

'''Japanese won''' 
The Japanese destroyed the bulk of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima Strait on May 27-28, 1905. In ''GR'', the soon-to-be-defeated fleet puts in at German Southwest Africa during the 1904 Herero Revolt; Tchicherine's father, a sailor in that fleet, may also be the father of Enzian, leader of the Schwarzcommando.

By January 1905 the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo_Japanese_War Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)] had been going on in Manchuria for nearly a year. In the summer of 1904, the Russia's Pacific Fleet was bottled up inside Port Arthur (now, Lüshun, Liaoning, China) and the port was under siege as from August. In October, the Tsar sent the entire Baltic Fleet to relief the siege. At the beginning of 1905, Port Arthur finally fell after a siege and bombardment lasted 156 days. In March 1905 Russia and Japan fought the greatest land battle in the history up to then at Mukden (Shenyang, Liaoning). Each side committed more than 300,000 troops and over 1,000 pieces of artillery. After nearly one month's fighting both lost more than 50,000 killed and wounded, but the Russians withrew 40 miles to the north. After streaming halfway around the world in a grueling voyage of many months without adequate logistic support, on May 27 the Russian fleet met the waiting Japanese (under Admiral Togo) in the Tsuhsima Straits that separated Japan and Korea. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima Battle of Tsushima Straits (May 27-28)] was one of the most decisive naval battles in history. Even though the Russians had more ships and more heavy guns, but within a few hours, they lost 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 5 minelayers and 4 other ships. Four more battleship surrendered next day, and the Russian commanding admiral (Admiral Rozhdestvenskii) was also captured. The Japanese lost only a total of 3 torpedo boats. (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)). 
After two months' negotiation, the Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of the Peace Treaty of Porstmouth (New Hampshire) on September 5, 1905.

'''A general strike in the autumn . . .''' 
In late September a printers' strike in Moscow was in progress for over a fortnight. By October 18 it seemed that the strike was losing steam. But on October 20 railroad workers struck the Moscow-Kazan Railway and the strike spread outward along all the railroad lines: to St Petersburg in the west, to Voronesh and Kharkov in the south; and by October 23 it had reached Siberia. Twenty-six thougsand miles of track were immobilized as 750,000 railroad employees struck. At this time much of European Russia was in the grip of one of the greatest and most effective general strikes in the history of labor protest anywhere in the world. All of Russia's industry ground to a halt, everyone stopped work. Factory workers, servants, postal workers, telegraph operators, janitors, and hackney drivers all walked off their jobs, as did bank clerks, shop clerks, and clerks in government office. Doctors, laywers, schoolteachers, university professors, even the entire corps de ballet of the great Imperial Mariinskii Theatre—all joined the strike. There were no newspapers, no streetlights, no tramcars . . . As all rail traffic stopped and telegraph line dead, Russia was isolated from the rest of the world. At the same time, the revolutionary groups organized a new body for coordinating the activities of the striking workers and for expressing their joint political and economic demands: the "St. Petersburg
''Soviet'' of Workers' Deputies". Many other Soviets were set up and developed later as alternate governing organizations. The name and organization ''Soviet'' (Russian word ''Sovet'' means council) took on a legendary meaning from then on and became historical. 
With the regime on the verge of collapse, in response, the Tsar, advised by the Prime Minister, issued the famouse ''October Manifesto'' on October 30, 1905, by which Nicholas granted to all Russian civil rights, agreed to summon a Duma (Parliament) elected by wide (though not universal) suffrage, and agreed that all laws must be approved by the Duma. In the meantime, on December 16, troops were sent to arrest some three hundred members of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. The Revolution of 1905 in the Capital passed into history.

'''In December . . . another major uprising''' 
In Moscow, the Soviet of Workers' Deputies proclaimed a general strike for December 20. When the authorities moved to arrest the stike leaders, an armed uprising broke out. Barricades went up in workers' quarter of the city, and revolutionaries from St. Petersburg, Odessa, and elsewhere joined in the struggle. Nicholas dispatched elite troops with artillery which reduced the rebels' area to ruins. By December 31, the rebellion in Moscow was over. The number of killed and wounded totaled over a thousand.

'''In the East . . . up and down the railroad lines''' 
The Russo-Japanese War was officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on August 23, 1905. In late summer there were numerous minor mutinies by troop returning from Manchuria on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Fighting between the left and the right erupted on October 20 around Tomsk. On November 12, mutinous soldiers and sailors destroyed much of Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, the end of the Trans-Siberian. There were unrests and uprisings in Chita (November 29), Irkutsk (December 13), and Novorossiisk (December 22) as well.

'''Muslim rebellion''' 
The downfall of the Ottoman Empire by Turkey?

:No. In this whole paragraph Pynchon only factually describes the events in Russia and the Russian 1905 Revolution.

:Muslims in Central Asia (Kirghiz, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tadzhik, and others) had never been happy as pawns in the "Great Game" and now (1905) attempted to throw off Russian domination. Turkey, center of the Ottoman Empire, had its rebellion a few years later.

:The text said "'''''a''''' Muslim rebellion". Anyone knows this 1905 Muslim Rebellion in Russia?

'''the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere''' 
The well-known 1905 Revolution in Russian history was the beginning of the fall of the ''Old Regime''. The text "as the Revolution went collapsing" refered exactly to this one, not the February and October Revolutions in 1917. So "the year that followed" refered to 1906. In fact, Pynchon explicitly stated on page 602: "''By 1906'' there were Russians everywhere, . . ."

Soon after the collapse of the 1905 Revolution many Russians emmigrated abroad. They were 1) opponents to the Tsar regime feared of reprisal and backlash; 2) intelligentsia who were frightened by what just happened and afraid of a more violent upheaval in the future (Maxim Gorky, the writer, left Russia in the spring of 1906); 3) Jews, the victims of the large scale pogroms in 1905-06 (1964 Broadway musical ''Fiddler on the Roof'' told the story of how one Jewish family being forced to leave Russia in 1906); 4) youngsters who escaped the compulsory millitary service or looked for a quieter place for education. This was the second wave (1905-1917) of Russian emmigration. (1st wave: 1880-1905; 3rd: 1917-1939; 4th: 1945-1960; 5th: 1991-current).

'''as the Revolution went collapsing''' 
The first paragraph of this page is a factual description of the revolutionary events occured in Russia in 1905 which were later collectively called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1905 1905 Revolution]. It was the foreshock of that of 1917. It had all of Russia in its grip, and its outbreak had not been planned; it had simply grown spontaneously. It failed under the usual combination of repression and concessions. (see Richard Pipes' ''The Russian Revolution'' (1990)). In Soviet Marxist history 1905 Revolution is second only in importance to 1917 October Revolution, one of the most important revolutionary iconic events. (The 1917 Frebruary Revolution, the one actually overthrew the Tsar's Regime, was lightly mentioned because it was considered a ''bourgeois revolution''.) Numerous books, songs, poems, films . . . had been devoted to this Revolution. To the west the most memorable are the Eisenstein's silent film ''Battleship Potmekin'' (1925) and Shostakovich's ''Symphony No 11: The year 1905'' (1957).

'''Peter and Paul Fortress''' 
At St. Petersburg, established by Peter the Great. Political prisoners were confined there from the first half of the 1700s. Conditions were notoriously harsh.

'''kazatsky''' 
A Cossack dance, stereotypical Russian behavior.

'''raid....Waziristan''' 
Waziristan (Pashto: وزیرستان) is a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11 585 km² (4,473 mi²). It comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The North-West Frontier Province lies immediately to the east. The region was an independent tribal territory from 1893, remaining outside of British-ruled empire and Afghanistan. Tribal raiding into British-ruled territory was a constant problem for the British, eliciting frequent punitive expeditions between 1860 and 1945. Wikipedia

Currently, it is thought to be the last stronghold of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.

:Worth noting, perhaps, that Yashmeen came from Russia and had been ''transported'' to Waziristan for sale as a slave.

==Page 596==

'''as-ever transcendentally interesting hair''' 
(Perhaps a reference to Albert Einstein?)

Possibly, but given the numerous mentions of the Zeta function it is most likely a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_numbers Transcendental Numbers]. These are irrational numbers that do not exist as the zero (or solution) to any algebraic function. A number of groundbreaking results regarding transcendentalism were made around the time the novel is set, and most if not all of the mathematicians and mathematical methods mentioned in the book revolve around transcendental numbers and functions.

Given that these numbers are often expressed as an infinite series, in which successive terms add ever-more-minuscule amounts to the value of the number, yet each digit is fascinatingly unique (since the decimal never repeats), it seems to me that Pynchon is suggesting that Yashmeen's hair has the quality of being endlessly fascinating, that even the observation of a single hair (or even a portion of a single hair) is involving and invigorating. This would mirror Kit's fascination and infatuation with Yashmeen, and the term would likely spring readily to the mind of a mathematician of the era.[[User:Dharper|Dharper]] 08:15, 16 January 2007 (PST)

'''. . . the Revolution''' 
Russian 1905 Revolution.

'''...it all finds its way back to the T.W.I.T. people....'''

"and what comes out of their shop can surprisingly often be trusted"

Suggestive of the CIA's Stargate Project in Remote Viewing

''''gen'''' 
British military slang for information. To gen-up is to learn quickly. OED gives earliest recorded use of the word as 1940.

'''a soul impaled . . . as if to bisect me''' 
Harks back to the fate of La Jarretière in ''V.''

'''Afghani dirhan''' 
An Afghani coin, more usually transliterated as "dirham". [http://ghaznavid.ancients.info/ This site] has pictures and more information.

'''Ghaznivid Empire''' 
Usually transliterated as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaznavid_Empire Ghaznavid Empire] (Wikipedia)

'''coffee scion''' 
Coffee motif. More likely: coffee heir.

'''Günther von Quassel''' 
"quasseln" is a German verb, meaning roughly "to jabber"

'''less than universally respected Ludwig Boltzmann''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Boltzmann Boltzmann] proposed an explanation of thermodynamics based on the statistical behaviour of atoms, called the kinetic theory of gases, one of the most profound and far-reaching discoveries in the entire history of science. One baffling problem at the time was why macroscopic phenomena are not time-reversible but microscopic interactions are; any theory that purported to explain thermodynamics would have to address this breaking of the time-reversal symmetry. Boltzmann explained this by what he called the "molecular chaos assumption" (German 'Stosszahlansatz'), to which many objected as unfounded. (See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loschmidt%27s_paradox Loschmidt's paradox].) Hounded by his critics and already prone to bouts of depression, Boltzmann hanged himself.

==Page 597==

'''Gymnasium child''' 
A Gymnasium is a German secondary school

'''Some sort of ... steam-engine word''' 
Prior to Boltzmann, entropy was defined only by means of heat and temperature. Boltzmann gave the first statistical definition. [[Ludwig Boltzmann|Read his bio...]]

'''Except for the usual constants...''' 
This is Boltzmann's statistical definition of entropy and its discovery marked a watershed moment in physics. It is engraved on his tombstone.
[[Image:boltzmann.jpg|200px|thumb|Boltzmann's grave with his entropy formula inscribed|right]]

'''''Ach, die Zetamanie''''' 
German: Oh, the zeta-mania.

'''one measure of the chaos''' 
Via Boltzmann's definition, entropy can be interpreted as measuring the "chaos" or "disorder" in a physical system. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy Wikipedia Entry] 

Cf. p. 188, where Neville and Nigel are referred to as "the N's," and to the proliferation of N name in T.W.I.T. in general.

'''crime...narrative puzzle''' 
Hinting at Webb's role in the novel?

One of Pynchon's central themes and best depicted in The Crying of Lot 49 which can be read as a satire on the order of crime novels and a comment on the central order of narrative structures. Certainly ATD can be read as a vast extension on this theme. The chaos/ order binary has already been a introduced a couple of lines above.

Humfried's comment reiterates something Pynchon says in his essay 'Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?', in virtually the same words.

'''Göttingen tradition'''...'''statue''' 
Like other university towns, Göttingen has developed its own folklore. On the day of their doctorate, postgraduate students are drawn in handcarts from the Great Hall to the Gänseliesel-Fountain in front of the Old Town Hall. There they have to climb the fountain and kiss the statue of the Gänseliesel (Goose girl). This practice is actually forbidden by law, but the law is not at all enforced. She is considered to be the most-kissed girl in the world. Wikipedia.

Addendum of interest for GR and ATD.
Nearly untouched by allied bombing in World War II (the informal understanding during the war was that Germany wouldn't bomb Cambridge and Oxford and the allies wouldn't bomb Heidelberg and Göttingen).

'''Rathaus square''' 
The square in front of City Hall.

==Page 598==

'''Axioms of Zermelo''' 
The basic axioms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo-Frankel_set_theory#The_axioms Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory].

'''Poincaré''' 
Henri Poincaré (1854-1912), one of France's greatest mathermaticians and theorectical physicists. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9 Wikipedia]) His contributions to differential geometry would be integral in formulating Einstein's general theory of relativity. A conjecture he proposed in the 1890s remained unproven until 2006.

'''Cauchy''' 
Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789-1857), a French mathematician. Cauchy single-handedly invented most of complex analysis, largely as a means of evaluating certain improper integrals. His name was connected with many other mathematicians mentioned in ATD: Cauchy-Riemann equation, Cauchy-Frobenious lemma, Cauchy-Euler equation, Cauchy-Kovalevskaia theorem. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Louis_Cauchy Wikipedia])

'''Whittaker and Watson''' 
A standard mathematics textbook of the time ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittaker_and_Watson Wikipedia])

'''two point one''' 
(Cf Sondheim lyric, "A Little Night Music" [http://lynxfeather.net/nest/lyrics/nightmusic-nowlatersoon.html lyrics].)

:I think here just point-by-point listing was being used: 1); 2); 2.1).

==Page 599==

'''Each time he would respond...''' 
Günther suffers from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity "relativity of simultaneity"], as predicted by Einstein and further clarified by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Minkowski Minkowski]. Events detected as simultaneous in one reference frame may be detected as nonsimultaneous in another. Events may even change their order of occurrence in time, depending on the reference frame.

'''"What here is he ''doing?''" . . . "Obviously, we must now a duel fight."''' 
In keeping with his name (see p. 596 annotations), Günther speaks in a stage-German accent.

Because of relativity of simultaneity, Günther's direct object arrives in our reference frame before his verb. In physics, the effect is accentuated when motion is faster and the reference frames are farther apart, so perhaps Günther acts in this fashion when he's psychologically "distant" or "moving fast".

'''dueling-society cap''' 
Probably student corporation insignia.

'''inconvenience''' 
Obviously the name of the Chums' airship; whenever the word appears there seems to be a reference to the Chums; here: "...Here, not completely...slightly...somewhere else" as the airship always seems to be.

'''''Liebchen''''' 
German, "sweetheart"

'''''Egal was, meine Schatze''''' 
German, "No matter what, my darling" - though "meine Schatze" is an improper femininization, which ought to be "mein Schatz".

Meine Schatze literally means "my treasure" and is the term of endearment I used with my German girlfriend. She never mentioned it being "improper".

:"Meine Schatze" is definitely no German phrase, and it also sounds really strange to my (Austrian German) ears. "Meine Schätze" would be the plural, but that does not seem to make sense in this context. "Mein Schatz" instead would fit perfectly.

I'm thinking Yiddish, mebbe?

'''''Schläger''''' 
A specialized weapon for student duels. See Wikipedia's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_fencing Academic fencing] article.

'''Krummsäbel''' 
German, "scimitar".

'''Korbrapier''' 
A rapier with a basket ("Korb" in German) like protection hilt.

'''épée''' 
French for sword

A sharp-pointed duelling sword.

==Page 600==

'''Colt six-shooters''' 
I guess Kit's luggage beat him to Gottingen.

'''''Verbindung''''' 
German: connection, union. Here the student corps one belongs to.

'''upon the face of the other, ''to inscribe one's mark''''' 
In several of his movies, the actor Erich von Stroheim appeared with a nasty scar on the left side of his face. Dueling was a pastime of honor at some universities, and the sword scar was the mark of having sustained one's honor there. Special weapons, masks and inflaming treatments were employed to produce this lifelong disfigurement.

'''a Mexican tilde''' 
The wavy mark over the letter ñ in Spanish.

'''restoring moment, elastic constants''' 
Günther's scar is tilde-shaped because as his opponent's sword passed across his face it vibrated up and down once and returned to its starting position. The following would be a reasonable problem for a high-school physics student: If you know how fast the blade tip was traveling side to side and you're allowed to measure the scar, what was the frequency of the up-and-down motion? A second-year university physics student could work out the frequency of vibration given certain properties of the sword and swordsman. A ''restoring moment'' acts to swing the blade back to its mean position when it is deflected; the duelist's wrist exerts one restoring moment and the elasticity of the steel exerts a second one. The restoring moment depends in part on a number called ''elastic constant'' that relates force to linear deflection (think of the classic fisherman's scale, where more weight extends the spring farther).

'''wasn't going to converge . . . skipped a step . . . ''divided by zero''''' 
Kit insults Günther by pointing out blunders in the proof he gave to Yashmeen.

'''Geheimrat Hilbert''' 
German: confidential counsellor. A title of honor given to prominent civilian figures in Germany. For Hilbert Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Dr. Hilbert]].

==Page 601==

'''''Ehrenkodex''''' 
German, "code of honor"

'''Tyrolean hats''' 
[http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tirolerhut&btnG=Search+Images Images]

'''''Schnurrbartbinde''''' 
A device to keep one's mustache safe from entanglement when sleeping, like [http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/mm/2006/01/1137360569.70341.gif this].

'''Zeiss "Palmos Panoram"''' 
An early panoramic camera, mentioned in the 1911 Britannica's [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Photography Photography] article.

'''''"Auf die Mensur!"''''' 
German, "to the duel"

'''Andaman Islands''' 
[http://www.openencyclopedia.net/index.php/Andaman_Islands Here]'s a mention of tattooing practices in the Andaman Islands

'''Stephanie du Motel... group-theory godfather Évariste Galois''' 
Évariste Galois died in a duel at the age of 20. Though much confusion surrounds the affair, it is suspected that he provoked the duel after being rejected by one Stéphanie-Felice du Motel. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evariste_Galois#Final_days Wikipedia])

==Page 602==

'''By 1906 there were Russians everywhere, flown and fleeing westward''' 
Cf [[ATD_588-614#Page 595|page 595:the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere]]. fleeing westward: most popular destination for Russian refugees was then France, later America.

'''young Ouspensky''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Uspensky Peter D. Ouspensky] (1878-1947), Russian mystic and philosopher, author of ''The Fourth Dimension'', appropriate to Pynchon's themes in ''ATD''.

An anachronism: Ouspensky's ''The Fourth Dimension'' wasn't published until 1909. (See Linda Dalrymple Henderson's ''The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art''.)

'''Theosophoid''' 
A Pynchonism. From Theosophist Cf [[ATD_219-242#Page 219|page 219:Madame Blavatsky, Theosophical Society]]. the suffix "oid" often used in mathematics, indicates a "similarity, not necessarily exact, to something else". (android: similar to a man, ovoid: similar to an egg, etc.) As it is explained in the next sentence, "That's a Theosophist, only not entirely". Fitting, in a book that is obsessed with doppelgängers and people who are at once themselves, but not quite (see the transformations of Dr. V Ganesh Rao)

'''Chong''' 
A strange and seemingly unlikely visitor to Göttingen. The name might be taken from the Chinese philosopher Wang Chong, or Wang Ch'ung. Could also be Cheech Marin's partner, Tommy Chong (C.Marin alluded to earlier p.477). - This is Sidney Reilly, a famous spy of the time, in disguise. See the note on Sidney below.

'''"The what?"''' 
(Precipitous drop in authorial expectations?)

'''Chinese Bolshevik''' 
Chinese Communist. For the true meaning of Bolshevik Cf [[ATD_615-643#Page 616|page 616:Bolshevists]]

'''Sidney . . . Kensington Sid''' 
Kensington is where elected officials worked. 

This is Sidney Reilly, the famous Ace of Spies. The reference is made clear by Swome on page 630, and, to the extent that any appearance here makes sense, a spy makes more sense than a political theorist. An annotation on page 630 includes a Wikipedia reference for Reilly. I don't know whether Reilly (or British spies of the day in general) had a particular association with Kensington, or whether the reference is to Chunxton Crescent, which is placed in roughly that part of London.

'''transtriadic''' 
Beyond the three.

==Page 603==

'''"Spiritual... At Göttingen?"''' 
Gottingen is materialistic. Preserved brains as like in a tannery.

'''Applied Mechanics Institute''' 
An institute of the University of Göttingen

'''Prandtl's recent discovery of the boundary layer''' 
Ludwig Prandtl ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Prandtl Wikipedia]) in 1904 developed the theory of the boundary layer, the thin region in an otherwise inviscid fluid around a bluff body where the effect of viscosity is important. Prandtl's work resolved an old paradox ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Alembert%27s_paradox d'Alembert's paradox]) that had plagued fluid dynamics for a half-century. Prandtl was an engineer and was in large part seeking a way to perform correct and simple calculations for fluid flows around airfoils.

'''powered flight . . . at the edge of history''' 
In 1905 already a reality, but the pioneering empirical work was taking place in Ohio, not Germany.

This is an excellent point that applies to many of the mathematicians mentioned in this chapter.
Minkowski invented spacetime, but Einstein created Relativity Theory. Hilbert proved his Spectral Theorem, but Heisenberg and Schrodinger created Quantum Mechanics. History was being made elsewhere. Cf Yashmeen's rant on page 594.

'''brambled guttie''' 
A proto golf-ball, see [http://www.che.rochester.edu/users/dafoster/ChE243/SciAm%20GolfBall.pdf here].

'''Bürgerstrasse''' 
German, "Citizen's Street", a street in Göttingen.<bre>
This translation is correct but here "Bürger" refers to the German poet Gottfried August Bürger (1748 - 1794) who lived in Göttingen.

'''brambling''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brambling Brambling] (''Fringilla montifringilla'') is a finch related to chaffinches, and is plumed orange, black, and white. Widespread in northern Europe and Asia, it occasionally strays to Alaska and farther south.

'''Brauweg''' 
German, "Brewery Way", a street in Göttingen.

'''Zhukovsky's Transformation''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joukowsky_transform Joukowsky Transform] maps the unit circle in the complex plane to a shape very much like an airfoil.

'''Geheimrat Klein ''' 
Geheimrat = Privy councillor. 
In geometry, the Klein model, also called the projective model... is a model of n-dimensional hyperbolic geometry in which the points of the geometry are in an n-dimensional disk, or ball, and the lines of the geometry are line segments contained in the disk; that is, with endpoints on the boundary of the disk. 

'''glass of tea''' 
(Why not 'cup'?)
because in Europe, as opposed to in England, tea may be drunk from glassware.

'''draw pictures . . . flights of arrows . . . vectors without pictures''' 
Vectors can be visualized as arrows in a plane or three-dimensional space; more generally they can be represented as arrays of coefficients, and now they are not limited to three dimensions.

'''''"...according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity." "And beyond, " added Gunther, nodding earnestly.''''' 
Reference to Buzz Lightyear's stock character phrase in 1995's TOY STORY (Pixar/Disney):
"To Infinity... and Beyond!"
--[[User:Btchakir|Btchakir]] 07:43, 19 December 2006 (PST)
:This reminded me of the caption "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" in the movie ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. [[User:WolfgangFaber|WolfgangFaber]] 07:44, 10 October 2008 (PDT)

'''according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity''' 
Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Spectral Theory]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:''infinite'' dimensions]].

==Page 604==

'''nontrivial zeroes''' 
The Riemann zeta function has two classes of zeros, the trivial zeroes being at negative even integers (-2, -4...), the non-trivial complex numbers, believed (but not proven) to have Re(z)=1/2. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis Wikipedia]. or Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 496|page 496:Zeta function conjecture]].

'''much-noted talk''' 
At the 1900 International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, Hilbert proposed a research programme of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert%27s_problems#Tabulated_information 23 problems]. The Riemann hypothesis is number 8 on the list.

'''Sorbonne''' 
Until 1971, the name ''Sorbonne'' refered to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France, one of the best universities in France. The name is derived from the ''Collège de Sorbonne'', founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon as one of the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris; the university itself as such predates the college by about a centure. In 1971, after the univeristy reforms, the five faculties of the former University of Paris were split and then reformed into thirteen interdisciplinary universities. Three of them as true "heirs" to the original, have kept the Sorbonne name as part of their official title: Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), the New Sorbonne, and the Panthéon-Sorbonne. [http://www.paris4.sorbonne.fr/en/sommaire.php3 The University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV)] was the inheritor of the former University of Paris' Arts and Sciences Faculties.

'''the outstanding problems in mathematics''' 
Hilbert's Problems are 23 (originally) unsolved problems in mathematics proposed by Hilbert. Of the 23 total appearing in the printed address, 10 were actually presented at the Second International Congress of Mathematics at the Sorbonne, Paris on August 8, 1900. [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HilbertsProblems.html Hilbert's Problems] were designed to serve as examples for the kinds of problems whose solutions would lead to the furthering of disciplines in mathermatics. As such, some were areas for investigation and therefore not strictly "problems".

'''eigenvalues''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalue Wikipedia] Dudley Eigenvalue, D.D.S., was a character in ''V.''

'''Hermitian operator''' 
A Hermitian operator is a particular type of linear operator on vector spaces that in essence only acts by stretching or reflecting along certain directions. In quantum mechanics, an observable is a Hermitian operator on the Hilbert space that is taken as the state space of the quantum system. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitian_operator Wikipedia]

'''spine of reality . . . ''"Rückgrat von Wirklichkeit"''''' 
Probably a reference to the main diagonal of a Hermitian matrix, which can contain only real numbers. The German phrase is one accurate way to translate the English.

:are there any others? Translate the German back to English and you get "backbone of reality"

'''Hilbert-Polya Conjecture''' 
The conjecture that the zeroes of the Riemann function would be the eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator, just what Yashmeen is suggesting. 

The most recent refinement of the Hilbert-Polya Conjecture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert–Pólya_conjecture Wikipedia] is that the operator in question arises from the quantization of a chaotic dynamical system. The zeroes would then correspond to the possible energy levels of the system. This would answer Hilbert's prompt to Yasmeen "''some'' equation" on this page, and would provide the link between prime numbers and chaos intuited by Gunther on page 597.

==Page 605==

'''Vance Aychrome''' 
The voracious detective is a stock figure in the mystery genre (Nero Wolfe, Mycroft Holmes, Inspector Dover, D.C.I. Dalziel and others). 
Is his name pronounced Eye Chrome, as in private eye? Weak possible connection?-- a truck light called Big Eye Chrome. The name sounds like 'fancy chrome.' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Vance Philo Vance] is an effete fictional detective created by S. S. Van Dyne in the 1920's. Vance Aychrome, as depicted by Pynchon, seems quite different from Philo Vance.

'''Full English Breakfast''' 
Bacon, eggs, tomato, toast... otherwise known as a fry-up.

'''Pythagorean dietary''' 
The Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who lived towards the end of the 6th century BC, was a prominent proponent of vegetarianism. The Pythagorean diet came to mean an avoidance of the flesh of slaughtered animals. Pythagorean ethics first became a philosophical morality between 490-430 BC with a desire to create a universal and absolute law including injunctions not to kill "living creatures," to abstain from "harsh-sounding bloodshed," in particular animal sacrifice, and "never to eat meat." (From a review of ''The Heretics Feast: a History of Vegetarianism'' by Colin Spencer, University Press of New England, 1995)
 
and never to eat beans (strange but true).

'''kippers and bloaters''' 
Different words (both Scottish) for smoked herrings

'''baps''' 
soft bread rolls - another Scottish word

'''Spong machine''' 
Appropriate technology. An English-made hand-cranked coffee grinder that doesn't light up, lacks a readout to tell when the beans are ready, and signally fails to function before the user wakes up. Only drawback is that some spouses compare its sound to half a load of cobbles being dumped on the roof.

'''thinned''' 
From full 78. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Wikipedia]

'''vegetarian haggis''' 
It exists: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22vegetarian+haggis Google search]

==Page 606==

'''Lamont Replevin''' 
"Replevin" is a legal term for a form of civil action to recover possession of property being wrongfully held by another.

'''Elflock Villa''' 
Elflock: A lock of hair tangled as if by elves. Often used in the plural.

'''Stuffed Edge, Herts''' 
An imaginary village in the South-East English county of Hertfordshire. Stuffed hedge?

'''kedgeree''' 
A hot breakfast dish of fish, rice, and eggs.

'''Cesare Lombroso''' 
Anthropologist who devised a method of identifying criminal "types" from their facial structures. (Cf [[ATD_171-198#Page 172|page 172: Dr. Lombroso]]).

Brock Vond, Pynchon's villain in ''Vineland'', is also a follower of Lombroso's theories. Cf. page 272-273 of ''Vineland''.

'''Trans-Oxanian''' 
From the other side of the Oxus River (now Amu-Darya) in Central Asia. Cf. [[ATD_429-459#Page 439|page 439:the Oxus]].

'''Graeco-Buddhist''' 
The hybrid cultural background evidenced in Shambhala. Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Graeco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in Central Asia in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism Wikipedia] and Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 438|page 438:Graeco-Buddhist]].

'''bad hats''' 
A bad hat is a slang term for a rascal

==Page 607==

'''Gas Office''' 
As explained in the text, the Scotland Yard bureau that kept gas communications under surveillance.

'''communication by means of coal-gas''' 
Cf Nabokov's "Ada". Also inverse of Tesla's energy-transmitter. A parallel to the Tristero, too. The description of communication by gas seems like a self-parody of ''The Crying of Lot 49.''

'''bombs... Suffragettes''' 
(Did they bomb post offices?!?)post boxes:Suffragettes carried out direct action such as chaining themselves to railings, setting fire to the contents of mailboxes, smashing windows and on occasions setting off bombs. Wikipedia

'''Persian''' 
Majority language in Iran, now called Farsi.

'''Pashto''' 
A language spoken in Afghanistan and nearby.

'''Tadjik''' 
A language spoken in Tadjikistan. "Mountain Tadjik" presumably dominates in the 60% or so of the country that is in high mountains.

'''Seven Dials''' 
In Covent Garden, London - a place where 7 roads meet. An unsavory assignment for a policeman.

==Page 608==

'''"Avoid beans"''' 
Pythagoreans follow a proscription against eating beans.

'''spotted dick''' 
A suet pudding with raisins or currants

'''Yarmouth bloater''' 
A cured herring from the port town of Yarmouth.

'''...if not for these unauthorized dilettantes all pottering about...''' 
Oddly reminiscent of the villains' perennial complaint in the old "Scooby-Doo" cartoons.

'''queering the pitch''' 
[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/297387.html Disrupting someone's business;] compare [[ATD_748-767#Page_758|"yakitori pitches," p. 758.]]

''''shape'''' 
a doughnut,which comes in various shapes? Including the math-relevant
shape: a torus. But probably just a bit of bun, scone, etc. listed as Vance's breakfast...no doughnut listed.

'Shape' is another word for blancmange, which is made of gelatin, derived probably from the bones of some animal. Aychrome wonders "what's it made of", to which Lew responds "Maybe you don't want to know." [[User:Nehoccramcire|Nehoccramcire]] 09:14, 12 March 2007 (PDT)

'''the Embankment''' 
Victoria Embankment, London, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_yard Scotland Yard] was located there from 1890 to 1967. Scotland Yard was founded on September 29, 1829, on a street off Whitehall; and in 1967 it moved to the present location at 10 Broadway Street, London.

'''blue lamps''' 
Traditionally hung outside police stations in England.

'''lamé surfaces''' 
Lamé (fabric), a fabric inwoven metallic threads 
Lamé, name of the electrically conductive jacket worn by foil and sabre fencers 
Lamé (armor), an unarticulated component of a larger piece of armor 

'''yarmulke... high crown... dented Trilby style''' 
[http://www.wpclipart.com/clothes/hats/index.html Image of a Trilby hat.]

==Page 609==

'''Bukhara''' 
Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 425|page 425:Bukhara]]

'''''Kelly's Suburban Dictionary''''' 
The peerless [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/22/design360.icon.az/index.html ''London A to Z''] did not come along until the 1930s.

'''wenlets''' 
Politician and journalist William Cobbett (1763-1835) called London "the great wen." It was not a compliment, because ''wen'' means a sebaceous cyst. Wenlets are small versions of the "great" wen.

==Page 610==

'''daylight oil''' 
from the streetlamps, lit up for hours?

'''a moon no one could see''' 
Note that the ''Inconvenience'' is repeatedly referred to as a "moon" ([[ATD_119-148#Page_144|p. 144,]] [[ATD_171-198#Page_187|p. 187]]) and is sometimes seen under other guises ([[ATD_199-218#Page_215|p. 215,]] [[ATD_243-272#Page_272|p. 272]]).

'''refused to dim''' 
(Nicely vivid.)

'''Vontz's Universal Pick''' 
Vontz (Yiddish): bedbug.

'''alchemized coke''' 
Gas works that manufacture syngas also produce coke as an end product, called gas house coke.

Fluid coking is a process by which heavy residual crude is converted into lighter products such as naptha, kerosene, heating oil, and hydrocarbon gases. The "fluid" term refers to the fact that coke particles are in a continuous system versus older batch coking technology. Wikipedia

'''Lincrusta-Walton''' 
an embossed fabric used for covering walls, invented in 1877 by Frederick Walton as an alternative to more expensive wallpapers (wikipedia).

'''hipshot''' 
having one hip lower than the other: a Greek statue in hipshot pose.M-W.

'''captive maiden''' 
In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', Oedipa Maas is referred to as a "captive maiden" in the scene where she's standing in front of the Remedios Varo painting. It would certainly be worth while to examine the parallels more closely.

'''scalene polygons''' 
Polygons with sides of unequal length.

'''jet''' 
jet black, a color.

'''Apotheosis Sparkless Torch''' 

==Page 611==

'''magnalium''' 
An alloy of magnesium and aluminum.

'''Lamont Replevin (for it was he)''' 
Formula from penny-dreadful literature: Open the chapter with an unknown character (referred to ahead of time but never yet making an appearance), describe looks and some little action, then spring the name on the reader.

'''''The Slow and the Stupefied''''' 
Daytime soap 'The Young and the Restless'.

'''gas-head''' 
Cf pothead, acidhead, etc.

'''Pike's Peak''' 
Lew's old stompinground.

'''Gus Swallowfield''' 
A curious pseudonym assumed by Lew Basnight while in the presence of Lamont Replevin. As Mr. Swallowfield, Lew professes to be an insurance salesman. The name is very overtly British and is possibly referential to the Swallowfield estate in Berkshire, which itself has a curious history.

'''most theft policies''' 
(Fact?)

'''pantechnicon''' 
A closed van or carryall. (Is TRP trying to put a burr under S. Weisenburger's saddle by bringing this vehicle back? SW's gloss in the ''GR Companion,'' at page 19 of the Viking edition, is famously wrong.) 

Pantechnicon can mean either a furniture warehouse (originally a bazaar) or a removal van. The reference in GR to "the piano in the pantechnicon" is therefore ambiguous. TRP might say that he meant a van, not a bazaar, but that would not mean that SW was wrong. Just that SW and TRP had different readings of the novel. And the author's reading does not necessarily have primacy.

This assertion is generally debateable and in the case of TRP his conscious intentions in his fully thought out novels carries a lot of primacy most of the time, most might argue. This wiki attests to that.

:Lots of people would say the wiki is wrong then. You can discover sources and you may be able to parse processes (rewrites, selection of information), but the author's intentions are not accessible; only the work is. Therefore (and so on and so forth). A philosophical question and probably not wiki-able.

'''legitimate bill of sale''' 
That is, a stolen object with a stolen bill of sale cannot be proved to be stolen; the thief has the receipt.

'''burglary insurance''' 
Although TRP writes that most theft policies were written in the US by the time Lew speaks to Replevin, the first burglary policy was in fact offered by Cuthbert Heath, an Underwriter at Lloyd's, London in about 1889, which would seem to be a few years earlier than the scene. Antony Brown, ''Cuthbert Heath'' ( David & Charles, New Abbot London 1984)at pages 72-76. [[User:TheKenoshaKid|TheKenoshaKid]] 15:52, 9 March 2008 (PDT)

==Page 612==

'''''Pavonazzetto''''' 
brecciated white marble with violet veins from Docimia, Asia Minor.

'''Phrygian marble''' 
Phrygia is an ancient region of west central Asia Minor, to the south of Bithynia. Marble from there was highly valued.

'''Atys... Agdistis''' 
From Greek and Roman mythology. Atys (or Attis) is a young lover of the goddess Cybele (also known as Agdistis in Phrygia). When he wished to marry, Cybele drove him mad and he castrated himself. Catullus wrote a poem on the subject.

'''''The Mutilation of Atys''''' 
No images: [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=%22Mutilation%20of%20Atys&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Google image search]

But under the name Attis, this two-panel sequence: [http://www.aztriad.com/aacarati.html page 1,] [http://www.aztriad.com/aacatals.html page 2,] from "Seladore's Historical Cartoons." And [http://paxnortona.notfrisco2.com/?p=2332 a photo] of what appears to be an old statue of Attis.

'''Arturo Naunt, Chelsea's own, shocking the bourgeoisie since 1889''' 
Phrasing reminiscent of advertising.

'''shocking the bourgeoisie''' 
A popular pastime for young and not-so-young soi-disant radicals ("Epater le bourgeois").

'''koumiss vessel''' 
A container for fermented horse's milk. Perhaps like this one:
[http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/husa/origins/szkitahist/scythianvessel.html]

According to the OED, an early form of the word 'koumiss' was 'cosmos' - its appearance here doesn't seem coincidental given the short disquisition on the etymology of 'chaos' soon to follow. For the Greeks 'cosmos' was the antithetical concept to 'chaos'. Pythagoras is said to be the first to apply the original meaning of 'cosmos', i.e., 'an orderly arrangement' to the universe itself.

'''depending on the angle you hold it at, sometimes it doesn't look like anything at all''' 
A concise description of anamorphic and paramorphic images; this one needs the Paramorphoscope to interpret it.

'''wrathful deities from Tantric Buddhism''' 
Tantric Buddhism is also known as Varjayana Buddhism. In Varjayana Buddhism, a dharmapāla (Tibetan drag-gshed) is a type of wrathful deity. The name means "Dharma-defender" in Sanskrit, and the dharmapalas are also known as the Defenders of the Law (Dharma) or the Protectors of the Law in English.
In Buddhist iconography, they are invariably depicted as fearsome beings, often with many heads, hands or feet; blue, black or red skin; and a fierce expression with protruding fangs. Though dharmapalas have a terrifying appearance, they are all bodhisattvas or buddhas- embodiments of compassion that act in a wrathful way for the sake of sentient beings.Wikipedia

==Page 613==

'''tiny German hand camera''' 
Probably a Zeiss Ikon. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss Wikipedia Entry]

A Zeiss Ikon would be an anachronism, as this company was created as a merger in 1926.

The description somehow suggests the classic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minox Minox] "spy cameras", but also these were created only in the 1930ies (originally in Latvia, mass production in Germany).

A small German camera matching the time would be [http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Gnom Gnom], a version of which was also sold in the UK.

'''raw light''' 
light from a gaslight is not 'artificial' as from electric lights, streetlamps, etc. Cf. Telleruide section.

'''Gasophilia''' 
Love of gas.

'''Schwärmer''' 
The name is a German word meaning visionary, zealot, raver.

'''Waves in a timeless stream of Gas''' 
Replevin equates piped gas to the æther.

'''Sensitive Flame''' 
A burner flame adjusted so that it responds to the tiniest disturbance in the
air. Used by both physicists and spiritualists.

'''cognizant nose...medium for the most exquisite poetry'''

see Proust

'''Chidambaram''' 
A city in south India and Chidambaram is one of the Panchabhoota Sthalams - temples built for the 5 elements said to embody Shiva - at Chidambaram (space), Kalahasti (wind), Thiruvanaikaval (water), Tiruvannamalai (fire) and Kanchipuram (earth).

'''''Akaša''''' 
Akasa is the fifth element,the ether, unseen and invisible but an important element permeating the whole universe. It is also considered
to be indentical with Brahma, the creator..... 
Akasa is 'simple,continuous infinite substance and is the substratum of sound.' Both from Indian Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Occultist Eliphas Levi associated akasa with what he called the "Astral Light". He writes: "[T]his electromagnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric (Perhaps this explains Pynchon's insistence on the term "luminiferous aether"?), is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis which twines round two poles and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of Saturn" -- emblem of infinity, immortality, and Kronos -- 'Time'". He says it is "a force in Nature," by means of which "a single man who can master it... might throw the world into confusion and transform its face"; for it is the "great Arcanum of transcendent Magic." It is a "blind force... which souls must conquer in order to detach themselves from the chains of Earth; 'for if they should not,' they will be absorbed by the same power which first produced them and will return to the central and eternal fire."

It gets better... He writes: "It is through this Force that all the nervous centres secretly communicate with each other; from it -- that sympathy and antipathy are born; from it -- that we have our dreams; and that the phenomena of second sight and extra-natural visions take place... Astral Light, acting under the impulsion of powerful wills, destroys, coagulates, separates, breaks, gathers in all things... God created it on that day when he said: Fiat Lux..." He refers to akasa/Astral Light variably as "the body of the Holy Ghost", the "grand Agent Magique", "Lucifer" and "Baphomet", the winged-goat figure that served as the inspiration for the Devil Tarot card designed by Colman-Smith. [http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-1-12.htm From Madame Blavatsky's "The Secret Doctrine"][http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-2-06.htm Más]

[http://laluni.helloyou.ws/askbaba/prasnottaravahini/prasnottara01.html This page] also equates akasa with the ether and sez that "each subsequent element originated from the previous one" with akasa being the first, similar to the Kaballic Tree of Life.

'''Atman''' 
''Sanskrit''. In Hinduisim, the innermost essence of each individual. Also, the soul. ''Cf.'' Weed Atman in ''Vineland''.

''''''Chaos'''''' 
allusion is seems to Genesis. "Chaos" is in fact the Greek word [for without form and void], says this site.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."
-- Genesis 1: 1-4 (KJV)

'''van Helmont''' 
He claimed to have coined the word "gas" in just the way described here.

'In his "Physica" (1633), the Rosicrucian alchemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, wrote: "Ad huc spiritum incognitum Gas voco," i.e., "This hitherto unknown Spirit I call Gas." Further on in the same work he says, "This vapor which I have called Gas is not far removed from the Chaos the ancients spoke of."' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_light#Esoteric_conceptions wiki]

'''stridently unpopulated''' 
Cf p610.

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

ATD 588-614

2010-09-01T03:24:05Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 603 */

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

==Page 588==

'''tannery''' 
In ancient history, tanning was considered a noxious or "odiferous trade" and relegated to the outskirts of town, amongst the poor. Indeed, tanning by ancient methods is so foul smelling that tanneries are still isolated from those towns today where the old methods are used.

'''Gottlob''' 
Literally "praise to God", as an exclamation also "Thank God!". Though it is rare, it is a real German name. 
Very much so: for example of mathematician/philospher Gottlob Frege, who did study at Göttingen, but not at this time.

'''Humfried''' 
A German translation of Humphrey. This was not an existing German name any time after the medieval, though.

'''Gauss's brain''' 
After Carl Friedrich Gauss died in 1855, his brain was preserved for research purposes. To this day, it is in the possession of the University of Göttingen. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].

'''impervious to the wind''' 
(Attribute of tanned leather?)

'''''"Heiliger Bimbam!"''''' 
A German expression of surprise, translated elsewhere as "Holy Moly!"

'''It is she, she!''' 
probably an allusion to H. Rider Haggard's She. See Wikipedia entry. She has been purified by a pillar of fire. In ''Against the day'', she rises from the swamp. Carl Jung, who used the novel ''She'' (1887) as an example of anima, posited the anima is an archetypical form, expressing the fact that a man has a minority of female genes. Haggard's Queen Ayesha is an unmistakable anima type the ultimate guide and mediator to the inner world. The idea has also connections with the observations of James Frazer in his classical study ''The Golden Bough''. Haggard's idea of a journey into the "darkest Africa," which turns into a spiritual search, has been used by a number of writers, including Joseph Conrad in ''Heart of Darkness'' (1902). 
"My empire is of thy imagination", She says in the novel, "She". Cf. a line, [which I am checking] in "The Crying of Lot 49".

She is 'discovered' somewhere in unknown Africa by some British 'explorers' in a hidden kingdom, and she first appears in a sort of late 19th century private boudoir there. She came to that place via a complicated story some 2000 years earlier, and is of Yemenite origin, having come to the world in pretty much the normal fashion. Yashmeen seems indeed to be based on some fin-de-siecle imaginations of the 'ideal' woman (her looks in general, and the often mentioned streaming black hair of hers), but unlike Haggard's She, Yashmeen is rather powerless in the long run, despite her obvious erotic influence on the men and women in ATD. - Tommaso

:Powerless is a term worth lots of discussion here. [User: MKOHUT]

:It is certainly possible that the line is an allusion, but I think it may simply be a set-up to another goofy Pynchonian linguistic joke-- "Not 'chichi,' idiot..."

'''rim''' 
Kit pretends to think he's referring to monocle as 'chichi' (stylish).

'''Kovalevskaia''' 
Sofia Kovalevskaia, 1850-1891. Russian mathematician, in 1884 appointed professor in Stockholm. The third female professor in Europe ever. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Sofia Kovalevskaia]] and (Wikipedia)

'''Roentgen-ray spectacles''' 
The X-ray glasses that used to be advertised in comic books.

'''''natürlich''''' 
German: naturally.

==Page 589==

'''Those curves are everywhere continuous but nowhere differentiable''' 
This is exactly a description of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weierstrass_function Weierstrass function] (1872), a pathological example of a real-valued function on the real line. This function was cited on page 594 by Yashmeen as one of the crises in mathermatics. Also see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/WeierstrassFunction.html Weierstrass function from MathWorld] and Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Karl Weierstrass]].

'''Those curves . . . ''Noli me tangere''''' 
A well-turned wordplay: The operation of differentiating a curve involves drawing ''tangents'' to it at selected points. The curves in question are continuous, but the injunction ''Noli me tangere'' means you can't draw the tangents.

:If a curve is nowhere differentiable then there will be no tangents anywhere. The curve is everywhere ''untouchable''.

'''''Noli me tangere''''' 
Latin for 'don't touch me'

or, in the immortal words of MC Hammer; "You can't touch this"

'''And is that a revolver you're carrying''' 
Implying, perhaps, an unvocalized "or are you just happy to see me?" Which would be in accord with Kit's reaction to the sight of a woman wearing a toque.

'''''Hausknochen''''' 
German: a giant housekey, as defined, literally House Bone,with perhaps a
double entendre on bone?

Also, slang for [http://www.russki-mat.net/page.php?l=DeFr&a=H penis].

==Page 590==

'''Hadamard... Poussin... Prime Number Theorem''' 
Jacques Hadamard and Charles de la Vallée-Poussin independently proved the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem prime number theorem] in 1896, relying on Riemann's Zeta function. The prime number theorem makes assertions about the distribution of prime numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hadamard.html Jacques Hadamard] (1865-1963), a French mathematician best known for his proof of the Prime Number Theorem in 1896.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Vallee_Poussin.html de la Vallée Poissin] (1866-1962), a Belgian mathematician best known for his proof (independently) of the Prime Number Theorem and his major work ''Cours d'Analyse''.

The Prime Number Theorem defied proof for several decades, and legend at the time had it that whoever did prove it would live forever. Examination of the dates of birth and death of both Hadamard and de la Vallée-Poussin show that this was not too far from the truth.

'''patent ''Kühlbox''''' 
''Kühlbox'' here just means "icebox" or "cooler." Refrigerators were available at the time of the action but not widely used, so an icebox is more likely. It's upstairs in Kit's room, so not necessarily portable.

"Patent," attached to a noun like [[ATD_429-459#Page_457|leather or pencil,]] could mean really, officially patented ''or'' novel and gimmicky. Patent medicines are sold under protected names but not genuine patents in most cases. So the icebox features some radical or distinctive design. My money's on asbestos insulation between the zinc sheets.

[http://www.dhm.de/datenbank/index.html?/datenbank/rb00/rb000891.html Pic of a ca. 1920 Eiskiste-model]. According to German Wikipedia, the mobile "Eiskiste" (icebox) had to be filled with (natural) ice, while its successor, the Kühlbox, worked/works with "Kühlaggregate" (cooling units). The contributor is not sure if suchlike were around at that time. German Wikipedia on [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiskiste Eiskiste] and [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BChlbox Kühlbox].

'''beleaguered subset''' 
a group (from the whole) under attack

'''That is, is it was ''some smile''''' 
Typo, for That is, it was ''some smile''.

'''Prime Number Theorem''' 
The Prime Number Theorem constitutes any number of equivalent statements concerning the distribution of prime numbers. Let ''π(n)'' be the number of primes that are less than ''n'', and let ''p''''n'' denote the ''n''th prime number. The Prime Number Theorem states that ''π(n) ~ n/ln(n)'' as ''n'' approaches infinity, or equivalently that ''p''''n'' ''~ n ln(n)''.

==Page 591==

'''prats''' 
Literally the buttocks. As a slang term, a 'prat' is an [[Idiots and Idiocy in Against the Day|idiot]].

'''''Die Nullstellen der ζ-Funktion''''' 
German: the zeroes of the ζ function. (Null = zero; Stelle = location.) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_zeta_function#Zeros_of_the_Riemann_zeta_function Wikipedia] on the "Zeros of the Riemann zeta-function".

'''not all that hard to prove''' 
Kit will upset the applecart if he can prove the Riemann Hypothesis; Yashmeen's research topic will shrink to triviality. No one has proved the Riemann hypothesis to the satisfaction of the mathematical community at large yet; eternal fame and a fat wad of money await he or she who does.

'''"Richard Harding Davis"''' 
Popular writer of fiction and drama, journalist/war-correspondent and a major male-role-model of his time (1864 - 1916). He was considered the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's dashing Gibson man, the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. He is also referenced early in Sinclair Lewis's book, ''Dodsworth'' as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Harding_Davis Wikipedia]. Among other things, he reported on Belgian atrocities in the Congo.

'''seldom, if ever''' 
Cf p559 re Umeki!?

'''tetralatry''' 
made up from greek "tettares" (prefix -tetra) = four and "latreia" = worship

'''C. Howard Hinton''' 
Charles Howard Hinton (1853 – 1907) was a British mathematician and writer of science fiction works titled ''Scientific Romances''. He was interested in higher dimensions, particularly the fourth dimension, and is known for coining the word ''tesseract'' and for his work on methods of visualising the geometry of higher dimensions. He also had a strong interest in theosophy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard_Hinton Wikipedia Entry]

'''Johann K.F. Zöllner''' 
Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (1834–1882) was a German astrophysicist. Studied Photometrie and optical illusions. He insisted a fourth dimension should be considered in Physics and tried to scientifically explain spiritist phenomena.

'''vogue... 'vague'''' 
Nice wordplay as Yashmeen seems to think the vogue of mysticism is not very precise, is 'vague' intellectually. Further play on "vague" = wave, as in an intellectual fad, e.g. in film, the French "Nouvelle Vague" (New Wave).

==Page 592==

'''upside-down triangles''' 
Also Pléiade p538. In mathematics that would be the operator ''del'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del Wikipedia]. Since pre-history and across most cultures the upside-down triangle is a symbol for the female (genitals).

Florian Cajori's ''A History of Mathematical Notations'' (v.2 p.135) states that the del (aka Hamiltonian operator) was introduced by William Hamilton in his 1853 lecture on Quaternions. Rumour has it that it is supposed to be a drawing of an ancient Hebrew harp (nabla). It is also known as the atled (backword delta).

This in turn suggests (within the context of AtD (atled??) a reversal of time or a mirror image of change.

'''screamingly obvious fallacy in this . . . "proof" of yours''' 
Yashmeen reacts in a slight panic to Kit's threat (page 591).

'''metallic banging''' 
Hausknochen on doors, with 'banging' entendre.

'''"metric interval"''' 
In Euclidean (three-dimensional) space a distance is just what you think it is. In other geometrical systems the term "metric interval" is preferred as a generalized distance.

'''social life is unpredictable''' 
mirrors the situation in the "Hotel Noctambulo", p. 462. Are all these guys "chums of chance"?

[Not sure about the "chums" idea, but more confusion between public and private space on pg. 155 -- Hunter Penhallow leaving the ruined city, presumably in a time machine: "At some point he must have come indoors, entering a sort of open courtyard....Without intending to, he was walking through inhabited rooms."]

'''Weenderstrasse '''
The main shopping street in Göttingen.

'''Prinzenstrasse and Weenderstrasse''' 
A street corner at the very center of Göttingen ([http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=g%C3%B6ttingen,+germany&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=17&ll=51.534284,9.935417&spn=0.006107,0.010793&t=h Google Maps]), "known to mathematicians here as the origin of the city of Göttingen's coordinate system". 
The intersection of these two streets is colloquial called "the navel". For visitors it is not that spectacular, but it's the number one meeting point for people who live in Göttingen before going to a cafe or pub. (I don't know, why we allways meet there, but we allways do!) So Pynchon definitley knows, why he compares this street corner with the origin of Göttingen's coordinate system. 
By the way, one of the oldest bookstores of Göttingen is situated right at the described corner of Prinzen- and Weenderstrasse.

==Page 593==

'''twenty marks''' 
A mark is short for deutschemark, a German monetary unit. 
That was the case after the Second World War, but the unit was just called the mark until at least the end of the empire. [http://www.thegoldcoinstore.com/WorldGold/German_Gold_20_Marks_Kaizer_Wilhelm_II.php Here] is a picture of a 20 mark coin from the period of the action.

'''''der Pistolenheld''''' 
German: the pistol hero. Meaning: the gunman. 'Pistolenheld' seems rather funny, the correct German word is: der Revolverheld.

'''automorphic functions and the Anharmonic Pencil''' 
[http://mathworld.wolfram.com/AutomorphicFunction.html Automorphic Functions] are generalizations of trigonometric functions and elliptic functions.

Anharmonic Pencil see [[ATD_525-556#Page 532|page 532:Anharmonic Pencil]].

'''''das Nichtharmonischestrahlenbündel''''' 
Or ''das nichtharmonische Strahlenbündel.'' German: the anharmonic pencil. A "pencil" is the set of lines passing through a point.

'''Euler''' 
Leonhard Euler (pronounced Oiler; IPA [ˈɔʏlɐ]) (April 15, 1707 – September 7, 1783) was a Russian-German mathematician and physicist of Swiss descent. From Wikipedia and below:

Euler made important discoveries in fields as diverse as calculus, number theory, and topology. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function. [1] He is also renowned for his work in mechanics, optics, and astronomy.

Euler is considered to be the preeminent mathematician of the 18th century and one of the greatest of all time.

'''Felix Klein''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Klein.html Felix Klein] (1849-1925), a German mathematician, best known for his work in non-Euclidean goemetry, for his work on the connections between geometry and group theory, and for results in function theory. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 565|page 565:Felix Klein]].

'''''Mathematical Theory of the Top''''' 
Published in the U.S. in 1897. Compare Felix Klein and Arnold Sommerfeld, ''Über die Theorie des Kreisels,'' 4 volumes, 1897-1910.

'''Leopold Kronecker''' and '''Cantor''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Kronecker.html Leopold Kronecker] (1823-1891), a German mathematician, primary contributions were in the theory of equations. He made major contributions in elliptic functions and the theory of algebraic numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Cantor.html Georg Cantor] (1845-1918), a German mathematician. He founded set theory and introduced the concept of infinite numbers with his discovery of cardinal numbers. He also advanced the study of trigonometric series. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 250|page 250:Dr. Cantor]]).

The "monumental quarrel between Kronecker and Cantor" is also referred to as a "religious war," appropriately enough. It's based in a disagreement over the legitimacy of numbers. Kronecker held that "'the positive integers were created by God, and all else is the work of man.'" This is contradicted by "'Cantor with his ''Kontinuum'', professing an equally strong belief in just those regions, infinitely divisible, which lie ''between'' the whole numbers so demanding of all Kronecker's devotion.'"

The disagreement between the two mathematicians is reminiscent of (or does it anticipate?) the rift between Pointsman and Mexico in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Kronecker's integers "created by God" have become a Pavlovian digital binary for Pointsman, but the two oppositions track faithfully right down to the italicized "between."

"The young statistician [Mexico] is devoted to number and to method, not table-rapping or wishful thinking. But in the domain of zero to one, not-something to something, Pointsman can only possess the zero and the one. He cannot, like Mexico, survive anyplace in between. Like his master I. P. Pavlov before him, he imagines the cortex of the brain as a mosaic of tiny on/off elements.... But to Mexico belongs the domain ''between'' zero and one." [Page 55]

It should be noted, however, that the continuous number line was a modern innovation. In Greek number theory, a number is a collection of indivisible units. Irrationals, such as the square root of 2 are not numbers but "magnitudes." One is not even a number for it is not a number of units. There are no negative numbers as well. (see Klein's Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra.) So Kronecker's position may be less of a crazy innovation as much as a maintenance of ancient theory.

:That last paragraph makes an excellent point.

'''the square root of minus one''' 
The imaginary number ''i''. Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:Imarginary Number]].

'''the square root of ''plus two''' 
From Carl B. Boyer's ''A History of Mathematics'', 2nd Ed. 1991, pp.564 & 565): 
The domain of rational numbers can be extended to form a continuum of real numbers if one assumes Cantor-Dedekind axiom that the points on a line can be put into one-to-one correspondence with the real numbers. "Arithmetically expressed, this means that for every division of the rational numbers into two classes A and B such that every number of the first class, A, is less than every number of the second class, B, there is one and only one real number producing this ''Schnitt'', or . . . cut. If A has a largest number, or if B contains a smallest number, the cut defines a rational number; but if A has no largest number and B no smallest, then the cut defines an irrational number. If, for example, we put in A all negative rational numbers and also all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2, and in B all positive rational numbers whose squares are more than 2, we have subdivided the entire field of rational numbers in a manner defining an irrational number—in this case the number that we usually write as" ''suqare root of 2''. In fact, the squae root of ''plus two'' "can be defined simply as that segment or subclass of the set of rational numbers made up of all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2 and also of all negative rational numbers." —— This is what Kronecker did not believe.

'''''Kontinuum''''' 
This passage closely parallels the one about the "microcosm of Venice" on page 575.

==Page 594==

'''''Nervenklinik''''' 
German: nerve clinic. Three-dollar word for a mental hospital.

'''boundless epsilonic world''' 
Epsilon, Greek letter like E. In mathematics (particularly calculus), an arbitrary (or nearly so) small positive quantity is commonly denoted ε; see limit.
By analogy with this, the late mathematician Paul Erdős also used the term "epsilons" to refer to children (Hoffman 1998, p. 4). Wikipedia; of Huxley's five classes of citizens in ''Brave New World'' epsilons were purposely stunted physically and intellectually.

'''Der Finsterzwerg''' 
The choice of the tavern "The Dwarf of Darkness" may have been meant as a dig at five-foot-tall Kronecker.

'''chloral hydrate''' 
A/k/a "knockout drops" a/k/a a "Mickey Finn". Hence the ''Mickifest''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloral_hydrate Wikipedia entry].

'''''Kneipe''''' 
German: pub

'''Gauss passing to Weber a remark''' 
Carl Friedrich Gauss (Gauß) (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician and scientist of profound genius who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy and optics. Sometimes known as "the prince of mathematicians" and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", Gauss had a remarkable influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians. (Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].)

That influence is seen in the field of statistics where the Gaussian distribution (also known as the normal distribution, popularly known as the bell curve) is named after him. With its ability to correctly model "psychological measurements and physical phenomena" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution] and its resemblance to both the rainbow and the rocket's arc, there's no surprise Pynchon references it often in GR, even having Roger Mexico quote the formula as "an old saying among my people" (p.709, the Mexico quotation is actually some strange variant of the Normal distribution).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Eduard_Weber Wilhelm Weber] (1804-91), a noted German physicist. He studied magnetism with Gauss and in 1831, on the recommendation of Gauss, he was appointed as professor of physics at Göttingen. And in 1833 Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph. The SI unit of magnetic flux, the ''weber'', is named after him.

In 1831 Gauss developed a fruitful collaboration with the physics professor Wilhelm Weber; it led to new knowledge in the field of magnetism (including finding a representation for the unit of magnetism in terms of mass, length and time) and the discovery of Kirchhoff's circuit laws in electricity. Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph in 1833, which connected the observatory with the institute for physics in Göttingen. Gauss ordered a magnetic observatory to be built in the garden of the observatory and with Weber founded the magnetischer Verein ("magnetic club"), which supported measurements of earth's magnetic field in many regions of the world. He developed a method of measuring the horizontal intensity of the magnetic field which has been in use well into the second half of the 20th century and worked out the mathematical theory for separating the inner (core and crust) and outer (magnetospheric) sources of Earth's magnetic field

'''Göttingen . . . in the war with Prussia''' 
This refers to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Prussian_war Austro-Prussian War], (also called Seven Weeks' War), June 15–August 23, 1866, between Prussia, allied with Italy, and Austria, allied with Bavaria, Wüttemberg, Saxony (where Göttingen is located), Hanover, Baden and several other smaller German states. It was Bismarck's aim to expel, by force, Austria from the German Confederation as a step toward the unification of Germany under Prussian dominace.
:Göttingen is in Saxony now (specifically the state of ''Niedersachsen'' or Lower Saxony), but until 1866 it was an important city in the Kingdom of Hanover.

'''political crisis in Europe''' 
The period of 1870 to 1914 was characterized by the Anglo-German naval race and European powers - Germany, Italy, Belgium, Britain and France - scrambled for Africa. The major events in Europe were: 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War; 1905 Russian Revolution; 1908 Bosnia Crisis; 1911-12 Italian Turkish War; 1912-13 Balkan War; 1914 World War I began.

'''crisis in mathematics . . . Weierstrass functions, Cantor's continuum, Russell's inexhaustible capacity for mischief''' 
A genuine crisis as well-established ideas were challenged. Weierstrass functions have the unheard-of property that they are "continuous but nowhere differentiable." Cantor's ideas about the continuum violated a longstanding prohibition against infinite quantities. Bertrand Russell around this time was setting the cat among the pigeons by identifying paradoxes and inconsistencies in set theory and number theory.

'''"the infinite" was all but a conjuror's convenience''' 
There is a very good book relating how the infinite, between the 18th and early 20th centuries, finally found a place in mathematics: ''In Search of Infinity'' by N.Ya. Vilenkin (translated by Abe Shenitzer).

==Page 595==

'''That winter, in St. Petersburg . . . Hundreds were killed and wounded.''' 
22 Jan 1905, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281905%29 Bloody Sunday]. 

The event on January 22, 1905, ''Bloody Sunday'', was a watershed in the Russian history. 
Russia's armies were losing to the Japanese in the Far East. Her workers at home were challenging the rule of Romanov's Autocracy. At the beginning of 1905, the workers of ''Putilov Works'' of St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, went on stike for better living and working conditions. They were joined by many from other factories. Father Gapon, a priest, urged the striking workers to present directly to the Tsar on January 22, 1905 a petition to seek justice and protection. They would beg Nicholas II to come to their aid. The morning of January 22 was very cold (about five degrees below freezing) and some 200,000 workers and their wives and children came peacefully and orderly carrying icons, portraits of Nicholas, and no revolutionary placards not even red handkerchiefs. To stop the workers' march upon the Palace Square barricades were set across several avenues that connected to the city center. At each of these points, soldiers tried to turn back the marchers and, at several of them, officers ordered to fire into the crowds. The worst slaughter took place on the Winter Palace Square itself, between 150 and 200 men, women, and children lay shot dead and another 450 to 800 had been wounded while the Cossacks charged into the dispersing crowds with sabers drawn. 
Bloody Sunday, as that tragic day soon became known, marked the beginning of what the Tsar's mother called the "year of nightmares", and the beginning of what many others called the "year of revolution". (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)).

'''Grand Duke Sergei''' 
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (1857-1905) was the uncle and brother-in-law of Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918, Reign: 1894-1917). In 1891 he was appointed as Moscow Governor General. In 1894 he also was a member of the State Council. He resigned from the Governorship on January 1, 1905 but continued as Commander of the Moscow military district. In the afternoon of February 17, 1905, in a carriage leaving the Kremlin Grand Duke Sergei was killed by a nitroglycerine bomb thrown by a Socialist Revolutionary terrorist directly into his lap. He was literally blown to bits and pieces. The assassination of Grand Duke Sergei signaled the beginning of a broader wave of popular unrest that had been sparked by the events of Bloody Sunday and swept the whole nation. Many more assassinations, strikes, disorders and uprisings followed during the year.
(Grand Duke Sergei's replacement, Shurvalov, was assassinated on July 11 of the same year.)

'''More strikes . . . peasant and military insurections . . . into the summer''' 
In January-February, turbulent reaction to Bloody Sunday spread across neighboring regions, especially the industrial centers which experienced spontaneous workers' strikes: Vilno, Kovno, Kiev, Moscow were paralyzed. In February-March the labor unrests reached Saratov Province and the Caucasus, and Siberia. Labor unrests were persistent throughout Russia into August. In early March university students left their classrooms, and at the end of the month the authorities closed down all the universities throughout the whole country for the rest of the academic year. (Student unrest even reached Orthodox seminaries.) 
In March, peasant unrests erupted widely, especially in Kursk, and Chernigov and Orel provinces and northwest regions of European Russia. In June, the Battleship ''Potemkin'' mutinied and in the Black Sea port city Odessa there was a large scale uprising by the sailors, soldiers, workers and ordinary citizens. On June 28 afternoon hundreds of protesters were killed on the Odessa Steps which was immortalized by the classic movie sequence in the 1925 Eisenstein's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Batlleship_Potemkin ''The Battleship Potemkin''] (considered by some one of the greatest films of all time). In summer widespread peasants' attacks on landowners' estates dramatically increased throughout Russia. The Peasant Union was organized at a secret August 13-14 Moscow conference.

'''Kronstadt''' 
Kronstadt was a naval fortress in the Gulf of Finland 18 miles west of St. Petersburg. Following the destruction of the Baltic Fleet by the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318: The Russo-Japanese War]]) Kronstadt joined the general uprising which swept the whole Russian country. The first Kronstadt uprising on November 8-9, 1905, participated in by the majority of Kronstadt's 13,000 sailors and soldiers, was basically a large armed riot accompanied by liberal political demands. It lasted only two days. Kronstadt's second uprising took place in July 1906 but was brutally suppressed.

'''Sebastopol''' 
A port city of Russia (now, Sevastopol of Ukrain), located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimean peninsula west of Yalta. Sebastopol was associated with rebellion, mutiny and civil war. 
On June 27, 1905 the battleship ''Potemkin'' sailed from Sebastopol to Odessa and to mutiny against the ship's oppressive officers. The mutineers killed seven of the eighteen officers, including the Captain and the Second in Command. The ship eventually sailed to Romania and turned over to the authority there on July 7. (Sergei Eisenstein's ''The Battlehip Potemkin'' made her famous well beyond Russia.) 
On October 1, 1905, citizen of Sebastopol and sailors from the Black Fleet demonstrated in the city center demanding the authority to free political prisoners, etc, but were met with gun fire. Wide spread unrest and naval mutinies followed. In November the cruiser ''Ochakov'' led a rebellion joined by several other warships. The rebellion was eventually suppressed by a stronger government force a couple of months later.

'''Black Hundreds''' 
Anti-Semitic vigilantes.

The name was a derogatory one, adapted from the term "White Hundreds", which was used in medieval Russia for the privileged caste of nobles and wealthy merchants. The lower-class types who joined the Black Hundreds were not in this class hence their ironic nomenclature. It was formed in response to the October Manifesto by those who had either lost or were afraid of losing their petty status in the social hierachy as a result of modernization and reform. They blamed the Jews as the ultimate cuase for Tsar's retreat. Fighting revolution in the streets was their way of revenging themselves, a means of putting the clock back and restoring the social and racial hierarchy. (Based on Orlando Figes' ''A People's Tragedy'' (1996))

'''Japanese won''' 
The Japanese destroyed the bulk of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima Strait on May 27-28, 1905. In ''GR'', the soon-to-be-defeated fleet puts in at German Southwest Africa during the 1904 Herero Revolt; Tchicherine's father, a sailor in that fleet, may also be the father of Enzian, leader of the Schwarzcommando.

By January 1905 the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo_Japanese_War Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)] had been going on in Manchuria for nearly a year. In the summer of 1904, the Russia's Pacific Fleet was bottled up inside Port Arthur (now, Lüshun, Liaoning, China) and the port was under siege as from August. In October, the Tsar sent the entire Baltic Fleet to relief the siege. At the beginning of 1905, Port Arthur finally fell after a siege and bombardment lasted 156 days. In March 1905 Russia and Japan fought the greatest land battle in the history up to then at Mukden (Shenyang, Liaoning). Each side committed more than 300,000 troops and over 1,000 pieces of artillery. After nearly one month's fighting both lost more than 50,000 killed and wounded, but the Russians withrew 40 miles to the north. After streaming halfway around the world in a grueling voyage of many months without adequate logistic support, on May 27 the Russian fleet met the waiting Japanese (under Admiral Togo) in the Tsuhsima Straits that separated Japan and Korea. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima Battle of Tsushima Straits (May 27-28)] was one of the most decisive naval battles in history. Even though the Russians had more ships and more heavy guns, but within a few hours, they lost 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 5 minelayers and 4 other ships. Four more battleship surrendered next day, and the Russian commanding admiral (Admiral Rozhdestvenskii) was also captured. The Japanese lost only a total of 3 torpedo boats. (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)). 
After two months' negotiation, the Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of the Peace Treaty of Porstmouth (New Hampshire) on September 5, 1905.

'''A general strike in the autumn . . .''' 
In late September a printers' strike in Moscow was in progress for over a fortnight. By October 18 it seemed that the strike was losing steam. But on October 20 railroad workers struck the Moscow-Kazan Railway and the strike spread outward along all the railroad lines: to St Petersburg in the west, to Voronesh and Kharkov in the south; and by October 23 it had reached Siberia. Twenty-six thougsand miles of track were immobilized as 750,000 railroad employees struck. At this time much of European Russia was in the grip of one of the greatest and most effective general strikes in the history of labor protest anywhere in the world. All of Russia's industry ground to a halt, everyone stopped work. Factory workers, servants, postal workers, telegraph operators, janitors, and hackney drivers all walked off their jobs, as did bank clerks, shop clerks, and clerks in government office. Doctors, laywers, schoolteachers, university professors, even the entire corps de ballet of the great Imperial Mariinskii Theatre—all joined the strike. There were no newspapers, no streetlights, no tramcars . . . As all rail traffic stopped and telegraph line dead, Russia was isolated from the rest of the world. At the same time, the revolutionary groups organized a new body for coordinating the activities of the striking workers and for expressing their joint political and economic demands: the "St. Petersburg
''Soviet'' of Workers' Deputies". Many other Soviets were set up and developed later as alternate governing organizations. The name and organization ''Soviet'' (Russian word ''Sovet'' means council) took on a legendary meaning from then on and became historical. 
With the regime on the verge of collapse, in response, the Tsar, advised by the Prime Minister, issued the famouse ''October Manifesto'' on October 30, 1905, by which Nicholas granted to all Russian civil rights, agreed to summon a Duma (Parliament) elected by wide (though not universal) suffrage, and agreed that all laws must be approved by the Duma. In the meantime, on December 16, troops were sent to arrest some three hundred members of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. The Revolution of 1905 in the Capital passed into history.

'''In December . . . another major uprising''' 
In Moscow, the Soviet of Workers' Deputies proclaimed a general strike for December 20. When the authorities moved to arrest the stike leaders, an armed uprising broke out. Barricades went up in workers' quarter of the city, and revolutionaries from St. Petersburg, Odessa, and elsewhere joined in the struggle. Nicholas dispatched elite troops with artillery which reduced the rebels' area to ruins. By December 31, the rebellion in Moscow was over. The number of killed and wounded totaled over a thousand.

'''In the East . . . up and down the railroad lines''' 
The Russo-Japanese War was officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on August 23, 1905. In late summer there were numerous minor mutinies by troop returning from Manchuria on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Fighting between the left and the right erupted on October 20 around Tomsk. On November 12, mutinous soldiers and sailors destroyed much of Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, the end of the Trans-Siberian. There were unrests and uprisings in Chita (November 29), Irkutsk (December 13), and Novorossiisk (December 22) as well.

'''Muslim rebellion''' 
The downfall of the Ottoman Empire by Turkey?

:No. In this whole paragraph Pynchon only factually describes the events in Russia and the Russian 1905 Revolution.

:Muslims in Central Asia (Kirghiz, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tadzhik, and others) had never been happy as pawns in the "Great Game" and now (1905) attempted to throw off Russian domination. Turkey, center of the Ottoman Empire, had its rebellion a few years later.

:The text said "'''''a''''' Muslim rebellion". Anyone knows this 1905 Muslim Rebellion in Russia?

'''the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere''' 
The well-known 1905 Revolution in Russian history was the beginning of the fall of the ''Old Regime''. The text "as the Revolution went collapsing" refered exactly to this one, not the February and October Revolutions in 1917. So "the year that followed" refered to 1906. In fact, Pynchon explicitly stated on page 602: "''By 1906'' there were Russians everywhere, . . ."

Soon after the collapse of the 1905 Revolution many Russians emmigrated abroad. They were 1) opponents to the Tsar regime feared of reprisal and backlash; 2) intelligentsia who were frightened by what just happened and afraid of a more violent upheaval in the future (Maxim Gorky, the writer, left Russia in the spring of 1906); 3) Jews, the victims of the large scale pogroms in 1905-06 (1964 Broadway musical ''Fiddler on the Roof'' told the story of how one Jewish family being forced to leave Russia in 1906); 4) youngsters who escaped the compulsory millitary service or looked for a quieter place for education. This was the second wave (1905-1917) of Russian emmigration. (1st wave: 1880-1905; 3rd: 1917-1939; 4th: 1945-1960; 5th: 1991-current).

'''as the Revolution went collapsing''' 
The first paragraph of this page is a factual description of the revolutionary events occured in Russia in 1905 which were later collectively called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1905 1905 Revolution]. It was the foreshock of that of 1917. It had all of Russia in its grip, and its outbreak had not been planned; it had simply grown spontaneously. It failed under the usual combination of repression and concessions. (see Richard Pipes' ''The Russian Revolution'' (1990)). In Soviet Marxist history 1905 Revolution is second only in importance to 1917 October Revolution, one of the most important revolutionary iconic events. (The 1917 Frebruary Revolution, the one actually overthrew the Tsar's Regime, was lightly mentioned because it was considered a ''bourgeois revolution''.) Numerous books, songs, poems, films . . . had been devoted to this Revolution. To the west the most memorable are the Eisenstein's silent film ''Battleship Potmekin'' (1925) and Shostakovich's ''Symphony No 11: The year 1905'' (1957).

'''Peter and Paul Fortress''' 
At St. Petersburg, established by Peter the Great. Political prisoners were confined there from the first half of the 1700s. Conditions were notoriously harsh.

'''kazatsky''' 
A Cossack dance, stereotypical Russian behavior.

'''raid....Waziristan''' 
Waziristan (Pashto: وزیرستان) is a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11 585 km² (4,473 mi²). It comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The North-West Frontier Province lies immediately to the east. The region was an independent tribal territory from 1893, remaining outside of British-ruled empire and Afghanistan. Tribal raiding into British-ruled territory was a constant problem for the British, eliciting frequent punitive expeditions between 1860 and 1945. Wikipedia

Currently, it is thought to be the last stronghold of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.

:Worth noting, perhaps, that Yashmeen came from Russia and had been ''transported'' to Waziristan for sale as a slave.

==Page 596==

'''as-ever transcendentally interesting hair''' 
(Perhaps a reference to Albert Einstein?)

Possibly, but given the numerous mentions of the Zeta function it is most likely a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_numbers Transcendental Numbers]. These are irrational numbers that do not exist as the zero (or solution) to any algebraic function. A number of groundbreaking results regarding transcendentalism were made around the time the novel is set, and most if not all of the mathematicians and mathematical methods mentioned in the book revolve around transcendental numbers and functions.

Given that these numbers are often expressed as an infinite series, in which successive terms add ever-more-minuscule amounts to the value of the number, yet each digit is fascinatingly unique (since the decimal never repeats), it seems to me that Pynchon is suggesting that Yashmeen's hair has the quality of being endlessly fascinating, that even the observation of a single hair (or even a portion of a single hair) is involving and invigorating. This would mirror Kit's fascination and infatuation with Yashmeen, and the term would likely spring readily to the mind of a mathematician of the era.[[User:Dharper|Dharper]] 08:15, 16 January 2007 (PST)

'''. . . the Revolution''' 
Russian 1905 Revolution.

'''...it all finds its way back to the T.W.I.T. people....'''

"and what comes out of their shop can surprisingly often be trusted"

Suggestive of the CIA's Stargate Project in Remote Viewing

''''gen'''' 
British military slang for information. To gen-up is to learn quickly. OED gives earliest recorded use of the word as 1940.

'''a soul impaled . . . as if to bisect me''' 
Harks back to the fate of La Jarretière in ''V.''

'''Afghani dirhan''' 
An Afghani coin, more usually transliterated as "dirham". [http://ghaznavid.ancients.info/ This site] has pictures and more information.

'''Ghaznivid Empire''' 
Usually transliterated as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaznavid_Empire Ghaznavid Empire] (Wikipedia)

'''coffee scion''' 
Coffee motif. More likely: coffee heir.

'''Günther von Quassel''' 
"quasseln" is a German verb, meaning roughly "to jabber"

'''less than universally respected Ludwig Boltzmann''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Boltzmann Boltzmann] proposed an explanation of thermodynamics based on the statistical behaviour of atoms, called the kinetic theory of gases, one of the most profound and far-reaching discoveries in the entire history of science. One baffling problem at the time was why macroscopic phenomena are not time-reversible but microscopic interactions are; any theory that purported to explain thermodynamics would have to address this breaking of the time-reversal symmetry. Boltzmann explained this by what he called the "molecular chaos assumption" (German 'Stosszahlansatz'), to which many objected as unfounded. (See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loschmidt%27s_paradox Loschmidt's paradox].) Hounded by his critics and already prone to bouts of depression, Boltzmann hanged himself.

==Page 597==

'''Gymnasium child''' 
A Gymnasium is a German secondary school

'''Some sort of ... steam-engine word''' 
Prior to Boltzmann, entropy was defined only by means of heat and temperature. Boltzmann gave the first statistical definition. [[Ludwig Boltzmann|Read his bio...]]

'''Except for the usual constants...''' 
This is Boltzmann's statistical definition of entropy and its discovery marked a watershed moment in physics. It is engraved on his tombstone.
[[Image:boltzmann.jpg|200px|thumb|Boltzmann's grave with his entropy formula inscribed|right]]

'''''Ach, die Zetamanie''''' 
German: Oh, the zeta-mania.

'''one measure of the chaos''' 
Via Boltzmann's definition, entropy can be interpreted as measuring the "chaos" or "disorder" in a physical system. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy Wikipedia Entry] 

Cf. p. 188, where Neville and Nigel are referred to as "the N's," and to the proliferation of N name in T.W.I.T. in general.

'''crime...narrative puzzle''' 
Hinting at Webb's role in the novel?

One of Pynchon's central themes and best depicted in The Crying of Lot 49 which can be read as a satire on the order of crime novels and a comment on the central order of narrative structures. Certainly ATD can be read as a vast extension on this theme. The chaos/ order binary has already been a introduced a couple of lines above.

Humfried's comment reiterates something Pynchon says in his essay 'Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?', in virtually the same words.

'''Göttingen tradition'''...'''statue''' 
Like other university towns, Göttingen has developed its own folklore. On the day of their doctorate, postgraduate students are drawn in handcarts from the Great Hall to the Gänseliesel-Fountain in front of the Old Town Hall. There they have to climb the fountain and kiss the statue of the Gänseliesel (Goose girl). This practice is actually forbidden by law, but the law is not at all enforced. She is considered to be the most-kissed girl in the world. Wikipedia.

Addendum of interest for GR and ATD.
Nearly untouched by allied bombing in World War II (the informal understanding during the war was that Germany wouldn't bomb Cambridge and Oxford and the allies wouldn't bomb Heidelberg and Göttingen).

'''Rathaus square''' 
The square in front of City Hall.

==Page 598==

'''Axioms of Zermelo''' 
The basic axioms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo-Frankel_set_theory#The_axioms Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory].

'''Poincaré''' 
Henri Poincaré (1854-1912), one of France's greatest mathermaticians and theorectical physicists. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9 Wikipedia]) His contributions to differential geometry would be integral in formulating Einstein's general theory of relativity. A conjecture he proposed in the 1890s remained unproven until 2006.

'''Cauchy''' 
Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789-1857), a French mathematician. Cauchy single-handedly invented most of complex analysis, largely as a means of evaluating certain improper integrals. His name was connected with many other mathematicians mentioned in ATD: Cauchy-Riemann equation, Cauchy-Frobenious lemma, Cauchy-Euler equation, Cauchy-Kovalevskaia theorem. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Louis_Cauchy Wikipedia])

'''Whittaker and Watson''' 
A standard mathematics textbook of the time ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittaker_and_Watson Wikipedia])

'''two point one''' 
(Cf Sondheim lyric, "A Little Night Music" [http://lynxfeather.net/nest/lyrics/nightmusic-nowlatersoon.html lyrics].)

:I think here just point-by-point listing was being used: 1); 2); 2.1).

==Page 599==

'''Each time he would respond...''' 
Günther suffers from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity "relativity of simultaneity"], as predicted by Einstein and further clarified by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Minkowski Minkowski]. Events detected as simultaneous in one reference frame may be detected as nonsimultaneous in another. Events may even change their order of occurrence in time, depending on the reference frame.

'''"What here is he ''doing?''" . . . "Obviously, we must now a duel fight."''' 
In keeping with his name (see p. 596 annotations), Günther speaks in a stage-German accent.

Because of relativity of simultaneity, Günther's direct object arrives in our reference frame before his verb. In physics, the effect is accentuated when motion is faster and the reference frames are farther apart, so perhaps Günther acts in this fashion when he's psychologically "distant" or "moving fast".

'''dueling-society cap''' 
Probably student corporation insignia.

'''inconvenience''' 
Obviously the name of the Chums' airship; whenever the word appears there seems to be a reference to the Chums; here: "...Here, not completely...slightly...somewhere else" as the airship always seems to be.

'''''Liebchen''''' 
German, "sweetheart"

'''''Egal was, meine Schatze''''' 
German, "No matter what, my darling" - though "meine Schatze" is an improper femininization, which ought to be "mein Schatz".

Meine Schatze literally means "my treasure" and is the term of endearment I used with my German girlfriend. She never mentioned it being "improper".

:"Meine Schatze" is definitely no German phrase, and it also sounds really strange to my (Austrian German) ears. "Meine Schätze" would be the plural, but that does not seem to make sense in this context. "Mein Schatz" instead would fit perfectly.

I'm thinking Yiddish, mebbe?

'''''Schläger''''' 
A specialized weapon for student duels. See Wikipedia's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_fencing Academic fencing] article.

'''Krummsäbel''' 
German, "scimitar".

'''Korbrapier''' 
A rapier with a basket ("Korb" in German) like protection hilt.

'''épée''' 
French for sword

A sharp-pointed duelling sword.

==Page 600==

'''Colt six-shooters''' 
I guess Kit's luggage beat him to Gottingen.

'''''Verbindung''''' 
German: connection, union. Here the student corps one belongs to.

'''upon the face of the other, ''to inscribe one's mark''''' 
In several of his movies, the actor Erich von Stroheim appeared with a nasty scar on the left side of his face. Dueling was a pastime of honor at some universities, and the sword scar was the mark of having sustained one's honor there. Special weapons, masks and inflaming treatments were employed to produce this lifelong disfigurement.

'''a Mexican tilde''' 
The wavy mark over the letter ñ in Spanish.

'''restoring moment, elastic constants''' 
Günther's scar is tilde-shaped because as his opponent's sword passed across his face it vibrated up and down once and returned to its starting position. The following would be a reasonable problem for a high-school physics student: If you know how fast the blade tip was traveling side to side and you're allowed to measure the scar, what was the frequency of the up-and-down motion? A second-year university physics student could work out the frequency of vibration given certain properties of the sword and swordsman. A ''restoring moment'' acts to swing the blade back to its mean position when it is deflected; the duelist's wrist exerts one restoring moment and the elasticity of the steel exerts a second one. The restoring moment depends in part on a number called ''elastic constant'' that relates force to linear deflection (think of the classic fisherman's scale, where more weight extends the spring farther).

'''wasn't going to converge . . . skipped a step . . . ''divided by zero''''' 
Kit insults Günther by pointing out blunders in the proof he gave to Yashmeen.

'''Geheimrat Hilbert''' 
German: confidential counsellor. A title of honor given to prominent civilian figures in Germany. For Hilbert Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Dr. Hilbert]].

==Page 601==

'''''Ehrenkodex''''' 
German, "code of honor"

'''Tyrolean hats''' 
[http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tirolerhut&btnG=Search+Images Images]

'''''Schnurrbartbinde''''' 
A device to keep one's mustache safe from entanglement when sleeping, like [http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/mm/2006/01/1137360569.70341.gif this].

'''Zeiss "Palmos Panoram"''' 
An early panoramic camera, mentioned in the 1911 Britannica's [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Photography Photography] article.

'''''"Auf die Mensur!"''''' 
German, "to the duel"

'''Andaman Islands''' 
[http://www.openencyclopedia.net/index.php/Andaman_Islands Here]'s a mention of tattooing practices in the Andaman Islands

'''Stephanie du Motel... group-theory godfather Évariste Galois''' 
Évariste Galois died in a duel at the age of 20. Though much confusion surrounds the affair, it is suspected that he provoked the duel after being rejected by one Stéphanie-Felice du Motel. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evariste_Galois#Final_days Wikipedia])

==Page 602==

'''By 1906 there were Russians everywhere, flown and fleeing westward''' 
Cf [[ATD_588-614#Page 595|page 595:the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere]]. fleeing westward: most popular destination for Russian refugees was then France, later America.

'''young Ouspensky''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Uspensky Peter D. Ouspensky] (1878-1947), Russian mystic and philosopher, author of ''The Fourth Dimension'', appropriate to Pynchon's themes in ''ATD''.

An anachronism: Ouspensky's ''The Fourth Dimension'' wasn't published until 1909. (See Linda Dalrymple Henderson's ''The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art''.)

'''Theosophoid''' 
A Pynchonism. From Theosophist Cf [[ATD_219-242#Page 219|page 219:Madame Blavatsky, Theosophical Society]]. the suffix "oid" often used in mathematics, indicates a "similarity, not necessarily exact, to something else". (android: similar to a man, ovoid: similar to an egg, etc.) As it is explained in the next sentence, "That's a Theosophist, only not entirely". Fitting, in a book that is obsessed with doppelgängers and people who are at once themselves, but not quite (see the transformations of Dr. V Ganesh Rao)

'''Chong''' 
A strange and seemingly unlikely visitor to Göttingen. The name might be taken from the Chinese philosopher Wang Chong, or Wang Ch'ung. Could also be Cheech Marin's partner, Tommy Chong (C.Marin alluded to earlier p.477). - This is Sidney Reilly, a famous spy of the time, in disguise. See the note on Sidney below.

'''"The what?"''' 
(Precipitous drop in authorial expectations?)

'''Chinese Bolshevik''' 
Chinese Communist. For the true meaning of Bolshevik Cf [[ATD_615-643#Page 616|page 616:Bolshevists]]

'''Sidney . . . Kensington Sid''' 
Kensington is where elected officials worked. 

This is Sidney Reilly, the famous Ace of Spies. The reference is made clear by Swome on page 630, and, to the extent that any appearance here makes sense, a spy makes more sense than a political theorist. An annotation on page 630 includes a Wikipedia reference for Reilly. I don't know whether Reilly (or British spies of the day in general) had a particular association with Kensington, or whether the reference is to Chunxton Crescent, which is placed in roughly that part of London.

'''transtriadic''' 
Beyond the three.

==Page 603==

'''"Spiritual... At Göttingen?"''' 
Gottingen is materialistic. Preserved brains as like in a tannery.

'''Applied Mechanics Institute''' 
An institute of the University of Göttingen

'''Prandtl's recent discovery of the boundary layer''' 
Ludwig Prandtl ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Prandtl Wikipedia]) in 1904 developed the theory of the boundary layer, the thin region in an otherwise inviscid fluid around a bluff body where the effect of viscosity is important. Prandtl's work resolved an old paradox ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Alembert%27s_paradox d'Alembert's paradox]) that had plagued fluid dynamics for a half-century. Prandtl was an engineer and was in large part seeking a way to perform correct and simple calculations for fluid flows around airfoils.

'''powered flight . . . at the edge of history''' 
In 1905 already a reality, but the pioneering empirical work was taking place in Ohio, not Germany.

This is an excellent point that applies to many of the mathematicians mentioned in this chapter.
Minkowski invented spacetime, but Einstein created Relativity Theory. Hilbert proved his Spectral Theorem, but Heisenberg and Schrodinger created Quantum Mechanics. History was being made elsewhere. Cf Yashmeen's rant on page 594.

'''brambled guttie''' 
A proto golf-ball, see [http://www.che.rochester.edu/users/dafoster/ChE243/SciAm%20GolfBall.pdf here].

'''Bürgerstrasse''' 
German, "Citizen's Street", a street in Göttingen.<bre>
This translation is correct but here "Bürger" refers to the German poet Gottfried August Bürger (1748 - 1794) who lived in Göttingen.

'''brambling''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brambling Brambling] (''Fringilla montifringilla'') is a finch related to chaffinches, and is plumed orange, black, and white. Widespread in northern Europe and Asia, it occasionally strays to Alaska and farther south.

'''Brauweg''' 
German, "Brewery Way", a street in Göttingen.

'''Zhukovsky's Transformation''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joukowsky_transform Joukowsky Transform] maps the unit circle in the complex plane to a shape very much like an airfoil.

'''Geheimrat Klein ''' 
Geheimrat = Privy councillor. 
In geometry, the Klein model, also called the projective model... is a model of n-dimensional hyperbolic geometry in which the points of the geometry are in an n-dimensional disk, or ball, and the lines of the geometry are line segments contained in the disk; that is, with endpoints on the boundary of the disk. 

'''glass of tea''' 
(Why not 'cup'?)
because in Europe, as opposed to in England, tea may be drunk from glassware.

'''draw pictures . . . flights of arrows . . . vectors without pictures''' 
Vectors can be visualized as arrows in a plane or three-dimensional space; more generally they can be represented as arrays of coefficients, and now they are not limited to three dimensions.

'''''"...according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity." "And beyond, " added Gunther, nodding earnestly.''''' 
Reference to Buzz Lightyear's stock character phrase in 1995's TOY STORY (Pixar/Disney):
"To Infinity... and Beyond!"
--[[User:Btchakir|Btchakir]] 07:43, 19 December 2006 (PST)
:This reminded me of the caption "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" in the movie ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. [[User:WolfgangFaber|WolfgangFaber]] 07:44, 10 October 2008 (PDT)

'''according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity''' 
Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Spectral Theory]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:''infinite'' dimensions]].

==Page 604==

'''nontrivial zeroes''' 
The Riemann zeta function has two classes of zeros, the trivial zeroes being at negative even integers (-2, -4...), the non-trivial complex numbers, believed (but not proven) to have Re(z)=1/2. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis Wikipedia]. or Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 496|page 496:Zeta function conjecture]].

'''much-noted talk''' 
At the 1900 International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, Hilbert proposed a research programme of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert%27s_problems#Tabulated_information 23 problems]. The Riemann hypothesis is number 8 on the list.

'''Sorbonne''' 
Until 1971, the name ''Sorbonne'' refered to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France, one of the best universities in France. The name is derived from the ''Collège de Sorbonne'', founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon as one of the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris; the university itself as such predates the college by about a centure. In 1971, after the univeristy reforms, the five faculties of the former University of Paris were split and then reformed into thirteen interdisciplinary universities. Three of them as true "heirs" to the original, have kept the Sorbonne name as part of their official title: Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), the New Sorbonne, and the Panthéon-Sorbonne. [http://www.paris4.sorbonne.fr/en/sommaire.php3 The University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV)] was the inheritor of the former University of Paris' Arts and Sciences Faculties.

'''the outstanding problems in mathematics''' 
Hilbert's Problems are 23 (originally) unsolved problems in mathematics proposed by Hilbert. Of the 23 total appearing in the printed address, 10 were actually presented at the Second International Congress of Mathematics at the Sorbonne, Paris on August 8, 1900. [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HilbertsProblems.html Hilbert's Problems] were designed to serve as examples for the kinds of problems whose solutions would lead to the furthering of disciplines in mathermatics. As such, some were areas for investigation and therefore not strictly "problems".

'''eigenvalues''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalue Wikipedia] Dudley Eigenvalue, D.D.S., was a character in ''V.''

'''Hermitian operator''' 
A Hermitian operator generalises some of the ideas of symmetry when complex numbers are involved. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitian_operator Wikipedia]

'''spine of reality . . . ''"Rückgrat von Wirklichkeit"''''' 
Probably a reference to the main diagonal of a Hermitian matrix, which can contain only real numbers. The German phrase is one accurate way to translate the English.

:are there any others? Translate the German back to English and you get "backbone of reality"

'''Hilbert-Polya Conjecture''' 
The conjecture that the zeroes of the Riemann function would be the eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator, just what Yashmeen is suggesting. 

The most recent refinement of the Hilbert-Polya Conjecture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert–Pólya_conjecture Wikipedia] is that the operator in question arises from the quantization of a chaotic dynamical system. The zeroes would then correspond to the possible energy levels of the system. This would answer Hilbert's prompt to Yasmeen "''some'' equation" on this page, and would provide the link between prime numbers and chaos intuited by Gunther on page 597.

==Page 605==

'''Vance Aychrome''' 
The voracious detective is a stock figure in the mystery genre (Nero Wolfe, Mycroft Holmes, Inspector Dover, D.C.I. Dalziel and others). 
Is his name pronounced Eye Chrome, as in private eye? Weak possible connection?-- a truck light called Big Eye Chrome. The name sounds like 'fancy chrome.' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Vance Philo Vance] is an effete fictional detective created by S. S. Van Dyne in the 1920's. Vance Aychrome, as depicted by Pynchon, seems quite different from Philo Vance.

'''Full English Breakfast''' 
Bacon, eggs, tomato, toast... otherwise known as a fry-up.

'''Pythagorean dietary''' 
The Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who lived towards the end of the 6th century BC, was a prominent proponent of vegetarianism. The Pythagorean diet came to mean an avoidance of the flesh of slaughtered animals. Pythagorean ethics first became a philosophical morality between 490-430 BC with a desire to create a universal and absolute law including injunctions not to kill "living creatures," to abstain from "harsh-sounding bloodshed," in particular animal sacrifice, and "never to eat meat." (From a review of ''The Heretics Feast: a History of Vegetarianism'' by Colin Spencer, University Press of New England, 1995)
 
and never to eat beans (strange but true).

'''kippers and bloaters''' 
Different words (both Scottish) for smoked herrings

'''baps''' 
soft bread rolls - another Scottish word

'''Spong machine''' 
Appropriate technology. An English-made hand-cranked coffee grinder that doesn't light up, lacks a readout to tell when the beans are ready, and signally fails to function before the user wakes up. Only drawback is that some spouses compare its sound to half a load of cobbles being dumped on the roof.

'''thinned''' 
From full 78. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Wikipedia]

'''vegetarian haggis''' 
It exists: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22vegetarian+haggis Google search]

==Page 606==

'''Lamont Replevin''' 
"Replevin" is a legal term for a form of civil action to recover possession of property being wrongfully held by another.

'''Elflock Villa''' 
Elflock: A lock of hair tangled as if by elves. Often used in the plural.

'''Stuffed Edge, Herts''' 
An imaginary village in the South-East English county of Hertfordshire. Stuffed hedge?

'''kedgeree''' 
A hot breakfast dish of fish, rice, and eggs.

'''Cesare Lombroso''' 
Anthropologist who devised a method of identifying criminal "types" from their facial structures. (Cf [[ATD_171-198#Page 172|page 172: Dr. Lombroso]]).

Brock Vond, Pynchon's villain in ''Vineland'', is also a follower of Lombroso's theories. Cf. page 272-273 of ''Vineland''.

'''Trans-Oxanian''' 
From the other side of the Oxus River (now Amu-Darya) in Central Asia. Cf. [[ATD_429-459#Page 439|page 439:the Oxus]].

'''Graeco-Buddhist''' 
The hybrid cultural background evidenced in Shambhala. Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Graeco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in Central Asia in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism Wikipedia] and Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 438|page 438:Graeco-Buddhist]].

'''bad hats''' 
A bad hat is a slang term for a rascal

==Page 607==

'''Gas Office''' 
As explained in the text, the Scotland Yard bureau that kept gas communications under surveillance.

'''communication by means of coal-gas''' 
Cf Nabokov's "Ada". Also inverse of Tesla's energy-transmitter. A parallel to the Tristero, too. The description of communication by gas seems like a self-parody of ''The Crying of Lot 49.''

'''bombs... Suffragettes''' 
(Did they bomb post offices?!?)post boxes:Suffragettes carried out direct action such as chaining themselves to railings, setting fire to the contents of mailboxes, smashing windows and on occasions setting off bombs. Wikipedia

'''Persian''' 
Majority language in Iran, now called Farsi.

'''Pashto''' 
A language spoken in Afghanistan and nearby.

'''Tadjik''' 
A language spoken in Tadjikistan. "Mountain Tadjik" presumably dominates in the 60% or so of the country that is in high mountains.

'''Seven Dials''' 
In Covent Garden, London - a place where 7 roads meet. An unsavory assignment for a policeman.

==Page 608==

'''"Avoid beans"''' 
Pythagoreans follow a proscription against eating beans.

'''spotted dick''' 
A suet pudding with raisins or currants

'''Yarmouth bloater''' 
A cured herring from the port town of Yarmouth.

'''...if not for these unauthorized dilettantes all pottering about...''' 
Oddly reminiscent of the villains' perennial complaint in the old "Scooby-Doo" cartoons.

'''queering the pitch''' 
[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/297387.html Disrupting someone's business;] compare [[ATD_748-767#Page_758|"yakitori pitches," p. 758.]]

''''shape'''' 
a doughnut,which comes in various shapes? Including the math-relevant
shape: a torus. But probably just a bit of bun, scone, etc. listed as Vance's breakfast...no doughnut listed.

'Shape' is another word for blancmange, which is made of gelatin, derived probably from the bones of some animal. Aychrome wonders "what's it made of", to which Lew responds "Maybe you don't want to know." [[User:Nehoccramcire|Nehoccramcire]] 09:14, 12 March 2007 (PDT)

'''the Embankment''' 
Victoria Embankment, London, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_yard Scotland Yard] was located there from 1890 to 1967. Scotland Yard was founded on September 29, 1829, on a street off Whitehall; and in 1967 it moved to the present location at 10 Broadway Street, London.

'''blue lamps''' 
Traditionally hung outside police stations in England.

'''lamé surfaces''' 
Lamé (fabric), a fabric inwoven metallic threads 
Lamé, name of the electrically conductive jacket worn by foil and sabre fencers 
Lamé (armor), an unarticulated component of a larger piece of armor 

'''yarmulke... high crown... dented Trilby style''' 
[http://www.wpclipart.com/clothes/hats/index.html Image of a Trilby hat.]

==Page 609==

'''Bukhara''' 
Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 425|page 425:Bukhara]]

'''''Kelly's Suburban Dictionary''''' 
The peerless [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/22/design360.icon.az/index.html ''London A to Z''] did not come along until the 1930s.

'''wenlets''' 
Politician and journalist William Cobbett (1763-1835) called London "the great wen." It was not a compliment, because ''wen'' means a sebaceous cyst. Wenlets are small versions of the "great" wen.

==Page 610==

'''daylight oil''' 
from the streetlamps, lit up for hours?

'''a moon no one could see''' 
Note that the ''Inconvenience'' is repeatedly referred to as a "moon" ([[ATD_119-148#Page_144|p. 144,]] [[ATD_171-198#Page_187|p. 187]]) and is sometimes seen under other guises ([[ATD_199-218#Page_215|p. 215,]] [[ATD_243-272#Page_272|p. 272]]).

'''refused to dim''' 
(Nicely vivid.)

'''Vontz's Universal Pick''' 
Vontz (Yiddish): bedbug.

'''alchemized coke''' 
Gas works that manufacture syngas also produce coke as an end product, called gas house coke.

Fluid coking is a process by which heavy residual crude is converted into lighter products such as naptha, kerosene, heating oil, and hydrocarbon gases. The "fluid" term refers to the fact that coke particles are in a continuous system versus older batch coking technology. Wikipedia

'''Lincrusta-Walton''' 
an embossed fabric used for covering walls, invented in 1877 by Frederick Walton as an alternative to more expensive wallpapers (wikipedia).

'''hipshot''' 
having one hip lower than the other: a Greek statue in hipshot pose.M-W.

'''captive maiden''' 
In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', Oedipa Maas is referred to as a "captive maiden" in the scene where she's standing in front of the Remedios Varo painting. It would certainly be worth while to examine the parallels more closely.

'''scalene polygons''' 
Polygons with sides of unequal length.

'''jet''' 
jet black, a color.

'''Apotheosis Sparkless Torch''' 

==Page 611==

'''magnalium''' 
An alloy of magnesium and aluminum.

'''Lamont Replevin (for it was he)''' 
Formula from penny-dreadful literature: Open the chapter with an unknown character (referred to ahead of time but never yet making an appearance), describe looks and some little action, then spring the name on the reader.

'''''The Slow and the Stupefied''''' 
Daytime soap 'The Young and the Restless'.

'''gas-head''' 
Cf pothead, acidhead, etc.

'''Pike's Peak''' 
Lew's old stompinground.

'''Gus Swallowfield''' 
A curious pseudonym assumed by Lew Basnight while in the presence of Lamont Replevin. As Mr. Swallowfield, Lew professes to be an insurance salesman. The name is very overtly British and is possibly referential to the Swallowfield estate in Berkshire, which itself has a curious history.

'''most theft policies''' 
(Fact?)

'''pantechnicon''' 
A closed van or carryall. (Is TRP trying to put a burr under S. Weisenburger's saddle by bringing this vehicle back? SW's gloss in the ''GR Companion,'' at page 19 of the Viking edition, is famously wrong.) 

Pantechnicon can mean either a furniture warehouse (originally a bazaar) or a removal van. The reference in GR to "the piano in the pantechnicon" is therefore ambiguous. TRP might say that he meant a van, not a bazaar, but that would not mean that SW was wrong. Just that SW and TRP had different readings of the novel. And the author's reading does not necessarily have primacy.

This assertion is generally debateable and in the case of TRP his conscious intentions in his fully thought out novels carries a lot of primacy most of the time, most might argue. This wiki attests to that.

:Lots of people would say the wiki is wrong then. You can discover sources and you may be able to parse processes (rewrites, selection of information), but the author's intentions are not accessible; only the work is. Therefore (and so on and so forth). A philosophical question and probably not wiki-able.

'''legitimate bill of sale''' 
That is, a stolen object with a stolen bill of sale cannot be proved to be stolen; the thief has the receipt.

'''burglary insurance''' 
Although TRP writes that most theft policies were written in the US by the time Lew speaks to Replevin, the first burglary policy was in fact offered by Cuthbert Heath, an Underwriter at Lloyd's, London in about 1889, which would seem to be a few years earlier than the scene. Antony Brown, ''Cuthbert Heath'' ( David & Charles, New Abbot London 1984)at pages 72-76. [[User:TheKenoshaKid|TheKenoshaKid]] 15:52, 9 March 2008 (PDT)

==Page 612==

'''''Pavonazzetto''''' 
brecciated white marble with violet veins from Docimia, Asia Minor.

'''Phrygian marble''' 
Phrygia is an ancient region of west central Asia Minor, to the south of Bithynia. Marble from there was highly valued.

'''Atys... Agdistis''' 
From Greek and Roman mythology. Atys (or Attis) is a young lover of the goddess Cybele (also known as Agdistis in Phrygia). When he wished to marry, Cybele drove him mad and he castrated himself. Catullus wrote a poem on the subject.

'''''The Mutilation of Atys''''' 
No images: [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=%22Mutilation%20of%20Atys&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Google image search]

But under the name Attis, this two-panel sequence: [http://www.aztriad.com/aacarati.html page 1,] [http://www.aztriad.com/aacatals.html page 2,] from "Seladore's Historical Cartoons." And [http://paxnortona.notfrisco2.com/?p=2332 a photo] of what appears to be an old statue of Attis.

'''Arturo Naunt, Chelsea's own, shocking the bourgeoisie since 1889''' 
Phrasing reminiscent of advertising.

'''shocking the bourgeoisie''' 
A popular pastime for young and not-so-young soi-disant radicals ("Epater le bourgeois").

'''koumiss vessel''' 
A container for fermented horse's milk. Perhaps like this one:
[http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/husa/origins/szkitahist/scythianvessel.html]

According to the OED, an early form of the word 'koumiss' was 'cosmos' - its appearance here doesn't seem coincidental given the short disquisition on the etymology of 'chaos' soon to follow. For the Greeks 'cosmos' was the antithetical concept to 'chaos'. Pythagoras is said to be the first to apply the original meaning of 'cosmos', i.e., 'an orderly arrangement' to the universe itself.

'''depending on the angle you hold it at, sometimes it doesn't look like anything at all''' 
A concise description of anamorphic and paramorphic images; this one needs the Paramorphoscope to interpret it.

'''wrathful deities from Tantric Buddhism''' 
Tantric Buddhism is also known as Varjayana Buddhism. In Varjayana Buddhism, a dharmapāla (Tibetan drag-gshed) is a type of wrathful deity. The name means "Dharma-defender" in Sanskrit, and the dharmapalas are also known as the Defenders of the Law (Dharma) or the Protectors of the Law in English.
In Buddhist iconography, they are invariably depicted as fearsome beings, often with many heads, hands or feet; blue, black or red skin; and a fierce expression with protruding fangs. Though dharmapalas have a terrifying appearance, they are all bodhisattvas or buddhas- embodiments of compassion that act in a wrathful way for the sake of sentient beings.Wikipedia

==Page 613==

'''tiny German hand camera''' 
Probably a Zeiss Ikon. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss Wikipedia Entry]

A Zeiss Ikon would be an anachronism, as this company was created as a merger in 1926.

The description somehow suggests the classic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minox Minox] "spy cameras", but also these were created only in the 1930ies (originally in Latvia, mass production in Germany).

A small German camera matching the time would be [http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Gnom Gnom], a version of which was also sold in the UK.

'''raw light''' 
light from a gaslight is not 'artificial' as from electric lights, streetlamps, etc. Cf. Telleruide section.

'''Gasophilia''' 
Love of gas.

'''Schwärmer''' 
The name is a German word meaning visionary, zealot, raver.

'''Waves in a timeless stream of Gas''' 
Replevin equates piped gas to the æther.

'''Sensitive Flame''' 
A burner flame adjusted so that it responds to the tiniest disturbance in the
air. Used by both physicists and spiritualists.

'''cognizant nose...medium for the most exquisite poetry'''

see Proust

'''Chidambaram''' 
A city in south India and Chidambaram is one of the Panchabhoota Sthalams - temples built for the 5 elements said to embody Shiva - at Chidambaram (space), Kalahasti (wind), Thiruvanaikaval (water), Tiruvannamalai (fire) and Kanchipuram (earth).

'''''Akaša''''' 
Akasa is the fifth element,the ether, unseen and invisible but an important element permeating the whole universe. It is also considered
to be indentical with Brahma, the creator..... 
Akasa is 'simple,continuous infinite substance and is the substratum of sound.' Both from Indian Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Occultist Eliphas Levi associated akasa with what he called the "Astral Light". He writes: "[T]his electromagnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric (Perhaps this explains Pynchon's insistence on the term "luminiferous aether"?), is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis which twines round two poles and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of Saturn" -- emblem of infinity, immortality, and Kronos -- 'Time'". He says it is "a force in Nature," by means of which "a single man who can master it... might throw the world into confusion and transform its face"; for it is the "great Arcanum of transcendent Magic." It is a "blind force... which souls must conquer in order to detach themselves from the chains of Earth; 'for if they should not,' they will be absorbed by the same power which first produced them and will return to the central and eternal fire."

It gets better... He writes: "It is through this Force that all the nervous centres secretly communicate with each other; from it -- that sympathy and antipathy are born; from it -- that we have our dreams; and that the phenomena of second sight and extra-natural visions take place... Astral Light, acting under the impulsion of powerful wills, destroys, coagulates, separates, breaks, gathers in all things... God created it on that day when he said: Fiat Lux..." He refers to akasa/Astral Light variably as "the body of the Holy Ghost", the "grand Agent Magique", "Lucifer" and "Baphomet", the winged-goat figure that served as the inspiration for the Devil Tarot card designed by Colman-Smith. [http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-1-12.htm From Madame Blavatsky's "The Secret Doctrine"][http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-2-06.htm Más]

[http://laluni.helloyou.ws/askbaba/prasnottaravahini/prasnottara01.html This page] also equates akasa with the ether and sez that "each subsequent element originated from the previous one" with akasa being the first, similar to the Kaballic Tree of Life.

'''Atman''' 
''Sanskrit''. In Hinduisim, the innermost essence of each individual. Also, the soul. ''Cf.'' Weed Atman in ''Vineland''.

''''''Chaos'''''' 
allusion is seems to Genesis. "Chaos" is in fact the Greek word [for without form and void], says this site.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."
-- Genesis 1: 1-4 (KJV)

'''van Helmont''' 
He claimed to have coined the word "gas" in just the way described here.

'In his "Physica" (1633), the Rosicrucian alchemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, wrote: "Ad huc spiritum incognitum Gas voco," i.e., "This hitherto unknown Spirit I call Gas." Further on in the same work he says, "This vapor which I have called Gas is not far removed from the Chaos the ancients spoke of."' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_light#Esoteric_conceptions wiki]

'''stridently unpopulated''' 
Cf p610.

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

ATD 588-614

2010-09-01T01:43:48Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 598 */

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

==Page 588==

'''tannery''' 
In ancient history, tanning was considered a noxious or "odiferous trade" and relegated to the outskirts of town, amongst the poor. Indeed, tanning by ancient methods is so foul smelling that tanneries are still isolated from those towns today where the old methods are used.

'''Gottlob''' 
Literally "praise to God", as an exclamation also "Thank God!". Though it is rare, it is a real German name. 
Very much so: for example of mathematician/philospher Gottlob Frege, who did study at Göttingen, but not at this time.

'''Humfried''' 
A German translation of Humphrey. This was not an existing German name any time after the medieval, though.

'''Gauss's brain''' 
After Carl Friedrich Gauss died in 1855, his brain was preserved for research purposes. To this day, it is in the possession of the University of Göttingen. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].

'''impervious to the wind''' 
(Attribute of tanned leather?)

'''''"Heiliger Bimbam!"''''' 
A German expression of surprise, translated elsewhere as "Holy Moly!"

'''It is she, she!''' 
probably an allusion to H. Rider Haggard's She. See Wikipedia entry. She has been purified by a pillar of fire. In ''Against the day'', she rises from the swamp. Carl Jung, who used the novel ''She'' (1887) as an example of anima, posited the anima is an archetypical form, expressing the fact that a man has a minority of female genes. Haggard's Queen Ayesha is an unmistakable anima type the ultimate guide and mediator to the inner world. The idea has also connections with the observations of James Frazer in his classical study ''The Golden Bough''. Haggard's idea of a journey into the "darkest Africa," which turns into a spiritual search, has been used by a number of writers, including Joseph Conrad in ''Heart of Darkness'' (1902). 
"My empire is of thy imagination", She says in the novel, "She". Cf. a line, [which I am checking] in "The Crying of Lot 49".

She is 'discovered' somewhere in unknown Africa by some British 'explorers' in a hidden kingdom, and she first appears in a sort of late 19th century private boudoir there. She came to that place via a complicated story some 2000 years earlier, and is of Yemenite origin, having come to the world in pretty much the normal fashion. Yashmeen seems indeed to be based on some fin-de-siecle imaginations of the 'ideal' woman (her looks in general, and the often mentioned streaming black hair of hers), but unlike Haggard's She, Yashmeen is rather powerless in the long run, despite her obvious erotic influence on the men and women in ATD. - Tommaso

:Powerless is a term worth lots of discussion here. [User: MKOHUT]

:It is certainly possible that the line is an allusion, but I think it may simply be a set-up to another goofy Pynchonian linguistic joke-- "Not 'chichi,' idiot..."

'''rim''' 
Kit pretends to think he's referring to monocle as 'chichi' (stylish).

'''Kovalevskaia''' 
Sofia Kovalevskaia, 1850-1891. Russian mathematician, in 1884 appointed professor in Stockholm. The third female professor in Europe ever. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Sofia Kovalevskaia]] and (Wikipedia)

'''Roentgen-ray spectacles''' 
The X-ray glasses that used to be advertised in comic books.

'''''natürlich''''' 
German: naturally.

==Page 589==

'''Those curves are everywhere continuous but nowhere differentiable''' 
This is exactly a description of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weierstrass_function Weierstrass function] (1872), a pathological example of a real-valued function on the real line. This function was cited on page 594 by Yashmeen as one of the crises in mathermatics. Also see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/WeierstrassFunction.html Weierstrass function from MathWorld] and Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Karl Weierstrass]].

'''Those curves . . . ''Noli me tangere''''' 
A well-turned wordplay: The operation of differentiating a curve involves drawing ''tangents'' to it at selected points. The curves in question are continuous, but the injunction ''Noli me tangere'' means you can't draw the tangents.

:If a curve is nowhere differentiable then there will be no tangents anywhere. The curve is everywhere ''untouchable''.

'''''Noli me tangere''''' 
Latin for 'don't touch me'

or, in the immortal words of MC Hammer; "You can't touch this"

'''And is that a revolver you're carrying''' 
Implying, perhaps, an unvocalized "or are you just happy to see me?" Which would be in accord with Kit's reaction to the sight of a woman wearing a toque.

'''''Hausknochen''''' 
German: a giant housekey, as defined, literally House Bone,with perhaps a
double entendre on bone?

Also, slang for [http://www.russki-mat.net/page.php?l=DeFr&a=H penis].

==Page 590==

'''Hadamard... Poussin... Prime Number Theorem''' 
Jacques Hadamard and Charles de la Vallée-Poussin independently proved the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem prime number theorem] in 1896, relying on Riemann's Zeta function. The prime number theorem makes assertions about the distribution of prime numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hadamard.html Jacques Hadamard] (1865-1963), a French mathematician best known for his proof of the Prime Number Theorem in 1896.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Vallee_Poussin.html de la Vallée Poissin] (1866-1962), a Belgian mathematician best known for his proof (independently) of the Prime Number Theorem and his major work ''Cours d'Analyse''.

The Prime Number Theorem defied proof for several decades, and legend at the time had it that whoever did prove it would live forever. Examination of the dates of birth and death of both Hadamard and de la Vallée-Poussin show that this was not too far from the truth.

'''patent ''Kühlbox''''' 
''Kühlbox'' here just means "icebox" or "cooler." Refrigerators were available at the time of the action but not widely used, so an icebox is more likely. It's upstairs in Kit's room, so not necessarily portable.

"Patent," attached to a noun like [[ATD_429-459#Page_457|leather or pencil,]] could mean really, officially patented ''or'' novel and gimmicky. Patent medicines are sold under protected names but not genuine patents in most cases. So the icebox features some radical or distinctive design. My money's on asbestos insulation between the zinc sheets.

[http://www.dhm.de/datenbank/index.html?/datenbank/rb00/rb000891.html Pic of a ca. 1920 Eiskiste-model]. According to German Wikipedia, the mobile "Eiskiste" (icebox) had to be filled with (natural) ice, while its successor, the Kühlbox, worked/works with "Kühlaggregate" (cooling units). The contributor is not sure if suchlike were around at that time. German Wikipedia on [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiskiste Eiskiste] and [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BChlbox Kühlbox].

'''beleaguered subset''' 
a group (from the whole) under attack

'''That is, is it was ''some smile''''' 
Typo, for That is, it was ''some smile''.

'''Prime Number Theorem''' 
The Prime Number Theorem constitutes any number of equivalent statements concerning the distribution of prime numbers. Let ''π(n)'' be the number of primes that are less than ''n'', and let ''p''''n'' denote the ''n''th prime number. The Prime Number Theorem states that ''π(n) ~ n/ln(n)'' as ''n'' approaches infinity, or equivalently that ''p''''n'' ''~ n ln(n)''.

==Page 591==

'''prats''' 
Literally the buttocks. As a slang term, a 'prat' is an [[Idiots and Idiocy in Against the Day|idiot]].

'''''Die Nullstellen der ζ-Funktion''''' 
German: the zeroes of the ζ function. (Null = zero; Stelle = location.) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_zeta_function#Zeros_of_the_Riemann_zeta_function Wikipedia] on the "Zeros of the Riemann zeta-function".

'''not all that hard to prove''' 
Kit will upset the applecart if he can prove the Riemann Hypothesis; Yashmeen's research topic will shrink to triviality. No one has proved the Riemann hypothesis to the satisfaction of the mathematical community at large yet; eternal fame and a fat wad of money await he or she who does.

'''"Richard Harding Davis"''' 
Popular writer of fiction and drama, journalist/war-correspondent and a major male-role-model of his time (1864 - 1916). He was considered the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's dashing Gibson man, the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. He is also referenced early in Sinclair Lewis's book, ''Dodsworth'' as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Harding_Davis Wikipedia]. Among other things, he reported on Belgian atrocities in the Congo.

'''seldom, if ever''' 
Cf p559 re Umeki!?

'''tetralatry''' 
made up from greek "tettares" (prefix -tetra) = four and "latreia" = worship

'''C. Howard Hinton''' 
Charles Howard Hinton (1853 – 1907) was a British mathematician and writer of science fiction works titled ''Scientific Romances''. He was interested in higher dimensions, particularly the fourth dimension, and is known for coining the word ''tesseract'' and for his work on methods of visualising the geometry of higher dimensions. He also had a strong interest in theosophy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard_Hinton Wikipedia Entry]

'''Johann K.F. Zöllner''' 
Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (1834–1882) was a German astrophysicist. Studied Photometrie and optical illusions. He insisted a fourth dimension should be considered in Physics and tried to scientifically explain spiritist phenomena.

'''vogue... 'vague'''' 
Nice wordplay as Yashmeen seems to think the vogue of mysticism is not very precise, is 'vague' intellectually. Further play on "vague" = wave, as in an intellectual fad, e.g. in film, the French "Nouvelle Vague" (New Wave).

==Page 592==

'''upside-down triangles''' 
Also Pléiade p538. In mathematics that would be the operator ''del'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del Wikipedia]. Since pre-history and across most cultures the upside-down triangle is a symbol for the female (genitals).

Florian Cajori's ''A History of Mathematical Notations'' (v.2 p.135) states that the del (aka Hamiltonian operator) was introduced by William Hamilton in his 1853 lecture on Quaternions. Rumour has it that it is supposed to be a drawing of an ancient Hebrew harp (nabla). It is also known as the atled (backword delta).

This in turn suggests (within the context of AtD (atled??) a reversal of time or a mirror image of change.

'''screamingly obvious fallacy in this . . . "proof" of yours''' 
Yashmeen reacts in a slight panic to Kit's threat (page 591).

'''metallic banging''' 
Hausknochen on doors, with 'banging' entendre.

'''"metric interval"''' 
In Euclidean (three-dimensional) space a distance is just what you think it is. In other geometrical systems the term "metric interval" is preferred as a generalized distance.

'''social life is unpredictable''' 
mirrors the situation in the "Hotel Noctambulo", p. 462. Are all these guys "chums of chance"?

[Not sure about the "chums" idea, but more confusion between public and private space on pg. 155 -- Hunter Penhallow leaving the ruined city, presumably in a time machine: "At some point he must have come indoors, entering a sort of open courtyard....Without intending to, he was walking through inhabited rooms."]

'''Weenderstrasse '''
The main shopping street in Göttingen.

'''Prinzenstrasse and Weenderstrasse''' 
A street corner at the very center of Göttingen ([http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=g%C3%B6ttingen,+germany&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=17&ll=51.534284,9.935417&spn=0.006107,0.010793&t=h Google Maps]), "known to mathematicians here as the origin of the city of Göttingen's coordinate system". 
The intersection of these two streets is colloquial called "the navel". For visitors it is not that spectacular, but it's the number one meeting point for people who live in Göttingen before going to a cafe or pub. (I don't know, why we allways meet there, but we allways do!) So Pynchon definitley knows, why he compares this street corner with the origin of Göttingen's coordinate system. 
By the way, one of the oldest bookstores of Göttingen is situated right at the described corner of Prinzen- and Weenderstrasse.

==Page 593==

'''twenty marks''' 
A mark is short for deutschemark, a German monetary unit. 
That was the case after the Second World War, but the unit was just called the mark until at least the end of the empire. [http://www.thegoldcoinstore.com/WorldGold/German_Gold_20_Marks_Kaizer_Wilhelm_II.php Here] is a picture of a 20 mark coin from the period of the action.

'''''der Pistolenheld''''' 
German: the pistol hero. Meaning: the gunman. 'Pistolenheld' seems rather funny, the correct German word is: der Revolverheld.

'''automorphic functions and the Anharmonic Pencil''' 
[http://mathworld.wolfram.com/AutomorphicFunction.html Automorphic Functions] are generalizations of trigonometric functions and elliptic functions.

Anharmonic Pencil see [[ATD_525-556#Page 532|page 532:Anharmonic Pencil]].

'''''das Nichtharmonischestrahlenbündel''''' 
Or ''das nichtharmonische Strahlenbündel.'' German: the anharmonic pencil. A "pencil" is the set of lines passing through a point.

'''Euler''' 
Leonhard Euler (pronounced Oiler; IPA [ˈɔʏlɐ]) (April 15, 1707 – September 7, 1783) was a Russian-German mathematician and physicist of Swiss descent. From Wikipedia and below:

Euler made important discoveries in fields as diverse as calculus, number theory, and topology. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function. [1] He is also renowned for his work in mechanics, optics, and astronomy.

Euler is considered to be the preeminent mathematician of the 18th century and one of the greatest of all time.

'''Felix Klein''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Klein.html Felix Klein] (1849-1925), a German mathematician, best known for his work in non-Euclidean goemetry, for his work on the connections between geometry and group theory, and for results in function theory. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 565|page 565:Felix Klein]].

'''''Mathematical Theory of the Top''''' 
Published in the U.S. in 1897. Compare Felix Klein and Arnold Sommerfeld, ''Über die Theorie des Kreisels,'' 4 volumes, 1897-1910.

'''Leopold Kronecker''' and '''Cantor''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Kronecker.html Leopold Kronecker] (1823-1891), a German mathematician, primary contributions were in the theory of equations. He made major contributions in elliptic functions and the theory of algebraic numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Cantor.html Georg Cantor] (1845-1918), a German mathematician. He founded set theory and introduced the concept of infinite numbers with his discovery of cardinal numbers. He also advanced the study of trigonometric series. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 250|page 250:Dr. Cantor]]).

The "monumental quarrel between Kronecker and Cantor" is also referred to as a "religious war," appropriately enough. It's based in a disagreement over the legitimacy of numbers. Kronecker held that "'the positive integers were created by God, and all else is the work of man.'" This is contradicted by "'Cantor with his ''Kontinuum'', professing an equally strong belief in just those regions, infinitely divisible, which lie ''between'' the whole numbers so demanding of all Kronecker's devotion.'"

The disagreement between the two mathematicians is reminiscent of (or does it anticipate?) the rift between Pointsman and Mexico in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Kronecker's integers "created by God" have become a Pavlovian digital binary for Pointsman, but the two oppositions track faithfully right down to the italicized "between."

"The young statistician [Mexico] is devoted to number and to method, not table-rapping or wishful thinking. But in the domain of zero to one, not-something to something, Pointsman can only possess the zero and the one. He cannot, like Mexico, survive anyplace in between. Like his master I. P. Pavlov before him, he imagines the cortex of the brain as a mosaic of tiny on/off elements.... But to Mexico belongs the domain ''between'' zero and one." [Page 55]

It should be noted, however, that the continuous number line was a modern innovation. In Greek number theory, a number is a collection of indivisible units. Irrationals, such as the square root of 2 are not numbers but "magnitudes." One is not even a number for it is not a number of units. There are no negative numbers as well. (see Klein's Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra.) So Kronecker's position may be less of a crazy innovation as much as a maintenance of ancient theory.

:That last paragraph makes an excellent point.

'''the square root of minus one''' 
The imaginary number ''i''. Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:Imarginary Number]].

'''the square root of ''plus two''' 
From Carl B. Boyer's ''A History of Mathematics'', 2nd Ed. 1991, pp.564 & 565): 
The domain of rational numbers can be extended to form a continuum of real numbers if one assumes Cantor-Dedekind axiom that the points on a line can be put into one-to-one correspondence with the real numbers. "Arithmetically expressed, this means that for every division of the rational numbers into two classes A and B such that every number of the first class, A, is less than every number of the second class, B, there is one and only one real number producing this ''Schnitt'', or . . . cut. If A has a largest number, or if B contains a smallest number, the cut defines a rational number; but if A has no largest number and B no smallest, then the cut defines an irrational number. If, for example, we put in A all negative rational numbers and also all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2, and in B all positive rational numbers whose squares are more than 2, we have subdivided the entire field of rational numbers in a manner defining an irrational number—in this case the number that we usually write as" ''suqare root of 2''. In fact, the squae root of ''plus two'' "can be defined simply as that segment or subclass of the set of rational numbers made up of all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2 and also of all negative rational numbers." —— This is what Kronecker did not believe.

'''''Kontinuum''''' 
This passage closely parallels the one about the "microcosm of Venice" on page 575.

==Page 594==

'''''Nervenklinik''''' 
German: nerve clinic. Three-dollar word for a mental hospital.

'''boundless epsilonic world''' 
Epsilon, Greek letter like E. In mathematics (particularly calculus), an arbitrary (or nearly so) small positive quantity is commonly denoted ε; see limit.
By analogy with this, the late mathematician Paul Erdős also used the term "epsilons" to refer to children (Hoffman 1998, p. 4). Wikipedia; of Huxley's five classes of citizens in ''Brave New World'' epsilons were purposely stunted physically and intellectually.

'''Der Finsterzwerg''' 
The choice of the tavern "The Dwarf of Darkness" may have been meant as a dig at five-foot-tall Kronecker.

'''chloral hydrate''' 
A/k/a "knockout drops" a/k/a a "Mickey Finn". Hence the ''Mickifest''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloral_hydrate Wikipedia entry].

'''''Kneipe''''' 
German: pub

'''Gauss passing to Weber a remark''' 
Carl Friedrich Gauss (Gauß) (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician and scientist of profound genius who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy and optics. Sometimes known as "the prince of mathematicians" and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", Gauss had a remarkable influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians. (Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].)

That influence is seen in the field of statistics where the Gaussian distribution (also known as the normal distribution, popularly known as the bell curve) is named after him. With its ability to correctly model "psychological measurements and physical phenomena" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution] and its resemblance to both the rainbow and the rocket's arc, there's no surprise Pynchon references it often in GR, even having Roger Mexico quote the formula as "an old saying among my people" (p.709, the Mexico quotation is actually some strange variant of the Normal distribution).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Eduard_Weber Wilhelm Weber] (1804-91), a noted German physicist. He studied magnetism with Gauss and in 1831, on the recommendation of Gauss, he was appointed as professor of physics at Göttingen. And in 1833 Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph. The SI unit of magnetic flux, the ''weber'', is named after him.

In 1831 Gauss developed a fruitful collaboration with the physics professor Wilhelm Weber; it led to new knowledge in the field of magnetism (including finding a representation for the unit of magnetism in terms of mass, length and time) and the discovery of Kirchhoff's circuit laws in electricity. Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph in 1833, which connected the observatory with the institute for physics in Göttingen. Gauss ordered a magnetic observatory to be built in the garden of the observatory and with Weber founded the magnetischer Verein ("magnetic club"), which supported measurements of earth's magnetic field in many regions of the world. He developed a method of measuring the horizontal intensity of the magnetic field which has been in use well into the second half of the 20th century and worked out the mathematical theory for separating the inner (core and crust) and outer (magnetospheric) sources of Earth's magnetic field

'''Göttingen . . . in the war with Prussia''' 
This refers to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Prussian_war Austro-Prussian War], (also called Seven Weeks' War), June 15–August 23, 1866, between Prussia, allied with Italy, and Austria, allied with Bavaria, Wüttemberg, Saxony (where Göttingen is located), Hanover, Baden and several other smaller German states. It was Bismarck's aim to expel, by force, Austria from the German Confederation as a step toward the unification of Germany under Prussian dominace.
:Göttingen is in Saxony now (specifically the state of ''Niedersachsen'' or Lower Saxony), but until 1866 it was an important city in the Kingdom of Hanover.

'''political crisis in Europe''' 
The period of 1870 to 1914 was characterized by the Anglo-German naval race and European powers - Germany, Italy, Belgium, Britain and France - scrambled for Africa. The major events in Europe were: 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War; 1905 Russian Revolution; 1908 Bosnia Crisis; 1911-12 Italian Turkish War; 1912-13 Balkan War; 1914 World War I began.

'''crisis in mathematics . . . Weierstrass functions, Cantor's continuum, Russell's inexhaustible capacity for mischief''' 
A genuine crisis as well-established ideas were challenged. Weierstrass functions have the unheard-of property that they are "continuous but nowhere differentiable." Cantor's ideas about the continuum violated a longstanding prohibition against infinite quantities. Bertrand Russell around this time was setting the cat among the pigeons by identifying paradoxes and inconsistencies in set theory and number theory.

'''"the infinite" was all but a conjuror's convenience''' 
There is a very good book relating how the infinite, between the 18th and early 20th centuries, finally found a place in mathematics: ''In Search of Infinity'' by N.Ya. Vilenkin (translated by Abe Shenitzer).

==Page 595==

'''That winter, in St. Petersburg . . . Hundreds were killed and wounded.''' 
22 Jan 1905, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281905%29 Bloody Sunday]. 

The event on January 22, 1905, ''Bloody Sunday'', was a watershed in the Russian history. 
Russia's armies were losing to the Japanese in the Far East. Her workers at home were challenging the rule of Romanov's Autocracy. At the beginning of 1905, the workers of ''Putilov Works'' of St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, went on stike for better living and working conditions. They were joined by many from other factories. Father Gapon, a priest, urged the striking workers to present directly to the Tsar on January 22, 1905 a petition to seek justice and protection. They would beg Nicholas II to come to their aid. The morning of January 22 was very cold (about five degrees below freezing) and some 200,000 workers and their wives and children came peacefully and orderly carrying icons, portraits of Nicholas, and no revolutionary placards not even red handkerchiefs. To stop the workers' march upon the Palace Square barricades were set across several avenues that connected to the city center. At each of these points, soldiers tried to turn back the marchers and, at several of them, officers ordered to fire into the crowds. The worst slaughter took place on the Winter Palace Square itself, between 150 and 200 men, women, and children lay shot dead and another 450 to 800 had been wounded while the Cossacks charged into the dispersing crowds with sabers drawn. 
Bloody Sunday, as that tragic day soon became known, marked the beginning of what the Tsar's mother called the "year of nightmares", and the beginning of what many others called the "year of revolution". (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)).

'''Grand Duke Sergei''' 
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (1857-1905) was the uncle and brother-in-law of Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918, Reign: 1894-1917). In 1891 he was appointed as Moscow Governor General. In 1894 he also was a member of the State Council. He resigned from the Governorship on January 1, 1905 but continued as Commander of the Moscow military district. In the afternoon of February 17, 1905, in a carriage leaving the Kremlin Grand Duke Sergei was killed by a nitroglycerine bomb thrown by a Socialist Revolutionary terrorist directly into his lap. He was literally blown to bits and pieces. The assassination of Grand Duke Sergei signaled the beginning of a broader wave of popular unrest that had been sparked by the events of Bloody Sunday and swept the whole nation. Many more assassinations, strikes, disorders and uprisings followed during the year.
(Grand Duke Sergei's replacement, Shurvalov, was assassinated on July 11 of the same year.)

'''More strikes . . . peasant and military insurections . . . into the summer''' 
In January-February, turbulent reaction to Bloody Sunday spread across neighboring regions, especially the industrial centers which experienced spontaneous workers' strikes: Vilno, Kovno, Kiev, Moscow were paralyzed. In February-March the labor unrests reached Saratov Province and the Caucasus, and Siberia. Labor unrests were persistent throughout Russia into August. In early March university students left their classrooms, and at the end of the month the authorities closed down all the universities throughout the whole country for the rest of the academic year. (Student unrest even reached Orthodox seminaries.) 
In March, peasant unrests erupted widely, especially in Kursk, and Chernigov and Orel provinces and northwest regions of European Russia. In June, the Battleship ''Potemkin'' mutinied and in the Black Sea port city Odessa there was a large scale uprising by the sailors, soldiers, workers and ordinary citizens. On June 28 afternoon hundreds of protesters were killed on the Odessa Steps which was immortalized by the classic movie sequence in the 1925 Eisenstein's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Batlleship_Potemkin ''The Battleship Potemkin''] (considered by some one of the greatest films of all time). In summer widespread peasants' attacks on landowners' estates dramatically increased throughout Russia. The Peasant Union was organized at a secret August 13-14 Moscow conference.

'''Kronstadt''' 
Kronstadt was a naval fortress in the Gulf of Finland 18 miles west of St. Petersburg. Following the destruction of the Baltic Fleet by the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318: The Russo-Japanese War]]) Kronstadt joined the general uprising which swept the whole Russian country. The first Kronstadt uprising on November 8-9, 1905, participated in by the majority of Kronstadt's 13,000 sailors and soldiers, was basically a large armed riot accompanied by liberal political demands. It lasted only two days. Kronstadt's second uprising took place in July 1906 but was brutally suppressed.

'''Sebastopol''' 
A port city of Russia (now, Sevastopol of Ukrain), located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimean peninsula west of Yalta. Sebastopol was associated with rebellion, mutiny and civil war. 
On June 27, 1905 the battleship ''Potemkin'' sailed from Sebastopol to Odessa and to mutiny against the ship's oppressive officers. The mutineers killed seven of the eighteen officers, including the Captain and the Second in Command. The ship eventually sailed to Romania and turned over to the authority there on July 7. (Sergei Eisenstein's ''The Battlehip Potemkin'' made her famous well beyond Russia.) 
On October 1, 1905, citizen of Sebastopol and sailors from the Black Fleet demonstrated in the city center demanding the authority to free political prisoners, etc, but were met with gun fire. Wide spread unrest and naval mutinies followed. In November the cruiser ''Ochakov'' led a rebellion joined by several other warships. The rebellion was eventually suppressed by a stronger government force a couple of months later.

'''Black Hundreds''' 
Anti-Semitic vigilantes.

The name was a derogatory one, adapted from the term "White Hundreds", which was used in medieval Russia for the privileged caste of nobles and wealthy merchants. The lower-class types who joined the Black Hundreds were not in this class hence their ironic nomenclature. It was formed in response to the October Manifesto by those who had either lost or were afraid of losing their petty status in the social hierachy as a result of modernization and reform. They blamed the Jews as the ultimate cuase for Tsar's retreat. Fighting revolution in the streets was their way of revenging themselves, a means of putting the clock back and restoring the social and racial hierarchy. (Based on Orlando Figes' ''A People's Tragedy'' (1996))

'''Japanese won''' 
The Japanese destroyed the bulk of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima Strait on May 27-28, 1905. In ''GR'', the soon-to-be-defeated fleet puts in at German Southwest Africa during the 1904 Herero Revolt; Tchicherine's father, a sailor in that fleet, may also be the father of Enzian, leader of the Schwarzcommando.

By January 1905 the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo_Japanese_War Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)] had been going on in Manchuria for nearly a year. In the summer of 1904, the Russia's Pacific Fleet was bottled up inside Port Arthur (now, Lüshun, Liaoning, China) and the port was under siege as from August. In October, the Tsar sent the entire Baltic Fleet to relief the siege. At the beginning of 1905, Port Arthur finally fell after a siege and bombardment lasted 156 days. In March 1905 Russia and Japan fought the greatest land battle in the history up to then at Mukden (Shenyang, Liaoning). Each side committed more than 300,000 troops and over 1,000 pieces of artillery. After nearly one month's fighting both lost more than 50,000 killed and wounded, but the Russians withrew 40 miles to the north. After streaming halfway around the world in a grueling voyage of many months without adequate logistic support, on May 27 the Russian fleet met the waiting Japanese (under Admiral Togo) in the Tsuhsima Straits that separated Japan and Korea. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima Battle of Tsushima Straits (May 27-28)] was one of the most decisive naval battles in history. Even though the Russians had more ships and more heavy guns, but within a few hours, they lost 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 5 minelayers and 4 other ships. Four more battleship surrendered next day, and the Russian commanding admiral (Admiral Rozhdestvenskii) was also captured. The Japanese lost only a total of 3 torpedo boats. (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)). 
After two months' negotiation, the Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of the Peace Treaty of Porstmouth (New Hampshire) on September 5, 1905.

'''A general strike in the autumn . . .''' 
In late September a printers' strike in Moscow was in progress for over a fortnight. By October 18 it seemed that the strike was losing steam. But on October 20 railroad workers struck the Moscow-Kazan Railway and the strike spread outward along all the railroad lines: to St Petersburg in the west, to Voronesh and Kharkov in the south; and by October 23 it had reached Siberia. Twenty-six thougsand miles of track were immobilized as 750,000 railroad employees struck. At this time much of European Russia was in the grip of one of the greatest and most effective general strikes in the history of labor protest anywhere in the world. All of Russia's industry ground to a halt, everyone stopped work. Factory workers, servants, postal workers, telegraph operators, janitors, and hackney drivers all walked off their jobs, as did bank clerks, shop clerks, and clerks in government office. Doctors, laywers, schoolteachers, university professors, even the entire corps de ballet of the great Imperial Mariinskii Theatre—all joined the strike. There were no newspapers, no streetlights, no tramcars . . . As all rail traffic stopped and telegraph line dead, Russia was isolated from the rest of the world. At the same time, the revolutionary groups organized a new body for coordinating the activities of the striking workers and for expressing their joint political and economic demands: the "St. Petersburg
''Soviet'' of Workers' Deputies". Many other Soviets were set up and developed later as alternate governing organizations. The name and organization ''Soviet'' (Russian word ''Sovet'' means council) took on a legendary meaning from then on and became historical. 
With the regime on the verge of collapse, in response, the Tsar, advised by the Prime Minister, issued the famouse ''October Manifesto'' on October 30, 1905, by which Nicholas granted to all Russian civil rights, agreed to summon a Duma (Parliament) elected by wide (though not universal) suffrage, and agreed that all laws must be approved by the Duma. In the meantime, on December 16, troops were sent to arrest some three hundred members of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. The Revolution of 1905 in the Capital passed into history.

'''In December . . . another major uprising''' 
In Moscow, the Soviet of Workers' Deputies proclaimed a general strike for December 20. When the authorities moved to arrest the stike leaders, an armed uprising broke out. Barricades went up in workers' quarter of the city, and revolutionaries from St. Petersburg, Odessa, and elsewhere joined in the struggle. Nicholas dispatched elite troops with artillery which reduced the rebels' area to ruins. By December 31, the rebellion in Moscow was over. The number of killed and wounded totaled over a thousand.

'''In the East . . . up and down the railroad lines''' 
The Russo-Japanese War was officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on August 23, 1905. In late summer there were numerous minor mutinies by troop returning from Manchuria on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Fighting between the left and the right erupted on October 20 around Tomsk. On November 12, mutinous soldiers and sailors destroyed much of Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, the end of the Trans-Siberian. There were unrests and uprisings in Chita (November 29), Irkutsk (December 13), and Novorossiisk (December 22) as well.

'''Muslim rebellion''' 
The downfall of the Ottoman Empire by Turkey?

:No. In this whole paragraph Pynchon only factually describes the events in Russia and the Russian 1905 Revolution.

:Muslims in Central Asia (Kirghiz, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tadzhik, and others) had never been happy as pawns in the "Great Game" and now (1905) attempted to throw off Russian domination. Turkey, center of the Ottoman Empire, had its rebellion a few years later.

:The text said "'''''a''''' Muslim rebellion". Anyone knows this 1905 Muslim Rebellion in Russia?

'''the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere''' 
The well-known 1905 Revolution in Russian history was the beginning of the fall of the ''Old Regime''. The text "as the Revolution went collapsing" refered exactly to this one, not the February and October Revolutions in 1917. So "the year that followed" refered to 1906. In fact, Pynchon explicitly stated on page 602: "''By 1906'' there were Russians everywhere, . . ."

Soon after the collapse of the 1905 Revolution many Russians emmigrated abroad. They were 1) opponents to the Tsar regime feared of reprisal and backlash; 2) intelligentsia who were frightened by what just happened and afraid of a more violent upheaval in the future (Maxim Gorky, the writer, left Russia in the spring of 1906); 3) Jews, the victims of the large scale pogroms in 1905-06 (1964 Broadway musical ''Fiddler on the Roof'' told the story of how one Jewish family being forced to leave Russia in 1906); 4) youngsters who escaped the compulsory millitary service or looked for a quieter place for education. This was the second wave (1905-1917) of Russian emmigration. (1st wave: 1880-1905; 3rd: 1917-1939; 4th: 1945-1960; 5th: 1991-current).

'''as the Revolution went collapsing''' 
The first paragraph of this page is a factual description of the revolutionary events occured in Russia in 1905 which were later collectively called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1905 1905 Revolution]. It was the foreshock of that of 1917. It had all of Russia in its grip, and its outbreak had not been planned; it had simply grown spontaneously. It failed under the usual combination of repression and concessions. (see Richard Pipes' ''The Russian Revolution'' (1990)). In Soviet Marxist history 1905 Revolution is second only in importance to 1917 October Revolution, one of the most important revolutionary iconic events. (The 1917 Frebruary Revolution, the one actually overthrew the Tsar's Regime, was lightly mentioned because it was considered a ''bourgeois revolution''.) Numerous books, songs, poems, films . . . had been devoted to this Revolution. To the west the most memorable are the Eisenstein's silent film ''Battleship Potmekin'' (1925) and Shostakovich's ''Symphony No 11: The year 1905'' (1957).

'''Peter and Paul Fortress''' 
At St. Petersburg, established by Peter the Great. Political prisoners were confined there from the first half of the 1700s. Conditions were notoriously harsh.

'''kazatsky''' 
A Cossack dance, stereotypical Russian behavior.

'''raid....Waziristan''' 
Waziristan (Pashto: وزیرستان) is a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11 585 km² (4,473 mi²). It comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The North-West Frontier Province lies immediately to the east. The region was an independent tribal territory from 1893, remaining outside of British-ruled empire and Afghanistan. Tribal raiding into British-ruled territory was a constant problem for the British, eliciting frequent punitive expeditions between 1860 and 1945. Wikipedia

Currently, it is thought to be the last stronghold of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.

:Worth noting, perhaps, that Yashmeen came from Russia and had been ''transported'' to Waziristan for sale as a slave.

==Page 596==

'''as-ever transcendentally interesting hair''' 
(Perhaps a reference to Albert Einstein?)

Possibly, but given the numerous mentions of the Zeta function it is most likely a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_numbers Transcendental Numbers]. These are irrational numbers that do not exist as the zero (or solution) to any algebraic function. A number of groundbreaking results regarding transcendentalism were made around the time the novel is set, and most if not all of the mathematicians and mathematical methods mentioned in the book revolve around transcendental numbers and functions.

Given that these numbers are often expressed as an infinite series, in which successive terms add ever-more-minuscule amounts to the value of the number, yet each digit is fascinatingly unique (since the decimal never repeats), it seems to me that Pynchon is suggesting that Yashmeen's hair has the quality of being endlessly fascinating, that even the observation of a single hair (or even a portion of a single hair) is involving and invigorating. This would mirror Kit's fascination and infatuation with Yashmeen, and the term would likely spring readily to the mind of a mathematician of the era.[[User:Dharper|Dharper]] 08:15, 16 January 2007 (PST)

'''. . . the Revolution''' 
Russian 1905 Revolution.

'''...it all finds its way back to the T.W.I.T. people....'''

"and what comes out of their shop can surprisingly often be trusted"

Suggestive of the CIA's Stargate Project in Remote Viewing

''''gen'''' 
British military slang for information. To gen-up is to learn quickly. OED gives earliest recorded use of the word as 1940.

'''a soul impaled . . . as if to bisect me''' 
Harks back to the fate of La Jarretière in ''V.''

'''Afghani dirhan''' 
An Afghani coin, more usually transliterated as "dirham". [http://ghaznavid.ancients.info/ This site] has pictures and more information.

'''Ghaznivid Empire''' 
Usually transliterated as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaznavid_Empire Ghaznavid Empire] (Wikipedia)

'''coffee scion''' 
Coffee motif. More likely: coffee heir.

'''Günther von Quassel''' 
"quasseln" is a German verb, meaning roughly "to jabber"

'''less than universally respected Ludwig Boltzmann''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Boltzmann Boltzmann] proposed an explanation of thermodynamics based on the statistical behaviour of atoms, called the kinetic theory of gases, one of the most profound and far-reaching discoveries in the entire history of science. One baffling problem at the time was why macroscopic phenomena are not time-reversible but microscopic interactions are; any theory that purported to explain thermodynamics would have to address this breaking of the time-reversal symmetry. Boltzmann explained this by what he called the "molecular chaos assumption" (German 'Stosszahlansatz'), to which many objected as unfounded. (See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loschmidt%27s_paradox Loschmidt's paradox].) Hounded by his critics and already prone to bouts of depression, Boltzmann hanged himself.

==Page 597==

'''Gymnasium child''' 
A Gymnasium is a German secondary school

'''Some sort of ... steam-engine word''' 
Prior to Boltzmann, entropy was defined only by means of heat and temperature. Boltzmann gave the first statistical definition. [[Ludwig Boltzmann|Read his bio...]]

'''Except for the usual constants...''' 
This is Boltzmann's statistical definition of entropy and its discovery marked a watershed moment in physics. It is engraved on his tombstone.
[[Image:boltzmann.jpg|200px|thumb|Boltzmann's grave with his entropy formula inscribed|right]]

'''''Ach, die Zetamanie''''' 
German: Oh, the zeta-mania.

'''one measure of the chaos''' 
Via Boltzmann's definition, entropy can be interpreted as measuring the "chaos" or "disorder" in a physical system. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy Wikipedia Entry] 

Cf. p. 188, where Neville and Nigel are referred to as "the N's," and to the proliferation of N name in T.W.I.T. in general.

'''crime...narrative puzzle''' 
Hinting at Webb's role in the novel?

One of Pynchon's central themes and best depicted in The Crying of Lot 49 which can be read as a satire on the order of crime novels and a comment on the central order of narrative structures. Certainly ATD can be read as a vast extension on this theme. The chaos/ order binary has already been a introduced a couple of lines above.

Humfried's comment reiterates something Pynchon says in his essay 'Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?', in virtually the same words.

'''Göttingen tradition'''...'''statue''' 
Like other university towns, Göttingen has developed its own folklore. On the day of their doctorate, postgraduate students are drawn in handcarts from the Great Hall to the Gänseliesel-Fountain in front of the Old Town Hall. There they have to climb the fountain and kiss the statue of the Gänseliesel (Goose girl). This practice is actually forbidden by law, but the law is not at all enforced. She is considered to be the most-kissed girl in the world. Wikipedia.

Addendum of interest for GR and ATD.
Nearly untouched by allied bombing in World War II (the informal understanding during the war was that Germany wouldn't bomb Cambridge and Oxford and the allies wouldn't bomb Heidelberg and Göttingen).

'''Rathaus square''' 
The square in front of City Hall.

==Page 598==

'''Axioms of Zermelo''' 
The basic axioms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo-Frankel_set_theory#The_axioms Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory].

'''Poincaré''' 
Henri Poincaré (1854-1912), one of France's greatest mathermaticians and theorectical physicists. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9 Wikipedia]) His contributions to differential geometry would be integral in formulating Einstein's general theory of relativity. A conjecture he proposed in the 1890s remained unproven until 2006.

'''Cauchy''' 
Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789-1857), a French mathematician. Cauchy single-handedly invented most of complex analysis, largely as a means of evaluating certain improper integrals. His name was connected with many other mathematicians mentioned in ATD: Cauchy-Riemann equation, Cauchy-Frobenious lemma, Cauchy-Euler equation, Cauchy-Kovalevskaia theorem. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Louis_Cauchy Wikipedia])

'''Whittaker and Watson''' 
A standard mathematics textbook of the time ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittaker_and_Watson Wikipedia])

'''two point one''' 
(Cf Sondheim lyric, "A Little Night Music" [http://lynxfeather.net/nest/lyrics/nightmusic-nowlatersoon.html lyrics].)

:I think here just point-by-point listing was being used: 1); 2); 2.1).

==Page 599==

'''Each time he would respond...''' 
Günther suffers from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity "relativity of simultaneity"], as predicted by Einstein and further clarified by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Minkowski Minkowski]. Events detected as simultaneous in one reference frame may be detected as nonsimultaneous in another. Events may even change their order of occurrence in time, depending on the reference frame.

'''"What here is he ''doing?''" . . . "Obviously, we must now a duel fight."''' 
In keeping with his name (see p. 596 annotations), Günther speaks in a stage-German accent.

Because of relativity of simultaneity, Günther's direct object arrives in our reference frame before his verb. In physics, the effect is accentuated when motion is faster and the reference frames are farther apart, so perhaps Günther acts in this fashion when he's psychologically "distant" or "moving fast".

'''dueling-society cap''' 
Probably student corporation insignia.

'''inconvenience''' 
Obviously the name of the Chums' airship; whenever the word appears there seems to be a reference to the Chums; here: "...Here, not completely...slightly...somewhere else" as the airship always seems to be.

'''''Liebchen''''' 
German, "sweetheart"

'''''Egal was, meine Schatze''''' 
German, "No matter what, my darling" - though "meine Schatze" is an improper femininization, which ought to be "mein Schatz".

Meine Schatze literally means "my treasure" and is the term of endearment I used with my German girlfriend. She never mentioned it being "improper".

:"Meine Schatze" is definitely no German phrase, and it also sounds really strange to my (Austrian German) ears. "Meine Schätze" would be the plural, but that does not seem to make sense in this context. "Mein Schatz" instead would fit perfectly.

I'm thinking Yiddish, mebbe?

'''''Schläger''''' 
A specialized weapon for student duels. See Wikipedia's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_fencing Academic fencing] article.

'''Krummsäbel''' 
German, "scimitar".

'''Korbrapier''' 
A rapier with a basket ("Korb" in German) like protection hilt.

'''épée''' 
French for sword

A sharp-pointed duelling sword.

==Page 600==

'''Colt six-shooters''' 
I guess Kit's luggage beat him to Gottingen.

'''''Verbindung''''' 
German: connection, union. Here the student corps one belongs to.

'''upon the face of the other, ''to inscribe one's mark''''' 
In several of his movies, the actor Erich von Stroheim appeared with a nasty scar on the left side of his face. Dueling was a pastime of honor at some universities, and the sword scar was the mark of having sustained one's honor there. Special weapons, masks and inflaming treatments were employed to produce this lifelong disfigurement.

'''a Mexican tilde''' 
The wavy mark over the letter ñ in Spanish.

'''restoring moment, elastic constants''' 
Günther's scar is tilde-shaped because as his opponent's sword passed across his face it vibrated up and down once and returned to its starting position. The following would be a reasonable problem for a high-school physics student: If you know how fast the blade tip was traveling side to side and you're allowed to measure the scar, what was the frequency of the up-and-down motion? A second-year university physics student could work out the frequency of vibration given certain properties of the sword and swordsman. A ''restoring moment'' acts to swing the blade back to its mean position when it is deflected; the duelist's wrist exerts one restoring moment and the elasticity of the steel exerts a second one. The restoring moment depends in part on a number called ''elastic constant'' that relates force to linear deflection (think of the classic fisherman's scale, where more weight extends the spring farther).

'''wasn't going to converge . . . skipped a step . . . ''divided by zero''''' 
Kit insults Günther by pointing out blunders in the proof he gave to Yashmeen.

'''Geheimrat Hilbert''' 
German: confidential counsellor. A title of honor given to prominent civilian figures in Germany. For Hilbert Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Dr. Hilbert]].

==Page 601==

'''''Ehrenkodex''''' 
German, "code of honor"

'''Tyrolean hats''' 
[http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tirolerhut&btnG=Search+Images Images]

'''''Schnurrbartbinde''''' 
A device to keep one's mustache safe from entanglement when sleeping, like [http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/mm/2006/01/1137360569.70341.gif this].

'''Zeiss "Palmos Panoram"''' 
An early panoramic camera, mentioned in the 1911 Britannica's [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Photography Photography] article.

'''''"Auf die Mensur!"''''' 
German, "to the duel"

'''Andaman Islands''' 
[http://www.openencyclopedia.net/index.php/Andaman_Islands Here]'s a mention of tattooing practices in the Andaman Islands

'''Stephanie du Motel... group-theory godfather Évariste Galois''' 
Évariste Galois died in a duel at the age of 20. Though much confusion surrounds the affair, it is suspected that he provoked the duel after being rejected by one Stéphanie-Felice du Motel. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evariste_Galois#Final_days Wikipedia])

==Page 602==

'''By 1906 there were Russians everywhere, flown and fleeing westward''' 
Cf [[ATD_588-614#Page 595|page 595:the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere]]. fleeing westward: most popular destination for Russian refugees was then France, later America.

'''young Ouspensky''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Uspensky Peter D. Ouspensky] (1878-1947), Russian mystic and philosopher, author of ''The Fourth Dimension'', appropriate to Pynchon's themes in ''ATD''.

An anachronism: Ouspensky's ''The Fourth Dimension'' wasn't published until 1909. (See Linda Dalrymple Henderson's ''The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art''.)

'''Theosophoid''' 
A Pynchonism. From Theosophist Cf [[ATD_219-242#Page 219|page 219:Madame Blavatsky, Theosophical Society]]. the suffix "oid" often used in mathematics, indicates a "similarity, not necessarily exact, to something else". (android: similar to a man, ovoid: similar to an egg, etc.) As it is explained in the next sentence, "That's a Theosophist, only not entirely". Fitting, in a book that is obsessed with doppelgängers and people who are at once themselves, but not quite (see the transformations of Dr. V Ganesh Rao)

'''Chong''' 
A strange and seemingly unlikely visitor to Göttingen. The name might be taken from the Chinese philosopher Wang Chong, or Wang Ch'ung. Could also be Cheech Marin's partner, Tommy Chong (C.Marin alluded to earlier p.477). - This is Sidney Reilly, a famous spy of the time, in disguise. See the note on Sidney below.

'''"The what?"''' 
(Precipitous drop in authorial expectations?)

'''Chinese Bolshevik''' 
Chinese Communist. For the true meaning of Bolshevik Cf [[ATD_615-643#Page 616|page 616:Bolshevists]]

'''Sidney . . . Kensington Sid''' 
Kensington is where elected officials worked. 

This is Sidney Reilly, the famous Ace of Spies. The reference is made clear by Swome on page 630, and, to the extent that any appearance here makes sense, a spy makes more sense than a political theorist. An annotation on page 630 includes a Wikipedia reference for Reilly. I don't know whether Reilly (or British spies of the day in general) had a particular association with Kensington, or whether the reference is to Chunxton Crescent, which is placed in roughly that part of London.

'''transtriadic''' 
Beyond the three.

==Page 603==

'''"Spiritual... At Göttingen?"''' 
Gottingen is materialistic. Preserved brains as like in a tannery.

'''Applied Mechanics Institute''' 
An institute of the University of Göttingen

'''Prandtl's recent discovery of the boundary layer''' 
Ludwig Prandtl ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Prandtl Wikipedia]) in 1904 developed the theory of the boundary layer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary%20layer Wikipedia]) in aerodynamics, greatly simplifying aerodynamic calculations.

'''powered flight . . . at the edge of history''' 
In 1905 already a reality, but the pioneering empirical work was taking place in Ohio, not Germany.

This is an excellent point that applies to many of the mathematicians mentioned in this chapter.
Minkowski invented spacetime, but Einstein created Relativity Theory. Hilbert proved his Spectral Theorem, but Heisenberg and Schrodinger created Quantum Mechanics. History was being made elsewhere. Cf Yashmeen's rant on page 594.

'''brambled guttie''' 
A proto golf-ball, see [http://www.che.rochester.edu/users/dafoster/ChE243/SciAm%20GolfBall.pdf here].

'''Bürgerstrasse''' 
German, "Citizen's Street", a street in Göttingen.<bre>
This translation is correct but here "Bürger" refers to the German poet Gottfried August Bürger (1748 - 1794) who lived in Göttingen.

'''brambling''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brambling Brambling] (''Fringilla montifringilla'') is a finch related to chaffinches, and is plumed orange, black, and white. Widespread in northern Europe and Asia, it occasionally strays to Alaska and farther south.

'''Brauweg''' 
German, "Brewery Way", a street in Göttingen.

'''Zhukovsky's Transformation''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joukowsky_transform Joukowsky Transform] maps the unit circle in the complex plane to a shape very much like an airfoil.

'''Geheimrat Klein ''' 
Geheimrat = Privy councillor. 
In geometry, the Klein model, also called the projective model... is a model of n-dimensional hyperbolic geometry in which the points of the geometry are in an n-dimensional disk, or ball, and the lines of the geometry are line segments contained in the disk; that is, with endpoints on the boundary of the disk. 

'''glass of tea''' 
(Why not 'cup'?)
because in Europe, as opposed to in England, tea may be drunk from glassware.

'''draw pictures . . . flights of arrows . . . vectors without pictures''' 
Vectors can be visualized as arrows in a plane or three-dimensional space; more generally they can be represented as arrays of coefficients, and now they are not limited to three dimensions.

'''''"...according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity." "And beyond, " added Gunther, nodding earnestly.''''' 
Reference to Buzz Lightyear's stock character phrase in 1995's TOY STORY (Pixar/Disney):
"To Infinity... and Beyond!"
--[[User:Btchakir|Btchakir]] 07:43, 19 December 2006 (PST)
:This reminded me of the caption "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" in the movie ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. [[User:WolfgangFaber|WolfgangFaber]] 07:44, 10 October 2008 (PDT)

'''according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity''' 
Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Spectral Theory]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:''infinite'' dimensions]].

==Page 604==

'''nontrivial zeroes''' 
The Riemann zeta function has two classes of zeros, the trivial zeroes being at negative even integers (-2, -4...), the non-trivial complex numbers, believed (but not proven) to have Re(z)=1/2. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis Wikipedia]. or Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 496|page 496:Zeta function conjecture]].

'''much-noted talk''' 
At the 1900 International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, Hilbert proposed a research programme of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert%27s_problems#Tabulated_information 23 problems]. The Riemann hypothesis is number 8 on the list.

'''Sorbonne''' 
Until 1971, the name ''Sorbonne'' refered to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France, one of the best universities in France. The name is derived from the ''Collège de Sorbonne'', founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon as one of the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris; the university itself as such predates the college by about a centure. In 1971, after the univeristy reforms, the five faculties of the former University of Paris were split and then reformed into thirteen interdisciplinary universities. Three of them as true "heirs" to the original, have kept the Sorbonne name as part of their official title: Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), the New Sorbonne, and the Panthéon-Sorbonne. [http://www.paris4.sorbonne.fr/en/sommaire.php3 The University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV)] was the inheritor of the former University of Paris' Arts and Sciences Faculties.

'''the outstanding problems in mathematics''' 
Hilbert's Problems are 23 (originally) unsolved problems in mathematics proposed by Hilbert. Of the 23 total appearing in the printed address, 10 were actually presented at the Second International Congress of Mathematics at the Sorbonne, Paris on August 8, 1900. [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HilbertsProblems.html Hilbert's Problems] were designed to serve as examples for the kinds of problems whose solutions would lead to the furthering of disciplines in mathermatics. As such, some were areas for investigation and therefore not strictly "problems".

'''eigenvalues''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalue Wikipedia] Dudley Eigenvalue, D.D.S., was a character in ''V.''

'''Hermitian operator''' 
A Hermitian operator generalises some of the ideas of symmetry when complex numbers are involved. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitian_operator Wikipedia]

'''spine of reality . . . ''"Rückgrat von Wirklichkeit"''''' 
Probably a reference to the main diagonal of a Hermitian matrix, which can contain only real numbers. The German phrase is one accurate way to translate the English.

:are there any others? Translate the German back to English and you get "backbone of reality"

'''Hilbert-Polya Conjecture''' 
The conjecture that the zeroes of the Riemann function would be the eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator, just what Yashmeen is suggesting. 

The most recent refinement of the Hilbert-Polya Conjecture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert–Pólya_conjecture Wikipedia] is that the operator in question arises from the quantization of a chaotic dynamical system. The zeroes would then correspond to the possible energy levels of the system. This would answer Hilbert's prompt to Yasmeen "''some'' equation" on this page, and would provide the link between prime numbers and chaos intuited by Gunther on page 597.

==Page 605==

'''Vance Aychrome''' 
The voracious detective is a stock figure in the mystery genre (Nero Wolfe, Mycroft Holmes, Inspector Dover, D.C.I. Dalziel and others). 
Is his name pronounced Eye Chrome, as in private eye? Weak possible connection?-- a truck light called Big Eye Chrome. The name sounds like 'fancy chrome.' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Vance Philo Vance] is an effete fictional detective created by S. S. Van Dyne in the 1920's. Vance Aychrome, as depicted by Pynchon, seems quite different from Philo Vance.

'''Full English Breakfast''' 
Bacon, eggs, tomato, toast... otherwise known as a fry-up.

'''Pythagorean dietary''' 
The Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who lived towards the end of the 6th century BC, was a prominent proponent of vegetarianism. The Pythagorean diet came to mean an avoidance of the flesh of slaughtered animals. Pythagorean ethics first became a philosophical morality between 490-430 BC with a desire to create a universal and absolute law including injunctions not to kill "living creatures," to abstain from "harsh-sounding bloodshed," in particular animal sacrifice, and "never to eat meat." (From a review of ''The Heretics Feast: a History of Vegetarianism'' by Colin Spencer, University Press of New England, 1995)
 
and never to eat beans (strange but true).

'''kippers and bloaters''' 
Different words (both Scottish) for smoked herrings

'''baps''' 
soft bread rolls - another Scottish word

'''Spong machine''' 
Appropriate technology. An English-made hand-cranked coffee grinder that doesn't light up, lacks a readout to tell when the beans are ready, and signally fails to function before the user wakes up. Only drawback is that some spouses compare its sound to half a load of cobbles being dumped on the roof.

'''thinned''' 
From full 78. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Wikipedia]

'''vegetarian haggis''' 
It exists: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22vegetarian+haggis Google search]

==Page 606==

'''Lamont Replevin''' 
"Replevin" is a legal term for a form of civil action to recover possession of property being wrongfully held by another.

'''Elflock Villa''' 
Elflock: A lock of hair tangled as if by elves. Often used in the plural.

'''Stuffed Edge, Herts''' 
An imaginary village in the South-East English county of Hertfordshire. Stuffed hedge?

'''kedgeree''' 
A hot breakfast dish of fish, rice, and eggs.

'''Cesare Lombroso''' 
Anthropologist who devised a method of identifying criminal "types" from their facial structures. (Cf [[ATD_171-198#Page 172|page 172: Dr. Lombroso]]).

Brock Vond, Pynchon's villain in ''Vineland'', is also a follower of Lombroso's theories. Cf. page 272-273 of ''Vineland''.

'''Trans-Oxanian''' 
From the other side of the Oxus River (now Amu-Darya) in Central Asia. Cf. [[ATD_429-459#Page 439|page 439:the Oxus]].

'''Graeco-Buddhist''' 
The hybrid cultural background evidenced in Shambhala. Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Graeco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in Central Asia in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism Wikipedia] and Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 438|page 438:Graeco-Buddhist]].

'''bad hats''' 
A bad hat is a slang term for a rascal

==Page 607==

'''Gas Office''' 
As explained in the text, the Scotland Yard bureau that kept gas communications under surveillance.

'''communication by means of coal-gas''' 
Cf Nabokov's "Ada". Also inverse of Tesla's energy-transmitter. A parallel to the Tristero, too. The description of communication by gas seems like a self-parody of ''The Crying of Lot 49.''

'''bombs... Suffragettes''' 
(Did they bomb post offices?!?)post boxes:Suffragettes carried out direct action such as chaining themselves to railings, setting fire to the contents of mailboxes, smashing windows and on occasions setting off bombs. Wikipedia

'''Persian''' 
Majority language in Iran, now called Farsi.

'''Pashto''' 
A language spoken in Afghanistan and nearby.

'''Tadjik''' 
A language spoken in Tadjikistan. "Mountain Tadjik" presumably dominates in the 60% or so of the country that is in high mountains.

'''Seven Dials''' 
In Covent Garden, London - a place where 7 roads meet. An unsavory assignment for a policeman.

==Page 608==

'''"Avoid beans"''' 
Pythagoreans follow a proscription against eating beans.

'''spotted dick''' 
A suet pudding with raisins or currants

'''Yarmouth bloater''' 
A cured herring from the port town of Yarmouth.

'''...if not for these unauthorized dilettantes all pottering about...''' 
Oddly reminiscent of the villains' perennial complaint in the old "Scooby-Doo" cartoons.

'''queering the pitch''' 
[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/297387.html Disrupting someone's business;] compare [[ATD_748-767#Page_758|"yakitori pitches," p. 758.]]

''''shape'''' 
a doughnut,which comes in various shapes? Including the math-relevant
shape: a torus. But probably just a bit of bun, scone, etc. listed as Vance's breakfast...no doughnut listed.

'Shape' is another word for blancmange, which is made of gelatin, derived probably from the bones of some animal. Aychrome wonders "what's it made of", to which Lew responds "Maybe you don't want to know." [[User:Nehoccramcire|Nehoccramcire]] 09:14, 12 March 2007 (PDT)

'''the Embankment''' 
Victoria Embankment, London, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_yard Scotland Yard] was located there from 1890 to 1967. Scotland Yard was founded on September 29, 1829, on a street off Whitehall; and in 1967 it moved to the present location at 10 Broadway Street, London.

'''blue lamps''' 
Traditionally hung outside police stations in England.

'''lamé surfaces''' 
Lamé (fabric), a fabric inwoven metallic threads 
Lamé, name of the electrically conductive jacket worn by foil and sabre fencers 
Lamé (armor), an unarticulated component of a larger piece of armor 

'''yarmulke... high crown... dented Trilby style''' 
[http://www.wpclipart.com/clothes/hats/index.html Image of a Trilby hat.]

==Page 609==

'''Bukhara''' 
Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 425|page 425:Bukhara]]

'''''Kelly's Suburban Dictionary''''' 
The peerless [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/22/design360.icon.az/index.html ''London A to Z''] did not come along until the 1930s.

'''wenlets''' 
Politician and journalist William Cobbett (1763-1835) called London "the great wen." It was not a compliment, because ''wen'' means a sebaceous cyst. Wenlets are small versions of the "great" wen.

==Page 610==

'''daylight oil''' 
from the streetlamps, lit up for hours?

'''a moon no one could see''' 
Note that the ''Inconvenience'' is repeatedly referred to as a "moon" ([[ATD_119-148#Page_144|p. 144,]] [[ATD_171-198#Page_187|p. 187]]) and is sometimes seen under other guises ([[ATD_199-218#Page_215|p. 215,]] [[ATD_243-272#Page_272|p. 272]]).

'''refused to dim''' 
(Nicely vivid.)

'''Vontz's Universal Pick''' 
Vontz (Yiddish): bedbug.

'''alchemized coke''' 
Gas works that manufacture syngas also produce coke as an end product, called gas house coke.

Fluid coking is a process by which heavy residual crude is converted into lighter products such as naptha, kerosene, heating oil, and hydrocarbon gases. The "fluid" term refers to the fact that coke particles are in a continuous system versus older batch coking technology. Wikipedia

'''Lincrusta-Walton''' 
an embossed fabric used for covering walls, invented in 1877 by Frederick Walton as an alternative to more expensive wallpapers (wikipedia).

'''hipshot''' 
having one hip lower than the other: a Greek statue in hipshot pose.M-W.

'''captive maiden''' 
In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', Oedipa Maas is referred to as a "captive maiden" in the scene where she's standing in front of the Remedios Varo painting. It would certainly be worth while to examine the parallels more closely.

'''scalene polygons''' 
Polygons with sides of unequal length.

'''jet''' 
jet black, a color.

'''Apotheosis Sparkless Torch''' 

==Page 611==

'''magnalium''' 
An alloy of magnesium and aluminum.

'''Lamont Replevin (for it was he)''' 
Formula from penny-dreadful literature: Open the chapter with an unknown character (referred to ahead of time but never yet making an appearance), describe looks and some little action, then spring the name on the reader.

'''''The Slow and the Stupefied''''' 
Daytime soap 'The Young and the Restless'.

'''gas-head''' 
Cf pothead, acidhead, etc.

'''Pike's Peak''' 
Lew's old stompinground.

'''Gus Swallowfield''' 
A curious pseudonym assumed by Lew Basnight while in the presence of Lamont Replevin. As Mr. Swallowfield, Lew professes to be an insurance salesman. The name is very overtly British and is possibly referential to the Swallowfield estate in Berkshire, which itself has a curious history.

'''most theft policies''' 
(Fact?)

'''pantechnicon''' 
A closed van or carryall. (Is TRP trying to put a burr under S. Weisenburger's saddle by bringing this vehicle back? SW's gloss in the ''GR Companion,'' at page 19 of the Viking edition, is famously wrong.) 

Pantechnicon can mean either a furniture warehouse (originally a bazaar) or a removal van. The reference in GR to "the piano in the pantechnicon" is therefore ambiguous. TRP might say that he meant a van, not a bazaar, but that would not mean that SW was wrong. Just that SW and TRP had different readings of the novel. And the author's reading does not necessarily have primacy.

This assertion is generally debateable and in the case of TRP his conscious intentions in his fully thought out novels carries a lot of primacy most of the time, most might argue. This wiki attests to that.

:Lots of people would say the wiki is wrong then. You can discover sources and you may be able to parse processes (rewrites, selection of information), but the author's intentions are not accessible; only the work is. Therefore (and so on and so forth). A philosophical question and probably not wiki-able.

'''legitimate bill of sale''' 
That is, a stolen object with a stolen bill of sale cannot be proved to be stolen; the thief has the receipt.

'''burglary insurance''' 
Although TRP writes that most theft policies were written in the US by the time Lew speaks to Replevin, the first burglary policy was in fact offered by Cuthbert Heath, an Underwriter at Lloyd's, London in about 1889, which would seem to be a few years earlier than the scene. Antony Brown, ''Cuthbert Heath'' ( David & Charles, New Abbot London 1984)at pages 72-76. [[User:TheKenoshaKid|TheKenoshaKid]] 15:52, 9 March 2008 (PDT)

==Page 612==

'''''Pavonazzetto''''' 
brecciated white marble with violet veins from Docimia, Asia Minor.

'''Phrygian marble''' 
Phrygia is an ancient region of west central Asia Minor, to the south of Bithynia. Marble from there was highly valued.

'''Atys... Agdistis''' 
From Greek and Roman mythology. Atys (or Attis) is a young lover of the goddess Cybele (also known as Agdistis in Phrygia). When he wished to marry, Cybele drove him mad and he castrated himself. Catullus wrote a poem on the subject.

'''''The Mutilation of Atys''''' 
No images: [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=%22Mutilation%20of%20Atys&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Google image search]

But under the name Attis, this two-panel sequence: [http://www.aztriad.com/aacarati.html page 1,] [http://www.aztriad.com/aacatals.html page 2,] from "Seladore's Historical Cartoons." And [http://paxnortona.notfrisco2.com/?p=2332 a photo] of what appears to be an old statue of Attis.

'''Arturo Naunt, Chelsea's own, shocking the bourgeoisie since 1889''' 
Phrasing reminiscent of advertising.

'''shocking the bourgeoisie''' 
A popular pastime for young and not-so-young soi-disant radicals ("Epater le bourgeois").

'''koumiss vessel''' 
A container for fermented horse's milk. Perhaps like this one:
[http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/husa/origins/szkitahist/scythianvessel.html]

According to the OED, an early form of the word 'koumiss' was 'cosmos' - its appearance here doesn't seem coincidental given the short disquisition on the etymology of 'chaos' soon to follow. For the Greeks 'cosmos' was the antithetical concept to 'chaos'. Pythagoras is said to be the first to apply the original meaning of 'cosmos', i.e., 'an orderly arrangement' to the universe itself.

'''depending on the angle you hold it at, sometimes it doesn't look like anything at all''' 
A concise description of anamorphic and paramorphic images; this one needs the Paramorphoscope to interpret it.

'''wrathful deities from Tantric Buddhism''' 
Tantric Buddhism is also known as Varjayana Buddhism. In Varjayana Buddhism, a dharmapāla (Tibetan drag-gshed) is a type of wrathful deity. The name means "Dharma-defender" in Sanskrit, and the dharmapalas are also known as the Defenders of the Law (Dharma) or the Protectors of the Law in English.
In Buddhist iconography, they are invariably depicted as fearsome beings, often with many heads, hands or feet; blue, black or red skin; and a fierce expression with protruding fangs. Though dharmapalas have a terrifying appearance, they are all bodhisattvas or buddhas- embodiments of compassion that act in a wrathful way for the sake of sentient beings.Wikipedia

==Page 613==

'''tiny German hand camera''' 
Probably a Zeiss Ikon. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss Wikipedia Entry]

A Zeiss Ikon would be an anachronism, as this company was created as a merger in 1926.

The description somehow suggests the classic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minox Minox] "spy cameras", but also these were created only in the 1930ies (originally in Latvia, mass production in Germany).

A small German camera matching the time would be [http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Gnom Gnom], a version of which was also sold in the UK.

'''raw light''' 
light from a gaslight is not 'artificial' as from electric lights, streetlamps, etc. Cf. Telleruide section.

'''Gasophilia''' 
Love of gas.

'''Schwärmer''' 
The name is a German word meaning visionary, zealot, raver.

'''Waves in a timeless stream of Gas''' 
Replevin equates piped gas to the æther.

'''Sensitive Flame''' 
A burner flame adjusted so that it responds to the tiniest disturbance in the
air. Used by both physicists and spiritualists.

'''cognizant nose...medium for the most exquisite poetry'''

see Proust

'''Chidambaram''' 
A city in south India and Chidambaram is one of the Panchabhoota Sthalams - temples built for the 5 elements said to embody Shiva - at Chidambaram (space), Kalahasti (wind), Thiruvanaikaval (water), Tiruvannamalai (fire) and Kanchipuram (earth).

'''''Akaša''''' 
Akasa is the fifth element,the ether, unseen and invisible but an important element permeating the whole universe. It is also considered
to be indentical with Brahma, the creator..... 
Akasa is 'simple,continuous infinite substance and is the substratum of sound.' Both from Indian Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Occultist Eliphas Levi associated akasa with what he called the "Astral Light". He writes: "[T]his electromagnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric (Perhaps this explains Pynchon's insistence on the term "luminiferous aether"?), is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis which twines round two poles and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of Saturn" -- emblem of infinity, immortality, and Kronos -- 'Time'". He says it is "a force in Nature," by means of which "a single man who can master it... might throw the world into confusion and transform its face"; for it is the "great Arcanum of transcendent Magic." It is a "blind force... which souls must conquer in order to detach themselves from the chains of Earth; 'for if they should not,' they will be absorbed by the same power which first produced them and will return to the central and eternal fire."

It gets better... He writes: "It is through this Force that all the nervous centres secretly communicate with each other; from it -- that sympathy and antipathy are born; from it -- that we have our dreams; and that the phenomena of second sight and extra-natural visions take place... Astral Light, acting under the impulsion of powerful wills, destroys, coagulates, separates, breaks, gathers in all things... God created it on that day when he said: Fiat Lux..." He refers to akasa/Astral Light variably as "the body of the Holy Ghost", the "grand Agent Magique", "Lucifer" and "Baphomet", the winged-goat figure that served as the inspiration for the Devil Tarot card designed by Colman-Smith. [http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-1-12.htm From Madame Blavatsky's "The Secret Doctrine"][http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-2-06.htm Más]

[http://laluni.helloyou.ws/askbaba/prasnottaravahini/prasnottara01.html This page] also equates akasa with the ether and sez that "each subsequent element originated from the previous one" with akasa being the first, similar to the Kaballic Tree of Life.

'''Atman''' 
''Sanskrit''. In Hinduisim, the innermost essence of each individual. Also, the soul. ''Cf.'' Weed Atman in ''Vineland''.

''''''Chaos'''''' 
allusion is seems to Genesis. "Chaos" is in fact the Greek word [for without form and void], says this site.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."
-- Genesis 1: 1-4 (KJV)

'''van Helmont''' 
He claimed to have coined the word "gas" in just the way described here.

'In his "Physica" (1633), the Rosicrucian alchemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, wrote: "Ad huc spiritum incognitum Gas voco," i.e., "This hitherto unknown Spirit I call Gas." Further on in the same work he says, "This vapor which I have called Gas is not far removed from the Chaos the ancients spoke of."' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_light#Esoteric_conceptions wiki]

'''stridently unpopulated''' 
Cf p610.

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

ATD 588-614

2010-09-01T01:41:55Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 598 */

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

==Page 588==

'''tannery''' 
In ancient history, tanning was considered a noxious or "odiferous trade" and relegated to the outskirts of town, amongst the poor. Indeed, tanning by ancient methods is so foul smelling that tanneries are still isolated from those towns today where the old methods are used.

'''Gottlob''' 
Literally "praise to God", as an exclamation also "Thank God!". Though it is rare, it is a real German name. 
Very much so: for example of mathematician/philospher Gottlob Frege, who did study at Göttingen, but not at this time.

'''Humfried''' 
A German translation of Humphrey. This was not an existing German name any time after the medieval, though.

'''Gauss's brain''' 
After Carl Friedrich Gauss died in 1855, his brain was preserved for research purposes. To this day, it is in the possession of the University of Göttingen. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].

'''impervious to the wind''' 
(Attribute of tanned leather?)

'''''"Heiliger Bimbam!"''''' 
A German expression of surprise, translated elsewhere as "Holy Moly!"

'''It is she, she!''' 
probably an allusion to H. Rider Haggard's She. See Wikipedia entry. She has been purified by a pillar of fire. In ''Against the day'', she rises from the swamp. Carl Jung, who used the novel ''She'' (1887) as an example of anima, posited the anima is an archetypical form, expressing the fact that a man has a minority of female genes. Haggard's Queen Ayesha is an unmistakable anima type the ultimate guide and mediator to the inner world. The idea has also connections with the observations of James Frazer in his classical study ''The Golden Bough''. Haggard's idea of a journey into the "darkest Africa," which turns into a spiritual search, has been used by a number of writers, including Joseph Conrad in ''Heart of Darkness'' (1902). 
"My empire is of thy imagination", She says in the novel, "She". Cf. a line, [which I am checking] in "The Crying of Lot 49".

She is 'discovered' somewhere in unknown Africa by some British 'explorers' in a hidden kingdom, and she first appears in a sort of late 19th century private boudoir there. She came to that place via a complicated story some 2000 years earlier, and is of Yemenite origin, having come to the world in pretty much the normal fashion. Yashmeen seems indeed to be based on some fin-de-siecle imaginations of the 'ideal' woman (her looks in general, and the often mentioned streaming black hair of hers), but unlike Haggard's She, Yashmeen is rather powerless in the long run, despite her obvious erotic influence on the men and women in ATD. - Tommaso

:Powerless is a term worth lots of discussion here. [User: MKOHUT]

:It is certainly possible that the line is an allusion, but I think it may simply be a set-up to another goofy Pynchonian linguistic joke-- "Not 'chichi,' idiot..."

'''rim''' 
Kit pretends to think he's referring to monocle as 'chichi' (stylish).

'''Kovalevskaia''' 
Sofia Kovalevskaia, 1850-1891. Russian mathematician, in 1884 appointed professor in Stockholm. The third female professor in Europe ever. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Sofia Kovalevskaia]] and (Wikipedia)

'''Roentgen-ray spectacles''' 
The X-ray glasses that used to be advertised in comic books.

'''''natürlich''''' 
German: naturally.

==Page 589==

'''Those curves are everywhere continuous but nowhere differentiable''' 
This is exactly a description of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weierstrass_function Weierstrass function] (1872), a pathological example of a real-valued function on the real line. This function was cited on page 594 by Yashmeen as one of the crises in mathermatics. Also see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/WeierstrassFunction.html Weierstrass function from MathWorld] and Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Karl Weierstrass]].

'''Those curves . . . ''Noli me tangere''''' 
A well-turned wordplay: The operation of differentiating a curve involves drawing ''tangents'' to it at selected points. The curves in question are continuous, but the injunction ''Noli me tangere'' means you can't draw the tangents.

:If a curve is nowhere differentiable then there will be no tangents anywhere. The curve is everywhere ''untouchable''.

'''''Noli me tangere''''' 
Latin for 'don't touch me'

or, in the immortal words of MC Hammer; "You can't touch this"

'''And is that a revolver you're carrying''' 
Implying, perhaps, an unvocalized "or are you just happy to see me?" Which would be in accord with Kit's reaction to the sight of a woman wearing a toque.

'''''Hausknochen''''' 
German: a giant housekey, as defined, literally House Bone,with perhaps a
double entendre on bone?

Also, slang for [http://www.russki-mat.net/page.php?l=DeFr&a=H penis].

==Page 590==

'''Hadamard... Poussin... Prime Number Theorem''' 
Jacques Hadamard and Charles de la Vallée-Poussin independently proved the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem prime number theorem] in 1896, relying on Riemann's Zeta function. The prime number theorem makes assertions about the distribution of prime numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hadamard.html Jacques Hadamard] (1865-1963), a French mathematician best known for his proof of the Prime Number Theorem in 1896.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Vallee_Poussin.html de la Vallée Poissin] (1866-1962), a Belgian mathematician best known for his proof (independently) of the Prime Number Theorem and his major work ''Cours d'Analyse''.

The Prime Number Theorem defied proof for several decades, and legend at the time had it that whoever did prove it would live forever. Examination of the dates of birth and death of both Hadamard and de la Vallée-Poussin show that this was not too far from the truth.

'''patent ''Kühlbox''''' 
''Kühlbox'' here just means "icebox" or "cooler." Refrigerators were available at the time of the action but not widely used, so an icebox is more likely. It's upstairs in Kit's room, so not necessarily portable.

"Patent," attached to a noun like [[ATD_429-459#Page_457|leather or pencil,]] could mean really, officially patented ''or'' novel and gimmicky. Patent medicines are sold under protected names but not genuine patents in most cases. So the icebox features some radical or distinctive design. My money's on asbestos insulation between the zinc sheets.

[http://www.dhm.de/datenbank/index.html?/datenbank/rb00/rb000891.html Pic of a ca. 1920 Eiskiste-model]. According to German Wikipedia, the mobile "Eiskiste" (icebox) had to be filled with (natural) ice, while its successor, the Kühlbox, worked/works with "Kühlaggregate" (cooling units). The contributor is not sure if suchlike were around at that time. German Wikipedia on [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiskiste Eiskiste] and [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BChlbox Kühlbox].

'''beleaguered subset''' 
a group (from the whole) under attack

'''That is, is it was ''some smile''''' 
Typo, for That is, it was ''some smile''.

'''Prime Number Theorem''' 
The Prime Number Theorem constitutes any number of equivalent statements concerning the distribution of prime numbers. Let ''π(n)'' be the number of primes that are less than ''n'', and let ''p''''n'' denote the ''n''th prime number. The Prime Number Theorem states that ''π(n) ~ n/ln(n)'' as ''n'' approaches infinity, or equivalently that ''p''''n'' ''~ n ln(n)''.

==Page 591==

'''prats''' 
Literally the buttocks. As a slang term, a 'prat' is an [[Idiots and Idiocy in Against the Day|idiot]].

'''''Die Nullstellen der ζ-Funktion''''' 
German: the zeroes of the ζ function. (Null = zero; Stelle = location.) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_zeta_function#Zeros_of_the_Riemann_zeta_function Wikipedia] on the "Zeros of the Riemann zeta-function".

'''not all that hard to prove''' 
Kit will upset the applecart if he can prove the Riemann Hypothesis; Yashmeen's research topic will shrink to triviality. No one has proved the Riemann hypothesis to the satisfaction of the mathematical community at large yet; eternal fame and a fat wad of money await he or she who does.

'''"Richard Harding Davis"''' 
Popular writer of fiction and drama, journalist/war-correspondent and a major male-role-model of his time (1864 - 1916). He was considered the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's dashing Gibson man, the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. He is also referenced early in Sinclair Lewis's book, ''Dodsworth'' as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Harding_Davis Wikipedia]. Among other things, he reported on Belgian atrocities in the Congo.

'''seldom, if ever''' 
Cf p559 re Umeki!?

'''tetralatry''' 
made up from greek "tettares" (prefix -tetra) = four and "latreia" = worship

'''C. Howard Hinton''' 
Charles Howard Hinton (1853 – 1907) was a British mathematician and writer of science fiction works titled ''Scientific Romances''. He was interested in higher dimensions, particularly the fourth dimension, and is known for coining the word ''tesseract'' and for his work on methods of visualising the geometry of higher dimensions. He also had a strong interest in theosophy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard_Hinton Wikipedia Entry]

'''Johann K.F. Zöllner''' 
Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (1834–1882) was a German astrophysicist. Studied Photometrie and optical illusions. He insisted a fourth dimension should be considered in Physics and tried to scientifically explain spiritist phenomena.

'''vogue... 'vague'''' 
Nice wordplay as Yashmeen seems to think the vogue of mysticism is not very precise, is 'vague' intellectually. Further play on "vague" = wave, as in an intellectual fad, e.g. in film, the French "Nouvelle Vague" (New Wave).

==Page 592==

'''upside-down triangles''' 
Also Pléiade p538. In mathematics that would be the operator ''del'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del Wikipedia]. Since pre-history and across most cultures the upside-down triangle is a symbol for the female (genitals).

Florian Cajori's ''A History of Mathematical Notations'' (v.2 p.135) states that the del (aka Hamiltonian operator) was introduced by William Hamilton in his 1853 lecture on Quaternions. Rumour has it that it is supposed to be a drawing of an ancient Hebrew harp (nabla). It is also known as the atled (backword delta).

This in turn suggests (within the context of AtD (atled??) a reversal of time or a mirror image of change.

'''screamingly obvious fallacy in this . . . "proof" of yours''' 
Yashmeen reacts in a slight panic to Kit's threat (page 591).

'''metallic banging''' 
Hausknochen on doors, with 'banging' entendre.

'''"metric interval"''' 
In Euclidean (three-dimensional) space a distance is just what you think it is. In other geometrical systems the term "metric interval" is preferred as a generalized distance.

'''social life is unpredictable''' 
mirrors the situation in the "Hotel Noctambulo", p. 462. Are all these guys "chums of chance"?

[Not sure about the "chums" idea, but more confusion between public and private space on pg. 155 -- Hunter Penhallow leaving the ruined city, presumably in a time machine: "At some point he must have come indoors, entering a sort of open courtyard....Without intending to, he was walking through inhabited rooms."]

'''Weenderstrasse '''
The main shopping street in Göttingen.

'''Prinzenstrasse and Weenderstrasse''' 
A street corner at the very center of Göttingen ([http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=g%C3%B6ttingen,+germany&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=17&ll=51.534284,9.935417&spn=0.006107,0.010793&t=h Google Maps]), "known to mathematicians here as the origin of the city of Göttingen's coordinate system". 
The intersection of these two streets is colloquial called "the navel". For visitors it is not that spectacular, but it's the number one meeting point for people who live in Göttingen before going to a cafe or pub. (I don't know, why we allways meet there, but we allways do!) So Pynchon definitley knows, why he compares this street corner with the origin of Göttingen's coordinate system. 
By the way, one of the oldest bookstores of Göttingen is situated right at the described corner of Prinzen- and Weenderstrasse.

==Page 593==

'''twenty marks''' 
A mark is short for deutschemark, a German monetary unit. 
That was the case after the Second World War, but the unit was just called the mark until at least the end of the empire. [http://www.thegoldcoinstore.com/WorldGold/German_Gold_20_Marks_Kaizer_Wilhelm_II.php Here] is a picture of a 20 mark coin from the period of the action.

'''''der Pistolenheld''''' 
German: the pistol hero. Meaning: the gunman. 'Pistolenheld' seems rather funny, the correct German word is: der Revolverheld.

'''automorphic functions and the Anharmonic Pencil''' 
[http://mathworld.wolfram.com/AutomorphicFunction.html Automorphic Functions] are generalizations of trigonometric functions and elliptic functions.

Anharmonic Pencil see [[ATD_525-556#Page 532|page 532:Anharmonic Pencil]].

'''''das Nichtharmonischestrahlenbündel''''' 
Or ''das nichtharmonische Strahlenbündel.'' German: the anharmonic pencil. A "pencil" is the set of lines passing through a point.

'''Euler''' 
Leonhard Euler (pronounced Oiler; IPA [ˈɔʏlɐ]) (April 15, 1707 – September 7, 1783) was a Russian-German mathematician and physicist of Swiss descent. From Wikipedia and below:

Euler made important discoveries in fields as diverse as calculus, number theory, and topology. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function. [1] He is also renowned for his work in mechanics, optics, and astronomy.

Euler is considered to be the preeminent mathematician of the 18th century and one of the greatest of all time.

'''Felix Klein''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Klein.html Felix Klein] (1849-1925), a German mathematician, best known for his work in non-Euclidean goemetry, for his work on the connections between geometry and group theory, and for results in function theory. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 565|page 565:Felix Klein]].

'''''Mathematical Theory of the Top''''' 
Published in the U.S. in 1897. Compare Felix Klein and Arnold Sommerfeld, ''Über die Theorie des Kreisels,'' 4 volumes, 1897-1910.

'''Leopold Kronecker''' and '''Cantor''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Kronecker.html Leopold Kronecker] (1823-1891), a German mathematician, primary contributions were in the theory of equations. He made major contributions in elliptic functions and the theory of algebraic numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Cantor.html Georg Cantor] (1845-1918), a German mathematician. He founded set theory and introduced the concept of infinite numbers with his discovery of cardinal numbers. He also advanced the study of trigonometric series. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 250|page 250:Dr. Cantor]]).

The "monumental quarrel between Kronecker and Cantor" is also referred to as a "religious war," appropriately enough. It's based in a disagreement over the legitimacy of numbers. Kronecker held that "'the positive integers were created by God, and all else is the work of man.'" This is contradicted by "'Cantor with his ''Kontinuum'', professing an equally strong belief in just those regions, infinitely divisible, which lie ''between'' the whole numbers so demanding of all Kronecker's devotion.'"

The disagreement between the two mathematicians is reminiscent of (or does it anticipate?) the rift between Pointsman and Mexico in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Kronecker's integers "created by God" have become a Pavlovian digital binary for Pointsman, but the two oppositions track faithfully right down to the italicized "between."

"The young statistician [Mexico] is devoted to number and to method, not table-rapping or wishful thinking. But in the domain of zero to one, not-something to something, Pointsman can only possess the zero and the one. He cannot, like Mexico, survive anyplace in between. Like his master I. P. Pavlov before him, he imagines the cortex of the brain as a mosaic of tiny on/off elements.... But to Mexico belongs the domain ''between'' zero and one." [Page 55]

It should be noted, however, that the continuous number line was a modern innovation. In Greek number theory, a number is a collection of indivisible units. Irrationals, such as the square root of 2 are not numbers but "magnitudes." One is not even a number for it is not a number of units. There are no negative numbers as well. (see Klein's Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra.) So Kronecker's position may be less of a crazy innovation as much as a maintenance of ancient theory.

:That last paragraph makes an excellent point.

'''the square root of minus one''' 
The imaginary number ''i''. Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:Imarginary Number]].

'''the square root of ''plus two''' 
From Carl B. Boyer's ''A History of Mathematics'', 2nd Ed. 1991, pp.564 & 565): 
The domain of rational numbers can be extended to form a continuum of real numbers if one assumes Cantor-Dedekind axiom that the points on a line can be put into one-to-one correspondence with the real numbers. "Arithmetically expressed, this means that for every division of the rational numbers into two classes A and B such that every number of the first class, A, is less than every number of the second class, B, there is one and only one real number producing this ''Schnitt'', or . . . cut. If A has a largest number, or if B contains a smallest number, the cut defines a rational number; but if A has no largest number and B no smallest, then the cut defines an irrational number. If, for example, we put in A all negative rational numbers and also all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2, and in B all positive rational numbers whose squares are more than 2, we have subdivided the entire field of rational numbers in a manner defining an irrational number—in this case the number that we usually write as" ''suqare root of 2''. In fact, the squae root of ''plus two'' "can be defined simply as that segment or subclass of the set of rational numbers made up of all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2 and also of all negative rational numbers." —— This is what Kronecker did not believe.

'''''Kontinuum''''' 
This passage closely parallels the one about the "microcosm of Venice" on page 575.

==Page 594==

'''''Nervenklinik''''' 
German: nerve clinic. Three-dollar word for a mental hospital.

'''boundless epsilonic world''' 
Epsilon, Greek letter like E. In mathematics (particularly calculus), an arbitrary (or nearly so) small positive quantity is commonly denoted ε; see limit.
By analogy with this, the late mathematician Paul Erdős also used the term "epsilons" to refer to children (Hoffman 1998, p. 4). Wikipedia; of Huxley's five classes of citizens in ''Brave New World'' epsilons were purposely stunted physically and intellectually.

'''Der Finsterzwerg''' 
The choice of the tavern "The Dwarf of Darkness" may have been meant as a dig at five-foot-tall Kronecker.

'''chloral hydrate''' 
A/k/a "knockout drops" a/k/a a "Mickey Finn". Hence the ''Mickifest''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloral_hydrate Wikipedia entry].

'''''Kneipe''''' 
German: pub

'''Gauss passing to Weber a remark''' 
Carl Friedrich Gauss (Gauß) (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician and scientist of profound genius who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy and optics. Sometimes known as "the prince of mathematicians" and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", Gauss had a remarkable influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians. (Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].)

That influence is seen in the field of statistics where the Gaussian distribution (also known as the normal distribution, popularly known as the bell curve) is named after him. With its ability to correctly model "psychological measurements and physical phenomena" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution] and its resemblance to both the rainbow and the rocket's arc, there's no surprise Pynchon references it often in GR, even having Roger Mexico quote the formula as "an old saying among my people" (p.709, the Mexico quotation is actually some strange variant of the Normal distribution).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Eduard_Weber Wilhelm Weber] (1804-91), a noted German physicist. He studied magnetism with Gauss and in 1831, on the recommendation of Gauss, he was appointed as professor of physics at Göttingen. And in 1833 Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph. The SI unit of magnetic flux, the ''weber'', is named after him.

In 1831 Gauss developed a fruitful collaboration with the physics professor Wilhelm Weber; it led to new knowledge in the field of magnetism (including finding a representation for the unit of magnetism in terms of mass, length and time) and the discovery of Kirchhoff's circuit laws in electricity. Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph in 1833, which connected the observatory with the institute for physics in Göttingen. Gauss ordered a magnetic observatory to be built in the garden of the observatory and with Weber founded the magnetischer Verein ("magnetic club"), which supported measurements of earth's magnetic field in many regions of the world. He developed a method of measuring the horizontal intensity of the magnetic field which has been in use well into the second half of the 20th century and worked out the mathematical theory for separating the inner (core and crust) and outer (magnetospheric) sources of Earth's magnetic field

'''Göttingen . . . in the war with Prussia''' 
This refers to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Prussian_war Austro-Prussian War], (also called Seven Weeks' War), June 15–August 23, 1866, between Prussia, allied with Italy, and Austria, allied with Bavaria, Wüttemberg, Saxony (where Göttingen is located), Hanover, Baden and several other smaller German states. It was Bismarck's aim to expel, by force, Austria from the German Confederation as a step toward the unification of Germany under Prussian dominace.
:Göttingen is in Saxony now (specifically the state of ''Niedersachsen'' or Lower Saxony), but until 1866 it was an important city in the Kingdom of Hanover.

'''political crisis in Europe''' 
The period of 1870 to 1914 was characterized by the Anglo-German naval race and European powers - Germany, Italy, Belgium, Britain and France - scrambled for Africa. The major events in Europe were: 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War; 1905 Russian Revolution; 1908 Bosnia Crisis; 1911-12 Italian Turkish War; 1912-13 Balkan War; 1914 World War I began.

'''crisis in mathematics . . . Weierstrass functions, Cantor's continuum, Russell's inexhaustible capacity for mischief''' 
A genuine crisis as well-established ideas were challenged. Weierstrass functions have the unheard-of property that they are "continuous but nowhere differentiable." Cantor's ideas about the continuum violated a longstanding prohibition against infinite quantities. Bertrand Russell around this time was setting the cat among the pigeons by identifying paradoxes and inconsistencies in set theory and number theory.

'''"the infinite" was all but a conjuror's convenience''' 
There is a very good book relating how the infinite, between the 18th and early 20th centuries, finally found a place in mathematics: ''In Search of Infinity'' by N.Ya. Vilenkin (translated by Abe Shenitzer).

==Page 595==

'''That winter, in St. Petersburg . . . Hundreds were killed and wounded.''' 
22 Jan 1905, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281905%29 Bloody Sunday]. 

The event on January 22, 1905, ''Bloody Sunday'', was a watershed in the Russian history. 
Russia's armies were losing to the Japanese in the Far East. Her workers at home were challenging the rule of Romanov's Autocracy. At the beginning of 1905, the workers of ''Putilov Works'' of St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, went on stike for better living and working conditions. They were joined by many from other factories. Father Gapon, a priest, urged the striking workers to present directly to the Tsar on January 22, 1905 a petition to seek justice and protection. They would beg Nicholas II to come to their aid. The morning of January 22 was very cold (about five degrees below freezing) and some 200,000 workers and their wives and children came peacefully and orderly carrying icons, portraits of Nicholas, and no revolutionary placards not even red handkerchiefs. To stop the workers' march upon the Palace Square barricades were set across several avenues that connected to the city center. At each of these points, soldiers tried to turn back the marchers and, at several of them, officers ordered to fire into the crowds. The worst slaughter took place on the Winter Palace Square itself, between 150 and 200 men, women, and children lay shot dead and another 450 to 800 had been wounded while the Cossacks charged into the dispersing crowds with sabers drawn. 
Bloody Sunday, as that tragic day soon became known, marked the beginning of what the Tsar's mother called the "year of nightmares", and the beginning of what many others called the "year of revolution". (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)).

'''Grand Duke Sergei''' 
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (1857-1905) was the uncle and brother-in-law of Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918, Reign: 1894-1917). In 1891 he was appointed as Moscow Governor General. In 1894 he also was a member of the State Council. He resigned from the Governorship on January 1, 1905 but continued as Commander of the Moscow military district. In the afternoon of February 17, 1905, in a carriage leaving the Kremlin Grand Duke Sergei was killed by a nitroglycerine bomb thrown by a Socialist Revolutionary terrorist directly into his lap. He was literally blown to bits and pieces. The assassination of Grand Duke Sergei signaled the beginning of a broader wave of popular unrest that had been sparked by the events of Bloody Sunday and swept the whole nation. Many more assassinations, strikes, disorders and uprisings followed during the year.
(Grand Duke Sergei's replacement, Shurvalov, was assassinated on July 11 of the same year.)

'''More strikes . . . peasant and military insurections . . . into the summer''' 
In January-February, turbulent reaction to Bloody Sunday spread across neighboring regions, especially the industrial centers which experienced spontaneous workers' strikes: Vilno, Kovno, Kiev, Moscow were paralyzed. In February-March the labor unrests reached Saratov Province and the Caucasus, and Siberia. Labor unrests were persistent throughout Russia into August. In early March university students left their classrooms, and at the end of the month the authorities closed down all the universities throughout the whole country for the rest of the academic year. (Student unrest even reached Orthodox seminaries.) 
In March, peasant unrests erupted widely, especially in Kursk, and Chernigov and Orel provinces and northwest regions of European Russia. In June, the Battleship ''Potemkin'' mutinied and in the Black Sea port city Odessa there was a large scale uprising by the sailors, soldiers, workers and ordinary citizens. On June 28 afternoon hundreds of protesters were killed on the Odessa Steps which was immortalized by the classic movie sequence in the 1925 Eisenstein's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Batlleship_Potemkin ''The Battleship Potemkin''] (considered by some one of the greatest films of all time). In summer widespread peasants' attacks on landowners' estates dramatically increased throughout Russia. The Peasant Union was organized at a secret August 13-14 Moscow conference.

'''Kronstadt''' 
Kronstadt was a naval fortress in the Gulf of Finland 18 miles west of St. Petersburg. Following the destruction of the Baltic Fleet by the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318: The Russo-Japanese War]]) Kronstadt joined the general uprising which swept the whole Russian country. The first Kronstadt uprising on November 8-9, 1905, participated in by the majority of Kronstadt's 13,000 sailors and soldiers, was basically a large armed riot accompanied by liberal political demands. It lasted only two days. Kronstadt's second uprising took place in July 1906 but was brutally suppressed.

'''Sebastopol''' 
A port city of Russia (now, Sevastopol of Ukrain), located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimean peninsula west of Yalta. Sebastopol was associated with rebellion, mutiny and civil war. 
On June 27, 1905 the battleship ''Potemkin'' sailed from Sebastopol to Odessa and to mutiny against the ship's oppressive officers. The mutineers killed seven of the eighteen officers, including the Captain and the Second in Command. The ship eventually sailed to Romania and turned over to the authority there on July 7. (Sergei Eisenstein's ''The Battlehip Potemkin'' made her famous well beyond Russia.) 
On October 1, 1905, citizen of Sebastopol and sailors from the Black Fleet demonstrated in the city center demanding the authority to free political prisoners, etc, but were met with gun fire. Wide spread unrest and naval mutinies followed. In November the cruiser ''Ochakov'' led a rebellion joined by several other warships. The rebellion was eventually suppressed by a stronger government force a couple of months later.

'''Black Hundreds''' 
Anti-Semitic vigilantes.

The name was a derogatory one, adapted from the term "White Hundreds", which was used in medieval Russia for the privileged caste of nobles and wealthy merchants. The lower-class types who joined the Black Hundreds were not in this class hence their ironic nomenclature. It was formed in response to the October Manifesto by those who had either lost or were afraid of losing their petty status in the social hierachy as a result of modernization and reform. They blamed the Jews as the ultimate cuase for Tsar's retreat. Fighting revolution in the streets was their way of revenging themselves, a means of putting the clock back and restoring the social and racial hierarchy. (Based on Orlando Figes' ''A People's Tragedy'' (1996))

'''Japanese won''' 
The Japanese destroyed the bulk of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima Strait on May 27-28, 1905. In ''GR'', the soon-to-be-defeated fleet puts in at German Southwest Africa during the 1904 Herero Revolt; Tchicherine's father, a sailor in that fleet, may also be the father of Enzian, leader of the Schwarzcommando.

By January 1905 the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo_Japanese_War Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)] had been going on in Manchuria for nearly a year. In the summer of 1904, the Russia's Pacific Fleet was bottled up inside Port Arthur (now, Lüshun, Liaoning, China) and the port was under siege as from August. In October, the Tsar sent the entire Baltic Fleet to relief the siege. At the beginning of 1905, Port Arthur finally fell after a siege and bombardment lasted 156 days. In March 1905 Russia and Japan fought the greatest land battle in the history up to then at Mukden (Shenyang, Liaoning). Each side committed more than 300,000 troops and over 1,000 pieces of artillery. After nearly one month's fighting both lost more than 50,000 killed and wounded, but the Russians withrew 40 miles to the north. After streaming halfway around the world in a grueling voyage of many months without adequate logistic support, on May 27 the Russian fleet met the waiting Japanese (under Admiral Togo) in the Tsuhsima Straits that separated Japan and Korea. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima Battle of Tsushima Straits (May 27-28)] was one of the most decisive naval battles in history. Even though the Russians had more ships and more heavy guns, but within a few hours, they lost 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 5 minelayers and 4 other ships. Four more battleship surrendered next day, and the Russian commanding admiral (Admiral Rozhdestvenskii) was also captured. The Japanese lost only a total of 3 torpedo boats. (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)). 
After two months' negotiation, the Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of the Peace Treaty of Porstmouth (New Hampshire) on September 5, 1905.

'''A general strike in the autumn . . .''' 
In late September a printers' strike in Moscow was in progress for over a fortnight. By October 18 it seemed that the strike was losing steam. But on October 20 railroad workers struck the Moscow-Kazan Railway and the strike spread outward along all the railroad lines: to St Petersburg in the west, to Voronesh and Kharkov in the south; and by October 23 it had reached Siberia. Twenty-six thougsand miles of track were immobilized as 750,000 railroad employees struck. At this time much of European Russia was in the grip of one of the greatest and most effective general strikes in the history of labor protest anywhere in the world. All of Russia's industry ground to a halt, everyone stopped work. Factory workers, servants, postal workers, telegraph operators, janitors, and hackney drivers all walked off their jobs, as did bank clerks, shop clerks, and clerks in government office. Doctors, laywers, schoolteachers, university professors, even the entire corps de ballet of the great Imperial Mariinskii Theatre—all joined the strike. There were no newspapers, no streetlights, no tramcars . . . As all rail traffic stopped and telegraph line dead, Russia was isolated from the rest of the world. At the same time, the revolutionary groups organized a new body for coordinating the activities of the striking workers and for expressing their joint political and economic demands: the "St. Petersburg
''Soviet'' of Workers' Deputies". Many other Soviets were set up and developed later as alternate governing organizations. The name and organization ''Soviet'' (Russian word ''Sovet'' means council) took on a legendary meaning from then on and became historical. 
With the regime on the verge of collapse, in response, the Tsar, advised by the Prime Minister, issued the famouse ''October Manifesto'' on October 30, 1905, by which Nicholas granted to all Russian civil rights, agreed to summon a Duma (Parliament) elected by wide (though not universal) suffrage, and agreed that all laws must be approved by the Duma. In the meantime, on December 16, troops were sent to arrest some three hundred members of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. The Revolution of 1905 in the Capital passed into history.

'''In December . . . another major uprising''' 
In Moscow, the Soviet of Workers' Deputies proclaimed a general strike for December 20. When the authorities moved to arrest the stike leaders, an armed uprising broke out. Barricades went up in workers' quarter of the city, and revolutionaries from St. Petersburg, Odessa, and elsewhere joined in the struggle. Nicholas dispatched elite troops with artillery which reduced the rebels' area to ruins. By December 31, the rebellion in Moscow was over. The number of killed and wounded totaled over a thousand.

'''In the East . . . up and down the railroad lines''' 
The Russo-Japanese War was officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on August 23, 1905. In late summer there were numerous minor mutinies by troop returning from Manchuria on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Fighting between the left and the right erupted on October 20 around Tomsk. On November 12, mutinous soldiers and sailors destroyed much of Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, the end of the Trans-Siberian. There were unrests and uprisings in Chita (November 29), Irkutsk (December 13), and Novorossiisk (December 22) as well.

'''Muslim rebellion''' 
The downfall of the Ottoman Empire by Turkey?

:No. In this whole paragraph Pynchon only factually describes the events in Russia and the Russian 1905 Revolution.

:Muslims in Central Asia (Kirghiz, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tadzhik, and others) had never been happy as pawns in the "Great Game" and now (1905) attempted to throw off Russian domination. Turkey, center of the Ottoman Empire, had its rebellion a few years later.

:The text said "'''''a''''' Muslim rebellion". Anyone knows this 1905 Muslim Rebellion in Russia?

'''the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere''' 
The well-known 1905 Revolution in Russian history was the beginning of the fall of the ''Old Regime''. The text "as the Revolution went collapsing" refered exactly to this one, not the February and October Revolutions in 1917. So "the year that followed" refered to 1906. In fact, Pynchon explicitly stated on page 602: "''By 1906'' there were Russians everywhere, . . ."

Soon after the collapse of the 1905 Revolution many Russians emmigrated abroad. They were 1) opponents to the Tsar regime feared of reprisal and backlash; 2) intelligentsia who were frightened by what just happened and afraid of a more violent upheaval in the future (Maxim Gorky, the writer, left Russia in the spring of 1906); 3) Jews, the victims of the large scale pogroms in 1905-06 (1964 Broadway musical ''Fiddler on the Roof'' told the story of how one Jewish family being forced to leave Russia in 1906); 4) youngsters who escaped the compulsory millitary service or looked for a quieter place for education. This was the second wave (1905-1917) of Russian emmigration. (1st wave: 1880-1905; 3rd: 1917-1939; 4th: 1945-1960; 5th: 1991-current).

'''as the Revolution went collapsing''' 
The first paragraph of this page is a factual description of the revolutionary events occured in Russia in 1905 which were later collectively called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1905 1905 Revolution]. It was the foreshock of that of 1917. It had all of Russia in its grip, and its outbreak had not been planned; it had simply grown spontaneously. It failed under the usual combination of repression and concessions. (see Richard Pipes' ''The Russian Revolution'' (1990)). In Soviet Marxist history 1905 Revolution is second only in importance to 1917 October Revolution, one of the most important revolutionary iconic events. (The 1917 Frebruary Revolution, the one actually overthrew the Tsar's Regime, was lightly mentioned because it was considered a ''bourgeois revolution''.) Numerous books, songs, poems, films . . . had been devoted to this Revolution. To the west the most memorable are the Eisenstein's silent film ''Battleship Potmekin'' (1925) and Shostakovich's ''Symphony No 11: The year 1905'' (1957).

'''Peter and Paul Fortress''' 
At St. Petersburg, established by Peter the Great. Political prisoners were confined there from the first half of the 1700s. Conditions were notoriously harsh.

'''kazatsky''' 
A Cossack dance, stereotypical Russian behavior.

'''raid....Waziristan''' 
Waziristan (Pashto: وزیرستان) is a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11 585 km² (4,473 mi²). It comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The North-West Frontier Province lies immediately to the east. The region was an independent tribal territory from 1893, remaining outside of British-ruled empire and Afghanistan. Tribal raiding into British-ruled territory was a constant problem for the British, eliciting frequent punitive expeditions between 1860 and 1945. Wikipedia

Currently, it is thought to be the last stronghold of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.

:Worth noting, perhaps, that Yashmeen came from Russia and had been ''transported'' to Waziristan for sale as a slave.

==Page 596==

'''as-ever transcendentally interesting hair''' 
(Perhaps a reference to Albert Einstein?)

Possibly, but given the numerous mentions of the Zeta function it is most likely a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_numbers Transcendental Numbers]. These are irrational numbers that do not exist as the zero (or solution) to any algebraic function. A number of groundbreaking results regarding transcendentalism were made around the time the novel is set, and most if not all of the mathematicians and mathematical methods mentioned in the book revolve around transcendental numbers and functions.

Given that these numbers are often expressed as an infinite series, in which successive terms add ever-more-minuscule amounts to the value of the number, yet each digit is fascinatingly unique (since the decimal never repeats), it seems to me that Pynchon is suggesting that Yashmeen's hair has the quality of being endlessly fascinating, that even the observation of a single hair (or even a portion of a single hair) is involving and invigorating. This would mirror Kit's fascination and infatuation with Yashmeen, and the term would likely spring readily to the mind of a mathematician of the era.[[User:Dharper|Dharper]] 08:15, 16 January 2007 (PST)

'''. . . the Revolution''' 
Russian 1905 Revolution.

'''...it all finds its way back to the T.W.I.T. people....'''

"and what comes out of their shop can surprisingly often be trusted"

Suggestive of the CIA's Stargate Project in Remote Viewing

''''gen'''' 
British military slang for information. To gen-up is to learn quickly. OED gives earliest recorded use of the word as 1940.

'''a soul impaled . . . as if to bisect me''' 
Harks back to the fate of La Jarretière in ''V.''

'''Afghani dirhan''' 
An Afghani coin, more usually transliterated as "dirham". [http://ghaznavid.ancients.info/ This site] has pictures and more information.

'''Ghaznivid Empire''' 
Usually transliterated as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaznavid_Empire Ghaznavid Empire] (Wikipedia)

'''coffee scion''' 
Coffee motif. More likely: coffee heir.

'''Günther von Quassel''' 
"quasseln" is a German verb, meaning roughly "to jabber"

'''less than universally respected Ludwig Boltzmann''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Boltzmann Boltzmann] proposed an explanation of thermodynamics based on the statistical behaviour of atoms, called the kinetic theory of gases, one of the most profound and far-reaching discoveries in the entire history of science. One baffling problem at the time was why macroscopic phenomena are not time-reversible but microscopic interactions are; any theory that purported to explain thermodynamics would have to address this breaking of the time-reversal symmetry. Boltzmann explained this by what he called the "molecular chaos assumption" (German 'Stosszahlansatz'), to which many objected as unfounded. (See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loschmidt%27s_paradox Loschmidt's paradox].) Hounded by his critics and already prone to bouts of depression, Boltzmann hanged himself.

==Page 597==

'''Gymnasium child''' 
A Gymnasium is a German secondary school

'''Some sort of ... steam-engine word''' 
Prior to Boltzmann, entropy was defined only by means of heat and temperature. Boltzmann gave the first statistical definition. [[Ludwig Boltzmann|Read his bio...]]

'''Except for the usual constants...''' 
This is Boltzmann's statistical definition of entropy and its discovery marked a watershed moment in physics. It is engraved on his tombstone.
[[Image:boltzmann.jpg|200px|thumb|Boltzmann's grave with his entropy formula inscribed|right]]

'''''Ach, die Zetamanie''''' 
German: Oh, the zeta-mania.

'''one measure of the chaos''' 
Via Boltzmann's definition, entropy can be interpreted as measuring the "chaos" or "disorder" in a physical system. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy Wikipedia Entry] 

Cf. p. 188, where Neville and Nigel are referred to as "the N's," and to the proliferation of N name in T.W.I.T. in general.

'''crime...narrative puzzle''' 
Hinting at Webb's role in the novel?

One of Pynchon's central themes and best depicted in The Crying of Lot 49 which can be read as a satire on the order of crime novels and a comment on the central order of narrative structures. Certainly ATD can be read as a vast extension on this theme. The chaos/ order binary has already been a introduced a couple of lines above.

Humfried's comment reiterates something Pynchon says in his essay 'Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?', in virtually the same words.

'''Göttingen tradition'''...'''statue''' 
Like other university towns, Göttingen has developed its own folklore. On the day of their doctorate, postgraduate students are drawn in handcarts from the Great Hall to the Gänseliesel-Fountain in front of the Old Town Hall. There they have to climb the fountain and kiss the statue of the Gänseliesel (Goose girl). This practice is actually forbidden by law, but the law is not at all enforced. She is considered to be the most-kissed girl in the world. Wikipedia.

Addendum of interest for GR and ATD.
Nearly untouched by allied bombing in World War II (the informal understanding during the war was that Germany wouldn't bomb Cambridge and Oxford and the allies wouldn't bomb Heidelberg and Göttingen).

'''Rathaus square''' 
The square in front of City Hall.

==Page 598==

'''Axioms of Zermelo''' 
The basic axioms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo-Frankel_set_theory#The_axioms Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory].

'''Poincaré''' 
Henri Poincaré (1854-1912), one of France's greatest mathermaticians and theorectical physicists. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9 Wikipedia]) His contributions to differential geometry would be integral in formulating Einstein's general theory of relativity. A conjecture he proposed in the 1890s remained unproven until 2006.

'''Cauchy''' 
Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789-1857), a French mathematician. His name was connected with many other mathematicians mentioned in ATD: Cauchy-Riemann equation, Cauchy-Frobenious lemma, Cauchy-Euler equation, Cauchy-Kovalevskaia theorem. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Louis_Cauchy Wikipedia])

'''Whittaker and Watson''' 
A standard mathematics textbook of the time ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittaker_and_Watson Wikipedia])

'''two point one''' 
(Cf Sondheim lyric, "A Little Night Music" [http://lynxfeather.net/nest/lyrics/nightmusic-nowlatersoon.html lyrics].)

:I think here just point-by-point listing was being used: 1); 2); 2.1).

==Page 599==

'''Each time he would respond...''' 
Günther suffers from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity "relativity of simultaneity"], as predicted by Einstein and further clarified by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Minkowski Minkowski]. Events detected as simultaneous in one reference frame may be detected as nonsimultaneous in another. Events may even change their order of occurrence in time, depending on the reference frame.

'''"What here is he ''doing?''" . . . "Obviously, we must now a duel fight."''' 
In keeping with his name (see p. 596 annotations), Günther speaks in a stage-German accent.

Because of relativity of simultaneity, Günther's direct object arrives in our reference frame before his verb. In physics, the effect is accentuated when motion is faster and the reference frames are farther apart, so perhaps Günther acts in this fashion when he's psychologically "distant" or "moving fast".

'''dueling-society cap''' 
Probably student corporation insignia.

'''inconvenience''' 
Obviously the name of the Chums' airship; whenever the word appears there seems to be a reference to the Chums; here: "...Here, not completely...slightly...somewhere else" as the airship always seems to be.

'''''Liebchen''''' 
German, "sweetheart"

'''''Egal was, meine Schatze''''' 
German, "No matter what, my darling" - though "meine Schatze" is an improper femininization, which ought to be "mein Schatz".

Meine Schatze literally means "my treasure" and is the term of endearment I used with my German girlfriend. She never mentioned it being "improper".

:"Meine Schatze" is definitely no German phrase, and it also sounds really strange to my (Austrian German) ears. "Meine Schätze" would be the plural, but that does not seem to make sense in this context. "Mein Schatz" instead would fit perfectly.

I'm thinking Yiddish, mebbe?

'''''Schläger''''' 
A specialized weapon for student duels. See Wikipedia's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_fencing Academic fencing] article.

'''Krummsäbel''' 
German, "scimitar".

'''Korbrapier''' 
A rapier with a basket ("Korb" in German) like protection hilt.

'''épée''' 
French for sword

A sharp-pointed duelling sword.

==Page 600==

'''Colt six-shooters''' 
I guess Kit's luggage beat him to Gottingen.

'''''Verbindung''''' 
German: connection, union. Here the student corps one belongs to.

'''upon the face of the other, ''to inscribe one's mark''''' 
In several of his movies, the actor Erich von Stroheim appeared with a nasty scar on the left side of his face. Dueling was a pastime of honor at some universities, and the sword scar was the mark of having sustained one's honor there. Special weapons, masks and inflaming treatments were employed to produce this lifelong disfigurement.

'''a Mexican tilde''' 
The wavy mark over the letter ñ in Spanish.

'''restoring moment, elastic constants''' 
Günther's scar is tilde-shaped because as his opponent's sword passed across his face it vibrated up and down once and returned to its starting position. The following would be a reasonable problem for a high-school physics student: If you know how fast the blade tip was traveling side to side and you're allowed to measure the scar, what was the frequency of the up-and-down motion? A second-year university physics student could work out the frequency of vibration given certain properties of the sword and swordsman. A ''restoring moment'' acts to swing the blade back to its mean position when it is deflected; the duelist's wrist exerts one restoring moment and the elasticity of the steel exerts a second one. The restoring moment depends in part on a number called ''elastic constant'' that relates force to linear deflection (think of the classic fisherman's scale, where more weight extends the spring farther).

'''wasn't going to converge . . . skipped a step . . . ''divided by zero''''' 
Kit insults Günther by pointing out blunders in the proof he gave to Yashmeen.

'''Geheimrat Hilbert''' 
German: confidential counsellor. A title of honor given to prominent civilian figures in Germany. For Hilbert Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Dr. Hilbert]].

==Page 601==

'''''Ehrenkodex''''' 
German, "code of honor"

'''Tyrolean hats''' 
[http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tirolerhut&btnG=Search+Images Images]

'''''Schnurrbartbinde''''' 
A device to keep one's mustache safe from entanglement when sleeping, like [http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/mm/2006/01/1137360569.70341.gif this].

'''Zeiss "Palmos Panoram"''' 
An early panoramic camera, mentioned in the 1911 Britannica's [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Photography Photography] article.

'''''"Auf die Mensur!"''''' 
German, "to the duel"

'''Andaman Islands''' 
[http://www.openencyclopedia.net/index.php/Andaman_Islands Here]'s a mention of tattooing practices in the Andaman Islands

'''Stephanie du Motel... group-theory godfather Évariste Galois''' 
Évariste Galois died in a duel at the age of 20. Though much confusion surrounds the affair, it is suspected that he provoked the duel after being rejected by one Stéphanie-Felice du Motel. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evariste_Galois#Final_days Wikipedia])

==Page 602==

'''By 1906 there were Russians everywhere, flown and fleeing westward''' 
Cf [[ATD_588-614#Page 595|page 595:the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere]]. fleeing westward: most popular destination for Russian refugees was then France, later America.

'''young Ouspensky''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Uspensky Peter D. Ouspensky] (1878-1947), Russian mystic and philosopher, author of ''The Fourth Dimension'', appropriate to Pynchon's themes in ''ATD''.

An anachronism: Ouspensky's ''The Fourth Dimension'' wasn't published until 1909. (See Linda Dalrymple Henderson's ''The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art''.)

'''Theosophoid''' 
A Pynchonism. From Theosophist Cf [[ATD_219-242#Page 219|page 219:Madame Blavatsky, Theosophical Society]]. the suffix "oid" often used in mathematics, indicates a "similarity, not necessarily exact, to something else". (android: similar to a man, ovoid: similar to an egg, etc.) As it is explained in the next sentence, "That's a Theosophist, only not entirely". Fitting, in a book that is obsessed with doppelgängers and people who are at once themselves, but not quite (see the transformations of Dr. V Ganesh Rao)

'''Chong''' 
A strange and seemingly unlikely visitor to Göttingen. The name might be taken from the Chinese philosopher Wang Chong, or Wang Ch'ung. Could also be Cheech Marin's partner, Tommy Chong (C.Marin alluded to earlier p.477). - This is Sidney Reilly, a famous spy of the time, in disguise. See the note on Sidney below.

'''"The what?"''' 
(Precipitous drop in authorial expectations?)

'''Chinese Bolshevik''' 
Chinese Communist. For the true meaning of Bolshevik Cf [[ATD_615-643#Page 616|page 616:Bolshevists]]

'''Sidney . . . Kensington Sid''' 
Kensington is where elected officials worked. 

This is Sidney Reilly, the famous Ace of Spies. The reference is made clear by Swome on page 630, and, to the extent that any appearance here makes sense, a spy makes more sense than a political theorist. An annotation on page 630 includes a Wikipedia reference for Reilly. I don't know whether Reilly (or British spies of the day in general) had a particular association with Kensington, or whether the reference is to Chunxton Crescent, which is placed in roughly that part of London.

'''transtriadic''' 
Beyond the three.

==Page 603==

'''"Spiritual... At Göttingen?"''' 
Gottingen is materialistic. Preserved brains as like in a tannery.

'''Applied Mechanics Institute''' 
An institute of the University of Göttingen

'''Prandtl's recent discovery of the boundary layer''' 
Ludwig Prandtl ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Prandtl Wikipedia]) in 1904 developed the theory of the boundary layer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary%20layer Wikipedia]) in aerodynamics, greatly simplifying aerodynamic calculations.

'''powered flight . . . at the edge of history''' 
In 1905 already a reality, but the pioneering empirical work was taking place in Ohio, not Germany.

This is an excellent point that applies to many of the mathematicians mentioned in this chapter.
Minkowski invented spacetime, but Einstein created Relativity Theory. Hilbert proved his Spectral Theorem, but Heisenberg and Schrodinger created Quantum Mechanics. History was being made elsewhere. Cf Yashmeen's rant on page 594.

'''brambled guttie''' 
A proto golf-ball, see [http://www.che.rochester.edu/users/dafoster/ChE243/SciAm%20GolfBall.pdf here].

'''Bürgerstrasse''' 
German, "Citizen's Street", a street in Göttingen.<bre>
This translation is correct but here "Bürger" refers to the German poet Gottfried August Bürger (1748 - 1794) who lived in Göttingen.

'''brambling''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brambling Brambling] (''Fringilla montifringilla'') is a finch related to chaffinches, and is plumed orange, black, and white. Widespread in northern Europe and Asia, it occasionally strays to Alaska and farther south.

'''Brauweg''' 
German, "Brewery Way", a street in Göttingen.

'''Zhukovsky's Transformation''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joukowsky_transform Joukowsky Transform] maps the unit circle in the complex plane to a shape very much like an airfoil.

'''Geheimrat Klein ''' 
Geheimrat = Privy councillor. 
In geometry, the Klein model, also called the projective model... is a model of n-dimensional hyperbolic geometry in which the points of the geometry are in an n-dimensional disk, or ball, and the lines of the geometry are line segments contained in the disk; that is, with endpoints on the boundary of the disk. 

'''glass of tea''' 
(Why not 'cup'?)
because in Europe, as opposed to in England, tea may be drunk from glassware.

'''draw pictures . . . flights of arrows . . . vectors without pictures''' 
Vectors can be visualized as arrows in a plane or three-dimensional space; more generally they can be represented as arrays of coefficients, and now they are not limited to three dimensions.

'''''"...according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity." "And beyond, " added Gunther, nodding earnestly.''''' 
Reference to Buzz Lightyear's stock character phrase in 1995's TOY STORY (Pixar/Disney):
"To Infinity... and Beyond!"
--[[User:Btchakir|Btchakir]] 07:43, 19 December 2006 (PST)
:This reminded me of the caption "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" in the movie ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. [[User:WolfgangFaber|WolfgangFaber]] 07:44, 10 October 2008 (PDT)

'''according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity''' 
Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Spectral Theory]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:''infinite'' dimensions]].

==Page 604==

'''nontrivial zeroes''' 
The Riemann zeta function has two classes of zeros, the trivial zeroes being at negative even integers (-2, -4...), the non-trivial complex numbers, believed (but not proven) to have Re(z)=1/2. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis Wikipedia]. or Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 496|page 496:Zeta function conjecture]].

'''much-noted talk''' 
At the 1900 International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, Hilbert proposed a research programme of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert%27s_problems#Tabulated_information 23 problems]. The Riemann hypothesis is number 8 on the list.

'''Sorbonne''' 
Until 1971, the name ''Sorbonne'' refered to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France, one of the best universities in France. The name is derived from the ''Collège de Sorbonne'', founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon as one of the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris; the university itself as such predates the college by about a centure. In 1971, after the univeristy reforms, the five faculties of the former University of Paris were split and then reformed into thirteen interdisciplinary universities. Three of them as true "heirs" to the original, have kept the Sorbonne name as part of their official title: Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), the New Sorbonne, and the Panthéon-Sorbonne. [http://www.paris4.sorbonne.fr/en/sommaire.php3 The University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV)] was the inheritor of the former University of Paris' Arts and Sciences Faculties.

'''the outstanding problems in mathematics''' 
Hilbert's Problems are 23 (originally) unsolved problems in mathematics proposed by Hilbert. Of the 23 total appearing in the printed address, 10 were actually presented at the Second International Congress of Mathematics at the Sorbonne, Paris on August 8, 1900. [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HilbertsProblems.html Hilbert's Problems] were designed to serve as examples for the kinds of problems whose solutions would lead to the furthering of disciplines in mathermatics. As such, some were areas for investigation and therefore not strictly "problems".

'''eigenvalues''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalue Wikipedia] Dudley Eigenvalue, D.D.S., was a character in ''V.''

'''Hermitian operator''' 
A Hermitian operator generalises some of the ideas of symmetry when complex numbers are involved. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitian_operator Wikipedia]

'''spine of reality . . . ''"Rückgrat von Wirklichkeit"''''' 
Probably a reference to the main diagonal of a Hermitian matrix, which can contain only real numbers. The German phrase is one accurate way to translate the English.

:are there any others? Translate the German back to English and you get "backbone of reality"

'''Hilbert-Polya Conjecture''' 
The conjecture that the zeroes of the Riemann function would be the eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator, just what Yashmeen is suggesting. 

The most recent refinement of the Hilbert-Polya Conjecture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert–Pólya_conjecture Wikipedia] is that the operator in question arises from the quantization of a chaotic dynamical system. The zeroes would then correspond to the possible energy levels of the system. This would answer Hilbert's prompt to Yasmeen "''some'' equation" on this page, and would provide the link between prime numbers and chaos intuited by Gunther on page 597.

==Page 605==

'''Vance Aychrome''' 
The voracious detective is a stock figure in the mystery genre (Nero Wolfe, Mycroft Holmes, Inspector Dover, D.C.I. Dalziel and others). 
Is his name pronounced Eye Chrome, as in private eye? Weak possible connection?-- a truck light called Big Eye Chrome. The name sounds like 'fancy chrome.' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Vance Philo Vance] is an effete fictional detective created by S. S. Van Dyne in the 1920's. Vance Aychrome, as depicted by Pynchon, seems quite different from Philo Vance.

'''Full English Breakfast''' 
Bacon, eggs, tomato, toast... otherwise known as a fry-up.

'''Pythagorean dietary''' 
The Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who lived towards the end of the 6th century BC, was a prominent proponent of vegetarianism. The Pythagorean diet came to mean an avoidance of the flesh of slaughtered animals. Pythagorean ethics first became a philosophical morality between 490-430 BC with a desire to create a universal and absolute law including injunctions not to kill "living creatures," to abstain from "harsh-sounding bloodshed," in particular animal sacrifice, and "never to eat meat." (From a review of ''The Heretics Feast: a History of Vegetarianism'' by Colin Spencer, University Press of New England, 1995)
 
and never to eat beans (strange but true).

'''kippers and bloaters''' 
Different words (both Scottish) for smoked herrings

'''baps''' 
soft bread rolls - another Scottish word

'''Spong machine''' 
Appropriate technology. An English-made hand-cranked coffee grinder that doesn't light up, lacks a readout to tell when the beans are ready, and signally fails to function before the user wakes up. Only drawback is that some spouses compare its sound to half a load of cobbles being dumped on the roof.

'''thinned''' 
From full 78. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Wikipedia]

'''vegetarian haggis''' 
It exists: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22vegetarian+haggis Google search]

==Page 606==

'''Lamont Replevin''' 
"Replevin" is a legal term for a form of civil action to recover possession of property being wrongfully held by another.

'''Elflock Villa''' 
Elflock: A lock of hair tangled as if by elves. Often used in the plural.

'''Stuffed Edge, Herts''' 
An imaginary village in the South-East English county of Hertfordshire. Stuffed hedge?

'''kedgeree''' 
A hot breakfast dish of fish, rice, and eggs.

'''Cesare Lombroso''' 
Anthropologist who devised a method of identifying criminal "types" from their facial structures. (Cf [[ATD_171-198#Page 172|page 172: Dr. Lombroso]]).

Brock Vond, Pynchon's villain in ''Vineland'', is also a follower of Lombroso's theories. Cf. page 272-273 of ''Vineland''.

'''Trans-Oxanian''' 
From the other side of the Oxus River (now Amu-Darya) in Central Asia. Cf. [[ATD_429-459#Page 439|page 439:the Oxus]].

'''Graeco-Buddhist''' 
The hybrid cultural background evidenced in Shambhala. Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Graeco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in Central Asia in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism Wikipedia] and Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 438|page 438:Graeco-Buddhist]].

'''bad hats''' 
A bad hat is a slang term for a rascal

==Page 607==

'''Gas Office''' 
As explained in the text, the Scotland Yard bureau that kept gas communications under surveillance.

'''communication by means of coal-gas''' 
Cf Nabokov's "Ada". Also inverse of Tesla's energy-transmitter. A parallel to the Tristero, too. The description of communication by gas seems like a self-parody of ''The Crying of Lot 49.''

'''bombs... Suffragettes''' 
(Did they bomb post offices?!?)post boxes:Suffragettes carried out direct action such as chaining themselves to railings, setting fire to the contents of mailboxes, smashing windows and on occasions setting off bombs. Wikipedia

'''Persian''' 
Majority language in Iran, now called Farsi.

'''Pashto''' 
A language spoken in Afghanistan and nearby.

'''Tadjik''' 
A language spoken in Tadjikistan. "Mountain Tadjik" presumably dominates in the 60% or so of the country that is in high mountains.

'''Seven Dials''' 
In Covent Garden, London - a place where 7 roads meet. An unsavory assignment for a policeman.

==Page 608==

'''"Avoid beans"''' 
Pythagoreans follow a proscription against eating beans.

'''spotted dick''' 
A suet pudding with raisins or currants

'''Yarmouth bloater''' 
A cured herring from the port town of Yarmouth.

'''...if not for these unauthorized dilettantes all pottering about...''' 
Oddly reminiscent of the villains' perennial complaint in the old "Scooby-Doo" cartoons.

'''queering the pitch''' 
[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/297387.html Disrupting someone's business;] compare [[ATD_748-767#Page_758|"yakitori pitches," p. 758.]]

''''shape'''' 
a doughnut,which comes in various shapes? Including the math-relevant
shape: a torus. But probably just a bit of bun, scone, etc. listed as Vance's breakfast...no doughnut listed.

'Shape' is another word for blancmange, which is made of gelatin, derived probably from the bones of some animal. Aychrome wonders "what's it made of", to which Lew responds "Maybe you don't want to know." [[User:Nehoccramcire|Nehoccramcire]] 09:14, 12 March 2007 (PDT)

'''the Embankment''' 
Victoria Embankment, London, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_yard Scotland Yard] was located there from 1890 to 1967. Scotland Yard was founded on September 29, 1829, on a street off Whitehall; and in 1967 it moved to the present location at 10 Broadway Street, London.

'''blue lamps''' 
Traditionally hung outside police stations in England.

'''lamé surfaces''' 
Lamé (fabric), a fabric inwoven metallic threads 
Lamé, name of the electrically conductive jacket worn by foil and sabre fencers 
Lamé (armor), an unarticulated component of a larger piece of armor 

'''yarmulke... high crown... dented Trilby style''' 
[http://www.wpclipart.com/clothes/hats/index.html Image of a Trilby hat.]

==Page 609==

'''Bukhara''' 
Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 425|page 425:Bukhara]]

'''''Kelly's Suburban Dictionary''''' 
The peerless [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/22/design360.icon.az/index.html ''London A to Z''] did not come along until the 1930s.

'''wenlets''' 
Politician and journalist William Cobbett (1763-1835) called London "the great wen." It was not a compliment, because ''wen'' means a sebaceous cyst. Wenlets are small versions of the "great" wen.

==Page 610==

'''daylight oil''' 
from the streetlamps, lit up for hours?

'''a moon no one could see''' 
Note that the ''Inconvenience'' is repeatedly referred to as a "moon" ([[ATD_119-148#Page_144|p. 144,]] [[ATD_171-198#Page_187|p. 187]]) and is sometimes seen under other guises ([[ATD_199-218#Page_215|p. 215,]] [[ATD_243-272#Page_272|p. 272]]).

'''refused to dim''' 
(Nicely vivid.)

'''Vontz's Universal Pick''' 
Vontz (Yiddish): bedbug.

'''alchemized coke''' 
Gas works that manufacture syngas also produce coke as an end product, called gas house coke.

Fluid coking is a process by which heavy residual crude is converted into lighter products such as naptha, kerosene, heating oil, and hydrocarbon gases. The "fluid" term refers to the fact that coke particles are in a continuous system versus older batch coking technology. Wikipedia

'''Lincrusta-Walton''' 
an embossed fabric used for covering walls, invented in 1877 by Frederick Walton as an alternative to more expensive wallpapers (wikipedia).

'''hipshot''' 
having one hip lower than the other: a Greek statue in hipshot pose.M-W.

'''captive maiden''' 
In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', Oedipa Maas is referred to as a "captive maiden" in the scene where she's standing in front of the Remedios Varo painting. It would certainly be worth while to examine the parallels more closely.

'''scalene polygons''' 
Polygons with sides of unequal length.

'''jet''' 
jet black, a color.

'''Apotheosis Sparkless Torch''' 

==Page 611==

'''magnalium''' 
An alloy of magnesium and aluminum.

'''Lamont Replevin (for it was he)''' 
Formula from penny-dreadful literature: Open the chapter with an unknown character (referred to ahead of time but never yet making an appearance), describe looks and some little action, then spring the name on the reader.

'''''The Slow and the Stupefied''''' 
Daytime soap 'The Young and the Restless'.

'''gas-head''' 
Cf pothead, acidhead, etc.

'''Pike's Peak''' 
Lew's old stompinground.

'''Gus Swallowfield''' 
A curious pseudonym assumed by Lew Basnight while in the presence of Lamont Replevin. As Mr. Swallowfield, Lew professes to be an insurance salesman. The name is very overtly British and is possibly referential to the Swallowfield estate in Berkshire, which itself has a curious history.

'''most theft policies''' 
(Fact?)

'''pantechnicon''' 
A closed van or carryall. (Is TRP trying to put a burr under S. Weisenburger's saddle by bringing this vehicle back? SW's gloss in the ''GR Companion,'' at page 19 of the Viking edition, is famously wrong.) 

Pantechnicon can mean either a furniture warehouse (originally a bazaar) or a removal van. The reference in GR to "the piano in the pantechnicon" is therefore ambiguous. TRP might say that he meant a van, not a bazaar, but that would not mean that SW was wrong. Just that SW and TRP had different readings of the novel. And the author's reading does not necessarily have primacy.

This assertion is generally debateable and in the case of TRP his conscious intentions in his fully thought out novels carries a lot of primacy most of the time, most might argue. This wiki attests to that.

:Lots of people would say the wiki is wrong then. You can discover sources and you may be able to parse processes (rewrites, selection of information), but the author's intentions are not accessible; only the work is. Therefore (and so on and so forth). A philosophical question and probably not wiki-able.

'''legitimate bill of sale''' 
That is, a stolen object with a stolen bill of sale cannot be proved to be stolen; the thief has the receipt.

'''burglary insurance''' 
Although TRP writes that most theft policies were written in the US by the time Lew speaks to Replevin, the first burglary policy was in fact offered by Cuthbert Heath, an Underwriter at Lloyd's, London in about 1889, which would seem to be a few years earlier than the scene. Antony Brown, ''Cuthbert Heath'' ( David & Charles, New Abbot London 1984)at pages 72-76. [[User:TheKenoshaKid|TheKenoshaKid]] 15:52, 9 March 2008 (PDT)

==Page 612==

'''''Pavonazzetto''''' 
brecciated white marble with violet veins from Docimia, Asia Minor.

'''Phrygian marble''' 
Phrygia is an ancient region of west central Asia Minor, to the south of Bithynia. Marble from there was highly valued.

'''Atys... Agdistis''' 
From Greek and Roman mythology. Atys (or Attis) is a young lover of the goddess Cybele (also known as Agdistis in Phrygia). When he wished to marry, Cybele drove him mad and he castrated himself. Catullus wrote a poem on the subject.

'''''The Mutilation of Atys''''' 
No images: [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=%22Mutilation%20of%20Atys&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Google image search]

But under the name Attis, this two-panel sequence: [http://www.aztriad.com/aacarati.html page 1,] [http://www.aztriad.com/aacatals.html page 2,] from "Seladore's Historical Cartoons." And [http://paxnortona.notfrisco2.com/?p=2332 a photo] of what appears to be an old statue of Attis.

'''Arturo Naunt, Chelsea's own, shocking the bourgeoisie since 1889''' 
Phrasing reminiscent of advertising.

'''shocking the bourgeoisie''' 
A popular pastime for young and not-so-young soi-disant radicals ("Epater le bourgeois").

'''koumiss vessel''' 
A container for fermented horse's milk. Perhaps like this one:
[http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/husa/origins/szkitahist/scythianvessel.html]

According to the OED, an early form of the word 'koumiss' was 'cosmos' - its appearance here doesn't seem coincidental given the short disquisition on the etymology of 'chaos' soon to follow. For the Greeks 'cosmos' was the antithetical concept to 'chaos'. Pythagoras is said to be the first to apply the original meaning of 'cosmos', i.e., 'an orderly arrangement' to the universe itself.

'''depending on the angle you hold it at, sometimes it doesn't look like anything at all''' 
A concise description of anamorphic and paramorphic images; this one needs the Paramorphoscope to interpret it.

'''wrathful deities from Tantric Buddhism''' 
Tantric Buddhism is also known as Varjayana Buddhism. In Varjayana Buddhism, a dharmapāla (Tibetan drag-gshed) is a type of wrathful deity. The name means "Dharma-defender" in Sanskrit, and the dharmapalas are also known as the Defenders of the Law (Dharma) or the Protectors of the Law in English.
In Buddhist iconography, they are invariably depicted as fearsome beings, often with many heads, hands or feet; blue, black or red skin; and a fierce expression with protruding fangs. Though dharmapalas have a terrifying appearance, they are all bodhisattvas or buddhas- embodiments of compassion that act in a wrathful way for the sake of sentient beings.Wikipedia

==Page 613==

'''tiny German hand camera''' 
Probably a Zeiss Ikon. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss Wikipedia Entry]

A Zeiss Ikon would be an anachronism, as this company was created as a merger in 1926.

The description somehow suggests the classic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minox Minox] "spy cameras", but also these were created only in the 1930ies (originally in Latvia, mass production in Germany).

A small German camera matching the time would be [http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Gnom Gnom], a version of which was also sold in the UK.

'''raw light''' 
light from a gaslight is not 'artificial' as from electric lights, streetlamps, etc. Cf. Telleruide section.

'''Gasophilia''' 
Love of gas.

'''Schwärmer''' 
The name is a German word meaning visionary, zealot, raver.

'''Waves in a timeless stream of Gas''' 
Replevin equates piped gas to the æther.

'''Sensitive Flame''' 
A burner flame adjusted so that it responds to the tiniest disturbance in the
air. Used by both physicists and spiritualists.

'''cognizant nose...medium for the most exquisite poetry'''

see Proust

'''Chidambaram''' 
A city in south India and Chidambaram is one of the Panchabhoota Sthalams - temples built for the 5 elements said to embody Shiva - at Chidambaram (space), Kalahasti (wind), Thiruvanaikaval (water), Tiruvannamalai (fire) and Kanchipuram (earth).

'''''Akaša''''' 
Akasa is the fifth element,the ether, unseen and invisible but an important element permeating the whole universe. It is also considered
to be indentical with Brahma, the creator..... 
Akasa is 'simple,continuous infinite substance and is the substratum of sound.' Both from Indian Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Occultist Eliphas Levi associated akasa with what he called the "Astral Light". He writes: "[T]his electromagnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric (Perhaps this explains Pynchon's insistence on the term "luminiferous aether"?), is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis which twines round two poles and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of Saturn" -- emblem of infinity, immortality, and Kronos -- 'Time'". He says it is "a force in Nature," by means of which "a single man who can master it... might throw the world into confusion and transform its face"; for it is the "great Arcanum of transcendent Magic." It is a "blind force... which souls must conquer in order to detach themselves from the chains of Earth; 'for if they should not,' they will be absorbed by the same power which first produced them and will return to the central and eternal fire."

It gets better... He writes: "It is through this Force that all the nervous centres secretly communicate with each other; from it -- that sympathy and antipathy are born; from it -- that we have our dreams; and that the phenomena of second sight and extra-natural visions take place... Astral Light, acting under the impulsion of powerful wills, destroys, coagulates, separates, breaks, gathers in all things... God created it on that day when he said: Fiat Lux..." He refers to akasa/Astral Light variably as "the body of the Holy Ghost", the "grand Agent Magique", "Lucifer" and "Baphomet", the winged-goat figure that served as the inspiration for the Devil Tarot card designed by Colman-Smith. [http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-1-12.htm From Madame Blavatsky's "The Secret Doctrine"][http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-2-06.htm Más]

[http://laluni.helloyou.ws/askbaba/prasnottaravahini/prasnottara01.html This page] also equates akasa with the ether and sez that "each subsequent element originated from the previous one" with akasa being the first, similar to the Kaballic Tree of Life.

'''Atman''' 
''Sanskrit''. In Hinduisim, the innermost essence of each individual. Also, the soul. ''Cf.'' Weed Atman in ''Vineland''.

''''''Chaos'''''' 
allusion is seems to Genesis. "Chaos" is in fact the Greek word [for without form and void], says this site.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."
-- Genesis 1: 1-4 (KJV)

'''van Helmont''' 
He claimed to have coined the word "gas" in just the way described here.

'In his "Physica" (1633), the Rosicrucian alchemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, wrote: "Ad huc spiritum incognitum Gas voco," i.e., "This hitherto unknown Spirit I call Gas." Further on in the same work he says, "This vapor which I have called Gas is not far removed from the Chaos the ancients spoke of."' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_light#Esoteric_conceptions wiki]

'''stridently unpopulated''' 
Cf p610.

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

ATD 588-614

2010-09-01T01:39:09Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 597 */

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

==Page 588==

'''tannery''' 
In ancient history, tanning was considered a noxious or "odiferous trade" and relegated to the outskirts of town, amongst the poor. Indeed, tanning by ancient methods is so foul smelling that tanneries are still isolated from those towns today where the old methods are used.

'''Gottlob''' 
Literally "praise to God", as an exclamation also "Thank God!". Though it is rare, it is a real German name. 
Very much so: for example of mathematician/philospher Gottlob Frege, who did study at Göttingen, but not at this time.

'''Humfried''' 
A German translation of Humphrey. This was not an existing German name any time after the medieval, though.

'''Gauss's brain''' 
After Carl Friedrich Gauss died in 1855, his brain was preserved for research purposes. To this day, it is in the possession of the University of Göttingen. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].

'''impervious to the wind''' 
(Attribute of tanned leather?)

'''''"Heiliger Bimbam!"''''' 
A German expression of surprise, translated elsewhere as "Holy Moly!"

'''It is she, she!''' 
probably an allusion to H. Rider Haggard's She. See Wikipedia entry. She has been purified by a pillar of fire. In ''Against the day'', she rises from the swamp. Carl Jung, who used the novel ''She'' (1887) as an example of anima, posited the anima is an archetypical form, expressing the fact that a man has a minority of female genes. Haggard's Queen Ayesha is an unmistakable anima type the ultimate guide and mediator to the inner world. The idea has also connections with the observations of James Frazer in his classical study ''The Golden Bough''. Haggard's idea of a journey into the "darkest Africa," which turns into a spiritual search, has been used by a number of writers, including Joseph Conrad in ''Heart of Darkness'' (1902). 
"My empire is of thy imagination", She says in the novel, "She". Cf. a line, [which I am checking] in "The Crying of Lot 49".

She is 'discovered' somewhere in unknown Africa by some British 'explorers' in a hidden kingdom, and she first appears in a sort of late 19th century private boudoir there. She came to that place via a complicated story some 2000 years earlier, and is of Yemenite origin, having come to the world in pretty much the normal fashion. Yashmeen seems indeed to be based on some fin-de-siecle imaginations of the 'ideal' woman (her looks in general, and the often mentioned streaming black hair of hers), but unlike Haggard's She, Yashmeen is rather powerless in the long run, despite her obvious erotic influence on the men and women in ATD. - Tommaso

:Powerless is a term worth lots of discussion here. [User: MKOHUT]

:It is certainly possible that the line is an allusion, but I think it may simply be a set-up to another goofy Pynchonian linguistic joke-- "Not 'chichi,' idiot..."

'''rim''' 
Kit pretends to think he's referring to monocle as 'chichi' (stylish).

'''Kovalevskaia''' 
Sofia Kovalevskaia, 1850-1891. Russian mathematician, in 1884 appointed professor in Stockholm. The third female professor in Europe ever. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Sofia Kovalevskaia]] and (Wikipedia)

'''Roentgen-ray spectacles''' 
The X-ray glasses that used to be advertised in comic books.

'''''natürlich''''' 
German: naturally.

==Page 589==

'''Those curves are everywhere continuous but nowhere differentiable''' 
This is exactly a description of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weierstrass_function Weierstrass function] (1872), a pathological example of a real-valued function on the real line. This function was cited on page 594 by Yashmeen as one of the crises in mathermatics. Also see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/WeierstrassFunction.html Weierstrass function from MathWorld] and Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Karl Weierstrass]].

'''Those curves . . . ''Noli me tangere''''' 
A well-turned wordplay: The operation of differentiating a curve involves drawing ''tangents'' to it at selected points. The curves in question are continuous, but the injunction ''Noli me tangere'' means you can't draw the tangents.

:If a curve is nowhere differentiable then there will be no tangents anywhere. The curve is everywhere ''untouchable''.

'''''Noli me tangere''''' 
Latin for 'don't touch me'

or, in the immortal words of MC Hammer; "You can't touch this"

'''And is that a revolver you're carrying''' 
Implying, perhaps, an unvocalized "or are you just happy to see me?" Which would be in accord with Kit's reaction to the sight of a woman wearing a toque.

'''''Hausknochen''''' 
German: a giant housekey, as defined, literally House Bone,with perhaps a
double entendre on bone?

Also, slang for [http://www.russki-mat.net/page.php?l=DeFr&a=H penis].

==Page 590==

'''Hadamard... Poussin... Prime Number Theorem''' 
Jacques Hadamard and Charles de la Vallée-Poussin independently proved the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem prime number theorem] in 1896, relying on Riemann's Zeta function. The prime number theorem makes assertions about the distribution of prime numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hadamard.html Jacques Hadamard] (1865-1963), a French mathematician best known for his proof of the Prime Number Theorem in 1896.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Vallee_Poussin.html de la Vallée Poissin] (1866-1962), a Belgian mathematician best known for his proof (independently) of the Prime Number Theorem and his major work ''Cours d'Analyse''.

The Prime Number Theorem defied proof for several decades, and legend at the time had it that whoever did prove it would live forever. Examination of the dates of birth and death of both Hadamard and de la Vallée-Poussin show that this was not too far from the truth.

'''patent ''Kühlbox''''' 
''Kühlbox'' here just means "icebox" or "cooler." Refrigerators were available at the time of the action but not widely used, so an icebox is more likely. It's upstairs in Kit's room, so not necessarily portable.

"Patent," attached to a noun like [[ATD_429-459#Page_457|leather or pencil,]] could mean really, officially patented ''or'' novel and gimmicky. Patent medicines are sold under protected names but not genuine patents in most cases. So the icebox features some radical or distinctive design. My money's on asbestos insulation between the zinc sheets.

[http://www.dhm.de/datenbank/index.html?/datenbank/rb00/rb000891.html Pic of a ca. 1920 Eiskiste-model]. According to German Wikipedia, the mobile "Eiskiste" (icebox) had to be filled with (natural) ice, while its successor, the Kühlbox, worked/works with "Kühlaggregate" (cooling units). The contributor is not sure if suchlike were around at that time. German Wikipedia on [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiskiste Eiskiste] and [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BChlbox Kühlbox].

'''beleaguered subset''' 
a group (from the whole) under attack

'''That is, is it was ''some smile''''' 
Typo, for That is, it was ''some smile''.

'''Prime Number Theorem''' 
The Prime Number Theorem constitutes any number of equivalent statements concerning the distribution of prime numbers. Let ''π(n)'' be the number of primes that are less than ''n'', and let ''p''''n'' denote the ''n''th prime number. The Prime Number Theorem states that ''π(n) ~ n/ln(n)'' as ''n'' approaches infinity, or equivalently that ''p''''n'' ''~ n ln(n)''.

==Page 591==

'''prats''' 
Literally the buttocks. As a slang term, a 'prat' is an [[Idiots and Idiocy in Against the Day|idiot]].

'''''Die Nullstellen der ζ-Funktion''''' 
German: the zeroes of the ζ function. (Null = zero; Stelle = location.) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_zeta_function#Zeros_of_the_Riemann_zeta_function Wikipedia] on the "Zeros of the Riemann zeta-function".

'''not all that hard to prove''' 
Kit will upset the applecart if he can prove the Riemann Hypothesis; Yashmeen's research topic will shrink to triviality. No one has proved the Riemann hypothesis to the satisfaction of the mathematical community at large yet; eternal fame and a fat wad of money await he or she who does.

'''"Richard Harding Davis"''' 
Popular writer of fiction and drama, journalist/war-correspondent and a major male-role-model of his time (1864 - 1916). He was considered the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's dashing Gibson man, the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. He is also referenced early in Sinclair Lewis's book, ''Dodsworth'' as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Harding_Davis Wikipedia]. Among other things, he reported on Belgian atrocities in the Congo.

'''seldom, if ever''' 
Cf p559 re Umeki!?

'''tetralatry''' 
made up from greek "tettares" (prefix -tetra) = four and "latreia" = worship

'''C. Howard Hinton''' 
Charles Howard Hinton (1853 – 1907) was a British mathematician and writer of science fiction works titled ''Scientific Romances''. He was interested in higher dimensions, particularly the fourth dimension, and is known for coining the word ''tesseract'' and for his work on methods of visualising the geometry of higher dimensions. He also had a strong interest in theosophy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard_Hinton Wikipedia Entry]

'''Johann K.F. Zöllner''' 
Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (1834–1882) was a German astrophysicist. Studied Photometrie and optical illusions. He insisted a fourth dimension should be considered in Physics and tried to scientifically explain spiritist phenomena.

'''vogue... 'vague'''' 
Nice wordplay as Yashmeen seems to think the vogue of mysticism is not very precise, is 'vague' intellectually. Further play on "vague" = wave, as in an intellectual fad, e.g. in film, the French "Nouvelle Vague" (New Wave).

==Page 592==

'''upside-down triangles''' 
Also Pléiade p538. In mathematics that would be the operator ''del'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del Wikipedia]. Since pre-history and across most cultures the upside-down triangle is a symbol for the female (genitals).

Florian Cajori's ''A History of Mathematical Notations'' (v.2 p.135) states that the del (aka Hamiltonian operator) was introduced by William Hamilton in his 1853 lecture on Quaternions. Rumour has it that it is supposed to be a drawing of an ancient Hebrew harp (nabla). It is also known as the atled (backword delta).

This in turn suggests (within the context of AtD (atled??) a reversal of time or a mirror image of change.

'''screamingly obvious fallacy in this . . . "proof" of yours''' 
Yashmeen reacts in a slight panic to Kit's threat (page 591).

'''metallic banging''' 
Hausknochen on doors, with 'banging' entendre.

'''"metric interval"''' 
In Euclidean (three-dimensional) space a distance is just what you think it is. In other geometrical systems the term "metric interval" is preferred as a generalized distance.

'''social life is unpredictable''' 
mirrors the situation in the "Hotel Noctambulo", p. 462. Are all these guys "chums of chance"?

[Not sure about the "chums" idea, but more confusion between public and private space on pg. 155 -- Hunter Penhallow leaving the ruined city, presumably in a time machine: "At some point he must have come indoors, entering a sort of open courtyard....Without intending to, he was walking through inhabited rooms."]

'''Weenderstrasse '''
The main shopping street in Göttingen.

'''Prinzenstrasse and Weenderstrasse''' 
A street corner at the very center of Göttingen ([http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=g%C3%B6ttingen,+germany&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=17&ll=51.534284,9.935417&spn=0.006107,0.010793&t=h Google Maps]), "known to mathematicians here as the origin of the city of Göttingen's coordinate system". 
The intersection of these two streets is colloquial called "the navel". For visitors it is not that spectacular, but it's the number one meeting point for people who live in Göttingen before going to a cafe or pub. (I don't know, why we allways meet there, but we allways do!) So Pynchon definitley knows, why he compares this street corner with the origin of Göttingen's coordinate system. 
By the way, one of the oldest bookstores of Göttingen is situated right at the described corner of Prinzen- and Weenderstrasse.

==Page 593==

'''twenty marks''' 
A mark is short for deutschemark, a German monetary unit. 
That was the case after the Second World War, but the unit was just called the mark until at least the end of the empire. [http://www.thegoldcoinstore.com/WorldGold/German_Gold_20_Marks_Kaizer_Wilhelm_II.php Here] is a picture of a 20 mark coin from the period of the action.

'''''der Pistolenheld''''' 
German: the pistol hero. Meaning: the gunman. 'Pistolenheld' seems rather funny, the correct German word is: der Revolverheld.

'''automorphic functions and the Anharmonic Pencil''' 
[http://mathworld.wolfram.com/AutomorphicFunction.html Automorphic Functions] are generalizations of trigonometric functions and elliptic functions.

Anharmonic Pencil see [[ATD_525-556#Page 532|page 532:Anharmonic Pencil]].

'''''das Nichtharmonischestrahlenbündel''''' 
Or ''das nichtharmonische Strahlenbündel.'' German: the anharmonic pencil. A "pencil" is the set of lines passing through a point.

'''Euler''' 
Leonhard Euler (pronounced Oiler; IPA [ˈɔʏlɐ]) (April 15, 1707 – September 7, 1783) was a Russian-German mathematician and physicist of Swiss descent. From Wikipedia and below:

Euler made important discoveries in fields as diverse as calculus, number theory, and topology. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function. [1] He is also renowned for his work in mechanics, optics, and astronomy.

Euler is considered to be the preeminent mathematician of the 18th century and one of the greatest of all time.

'''Felix Klein''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Klein.html Felix Klein] (1849-1925), a German mathematician, best known for his work in non-Euclidean goemetry, for his work on the connections between geometry and group theory, and for results in function theory. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 565|page 565:Felix Klein]].

'''''Mathematical Theory of the Top''''' 
Published in the U.S. in 1897. Compare Felix Klein and Arnold Sommerfeld, ''Über die Theorie des Kreisels,'' 4 volumes, 1897-1910.

'''Leopold Kronecker''' and '''Cantor''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Kronecker.html Leopold Kronecker] (1823-1891), a German mathematician, primary contributions were in the theory of equations. He made major contributions in elliptic functions and the theory of algebraic numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Cantor.html Georg Cantor] (1845-1918), a German mathematician. He founded set theory and introduced the concept of infinite numbers with his discovery of cardinal numbers. He also advanced the study of trigonometric series. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 250|page 250:Dr. Cantor]]).

The "monumental quarrel between Kronecker and Cantor" is also referred to as a "religious war," appropriately enough. It's based in a disagreement over the legitimacy of numbers. Kronecker held that "'the positive integers were created by God, and all else is the work of man.'" This is contradicted by "'Cantor with his ''Kontinuum'', professing an equally strong belief in just those regions, infinitely divisible, which lie ''between'' the whole numbers so demanding of all Kronecker's devotion.'"

The disagreement between the two mathematicians is reminiscent of (or does it anticipate?) the rift between Pointsman and Mexico in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Kronecker's integers "created by God" have become a Pavlovian digital binary for Pointsman, but the two oppositions track faithfully right down to the italicized "between."

"The young statistician [Mexico] is devoted to number and to method, not table-rapping or wishful thinking. But in the domain of zero to one, not-something to something, Pointsman can only possess the zero and the one. He cannot, like Mexico, survive anyplace in between. Like his master I. P. Pavlov before him, he imagines the cortex of the brain as a mosaic of tiny on/off elements.... But to Mexico belongs the domain ''between'' zero and one." [Page 55]

It should be noted, however, that the continuous number line was a modern innovation. In Greek number theory, a number is a collection of indivisible units. Irrationals, such as the square root of 2 are not numbers but "magnitudes." One is not even a number for it is not a number of units. There are no negative numbers as well. (see Klein's Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra.) So Kronecker's position may be less of a crazy innovation as much as a maintenance of ancient theory.

:That last paragraph makes an excellent point.

'''the square root of minus one''' 
The imaginary number ''i''. Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:Imarginary Number]].

'''the square root of ''plus two''' 
From Carl B. Boyer's ''A History of Mathematics'', 2nd Ed. 1991, pp.564 & 565): 
The domain of rational numbers can be extended to form a continuum of real numbers if one assumes Cantor-Dedekind axiom that the points on a line can be put into one-to-one correspondence with the real numbers. "Arithmetically expressed, this means that for every division of the rational numbers into two classes A and B such that every number of the first class, A, is less than every number of the second class, B, there is one and only one real number producing this ''Schnitt'', or . . . cut. If A has a largest number, or if B contains a smallest number, the cut defines a rational number; but if A has no largest number and B no smallest, then the cut defines an irrational number. If, for example, we put in A all negative rational numbers and also all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2, and in B all positive rational numbers whose squares are more than 2, we have subdivided the entire field of rational numbers in a manner defining an irrational number—in this case the number that we usually write as" ''suqare root of 2''. In fact, the squae root of ''plus two'' "can be defined simply as that segment or subclass of the set of rational numbers made up of all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2 and also of all negative rational numbers." —— This is what Kronecker did not believe.

'''''Kontinuum''''' 
This passage closely parallels the one about the "microcosm of Venice" on page 575.

==Page 594==

'''''Nervenklinik''''' 
German: nerve clinic. Three-dollar word for a mental hospital.

'''boundless epsilonic world''' 
Epsilon, Greek letter like E. In mathematics (particularly calculus), an arbitrary (or nearly so) small positive quantity is commonly denoted ε; see limit.
By analogy with this, the late mathematician Paul Erdős also used the term "epsilons" to refer to children (Hoffman 1998, p. 4). Wikipedia; of Huxley's five classes of citizens in ''Brave New World'' epsilons were purposely stunted physically and intellectually.

'''Der Finsterzwerg''' 
The choice of the tavern "The Dwarf of Darkness" may have been meant as a dig at five-foot-tall Kronecker.

'''chloral hydrate''' 
A/k/a "knockout drops" a/k/a a "Mickey Finn". Hence the ''Mickifest''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloral_hydrate Wikipedia entry].

'''''Kneipe''''' 
German: pub

'''Gauss passing to Weber a remark''' 
Carl Friedrich Gauss (Gauß) (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician and scientist of profound genius who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy and optics. Sometimes known as "the prince of mathematicians" and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", Gauss had a remarkable influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians. (Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].)

That influence is seen in the field of statistics where the Gaussian distribution (also known as the normal distribution, popularly known as the bell curve) is named after him. With its ability to correctly model "psychological measurements and physical phenomena" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution] and its resemblance to both the rainbow and the rocket's arc, there's no surprise Pynchon references it often in GR, even having Roger Mexico quote the formula as "an old saying among my people" (p.709, the Mexico quotation is actually some strange variant of the Normal distribution).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Eduard_Weber Wilhelm Weber] (1804-91), a noted German physicist. He studied magnetism with Gauss and in 1831, on the recommendation of Gauss, he was appointed as professor of physics at Göttingen. And in 1833 Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph. The SI unit of magnetic flux, the ''weber'', is named after him.

In 1831 Gauss developed a fruitful collaboration with the physics professor Wilhelm Weber; it led to new knowledge in the field of magnetism (including finding a representation for the unit of magnetism in terms of mass, length and time) and the discovery of Kirchhoff's circuit laws in electricity. Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph in 1833, which connected the observatory with the institute for physics in Göttingen. Gauss ordered a magnetic observatory to be built in the garden of the observatory and with Weber founded the magnetischer Verein ("magnetic club"), which supported measurements of earth's magnetic field in many regions of the world. He developed a method of measuring the horizontal intensity of the magnetic field which has been in use well into the second half of the 20th century and worked out the mathematical theory for separating the inner (core and crust) and outer (magnetospheric) sources of Earth's magnetic field

'''Göttingen . . . in the war with Prussia''' 
This refers to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Prussian_war Austro-Prussian War], (also called Seven Weeks' War), June 15–August 23, 1866, between Prussia, allied with Italy, and Austria, allied with Bavaria, Wüttemberg, Saxony (where Göttingen is located), Hanover, Baden and several other smaller German states. It was Bismarck's aim to expel, by force, Austria from the German Confederation as a step toward the unification of Germany under Prussian dominace.
:Göttingen is in Saxony now (specifically the state of ''Niedersachsen'' or Lower Saxony), but until 1866 it was an important city in the Kingdom of Hanover.

'''political crisis in Europe''' 
The period of 1870 to 1914 was characterized by the Anglo-German naval race and European powers - Germany, Italy, Belgium, Britain and France - scrambled for Africa. The major events in Europe were: 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War; 1905 Russian Revolution; 1908 Bosnia Crisis; 1911-12 Italian Turkish War; 1912-13 Balkan War; 1914 World War I began.

'''crisis in mathematics . . . Weierstrass functions, Cantor's continuum, Russell's inexhaustible capacity for mischief''' 
A genuine crisis as well-established ideas were challenged. Weierstrass functions have the unheard-of property that they are "continuous but nowhere differentiable." Cantor's ideas about the continuum violated a longstanding prohibition against infinite quantities. Bertrand Russell around this time was setting the cat among the pigeons by identifying paradoxes and inconsistencies in set theory and number theory.

'''"the infinite" was all but a conjuror's convenience''' 
There is a very good book relating how the infinite, between the 18th and early 20th centuries, finally found a place in mathematics: ''In Search of Infinity'' by N.Ya. Vilenkin (translated by Abe Shenitzer).

==Page 595==

'''That winter, in St. Petersburg . . . Hundreds were killed and wounded.''' 
22 Jan 1905, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281905%29 Bloody Sunday]. 

The event on January 22, 1905, ''Bloody Sunday'', was a watershed in the Russian history. 
Russia's armies were losing to the Japanese in the Far East. Her workers at home were challenging the rule of Romanov's Autocracy. At the beginning of 1905, the workers of ''Putilov Works'' of St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, went on stike for better living and working conditions. They were joined by many from other factories. Father Gapon, a priest, urged the striking workers to present directly to the Tsar on January 22, 1905 a petition to seek justice and protection. They would beg Nicholas II to come to their aid. The morning of January 22 was very cold (about five degrees below freezing) and some 200,000 workers and their wives and children came peacefully and orderly carrying icons, portraits of Nicholas, and no revolutionary placards not even red handkerchiefs. To stop the workers' march upon the Palace Square barricades were set across several avenues that connected to the city center. At each of these points, soldiers tried to turn back the marchers and, at several of them, officers ordered to fire into the crowds. The worst slaughter took place on the Winter Palace Square itself, between 150 and 200 men, women, and children lay shot dead and another 450 to 800 had been wounded while the Cossacks charged into the dispersing crowds with sabers drawn. 
Bloody Sunday, as that tragic day soon became known, marked the beginning of what the Tsar's mother called the "year of nightmares", and the beginning of what many others called the "year of revolution". (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)).

'''Grand Duke Sergei''' 
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (1857-1905) was the uncle and brother-in-law of Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918, Reign: 1894-1917). In 1891 he was appointed as Moscow Governor General. In 1894 he also was a member of the State Council. He resigned from the Governorship on January 1, 1905 but continued as Commander of the Moscow military district. In the afternoon of February 17, 1905, in a carriage leaving the Kremlin Grand Duke Sergei was killed by a nitroglycerine bomb thrown by a Socialist Revolutionary terrorist directly into his lap. He was literally blown to bits and pieces. The assassination of Grand Duke Sergei signaled the beginning of a broader wave of popular unrest that had been sparked by the events of Bloody Sunday and swept the whole nation. Many more assassinations, strikes, disorders and uprisings followed during the year.
(Grand Duke Sergei's replacement, Shurvalov, was assassinated on July 11 of the same year.)

'''More strikes . . . peasant and military insurections . . . into the summer''' 
In January-February, turbulent reaction to Bloody Sunday spread across neighboring regions, especially the industrial centers which experienced spontaneous workers' strikes: Vilno, Kovno, Kiev, Moscow were paralyzed. In February-March the labor unrests reached Saratov Province and the Caucasus, and Siberia. Labor unrests were persistent throughout Russia into August. In early March university students left their classrooms, and at the end of the month the authorities closed down all the universities throughout the whole country for the rest of the academic year. (Student unrest even reached Orthodox seminaries.) 
In March, peasant unrests erupted widely, especially in Kursk, and Chernigov and Orel provinces and northwest regions of European Russia. In June, the Battleship ''Potemkin'' mutinied and in the Black Sea port city Odessa there was a large scale uprising by the sailors, soldiers, workers and ordinary citizens. On June 28 afternoon hundreds of protesters were killed on the Odessa Steps which was immortalized by the classic movie sequence in the 1925 Eisenstein's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Batlleship_Potemkin ''The Battleship Potemkin''] (considered by some one of the greatest films of all time). In summer widespread peasants' attacks on landowners' estates dramatically increased throughout Russia. The Peasant Union was organized at a secret August 13-14 Moscow conference.

'''Kronstadt''' 
Kronstadt was a naval fortress in the Gulf of Finland 18 miles west of St. Petersburg. Following the destruction of the Baltic Fleet by the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318: The Russo-Japanese War]]) Kronstadt joined the general uprising which swept the whole Russian country. The first Kronstadt uprising on November 8-9, 1905, participated in by the majority of Kronstadt's 13,000 sailors and soldiers, was basically a large armed riot accompanied by liberal political demands. It lasted only two days. Kronstadt's second uprising took place in July 1906 but was brutally suppressed.

'''Sebastopol''' 
A port city of Russia (now, Sevastopol of Ukrain), located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimean peninsula west of Yalta. Sebastopol was associated with rebellion, mutiny and civil war. 
On June 27, 1905 the battleship ''Potemkin'' sailed from Sebastopol to Odessa and to mutiny against the ship's oppressive officers. The mutineers killed seven of the eighteen officers, including the Captain and the Second in Command. The ship eventually sailed to Romania and turned over to the authority there on July 7. (Sergei Eisenstein's ''The Battlehip Potemkin'' made her famous well beyond Russia.) 
On October 1, 1905, citizen of Sebastopol and sailors from the Black Fleet demonstrated in the city center demanding the authority to free political prisoners, etc, but were met with gun fire. Wide spread unrest and naval mutinies followed. In November the cruiser ''Ochakov'' led a rebellion joined by several other warships. The rebellion was eventually suppressed by a stronger government force a couple of months later.

'''Black Hundreds''' 
Anti-Semitic vigilantes.

The name was a derogatory one, adapted from the term "White Hundreds", which was used in medieval Russia for the privileged caste of nobles and wealthy merchants. The lower-class types who joined the Black Hundreds were not in this class hence their ironic nomenclature. It was formed in response to the October Manifesto by those who had either lost or were afraid of losing their petty status in the social hierachy as a result of modernization and reform. They blamed the Jews as the ultimate cuase for Tsar's retreat. Fighting revolution in the streets was their way of revenging themselves, a means of putting the clock back and restoring the social and racial hierarchy. (Based on Orlando Figes' ''A People's Tragedy'' (1996))

'''Japanese won''' 
The Japanese destroyed the bulk of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima Strait on May 27-28, 1905. In ''GR'', the soon-to-be-defeated fleet puts in at German Southwest Africa during the 1904 Herero Revolt; Tchicherine's father, a sailor in that fleet, may also be the father of Enzian, leader of the Schwarzcommando.

By January 1905 the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo_Japanese_War Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)] had been going on in Manchuria for nearly a year. In the summer of 1904, the Russia's Pacific Fleet was bottled up inside Port Arthur (now, Lüshun, Liaoning, China) and the port was under siege as from August. In October, the Tsar sent the entire Baltic Fleet to relief the siege. At the beginning of 1905, Port Arthur finally fell after a siege and bombardment lasted 156 days. In March 1905 Russia and Japan fought the greatest land battle in the history up to then at Mukden (Shenyang, Liaoning). Each side committed more than 300,000 troops and over 1,000 pieces of artillery. After nearly one month's fighting both lost more than 50,000 killed and wounded, but the Russians withrew 40 miles to the north. After streaming halfway around the world in a grueling voyage of many months without adequate logistic support, on May 27 the Russian fleet met the waiting Japanese (under Admiral Togo) in the Tsuhsima Straits that separated Japan and Korea. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima Battle of Tsushima Straits (May 27-28)] was one of the most decisive naval battles in history. Even though the Russians had more ships and more heavy guns, but within a few hours, they lost 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 5 minelayers and 4 other ships. Four more battleship surrendered next day, and the Russian commanding admiral (Admiral Rozhdestvenskii) was also captured. The Japanese lost only a total of 3 torpedo boats. (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)). 
After two months' negotiation, the Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of the Peace Treaty of Porstmouth (New Hampshire) on September 5, 1905.

'''A general strike in the autumn . . .''' 
In late September a printers' strike in Moscow was in progress for over a fortnight. By October 18 it seemed that the strike was losing steam. But on October 20 railroad workers struck the Moscow-Kazan Railway and the strike spread outward along all the railroad lines: to St Petersburg in the west, to Voronesh and Kharkov in the south; and by October 23 it had reached Siberia. Twenty-six thougsand miles of track were immobilized as 750,000 railroad employees struck. At this time much of European Russia was in the grip of one of the greatest and most effective general strikes in the history of labor protest anywhere in the world. All of Russia's industry ground to a halt, everyone stopped work. Factory workers, servants, postal workers, telegraph operators, janitors, and hackney drivers all walked off their jobs, as did bank clerks, shop clerks, and clerks in government office. Doctors, laywers, schoolteachers, university professors, even the entire corps de ballet of the great Imperial Mariinskii Theatre—all joined the strike. There were no newspapers, no streetlights, no tramcars . . . As all rail traffic stopped and telegraph line dead, Russia was isolated from the rest of the world. At the same time, the revolutionary groups organized a new body for coordinating the activities of the striking workers and for expressing their joint political and economic demands: the "St. Petersburg
''Soviet'' of Workers' Deputies". Many other Soviets were set up and developed later as alternate governing organizations. The name and organization ''Soviet'' (Russian word ''Sovet'' means council) took on a legendary meaning from then on and became historical. 
With the regime on the verge of collapse, in response, the Tsar, advised by the Prime Minister, issued the famouse ''October Manifesto'' on October 30, 1905, by which Nicholas granted to all Russian civil rights, agreed to summon a Duma (Parliament) elected by wide (though not universal) suffrage, and agreed that all laws must be approved by the Duma. In the meantime, on December 16, troops were sent to arrest some three hundred members of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. The Revolution of 1905 in the Capital passed into history.

'''In December . . . another major uprising''' 
In Moscow, the Soviet of Workers' Deputies proclaimed a general strike for December 20. When the authorities moved to arrest the stike leaders, an armed uprising broke out. Barricades went up in workers' quarter of the city, and revolutionaries from St. Petersburg, Odessa, and elsewhere joined in the struggle. Nicholas dispatched elite troops with artillery which reduced the rebels' area to ruins. By December 31, the rebellion in Moscow was over. The number of killed and wounded totaled over a thousand.

'''In the East . . . up and down the railroad lines''' 
The Russo-Japanese War was officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on August 23, 1905. In late summer there were numerous minor mutinies by troop returning from Manchuria on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Fighting between the left and the right erupted on October 20 around Tomsk. On November 12, mutinous soldiers and sailors destroyed much of Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, the end of the Trans-Siberian. There were unrests and uprisings in Chita (November 29), Irkutsk (December 13), and Novorossiisk (December 22) as well.

'''Muslim rebellion''' 
The downfall of the Ottoman Empire by Turkey?

:No. In this whole paragraph Pynchon only factually describes the events in Russia and the Russian 1905 Revolution.

:Muslims in Central Asia (Kirghiz, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tadzhik, and others) had never been happy as pawns in the "Great Game" and now (1905) attempted to throw off Russian domination. Turkey, center of the Ottoman Empire, had its rebellion a few years later.

:The text said "'''''a''''' Muslim rebellion". Anyone knows this 1905 Muslim Rebellion in Russia?

'''the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere''' 
The well-known 1905 Revolution in Russian history was the beginning of the fall of the ''Old Regime''. The text "as the Revolution went collapsing" refered exactly to this one, not the February and October Revolutions in 1917. So "the year that followed" refered to 1906. In fact, Pynchon explicitly stated on page 602: "''By 1906'' there were Russians everywhere, . . ."

Soon after the collapse of the 1905 Revolution many Russians emmigrated abroad. They were 1) opponents to the Tsar regime feared of reprisal and backlash; 2) intelligentsia who were frightened by what just happened and afraid of a more violent upheaval in the future (Maxim Gorky, the writer, left Russia in the spring of 1906); 3) Jews, the victims of the large scale pogroms in 1905-06 (1964 Broadway musical ''Fiddler on the Roof'' told the story of how one Jewish family being forced to leave Russia in 1906); 4) youngsters who escaped the compulsory millitary service or looked for a quieter place for education. This was the second wave (1905-1917) of Russian emmigration. (1st wave: 1880-1905; 3rd: 1917-1939; 4th: 1945-1960; 5th: 1991-current).

'''as the Revolution went collapsing''' 
The first paragraph of this page is a factual description of the revolutionary events occured in Russia in 1905 which were later collectively called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1905 1905 Revolution]. It was the foreshock of that of 1917. It had all of Russia in its grip, and its outbreak had not been planned; it had simply grown spontaneously. It failed under the usual combination of repression and concessions. (see Richard Pipes' ''The Russian Revolution'' (1990)). In Soviet Marxist history 1905 Revolution is second only in importance to 1917 October Revolution, one of the most important revolutionary iconic events. (The 1917 Frebruary Revolution, the one actually overthrew the Tsar's Regime, was lightly mentioned because it was considered a ''bourgeois revolution''.) Numerous books, songs, poems, films . . . had been devoted to this Revolution. To the west the most memorable are the Eisenstein's silent film ''Battleship Potmekin'' (1925) and Shostakovich's ''Symphony No 11: The year 1905'' (1957).

'''Peter and Paul Fortress''' 
At St. Petersburg, established by Peter the Great. Political prisoners were confined there from the first half of the 1700s. Conditions were notoriously harsh.

'''kazatsky''' 
A Cossack dance, stereotypical Russian behavior.

'''raid....Waziristan''' 
Waziristan (Pashto: وزیرستان) is a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11 585 km² (4,473 mi²). It comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The North-West Frontier Province lies immediately to the east. The region was an independent tribal territory from 1893, remaining outside of British-ruled empire and Afghanistan. Tribal raiding into British-ruled territory was a constant problem for the British, eliciting frequent punitive expeditions between 1860 and 1945. Wikipedia

Currently, it is thought to be the last stronghold of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.

:Worth noting, perhaps, that Yashmeen came from Russia and had been ''transported'' to Waziristan for sale as a slave.

==Page 596==

'''as-ever transcendentally interesting hair''' 
(Perhaps a reference to Albert Einstein?)

Possibly, but given the numerous mentions of the Zeta function it is most likely a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_numbers Transcendental Numbers]. These are irrational numbers that do not exist as the zero (or solution) to any algebraic function. A number of groundbreaking results regarding transcendentalism were made around the time the novel is set, and most if not all of the mathematicians and mathematical methods mentioned in the book revolve around transcendental numbers and functions.

Given that these numbers are often expressed as an infinite series, in which successive terms add ever-more-minuscule amounts to the value of the number, yet each digit is fascinatingly unique (since the decimal never repeats), it seems to me that Pynchon is suggesting that Yashmeen's hair has the quality of being endlessly fascinating, that even the observation of a single hair (or even a portion of a single hair) is involving and invigorating. This would mirror Kit's fascination and infatuation with Yashmeen, and the term would likely spring readily to the mind of a mathematician of the era.[[User:Dharper|Dharper]] 08:15, 16 January 2007 (PST)

'''. . . the Revolution''' 
Russian 1905 Revolution.

'''...it all finds its way back to the T.W.I.T. people....'''

"and what comes out of their shop can surprisingly often be trusted"

Suggestive of the CIA's Stargate Project in Remote Viewing

''''gen'''' 
British military slang for information. To gen-up is to learn quickly. OED gives earliest recorded use of the word as 1940.

'''a soul impaled . . . as if to bisect me''' 
Harks back to the fate of La Jarretière in ''V.''

'''Afghani dirhan''' 
An Afghani coin, more usually transliterated as "dirham". [http://ghaznavid.ancients.info/ This site] has pictures and more information.

'''Ghaznivid Empire''' 
Usually transliterated as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaznavid_Empire Ghaznavid Empire] (Wikipedia)

'''coffee scion''' 
Coffee motif. More likely: coffee heir.

'''Günther von Quassel''' 
"quasseln" is a German verb, meaning roughly "to jabber"

'''less than universally respected Ludwig Boltzmann''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Boltzmann Boltzmann] proposed an explanation of thermodynamics based on the statistical behaviour of atoms, called the kinetic theory of gases, one of the most profound and far-reaching discoveries in the entire history of science. One baffling problem at the time was why macroscopic phenomena are not time-reversible but microscopic interactions are; any theory that purported to explain thermodynamics would have to address this breaking of the time-reversal symmetry. Boltzmann explained this by what he called the "molecular chaos assumption" (German 'Stosszahlansatz'), to which many objected as unfounded. (See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loschmidt%27s_paradox Loschmidt's paradox].) Hounded by his critics and already prone to bouts of depression, Boltzmann hanged himself.

==Page 597==

'''Gymnasium child''' 
A Gymnasium is a German secondary school

'''Some sort of ... steam-engine word''' 
Prior to Boltzmann, entropy was defined only by means of heat and temperature. Boltzmann gave the first statistical definition. [[Ludwig Boltzmann|Read his bio...]]

'''Except for the usual constants...''' 
This is Boltzmann's statistical definition of entropy and its discovery marked a watershed moment in physics. It is engraved on his tombstone.
[[Image:boltzmann.jpg|200px|thumb|Boltzmann's grave with his entropy formula inscribed|right]]

'''''Ach, die Zetamanie''''' 
German: Oh, the zeta-mania.

'''one measure of the chaos''' 
Via Boltzmann's definition, entropy can be interpreted as measuring the "chaos" or "disorder" in a physical system. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy Wikipedia Entry] 

Cf. p. 188, where Neville and Nigel are referred to as "the N's," and to the proliferation of N name in T.W.I.T. in general.

'''crime...narrative puzzle''' 
Hinting at Webb's role in the novel?

One of Pynchon's central themes and best depicted in The Crying of Lot 49 which can be read as a satire on the order of crime novels and a comment on the central order of narrative structures. Certainly ATD can be read as a vast extension on this theme. The chaos/ order binary has already been a introduced a couple of lines above.

Humfried's comment reiterates something Pynchon says in his essay 'Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?', in virtually the same words.

'''Göttingen tradition'''...'''statue''' 
Like other university towns, Göttingen has developed its own folklore. On the day of their doctorate, postgraduate students are drawn in handcarts from the Great Hall to the Gänseliesel-Fountain in front of the Old Town Hall. There they have to climb the fountain and kiss the statue of the Gänseliesel (Goose girl). This practice is actually forbidden by law, but the law is not at all enforced. She is considered to be the most-kissed girl in the world. Wikipedia.

Addendum of interest for GR and ATD.
Nearly untouched by allied bombing in World War II (the informal understanding during the war was that Germany wouldn't bomb Cambridge and Oxford and the allies wouldn't bomb Heidelberg and Göttingen).

'''Rathaus square''' 
The square in front of City Hall.

==Page 598==

'''Axioms of Zermelo''' 
The basic axioms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo-Frankel_set_theory#The_axioms Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory].

'''Poincaré''' 
Henri Poincaré (1854-1912), one of France's greatest mathermaticians and theorectical physicists. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9 Wikipedia])

'''Cauchy''' 
Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789-1857), a French mathematician. His name was connected with many other mathematicians mentioned in ATD: Cauchy-Riemann equation, Cauchy-Frobenious lemma, Cauchy-Euler equation, Cauchy-Kovalevskaia theorem. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Louis_Cauchy Wikipedia])

'''Whittaker and Watson''' 
A standard mathematics textbook of the time ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittaker_and_Watson Wikipedia])

'''two point one''' 
(Cf Sondheim lyric, "A Little Night Music" [http://lynxfeather.net/nest/lyrics/nightmusic-nowlatersoon.html lyrics].)

:I think here just point-by-point listing was being used: 1); 2); 2.1).

==Page 599==

'''Each time he would respond...''' 
Günther suffers from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity "relativity of simultaneity"], as predicted by Einstein and further clarified by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Minkowski Minkowski]. Events detected as simultaneous in one reference frame may be detected as nonsimultaneous in another. Events may even change their order of occurrence in time, depending on the reference frame.

'''"What here is he ''doing?''" . . . "Obviously, we must now a duel fight."''' 
In keeping with his name (see p. 596 annotations), Günther speaks in a stage-German accent.

Because of relativity of simultaneity, Günther's direct object arrives in our reference frame before his verb. In physics, the effect is accentuated when motion is faster and the reference frames are farther apart, so perhaps Günther acts in this fashion when he's psychologically "distant" or "moving fast".

'''dueling-society cap''' 
Probably student corporation insignia.

'''inconvenience''' 
Obviously the name of the Chums' airship; whenever the word appears there seems to be a reference to the Chums; here: "...Here, not completely...slightly...somewhere else" as the airship always seems to be.

'''''Liebchen''''' 
German, "sweetheart"

'''''Egal was, meine Schatze''''' 
German, "No matter what, my darling" - though "meine Schatze" is an improper femininization, which ought to be "mein Schatz".

Meine Schatze literally means "my treasure" and is the term of endearment I used with my German girlfriend. She never mentioned it being "improper".

:"Meine Schatze" is definitely no German phrase, and it also sounds really strange to my (Austrian German) ears. "Meine Schätze" would be the plural, but that does not seem to make sense in this context. "Mein Schatz" instead would fit perfectly.

I'm thinking Yiddish, mebbe?

'''''Schläger''''' 
A specialized weapon for student duels. See Wikipedia's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_fencing Academic fencing] article.

'''Krummsäbel''' 
German, "scimitar".

'''Korbrapier''' 
A rapier with a basket ("Korb" in German) like protection hilt.

'''épée''' 
French for sword

A sharp-pointed duelling sword.

==Page 600==

'''Colt six-shooters''' 
I guess Kit's luggage beat him to Gottingen.

'''''Verbindung''''' 
German: connection, union. Here the student corps one belongs to.

'''upon the face of the other, ''to inscribe one's mark''''' 
In several of his movies, the actor Erich von Stroheim appeared with a nasty scar on the left side of his face. Dueling was a pastime of honor at some universities, and the sword scar was the mark of having sustained one's honor there. Special weapons, masks and inflaming treatments were employed to produce this lifelong disfigurement.

'''a Mexican tilde''' 
The wavy mark over the letter ñ in Spanish.

'''restoring moment, elastic constants''' 
Günther's scar is tilde-shaped because as his opponent's sword passed across his face it vibrated up and down once and returned to its starting position. The following would be a reasonable problem for a high-school physics student: If you know how fast the blade tip was traveling side to side and you're allowed to measure the scar, what was the frequency of the up-and-down motion? A second-year university physics student could work out the frequency of vibration given certain properties of the sword and swordsman. A ''restoring moment'' acts to swing the blade back to its mean position when it is deflected; the duelist's wrist exerts one restoring moment and the elasticity of the steel exerts a second one. The restoring moment depends in part on a number called ''elastic constant'' that relates force to linear deflection (think of the classic fisherman's scale, where more weight extends the spring farther).

'''wasn't going to converge . . . skipped a step . . . ''divided by zero''''' 
Kit insults Günther by pointing out blunders in the proof he gave to Yashmeen.

'''Geheimrat Hilbert''' 
German: confidential counsellor. A title of honor given to prominent civilian figures in Germany. For Hilbert Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Dr. Hilbert]].

==Page 601==

'''''Ehrenkodex''''' 
German, "code of honor"

'''Tyrolean hats''' 
[http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tirolerhut&btnG=Search+Images Images]

'''''Schnurrbartbinde''''' 
A device to keep one's mustache safe from entanglement when sleeping, like [http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/mm/2006/01/1137360569.70341.gif this].

'''Zeiss "Palmos Panoram"''' 
An early panoramic camera, mentioned in the 1911 Britannica's [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Photography Photography] article.

'''''"Auf die Mensur!"''''' 
German, "to the duel"

'''Andaman Islands''' 
[http://www.openencyclopedia.net/index.php/Andaman_Islands Here]'s a mention of tattooing practices in the Andaman Islands

'''Stephanie du Motel... group-theory godfather Évariste Galois''' 
Évariste Galois died in a duel at the age of 20. Though much confusion surrounds the affair, it is suspected that he provoked the duel after being rejected by one Stéphanie-Felice du Motel. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evariste_Galois#Final_days Wikipedia])

==Page 602==

'''By 1906 there were Russians everywhere, flown and fleeing westward''' 
Cf [[ATD_588-614#Page 595|page 595:the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere]]. fleeing westward: most popular destination for Russian refugees was then France, later America.

'''young Ouspensky''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Uspensky Peter D. Ouspensky] (1878-1947), Russian mystic and philosopher, author of ''The Fourth Dimension'', appropriate to Pynchon's themes in ''ATD''.

An anachronism: Ouspensky's ''The Fourth Dimension'' wasn't published until 1909. (See Linda Dalrymple Henderson's ''The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art''.)

'''Theosophoid''' 
A Pynchonism. From Theosophist Cf [[ATD_219-242#Page 219|page 219:Madame Blavatsky, Theosophical Society]]. the suffix "oid" often used in mathematics, indicates a "similarity, not necessarily exact, to something else". (android: similar to a man, ovoid: similar to an egg, etc.) As it is explained in the next sentence, "That's a Theosophist, only not entirely". Fitting, in a book that is obsessed with doppelgängers and people who are at once themselves, but not quite (see the transformations of Dr. V Ganesh Rao)

'''Chong''' 
A strange and seemingly unlikely visitor to Göttingen. The name might be taken from the Chinese philosopher Wang Chong, or Wang Ch'ung. Could also be Cheech Marin's partner, Tommy Chong (C.Marin alluded to earlier p.477). - This is Sidney Reilly, a famous spy of the time, in disguise. See the note on Sidney below.

'''"The what?"''' 
(Precipitous drop in authorial expectations?)

'''Chinese Bolshevik''' 
Chinese Communist. For the true meaning of Bolshevik Cf [[ATD_615-643#Page 616|page 616:Bolshevists]]

'''Sidney . . . Kensington Sid''' 
Kensington is where elected officials worked. 

This is Sidney Reilly, the famous Ace of Spies. The reference is made clear by Swome on page 630, and, to the extent that any appearance here makes sense, a spy makes more sense than a political theorist. An annotation on page 630 includes a Wikipedia reference for Reilly. I don't know whether Reilly (or British spies of the day in general) had a particular association with Kensington, or whether the reference is to Chunxton Crescent, which is placed in roughly that part of London.

'''transtriadic''' 
Beyond the three.

==Page 603==

'''"Spiritual... At Göttingen?"''' 
Gottingen is materialistic. Preserved brains as like in a tannery.

'''Applied Mechanics Institute''' 
An institute of the University of Göttingen

'''Prandtl's recent discovery of the boundary layer''' 
Ludwig Prandtl ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Prandtl Wikipedia]) in 1904 developed the theory of the boundary layer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary%20layer Wikipedia]) in aerodynamics, greatly simplifying aerodynamic calculations.

'''powered flight . . . at the edge of history''' 
In 1905 already a reality, but the pioneering empirical work was taking place in Ohio, not Germany.

This is an excellent point that applies to many of the mathematicians mentioned in this chapter.
Minkowski invented spacetime, but Einstein created Relativity Theory. Hilbert proved his Spectral Theorem, but Heisenberg and Schrodinger created Quantum Mechanics. History was being made elsewhere. Cf Yashmeen's rant on page 594.

'''brambled guttie''' 
A proto golf-ball, see [http://www.che.rochester.edu/users/dafoster/ChE243/SciAm%20GolfBall.pdf here].

'''Bürgerstrasse''' 
German, "Citizen's Street", a street in Göttingen.<bre>
This translation is correct but here "Bürger" refers to the German poet Gottfried August Bürger (1748 - 1794) who lived in Göttingen.

'''brambling''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brambling Brambling] (''Fringilla montifringilla'') is a finch related to chaffinches, and is plumed orange, black, and white. Widespread in northern Europe and Asia, it occasionally strays to Alaska and farther south.

'''Brauweg''' 
German, "Brewery Way", a street in Göttingen.

'''Zhukovsky's Transformation''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joukowsky_transform Joukowsky Transform] maps the unit circle in the complex plane to a shape very much like an airfoil.

'''Geheimrat Klein ''' 
Geheimrat = Privy councillor. 
In geometry, the Klein model, also called the projective model... is a model of n-dimensional hyperbolic geometry in which the points of the geometry are in an n-dimensional disk, or ball, and the lines of the geometry are line segments contained in the disk; that is, with endpoints on the boundary of the disk. 

'''glass of tea''' 
(Why not 'cup'?)
because in Europe, as opposed to in England, tea may be drunk from glassware.

'''draw pictures . . . flights of arrows . . . vectors without pictures''' 
Vectors can be visualized as arrows in a plane or three-dimensional space; more generally they can be represented as arrays of coefficients, and now they are not limited to three dimensions.

'''''"...according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity." "And beyond, " added Gunther, nodding earnestly.''''' 
Reference to Buzz Lightyear's stock character phrase in 1995's TOY STORY (Pixar/Disney):
"To Infinity... and Beyond!"
--[[User:Btchakir|Btchakir]] 07:43, 19 December 2006 (PST)
:This reminded me of the caption "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" in the movie ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. [[User:WolfgangFaber|WolfgangFaber]] 07:44, 10 October 2008 (PDT)

'''according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity''' 
Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Spectral Theory]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:''infinite'' dimensions]].

==Page 604==

'''nontrivial zeroes''' 
The Riemann zeta function has two classes of zeros, the trivial zeroes being at negative even integers (-2, -4...), the non-trivial complex numbers, believed (but not proven) to have Re(z)=1/2. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis Wikipedia]. or Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 496|page 496:Zeta function conjecture]].

'''much-noted talk''' 
At the 1900 International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, Hilbert proposed a research programme of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert%27s_problems#Tabulated_information 23 problems]. The Riemann hypothesis is number 8 on the list.

'''Sorbonne''' 
Until 1971, the name ''Sorbonne'' refered to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France, one of the best universities in France. The name is derived from the ''Collège de Sorbonne'', founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon as one of the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris; the university itself as such predates the college by about a centure. In 1971, after the univeristy reforms, the five faculties of the former University of Paris were split and then reformed into thirteen interdisciplinary universities. Three of them as true "heirs" to the original, have kept the Sorbonne name as part of their official title: Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), the New Sorbonne, and the Panthéon-Sorbonne. [http://www.paris4.sorbonne.fr/en/sommaire.php3 The University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV)] was the inheritor of the former University of Paris' Arts and Sciences Faculties.

'''the outstanding problems in mathematics''' 
Hilbert's Problems are 23 (originally) unsolved problems in mathematics proposed by Hilbert. Of the 23 total appearing in the printed address, 10 were actually presented at the Second International Congress of Mathematics at the Sorbonne, Paris on August 8, 1900. [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HilbertsProblems.html Hilbert's Problems] were designed to serve as examples for the kinds of problems whose solutions would lead to the furthering of disciplines in mathermatics. As such, some were areas for investigation and therefore not strictly "problems".

'''eigenvalues''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalue Wikipedia] Dudley Eigenvalue, D.D.S., was a character in ''V.''

'''Hermitian operator''' 
A Hermitian operator generalises some of the ideas of symmetry when complex numbers are involved. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitian_operator Wikipedia]

'''spine of reality . . . ''"Rückgrat von Wirklichkeit"''''' 
Probably a reference to the main diagonal of a Hermitian matrix, which can contain only real numbers. The German phrase is one accurate way to translate the English.

:are there any others? Translate the German back to English and you get "backbone of reality"

'''Hilbert-Polya Conjecture''' 
The conjecture that the zeroes of the Riemann function would be the eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator, just what Yashmeen is suggesting. 

The most recent refinement of the Hilbert-Polya Conjecture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert–Pólya_conjecture Wikipedia] is that the operator in question arises from the quantization of a chaotic dynamical system. The zeroes would then correspond to the possible energy levels of the system. This would answer Hilbert's prompt to Yasmeen "''some'' equation" on this page, and would provide the link between prime numbers and chaos intuited by Gunther on page 597.

==Page 605==

'''Vance Aychrome''' 
The voracious detective is a stock figure in the mystery genre (Nero Wolfe, Mycroft Holmes, Inspector Dover, D.C.I. Dalziel and others). 
Is his name pronounced Eye Chrome, as in private eye? Weak possible connection?-- a truck light called Big Eye Chrome. The name sounds like 'fancy chrome.' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Vance Philo Vance] is an effete fictional detective created by S. S. Van Dyne in the 1920's. Vance Aychrome, as depicted by Pynchon, seems quite different from Philo Vance.

'''Full English Breakfast''' 
Bacon, eggs, tomato, toast... otherwise known as a fry-up.

'''Pythagorean dietary''' 
The Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who lived towards the end of the 6th century BC, was a prominent proponent of vegetarianism. The Pythagorean diet came to mean an avoidance of the flesh of slaughtered animals. Pythagorean ethics first became a philosophical morality between 490-430 BC with a desire to create a universal and absolute law including injunctions not to kill "living creatures," to abstain from "harsh-sounding bloodshed," in particular animal sacrifice, and "never to eat meat." (From a review of ''The Heretics Feast: a History of Vegetarianism'' by Colin Spencer, University Press of New England, 1995)
 
and never to eat beans (strange but true).

'''kippers and bloaters''' 
Different words (both Scottish) for smoked herrings

'''baps''' 
soft bread rolls - another Scottish word

'''Spong machine''' 
Appropriate technology. An English-made hand-cranked coffee grinder that doesn't light up, lacks a readout to tell when the beans are ready, and signally fails to function before the user wakes up. Only drawback is that some spouses compare its sound to half a load of cobbles being dumped on the roof.

'''thinned''' 
From full 78. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Wikipedia]

'''vegetarian haggis''' 
It exists: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22vegetarian+haggis Google search]

==Page 606==

'''Lamont Replevin''' 
"Replevin" is a legal term for a form of civil action to recover possession of property being wrongfully held by another.

'''Elflock Villa''' 
Elflock: A lock of hair tangled as if by elves. Often used in the plural.

'''Stuffed Edge, Herts''' 
An imaginary village in the South-East English county of Hertfordshire. Stuffed hedge?

'''kedgeree''' 
A hot breakfast dish of fish, rice, and eggs.

'''Cesare Lombroso''' 
Anthropologist who devised a method of identifying criminal "types" from their facial structures. (Cf [[ATD_171-198#Page 172|page 172: Dr. Lombroso]]).

Brock Vond, Pynchon's villain in ''Vineland'', is also a follower of Lombroso's theories. Cf. page 272-273 of ''Vineland''.

'''Trans-Oxanian''' 
From the other side of the Oxus River (now Amu-Darya) in Central Asia. Cf. [[ATD_429-459#Page 439|page 439:the Oxus]].

'''Graeco-Buddhist''' 
The hybrid cultural background evidenced in Shambhala. Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Graeco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in Central Asia in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism Wikipedia] and Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 438|page 438:Graeco-Buddhist]].

'''bad hats''' 
A bad hat is a slang term for a rascal

==Page 607==

'''Gas Office''' 
As explained in the text, the Scotland Yard bureau that kept gas communications under surveillance.

'''communication by means of coal-gas''' 
Cf Nabokov's "Ada". Also inverse of Tesla's energy-transmitter. A parallel to the Tristero, too. The description of communication by gas seems like a self-parody of ''The Crying of Lot 49.''

'''bombs... Suffragettes''' 
(Did they bomb post offices?!?)post boxes:Suffragettes carried out direct action such as chaining themselves to railings, setting fire to the contents of mailboxes, smashing windows and on occasions setting off bombs. Wikipedia

'''Persian''' 
Majority language in Iran, now called Farsi.

'''Pashto''' 
A language spoken in Afghanistan and nearby.

'''Tadjik''' 
A language spoken in Tadjikistan. "Mountain Tadjik" presumably dominates in the 60% or so of the country that is in high mountains.

'''Seven Dials''' 
In Covent Garden, London - a place where 7 roads meet. An unsavory assignment for a policeman.

==Page 608==

'''"Avoid beans"''' 
Pythagoreans follow a proscription against eating beans.

'''spotted dick''' 
A suet pudding with raisins or currants

'''Yarmouth bloater''' 
A cured herring from the port town of Yarmouth.

'''...if not for these unauthorized dilettantes all pottering about...''' 
Oddly reminiscent of the villains' perennial complaint in the old "Scooby-Doo" cartoons.

'''queering the pitch''' 
[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/297387.html Disrupting someone's business;] compare [[ATD_748-767#Page_758|"yakitori pitches," p. 758.]]

''''shape'''' 
a doughnut,which comes in various shapes? Including the math-relevant
shape: a torus. But probably just a bit of bun, scone, etc. listed as Vance's breakfast...no doughnut listed.

'Shape' is another word for blancmange, which is made of gelatin, derived probably from the bones of some animal. Aychrome wonders "what's it made of", to which Lew responds "Maybe you don't want to know." [[User:Nehoccramcire|Nehoccramcire]] 09:14, 12 March 2007 (PDT)

'''the Embankment''' 
Victoria Embankment, London, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_yard Scotland Yard] was located there from 1890 to 1967. Scotland Yard was founded on September 29, 1829, on a street off Whitehall; and in 1967 it moved to the present location at 10 Broadway Street, London.

'''blue lamps''' 
Traditionally hung outside police stations in England.

'''lamé surfaces''' 
Lamé (fabric), a fabric inwoven metallic threads 
Lamé, name of the electrically conductive jacket worn by foil and sabre fencers 
Lamé (armor), an unarticulated component of a larger piece of armor 

'''yarmulke... high crown... dented Trilby style''' 
[http://www.wpclipart.com/clothes/hats/index.html Image of a Trilby hat.]

==Page 609==

'''Bukhara''' 
Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 425|page 425:Bukhara]]

'''''Kelly's Suburban Dictionary''''' 
The peerless [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/22/design360.icon.az/index.html ''London A to Z''] did not come along until the 1930s.

'''wenlets''' 
Politician and journalist William Cobbett (1763-1835) called London "the great wen." It was not a compliment, because ''wen'' means a sebaceous cyst. Wenlets are small versions of the "great" wen.

==Page 610==

'''daylight oil''' 
from the streetlamps, lit up for hours?

'''a moon no one could see''' 
Note that the ''Inconvenience'' is repeatedly referred to as a "moon" ([[ATD_119-148#Page_144|p. 144,]] [[ATD_171-198#Page_187|p. 187]]) and is sometimes seen under other guises ([[ATD_199-218#Page_215|p. 215,]] [[ATD_243-272#Page_272|p. 272]]).

'''refused to dim''' 
(Nicely vivid.)

'''Vontz's Universal Pick''' 
Vontz (Yiddish): bedbug.

'''alchemized coke''' 
Gas works that manufacture syngas also produce coke as an end product, called gas house coke.

Fluid coking is a process by which heavy residual crude is converted into lighter products such as naptha, kerosene, heating oil, and hydrocarbon gases. The "fluid" term refers to the fact that coke particles are in a continuous system versus older batch coking technology. Wikipedia

'''Lincrusta-Walton''' 
an embossed fabric used for covering walls, invented in 1877 by Frederick Walton as an alternative to more expensive wallpapers (wikipedia).

'''hipshot''' 
having one hip lower than the other: a Greek statue in hipshot pose.M-W.

'''captive maiden''' 
In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', Oedipa Maas is referred to as a "captive maiden" in the scene where she's standing in front of the Remedios Varo painting. It would certainly be worth while to examine the parallels more closely.

'''scalene polygons''' 
Polygons with sides of unequal length.

'''jet''' 
jet black, a color.

'''Apotheosis Sparkless Torch''' 

==Page 611==

'''magnalium''' 
An alloy of magnesium and aluminum.

'''Lamont Replevin (for it was he)''' 
Formula from penny-dreadful literature: Open the chapter with an unknown character (referred to ahead of time but never yet making an appearance), describe looks and some little action, then spring the name on the reader.

'''''The Slow and the Stupefied''''' 
Daytime soap 'The Young and the Restless'.

'''gas-head''' 
Cf pothead, acidhead, etc.

'''Pike's Peak''' 
Lew's old stompinground.

'''Gus Swallowfield''' 
A curious pseudonym assumed by Lew Basnight while in the presence of Lamont Replevin. As Mr. Swallowfield, Lew professes to be an insurance salesman. The name is very overtly British and is possibly referential to the Swallowfield estate in Berkshire, which itself has a curious history.

'''most theft policies''' 
(Fact?)

'''pantechnicon''' 
A closed van or carryall. (Is TRP trying to put a burr under S. Weisenburger's saddle by bringing this vehicle back? SW's gloss in the ''GR Companion,'' at page 19 of the Viking edition, is famously wrong.) 

Pantechnicon can mean either a furniture warehouse (originally a bazaar) or a removal van. The reference in GR to "the piano in the pantechnicon" is therefore ambiguous. TRP might say that he meant a van, not a bazaar, but that would not mean that SW was wrong. Just that SW and TRP had different readings of the novel. And the author's reading does not necessarily have primacy.

This assertion is generally debateable and in the case of TRP his conscious intentions in his fully thought out novels carries a lot of primacy most of the time, most might argue. This wiki attests to that.

:Lots of people would say the wiki is wrong then. You can discover sources and you may be able to parse processes (rewrites, selection of information), but the author's intentions are not accessible; only the work is. Therefore (and so on and so forth). A philosophical question and probably not wiki-able.

'''legitimate bill of sale''' 
That is, a stolen object with a stolen bill of sale cannot be proved to be stolen; the thief has the receipt.

'''burglary insurance''' 
Although TRP writes that most theft policies were written in the US by the time Lew speaks to Replevin, the first burglary policy was in fact offered by Cuthbert Heath, an Underwriter at Lloyd's, London in about 1889, which would seem to be a few years earlier than the scene. Antony Brown, ''Cuthbert Heath'' ( David & Charles, New Abbot London 1984)at pages 72-76. [[User:TheKenoshaKid|TheKenoshaKid]] 15:52, 9 March 2008 (PDT)

==Page 612==

'''''Pavonazzetto''''' 
brecciated white marble with violet veins from Docimia, Asia Minor.

'''Phrygian marble''' 
Phrygia is an ancient region of west central Asia Minor, to the south of Bithynia. Marble from there was highly valued.

'''Atys... Agdistis''' 
From Greek and Roman mythology. Atys (or Attis) is a young lover of the goddess Cybele (also known as Agdistis in Phrygia). When he wished to marry, Cybele drove him mad and he castrated himself. Catullus wrote a poem on the subject.

'''''The Mutilation of Atys''''' 
No images: [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=%22Mutilation%20of%20Atys&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Google image search]

But under the name Attis, this two-panel sequence: [http://www.aztriad.com/aacarati.html page 1,] [http://www.aztriad.com/aacatals.html page 2,] from "Seladore's Historical Cartoons." And [http://paxnortona.notfrisco2.com/?p=2332 a photo] of what appears to be an old statue of Attis.

'''Arturo Naunt, Chelsea's own, shocking the bourgeoisie since 1889''' 
Phrasing reminiscent of advertising.

'''shocking the bourgeoisie''' 
A popular pastime for young and not-so-young soi-disant radicals ("Epater le bourgeois").

'''koumiss vessel''' 
A container for fermented horse's milk. Perhaps like this one:
[http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/husa/origins/szkitahist/scythianvessel.html]

According to the OED, an early form of the word 'koumiss' was 'cosmos' - its appearance here doesn't seem coincidental given the short disquisition on the etymology of 'chaos' soon to follow. For the Greeks 'cosmos' was the antithetical concept to 'chaos'. Pythagoras is said to be the first to apply the original meaning of 'cosmos', i.e., 'an orderly arrangement' to the universe itself.

'''depending on the angle you hold it at, sometimes it doesn't look like anything at all''' 
A concise description of anamorphic and paramorphic images; this one needs the Paramorphoscope to interpret it.

'''wrathful deities from Tantric Buddhism''' 
Tantric Buddhism is also known as Varjayana Buddhism. In Varjayana Buddhism, a dharmapāla (Tibetan drag-gshed) is a type of wrathful deity. The name means "Dharma-defender" in Sanskrit, and the dharmapalas are also known as the Defenders of the Law (Dharma) or the Protectors of the Law in English.
In Buddhist iconography, they are invariably depicted as fearsome beings, often with many heads, hands or feet; blue, black or red skin; and a fierce expression with protruding fangs. Though dharmapalas have a terrifying appearance, they are all bodhisattvas or buddhas- embodiments of compassion that act in a wrathful way for the sake of sentient beings.Wikipedia

==Page 613==

'''tiny German hand camera''' 
Probably a Zeiss Ikon. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss Wikipedia Entry]

A Zeiss Ikon would be an anachronism, as this company was created as a merger in 1926.

The description somehow suggests the classic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minox Minox] "spy cameras", but also these were created only in the 1930ies (originally in Latvia, mass production in Germany).

A small German camera matching the time would be [http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Gnom Gnom], a version of which was also sold in the UK.

'''raw light''' 
light from a gaslight is not 'artificial' as from electric lights, streetlamps, etc. Cf. Telleruide section.

'''Gasophilia''' 
Love of gas.

'''Schwärmer''' 
The name is a German word meaning visionary, zealot, raver.

'''Waves in a timeless stream of Gas''' 
Replevin equates piped gas to the æther.

'''Sensitive Flame''' 
A burner flame adjusted so that it responds to the tiniest disturbance in the
air. Used by both physicists and spiritualists.

'''cognizant nose...medium for the most exquisite poetry'''

see Proust

'''Chidambaram''' 
A city in south India and Chidambaram is one of the Panchabhoota Sthalams - temples built for the 5 elements said to embody Shiva - at Chidambaram (space), Kalahasti (wind), Thiruvanaikaval (water), Tiruvannamalai (fire) and Kanchipuram (earth).

'''''Akaša''''' 
Akasa is the fifth element,the ether, unseen and invisible but an important element permeating the whole universe. It is also considered
to be indentical with Brahma, the creator..... 
Akasa is 'simple,continuous infinite substance and is the substratum of sound.' Both from Indian Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Occultist Eliphas Levi associated akasa with what he called the "Astral Light". He writes: "[T]his electromagnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric (Perhaps this explains Pynchon's insistence on the term "luminiferous aether"?), is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis which twines round two poles and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of Saturn" -- emblem of infinity, immortality, and Kronos -- 'Time'". He says it is "a force in Nature," by means of which "a single man who can master it... might throw the world into confusion and transform its face"; for it is the "great Arcanum of transcendent Magic." It is a "blind force... which souls must conquer in order to detach themselves from the chains of Earth; 'for if they should not,' they will be absorbed by the same power which first produced them and will return to the central and eternal fire."

It gets better... He writes: "It is through this Force that all the nervous centres secretly communicate with each other; from it -- that sympathy and antipathy are born; from it -- that we have our dreams; and that the phenomena of second sight and extra-natural visions take place... Astral Light, acting under the impulsion of powerful wills, destroys, coagulates, separates, breaks, gathers in all things... God created it on that day when he said: Fiat Lux..." He refers to akasa/Astral Light variably as "the body of the Holy Ghost", the "grand Agent Magique", "Lucifer" and "Baphomet", the winged-goat figure that served as the inspiration for the Devil Tarot card designed by Colman-Smith. [http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-1-12.htm From Madame Blavatsky's "The Secret Doctrine"][http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-2-06.htm Más]

[http://laluni.helloyou.ws/askbaba/prasnottaravahini/prasnottara01.html This page] also equates akasa with the ether and sez that "each subsequent element originated from the previous one" with akasa being the first, similar to the Kaballic Tree of Life.

'''Atman''' 
''Sanskrit''. In Hinduisim, the innermost essence of each individual. Also, the soul. ''Cf.'' Weed Atman in ''Vineland''.

''''''Chaos'''''' 
allusion is seems to Genesis. "Chaos" is in fact the Greek word [for without form and void], says this site.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."
-- Genesis 1: 1-4 (KJV)

'''van Helmont''' 
He claimed to have coined the word "gas" in just the way described here.

'In his "Physica" (1633), the Rosicrucian alchemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, wrote: "Ad huc spiritum incognitum Gas voco," i.e., "This hitherto unknown Spirit I call Gas." Further on in the same work he says, "This vapor which I have called Gas is not far removed from the Chaos the ancients spoke of."' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_light#Esoteric_conceptions wiki]

'''stridently unpopulated''' 
Cf p610.

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

ATD 588-614

2010-09-01T01:38:21Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 596 */

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

==Page 588==

'''tannery''' 
In ancient history, tanning was considered a noxious or "odiferous trade" and relegated to the outskirts of town, amongst the poor. Indeed, tanning by ancient methods is so foul smelling that tanneries are still isolated from those towns today where the old methods are used.

'''Gottlob''' 
Literally "praise to God", as an exclamation also "Thank God!". Though it is rare, it is a real German name. 
Very much so: for example of mathematician/philospher Gottlob Frege, who did study at Göttingen, but not at this time.

'''Humfried''' 
A German translation of Humphrey. This was not an existing German name any time after the medieval, though.

'''Gauss's brain''' 
After Carl Friedrich Gauss died in 1855, his brain was preserved for research purposes. To this day, it is in the possession of the University of Göttingen. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].

'''impervious to the wind''' 
(Attribute of tanned leather?)

'''''"Heiliger Bimbam!"''''' 
A German expression of surprise, translated elsewhere as "Holy Moly!"

'''It is she, she!''' 
probably an allusion to H. Rider Haggard's She. See Wikipedia entry. She has been purified by a pillar of fire. In ''Against the day'', she rises from the swamp. Carl Jung, who used the novel ''She'' (1887) as an example of anima, posited the anima is an archetypical form, expressing the fact that a man has a minority of female genes. Haggard's Queen Ayesha is an unmistakable anima type the ultimate guide and mediator to the inner world. The idea has also connections with the observations of James Frazer in his classical study ''The Golden Bough''. Haggard's idea of a journey into the "darkest Africa," which turns into a spiritual search, has been used by a number of writers, including Joseph Conrad in ''Heart of Darkness'' (1902). 
"My empire is of thy imagination", She says in the novel, "She". Cf. a line, [which I am checking] in "The Crying of Lot 49".

She is 'discovered' somewhere in unknown Africa by some British 'explorers' in a hidden kingdom, and she first appears in a sort of late 19th century private boudoir there. She came to that place via a complicated story some 2000 years earlier, and is of Yemenite origin, having come to the world in pretty much the normal fashion. Yashmeen seems indeed to be based on some fin-de-siecle imaginations of the 'ideal' woman (her looks in general, and the often mentioned streaming black hair of hers), but unlike Haggard's She, Yashmeen is rather powerless in the long run, despite her obvious erotic influence on the men and women in ATD. - Tommaso

:Powerless is a term worth lots of discussion here. [User: MKOHUT]

:It is certainly possible that the line is an allusion, but I think it may simply be a set-up to another goofy Pynchonian linguistic joke-- "Not 'chichi,' idiot..."

'''rim''' 
Kit pretends to think he's referring to monocle as 'chichi' (stylish).

'''Kovalevskaia''' 
Sofia Kovalevskaia, 1850-1891. Russian mathematician, in 1884 appointed professor in Stockholm. The third female professor in Europe ever. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Sofia Kovalevskaia]] and (Wikipedia)

'''Roentgen-ray spectacles''' 
The X-ray glasses that used to be advertised in comic books.

'''''natürlich''''' 
German: naturally.

==Page 589==

'''Those curves are everywhere continuous but nowhere differentiable''' 
This is exactly a description of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weierstrass_function Weierstrass function] (1872), a pathological example of a real-valued function on the real line. This function was cited on page 594 by Yashmeen as one of the crises in mathermatics. Also see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/WeierstrassFunction.html Weierstrass function from MathWorld] and Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Karl Weierstrass]].

'''Those curves . . . ''Noli me tangere''''' 
A well-turned wordplay: The operation of differentiating a curve involves drawing ''tangents'' to it at selected points. The curves in question are continuous, but the injunction ''Noli me tangere'' means you can't draw the tangents.

:If a curve is nowhere differentiable then there will be no tangents anywhere. The curve is everywhere ''untouchable''.

'''''Noli me tangere''''' 
Latin for 'don't touch me'

or, in the immortal words of MC Hammer; "You can't touch this"

'''And is that a revolver you're carrying''' 
Implying, perhaps, an unvocalized "or are you just happy to see me?" Which would be in accord with Kit's reaction to the sight of a woman wearing a toque.

'''''Hausknochen''''' 
German: a giant housekey, as defined, literally House Bone,with perhaps a
double entendre on bone?

Also, slang for [http://www.russki-mat.net/page.php?l=DeFr&a=H penis].

==Page 590==

'''Hadamard... Poussin... Prime Number Theorem''' 
Jacques Hadamard and Charles de la Vallée-Poussin independently proved the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem prime number theorem] in 1896, relying on Riemann's Zeta function. The prime number theorem makes assertions about the distribution of prime numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hadamard.html Jacques Hadamard] (1865-1963), a French mathematician best known for his proof of the Prime Number Theorem in 1896.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Vallee_Poussin.html de la Vallée Poissin] (1866-1962), a Belgian mathematician best known for his proof (independently) of the Prime Number Theorem and his major work ''Cours d'Analyse''.

The Prime Number Theorem defied proof for several decades, and legend at the time had it that whoever did prove it would live forever. Examination of the dates of birth and death of both Hadamard and de la Vallée-Poussin show that this was not too far from the truth.

'''patent ''Kühlbox''''' 
''Kühlbox'' here just means "icebox" or "cooler." Refrigerators were available at the time of the action but not widely used, so an icebox is more likely. It's upstairs in Kit's room, so not necessarily portable.

"Patent," attached to a noun like [[ATD_429-459#Page_457|leather or pencil,]] could mean really, officially patented ''or'' novel and gimmicky. Patent medicines are sold under protected names but not genuine patents in most cases. So the icebox features some radical or distinctive design. My money's on asbestos insulation between the zinc sheets.

[http://www.dhm.de/datenbank/index.html?/datenbank/rb00/rb000891.html Pic of a ca. 1920 Eiskiste-model]. According to German Wikipedia, the mobile "Eiskiste" (icebox) had to be filled with (natural) ice, while its successor, the Kühlbox, worked/works with "Kühlaggregate" (cooling units). The contributor is not sure if suchlike were around at that time. German Wikipedia on [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiskiste Eiskiste] and [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BChlbox Kühlbox].

'''beleaguered subset''' 
a group (from the whole) under attack

'''That is, is it was ''some smile''''' 
Typo, for That is, it was ''some smile''.

'''Prime Number Theorem''' 
The Prime Number Theorem constitutes any number of equivalent statements concerning the distribution of prime numbers. Let ''π(n)'' be the number of primes that are less than ''n'', and let ''p''''n'' denote the ''n''th prime number. The Prime Number Theorem states that ''π(n) ~ n/ln(n)'' as ''n'' approaches infinity, or equivalently that ''p''''n'' ''~ n ln(n)''.

==Page 591==

'''prats''' 
Literally the buttocks. As a slang term, a 'prat' is an [[Idiots and Idiocy in Against the Day|idiot]].

'''''Die Nullstellen der ζ-Funktion''''' 
German: the zeroes of the ζ function. (Null = zero; Stelle = location.) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_zeta_function#Zeros_of_the_Riemann_zeta_function Wikipedia] on the "Zeros of the Riemann zeta-function".

'''not all that hard to prove''' 
Kit will upset the applecart if he can prove the Riemann Hypothesis; Yashmeen's research topic will shrink to triviality. No one has proved the Riemann hypothesis to the satisfaction of the mathematical community at large yet; eternal fame and a fat wad of money await he or she who does.

'''"Richard Harding Davis"''' 
Popular writer of fiction and drama, journalist/war-correspondent and a major male-role-model of his time (1864 - 1916). He was considered the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's dashing Gibson man, the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. He is also referenced early in Sinclair Lewis's book, ''Dodsworth'' as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Harding_Davis Wikipedia]. Among other things, he reported on Belgian atrocities in the Congo.

'''seldom, if ever''' 
Cf p559 re Umeki!?

'''tetralatry''' 
made up from greek "tettares" (prefix -tetra) = four and "latreia" = worship

'''C. Howard Hinton''' 
Charles Howard Hinton (1853 – 1907) was a British mathematician and writer of science fiction works titled ''Scientific Romances''. He was interested in higher dimensions, particularly the fourth dimension, and is known for coining the word ''tesseract'' and for his work on methods of visualising the geometry of higher dimensions. He also had a strong interest in theosophy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard_Hinton Wikipedia Entry]

'''Johann K.F. Zöllner''' 
Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (1834–1882) was a German astrophysicist. Studied Photometrie and optical illusions. He insisted a fourth dimension should be considered in Physics and tried to scientifically explain spiritist phenomena.

'''vogue... 'vague'''' 
Nice wordplay as Yashmeen seems to think the vogue of mysticism is not very precise, is 'vague' intellectually. Further play on "vague" = wave, as in an intellectual fad, e.g. in film, the French "Nouvelle Vague" (New Wave).

==Page 592==

'''upside-down triangles''' 
Also Pléiade p538. In mathematics that would be the operator ''del'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del Wikipedia]. Since pre-history and across most cultures the upside-down triangle is a symbol for the female (genitals).

Florian Cajori's ''A History of Mathematical Notations'' (v.2 p.135) states that the del (aka Hamiltonian operator) was introduced by William Hamilton in his 1853 lecture on Quaternions. Rumour has it that it is supposed to be a drawing of an ancient Hebrew harp (nabla). It is also known as the atled (backword delta).

This in turn suggests (within the context of AtD (atled??) a reversal of time or a mirror image of change.

'''screamingly obvious fallacy in this . . . "proof" of yours''' 
Yashmeen reacts in a slight panic to Kit's threat (page 591).

'''metallic banging''' 
Hausknochen on doors, with 'banging' entendre.

'''"metric interval"''' 
In Euclidean (three-dimensional) space a distance is just what you think it is. In other geometrical systems the term "metric interval" is preferred as a generalized distance.

'''social life is unpredictable''' 
mirrors the situation in the "Hotel Noctambulo", p. 462. Are all these guys "chums of chance"?

[Not sure about the "chums" idea, but more confusion between public and private space on pg. 155 -- Hunter Penhallow leaving the ruined city, presumably in a time machine: "At some point he must have come indoors, entering a sort of open courtyard....Without intending to, he was walking through inhabited rooms."]

'''Weenderstrasse '''
The main shopping street in Göttingen.

'''Prinzenstrasse and Weenderstrasse''' 
A street corner at the very center of Göttingen ([http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=g%C3%B6ttingen,+germany&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=17&ll=51.534284,9.935417&spn=0.006107,0.010793&t=h Google Maps]), "known to mathematicians here as the origin of the city of Göttingen's coordinate system". 
The intersection of these two streets is colloquial called "the navel". For visitors it is not that spectacular, but it's the number one meeting point for people who live in Göttingen before going to a cafe or pub. (I don't know, why we allways meet there, but we allways do!) So Pynchon definitley knows, why he compares this street corner with the origin of Göttingen's coordinate system. 
By the way, one of the oldest bookstores of Göttingen is situated right at the described corner of Prinzen- and Weenderstrasse.

==Page 593==

'''twenty marks''' 
A mark is short for deutschemark, a German monetary unit. 
That was the case after the Second World War, but the unit was just called the mark until at least the end of the empire. [http://www.thegoldcoinstore.com/WorldGold/German_Gold_20_Marks_Kaizer_Wilhelm_II.php Here] is a picture of a 20 mark coin from the period of the action.

'''''der Pistolenheld''''' 
German: the pistol hero. Meaning: the gunman. 'Pistolenheld' seems rather funny, the correct German word is: der Revolverheld.

'''automorphic functions and the Anharmonic Pencil''' 
[http://mathworld.wolfram.com/AutomorphicFunction.html Automorphic Functions] are generalizations of trigonometric functions and elliptic functions.

Anharmonic Pencil see [[ATD_525-556#Page 532|page 532:Anharmonic Pencil]].

'''''das Nichtharmonischestrahlenbündel''''' 
Or ''das nichtharmonische Strahlenbündel.'' German: the anharmonic pencil. A "pencil" is the set of lines passing through a point.

'''Euler''' 
Leonhard Euler (pronounced Oiler; IPA [ˈɔʏlɐ]) (April 15, 1707 – September 7, 1783) was a Russian-German mathematician and physicist of Swiss descent. From Wikipedia and below:

Euler made important discoveries in fields as diverse as calculus, number theory, and topology. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function. [1] He is also renowned for his work in mechanics, optics, and astronomy.

Euler is considered to be the preeminent mathematician of the 18th century and one of the greatest of all time.

'''Felix Klein''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Klein.html Felix Klein] (1849-1925), a German mathematician, best known for his work in non-Euclidean goemetry, for his work on the connections between geometry and group theory, and for results in function theory. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 565|page 565:Felix Klein]].

'''''Mathematical Theory of the Top''''' 
Published in the U.S. in 1897. Compare Felix Klein and Arnold Sommerfeld, ''Über die Theorie des Kreisels,'' 4 volumes, 1897-1910.

'''Leopold Kronecker''' and '''Cantor''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Kronecker.html Leopold Kronecker] (1823-1891), a German mathematician, primary contributions were in the theory of equations. He made major contributions in elliptic functions and the theory of algebraic numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Cantor.html Georg Cantor] (1845-1918), a German mathematician. He founded set theory and introduced the concept of infinite numbers with his discovery of cardinal numbers. He also advanced the study of trigonometric series. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 250|page 250:Dr. Cantor]]).

The "monumental quarrel between Kronecker and Cantor" is also referred to as a "religious war," appropriately enough. It's based in a disagreement over the legitimacy of numbers. Kronecker held that "'the positive integers were created by God, and all else is the work of man.'" This is contradicted by "'Cantor with his ''Kontinuum'', professing an equally strong belief in just those regions, infinitely divisible, which lie ''between'' the whole numbers so demanding of all Kronecker's devotion.'"

The disagreement between the two mathematicians is reminiscent of (or does it anticipate?) the rift between Pointsman and Mexico in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Kronecker's integers "created by God" have become a Pavlovian digital binary for Pointsman, but the two oppositions track faithfully right down to the italicized "between."

"The young statistician [Mexico] is devoted to number and to method, not table-rapping or wishful thinking. But in the domain of zero to one, not-something to something, Pointsman can only possess the zero and the one. He cannot, like Mexico, survive anyplace in between. Like his master I. P. Pavlov before him, he imagines the cortex of the brain as a mosaic of tiny on/off elements.... But to Mexico belongs the domain ''between'' zero and one." [Page 55]

It should be noted, however, that the continuous number line was a modern innovation. In Greek number theory, a number is a collection of indivisible units. Irrationals, such as the square root of 2 are not numbers but "magnitudes." One is not even a number for it is not a number of units. There are no negative numbers as well. (see Klein's Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra.) So Kronecker's position may be less of a crazy innovation as much as a maintenance of ancient theory.

:That last paragraph makes an excellent point.

'''the square root of minus one''' 
The imaginary number ''i''. Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:Imarginary Number]].

'''the square root of ''plus two''' 
From Carl B. Boyer's ''A History of Mathematics'', 2nd Ed. 1991, pp.564 & 565): 
The domain of rational numbers can be extended to form a continuum of real numbers if one assumes Cantor-Dedekind axiom that the points on a line can be put into one-to-one correspondence with the real numbers. "Arithmetically expressed, this means that for every division of the rational numbers into two classes A and B such that every number of the first class, A, is less than every number of the second class, B, there is one and only one real number producing this ''Schnitt'', or . . . cut. If A has a largest number, or if B contains a smallest number, the cut defines a rational number; but if A has no largest number and B no smallest, then the cut defines an irrational number. If, for example, we put in A all negative rational numbers and also all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2, and in B all positive rational numbers whose squares are more than 2, we have subdivided the entire field of rational numbers in a manner defining an irrational number—in this case the number that we usually write as" ''suqare root of 2''. In fact, the squae root of ''plus two'' "can be defined simply as that segment or subclass of the set of rational numbers made up of all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2 and also of all negative rational numbers." —— This is what Kronecker did not believe.

'''''Kontinuum''''' 
This passage closely parallels the one about the "microcosm of Venice" on page 575.

==Page 594==

'''''Nervenklinik''''' 
German: nerve clinic. Three-dollar word for a mental hospital.

'''boundless epsilonic world''' 
Epsilon, Greek letter like E. In mathematics (particularly calculus), an arbitrary (or nearly so) small positive quantity is commonly denoted ε; see limit.
By analogy with this, the late mathematician Paul Erdős also used the term "epsilons" to refer to children (Hoffman 1998, p. 4). Wikipedia; of Huxley's five classes of citizens in ''Brave New World'' epsilons were purposely stunted physically and intellectually.

'''Der Finsterzwerg''' 
The choice of the tavern "The Dwarf of Darkness" may have been meant as a dig at five-foot-tall Kronecker.

'''chloral hydrate''' 
A/k/a "knockout drops" a/k/a a "Mickey Finn". Hence the ''Mickifest''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloral_hydrate Wikipedia entry].

'''''Kneipe''''' 
German: pub

'''Gauss passing to Weber a remark''' 
Carl Friedrich Gauss (Gauß) (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician and scientist of profound genius who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy and optics. Sometimes known as "the prince of mathematicians" and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", Gauss had a remarkable influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians. (Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].)

That influence is seen in the field of statistics where the Gaussian distribution (also known as the normal distribution, popularly known as the bell curve) is named after him. With its ability to correctly model "psychological measurements and physical phenomena" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution] and its resemblance to both the rainbow and the rocket's arc, there's no surprise Pynchon references it often in GR, even having Roger Mexico quote the formula as "an old saying among my people" (p.709, the Mexico quotation is actually some strange variant of the Normal distribution).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Eduard_Weber Wilhelm Weber] (1804-91), a noted German physicist. He studied magnetism with Gauss and in 1831, on the recommendation of Gauss, he was appointed as professor of physics at Göttingen. And in 1833 Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph. The SI unit of magnetic flux, the ''weber'', is named after him.

In 1831 Gauss developed a fruitful collaboration with the physics professor Wilhelm Weber; it led to new knowledge in the field of magnetism (including finding a representation for the unit of magnetism in terms of mass, length and time) and the discovery of Kirchhoff's circuit laws in electricity. Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph in 1833, which connected the observatory with the institute for physics in Göttingen. Gauss ordered a magnetic observatory to be built in the garden of the observatory and with Weber founded the magnetischer Verein ("magnetic club"), which supported measurements of earth's magnetic field in many regions of the world. He developed a method of measuring the horizontal intensity of the magnetic field which has been in use well into the second half of the 20th century and worked out the mathematical theory for separating the inner (core and crust) and outer (magnetospheric) sources of Earth's magnetic field

'''Göttingen . . . in the war with Prussia''' 
This refers to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Prussian_war Austro-Prussian War], (also called Seven Weeks' War), June 15–August 23, 1866, between Prussia, allied with Italy, and Austria, allied with Bavaria, Wüttemberg, Saxony (where Göttingen is located), Hanover, Baden and several other smaller German states. It was Bismarck's aim to expel, by force, Austria from the German Confederation as a step toward the unification of Germany under Prussian dominace.
:Göttingen is in Saxony now (specifically the state of ''Niedersachsen'' or Lower Saxony), but until 1866 it was an important city in the Kingdom of Hanover.

'''political crisis in Europe''' 
The period of 1870 to 1914 was characterized by the Anglo-German naval race and European powers - Germany, Italy, Belgium, Britain and France - scrambled for Africa. The major events in Europe were: 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War; 1905 Russian Revolution; 1908 Bosnia Crisis; 1911-12 Italian Turkish War; 1912-13 Balkan War; 1914 World War I began.

'''crisis in mathematics . . . Weierstrass functions, Cantor's continuum, Russell's inexhaustible capacity for mischief''' 
A genuine crisis as well-established ideas were challenged. Weierstrass functions have the unheard-of property that they are "continuous but nowhere differentiable." Cantor's ideas about the continuum violated a longstanding prohibition against infinite quantities. Bertrand Russell around this time was setting the cat among the pigeons by identifying paradoxes and inconsistencies in set theory and number theory.

'''"the infinite" was all but a conjuror's convenience''' 
There is a very good book relating how the infinite, between the 18th and early 20th centuries, finally found a place in mathematics: ''In Search of Infinity'' by N.Ya. Vilenkin (translated by Abe Shenitzer).

==Page 595==

'''That winter, in St. Petersburg . . . Hundreds were killed and wounded.''' 
22 Jan 1905, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281905%29 Bloody Sunday]. 

The event on January 22, 1905, ''Bloody Sunday'', was a watershed in the Russian history. 
Russia's armies were losing to the Japanese in the Far East. Her workers at home were challenging the rule of Romanov's Autocracy. At the beginning of 1905, the workers of ''Putilov Works'' of St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, went on stike for better living and working conditions. They were joined by many from other factories. Father Gapon, a priest, urged the striking workers to present directly to the Tsar on January 22, 1905 a petition to seek justice and protection. They would beg Nicholas II to come to their aid. The morning of January 22 was very cold (about five degrees below freezing) and some 200,000 workers and their wives and children came peacefully and orderly carrying icons, portraits of Nicholas, and no revolutionary placards not even red handkerchiefs. To stop the workers' march upon the Palace Square barricades were set across several avenues that connected to the city center. At each of these points, soldiers tried to turn back the marchers and, at several of them, officers ordered to fire into the crowds. The worst slaughter took place on the Winter Palace Square itself, between 150 and 200 men, women, and children lay shot dead and another 450 to 800 had been wounded while the Cossacks charged into the dispersing crowds with sabers drawn. 
Bloody Sunday, as that tragic day soon became known, marked the beginning of what the Tsar's mother called the "year of nightmares", and the beginning of what many others called the "year of revolution". (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)).

'''Grand Duke Sergei''' 
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (1857-1905) was the uncle and brother-in-law of Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918, Reign: 1894-1917). In 1891 he was appointed as Moscow Governor General. In 1894 he also was a member of the State Council. He resigned from the Governorship on January 1, 1905 but continued as Commander of the Moscow military district. In the afternoon of February 17, 1905, in a carriage leaving the Kremlin Grand Duke Sergei was killed by a nitroglycerine bomb thrown by a Socialist Revolutionary terrorist directly into his lap. He was literally blown to bits and pieces. The assassination of Grand Duke Sergei signaled the beginning of a broader wave of popular unrest that had been sparked by the events of Bloody Sunday and swept the whole nation. Many more assassinations, strikes, disorders and uprisings followed during the year.
(Grand Duke Sergei's replacement, Shurvalov, was assassinated on July 11 of the same year.)

'''More strikes . . . peasant and military insurections . . . into the summer''' 
In January-February, turbulent reaction to Bloody Sunday spread across neighboring regions, especially the industrial centers which experienced spontaneous workers' strikes: Vilno, Kovno, Kiev, Moscow were paralyzed. In February-March the labor unrests reached Saratov Province and the Caucasus, and Siberia. Labor unrests were persistent throughout Russia into August. In early March university students left their classrooms, and at the end of the month the authorities closed down all the universities throughout the whole country for the rest of the academic year. (Student unrest even reached Orthodox seminaries.) 
In March, peasant unrests erupted widely, especially in Kursk, and Chernigov and Orel provinces and northwest regions of European Russia. In June, the Battleship ''Potemkin'' mutinied and in the Black Sea port city Odessa there was a large scale uprising by the sailors, soldiers, workers and ordinary citizens. On June 28 afternoon hundreds of protesters were killed on the Odessa Steps which was immortalized by the classic movie sequence in the 1925 Eisenstein's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Batlleship_Potemkin ''The Battleship Potemkin''] (considered by some one of the greatest films of all time). In summer widespread peasants' attacks on landowners' estates dramatically increased throughout Russia. The Peasant Union was organized at a secret August 13-14 Moscow conference.

'''Kronstadt''' 
Kronstadt was a naval fortress in the Gulf of Finland 18 miles west of St. Petersburg. Following the destruction of the Baltic Fleet by the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318: The Russo-Japanese War]]) Kronstadt joined the general uprising which swept the whole Russian country. The first Kronstadt uprising on November 8-9, 1905, participated in by the majority of Kronstadt's 13,000 sailors and soldiers, was basically a large armed riot accompanied by liberal political demands. It lasted only two days. Kronstadt's second uprising took place in July 1906 but was brutally suppressed.

'''Sebastopol''' 
A port city of Russia (now, Sevastopol of Ukrain), located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimean peninsula west of Yalta. Sebastopol was associated with rebellion, mutiny and civil war. 
On June 27, 1905 the battleship ''Potemkin'' sailed from Sebastopol to Odessa and to mutiny against the ship's oppressive officers. The mutineers killed seven of the eighteen officers, including the Captain and the Second in Command. The ship eventually sailed to Romania and turned over to the authority there on July 7. (Sergei Eisenstein's ''The Battlehip Potemkin'' made her famous well beyond Russia.) 
On October 1, 1905, citizen of Sebastopol and sailors from the Black Fleet demonstrated in the city center demanding the authority to free political prisoners, etc, but were met with gun fire. Wide spread unrest and naval mutinies followed. In November the cruiser ''Ochakov'' led a rebellion joined by several other warships. The rebellion was eventually suppressed by a stronger government force a couple of months later.

'''Black Hundreds''' 
Anti-Semitic vigilantes.

The name was a derogatory one, adapted from the term "White Hundreds", which was used in medieval Russia for the privileged caste of nobles and wealthy merchants. The lower-class types who joined the Black Hundreds were not in this class hence their ironic nomenclature. It was formed in response to the October Manifesto by those who had either lost or were afraid of losing their petty status in the social hierachy as a result of modernization and reform. They blamed the Jews as the ultimate cuase for Tsar's retreat. Fighting revolution in the streets was their way of revenging themselves, a means of putting the clock back and restoring the social and racial hierarchy. (Based on Orlando Figes' ''A People's Tragedy'' (1996))

'''Japanese won''' 
The Japanese destroyed the bulk of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima Strait on May 27-28, 1905. In ''GR'', the soon-to-be-defeated fleet puts in at German Southwest Africa during the 1904 Herero Revolt; Tchicherine's father, a sailor in that fleet, may also be the father of Enzian, leader of the Schwarzcommando.

By January 1905 the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo_Japanese_War Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)] had been going on in Manchuria for nearly a year. In the summer of 1904, the Russia's Pacific Fleet was bottled up inside Port Arthur (now, Lüshun, Liaoning, China) and the port was under siege as from August. In October, the Tsar sent the entire Baltic Fleet to relief the siege. At the beginning of 1905, Port Arthur finally fell after a siege and bombardment lasted 156 days. In March 1905 Russia and Japan fought the greatest land battle in the history up to then at Mukden (Shenyang, Liaoning). Each side committed more than 300,000 troops and over 1,000 pieces of artillery. After nearly one month's fighting both lost more than 50,000 killed and wounded, but the Russians withrew 40 miles to the north. After streaming halfway around the world in a grueling voyage of many months without adequate logistic support, on May 27 the Russian fleet met the waiting Japanese (under Admiral Togo) in the Tsuhsima Straits that separated Japan and Korea. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima Battle of Tsushima Straits (May 27-28)] was one of the most decisive naval battles in history. Even though the Russians had more ships and more heavy guns, but within a few hours, they lost 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 5 minelayers and 4 other ships. Four more battleship surrendered next day, and the Russian commanding admiral (Admiral Rozhdestvenskii) was also captured. The Japanese lost only a total of 3 torpedo boats. (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)). 
After two months' negotiation, the Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of the Peace Treaty of Porstmouth (New Hampshire) on September 5, 1905.

'''A general strike in the autumn . . .''' 
In late September a printers' strike in Moscow was in progress for over a fortnight. By October 18 it seemed that the strike was losing steam. But on October 20 railroad workers struck the Moscow-Kazan Railway and the strike spread outward along all the railroad lines: to St Petersburg in the west, to Voronesh and Kharkov in the south; and by October 23 it had reached Siberia. Twenty-six thougsand miles of track were immobilized as 750,000 railroad employees struck. At this time much of European Russia was in the grip of one of the greatest and most effective general strikes in the history of labor protest anywhere in the world. All of Russia's industry ground to a halt, everyone stopped work. Factory workers, servants, postal workers, telegraph operators, janitors, and hackney drivers all walked off their jobs, as did bank clerks, shop clerks, and clerks in government office. Doctors, laywers, schoolteachers, university professors, even the entire corps de ballet of the great Imperial Mariinskii Theatre—all joined the strike. There were no newspapers, no streetlights, no tramcars . . . As all rail traffic stopped and telegraph line dead, Russia was isolated from the rest of the world. At the same time, the revolutionary groups organized a new body for coordinating the activities of the striking workers and for expressing their joint political and economic demands: the "St. Petersburg
''Soviet'' of Workers' Deputies". Many other Soviets were set up and developed later as alternate governing organizations. The name and organization ''Soviet'' (Russian word ''Sovet'' means council) took on a legendary meaning from then on and became historical. 
With the regime on the verge of collapse, in response, the Tsar, advised by the Prime Minister, issued the famouse ''October Manifesto'' on October 30, 1905, by which Nicholas granted to all Russian civil rights, agreed to summon a Duma (Parliament) elected by wide (though not universal) suffrage, and agreed that all laws must be approved by the Duma. In the meantime, on December 16, troops were sent to arrest some three hundred members of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. The Revolution of 1905 in the Capital passed into history.

'''In December . . . another major uprising''' 
In Moscow, the Soviet of Workers' Deputies proclaimed a general strike for December 20. When the authorities moved to arrest the stike leaders, an armed uprising broke out. Barricades went up in workers' quarter of the city, and revolutionaries from St. Petersburg, Odessa, and elsewhere joined in the struggle. Nicholas dispatched elite troops with artillery which reduced the rebels' area to ruins. By December 31, the rebellion in Moscow was over. The number of killed and wounded totaled over a thousand.

'''In the East . . . up and down the railroad lines''' 
The Russo-Japanese War was officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on August 23, 1905. In late summer there were numerous minor mutinies by troop returning from Manchuria on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Fighting between the left and the right erupted on October 20 around Tomsk. On November 12, mutinous soldiers and sailors destroyed much of Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, the end of the Trans-Siberian. There were unrests and uprisings in Chita (November 29), Irkutsk (December 13), and Novorossiisk (December 22) as well.

'''Muslim rebellion''' 
The downfall of the Ottoman Empire by Turkey?

:No. In this whole paragraph Pynchon only factually describes the events in Russia and the Russian 1905 Revolution.

:Muslims in Central Asia (Kirghiz, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tadzhik, and others) had never been happy as pawns in the "Great Game" and now (1905) attempted to throw off Russian domination. Turkey, center of the Ottoman Empire, had its rebellion a few years later.

:The text said "'''''a''''' Muslim rebellion". Anyone knows this 1905 Muslim Rebellion in Russia?

'''the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere''' 
The well-known 1905 Revolution in Russian history was the beginning of the fall of the ''Old Regime''. The text "as the Revolution went collapsing" refered exactly to this one, not the February and October Revolutions in 1917. So "the year that followed" refered to 1906. In fact, Pynchon explicitly stated on page 602: "''By 1906'' there were Russians everywhere, . . ."

Soon after the collapse of the 1905 Revolution many Russians emmigrated abroad. They were 1) opponents to the Tsar regime feared of reprisal and backlash; 2) intelligentsia who were frightened by what just happened and afraid of a more violent upheaval in the future (Maxim Gorky, the writer, left Russia in the spring of 1906); 3) Jews, the victims of the large scale pogroms in 1905-06 (1964 Broadway musical ''Fiddler on the Roof'' told the story of how one Jewish family being forced to leave Russia in 1906); 4) youngsters who escaped the compulsory millitary service or looked for a quieter place for education. This was the second wave (1905-1917) of Russian emmigration. (1st wave: 1880-1905; 3rd: 1917-1939; 4th: 1945-1960; 5th: 1991-current).

'''as the Revolution went collapsing''' 
The first paragraph of this page is a factual description of the revolutionary events occured in Russia in 1905 which were later collectively called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1905 1905 Revolution]. It was the foreshock of that of 1917. It had all of Russia in its grip, and its outbreak had not been planned; it had simply grown spontaneously. It failed under the usual combination of repression and concessions. (see Richard Pipes' ''The Russian Revolution'' (1990)). In Soviet Marxist history 1905 Revolution is second only in importance to 1917 October Revolution, one of the most important revolutionary iconic events. (The 1917 Frebruary Revolution, the one actually overthrew the Tsar's Regime, was lightly mentioned because it was considered a ''bourgeois revolution''.) Numerous books, songs, poems, films . . . had been devoted to this Revolution. To the west the most memorable are the Eisenstein's silent film ''Battleship Potmekin'' (1925) and Shostakovich's ''Symphony No 11: The year 1905'' (1957).

'''Peter and Paul Fortress''' 
At St. Petersburg, established by Peter the Great. Political prisoners were confined there from the first half of the 1700s. Conditions were notoriously harsh.

'''kazatsky''' 
A Cossack dance, stereotypical Russian behavior.

'''raid....Waziristan''' 
Waziristan (Pashto: وزیرستان) is a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11 585 km² (4,473 mi²). It comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The North-West Frontier Province lies immediately to the east. The region was an independent tribal territory from 1893, remaining outside of British-ruled empire and Afghanistan. Tribal raiding into British-ruled territory was a constant problem for the British, eliciting frequent punitive expeditions between 1860 and 1945. Wikipedia

Currently, it is thought to be the last stronghold of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.

:Worth noting, perhaps, that Yashmeen came from Russia and had been ''transported'' to Waziristan for sale as a slave.

==Page 596==

'''as-ever transcendentally interesting hair''' 
(Perhaps a reference to Albert Einstein?)

Possibly, but given the numerous mentions of the Zeta function it is most likely a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_numbers Transcendental Numbers]. These are irrational numbers that do not exist as the zero (or solution) to any algebraic function. A number of groundbreaking results regarding transcendentalism were made around the time the novel is set, and most if not all of the mathematicians and mathematical methods mentioned in the book revolve around transcendental numbers and functions.

Given that these numbers are often expressed as an infinite series, in which successive terms add ever-more-minuscule amounts to the value of the number, yet each digit is fascinatingly unique (since the decimal never repeats), it seems to me that Pynchon is suggesting that Yashmeen's hair has the quality of being endlessly fascinating, that even the observation of a single hair (or even a portion of a single hair) is involving and invigorating. This would mirror Kit's fascination and infatuation with Yashmeen, and the term would likely spring readily to the mind of a mathematician of the era.[[User:Dharper|Dharper]] 08:15, 16 January 2007 (PST)

'''. . . the Revolution''' 
Russian 1905 Revolution.

'''...it all finds its way back to the T.W.I.T. people....'''

"and what comes out of their shop can surprisingly often be trusted"

Suggestive of the CIA's Stargate Project in Remote Viewing

''''gen'''' 
British military slang for information. To gen-up is to learn quickly. OED gives earliest recorded use of the word as 1940.

'''a soul impaled . . . as if to bisect me''' 
Harks back to the fate of La Jarretière in ''V.''

'''Afghani dirhan''' 
An Afghani coin, more usually transliterated as "dirham". [http://ghaznavid.ancients.info/ This site] has pictures and more information.

'''Ghaznivid Empire''' 
Usually transliterated as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaznavid_Empire Ghaznavid Empire] (Wikipedia)

'''coffee scion''' 
Coffee motif. More likely: coffee heir.

'''Günther von Quassel''' 
"quasseln" is a German verb, meaning roughly "to jabber"

'''less than universally respected Ludwig Boltzmann''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Boltzmann Boltzmann] proposed an explanation of thermodynamics based on the statistical behaviour of atoms, called the kinetic theory of gases, one of the most profound and far-reaching discoveries in the entire history of science. One baffling problem at the time was why macroscopic phenomena are not time-reversible but microscopic interactions are; any theory that purported to explain thermodynamics would have to address this breaking of the time-reversal symmetry. Boltzmann explained this by what he called the "molecular chaos assumption" (German 'Stosszahlansatz'), to which many objected as unfounded. (See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loschmidt%27s_paradox Loschmidt's paradox].) Hounded by his critics and already prone to bouts of depression, Boltzmann hanged himself.

==Page 597==

'''Gymnasium child''' 
A Gymnasium is a German secondary school

'''Some sort of ... steam-engine word''' 
Prior to Boltzmann, entropy was defined only by means of heat and temperature. Boltzmann gave the first statistical definition. [[Ludwig Boltzmann|Read his bio...]]

'''Except for the usual constants...''' 
This is Boltzmann's statistical definition of entropy.
[[Image:boltzmann.jpg|200px|thumb|Boltzmann's grave with his entropy formula inscribed|right]]

'''''Ach, die Zetamanie''''' 
German: Oh, the zeta-mania.

'''one measure of the chaos''' 
Via Boltzmann's definition, entropy can be interpreted as measuring the "chaos" or "disorder" in a physical system. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy Wikipedia Entry] 

Cf. p. 188, where Neville and Nigel are referred to as "the N's," and to the proliferation of N name in T.W.I.T. in general.

'''crime...narrative puzzle''' 
Hinting at Webb's role in the novel?

One of Pynchon's central themes and best depicted in The Crying of Lot 49 which can be read as a satire on the order of crime novels and a comment on the central order of narrative structures. Certainly ATD can be read as a vast extension on this theme. The chaos/ order binary has already been a introduced a couple of lines above.

Humfried's comment reiterates something Pynchon says in his essay 'Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?', in virtually the same words.

'''Göttingen tradition'''...'''statue''' 
Like other university towns, Göttingen has developed its own folklore. On the day of their doctorate, postgraduate students are drawn in handcarts from the Great Hall to the Gänseliesel-Fountain in front of the Old Town Hall. There they have to climb the fountain and kiss the statue of the Gänseliesel (Goose girl). This practice is actually forbidden by law, but the law is not at all enforced. She is considered to be the most-kissed girl in the world. Wikipedia.

Addendum of interest for GR and ATD.
Nearly untouched by allied bombing in World War II (the informal understanding during the war was that Germany wouldn't bomb Cambridge and Oxford and the allies wouldn't bomb Heidelberg and Göttingen).

'''Rathaus square''' 
The square in front of City Hall.

==Page 598==

'''Axioms of Zermelo''' 
The basic axioms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo-Frankel_set_theory#The_axioms Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory].

'''Poincaré''' 
Henri Poincaré (1854-1912), one of France's greatest mathermaticians and theorectical physicists. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9 Wikipedia])

'''Cauchy''' 
Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789-1857), a French mathematician. His name was connected with many other mathematicians mentioned in ATD: Cauchy-Riemann equation, Cauchy-Frobenious lemma, Cauchy-Euler equation, Cauchy-Kovalevskaia theorem. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Louis_Cauchy Wikipedia])

'''Whittaker and Watson''' 
A standard mathematics textbook of the time ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittaker_and_Watson Wikipedia])

'''two point one''' 
(Cf Sondheim lyric, "A Little Night Music" [http://lynxfeather.net/nest/lyrics/nightmusic-nowlatersoon.html lyrics].)

:I think here just point-by-point listing was being used: 1); 2); 2.1).

==Page 599==

'''Each time he would respond...''' 
Günther suffers from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity "relativity of simultaneity"], as predicted by Einstein and further clarified by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Minkowski Minkowski]. Events detected as simultaneous in one reference frame may be detected as nonsimultaneous in another. Events may even change their order of occurrence in time, depending on the reference frame.

'''"What here is he ''doing?''" . . . "Obviously, we must now a duel fight."''' 
In keeping with his name (see p. 596 annotations), Günther speaks in a stage-German accent.

Because of relativity of simultaneity, Günther's direct object arrives in our reference frame before his verb. In physics, the effect is accentuated when motion is faster and the reference frames are farther apart, so perhaps Günther acts in this fashion when he's psychologically "distant" or "moving fast".

'''dueling-society cap''' 
Probably student corporation insignia.

'''inconvenience''' 
Obviously the name of the Chums' airship; whenever the word appears there seems to be a reference to the Chums; here: "...Here, not completely...slightly...somewhere else" as the airship always seems to be.

'''''Liebchen''''' 
German, "sweetheart"

'''''Egal was, meine Schatze''''' 
German, "No matter what, my darling" - though "meine Schatze" is an improper femininization, which ought to be "mein Schatz".

Meine Schatze literally means "my treasure" and is the term of endearment I used with my German girlfriend. She never mentioned it being "improper".

:"Meine Schatze" is definitely no German phrase, and it also sounds really strange to my (Austrian German) ears. "Meine Schätze" would be the plural, but that does not seem to make sense in this context. "Mein Schatz" instead would fit perfectly.

I'm thinking Yiddish, mebbe?

'''''Schläger''''' 
A specialized weapon for student duels. See Wikipedia's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_fencing Academic fencing] article.

'''Krummsäbel''' 
German, "scimitar".

'''Korbrapier''' 
A rapier with a basket ("Korb" in German) like protection hilt.

'''épée''' 
French for sword

A sharp-pointed duelling sword.

==Page 600==

'''Colt six-shooters''' 
I guess Kit's luggage beat him to Gottingen.

'''''Verbindung''''' 
German: connection, union. Here the student corps one belongs to.

'''upon the face of the other, ''to inscribe one's mark''''' 
In several of his movies, the actor Erich von Stroheim appeared with a nasty scar on the left side of his face. Dueling was a pastime of honor at some universities, and the sword scar was the mark of having sustained one's honor there. Special weapons, masks and inflaming treatments were employed to produce this lifelong disfigurement.

'''a Mexican tilde''' 
The wavy mark over the letter ñ in Spanish.

'''restoring moment, elastic constants''' 
Günther's scar is tilde-shaped because as his opponent's sword passed across his face it vibrated up and down once and returned to its starting position. The following would be a reasonable problem for a high-school physics student: If you know how fast the blade tip was traveling side to side and you're allowed to measure the scar, what was the frequency of the up-and-down motion? A second-year university physics student could work out the frequency of vibration given certain properties of the sword and swordsman. A ''restoring moment'' acts to swing the blade back to its mean position when it is deflected; the duelist's wrist exerts one restoring moment and the elasticity of the steel exerts a second one. The restoring moment depends in part on a number called ''elastic constant'' that relates force to linear deflection (think of the classic fisherman's scale, where more weight extends the spring farther).

'''wasn't going to converge . . . skipped a step . . . ''divided by zero''''' 
Kit insults Günther by pointing out blunders in the proof he gave to Yashmeen.

'''Geheimrat Hilbert''' 
German: confidential counsellor. A title of honor given to prominent civilian figures in Germany. For Hilbert Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Dr. Hilbert]].

==Page 601==

'''''Ehrenkodex''''' 
German, "code of honor"

'''Tyrolean hats''' 
[http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tirolerhut&btnG=Search+Images Images]

'''''Schnurrbartbinde''''' 
A device to keep one's mustache safe from entanglement when sleeping, like [http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/mm/2006/01/1137360569.70341.gif this].

'''Zeiss "Palmos Panoram"''' 
An early panoramic camera, mentioned in the 1911 Britannica's [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Photography Photography] article.

'''''"Auf die Mensur!"''''' 
German, "to the duel"

'''Andaman Islands''' 
[http://www.openencyclopedia.net/index.php/Andaman_Islands Here]'s a mention of tattooing practices in the Andaman Islands

'''Stephanie du Motel... group-theory godfather Évariste Galois''' 
Évariste Galois died in a duel at the age of 20. Though much confusion surrounds the affair, it is suspected that he provoked the duel after being rejected by one Stéphanie-Felice du Motel. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evariste_Galois#Final_days Wikipedia])

==Page 602==

'''By 1906 there were Russians everywhere, flown and fleeing westward''' 
Cf [[ATD_588-614#Page 595|page 595:the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere]]. fleeing westward: most popular destination for Russian refugees was then France, later America.

'''young Ouspensky''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Uspensky Peter D. Ouspensky] (1878-1947), Russian mystic and philosopher, author of ''The Fourth Dimension'', appropriate to Pynchon's themes in ''ATD''.

An anachronism: Ouspensky's ''The Fourth Dimension'' wasn't published until 1909. (See Linda Dalrymple Henderson's ''The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art''.)

'''Theosophoid''' 
A Pynchonism. From Theosophist Cf [[ATD_219-242#Page 219|page 219:Madame Blavatsky, Theosophical Society]]. the suffix "oid" often used in mathematics, indicates a "similarity, not necessarily exact, to something else". (android: similar to a man, ovoid: similar to an egg, etc.) As it is explained in the next sentence, "That's a Theosophist, only not entirely". Fitting, in a book that is obsessed with doppelgängers and people who are at once themselves, but not quite (see the transformations of Dr. V Ganesh Rao)

'''Chong''' 
A strange and seemingly unlikely visitor to Göttingen. The name might be taken from the Chinese philosopher Wang Chong, or Wang Ch'ung. Could also be Cheech Marin's partner, Tommy Chong (C.Marin alluded to earlier p.477). - This is Sidney Reilly, a famous spy of the time, in disguise. See the note on Sidney below.

'''"The what?"''' 
(Precipitous drop in authorial expectations?)

'''Chinese Bolshevik''' 
Chinese Communist. For the true meaning of Bolshevik Cf [[ATD_615-643#Page 616|page 616:Bolshevists]]

'''Sidney . . . Kensington Sid''' 
Kensington is where elected officials worked. 

This is Sidney Reilly, the famous Ace of Spies. The reference is made clear by Swome on page 630, and, to the extent that any appearance here makes sense, a spy makes more sense than a political theorist. An annotation on page 630 includes a Wikipedia reference for Reilly. I don't know whether Reilly (or British spies of the day in general) had a particular association with Kensington, or whether the reference is to Chunxton Crescent, which is placed in roughly that part of London.

'''transtriadic''' 
Beyond the three.

==Page 603==

'''"Spiritual... At Göttingen?"''' 
Gottingen is materialistic. Preserved brains as like in a tannery.

'''Applied Mechanics Institute''' 
An institute of the University of Göttingen

'''Prandtl's recent discovery of the boundary layer''' 
Ludwig Prandtl ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Prandtl Wikipedia]) in 1904 developed the theory of the boundary layer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary%20layer Wikipedia]) in aerodynamics, greatly simplifying aerodynamic calculations.

'''powered flight . . . at the edge of history''' 
In 1905 already a reality, but the pioneering empirical work was taking place in Ohio, not Germany.

This is an excellent point that applies to many of the mathematicians mentioned in this chapter.
Minkowski invented spacetime, but Einstein created Relativity Theory. Hilbert proved his Spectral Theorem, but Heisenberg and Schrodinger created Quantum Mechanics. History was being made elsewhere. Cf Yashmeen's rant on page 594.

'''brambled guttie''' 
A proto golf-ball, see [http://www.che.rochester.edu/users/dafoster/ChE243/SciAm%20GolfBall.pdf here].

'''Bürgerstrasse''' 
German, "Citizen's Street", a street in Göttingen.<bre>
This translation is correct but here "Bürger" refers to the German poet Gottfried August Bürger (1748 - 1794) who lived in Göttingen.

'''brambling''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brambling Brambling] (''Fringilla montifringilla'') is a finch related to chaffinches, and is plumed orange, black, and white. Widespread in northern Europe and Asia, it occasionally strays to Alaska and farther south.

'''Brauweg''' 
German, "Brewery Way", a street in Göttingen.

'''Zhukovsky's Transformation''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joukowsky_transform Joukowsky Transform] maps the unit circle in the complex plane to a shape very much like an airfoil.

'''Geheimrat Klein ''' 
Geheimrat = Privy councillor. 
In geometry, the Klein model, also called the projective model... is a model of n-dimensional hyperbolic geometry in which the points of the geometry are in an n-dimensional disk, or ball, and the lines of the geometry are line segments contained in the disk; that is, with endpoints on the boundary of the disk. 

'''glass of tea''' 
(Why not 'cup'?)
because in Europe, as opposed to in England, tea may be drunk from glassware.

'''draw pictures . . . flights of arrows . . . vectors without pictures''' 
Vectors can be visualized as arrows in a plane or three-dimensional space; more generally they can be represented as arrays of coefficients, and now they are not limited to three dimensions.

'''''"...according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity." "And beyond, " added Gunther, nodding earnestly.''''' 
Reference to Buzz Lightyear's stock character phrase in 1995's TOY STORY (Pixar/Disney):
"To Infinity... and Beyond!"
--[[User:Btchakir|Btchakir]] 07:43, 19 December 2006 (PST)
:This reminded me of the caption "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" in the movie ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. [[User:WolfgangFaber|WolfgangFaber]] 07:44, 10 October 2008 (PDT)

'''according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity''' 
Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Spectral Theory]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:''infinite'' dimensions]].

==Page 604==

'''nontrivial zeroes''' 
The Riemann zeta function has two classes of zeros, the trivial zeroes being at negative even integers (-2, -4...), the non-trivial complex numbers, believed (but not proven) to have Re(z)=1/2. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis Wikipedia]. or Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 496|page 496:Zeta function conjecture]].

'''much-noted talk''' 
At the 1900 International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, Hilbert proposed a research programme of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert%27s_problems#Tabulated_information 23 problems]. The Riemann hypothesis is number 8 on the list.

'''Sorbonne''' 
Until 1971, the name ''Sorbonne'' refered to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France, one of the best universities in France. The name is derived from the ''Collège de Sorbonne'', founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon as one of the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris; the university itself as such predates the college by about a centure. In 1971, after the univeristy reforms, the five faculties of the former University of Paris were split and then reformed into thirteen interdisciplinary universities. Three of them as true "heirs" to the original, have kept the Sorbonne name as part of their official title: Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), the New Sorbonne, and the Panthéon-Sorbonne. [http://www.paris4.sorbonne.fr/en/sommaire.php3 The University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV)] was the inheritor of the former University of Paris' Arts and Sciences Faculties.

'''the outstanding problems in mathematics''' 
Hilbert's Problems are 23 (originally) unsolved problems in mathematics proposed by Hilbert. Of the 23 total appearing in the printed address, 10 were actually presented at the Second International Congress of Mathematics at the Sorbonne, Paris on August 8, 1900. [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HilbertsProblems.html Hilbert's Problems] were designed to serve as examples for the kinds of problems whose solutions would lead to the furthering of disciplines in mathermatics. As such, some were areas for investigation and therefore not strictly "problems".

'''eigenvalues''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalue Wikipedia] Dudley Eigenvalue, D.D.S., was a character in ''V.''

'''Hermitian operator''' 
A Hermitian operator generalises some of the ideas of symmetry when complex numbers are involved. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitian_operator Wikipedia]

'''spine of reality . . . ''"Rückgrat von Wirklichkeit"''''' 
Probably a reference to the main diagonal of a Hermitian matrix, which can contain only real numbers. The German phrase is one accurate way to translate the English.

:are there any others? Translate the German back to English and you get "backbone of reality"

'''Hilbert-Polya Conjecture''' 
The conjecture that the zeroes of the Riemann function would be the eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator, just what Yashmeen is suggesting. 

The most recent refinement of the Hilbert-Polya Conjecture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert–Pólya_conjecture Wikipedia] is that the operator in question arises from the quantization of a chaotic dynamical system. The zeroes would then correspond to the possible energy levels of the system. This would answer Hilbert's prompt to Yasmeen "''some'' equation" on this page, and would provide the link between prime numbers and chaos intuited by Gunther on page 597.

==Page 605==

'''Vance Aychrome''' 
The voracious detective is a stock figure in the mystery genre (Nero Wolfe, Mycroft Holmes, Inspector Dover, D.C.I. Dalziel and others). 
Is his name pronounced Eye Chrome, as in private eye? Weak possible connection?-- a truck light called Big Eye Chrome. The name sounds like 'fancy chrome.' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Vance Philo Vance] is an effete fictional detective created by S. S. Van Dyne in the 1920's. Vance Aychrome, as depicted by Pynchon, seems quite different from Philo Vance.

'''Full English Breakfast''' 
Bacon, eggs, tomato, toast... otherwise known as a fry-up.

'''Pythagorean dietary''' 
The Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who lived towards the end of the 6th century BC, was a prominent proponent of vegetarianism. The Pythagorean diet came to mean an avoidance of the flesh of slaughtered animals. Pythagorean ethics first became a philosophical morality between 490-430 BC with a desire to create a universal and absolute law including injunctions not to kill "living creatures," to abstain from "harsh-sounding bloodshed," in particular animal sacrifice, and "never to eat meat." (From a review of ''The Heretics Feast: a History of Vegetarianism'' by Colin Spencer, University Press of New England, 1995)
 
and never to eat beans (strange but true).

'''kippers and bloaters''' 
Different words (both Scottish) for smoked herrings

'''baps''' 
soft bread rolls - another Scottish word

'''Spong machine''' 
Appropriate technology. An English-made hand-cranked coffee grinder that doesn't light up, lacks a readout to tell when the beans are ready, and signally fails to function before the user wakes up. Only drawback is that some spouses compare its sound to half a load of cobbles being dumped on the roof.

'''thinned''' 
From full 78. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Wikipedia]

'''vegetarian haggis''' 
It exists: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22vegetarian+haggis Google search]

==Page 606==

'''Lamont Replevin''' 
"Replevin" is a legal term for a form of civil action to recover possession of property being wrongfully held by another.

'''Elflock Villa''' 
Elflock: A lock of hair tangled as if by elves. Often used in the plural.

'''Stuffed Edge, Herts''' 
An imaginary village in the South-East English county of Hertfordshire. Stuffed hedge?

'''kedgeree''' 
A hot breakfast dish of fish, rice, and eggs.

'''Cesare Lombroso''' 
Anthropologist who devised a method of identifying criminal "types" from their facial structures. (Cf [[ATD_171-198#Page 172|page 172: Dr. Lombroso]]).

Brock Vond, Pynchon's villain in ''Vineland'', is also a follower of Lombroso's theories. Cf. page 272-273 of ''Vineland''.

'''Trans-Oxanian''' 
From the other side of the Oxus River (now Amu-Darya) in Central Asia. Cf. [[ATD_429-459#Page 439|page 439:the Oxus]].

'''Graeco-Buddhist''' 
The hybrid cultural background evidenced in Shambhala. Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Graeco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in Central Asia in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism Wikipedia] and Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 438|page 438:Graeco-Buddhist]].

'''bad hats''' 
A bad hat is a slang term for a rascal

==Page 607==

'''Gas Office''' 
As explained in the text, the Scotland Yard bureau that kept gas communications under surveillance.

'''communication by means of coal-gas''' 
Cf Nabokov's "Ada". Also inverse of Tesla's energy-transmitter. A parallel to the Tristero, too. The description of communication by gas seems like a self-parody of ''The Crying of Lot 49.''

'''bombs... Suffragettes''' 
(Did they bomb post offices?!?)post boxes:Suffragettes carried out direct action such as chaining themselves to railings, setting fire to the contents of mailboxes, smashing windows and on occasions setting off bombs. Wikipedia

'''Persian''' 
Majority language in Iran, now called Farsi.

'''Pashto''' 
A language spoken in Afghanistan and nearby.

'''Tadjik''' 
A language spoken in Tadjikistan. "Mountain Tadjik" presumably dominates in the 60% or so of the country that is in high mountains.

'''Seven Dials''' 
In Covent Garden, London - a place where 7 roads meet. An unsavory assignment for a policeman.

==Page 608==

'''"Avoid beans"''' 
Pythagoreans follow a proscription against eating beans.

'''spotted dick''' 
A suet pudding with raisins or currants

'''Yarmouth bloater''' 
A cured herring from the port town of Yarmouth.

'''...if not for these unauthorized dilettantes all pottering about...''' 
Oddly reminiscent of the villains' perennial complaint in the old "Scooby-Doo" cartoons.

'''queering the pitch''' 
[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/297387.html Disrupting someone's business;] compare [[ATD_748-767#Page_758|"yakitori pitches," p. 758.]]

''''shape'''' 
a doughnut,which comes in various shapes? Including the math-relevant
shape: a torus. But probably just a bit of bun, scone, etc. listed as Vance's breakfast...no doughnut listed.

'Shape' is another word for blancmange, which is made of gelatin, derived probably from the bones of some animal. Aychrome wonders "what's it made of", to which Lew responds "Maybe you don't want to know." [[User:Nehoccramcire|Nehoccramcire]] 09:14, 12 March 2007 (PDT)

'''the Embankment''' 
Victoria Embankment, London, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_yard Scotland Yard] was located there from 1890 to 1967. Scotland Yard was founded on September 29, 1829, on a street off Whitehall; and in 1967 it moved to the present location at 10 Broadway Street, London.

'''blue lamps''' 
Traditionally hung outside police stations in England.

'''lamé surfaces''' 
Lamé (fabric), a fabric inwoven metallic threads 
Lamé, name of the electrically conductive jacket worn by foil and sabre fencers 
Lamé (armor), an unarticulated component of a larger piece of armor 

'''yarmulke... high crown... dented Trilby style''' 
[http://www.wpclipart.com/clothes/hats/index.html Image of a Trilby hat.]

==Page 609==

'''Bukhara''' 
Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 425|page 425:Bukhara]]

'''''Kelly's Suburban Dictionary''''' 
The peerless [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/22/design360.icon.az/index.html ''London A to Z''] did not come along until the 1930s.

'''wenlets''' 
Politician and journalist William Cobbett (1763-1835) called London "the great wen." It was not a compliment, because ''wen'' means a sebaceous cyst. Wenlets are small versions of the "great" wen.

==Page 610==

'''daylight oil''' 
from the streetlamps, lit up for hours?

'''a moon no one could see''' 
Note that the ''Inconvenience'' is repeatedly referred to as a "moon" ([[ATD_119-148#Page_144|p. 144,]] [[ATD_171-198#Page_187|p. 187]]) and is sometimes seen under other guises ([[ATD_199-218#Page_215|p. 215,]] [[ATD_243-272#Page_272|p. 272]]).

'''refused to dim''' 
(Nicely vivid.)

'''Vontz's Universal Pick''' 
Vontz (Yiddish): bedbug.

'''alchemized coke''' 
Gas works that manufacture syngas also produce coke as an end product, called gas house coke.

Fluid coking is a process by which heavy residual crude is converted into lighter products such as naptha, kerosene, heating oil, and hydrocarbon gases. The "fluid" term refers to the fact that coke particles are in a continuous system versus older batch coking technology. Wikipedia

'''Lincrusta-Walton''' 
an embossed fabric used for covering walls, invented in 1877 by Frederick Walton as an alternative to more expensive wallpapers (wikipedia).

'''hipshot''' 
having one hip lower than the other: a Greek statue in hipshot pose.M-W.

'''captive maiden''' 
In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', Oedipa Maas is referred to as a "captive maiden" in the scene where she's standing in front of the Remedios Varo painting. It would certainly be worth while to examine the parallels more closely.

'''scalene polygons''' 
Polygons with sides of unequal length.

'''jet''' 
jet black, a color.

'''Apotheosis Sparkless Torch''' 

==Page 611==

'''magnalium''' 
An alloy of magnesium and aluminum.

'''Lamont Replevin (for it was he)''' 
Formula from penny-dreadful literature: Open the chapter with an unknown character (referred to ahead of time but never yet making an appearance), describe looks and some little action, then spring the name on the reader.

'''''The Slow and the Stupefied''''' 
Daytime soap 'The Young and the Restless'.

'''gas-head''' 
Cf pothead, acidhead, etc.

'''Pike's Peak''' 
Lew's old stompinground.

'''Gus Swallowfield''' 
A curious pseudonym assumed by Lew Basnight while in the presence of Lamont Replevin. As Mr. Swallowfield, Lew professes to be an insurance salesman. The name is very overtly British and is possibly referential to the Swallowfield estate in Berkshire, which itself has a curious history.

'''most theft policies''' 
(Fact?)

'''pantechnicon''' 
A closed van or carryall. (Is TRP trying to put a burr under S. Weisenburger's saddle by bringing this vehicle back? SW's gloss in the ''GR Companion,'' at page 19 of the Viking edition, is famously wrong.) 

Pantechnicon can mean either a furniture warehouse (originally a bazaar) or a removal van. The reference in GR to "the piano in the pantechnicon" is therefore ambiguous. TRP might say that he meant a van, not a bazaar, but that would not mean that SW was wrong. Just that SW and TRP had different readings of the novel. And the author's reading does not necessarily have primacy.

This assertion is generally debateable and in the case of TRP his conscious intentions in his fully thought out novels carries a lot of primacy most of the time, most might argue. This wiki attests to that.

:Lots of people would say the wiki is wrong then. You can discover sources and you may be able to parse processes (rewrites, selection of information), but the author's intentions are not accessible; only the work is. Therefore (and so on and so forth). A philosophical question and probably not wiki-able.

'''legitimate bill of sale''' 
That is, a stolen object with a stolen bill of sale cannot be proved to be stolen; the thief has the receipt.

'''burglary insurance''' 
Although TRP writes that most theft policies were written in the US by the time Lew speaks to Replevin, the first burglary policy was in fact offered by Cuthbert Heath, an Underwriter at Lloyd's, London in about 1889, which would seem to be a few years earlier than the scene. Antony Brown, ''Cuthbert Heath'' ( David & Charles, New Abbot London 1984)at pages 72-76. [[User:TheKenoshaKid|TheKenoshaKid]] 15:52, 9 March 2008 (PDT)

==Page 612==

'''''Pavonazzetto''''' 
brecciated white marble with violet veins from Docimia, Asia Minor.

'''Phrygian marble''' 
Phrygia is an ancient region of west central Asia Minor, to the south of Bithynia. Marble from there was highly valued.

'''Atys... Agdistis''' 
From Greek and Roman mythology. Atys (or Attis) is a young lover of the goddess Cybele (also known as Agdistis in Phrygia). When he wished to marry, Cybele drove him mad and he castrated himself. Catullus wrote a poem on the subject.

'''''The Mutilation of Atys''''' 
No images: [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=%22Mutilation%20of%20Atys&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Google image search]

But under the name Attis, this two-panel sequence: [http://www.aztriad.com/aacarati.html page 1,] [http://www.aztriad.com/aacatals.html page 2,] from "Seladore's Historical Cartoons." And [http://paxnortona.notfrisco2.com/?p=2332 a photo] of what appears to be an old statue of Attis.

'''Arturo Naunt, Chelsea's own, shocking the bourgeoisie since 1889''' 
Phrasing reminiscent of advertising.

'''shocking the bourgeoisie''' 
A popular pastime for young and not-so-young soi-disant radicals ("Epater le bourgeois").

'''koumiss vessel''' 
A container for fermented horse's milk. Perhaps like this one:
[http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/husa/origins/szkitahist/scythianvessel.html]

According to the OED, an early form of the word 'koumiss' was 'cosmos' - its appearance here doesn't seem coincidental given the short disquisition on the etymology of 'chaos' soon to follow. For the Greeks 'cosmos' was the antithetical concept to 'chaos'. Pythagoras is said to be the first to apply the original meaning of 'cosmos', i.e., 'an orderly arrangement' to the universe itself.

'''depending on the angle you hold it at, sometimes it doesn't look like anything at all''' 
A concise description of anamorphic and paramorphic images; this one needs the Paramorphoscope to interpret it.

'''wrathful deities from Tantric Buddhism''' 
Tantric Buddhism is also known as Varjayana Buddhism. In Varjayana Buddhism, a dharmapāla (Tibetan drag-gshed) is a type of wrathful deity. The name means "Dharma-defender" in Sanskrit, and the dharmapalas are also known as the Defenders of the Law (Dharma) or the Protectors of the Law in English.
In Buddhist iconography, they are invariably depicted as fearsome beings, often with many heads, hands or feet; blue, black or red skin; and a fierce expression with protruding fangs. Though dharmapalas have a terrifying appearance, they are all bodhisattvas or buddhas- embodiments of compassion that act in a wrathful way for the sake of sentient beings.Wikipedia

==Page 613==

'''tiny German hand camera''' 
Probably a Zeiss Ikon. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss Wikipedia Entry]

A Zeiss Ikon would be an anachronism, as this company was created as a merger in 1926.

The description somehow suggests the classic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minox Minox] "spy cameras", but also these were created only in the 1930ies (originally in Latvia, mass production in Germany).

A small German camera matching the time would be [http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Gnom Gnom], a version of which was also sold in the UK.

'''raw light''' 
light from a gaslight is not 'artificial' as from electric lights, streetlamps, etc. Cf. Telleruide section.

'''Gasophilia''' 
Love of gas.

'''Schwärmer''' 
The name is a German word meaning visionary, zealot, raver.

'''Waves in a timeless stream of Gas''' 
Replevin equates piped gas to the æther.

'''Sensitive Flame''' 
A burner flame adjusted so that it responds to the tiniest disturbance in the
air. Used by both physicists and spiritualists.

'''cognizant nose...medium for the most exquisite poetry'''

see Proust

'''Chidambaram''' 
A city in south India and Chidambaram is one of the Panchabhoota Sthalams - temples built for the 5 elements said to embody Shiva - at Chidambaram (space), Kalahasti (wind), Thiruvanaikaval (water), Tiruvannamalai (fire) and Kanchipuram (earth).

'''''Akaša''''' 
Akasa is the fifth element,the ether, unseen and invisible but an important element permeating the whole universe. It is also considered
to be indentical with Brahma, the creator..... 
Akasa is 'simple,continuous infinite substance and is the substratum of sound.' Both from Indian Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Occultist Eliphas Levi associated akasa with what he called the "Astral Light". He writes: "[T]his electromagnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric (Perhaps this explains Pynchon's insistence on the term "luminiferous aether"?), is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis which twines round two poles and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of Saturn" -- emblem of infinity, immortality, and Kronos -- 'Time'". He says it is "a force in Nature," by means of which "a single man who can master it... might throw the world into confusion and transform its face"; for it is the "great Arcanum of transcendent Magic." It is a "blind force... which souls must conquer in order to detach themselves from the chains of Earth; 'for if they should not,' they will be absorbed by the same power which first produced them and will return to the central and eternal fire."

It gets better... He writes: "It is through this Force that all the nervous centres secretly communicate with each other; from it -- that sympathy and antipathy are born; from it -- that we have our dreams; and that the phenomena of second sight and extra-natural visions take place... Astral Light, acting under the impulsion of powerful wills, destroys, coagulates, separates, breaks, gathers in all things... God created it on that day when he said: Fiat Lux..." He refers to akasa/Astral Light variably as "the body of the Holy Ghost", the "grand Agent Magique", "Lucifer" and "Baphomet", the winged-goat figure that served as the inspiration for the Devil Tarot card designed by Colman-Smith. [http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-1-12.htm From Madame Blavatsky's "The Secret Doctrine"][http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-2-06.htm Más]

[http://laluni.helloyou.ws/askbaba/prasnottaravahini/prasnottara01.html This page] also equates akasa with the ether and sez that "each subsequent element originated from the previous one" with akasa being the first, similar to the Kaballic Tree of Life.

'''Atman''' 
''Sanskrit''. In Hinduisim, the innermost essence of each individual. Also, the soul. ''Cf.'' Weed Atman in ''Vineland''.

''''''Chaos'''''' 
allusion is seems to Genesis. "Chaos" is in fact the Greek word [for without form and void], says this site.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."
-- Genesis 1: 1-4 (KJV)

'''van Helmont''' 
He claimed to have coined the word "gas" in just the way described here.

'In his "Physica" (1633), the Rosicrucian alchemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, wrote: "Ad huc spiritum incognitum Gas voco," i.e., "This hitherto unknown Spirit I call Gas." Further on in the same work he says, "This vapor which I have called Gas is not far removed from the Chaos the ancients spoke of."' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_light#Esoteric_conceptions wiki]

'''stridently unpopulated''' 
Cf p610.

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

ATD 588-614

2010-09-01T01:24:04Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 591 */

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

==Page 588==

'''tannery''' 
In ancient history, tanning was considered a noxious or "odiferous trade" and relegated to the outskirts of town, amongst the poor. Indeed, tanning by ancient methods is so foul smelling that tanneries are still isolated from those towns today where the old methods are used.

'''Gottlob''' 
Literally "praise to God", as an exclamation also "Thank God!". Though it is rare, it is a real German name. 
Very much so: for example of mathematician/philospher Gottlob Frege, who did study at Göttingen, but not at this time.

'''Humfried''' 
A German translation of Humphrey. This was not an existing German name any time after the medieval, though.

'''Gauss's brain''' 
After Carl Friedrich Gauss died in 1855, his brain was preserved for research purposes. To this day, it is in the possession of the University of Göttingen. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].

'''impervious to the wind''' 
(Attribute of tanned leather?)

'''''"Heiliger Bimbam!"''''' 
A German expression of surprise, translated elsewhere as "Holy Moly!"

'''It is she, she!''' 
probably an allusion to H. Rider Haggard's She. See Wikipedia entry. She has been purified by a pillar of fire. In ''Against the day'', she rises from the swamp. Carl Jung, who used the novel ''She'' (1887) as an example of anima, posited the anima is an archetypical form, expressing the fact that a man has a minority of female genes. Haggard's Queen Ayesha is an unmistakable anima type the ultimate guide and mediator to the inner world. The idea has also connections with the observations of James Frazer in his classical study ''The Golden Bough''. Haggard's idea of a journey into the "darkest Africa," which turns into a spiritual search, has been used by a number of writers, including Joseph Conrad in ''Heart of Darkness'' (1902). 
"My empire is of thy imagination", She says in the novel, "She". Cf. a line, [which I am checking] in "The Crying of Lot 49".

She is 'discovered' somewhere in unknown Africa by some British 'explorers' in a hidden kingdom, and she first appears in a sort of late 19th century private boudoir there. She came to that place via a complicated story some 2000 years earlier, and is of Yemenite origin, having come to the world in pretty much the normal fashion. Yashmeen seems indeed to be based on some fin-de-siecle imaginations of the 'ideal' woman (her looks in general, and the often mentioned streaming black hair of hers), but unlike Haggard's She, Yashmeen is rather powerless in the long run, despite her obvious erotic influence on the men and women in ATD. - Tommaso

:Powerless is a term worth lots of discussion here. [User: MKOHUT]

:It is certainly possible that the line is an allusion, but I think it may simply be a set-up to another goofy Pynchonian linguistic joke-- "Not 'chichi,' idiot..."

'''rim''' 
Kit pretends to think he's referring to monocle as 'chichi' (stylish).

'''Kovalevskaia''' 
Sofia Kovalevskaia, 1850-1891. Russian mathematician, in 1884 appointed professor in Stockholm. The third female professor in Europe ever. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Sofia Kovalevskaia]] and (Wikipedia)

'''Roentgen-ray spectacles''' 
The X-ray glasses that used to be advertised in comic books.

'''''natürlich''''' 
German: naturally.

==Page 589==

'''Those curves are everywhere continuous but nowhere differentiable''' 
This is exactly a description of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weierstrass_function Weierstrass function] (1872), a pathological example of a real-valued function on the real line. This function was cited on page 594 by Yashmeen as one of the crises in mathermatics. Also see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/WeierstrassFunction.html Weierstrass function from MathWorld] and Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Karl Weierstrass]].

'''Those curves . . . ''Noli me tangere''''' 
A well-turned wordplay: The operation of differentiating a curve involves drawing ''tangents'' to it at selected points. The curves in question are continuous, but the injunction ''Noli me tangere'' means you can't draw the tangents.

:If a curve is nowhere differentiable then there will be no tangents anywhere. The curve is everywhere ''untouchable''.

'''''Noli me tangere''''' 
Latin for 'don't touch me'

or, in the immortal words of MC Hammer; "You can't touch this"

'''And is that a revolver you're carrying''' 
Implying, perhaps, an unvocalized "or are you just happy to see me?" Which would be in accord with Kit's reaction to the sight of a woman wearing a toque.

'''''Hausknochen''''' 
German: a giant housekey, as defined, literally House Bone,with perhaps a
double entendre on bone?

Also, slang for [http://www.russki-mat.net/page.php?l=DeFr&a=H penis].

==Page 590==

'''Hadamard... Poussin... Prime Number Theorem''' 
Jacques Hadamard and Charles de la Vallée-Poussin independently proved the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem prime number theorem] in 1896, relying on Riemann's Zeta function. The prime number theorem makes assertions about the distribution of prime numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hadamard.html Jacques Hadamard] (1865-1963), a French mathematician best known for his proof of the Prime Number Theorem in 1896.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Vallee_Poussin.html de la Vallée Poissin] (1866-1962), a Belgian mathematician best known for his proof (independently) of the Prime Number Theorem and his major work ''Cours d'Analyse''.

The Prime Number Theorem defied proof for several decades, and legend at the time had it that whoever did prove it would live forever. Examination of the dates of birth and death of both Hadamard and de la Vallée-Poussin show that this was not too far from the truth.

'''patent ''Kühlbox''''' 
''Kühlbox'' here just means "icebox" or "cooler." Refrigerators were available at the time of the action but not widely used, so an icebox is more likely. It's upstairs in Kit's room, so not necessarily portable.

"Patent," attached to a noun like [[ATD_429-459#Page_457|leather or pencil,]] could mean really, officially patented ''or'' novel and gimmicky. Patent medicines are sold under protected names but not genuine patents in most cases. So the icebox features some radical or distinctive design. My money's on asbestos insulation between the zinc sheets.

[http://www.dhm.de/datenbank/index.html?/datenbank/rb00/rb000891.html Pic of a ca. 1920 Eiskiste-model]. According to German Wikipedia, the mobile "Eiskiste" (icebox) had to be filled with (natural) ice, while its successor, the Kühlbox, worked/works with "Kühlaggregate" (cooling units). The contributor is not sure if suchlike were around at that time. German Wikipedia on [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiskiste Eiskiste] and [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BChlbox Kühlbox].

'''beleaguered subset''' 
a group (from the whole) under attack

'''That is, is it was ''some smile''''' 
Typo, for That is, it was ''some smile''.

'''Prime Number Theorem''' 
The Prime Number Theorem constitutes any number of equivalent statements concerning the distribution of prime numbers. Let ''π(n)'' be the number of primes that are less than ''n'', and let ''p''''n'' denote the ''n''th prime number. The Prime Number Theorem states that ''π(n) ~ n/ln(n)'' as ''n'' approaches infinity, or equivalently that ''p''''n'' ''~ n ln(n)''.

==Page 591==

'''prats''' 
Literally the buttocks. As a slang term, a 'prat' is an [[Idiots and Idiocy in Against the Day|idiot]].

'''''Die Nullstellen der ζ-Funktion''''' 
German: the zeroes of the ζ function. (Null = zero; Stelle = location.) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_zeta_function#Zeros_of_the_Riemann_zeta_function Wikipedia] on the "Zeros of the Riemann zeta-function".

'''not all that hard to prove''' 
Kit will upset the applecart if he can prove the Riemann Hypothesis; Yashmeen's research topic will shrink to triviality. No one has proved the Riemann hypothesis to the satisfaction of the mathematical community at large yet; eternal fame and a fat wad of money await he or she who does.

'''"Richard Harding Davis"''' 
Popular writer of fiction and drama, journalist/war-correspondent and a major male-role-model of his time (1864 - 1916). He was considered the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's dashing Gibson man, the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. He is also referenced early in Sinclair Lewis's book, ''Dodsworth'' as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Harding_Davis Wikipedia]. Among other things, he reported on Belgian atrocities in the Congo.

'''seldom, if ever''' 
Cf p559 re Umeki!?

'''tetralatry''' 
made up from greek "tettares" (prefix -tetra) = four and "latreia" = worship

'''C. Howard Hinton''' 
Charles Howard Hinton (1853 – 1907) was a British mathematician and writer of science fiction works titled ''Scientific Romances''. He was interested in higher dimensions, particularly the fourth dimension, and is known for coining the word ''tesseract'' and for his work on methods of visualising the geometry of higher dimensions. He also had a strong interest in theosophy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard_Hinton Wikipedia Entry]

'''Johann K.F. Zöllner''' 
Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (1834–1882) was a German astrophysicist. Studied Photometrie and optical illusions. He insisted a fourth dimension should be considered in Physics and tried to scientifically explain spiritist phenomena.

'''vogue... 'vague'''' 
Nice wordplay as Yashmeen seems to think the vogue of mysticism is not very precise, is 'vague' intellectually. Further play on "vague" = wave, as in an intellectual fad, e.g. in film, the French "Nouvelle Vague" (New Wave).

==Page 592==

'''upside-down triangles''' 
Also Pléiade p538. In mathematics that would be the operator ''del'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del Wikipedia]. Since pre-history and across most cultures the upside-down triangle is a symbol for the female (genitals).

Florian Cajori's ''A History of Mathematical Notations'' (v.2 p.135) states that the del (aka Hamiltonian operator) was introduced by William Hamilton in his 1853 lecture on Quaternions. Rumour has it that it is supposed to be a drawing of an ancient Hebrew harp (nabla). It is also known as the atled (backword delta).

This in turn suggests (within the context of AtD (atled??) a reversal of time or a mirror image of change.

'''screamingly obvious fallacy in this . . . "proof" of yours''' 
Yashmeen reacts in a slight panic to Kit's threat (page 591).

'''metallic banging''' 
Hausknochen on doors, with 'banging' entendre.

'''"metric interval"''' 
In Euclidean (three-dimensional) space a distance is just what you think it is. In other geometrical systems the term "metric interval" is preferred as a generalized distance.

'''social life is unpredictable''' 
mirrors the situation in the "Hotel Noctambulo", p. 462. Are all these guys "chums of chance"?

[Not sure about the "chums" idea, but more confusion between public and private space on pg. 155 -- Hunter Penhallow leaving the ruined city, presumably in a time machine: "At some point he must have come indoors, entering a sort of open courtyard....Without intending to, he was walking through inhabited rooms."]

'''Weenderstrasse '''
The main shopping street in Göttingen.

'''Prinzenstrasse and Weenderstrasse''' 
A street corner at the very center of Göttingen ([http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=g%C3%B6ttingen,+germany&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=17&ll=51.534284,9.935417&spn=0.006107,0.010793&t=h Google Maps]), "known to mathematicians here as the origin of the city of Göttingen's coordinate system". 
The intersection of these two streets is colloquial called "the navel". For visitors it is not that spectacular, but it's the number one meeting point for people who live in Göttingen before going to a cafe or pub. (I don't know, why we allways meet there, but we allways do!) So Pynchon definitley knows, why he compares this street corner with the origin of Göttingen's coordinate system. 
By the way, one of the oldest bookstores of Göttingen is situated right at the described corner of Prinzen- and Weenderstrasse.

==Page 593==

'''twenty marks''' 
A mark is short for deutschemark, a German monetary unit. 
That was the case after the Second World War, but the unit was just called the mark until at least the end of the empire. [http://www.thegoldcoinstore.com/WorldGold/German_Gold_20_Marks_Kaizer_Wilhelm_II.php Here] is a picture of a 20 mark coin from the period of the action.

'''''der Pistolenheld''''' 
German: the pistol hero. Meaning: the gunman. 'Pistolenheld' seems rather funny, the correct German word is: der Revolverheld.

'''automorphic functions and the Anharmonic Pencil''' 
[http://mathworld.wolfram.com/AutomorphicFunction.html Automorphic Functions] are generalizations of trigonometric functions and elliptic functions.

Anharmonic Pencil see [[ATD_525-556#Page 532|page 532:Anharmonic Pencil]].

'''''das Nichtharmonischestrahlenbündel''''' 
Or ''das nichtharmonische Strahlenbündel.'' German: the anharmonic pencil. A "pencil" is the set of lines passing through a point.

'''Euler''' 
Leonhard Euler (pronounced Oiler; IPA [ˈɔʏlɐ]) (April 15, 1707 – September 7, 1783) was a Russian-German mathematician and physicist of Swiss descent. From Wikipedia and below:

Euler made important discoveries in fields as diverse as calculus, number theory, and topology. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function. [1] He is also renowned for his work in mechanics, optics, and astronomy.

Euler is considered to be the preeminent mathematician of the 18th century and one of the greatest of all time.

'''Felix Klein''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Klein.html Felix Klein] (1849-1925), a German mathematician, best known for his work in non-Euclidean goemetry, for his work on the connections between geometry and group theory, and for results in function theory. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 565|page 565:Felix Klein]].

'''''Mathematical Theory of the Top''''' 
Published in the U.S. in 1897. Compare Felix Klein and Arnold Sommerfeld, ''Über die Theorie des Kreisels,'' 4 volumes, 1897-1910.

'''Leopold Kronecker''' and '''Cantor''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Kronecker.html Leopold Kronecker] (1823-1891), a German mathematician, primary contributions were in the theory of equations. He made major contributions in elliptic functions and the theory of algebraic numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Cantor.html Georg Cantor] (1845-1918), a German mathematician. He founded set theory and introduced the concept of infinite numbers with his discovery of cardinal numbers. He also advanced the study of trigonometric series. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 250|page 250:Dr. Cantor]]).

The "monumental quarrel between Kronecker and Cantor" is also referred to as a "religious war," appropriately enough. It's based in a disagreement over the legitimacy of numbers. Kronecker held that "'the positive integers were created by God, and all else is the work of man.'" This is contradicted by "'Cantor with his ''Kontinuum'', professing an equally strong belief in just those regions, infinitely divisible, which lie ''between'' the whole numbers so demanding of all Kronecker's devotion.'"

The disagreement between the two mathematicians is reminiscent of (or does it anticipate?) the rift between Pointsman and Mexico in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Kronecker's integers "created by God" have become a Pavlovian digital binary for Pointsman, but the two oppositions track faithfully right down to the italicized "between."

"The young statistician [Mexico] is devoted to number and to method, not table-rapping or wishful thinking. But in the domain of zero to one, not-something to something, Pointsman can only possess the zero and the one. He cannot, like Mexico, survive anyplace in between. Like his master I. P. Pavlov before him, he imagines the cortex of the brain as a mosaic of tiny on/off elements.... But to Mexico belongs the domain ''between'' zero and one." [Page 55]

It should be noted, however, that the continuous number line was a modern innovation. In Greek number theory, a number is a collection of indivisible units. Irrationals, such as the square root of 2 are not numbers but "magnitudes." One is not even a number for it is not a number of units. There are no negative numbers as well. (see Klein's Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra.) So Kronecker's position may be less of a crazy innovation as much as a maintenance of ancient theory.

:That last paragraph makes an excellent point.

'''the square root of minus one''' 
The imaginary number ''i''. Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:Imarginary Number]].

'''the square root of ''plus two''' 
From Carl B. Boyer's ''A History of Mathematics'', 2nd Ed. 1991, pp.564 & 565): 
The domain of rational numbers can be extended to form a continuum of real numbers if one assumes Cantor-Dedekind axiom that the points on a line can be put into one-to-one correspondence with the real numbers. "Arithmetically expressed, this means that for every division of the rational numbers into two classes A and B such that every number of the first class, A, is less than every number of the second class, B, there is one and only one real number producing this ''Schnitt'', or . . . cut. If A has a largest number, or if B contains a smallest number, the cut defines a rational number; but if A has no largest number and B no smallest, then the cut defines an irrational number. If, for example, we put in A all negative rational numbers and also all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2, and in B all positive rational numbers whose squares are more than 2, we have subdivided the entire field of rational numbers in a manner defining an irrational number—in this case the number that we usually write as" ''suqare root of 2''. In fact, the squae root of ''plus two'' "can be defined simply as that segment or subclass of the set of rational numbers made up of all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2 and also of all negative rational numbers." —— This is what Kronecker did not believe.

'''''Kontinuum''''' 
This passage closely parallels the one about the "microcosm of Venice" on page 575.

==Page 594==

'''''Nervenklinik''''' 
German: nerve clinic. Three-dollar word for a mental hospital.

'''boundless epsilonic world''' 
Epsilon, Greek letter like E. In mathematics (particularly calculus), an arbitrary (or nearly so) small positive quantity is commonly denoted ε; see limit.
By analogy with this, the late mathematician Paul Erdős also used the term "epsilons" to refer to children (Hoffman 1998, p. 4). Wikipedia; of Huxley's five classes of citizens in ''Brave New World'' epsilons were purposely stunted physically and intellectually.

'''Der Finsterzwerg''' 
The choice of the tavern "The Dwarf of Darkness" may have been meant as a dig at five-foot-tall Kronecker.

'''chloral hydrate''' 
A/k/a "knockout drops" a/k/a a "Mickey Finn". Hence the ''Mickifest''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloral_hydrate Wikipedia entry].

'''''Kneipe''''' 
German: pub

'''Gauss passing to Weber a remark''' 
Carl Friedrich Gauss (Gauß) (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician and scientist of profound genius who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy and optics. Sometimes known as "the prince of mathematicians" and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", Gauss had a remarkable influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians. (Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].)

That influence is seen in the field of statistics where the Gaussian distribution (also known as the normal distribution, popularly known as the bell curve) is named after him. With its ability to correctly model "psychological measurements and physical phenomena" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution] and its resemblance to both the rainbow and the rocket's arc, there's no surprise Pynchon references it often in GR, even having Roger Mexico quote the formula as "an old saying among my people" (p.709, the Mexico quotation is actually some strange variant of the Normal distribution).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Eduard_Weber Wilhelm Weber] (1804-91), a noted German physicist. He studied magnetism with Gauss and in 1831, on the recommendation of Gauss, he was appointed as professor of physics at Göttingen. And in 1833 Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph. The SI unit of magnetic flux, the ''weber'', is named after him.

In 1831 Gauss developed a fruitful collaboration with the physics professor Wilhelm Weber; it led to new knowledge in the field of magnetism (including finding a representation for the unit of magnetism in terms of mass, length and time) and the discovery of Kirchhoff's circuit laws in electricity. Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph in 1833, which connected the observatory with the institute for physics in Göttingen. Gauss ordered a magnetic observatory to be built in the garden of the observatory and with Weber founded the magnetischer Verein ("magnetic club"), which supported measurements of earth's magnetic field in many regions of the world. He developed a method of measuring the horizontal intensity of the magnetic field which has been in use well into the second half of the 20th century and worked out the mathematical theory for separating the inner (core and crust) and outer (magnetospheric) sources of Earth's magnetic field

'''Göttingen . . . in the war with Prussia''' 
This refers to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Prussian_war Austro-Prussian War], (also called Seven Weeks' War), June 15–August 23, 1866, between Prussia, allied with Italy, and Austria, allied with Bavaria, Wüttemberg, Saxony (where Göttingen is located), Hanover, Baden and several other smaller German states. It was Bismarck's aim to expel, by force, Austria from the German Confederation as a step toward the unification of Germany under Prussian dominace.
:Göttingen is in Saxony now (specifically the state of ''Niedersachsen'' or Lower Saxony), but until 1866 it was an important city in the Kingdom of Hanover.

'''political crisis in Europe''' 
The period of 1870 to 1914 was characterized by the Anglo-German naval race and European powers - Germany, Italy, Belgium, Britain and France - scrambled for Africa. The major events in Europe were: 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War; 1905 Russian Revolution; 1908 Bosnia Crisis; 1911-12 Italian Turkish War; 1912-13 Balkan War; 1914 World War I began.

'''crisis in mathematics . . . Weierstrass functions, Cantor's continuum, Russell's inexhaustible capacity for mischief''' 
A genuine crisis as well-established ideas were challenged. Weierstrass functions have the unheard-of property that they are "continuous but nowhere differentiable." Cantor's ideas about the continuum violated a longstanding prohibition against infinite quantities. Bertrand Russell around this time was setting the cat among the pigeons by identifying paradoxes and inconsistencies in set theory and number theory.

'''"the infinite" was all but a conjuror's convenience''' 
There is a very good book relating how the infinite, between the 18th and early 20th centuries, finally found a place in mathematics: ''In Search of Infinity'' by N.Ya. Vilenkin (translated by Abe Shenitzer).

==Page 595==

'''That winter, in St. Petersburg . . . Hundreds were killed and wounded.''' 
22 Jan 1905, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281905%29 Bloody Sunday]. 

The event on January 22, 1905, ''Bloody Sunday'', was a watershed in the Russian history. 
Russia's armies were losing to the Japanese in the Far East. Her workers at home were challenging the rule of Romanov's Autocracy. At the beginning of 1905, the workers of ''Putilov Works'' of St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, went on stike for better living and working conditions. They were joined by many from other factories. Father Gapon, a priest, urged the striking workers to present directly to the Tsar on January 22, 1905 a petition to seek justice and protection. They would beg Nicholas II to come to their aid. The morning of January 22 was very cold (about five degrees below freezing) and some 200,000 workers and their wives and children came peacefully and orderly carrying icons, portraits of Nicholas, and no revolutionary placards not even red handkerchiefs. To stop the workers' march upon the Palace Square barricades were set across several avenues that connected to the city center. At each of these points, soldiers tried to turn back the marchers and, at several of them, officers ordered to fire into the crowds. The worst slaughter took place on the Winter Palace Square itself, between 150 and 200 men, women, and children lay shot dead and another 450 to 800 had been wounded while the Cossacks charged into the dispersing crowds with sabers drawn. 
Bloody Sunday, as that tragic day soon became known, marked the beginning of what the Tsar's mother called the "year of nightmares", and the beginning of what many others called the "year of revolution". (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)).

'''Grand Duke Sergei''' 
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (1857-1905) was the uncle and brother-in-law of Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918, Reign: 1894-1917). In 1891 he was appointed as Moscow Governor General. In 1894 he also was a member of the State Council. He resigned from the Governorship on January 1, 1905 but continued as Commander of the Moscow military district. In the afternoon of February 17, 1905, in a carriage leaving the Kremlin Grand Duke Sergei was killed by a nitroglycerine bomb thrown by a Socialist Revolutionary terrorist directly into his lap. He was literally blown to bits and pieces. The assassination of Grand Duke Sergei signaled the beginning of a broader wave of popular unrest that had been sparked by the events of Bloody Sunday and swept the whole nation. Many more assassinations, strikes, disorders and uprisings followed during the year.
(Grand Duke Sergei's replacement, Shurvalov, was assassinated on July 11 of the same year.)

'''More strikes . . . peasant and military insurections . . . into the summer''' 
In January-February, turbulent reaction to Bloody Sunday spread across neighboring regions, especially the industrial centers which experienced spontaneous workers' strikes: Vilno, Kovno, Kiev, Moscow were paralyzed. In February-March the labor unrests reached Saratov Province and the Caucasus, and Siberia. Labor unrests were persistent throughout Russia into August. In early March university students left their classrooms, and at the end of the month the authorities closed down all the universities throughout the whole country for the rest of the academic year. (Student unrest even reached Orthodox seminaries.) 
In March, peasant unrests erupted widely, especially in Kursk, and Chernigov and Orel provinces and northwest regions of European Russia. In June, the Battleship ''Potemkin'' mutinied and in the Black Sea port city Odessa there was a large scale uprising by the sailors, soldiers, workers and ordinary citizens. On June 28 afternoon hundreds of protesters were killed on the Odessa Steps which was immortalized by the classic movie sequence in the 1925 Eisenstein's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Batlleship_Potemkin ''The Battleship Potemkin''] (considered by some one of the greatest films of all time). In summer widespread peasants' attacks on landowners' estates dramatically increased throughout Russia. The Peasant Union was organized at a secret August 13-14 Moscow conference.

'''Kronstadt''' 
Kronstadt was a naval fortress in the Gulf of Finland 18 miles west of St. Petersburg. Following the destruction of the Baltic Fleet by the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318: The Russo-Japanese War]]) Kronstadt joined the general uprising which swept the whole Russian country. The first Kronstadt uprising on November 8-9, 1905, participated in by the majority of Kronstadt's 13,000 sailors and soldiers, was basically a large armed riot accompanied by liberal political demands. It lasted only two days. Kronstadt's second uprising took place in July 1906 but was brutally suppressed.

'''Sebastopol''' 
A port city of Russia (now, Sevastopol of Ukrain), located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimean peninsula west of Yalta. Sebastopol was associated with rebellion, mutiny and civil war. 
On June 27, 1905 the battleship ''Potemkin'' sailed from Sebastopol to Odessa and to mutiny against the ship's oppressive officers. The mutineers killed seven of the eighteen officers, including the Captain and the Second in Command. The ship eventually sailed to Romania and turned over to the authority there on July 7. (Sergei Eisenstein's ''The Battlehip Potemkin'' made her famous well beyond Russia.) 
On October 1, 1905, citizen of Sebastopol and sailors from the Black Fleet demonstrated in the city center demanding the authority to free political prisoners, etc, but were met with gun fire. Wide spread unrest and naval mutinies followed. In November the cruiser ''Ochakov'' led a rebellion joined by several other warships. The rebellion was eventually suppressed by a stronger government force a couple of months later.

'''Black Hundreds''' 
Anti-Semitic vigilantes.

The name was a derogatory one, adapted from the term "White Hundreds", which was used in medieval Russia for the privileged caste of nobles and wealthy merchants. The lower-class types who joined the Black Hundreds were not in this class hence their ironic nomenclature. It was formed in response to the October Manifesto by those who had either lost or were afraid of losing their petty status in the social hierachy as a result of modernization and reform. They blamed the Jews as the ultimate cuase for Tsar's retreat. Fighting revolution in the streets was their way of revenging themselves, a means of putting the clock back and restoring the social and racial hierarchy. (Based on Orlando Figes' ''A People's Tragedy'' (1996))

'''Japanese won''' 
The Japanese destroyed the bulk of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima Strait on May 27-28, 1905. In ''GR'', the soon-to-be-defeated fleet puts in at German Southwest Africa during the 1904 Herero Revolt; Tchicherine's father, a sailor in that fleet, may also be the father of Enzian, leader of the Schwarzcommando.

By January 1905 the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo_Japanese_War Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)] had been going on in Manchuria for nearly a year. In the summer of 1904, the Russia's Pacific Fleet was bottled up inside Port Arthur (now, Lüshun, Liaoning, China) and the port was under siege as from August. In October, the Tsar sent the entire Baltic Fleet to relief the siege. At the beginning of 1905, Port Arthur finally fell after a siege and bombardment lasted 156 days. In March 1905 Russia and Japan fought the greatest land battle in the history up to then at Mukden (Shenyang, Liaoning). Each side committed more than 300,000 troops and over 1,000 pieces of artillery. After nearly one month's fighting both lost more than 50,000 killed and wounded, but the Russians withrew 40 miles to the north. After streaming halfway around the world in a grueling voyage of many months without adequate logistic support, on May 27 the Russian fleet met the waiting Japanese (under Admiral Togo) in the Tsuhsima Straits that separated Japan and Korea. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima Battle of Tsushima Straits (May 27-28)] was one of the most decisive naval battles in history. Even though the Russians had more ships and more heavy guns, but within a few hours, they lost 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 5 minelayers and 4 other ships. Four more battleship surrendered next day, and the Russian commanding admiral (Admiral Rozhdestvenskii) was also captured. The Japanese lost only a total of 3 torpedo boats. (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)). 
After two months' negotiation, the Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of the Peace Treaty of Porstmouth (New Hampshire) on September 5, 1905.

'''A general strike in the autumn . . .''' 
In late September a printers' strike in Moscow was in progress for over a fortnight. By October 18 it seemed that the strike was losing steam. But on October 20 railroad workers struck the Moscow-Kazan Railway and the strike spread outward along all the railroad lines: to St Petersburg in the west, to Voronesh and Kharkov in the south; and by October 23 it had reached Siberia. Twenty-six thougsand miles of track were immobilized as 750,000 railroad employees struck. At this time much of European Russia was in the grip of one of the greatest and most effective general strikes in the history of labor protest anywhere in the world. All of Russia's industry ground to a halt, everyone stopped work. Factory workers, servants, postal workers, telegraph operators, janitors, and hackney drivers all walked off their jobs, as did bank clerks, shop clerks, and clerks in government office. Doctors, laywers, schoolteachers, university professors, even the entire corps de ballet of the great Imperial Mariinskii Theatre—all joined the strike. There were no newspapers, no streetlights, no tramcars . . . As all rail traffic stopped and telegraph line dead, Russia was isolated from the rest of the world. At the same time, the revolutionary groups organized a new body for coordinating the activities of the striking workers and for expressing their joint political and economic demands: the "St. Petersburg
''Soviet'' of Workers' Deputies". Many other Soviets were set up and developed later as alternate governing organizations. The name and organization ''Soviet'' (Russian word ''Sovet'' means council) took on a legendary meaning from then on and became historical. 
With the regime on the verge of collapse, in response, the Tsar, advised by the Prime Minister, issued the famouse ''October Manifesto'' on October 30, 1905, by which Nicholas granted to all Russian civil rights, agreed to summon a Duma (Parliament) elected by wide (though not universal) suffrage, and agreed that all laws must be approved by the Duma. In the meantime, on December 16, troops were sent to arrest some three hundred members of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. The Revolution of 1905 in the Capital passed into history.

'''In December . . . another major uprising''' 
In Moscow, the Soviet of Workers' Deputies proclaimed a general strike for December 20. When the authorities moved to arrest the stike leaders, an armed uprising broke out. Barricades went up in workers' quarter of the city, and revolutionaries from St. Petersburg, Odessa, and elsewhere joined in the struggle. Nicholas dispatched elite troops with artillery which reduced the rebels' area to ruins. By December 31, the rebellion in Moscow was over. The number of killed and wounded totaled over a thousand.

'''In the East . . . up and down the railroad lines''' 
The Russo-Japanese War was officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on August 23, 1905. In late summer there were numerous minor mutinies by troop returning from Manchuria on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Fighting between the left and the right erupted on October 20 around Tomsk. On November 12, mutinous soldiers and sailors destroyed much of Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, the end of the Trans-Siberian. There were unrests and uprisings in Chita (November 29), Irkutsk (December 13), and Novorossiisk (December 22) as well.

'''Muslim rebellion''' 
The downfall of the Ottoman Empire by Turkey?

:No. In this whole paragraph Pynchon only factually describes the events in Russia and the Russian 1905 Revolution.

:Muslims in Central Asia (Kirghiz, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tadzhik, and others) had never been happy as pawns in the "Great Game" and now (1905) attempted to throw off Russian domination. Turkey, center of the Ottoman Empire, had its rebellion a few years later.

:The text said "'''''a''''' Muslim rebellion". Anyone knows this 1905 Muslim Rebellion in Russia?

'''the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere''' 
The well-known 1905 Revolution in Russian history was the beginning of the fall of the ''Old Regime''. The text "as the Revolution went collapsing" refered exactly to this one, not the February and October Revolutions in 1917. So "the year that followed" refered to 1906. In fact, Pynchon explicitly stated on page 602: "''By 1906'' there were Russians everywhere, . . ."

Soon after the collapse of the 1905 Revolution many Russians emmigrated abroad. They were 1) opponents to the Tsar regime feared of reprisal and backlash; 2) intelligentsia who were frightened by what just happened and afraid of a more violent upheaval in the future (Maxim Gorky, the writer, left Russia in the spring of 1906); 3) Jews, the victims of the large scale pogroms in 1905-06 (1964 Broadway musical ''Fiddler on the Roof'' told the story of how one Jewish family being forced to leave Russia in 1906); 4) youngsters who escaped the compulsory millitary service or looked for a quieter place for education. This was the second wave (1905-1917) of Russian emmigration. (1st wave: 1880-1905; 3rd: 1917-1939; 4th: 1945-1960; 5th: 1991-current).

'''as the Revolution went collapsing''' 
The first paragraph of this page is a factual description of the revolutionary events occured in Russia in 1905 which were later collectively called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1905 1905 Revolution]. It was the foreshock of that of 1917. It had all of Russia in its grip, and its outbreak had not been planned; it had simply grown spontaneously. It failed under the usual combination of repression and concessions. (see Richard Pipes' ''The Russian Revolution'' (1990)). In Soviet Marxist history 1905 Revolution is second only in importance to 1917 October Revolution, one of the most important revolutionary iconic events. (The 1917 Frebruary Revolution, the one actually overthrew the Tsar's Regime, was lightly mentioned because it was considered a ''bourgeois revolution''.) Numerous books, songs, poems, films . . . had been devoted to this Revolution. To the west the most memorable are the Eisenstein's silent film ''Battleship Potmekin'' (1925) and Shostakovich's ''Symphony No 11: The year 1905'' (1957).

'''Peter and Paul Fortress''' 
At St. Petersburg, established by Peter the Great. Political prisoners were confined there from the first half of the 1700s. Conditions were notoriously harsh.

'''kazatsky''' 
A Cossack dance, stereotypical Russian behavior.

'''raid....Waziristan''' 
Waziristan (Pashto: وزیرستان) is a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11 585 km² (4,473 mi²). It comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The North-West Frontier Province lies immediately to the east. The region was an independent tribal territory from 1893, remaining outside of British-ruled empire and Afghanistan. Tribal raiding into British-ruled territory was a constant problem for the British, eliciting frequent punitive expeditions between 1860 and 1945. Wikipedia

Currently, it is thought to be the last stronghold of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.

:Worth noting, perhaps, that Yashmeen came from Russia and had been ''transported'' to Waziristan for sale as a slave.

==Page 596==

'''as-ever transcendentally interesting hair''' 
(Perhaps a reference to Albert Einstein?)

Possibly, but given the numerous mentions of the Zeta function it is most likely a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_numbers Transcendental Numbers]. These are irrational numbers that do not exist as the zero (or solution) to any algebraic function. A number of groundbreaking results regarding transcendentalism were made around the time the novel is set, and most if not all of the mathematicians and mathematical methods mentioned in the book revolve around transcendental numbers and functions.

Given that these numbers are often expressed as an infinite series, in which successive terms add ever-more-minuscule amounts to the value of the number, yet each digit is fascinatingly unique (since the decimal never repeats), it seems to me that Pynchon is suggesting that Yashmeen's hair has the quality of being endlessly fascinating, that even the observation of a single hair (or even a portion of a single hair) is involving and invigorating. This would mirror Kit's fascination and infatuation with Yashmeen, and the term would likely spring readily to the mind of a mathematician of the era.[[User:Dharper|Dharper]] 08:15, 16 January 2007 (PST)

'''. . . the Revolution''' 
Russian 1905 Revolution.

'''...it all finds its way back to the T.W.I.T. people....'''

"and what comes out of their shop can surprisingly often be trusted"

Suggestive of the CIA's Stargate Project in Remote Viewing

''''gen'''' 
British military slang for information. To gen-up is to learn quickly. OED gives earliest recorded use of the word as 1940.

'''a soul impaled . . . as if to bisect me''' 
Harks back to the fate of La Jarretière in ''V.''

'''Afghani dirhan''' 
An Afghani coin, more usually transliterated as "dirham". [http://ghaznavid.ancients.info/ This site] has pictures and more information.

'''Ghaznivid Empire''' 
Usually transliterated as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaznavid_Empire Ghaznavid Empire] (Wikipedia)

'''coffee scion''' 
Coffee motif. More likely: coffee heir.

'''Günther von Quassel''' 
"quasseln" is a German verb, meaning roughly "to jabber"

'''less than universally respected Ludwig Boltzmann''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Boltzmann Boltzmann] proposed an explanation of thermodynamics based on the statistical behaviour of atoms. Many influential colleagues at the time did not believe in the reality of atoms and thus worked to discredit Boltzmann.

==Page 597==

'''Gymnasium child''' 
A Gymnasium is a German secondary school

'''Some sort of ... steam-engine word''' 
Prior to Boltzmann, entropy was defined only by means of heat and temperature. Boltzmann gave the first statistical definition. [[Ludwig Boltzmann|Read his bio...]]

'''Except for the usual constants...''' 
This is Boltzmann's statistical definition of entropy.
[[Image:boltzmann.jpg|200px|thumb|Boltzmann's grave with his entropy formula inscribed|right]]

'''''Ach, die Zetamanie''''' 
German: Oh, the zeta-mania.

'''one measure of the chaos''' 
Via Boltzmann's definition, entropy can be interpreted as measuring the "chaos" or "disorder" in a physical system. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy Wikipedia Entry] 

Cf. p. 188, where Neville and Nigel are referred to as "the N's," and to the proliferation of N name in T.W.I.T. in general.

'''crime...narrative puzzle''' 
Hinting at Webb's role in the novel?

One of Pynchon's central themes and best depicted in The Crying of Lot 49 which can be read as a satire on the order of crime novels and a comment on the central order of narrative structures. Certainly ATD can be read as a vast extension on this theme. The chaos/ order binary has already been a introduced a couple of lines above.

Humfried's comment reiterates something Pynchon says in his essay 'Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?', in virtually the same words.

'''Göttingen tradition'''...'''statue''' 
Like other university towns, Göttingen has developed its own folklore. On the day of their doctorate, postgraduate students are drawn in handcarts from the Great Hall to the Gänseliesel-Fountain in front of the Old Town Hall. There they have to climb the fountain and kiss the statue of the Gänseliesel (Goose girl). This practice is actually forbidden by law, but the law is not at all enforced. She is considered to be the most-kissed girl in the world. Wikipedia.

Addendum of interest for GR and ATD.
Nearly untouched by allied bombing in World War II (the informal understanding during the war was that Germany wouldn't bomb Cambridge and Oxford and the allies wouldn't bomb Heidelberg and Göttingen).

'''Rathaus square''' 
The square in front of City Hall.

==Page 598==

'''Axioms of Zermelo''' 
The basic axioms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo-Frankel_set_theory#The_axioms Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory].

'''Poincaré''' 
Henri Poincaré (1854-1912), one of France's greatest mathermaticians and theorectical physicists. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9 Wikipedia])

'''Cauchy''' 
Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789-1857), a French mathematician. His name was connected with many other mathematicians mentioned in ATD: Cauchy-Riemann equation, Cauchy-Frobenious lemma, Cauchy-Euler equation, Cauchy-Kovalevskaia theorem. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Louis_Cauchy Wikipedia])

'''Whittaker and Watson''' 
A standard mathematics textbook of the time ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittaker_and_Watson Wikipedia])

'''two point one''' 
(Cf Sondheim lyric, "A Little Night Music" [http://lynxfeather.net/nest/lyrics/nightmusic-nowlatersoon.html lyrics].)

:I think here just point-by-point listing was being used: 1); 2); 2.1).

==Page 599==

'''Each time he would respond...''' 
Günther suffers from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity "relativity of simultaneity"], as predicted by Einstein and further clarified by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Minkowski Minkowski]. Events detected as simultaneous in one reference frame may be detected as nonsimultaneous in another. Events may even change their order of occurrence in time, depending on the reference frame.

'''"What here is he ''doing?''" . . . "Obviously, we must now a duel fight."''' 
In keeping with his name (see p. 596 annotations), Günther speaks in a stage-German accent.

Because of relativity of simultaneity, Günther's direct object arrives in our reference frame before his verb. In physics, the effect is accentuated when motion is faster and the reference frames are farther apart, so perhaps Günther acts in this fashion when he's psychologically "distant" or "moving fast".

'''dueling-society cap''' 
Probably student corporation insignia.

'''inconvenience''' 
Obviously the name of the Chums' airship; whenever the word appears there seems to be a reference to the Chums; here: "...Here, not completely...slightly...somewhere else" as the airship always seems to be.

'''''Liebchen''''' 
German, "sweetheart"

'''''Egal was, meine Schatze''''' 
German, "No matter what, my darling" - though "meine Schatze" is an improper femininization, which ought to be "mein Schatz".

Meine Schatze literally means "my treasure" and is the term of endearment I used with my German girlfriend. She never mentioned it being "improper".

:"Meine Schatze" is definitely no German phrase, and it also sounds really strange to my (Austrian German) ears. "Meine Schätze" would be the plural, but that does not seem to make sense in this context. "Mein Schatz" instead would fit perfectly.

I'm thinking Yiddish, mebbe?

'''''Schläger''''' 
A specialized weapon for student duels. See Wikipedia's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_fencing Academic fencing] article.

'''Krummsäbel''' 
German, "scimitar".

'''Korbrapier''' 
A rapier with a basket ("Korb" in German) like protection hilt.

'''épée''' 
French for sword

A sharp-pointed duelling sword.

==Page 600==

'''Colt six-shooters''' 
I guess Kit's luggage beat him to Gottingen.

'''''Verbindung''''' 
German: connection, union. Here the student corps one belongs to.

'''upon the face of the other, ''to inscribe one's mark''''' 
In several of his movies, the actor Erich von Stroheim appeared with a nasty scar on the left side of his face. Dueling was a pastime of honor at some universities, and the sword scar was the mark of having sustained one's honor there. Special weapons, masks and inflaming treatments were employed to produce this lifelong disfigurement.

'''a Mexican tilde''' 
The wavy mark over the letter ñ in Spanish.

'''restoring moment, elastic constants''' 
Günther's scar is tilde-shaped because as his opponent's sword passed across his face it vibrated up and down once and returned to its starting position. The following would be a reasonable problem for a high-school physics student: If you know how fast the blade tip was traveling side to side and you're allowed to measure the scar, what was the frequency of the up-and-down motion? A second-year university physics student could work out the frequency of vibration given certain properties of the sword and swordsman. A ''restoring moment'' acts to swing the blade back to its mean position when it is deflected; the duelist's wrist exerts one restoring moment and the elasticity of the steel exerts a second one. The restoring moment depends in part on a number called ''elastic constant'' that relates force to linear deflection (think of the classic fisherman's scale, where more weight extends the spring farther).

'''wasn't going to converge . . . skipped a step . . . ''divided by zero''''' 
Kit insults Günther by pointing out blunders in the proof he gave to Yashmeen.

'''Geheimrat Hilbert''' 
German: confidential counsellor. A title of honor given to prominent civilian figures in Germany. For Hilbert Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Dr. Hilbert]].

==Page 601==

'''''Ehrenkodex''''' 
German, "code of honor"

'''Tyrolean hats''' 
[http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tirolerhut&btnG=Search+Images Images]

'''''Schnurrbartbinde''''' 
A device to keep one's mustache safe from entanglement when sleeping, like [http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/mm/2006/01/1137360569.70341.gif this].

'''Zeiss "Palmos Panoram"''' 
An early panoramic camera, mentioned in the 1911 Britannica's [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Photography Photography] article.

'''''"Auf die Mensur!"''''' 
German, "to the duel"

'''Andaman Islands''' 
[http://www.openencyclopedia.net/index.php/Andaman_Islands Here]'s a mention of tattooing practices in the Andaman Islands

'''Stephanie du Motel... group-theory godfather Évariste Galois''' 
Évariste Galois died in a duel at the age of 20. Though much confusion surrounds the affair, it is suspected that he provoked the duel after being rejected by one Stéphanie-Felice du Motel. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evariste_Galois#Final_days Wikipedia])

==Page 602==

'''By 1906 there were Russians everywhere, flown and fleeing westward''' 
Cf [[ATD_588-614#Page 595|page 595:the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere]]. fleeing westward: most popular destination for Russian refugees was then France, later America.

'''young Ouspensky''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Uspensky Peter D. Ouspensky] (1878-1947), Russian mystic and philosopher, author of ''The Fourth Dimension'', appropriate to Pynchon's themes in ''ATD''.

An anachronism: Ouspensky's ''The Fourth Dimension'' wasn't published until 1909. (See Linda Dalrymple Henderson's ''The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art''.)

'''Theosophoid''' 
A Pynchonism. From Theosophist Cf [[ATD_219-242#Page 219|page 219:Madame Blavatsky, Theosophical Society]]. the suffix "oid" often used in mathematics, indicates a "similarity, not necessarily exact, to something else". (android: similar to a man, ovoid: similar to an egg, etc.) As it is explained in the next sentence, "That's a Theosophist, only not entirely". Fitting, in a book that is obsessed with doppelgängers and people who are at once themselves, but not quite (see the transformations of Dr. V Ganesh Rao)

'''Chong''' 
A strange and seemingly unlikely visitor to Göttingen. The name might be taken from the Chinese philosopher Wang Chong, or Wang Ch'ung. Could also be Cheech Marin's partner, Tommy Chong (C.Marin alluded to earlier p.477). - This is Sidney Reilly, a famous spy of the time, in disguise. See the note on Sidney below.

'''"The what?"''' 
(Precipitous drop in authorial expectations?)

'''Chinese Bolshevik''' 
Chinese Communist. For the true meaning of Bolshevik Cf [[ATD_615-643#Page 616|page 616:Bolshevists]]

'''Sidney . . . Kensington Sid''' 
Kensington is where elected officials worked. 

This is Sidney Reilly, the famous Ace of Spies. The reference is made clear by Swome on page 630, and, to the extent that any appearance here makes sense, a spy makes more sense than a political theorist. An annotation on page 630 includes a Wikipedia reference for Reilly. I don't know whether Reilly (or British spies of the day in general) had a particular association with Kensington, or whether the reference is to Chunxton Crescent, which is placed in roughly that part of London.

'''transtriadic''' 
Beyond the three.

==Page 603==

'''"Spiritual... At Göttingen?"''' 
Gottingen is materialistic. Preserved brains as like in a tannery.

'''Applied Mechanics Institute''' 
An institute of the University of Göttingen

'''Prandtl's recent discovery of the boundary layer''' 
Ludwig Prandtl ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Prandtl Wikipedia]) in 1904 developed the theory of the boundary layer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary%20layer Wikipedia]) in aerodynamics, greatly simplifying aerodynamic calculations.

'''powered flight . . . at the edge of history''' 
In 1905 already a reality, but the pioneering empirical work was taking place in Ohio, not Germany.

This is an excellent point that applies to many of the mathematicians mentioned in this chapter.
Minkowski invented spacetime, but Einstein created Relativity Theory. Hilbert proved his Spectral Theorem, but Heisenberg and Schrodinger created Quantum Mechanics. History was being made elsewhere. Cf Yashmeen's rant on page 594.

'''brambled guttie''' 
A proto golf-ball, see [http://www.che.rochester.edu/users/dafoster/ChE243/SciAm%20GolfBall.pdf here].

'''Bürgerstrasse''' 
German, "Citizen's Street", a street in Göttingen.<bre>
This translation is correct but here "Bürger" refers to the German poet Gottfried August Bürger (1748 - 1794) who lived in Göttingen.

'''brambling''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brambling Brambling] (''Fringilla montifringilla'') is a finch related to chaffinches, and is plumed orange, black, and white. Widespread in northern Europe and Asia, it occasionally strays to Alaska and farther south.

'''Brauweg''' 
German, "Brewery Way", a street in Göttingen.

'''Zhukovsky's Transformation''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joukowsky_transform Joukowsky Transform] maps the unit circle in the complex plane to a shape very much like an airfoil.

'''Geheimrat Klein ''' 
Geheimrat = Privy councillor. 
In geometry, the Klein model, also called the projective model... is a model of n-dimensional hyperbolic geometry in which the points of the geometry are in an n-dimensional disk, or ball, and the lines of the geometry are line segments contained in the disk; that is, with endpoints on the boundary of the disk. 

'''glass of tea''' 
(Why not 'cup'?)
because in Europe, as opposed to in England, tea may be drunk from glassware.

'''draw pictures . . . flights of arrows . . . vectors without pictures''' 
Vectors can be visualized as arrows in a plane or three-dimensional space; more generally they can be represented as arrays of coefficients, and now they are not limited to three dimensions.

'''''"...according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity." "And beyond, " added Gunther, nodding earnestly.''''' 
Reference to Buzz Lightyear's stock character phrase in 1995's TOY STORY (Pixar/Disney):
"To Infinity... and Beyond!"
--[[User:Btchakir|Btchakir]] 07:43, 19 December 2006 (PST)
:This reminded me of the caption "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" in the movie ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. [[User:WolfgangFaber|WolfgangFaber]] 07:44, 10 October 2008 (PDT)

'''according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity''' 
Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Spectral Theory]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:''infinite'' dimensions]].

==Page 604==

'''nontrivial zeroes''' 
The Riemann zeta function has two classes of zeros, the trivial zeroes being at negative even integers (-2, -4...), the non-trivial complex numbers, believed (but not proven) to have Re(z)=1/2. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis Wikipedia]. or Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 496|page 496:Zeta function conjecture]].

'''much-noted talk''' 
At the 1900 International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, Hilbert proposed a research programme of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert%27s_problems#Tabulated_information 23 problems]. The Riemann hypothesis is number 8 on the list.

'''Sorbonne''' 
Until 1971, the name ''Sorbonne'' refered to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France, one of the best universities in France. The name is derived from the ''Collège de Sorbonne'', founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon as one of the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris; the university itself as such predates the college by about a centure. In 1971, after the univeristy reforms, the five faculties of the former University of Paris were split and then reformed into thirteen interdisciplinary universities. Three of them as true "heirs" to the original, have kept the Sorbonne name as part of their official title: Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), the New Sorbonne, and the Panthéon-Sorbonne. [http://www.paris4.sorbonne.fr/en/sommaire.php3 The University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV)] was the inheritor of the former University of Paris' Arts and Sciences Faculties.

'''the outstanding problems in mathematics''' 
Hilbert's Problems are 23 (originally) unsolved problems in mathematics proposed by Hilbert. Of the 23 total appearing in the printed address, 10 were actually presented at the Second International Congress of Mathematics at the Sorbonne, Paris on August 8, 1900. [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HilbertsProblems.html Hilbert's Problems] were designed to serve as examples for the kinds of problems whose solutions would lead to the furthering of disciplines in mathermatics. As such, some were areas for investigation and therefore not strictly "problems".

'''eigenvalues''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalue Wikipedia] Dudley Eigenvalue, D.D.S., was a character in ''V.''

'''Hermitian operator''' 
A Hermitian operator generalises some of the ideas of symmetry when complex numbers are involved. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitian_operator Wikipedia]

'''spine of reality . . . ''"Rückgrat von Wirklichkeit"''''' 
Probably a reference to the main diagonal of a Hermitian matrix, which can contain only real numbers. The German phrase is one accurate way to translate the English.

:are there any others? Translate the German back to English and you get "backbone of reality"

'''Hilbert-Polya Conjecture''' 
The conjecture that the zeroes of the Riemann function would be the eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator, just what Yashmeen is suggesting. 

The most recent refinement of the Hilbert-Polya Conjecture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert–Pólya_conjecture Wikipedia] is that the operator in question arises from the quantization of a chaotic dynamical system. The zeroes would then correspond to the possible energy levels of the system. This would answer Hilbert's prompt to Yasmeen "''some'' equation" on this page, and would provide the link between prime numbers and chaos intuited by Gunther on page 597.

==Page 605==

'''Vance Aychrome''' 
The voracious detective is a stock figure in the mystery genre (Nero Wolfe, Mycroft Holmes, Inspector Dover, D.C.I. Dalziel and others). 
Is his name pronounced Eye Chrome, as in private eye? Weak possible connection?-- a truck light called Big Eye Chrome. The name sounds like 'fancy chrome.' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Vance Philo Vance] is an effete fictional detective created by S. S. Van Dyne in the 1920's. Vance Aychrome, as depicted by Pynchon, seems quite different from Philo Vance.

'''Full English Breakfast''' 
Bacon, eggs, tomato, toast... otherwise known as a fry-up.

'''Pythagorean dietary''' 
The Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who lived towards the end of the 6th century BC, was a prominent proponent of vegetarianism. The Pythagorean diet came to mean an avoidance of the flesh of slaughtered animals. Pythagorean ethics first became a philosophical morality between 490-430 BC with a desire to create a universal and absolute law including injunctions not to kill "living creatures," to abstain from "harsh-sounding bloodshed," in particular animal sacrifice, and "never to eat meat." (From a review of ''The Heretics Feast: a History of Vegetarianism'' by Colin Spencer, University Press of New England, 1995)
 
and never to eat beans (strange but true).

'''kippers and bloaters''' 
Different words (both Scottish) for smoked herrings

'''baps''' 
soft bread rolls - another Scottish word

'''Spong machine''' 
Appropriate technology. An English-made hand-cranked coffee grinder that doesn't light up, lacks a readout to tell when the beans are ready, and signally fails to function before the user wakes up. Only drawback is that some spouses compare its sound to half a load of cobbles being dumped on the roof.

'''thinned''' 
From full 78. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Wikipedia]

'''vegetarian haggis''' 
It exists: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22vegetarian+haggis Google search]

==Page 606==

'''Lamont Replevin''' 
"Replevin" is a legal term for a form of civil action to recover possession of property being wrongfully held by another.

'''Elflock Villa''' 
Elflock: A lock of hair tangled as if by elves. Often used in the plural.

'''Stuffed Edge, Herts''' 
An imaginary village in the South-East English county of Hertfordshire. Stuffed hedge?

'''kedgeree''' 
A hot breakfast dish of fish, rice, and eggs.

'''Cesare Lombroso''' 
Anthropologist who devised a method of identifying criminal "types" from their facial structures. (Cf [[ATD_171-198#Page 172|page 172: Dr. Lombroso]]).

Brock Vond, Pynchon's villain in ''Vineland'', is also a follower of Lombroso's theories. Cf. page 272-273 of ''Vineland''.

'''Trans-Oxanian''' 
From the other side of the Oxus River (now Amu-Darya) in Central Asia. Cf. [[ATD_429-459#Page 439|page 439:the Oxus]].

'''Graeco-Buddhist''' 
The hybrid cultural background evidenced in Shambhala. Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Graeco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in Central Asia in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism Wikipedia] and Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 438|page 438:Graeco-Buddhist]].

'''bad hats''' 
A bad hat is a slang term for a rascal

==Page 607==

'''Gas Office''' 
As explained in the text, the Scotland Yard bureau that kept gas communications under surveillance.

'''communication by means of coal-gas''' 
Cf Nabokov's "Ada". Also inverse of Tesla's energy-transmitter. A parallel to the Tristero, too. The description of communication by gas seems like a self-parody of ''The Crying of Lot 49.''

'''bombs... Suffragettes''' 
(Did they bomb post offices?!?)post boxes:Suffragettes carried out direct action such as chaining themselves to railings, setting fire to the contents of mailboxes, smashing windows and on occasions setting off bombs. Wikipedia

'''Persian''' 
Majority language in Iran, now called Farsi.

'''Pashto''' 
A language spoken in Afghanistan and nearby.

'''Tadjik''' 
A language spoken in Tadjikistan. "Mountain Tadjik" presumably dominates in the 60% or so of the country that is in high mountains.

'''Seven Dials''' 
In Covent Garden, London - a place where 7 roads meet. An unsavory assignment for a policeman.

==Page 608==

'''"Avoid beans"''' 
Pythagoreans follow a proscription against eating beans.

'''spotted dick''' 
A suet pudding with raisins or currants

'''Yarmouth bloater''' 
A cured herring from the port town of Yarmouth.

'''...if not for these unauthorized dilettantes all pottering about...''' 
Oddly reminiscent of the villains' perennial complaint in the old "Scooby-Doo" cartoons.

'''queering the pitch''' 
[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/297387.html Disrupting someone's business;] compare [[ATD_748-767#Page_758|"yakitori pitches," p. 758.]]

''''shape'''' 
a doughnut,which comes in various shapes? Including the math-relevant
shape: a torus. But probably just a bit of bun, scone, etc. listed as Vance's breakfast...no doughnut listed.

'Shape' is another word for blancmange, which is made of gelatin, derived probably from the bones of some animal. Aychrome wonders "what's it made of", to which Lew responds "Maybe you don't want to know." [[User:Nehoccramcire|Nehoccramcire]] 09:14, 12 March 2007 (PDT)

'''the Embankment''' 
Victoria Embankment, London, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_yard Scotland Yard] was located there from 1890 to 1967. Scotland Yard was founded on September 29, 1829, on a street off Whitehall; and in 1967 it moved to the present location at 10 Broadway Street, London.

'''blue lamps''' 
Traditionally hung outside police stations in England.

'''lamé surfaces''' 
Lamé (fabric), a fabric inwoven metallic threads 
Lamé, name of the electrically conductive jacket worn by foil and sabre fencers 
Lamé (armor), an unarticulated component of a larger piece of armor 

'''yarmulke... high crown... dented Trilby style''' 
[http://www.wpclipart.com/clothes/hats/index.html Image of a Trilby hat.]

==Page 609==

'''Bukhara''' 
Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 425|page 425:Bukhara]]

'''''Kelly's Suburban Dictionary''''' 
The peerless [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/22/design360.icon.az/index.html ''London A to Z''] did not come along until the 1930s.

'''wenlets''' 
Politician and journalist William Cobbett (1763-1835) called London "the great wen." It was not a compliment, because ''wen'' means a sebaceous cyst. Wenlets are small versions of the "great" wen.

==Page 610==

'''daylight oil''' 
from the streetlamps, lit up for hours?

'''a moon no one could see''' 
Note that the ''Inconvenience'' is repeatedly referred to as a "moon" ([[ATD_119-148#Page_144|p. 144,]] [[ATD_171-198#Page_187|p. 187]]) and is sometimes seen under other guises ([[ATD_199-218#Page_215|p. 215,]] [[ATD_243-272#Page_272|p. 272]]).

'''refused to dim''' 
(Nicely vivid.)

'''Vontz's Universal Pick''' 
Vontz (Yiddish): bedbug.

'''alchemized coke''' 
Gas works that manufacture syngas also produce coke as an end product, called gas house coke.

Fluid coking is a process by which heavy residual crude is converted into lighter products such as naptha, kerosene, heating oil, and hydrocarbon gases. The "fluid" term refers to the fact that coke particles are in a continuous system versus older batch coking technology. Wikipedia

'''Lincrusta-Walton''' 
an embossed fabric used for covering walls, invented in 1877 by Frederick Walton as an alternative to more expensive wallpapers (wikipedia).

'''hipshot''' 
having one hip lower than the other: a Greek statue in hipshot pose.M-W.

'''captive maiden''' 
In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', Oedipa Maas is referred to as a "captive maiden" in the scene where she's standing in front of the Remedios Varo painting. It would certainly be worth while to examine the parallels more closely.

'''scalene polygons''' 
Polygons with sides of unequal length.

'''jet''' 
jet black, a color.

'''Apotheosis Sparkless Torch''' 

==Page 611==

'''magnalium''' 
An alloy of magnesium and aluminum.

'''Lamont Replevin (for it was he)''' 
Formula from penny-dreadful literature: Open the chapter with an unknown character (referred to ahead of time but never yet making an appearance), describe looks and some little action, then spring the name on the reader.

'''''The Slow and the Stupefied''''' 
Daytime soap 'The Young and the Restless'.

'''gas-head''' 
Cf pothead, acidhead, etc.

'''Pike's Peak''' 
Lew's old stompinground.

'''Gus Swallowfield''' 
A curious pseudonym assumed by Lew Basnight while in the presence of Lamont Replevin. As Mr. Swallowfield, Lew professes to be an insurance salesman. The name is very overtly British and is possibly referential to the Swallowfield estate in Berkshire, which itself has a curious history.

'''most theft policies''' 
(Fact?)

'''pantechnicon''' 
A closed van or carryall. (Is TRP trying to put a burr under S. Weisenburger's saddle by bringing this vehicle back? SW's gloss in the ''GR Companion,'' at page 19 of the Viking edition, is famously wrong.) 

Pantechnicon can mean either a furniture warehouse (originally a bazaar) or a removal van. The reference in GR to "the piano in the pantechnicon" is therefore ambiguous. TRP might say that he meant a van, not a bazaar, but that would not mean that SW was wrong. Just that SW and TRP had different readings of the novel. And the author's reading does not necessarily have primacy.

This assertion is generally debateable and in the case of TRP his conscious intentions in his fully thought out novels carries a lot of primacy most of the time, most might argue. This wiki attests to that.

:Lots of people would say the wiki is wrong then. You can discover sources and you may be able to parse processes (rewrites, selection of information), but the author's intentions are not accessible; only the work is. Therefore (and so on and so forth). A philosophical question and probably not wiki-able.

'''legitimate bill of sale''' 
That is, a stolen object with a stolen bill of sale cannot be proved to be stolen; the thief has the receipt.

'''burglary insurance''' 
Although TRP writes that most theft policies were written in the US by the time Lew speaks to Replevin, the first burglary policy was in fact offered by Cuthbert Heath, an Underwriter at Lloyd's, London in about 1889, which would seem to be a few years earlier than the scene. Antony Brown, ''Cuthbert Heath'' ( David & Charles, New Abbot London 1984)at pages 72-76. [[User:TheKenoshaKid|TheKenoshaKid]] 15:52, 9 March 2008 (PDT)

==Page 612==

'''''Pavonazzetto''''' 
brecciated white marble with violet veins from Docimia, Asia Minor.

'''Phrygian marble''' 
Phrygia is an ancient region of west central Asia Minor, to the south of Bithynia. Marble from there was highly valued.

'''Atys... Agdistis''' 
From Greek and Roman mythology. Atys (or Attis) is a young lover of the goddess Cybele (also known as Agdistis in Phrygia). When he wished to marry, Cybele drove him mad and he castrated himself. Catullus wrote a poem on the subject.

'''''The Mutilation of Atys''''' 
No images: [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=%22Mutilation%20of%20Atys&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Google image search]

But under the name Attis, this two-panel sequence: [http://www.aztriad.com/aacarati.html page 1,] [http://www.aztriad.com/aacatals.html page 2,] from "Seladore's Historical Cartoons." And [http://paxnortona.notfrisco2.com/?p=2332 a photo] of what appears to be an old statue of Attis.

'''Arturo Naunt, Chelsea's own, shocking the bourgeoisie since 1889''' 
Phrasing reminiscent of advertising.

'''shocking the bourgeoisie''' 
A popular pastime for young and not-so-young soi-disant radicals ("Epater le bourgeois").

'''koumiss vessel''' 
A container for fermented horse's milk. Perhaps like this one:
[http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/husa/origins/szkitahist/scythianvessel.html]

According to the OED, an early form of the word 'koumiss' was 'cosmos' - its appearance here doesn't seem coincidental given the short disquisition on the etymology of 'chaos' soon to follow. For the Greeks 'cosmos' was the antithetical concept to 'chaos'. Pythagoras is said to be the first to apply the original meaning of 'cosmos', i.e., 'an orderly arrangement' to the universe itself.

'''depending on the angle you hold it at, sometimes it doesn't look like anything at all''' 
A concise description of anamorphic and paramorphic images; this one needs the Paramorphoscope to interpret it.

'''wrathful deities from Tantric Buddhism''' 
Tantric Buddhism is also known as Varjayana Buddhism. In Varjayana Buddhism, a dharmapāla (Tibetan drag-gshed) is a type of wrathful deity. The name means "Dharma-defender" in Sanskrit, and the dharmapalas are also known as the Defenders of the Law (Dharma) or the Protectors of the Law in English.
In Buddhist iconography, they are invariably depicted as fearsome beings, often with many heads, hands or feet; blue, black or red skin; and a fierce expression with protruding fangs. Though dharmapalas have a terrifying appearance, they are all bodhisattvas or buddhas- embodiments of compassion that act in a wrathful way for the sake of sentient beings.Wikipedia

==Page 613==

'''tiny German hand camera''' 
Probably a Zeiss Ikon. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss Wikipedia Entry]

A Zeiss Ikon would be an anachronism, as this company was created as a merger in 1926.

The description somehow suggests the classic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minox Minox] "spy cameras", but also these were created only in the 1930ies (originally in Latvia, mass production in Germany).

A small German camera matching the time would be [http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Gnom Gnom], a version of which was also sold in the UK.

'''raw light''' 
light from a gaslight is not 'artificial' as from electric lights, streetlamps, etc. Cf. Telleruide section.

'''Gasophilia''' 
Love of gas.

'''Schwärmer''' 
The name is a German word meaning visionary, zealot, raver.

'''Waves in a timeless stream of Gas''' 
Replevin equates piped gas to the æther.

'''Sensitive Flame''' 
A burner flame adjusted so that it responds to the tiniest disturbance in the
air. Used by both physicists and spiritualists.

'''cognizant nose...medium for the most exquisite poetry'''

see Proust

'''Chidambaram''' 
A city in south India and Chidambaram is one of the Panchabhoota Sthalams - temples built for the 5 elements said to embody Shiva - at Chidambaram (space), Kalahasti (wind), Thiruvanaikaval (water), Tiruvannamalai (fire) and Kanchipuram (earth).

'''''Akaša''''' 
Akasa is the fifth element,the ether, unseen and invisible but an important element permeating the whole universe. It is also considered
to be indentical with Brahma, the creator..... 
Akasa is 'simple,continuous infinite substance and is the substratum of sound.' Both from Indian Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Occultist Eliphas Levi associated akasa with what he called the "Astral Light". He writes: "[T]his electromagnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric (Perhaps this explains Pynchon's insistence on the term "luminiferous aether"?), is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis which twines round two poles and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of Saturn" -- emblem of infinity, immortality, and Kronos -- 'Time'". He says it is "a force in Nature," by means of which "a single man who can master it... might throw the world into confusion and transform its face"; for it is the "great Arcanum of transcendent Magic." It is a "blind force... which souls must conquer in order to detach themselves from the chains of Earth; 'for if they should not,' they will be absorbed by the same power which first produced them and will return to the central and eternal fire."

It gets better... He writes: "It is through this Force that all the nervous centres secretly communicate with each other; from it -- that sympathy and antipathy are born; from it -- that we have our dreams; and that the phenomena of second sight and extra-natural visions take place... Astral Light, acting under the impulsion of powerful wills, destroys, coagulates, separates, breaks, gathers in all things... God created it on that day when he said: Fiat Lux..." He refers to akasa/Astral Light variably as "the body of the Holy Ghost", the "grand Agent Magique", "Lucifer" and "Baphomet", the winged-goat figure that served as the inspiration for the Devil Tarot card designed by Colman-Smith. [http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-1-12.htm From Madame Blavatsky's "The Secret Doctrine"][http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-2-06.htm Más]

[http://laluni.helloyou.ws/askbaba/prasnottaravahini/prasnottara01.html This page] also equates akasa with the ether and sez that "each subsequent element originated from the previous one" with akasa being the first, similar to the Kaballic Tree of Life.

'''Atman''' 
''Sanskrit''. In Hinduisim, the innermost essence of each individual. Also, the soul. ''Cf.'' Weed Atman in ''Vineland''.

''''''Chaos'''''' 
allusion is seems to Genesis. "Chaos" is in fact the Greek word [for without form and void], says this site.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."
-- Genesis 1: 1-4 (KJV)

'''van Helmont''' 
He claimed to have coined the word "gas" in just the way described here.

'In his "Physica" (1633), the Rosicrucian alchemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, wrote: "Ad huc spiritum incognitum Gas voco," i.e., "This hitherto unknown Spirit I call Gas." Further on in the same work he says, "This vapor which I have called Gas is not far removed from the Chaos the ancients spoke of."' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_light#Esoteric_conceptions wiki]

'''stridently unpopulated''' 
Cf p610.

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

ATD 588-614

2010-09-01T01:15:30Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 590 */

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

==Page 588==

'''tannery''' 
In ancient history, tanning was considered a noxious or "odiferous trade" and relegated to the outskirts of town, amongst the poor. Indeed, tanning by ancient methods is so foul smelling that tanneries are still isolated from those towns today where the old methods are used.

'''Gottlob''' 
Literally "praise to God", as an exclamation also "Thank God!". Though it is rare, it is a real German name. 
Very much so: for example of mathematician/philospher Gottlob Frege, who did study at Göttingen, but not at this time.

'''Humfried''' 
A German translation of Humphrey. This was not an existing German name any time after the medieval, though.

'''Gauss's brain''' 
After Carl Friedrich Gauss died in 1855, his brain was preserved for research purposes. To this day, it is in the possession of the University of Göttingen. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].

'''impervious to the wind''' 
(Attribute of tanned leather?)

'''''"Heiliger Bimbam!"''''' 
A German expression of surprise, translated elsewhere as "Holy Moly!"

'''It is she, she!''' 
probably an allusion to H. Rider Haggard's She. See Wikipedia entry. She has been purified by a pillar of fire. In ''Against the day'', she rises from the swamp. Carl Jung, who used the novel ''She'' (1887) as an example of anima, posited the anima is an archetypical form, expressing the fact that a man has a minority of female genes. Haggard's Queen Ayesha is an unmistakable anima type the ultimate guide and mediator to the inner world. The idea has also connections with the observations of James Frazer in his classical study ''The Golden Bough''. Haggard's idea of a journey into the "darkest Africa," which turns into a spiritual search, has been used by a number of writers, including Joseph Conrad in ''Heart of Darkness'' (1902). 
"My empire is of thy imagination", She says in the novel, "She". Cf. a line, [which I am checking] in "The Crying of Lot 49".

She is 'discovered' somewhere in unknown Africa by some British 'explorers' in a hidden kingdom, and she first appears in a sort of late 19th century private boudoir there. She came to that place via a complicated story some 2000 years earlier, and is of Yemenite origin, having come to the world in pretty much the normal fashion. Yashmeen seems indeed to be based on some fin-de-siecle imaginations of the 'ideal' woman (her looks in general, and the often mentioned streaming black hair of hers), but unlike Haggard's She, Yashmeen is rather powerless in the long run, despite her obvious erotic influence on the men and women in ATD. - Tommaso

:Powerless is a term worth lots of discussion here. [User: MKOHUT]

:It is certainly possible that the line is an allusion, but I think it may simply be a set-up to another goofy Pynchonian linguistic joke-- "Not 'chichi,' idiot..."

'''rim''' 
Kit pretends to think he's referring to monocle as 'chichi' (stylish).

'''Kovalevskaia''' 
Sofia Kovalevskaia, 1850-1891. Russian mathematician, in 1884 appointed professor in Stockholm. The third female professor in Europe ever. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Sofia Kovalevskaia]] and (Wikipedia)

'''Roentgen-ray spectacles''' 
The X-ray glasses that used to be advertised in comic books.

'''''natürlich''''' 
German: naturally.

==Page 589==

'''Those curves are everywhere continuous but nowhere differentiable''' 
This is exactly a description of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weierstrass_function Weierstrass function] (1872), a pathological example of a real-valued function on the real line. This function was cited on page 594 by Yashmeen as one of the crises in mathermatics. Also see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/WeierstrassFunction.html Weierstrass function from MathWorld] and Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Karl Weierstrass]].

'''Those curves . . . ''Noli me tangere''''' 
A well-turned wordplay: The operation of differentiating a curve involves drawing ''tangents'' to it at selected points. The curves in question are continuous, but the injunction ''Noli me tangere'' means you can't draw the tangents.

:If a curve is nowhere differentiable then there will be no tangents anywhere. The curve is everywhere ''untouchable''.

'''''Noli me tangere''''' 
Latin for 'don't touch me'

or, in the immortal words of MC Hammer; "You can't touch this"

'''And is that a revolver you're carrying''' 
Implying, perhaps, an unvocalized "or are you just happy to see me?" Which would be in accord with Kit's reaction to the sight of a woman wearing a toque.

'''''Hausknochen''''' 
German: a giant housekey, as defined, literally House Bone,with perhaps a
double entendre on bone?

Also, slang for [http://www.russki-mat.net/page.php?l=DeFr&a=H penis].

==Page 590==

'''Hadamard... Poussin... Prime Number Theorem''' 
Jacques Hadamard and Charles de la Vallée-Poussin independently proved the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem prime number theorem] in 1896, relying on Riemann's Zeta function. The prime number theorem makes assertions about the distribution of prime numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hadamard.html Jacques Hadamard] (1865-1963), a French mathematician best known for his proof of the Prime Number Theorem in 1896.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Vallee_Poussin.html de la Vallée Poissin] (1866-1962), a Belgian mathematician best known for his proof (independently) of the Prime Number Theorem and his major work ''Cours d'Analyse''.

The Prime Number Theorem defied proof for several decades, and legend at the time had it that whoever did prove it would live forever. Examination of the dates of birth and death of both Hadamard and de la Vallée-Poussin show that this was not too far from the truth.

'''patent ''Kühlbox''''' 
''Kühlbox'' here just means "icebox" or "cooler." Refrigerators were available at the time of the action but not widely used, so an icebox is more likely. It's upstairs in Kit's room, so not necessarily portable.

"Patent," attached to a noun like [[ATD_429-459#Page_457|leather or pencil,]] could mean really, officially patented ''or'' novel and gimmicky. Patent medicines are sold under protected names but not genuine patents in most cases. So the icebox features some radical or distinctive design. My money's on asbestos insulation between the zinc sheets.

[http://www.dhm.de/datenbank/index.html?/datenbank/rb00/rb000891.html Pic of a ca. 1920 Eiskiste-model]. According to German Wikipedia, the mobile "Eiskiste" (icebox) had to be filled with (natural) ice, while its successor, the Kühlbox, worked/works with "Kühlaggregate" (cooling units). The contributor is not sure if suchlike were around at that time. German Wikipedia on [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiskiste Eiskiste] and [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BChlbox Kühlbox].

'''beleaguered subset''' 
a group (from the whole) under attack

'''That is, is it was ''some smile''''' 
Typo, for That is, it was ''some smile''.

'''Prime Number Theorem''' 
The Prime Number Theorem constitutes any number of equivalent statements concerning the distribution of prime numbers. Let ''π(n)'' be the number of primes that are less than ''n'', and let ''p''''n'' denote the ''n''th prime number. The Prime Number Theorem states that ''π(n) ~ n/ln(n)'' as ''n'' approaches infinity, or equivalently that ''p''''n'' ''~ n ln(n)''.

==Page 591==

'''prats''' 
Literally the buttocks. As a slang term, a 'prat' is an [[Idiots and Idiocy in Against the Day|idiot]].

'''''Die Nullstellen der ζ-Funktion''''' 
German: the zeroes of the ζ function. (Null = zero; Stelle = location.) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_zeta_function#Zeros_of_the_Riemann_zeta_function Wikipedia] on the "Zeros of the Riemann zeta-function".

'''not all that hard to prove''' 
Kit will upset the applecart if he can prove the Riemann Hypothesis; Yashmeen's research topic will shrink to triviality. (Last time I checked, no one had yet proved the hypothesis.)

'''"Richard Harding Davis"''' 
Popular writer of fiction and drama, journalist/war-correspondent and a major male-role-model of his time (1864 - 1916). He was considered the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's dashing Gibson man, the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. He is also referenced early in Sinclair Lewis's book, ''Dodsworth'' as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Harding_Davis Wikipedia]. Among other things, he reported on Belgian atrocities in the Congo.

'''seldom, if ever''' 
Cf p559 re Umeki!?

'''tetralatry''' 
made up from greek "tettares" (prefix -tetra) = four and "latreia" = worship

'''C. Howard Hinton''' 
Charles Howard Hinton (1853 – 1907) was a British mathematician and writer of science fiction works titled ''Scientific Romances''. He was interested in higher dimensions, particularly the fourth dimension, and is known for coining the word ''tesseract'' and for his work on methods of visualising the geometry of higher dimensions. He also had a strong interest in theosophy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard_Hinton Wikipedia Entry]

'''Johann K.F. Zöllner''' 
Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (1834–1882) was a German astrophysicist. Studied Photometrie and optical illusions. He insisted a fourth dimension should be considered in Physics and tried to scientifically explain spiritist phenomena.

'''vogue... 'vague'''' 
Nice wordplay as Yashmeen seems to think the vogue of mysticism is not very precise, is 'vague' intellectually. Further play on "vague" = wave, as in an intellectual fad, e.g. in film, the French "Nouvelle Vague" (New Wave).

==Page 592==

'''upside-down triangles''' 
Also Pléiade p538. In mathematics that would be the operator ''del'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del Wikipedia]. Since pre-history and across most cultures the upside-down triangle is a symbol for the female (genitals).

Florian Cajori's ''A History of Mathematical Notations'' (v.2 p.135) states that the del (aka Hamiltonian operator) was introduced by William Hamilton in his 1853 lecture on Quaternions. Rumour has it that it is supposed to be a drawing of an ancient Hebrew harp (nabla). It is also known as the atled (backword delta).

This in turn suggests (within the context of AtD (atled??) a reversal of time or a mirror image of change.

'''screamingly obvious fallacy in this . . . "proof" of yours''' 
Yashmeen reacts in a slight panic to Kit's threat (page 591).

'''metallic banging''' 
Hausknochen on doors, with 'banging' entendre.

'''"metric interval"''' 
In Euclidean (three-dimensional) space a distance is just what you think it is. In other geometrical systems the term "metric interval" is preferred as a generalized distance.

'''social life is unpredictable''' 
mirrors the situation in the "Hotel Noctambulo", p. 462. Are all these guys "chums of chance"?

[Not sure about the "chums" idea, but more confusion between public and private space on pg. 155 -- Hunter Penhallow leaving the ruined city, presumably in a time machine: "At some point he must have come indoors, entering a sort of open courtyard....Without intending to, he was walking through inhabited rooms."]

'''Weenderstrasse '''
The main shopping street in Göttingen.

'''Prinzenstrasse and Weenderstrasse''' 
A street corner at the very center of Göttingen ([http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=g%C3%B6ttingen,+germany&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=17&ll=51.534284,9.935417&spn=0.006107,0.010793&t=h Google Maps]), "known to mathematicians here as the origin of the city of Göttingen's coordinate system". 
The intersection of these two streets is colloquial called "the navel". For visitors it is not that spectacular, but it's the number one meeting point for people who live in Göttingen before going to a cafe or pub. (I don't know, why we allways meet there, but we allways do!) So Pynchon definitley knows, why he compares this street corner with the origin of Göttingen's coordinate system. 
By the way, one of the oldest bookstores of Göttingen is situated right at the described corner of Prinzen- and Weenderstrasse.

==Page 593==

'''twenty marks''' 
A mark is short for deutschemark, a German monetary unit. 
That was the case after the Second World War, but the unit was just called the mark until at least the end of the empire. [http://www.thegoldcoinstore.com/WorldGold/German_Gold_20_Marks_Kaizer_Wilhelm_II.php Here] is a picture of a 20 mark coin from the period of the action.

'''''der Pistolenheld''''' 
German: the pistol hero. Meaning: the gunman. 'Pistolenheld' seems rather funny, the correct German word is: der Revolverheld.

'''automorphic functions and the Anharmonic Pencil''' 
[http://mathworld.wolfram.com/AutomorphicFunction.html Automorphic Functions] are generalizations of trigonometric functions and elliptic functions.

Anharmonic Pencil see [[ATD_525-556#Page 532|page 532:Anharmonic Pencil]].

'''''das Nichtharmonischestrahlenbündel''''' 
Or ''das nichtharmonische Strahlenbündel.'' German: the anharmonic pencil. A "pencil" is the set of lines passing through a point.

'''Euler''' 
Leonhard Euler (pronounced Oiler; IPA [ˈɔʏlɐ]) (April 15, 1707 – September 7, 1783) was a Russian-German mathematician and physicist of Swiss descent. From Wikipedia and below:

Euler made important discoveries in fields as diverse as calculus, number theory, and topology. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function. [1] He is also renowned for his work in mechanics, optics, and astronomy.

Euler is considered to be the preeminent mathematician of the 18th century and one of the greatest of all time.

'''Felix Klein''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Klein.html Felix Klein] (1849-1925), a German mathematician, best known for his work in non-Euclidean goemetry, for his work on the connections between geometry and group theory, and for results in function theory. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 565|page 565:Felix Klein]].

'''''Mathematical Theory of the Top''''' 
Published in the U.S. in 1897. Compare Felix Klein and Arnold Sommerfeld, ''Über die Theorie des Kreisels,'' 4 volumes, 1897-1910.

'''Leopold Kronecker''' and '''Cantor''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Kronecker.html Leopold Kronecker] (1823-1891), a German mathematician, primary contributions were in the theory of equations. He made major contributions in elliptic functions and the theory of algebraic numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Cantor.html Georg Cantor] (1845-1918), a German mathematician. He founded set theory and introduced the concept of infinite numbers with his discovery of cardinal numbers. He also advanced the study of trigonometric series. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 250|page 250:Dr. Cantor]]).

The "monumental quarrel between Kronecker and Cantor" is also referred to as a "religious war," appropriately enough. It's based in a disagreement over the legitimacy of numbers. Kronecker held that "'the positive integers were created by God, and all else is the work of man.'" This is contradicted by "'Cantor with his ''Kontinuum'', professing an equally strong belief in just those regions, infinitely divisible, which lie ''between'' the whole numbers so demanding of all Kronecker's devotion.'"

The disagreement between the two mathematicians is reminiscent of (or does it anticipate?) the rift between Pointsman and Mexico in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Kronecker's integers "created by God" have become a Pavlovian digital binary for Pointsman, but the two oppositions track faithfully right down to the italicized "between."

"The young statistician [Mexico] is devoted to number and to method, not table-rapping or wishful thinking. But in the domain of zero to one, not-something to something, Pointsman can only possess the zero and the one. He cannot, like Mexico, survive anyplace in between. Like his master I. P. Pavlov before him, he imagines the cortex of the brain as a mosaic of tiny on/off elements.... But to Mexico belongs the domain ''between'' zero and one." [Page 55]

It should be noted, however, that the continuous number line was a modern innovation. In Greek number theory, a number is a collection of indivisible units. Irrationals, such as the square root of 2 are not numbers but "magnitudes." One is not even a number for it is not a number of units. There are no negative numbers as well. (see Klein's Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra.) So Kronecker's position may be less of a crazy innovation as much as a maintenance of ancient theory.

:That last paragraph makes an excellent point.

'''the square root of minus one''' 
The imaginary number ''i''. Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:Imarginary Number]].

'''the square root of ''plus two''' 
From Carl B. Boyer's ''A History of Mathematics'', 2nd Ed. 1991, pp.564 & 565): 
The domain of rational numbers can be extended to form a continuum of real numbers if one assumes Cantor-Dedekind axiom that the points on a line can be put into one-to-one correspondence with the real numbers. "Arithmetically expressed, this means that for every division of the rational numbers into two classes A and B such that every number of the first class, A, is less than every number of the second class, B, there is one and only one real number producing this ''Schnitt'', or . . . cut. If A has a largest number, or if B contains a smallest number, the cut defines a rational number; but if A has no largest number and B no smallest, then the cut defines an irrational number. If, for example, we put in A all negative rational numbers and also all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2, and in B all positive rational numbers whose squares are more than 2, we have subdivided the entire field of rational numbers in a manner defining an irrational number—in this case the number that we usually write as" ''suqare root of 2''. In fact, the squae root of ''plus two'' "can be defined simply as that segment or subclass of the set of rational numbers made up of all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2 and also of all negative rational numbers." —— This is what Kronecker did not believe.

'''''Kontinuum''''' 
This passage closely parallels the one about the "microcosm of Venice" on page 575.

==Page 594==

'''''Nervenklinik''''' 
German: nerve clinic. Three-dollar word for a mental hospital.

'''boundless epsilonic world''' 
Epsilon, Greek letter like E. In mathematics (particularly calculus), an arbitrary (or nearly so) small positive quantity is commonly denoted ε; see limit.
By analogy with this, the late mathematician Paul Erdős also used the term "epsilons" to refer to children (Hoffman 1998, p. 4). Wikipedia; of Huxley's five classes of citizens in ''Brave New World'' epsilons were purposely stunted physically and intellectually.

'''Der Finsterzwerg''' 
The choice of the tavern "The Dwarf of Darkness" may have been meant as a dig at five-foot-tall Kronecker.

'''chloral hydrate''' 
A/k/a "knockout drops" a/k/a a "Mickey Finn". Hence the ''Mickifest''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloral_hydrate Wikipedia entry].

'''''Kneipe''''' 
German: pub

'''Gauss passing to Weber a remark''' 
Carl Friedrich Gauss (Gauß) (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician and scientist of profound genius who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy and optics. Sometimes known as "the prince of mathematicians" and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", Gauss had a remarkable influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians. (Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].)

That influence is seen in the field of statistics where the Gaussian distribution (also known as the normal distribution, popularly known as the bell curve) is named after him. With its ability to correctly model "psychological measurements and physical phenomena" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution] and its resemblance to both the rainbow and the rocket's arc, there's no surprise Pynchon references it often in GR, even having Roger Mexico quote the formula as "an old saying among my people" (p.709, the Mexico quotation is actually some strange variant of the Normal distribution).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Eduard_Weber Wilhelm Weber] (1804-91), a noted German physicist. He studied magnetism with Gauss and in 1831, on the recommendation of Gauss, he was appointed as professor of physics at Göttingen. And in 1833 Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph. The SI unit of magnetic flux, the ''weber'', is named after him.

In 1831 Gauss developed a fruitful collaboration with the physics professor Wilhelm Weber; it led to new knowledge in the field of magnetism (including finding a representation for the unit of magnetism in terms of mass, length and time) and the discovery of Kirchhoff's circuit laws in electricity. Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph in 1833, which connected the observatory with the institute for physics in Göttingen. Gauss ordered a magnetic observatory to be built in the garden of the observatory and with Weber founded the magnetischer Verein ("magnetic club"), which supported measurements of earth's magnetic field in many regions of the world. He developed a method of measuring the horizontal intensity of the magnetic field which has been in use well into the second half of the 20th century and worked out the mathematical theory for separating the inner (core and crust) and outer (magnetospheric) sources of Earth's magnetic field

'''Göttingen . . . in the war with Prussia''' 
This refers to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Prussian_war Austro-Prussian War], (also called Seven Weeks' War), June 15–August 23, 1866, between Prussia, allied with Italy, and Austria, allied with Bavaria, Wüttemberg, Saxony (where Göttingen is located), Hanover, Baden and several other smaller German states. It was Bismarck's aim to expel, by force, Austria from the German Confederation as a step toward the unification of Germany under Prussian dominace.
:Göttingen is in Saxony now (specifically the state of ''Niedersachsen'' or Lower Saxony), but until 1866 it was an important city in the Kingdom of Hanover.

'''political crisis in Europe''' 
The period of 1870 to 1914 was characterized by the Anglo-German naval race and European powers - Germany, Italy, Belgium, Britain and France - scrambled for Africa. The major events in Europe were: 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War; 1905 Russian Revolution; 1908 Bosnia Crisis; 1911-12 Italian Turkish War; 1912-13 Balkan War; 1914 World War I began.

'''crisis in mathematics . . . Weierstrass functions, Cantor's continuum, Russell's inexhaustible capacity for mischief''' 
A genuine crisis as well-established ideas were challenged. Weierstrass functions have the unheard-of property that they are "continuous but nowhere differentiable." Cantor's ideas about the continuum violated a longstanding prohibition against infinite quantities. Bertrand Russell around this time was setting the cat among the pigeons by identifying paradoxes and inconsistencies in set theory and number theory.

'''"the infinite" was all but a conjuror's convenience''' 
There is a very good book relating how the infinite, between the 18th and early 20th centuries, finally found a place in mathematics: ''In Search of Infinity'' by N.Ya. Vilenkin (translated by Abe Shenitzer).

==Page 595==

'''That winter, in St. Petersburg . . . Hundreds were killed and wounded.''' 
22 Jan 1905, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281905%29 Bloody Sunday]. 

The event on January 22, 1905, ''Bloody Sunday'', was a watershed in the Russian history. 
Russia's armies were losing to the Japanese in the Far East. Her workers at home were challenging the rule of Romanov's Autocracy. At the beginning of 1905, the workers of ''Putilov Works'' of St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, went on stike for better living and working conditions. They were joined by many from other factories. Father Gapon, a priest, urged the striking workers to present directly to the Tsar on January 22, 1905 a petition to seek justice and protection. They would beg Nicholas II to come to their aid. The morning of January 22 was very cold (about five degrees below freezing) and some 200,000 workers and their wives and children came peacefully and orderly carrying icons, portraits of Nicholas, and no revolutionary placards not even red handkerchiefs. To stop the workers' march upon the Palace Square barricades were set across several avenues that connected to the city center. At each of these points, soldiers tried to turn back the marchers and, at several of them, officers ordered to fire into the crowds. The worst slaughter took place on the Winter Palace Square itself, between 150 and 200 men, women, and children lay shot dead and another 450 to 800 had been wounded while the Cossacks charged into the dispersing crowds with sabers drawn. 
Bloody Sunday, as that tragic day soon became known, marked the beginning of what the Tsar's mother called the "year of nightmares", and the beginning of what many others called the "year of revolution". (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)).

'''Grand Duke Sergei''' 
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (1857-1905) was the uncle and brother-in-law of Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918, Reign: 1894-1917). In 1891 he was appointed as Moscow Governor General. In 1894 he also was a member of the State Council. He resigned from the Governorship on January 1, 1905 but continued as Commander of the Moscow military district. In the afternoon of February 17, 1905, in a carriage leaving the Kremlin Grand Duke Sergei was killed by a nitroglycerine bomb thrown by a Socialist Revolutionary terrorist directly into his lap. He was literally blown to bits and pieces. The assassination of Grand Duke Sergei signaled the beginning of a broader wave of popular unrest that had been sparked by the events of Bloody Sunday and swept the whole nation. Many more assassinations, strikes, disorders and uprisings followed during the year.
(Grand Duke Sergei's replacement, Shurvalov, was assassinated on July 11 of the same year.)

'''More strikes . . . peasant and military insurections . . . into the summer''' 
In January-February, turbulent reaction to Bloody Sunday spread across neighboring regions, especially the industrial centers which experienced spontaneous workers' strikes: Vilno, Kovno, Kiev, Moscow were paralyzed. In February-March the labor unrests reached Saratov Province and the Caucasus, and Siberia. Labor unrests were persistent throughout Russia into August. In early March university students left their classrooms, and at the end of the month the authorities closed down all the universities throughout the whole country for the rest of the academic year. (Student unrest even reached Orthodox seminaries.) 
In March, peasant unrests erupted widely, especially in Kursk, and Chernigov and Orel provinces and northwest regions of European Russia. In June, the Battleship ''Potemkin'' mutinied and in the Black Sea port city Odessa there was a large scale uprising by the sailors, soldiers, workers and ordinary citizens. On June 28 afternoon hundreds of protesters were killed on the Odessa Steps which was immortalized by the classic movie sequence in the 1925 Eisenstein's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Batlleship_Potemkin ''The Battleship Potemkin''] (considered by some one of the greatest films of all time). In summer widespread peasants' attacks on landowners' estates dramatically increased throughout Russia. The Peasant Union was organized at a secret August 13-14 Moscow conference.

'''Kronstadt''' 
Kronstadt was a naval fortress in the Gulf of Finland 18 miles west of St. Petersburg. Following the destruction of the Baltic Fleet by the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318: The Russo-Japanese War]]) Kronstadt joined the general uprising which swept the whole Russian country. The first Kronstadt uprising on November 8-9, 1905, participated in by the majority of Kronstadt's 13,000 sailors and soldiers, was basically a large armed riot accompanied by liberal political demands. It lasted only two days. Kronstadt's second uprising took place in July 1906 but was brutally suppressed.

'''Sebastopol''' 
A port city of Russia (now, Sevastopol of Ukrain), located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimean peninsula west of Yalta. Sebastopol was associated with rebellion, mutiny and civil war. 
On June 27, 1905 the battleship ''Potemkin'' sailed from Sebastopol to Odessa and to mutiny against the ship's oppressive officers. The mutineers killed seven of the eighteen officers, including the Captain and the Second in Command. The ship eventually sailed to Romania and turned over to the authority there on July 7. (Sergei Eisenstein's ''The Battlehip Potemkin'' made her famous well beyond Russia.) 
On October 1, 1905, citizen of Sebastopol and sailors from the Black Fleet demonstrated in the city center demanding the authority to free political prisoners, etc, but were met with gun fire. Wide spread unrest and naval mutinies followed. In November the cruiser ''Ochakov'' led a rebellion joined by several other warships. The rebellion was eventually suppressed by a stronger government force a couple of months later.

'''Black Hundreds''' 
Anti-Semitic vigilantes.

The name was a derogatory one, adapted from the term "White Hundreds", which was used in medieval Russia for the privileged caste of nobles and wealthy merchants. The lower-class types who joined the Black Hundreds were not in this class hence their ironic nomenclature. It was formed in response to the October Manifesto by those who had either lost or were afraid of losing their petty status in the social hierachy as a result of modernization and reform. They blamed the Jews as the ultimate cuase for Tsar's retreat. Fighting revolution in the streets was their way of revenging themselves, a means of putting the clock back and restoring the social and racial hierarchy. (Based on Orlando Figes' ''A People's Tragedy'' (1996))

'''Japanese won''' 
The Japanese destroyed the bulk of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima Strait on May 27-28, 1905. In ''GR'', the soon-to-be-defeated fleet puts in at German Southwest Africa during the 1904 Herero Revolt; Tchicherine's father, a sailor in that fleet, may also be the father of Enzian, leader of the Schwarzcommando.

By January 1905 the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo_Japanese_War Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)] had been going on in Manchuria for nearly a year. In the summer of 1904, the Russia's Pacific Fleet was bottled up inside Port Arthur (now, Lüshun, Liaoning, China) and the port was under siege as from August. In October, the Tsar sent the entire Baltic Fleet to relief the siege. At the beginning of 1905, Port Arthur finally fell after a siege and bombardment lasted 156 days. In March 1905 Russia and Japan fought the greatest land battle in the history up to then at Mukden (Shenyang, Liaoning). Each side committed more than 300,000 troops and over 1,000 pieces of artillery. After nearly one month's fighting both lost more than 50,000 killed and wounded, but the Russians withrew 40 miles to the north. After streaming halfway around the world in a grueling voyage of many months without adequate logistic support, on May 27 the Russian fleet met the waiting Japanese (under Admiral Togo) in the Tsuhsima Straits that separated Japan and Korea. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima Battle of Tsushima Straits (May 27-28)] was one of the most decisive naval battles in history. Even though the Russians had more ships and more heavy guns, but within a few hours, they lost 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 5 minelayers and 4 other ships. Four more battleship surrendered next day, and the Russian commanding admiral (Admiral Rozhdestvenskii) was also captured. The Japanese lost only a total of 3 torpedo boats. (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)). 
After two months' negotiation, the Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of the Peace Treaty of Porstmouth (New Hampshire) on September 5, 1905.

'''A general strike in the autumn . . .''' 
In late September a printers' strike in Moscow was in progress for over a fortnight. By October 18 it seemed that the strike was losing steam. But on October 20 railroad workers struck the Moscow-Kazan Railway and the strike spread outward along all the railroad lines: to St Petersburg in the west, to Voronesh and Kharkov in the south; and by October 23 it had reached Siberia. Twenty-six thougsand miles of track were immobilized as 750,000 railroad employees struck. At this time much of European Russia was in the grip of one of the greatest and most effective general strikes in the history of labor protest anywhere in the world. All of Russia's industry ground to a halt, everyone stopped work. Factory workers, servants, postal workers, telegraph operators, janitors, and hackney drivers all walked off their jobs, as did bank clerks, shop clerks, and clerks in government office. Doctors, laywers, schoolteachers, university professors, even the entire corps de ballet of the great Imperial Mariinskii Theatre—all joined the strike. There were no newspapers, no streetlights, no tramcars . . . As all rail traffic stopped and telegraph line dead, Russia was isolated from the rest of the world. At the same time, the revolutionary groups organized a new body for coordinating the activities of the striking workers and for expressing their joint political and economic demands: the "St. Petersburg
''Soviet'' of Workers' Deputies". Many other Soviets were set up and developed later as alternate governing organizations. The name and organization ''Soviet'' (Russian word ''Sovet'' means council) took on a legendary meaning from then on and became historical. 
With the regime on the verge of collapse, in response, the Tsar, advised by the Prime Minister, issued the famouse ''October Manifesto'' on October 30, 1905, by which Nicholas granted to all Russian civil rights, agreed to summon a Duma (Parliament) elected by wide (though not universal) suffrage, and agreed that all laws must be approved by the Duma. In the meantime, on December 16, troops were sent to arrest some three hundred members of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. The Revolution of 1905 in the Capital passed into history.

'''In December . . . another major uprising''' 
In Moscow, the Soviet of Workers' Deputies proclaimed a general strike for December 20. When the authorities moved to arrest the stike leaders, an armed uprising broke out. Barricades went up in workers' quarter of the city, and revolutionaries from St. Petersburg, Odessa, and elsewhere joined in the struggle. Nicholas dispatched elite troops with artillery which reduced the rebels' area to ruins. By December 31, the rebellion in Moscow was over. The number of killed and wounded totaled over a thousand.

'''In the East . . . up and down the railroad lines''' 
The Russo-Japanese War was officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on August 23, 1905. In late summer there were numerous minor mutinies by troop returning from Manchuria on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Fighting between the left and the right erupted on October 20 around Tomsk. On November 12, mutinous soldiers and sailors destroyed much of Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, the end of the Trans-Siberian. There were unrests and uprisings in Chita (November 29), Irkutsk (December 13), and Novorossiisk (December 22) as well.

'''Muslim rebellion''' 
The downfall of the Ottoman Empire by Turkey?

:No. In this whole paragraph Pynchon only factually describes the events in Russia and the Russian 1905 Revolution.

:Muslims in Central Asia (Kirghiz, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tadzhik, and others) had never been happy as pawns in the "Great Game" and now (1905) attempted to throw off Russian domination. Turkey, center of the Ottoman Empire, had its rebellion a few years later.

:The text said "'''''a''''' Muslim rebellion". Anyone knows this 1905 Muslim Rebellion in Russia?

'''the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere''' 
The well-known 1905 Revolution in Russian history was the beginning of the fall of the ''Old Regime''. The text "as the Revolution went collapsing" refered exactly to this one, not the February and October Revolutions in 1917. So "the year that followed" refered to 1906. In fact, Pynchon explicitly stated on page 602: "''By 1906'' there were Russians everywhere, . . ."

Soon after the collapse of the 1905 Revolution many Russians emmigrated abroad. They were 1) opponents to the Tsar regime feared of reprisal and backlash; 2) intelligentsia who were frightened by what just happened and afraid of a more violent upheaval in the future (Maxim Gorky, the writer, left Russia in the spring of 1906); 3) Jews, the victims of the large scale pogroms in 1905-06 (1964 Broadway musical ''Fiddler on the Roof'' told the story of how one Jewish family being forced to leave Russia in 1906); 4) youngsters who escaped the compulsory millitary service or looked for a quieter place for education. This was the second wave (1905-1917) of Russian emmigration. (1st wave: 1880-1905; 3rd: 1917-1939; 4th: 1945-1960; 5th: 1991-current).

'''as the Revolution went collapsing''' 
The first paragraph of this page is a factual description of the revolutionary events occured in Russia in 1905 which were later collectively called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1905 1905 Revolution]. It was the foreshock of that of 1917. It had all of Russia in its grip, and its outbreak had not been planned; it had simply grown spontaneously. It failed under the usual combination of repression and concessions. (see Richard Pipes' ''The Russian Revolution'' (1990)). In Soviet Marxist history 1905 Revolution is second only in importance to 1917 October Revolution, one of the most important revolutionary iconic events. (The 1917 Frebruary Revolution, the one actually overthrew the Tsar's Regime, was lightly mentioned because it was considered a ''bourgeois revolution''.) Numerous books, songs, poems, films . . . had been devoted to this Revolution. To the west the most memorable are the Eisenstein's silent film ''Battleship Potmekin'' (1925) and Shostakovich's ''Symphony No 11: The year 1905'' (1957).

'''Peter and Paul Fortress''' 
At St. Petersburg, established by Peter the Great. Political prisoners were confined there from the first half of the 1700s. Conditions were notoriously harsh.

'''kazatsky''' 
A Cossack dance, stereotypical Russian behavior.

'''raid....Waziristan''' 
Waziristan (Pashto: وزیرستان) is a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11 585 km² (4,473 mi²). It comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The North-West Frontier Province lies immediately to the east. The region was an independent tribal territory from 1893, remaining outside of British-ruled empire and Afghanistan. Tribal raiding into British-ruled territory was a constant problem for the British, eliciting frequent punitive expeditions between 1860 and 1945. Wikipedia

Currently, it is thought to be the last stronghold of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.

:Worth noting, perhaps, that Yashmeen came from Russia and had been ''transported'' to Waziristan for sale as a slave.

==Page 596==

'''as-ever transcendentally interesting hair''' 
(Perhaps a reference to Albert Einstein?)

Possibly, but given the numerous mentions of the Zeta function it is most likely a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_numbers Transcendental Numbers]. These are irrational numbers that do not exist as the zero (or solution) to any algebraic function. A number of groundbreaking results regarding transcendentalism were made around the time the novel is set, and most if not all of the mathematicians and mathematical methods mentioned in the book revolve around transcendental numbers and functions.

Given that these numbers are often expressed as an infinite series, in which successive terms add ever-more-minuscule amounts to the value of the number, yet each digit is fascinatingly unique (since the decimal never repeats), it seems to me that Pynchon is suggesting that Yashmeen's hair has the quality of being endlessly fascinating, that even the observation of a single hair (or even a portion of a single hair) is involving and invigorating. This would mirror Kit's fascination and infatuation with Yashmeen, and the term would likely spring readily to the mind of a mathematician of the era.[[User:Dharper|Dharper]] 08:15, 16 January 2007 (PST)

'''. . . the Revolution''' 
Russian 1905 Revolution.

'''...it all finds its way back to the T.W.I.T. people....'''

"and what comes out of their shop can surprisingly often be trusted"

Suggestive of the CIA's Stargate Project in Remote Viewing

''''gen'''' 
British military slang for information. To gen-up is to learn quickly. OED gives earliest recorded use of the word as 1940.

'''a soul impaled . . . as if to bisect me''' 
Harks back to the fate of La Jarretière in ''V.''

'''Afghani dirhan''' 
An Afghani coin, more usually transliterated as "dirham". [http://ghaznavid.ancients.info/ This site] has pictures and more information.

'''Ghaznivid Empire''' 
Usually transliterated as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaznavid_Empire Ghaznavid Empire] (Wikipedia)

'''coffee scion''' 
Coffee motif. More likely: coffee heir.

'''Günther von Quassel''' 
"quasseln" is a German verb, meaning roughly "to jabber"

'''less than universally respected Ludwig Boltzmann''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Boltzmann Boltzmann] proposed an explanation of thermodynamics based on the statistical behaviour of atoms. Many influential colleagues at the time did not believe in the reality of atoms and thus worked to discredit Boltzmann.

==Page 597==

'''Gymnasium child''' 
A Gymnasium is a German secondary school

'''Some sort of ... steam-engine word''' 
Prior to Boltzmann, entropy was defined only by means of heat and temperature. Boltzmann gave the first statistical definition. [[Ludwig Boltzmann|Read his bio...]]

'''Except for the usual constants...''' 
This is Boltzmann's statistical definition of entropy.
[[Image:boltzmann.jpg|200px|thumb|Boltzmann's grave with his entropy formula inscribed|right]]

'''''Ach, die Zetamanie''''' 
German: Oh, the zeta-mania.

'''one measure of the chaos''' 
Via Boltzmann's definition, entropy can be interpreted as measuring the "chaos" or "disorder" in a physical system. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy Wikipedia Entry] 

Cf. p. 188, where Neville and Nigel are referred to as "the N's," and to the proliferation of N name in T.W.I.T. in general.

'''crime...narrative puzzle''' 
Hinting at Webb's role in the novel?

One of Pynchon's central themes and best depicted in The Crying of Lot 49 which can be read as a satire on the order of crime novels and a comment on the central order of narrative structures. Certainly ATD can be read as a vast extension on this theme. The chaos/ order binary has already been a introduced a couple of lines above.

Humfried's comment reiterates something Pynchon says in his essay 'Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?', in virtually the same words.

'''Göttingen tradition'''...'''statue''' 
Like other university towns, Göttingen has developed its own folklore. On the day of their doctorate, postgraduate students are drawn in handcarts from the Great Hall to the Gänseliesel-Fountain in front of the Old Town Hall. There they have to climb the fountain and kiss the statue of the Gänseliesel (Goose girl). This practice is actually forbidden by law, but the law is not at all enforced. She is considered to be the most-kissed girl in the world. Wikipedia.

Addendum of interest for GR and ATD.
Nearly untouched by allied bombing in World War II (the informal understanding during the war was that Germany wouldn't bomb Cambridge and Oxford and the allies wouldn't bomb Heidelberg and Göttingen).

'''Rathaus square''' 
The square in front of City Hall.

==Page 598==

'''Axioms of Zermelo''' 
The basic axioms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo-Frankel_set_theory#The_axioms Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory].

'''Poincaré''' 
Henri Poincaré (1854-1912), one of France's greatest mathermaticians and theorectical physicists. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9 Wikipedia])

'''Cauchy''' 
Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789-1857), a French mathematician. His name was connected with many other mathematicians mentioned in ATD: Cauchy-Riemann equation, Cauchy-Frobenious lemma, Cauchy-Euler equation, Cauchy-Kovalevskaia theorem. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Louis_Cauchy Wikipedia])

'''Whittaker and Watson''' 
A standard mathematics textbook of the time ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittaker_and_Watson Wikipedia])

'''two point one''' 
(Cf Sondheim lyric, "A Little Night Music" [http://lynxfeather.net/nest/lyrics/nightmusic-nowlatersoon.html lyrics].)

:I think here just point-by-point listing was being used: 1); 2); 2.1).

==Page 599==

'''Each time he would respond...''' 
Günther suffers from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity "relativity of simultaneity"], as predicted by Einstein and further clarified by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Minkowski Minkowski]. Events detected as simultaneous in one reference frame may be detected as nonsimultaneous in another. Events may even change their order of occurrence in time, depending on the reference frame.

'''"What here is he ''doing?''" . . . "Obviously, we must now a duel fight."''' 
In keeping with his name (see p. 596 annotations), Günther speaks in a stage-German accent.

Because of relativity of simultaneity, Günther's direct object arrives in our reference frame before his verb. In physics, the effect is accentuated when motion is faster and the reference frames are farther apart, so perhaps Günther acts in this fashion when he's psychologically "distant" or "moving fast".

'''dueling-society cap''' 
Probably student corporation insignia.

'''inconvenience''' 
Obviously the name of the Chums' airship; whenever the word appears there seems to be a reference to the Chums; here: "...Here, not completely...slightly...somewhere else" as the airship always seems to be.

'''''Liebchen''''' 
German, "sweetheart"

'''''Egal was, meine Schatze''''' 
German, "No matter what, my darling" - though "meine Schatze" is an improper femininization, which ought to be "mein Schatz".

Meine Schatze literally means "my treasure" and is the term of endearment I used with my German girlfriend. She never mentioned it being "improper".

:"Meine Schatze" is definitely no German phrase, and it also sounds really strange to my (Austrian German) ears. "Meine Schätze" would be the plural, but that does not seem to make sense in this context. "Mein Schatz" instead would fit perfectly.

I'm thinking Yiddish, mebbe?

'''''Schläger''''' 
A specialized weapon for student duels. See Wikipedia's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_fencing Academic fencing] article.

'''Krummsäbel''' 
German, "scimitar".

'''Korbrapier''' 
A rapier with a basket ("Korb" in German) like protection hilt.

'''épée''' 
French for sword

A sharp-pointed duelling sword.

==Page 600==

'''Colt six-shooters''' 
I guess Kit's luggage beat him to Gottingen.

'''''Verbindung''''' 
German: connection, union. Here the student corps one belongs to.

'''upon the face of the other, ''to inscribe one's mark''''' 
In several of his movies, the actor Erich von Stroheim appeared with a nasty scar on the left side of his face. Dueling was a pastime of honor at some universities, and the sword scar was the mark of having sustained one's honor there. Special weapons, masks and inflaming treatments were employed to produce this lifelong disfigurement.

'''a Mexican tilde''' 
The wavy mark over the letter ñ in Spanish.

'''restoring moment, elastic constants''' 
Günther's scar is tilde-shaped because as his opponent's sword passed across his face it vibrated up and down once and returned to its starting position. The following would be a reasonable problem for a high-school physics student: If you know how fast the blade tip was traveling side to side and you're allowed to measure the scar, what was the frequency of the up-and-down motion? A second-year university physics student could work out the frequency of vibration given certain properties of the sword and swordsman. A ''restoring moment'' acts to swing the blade back to its mean position when it is deflected; the duelist's wrist exerts one restoring moment and the elasticity of the steel exerts a second one. The restoring moment depends in part on a number called ''elastic constant'' that relates force to linear deflection (think of the classic fisherman's scale, where more weight extends the spring farther).

'''wasn't going to converge . . . skipped a step . . . ''divided by zero''''' 
Kit insults Günther by pointing out blunders in the proof he gave to Yashmeen.

'''Geheimrat Hilbert''' 
German: confidential counsellor. A title of honor given to prominent civilian figures in Germany. For Hilbert Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Dr. Hilbert]].

==Page 601==

'''''Ehrenkodex''''' 
German, "code of honor"

'''Tyrolean hats''' 
[http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tirolerhut&btnG=Search+Images Images]

'''''Schnurrbartbinde''''' 
A device to keep one's mustache safe from entanglement when sleeping, like [http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/mm/2006/01/1137360569.70341.gif this].

'''Zeiss "Palmos Panoram"''' 
An early panoramic camera, mentioned in the 1911 Britannica's [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Photography Photography] article.

'''''"Auf die Mensur!"''''' 
German, "to the duel"

'''Andaman Islands''' 
[http://www.openencyclopedia.net/index.php/Andaman_Islands Here]'s a mention of tattooing practices in the Andaman Islands

'''Stephanie du Motel... group-theory godfather Évariste Galois''' 
Évariste Galois died in a duel at the age of 20. Though much confusion surrounds the affair, it is suspected that he provoked the duel after being rejected by one Stéphanie-Felice du Motel. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evariste_Galois#Final_days Wikipedia])

==Page 602==

'''By 1906 there were Russians everywhere, flown and fleeing westward''' 
Cf [[ATD_588-614#Page 595|page 595:the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere]]. fleeing westward: most popular destination for Russian refugees was then France, later America.

'''young Ouspensky''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Uspensky Peter D. Ouspensky] (1878-1947), Russian mystic and philosopher, author of ''The Fourth Dimension'', appropriate to Pynchon's themes in ''ATD''.

An anachronism: Ouspensky's ''The Fourth Dimension'' wasn't published until 1909. (See Linda Dalrymple Henderson's ''The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art''.)

'''Theosophoid''' 
A Pynchonism. From Theosophist Cf [[ATD_219-242#Page 219|page 219:Madame Blavatsky, Theosophical Society]]. the suffix "oid" often used in mathematics, indicates a "similarity, not necessarily exact, to something else". (android: similar to a man, ovoid: similar to an egg, etc.) As it is explained in the next sentence, "That's a Theosophist, only not entirely". Fitting, in a book that is obsessed with doppelgängers and people who are at once themselves, but not quite (see the transformations of Dr. V Ganesh Rao)

'''Chong''' 
A strange and seemingly unlikely visitor to Göttingen. The name might be taken from the Chinese philosopher Wang Chong, or Wang Ch'ung. Could also be Cheech Marin's partner, Tommy Chong (C.Marin alluded to earlier p.477). - This is Sidney Reilly, a famous spy of the time, in disguise. See the note on Sidney below.

'''"The what?"''' 
(Precipitous drop in authorial expectations?)

'''Chinese Bolshevik''' 
Chinese Communist. For the true meaning of Bolshevik Cf [[ATD_615-643#Page 616|page 616:Bolshevists]]

'''Sidney . . . Kensington Sid''' 
Kensington is where elected officials worked. 

This is Sidney Reilly, the famous Ace of Spies. The reference is made clear by Swome on page 630, and, to the extent that any appearance here makes sense, a spy makes more sense than a political theorist. An annotation on page 630 includes a Wikipedia reference for Reilly. I don't know whether Reilly (or British spies of the day in general) had a particular association with Kensington, or whether the reference is to Chunxton Crescent, which is placed in roughly that part of London.

'''transtriadic''' 
Beyond the three.

==Page 603==

'''"Spiritual... At Göttingen?"''' 
Gottingen is materialistic. Preserved brains as like in a tannery.

'''Applied Mechanics Institute''' 
An institute of the University of Göttingen

'''Prandtl's recent discovery of the boundary layer''' 
Ludwig Prandtl ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Prandtl Wikipedia]) in 1904 developed the theory of the boundary layer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary%20layer Wikipedia]) in aerodynamics, greatly simplifying aerodynamic calculations.

'''powered flight . . . at the edge of history''' 
In 1905 already a reality, but the pioneering empirical work was taking place in Ohio, not Germany.

This is an excellent point that applies to many of the mathematicians mentioned in this chapter.
Minkowski invented spacetime, but Einstein created Relativity Theory. Hilbert proved his Spectral Theorem, but Heisenberg and Schrodinger created Quantum Mechanics. History was being made elsewhere. Cf Yashmeen's rant on page 594.

'''brambled guttie''' 
A proto golf-ball, see [http://www.che.rochester.edu/users/dafoster/ChE243/SciAm%20GolfBall.pdf here].

'''Bürgerstrasse''' 
German, "Citizen's Street", a street in Göttingen.<bre>
This translation is correct but here "Bürger" refers to the German poet Gottfried August Bürger (1748 - 1794) who lived in Göttingen.

'''brambling''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brambling Brambling] (''Fringilla montifringilla'') is a finch related to chaffinches, and is plumed orange, black, and white. Widespread in northern Europe and Asia, it occasionally strays to Alaska and farther south.

'''Brauweg''' 
German, "Brewery Way", a street in Göttingen.

'''Zhukovsky's Transformation''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joukowsky_transform Joukowsky Transform] maps the unit circle in the complex plane to a shape very much like an airfoil.

'''Geheimrat Klein ''' 
Geheimrat = Privy councillor. 
In geometry, the Klein model, also called the projective model... is a model of n-dimensional hyperbolic geometry in which the points of the geometry are in an n-dimensional disk, or ball, and the lines of the geometry are line segments contained in the disk; that is, with endpoints on the boundary of the disk. 

'''glass of tea''' 
(Why not 'cup'?)
because in Europe, as opposed to in England, tea may be drunk from glassware.

'''draw pictures . . . flights of arrows . . . vectors without pictures''' 
Vectors can be visualized as arrows in a plane or three-dimensional space; more generally they can be represented as arrays of coefficients, and now they are not limited to three dimensions.

'''''"...according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity." "And beyond, " added Gunther, nodding earnestly.''''' 
Reference to Buzz Lightyear's stock character phrase in 1995's TOY STORY (Pixar/Disney):
"To Infinity... and Beyond!"
--[[User:Btchakir|Btchakir]] 07:43, 19 December 2006 (PST)
:This reminded me of the caption "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" in the movie ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. [[User:WolfgangFaber|WolfgangFaber]] 07:44, 10 October 2008 (PDT)

'''according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity''' 
Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Spectral Theory]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:''infinite'' dimensions]].

==Page 604==

'''nontrivial zeroes''' 
The Riemann zeta function has two classes of zeros, the trivial zeroes being at negative even integers (-2, -4...), the non-trivial complex numbers, believed (but not proven) to have Re(z)=1/2. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis Wikipedia]. or Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 496|page 496:Zeta function conjecture]].

'''much-noted talk''' 
At the 1900 International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, Hilbert proposed a research programme of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert%27s_problems#Tabulated_information 23 problems]. The Riemann hypothesis is number 8 on the list.

'''Sorbonne''' 
Until 1971, the name ''Sorbonne'' refered to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France, one of the best universities in France. The name is derived from the ''Collège de Sorbonne'', founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon as one of the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris; the university itself as such predates the college by about a centure. In 1971, after the univeristy reforms, the five faculties of the former University of Paris were split and then reformed into thirteen interdisciplinary universities. Three of them as true "heirs" to the original, have kept the Sorbonne name as part of their official title: Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), the New Sorbonne, and the Panthéon-Sorbonne. [http://www.paris4.sorbonne.fr/en/sommaire.php3 The University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV)] was the inheritor of the former University of Paris' Arts and Sciences Faculties.

'''the outstanding problems in mathematics''' 
Hilbert's Problems are 23 (originally) unsolved problems in mathematics proposed by Hilbert. Of the 23 total appearing in the printed address, 10 were actually presented at the Second International Congress of Mathematics at the Sorbonne, Paris on August 8, 1900. [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HilbertsProblems.html Hilbert's Problems] were designed to serve as examples for the kinds of problems whose solutions would lead to the furthering of disciplines in mathermatics. As such, some were areas for investigation and therefore not strictly "problems".

'''eigenvalues''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalue Wikipedia] Dudley Eigenvalue, D.D.S., was a character in ''V.''

'''Hermitian operator''' 
A Hermitian operator generalises some of the ideas of symmetry when complex numbers are involved. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitian_operator Wikipedia]

'''spine of reality . . . ''"Rückgrat von Wirklichkeit"''''' 
Probably a reference to the main diagonal of a Hermitian matrix, which can contain only real numbers. The German phrase is one accurate way to translate the English.

:are there any others? Translate the German back to English and you get "backbone of reality"

'''Hilbert-Polya Conjecture''' 
The conjecture that the zeroes of the Riemann function would be the eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator, just what Yashmeen is suggesting. 

The most recent refinement of the Hilbert-Polya Conjecture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert–Pólya_conjecture Wikipedia] is that the operator in question arises from the quantization of a chaotic dynamical system. The zeroes would then correspond to the possible energy levels of the system. This would answer Hilbert's prompt to Yasmeen "''some'' equation" on this page, and would provide the link between prime numbers and chaos intuited by Gunther on page 597.

==Page 605==

'''Vance Aychrome''' 
The voracious detective is a stock figure in the mystery genre (Nero Wolfe, Mycroft Holmes, Inspector Dover, D.C.I. Dalziel and others). 
Is his name pronounced Eye Chrome, as in private eye? Weak possible connection?-- a truck light called Big Eye Chrome. The name sounds like 'fancy chrome.' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Vance Philo Vance] is an effete fictional detective created by S. S. Van Dyne in the 1920's. Vance Aychrome, as depicted by Pynchon, seems quite different from Philo Vance.

'''Full English Breakfast''' 
Bacon, eggs, tomato, toast... otherwise known as a fry-up.

'''Pythagorean dietary''' 
The Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who lived towards the end of the 6th century BC, was a prominent proponent of vegetarianism. The Pythagorean diet came to mean an avoidance of the flesh of slaughtered animals. Pythagorean ethics first became a philosophical morality between 490-430 BC with a desire to create a universal and absolute law including injunctions not to kill "living creatures," to abstain from "harsh-sounding bloodshed," in particular animal sacrifice, and "never to eat meat." (From a review of ''The Heretics Feast: a History of Vegetarianism'' by Colin Spencer, University Press of New England, 1995)
 
and never to eat beans (strange but true).

'''kippers and bloaters''' 
Different words (both Scottish) for smoked herrings

'''baps''' 
soft bread rolls - another Scottish word

'''Spong machine''' 
Appropriate technology. An English-made hand-cranked coffee grinder that doesn't light up, lacks a readout to tell when the beans are ready, and signally fails to function before the user wakes up. Only drawback is that some spouses compare its sound to half a load of cobbles being dumped on the roof.

'''thinned''' 
From full 78. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Wikipedia]

'''vegetarian haggis''' 
It exists: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22vegetarian+haggis Google search]

==Page 606==

'''Lamont Replevin''' 
"Replevin" is a legal term for a form of civil action to recover possession of property being wrongfully held by another.

'''Elflock Villa''' 
Elflock: A lock of hair tangled as if by elves. Often used in the plural.

'''Stuffed Edge, Herts''' 
An imaginary village in the South-East English county of Hertfordshire. Stuffed hedge?

'''kedgeree''' 
A hot breakfast dish of fish, rice, and eggs.

'''Cesare Lombroso''' 
Anthropologist who devised a method of identifying criminal "types" from their facial structures. (Cf [[ATD_171-198#Page 172|page 172: Dr. Lombroso]]).

Brock Vond, Pynchon's villain in ''Vineland'', is also a follower of Lombroso's theories. Cf. page 272-273 of ''Vineland''.

'''Trans-Oxanian''' 
From the other side of the Oxus River (now Amu-Darya) in Central Asia. Cf. [[ATD_429-459#Page 439|page 439:the Oxus]].

'''Graeco-Buddhist''' 
The hybrid cultural background evidenced in Shambhala. Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Graeco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in Central Asia in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism Wikipedia] and Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 438|page 438:Graeco-Buddhist]].

'''bad hats''' 
A bad hat is a slang term for a rascal

==Page 607==

'''Gas Office''' 
As explained in the text, the Scotland Yard bureau that kept gas communications under surveillance.

'''communication by means of coal-gas''' 
Cf Nabokov's "Ada". Also inverse of Tesla's energy-transmitter. A parallel to the Tristero, too. The description of communication by gas seems like a self-parody of ''The Crying of Lot 49.''

'''bombs... Suffragettes''' 
(Did they bomb post offices?!?)post boxes:Suffragettes carried out direct action such as chaining themselves to railings, setting fire to the contents of mailboxes, smashing windows and on occasions setting off bombs. Wikipedia

'''Persian''' 
Majority language in Iran, now called Farsi.

'''Pashto''' 
A language spoken in Afghanistan and nearby.

'''Tadjik''' 
A language spoken in Tadjikistan. "Mountain Tadjik" presumably dominates in the 60% or so of the country that is in high mountains.

'''Seven Dials''' 
In Covent Garden, London - a place where 7 roads meet. An unsavory assignment for a policeman.

==Page 608==

'''"Avoid beans"''' 
Pythagoreans follow a proscription against eating beans.

'''spotted dick''' 
A suet pudding with raisins or currants

'''Yarmouth bloater''' 
A cured herring from the port town of Yarmouth.

'''...if not for these unauthorized dilettantes all pottering about...''' 
Oddly reminiscent of the villains' perennial complaint in the old "Scooby-Doo" cartoons.

'''queering the pitch''' 
[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/297387.html Disrupting someone's business;] compare [[ATD_748-767#Page_758|"yakitori pitches," p. 758.]]

''''shape'''' 
a doughnut,which comes in various shapes? Including the math-relevant
shape: a torus. But probably just a bit of bun, scone, etc. listed as Vance's breakfast...no doughnut listed.

'Shape' is another word for blancmange, which is made of gelatin, derived probably from the bones of some animal. Aychrome wonders "what's it made of", to which Lew responds "Maybe you don't want to know." [[User:Nehoccramcire|Nehoccramcire]] 09:14, 12 March 2007 (PDT)

'''the Embankment''' 
Victoria Embankment, London, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_yard Scotland Yard] was located there from 1890 to 1967. Scotland Yard was founded on September 29, 1829, on a street off Whitehall; and in 1967 it moved to the present location at 10 Broadway Street, London.

'''blue lamps''' 
Traditionally hung outside police stations in England.

'''lamé surfaces''' 
Lamé (fabric), a fabric inwoven metallic threads 
Lamé, name of the electrically conductive jacket worn by foil and sabre fencers 
Lamé (armor), an unarticulated component of a larger piece of armor 

'''yarmulke... high crown... dented Trilby style''' 
[http://www.wpclipart.com/clothes/hats/index.html Image of a Trilby hat.]

==Page 609==

'''Bukhara''' 
Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 425|page 425:Bukhara]]

'''''Kelly's Suburban Dictionary''''' 
The peerless [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/22/design360.icon.az/index.html ''London A to Z''] did not come along until the 1930s.

'''wenlets''' 
Politician and journalist William Cobbett (1763-1835) called London "the great wen." It was not a compliment, because ''wen'' means a sebaceous cyst. Wenlets are small versions of the "great" wen.

==Page 610==

'''daylight oil''' 
from the streetlamps, lit up for hours?

'''a moon no one could see''' 
Note that the ''Inconvenience'' is repeatedly referred to as a "moon" ([[ATD_119-148#Page_144|p. 144,]] [[ATD_171-198#Page_187|p. 187]]) and is sometimes seen under other guises ([[ATD_199-218#Page_215|p. 215,]] [[ATD_243-272#Page_272|p. 272]]).

'''refused to dim''' 
(Nicely vivid.)

'''Vontz's Universal Pick''' 
Vontz (Yiddish): bedbug.

'''alchemized coke''' 
Gas works that manufacture syngas also produce coke as an end product, called gas house coke.

Fluid coking is a process by which heavy residual crude is converted into lighter products such as naptha, kerosene, heating oil, and hydrocarbon gases. The "fluid" term refers to the fact that coke particles are in a continuous system versus older batch coking technology. Wikipedia

'''Lincrusta-Walton''' 
an embossed fabric used for covering walls, invented in 1877 by Frederick Walton as an alternative to more expensive wallpapers (wikipedia).

'''hipshot''' 
having one hip lower than the other: a Greek statue in hipshot pose.M-W.

'''captive maiden''' 
In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', Oedipa Maas is referred to as a "captive maiden" in the scene where she's standing in front of the Remedios Varo painting. It would certainly be worth while to examine the parallels more closely.

'''scalene polygons''' 
Polygons with sides of unequal length.

'''jet''' 
jet black, a color.

'''Apotheosis Sparkless Torch''' 

==Page 611==

'''magnalium''' 
An alloy of magnesium and aluminum.

'''Lamont Replevin (for it was he)''' 
Formula from penny-dreadful literature: Open the chapter with an unknown character (referred to ahead of time but never yet making an appearance), describe looks and some little action, then spring the name on the reader.

'''''The Slow and the Stupefied''''' 
Daytime soap 'The Young and the Restless'.

'''gas-head''' 
Cf pothead, acidhead, etc.

'''Pike's Peak''' 
Lew's old stompinground.

'''Gus Swallowfield''' 
A curious pseudonym assumed by Lew Basnight while in the presence of Lamont Replevin. As Mr. Swallowfield, Lew professes to be an insurance salesman. The name is very overtly British and is possibly referential to the Swallowfield estate in Berkshire, which itself has a curious history.

'''most theft policies''' 
(Fact?)

'''pantechnicon''' 
A closed van or carryall. (Is TRP trying to put a burr under S. Weisenburger's saddle by bringing this vehicle back? SW's gloss in the ''GR Companion,'' at page 19 of the Viking edition, is famously wrong.) 

Pantechnicon can mean either a furniture warehouse (originally a bazaar) or a removal van. The reference in GR to "the piano in the pantechnicon" is therefore ambiguous. TRP might say that he meant a van, not a bazaar, but that would not mean that SW was wrong. Just that SW and TRP had different readings of the novel. And the author's reading does not necessarily have primacy.

This assertion is generally debateable and in the case of TRP his conscious intentions in his fully thought out novels carries a lot of primacy most of the time, most might argue. This wiki attests to that.

:Lots of people would say the wiki is wrong then. You can discover sources and you may be able to parse processes (rewrites, selection of information), but the author's intentions are not accessible; only the work is. Therefore (and so on and so forth). A philosophical question and probably not wiki-able.

'''legitimate bill of sale''' 
That is, a stolen object with a stolen bill of sale cannot be proved to be stolen; the thief has the receipt.

'''burglary insurance''' 
Although TRP writes that most theft policies were written in the US by the time Lew speaks to Replevin, the first burglary policy was in fact offered by Cuthbert Heath, an Underwriter at Lloyd's, London in about 1889, which would seem to be a few years earlier than the scene. Antony Brown, ''Cuthbert Heath'' ( David & Charles, New Abbot London 1984)at pages 72-76. [[User:TheKenoshaKid|TheKenoshaKid]] 15:52, 9 March 2008 (PDT)

==Page 612==

'''''Pavonazzetto''''' 
brecciated white marble with violet veins from Docimia, Asia Minor.

'''Phrygian marble''' 
Phrygia is an ancient region of west central Asia Minor, to the south of Bithynia. Marble from there was highly valued.

'''Atys... Agdistis''' 
From Greek and Roman mythology. Atys (or Attis) is a young lover of the goddess Cybele (also known as Agdistis in Phrygia). When he wished to marry, Cybele drove him mad and he castrated himself. Catullus wrote a poem on the subject.

'''''The Mutilation of Atys''''' 
No images: [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=%22Mutilation%20of%20Atys&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Google image search]

But under the name Attis, this two-panel sequence: [http://www.aztriad.com/aacarati.html page 1,] [http://www.aztriad.com/aacatals.html page 2,] from "Seladore's Historical Cartoons." And [http://paxnortona.notfrisco2.com/?p=2332 a photo] of what appears to be an old statue of Attis.

'''Arturo Naunt, Chelsea's own, shocking the bourgeoisie since 1889''' 
Phrasing reminiscent of advertising.

'''shocking the bourgeoisie''' 
A popular pastime for young and not-so-young soi-disant radicals ("Epater le bourgeois").

'''koumiss vessel''' 
A container for fermented horse's milk. Perhaps like this one:
[http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/husa/origins/szkitahist/scythianvessel.html]

According to the OED, an early form of the word 'koumiss' was 'cosmos' - its appearance here doesn't seem coincidental given the short disquisition on the etymology of 'chaos' soon to follow. For the Greeks 'cosmos' was the antithetical concept to 'chaos'. Pythagoras is said to be the first to apply the original meaning of 'cosmos', i.e., 'an orderly arrangement' to the universe itself.

'''depending on the angle you hold it at, sometimes it doesn't look like anything at all''' 
A concise description of anamorphic and paramorphic images; this one needs the Paramorphoscope to interpret it.

'''wrathful deities from Tantric Buddhism''' 
Tantric Buddhism is also known as Varjayana Buddhism. In Varjayana Buddhism, a dharmapāla (Tibetan drag-gshed) is a type of wrathful deity. The name means "Dharma-defender" in Sanskrit, and the dharmapalas are also known as the Defenders of the Law (Dharma) or the Protectors of the Law in English.
In Buddhist iconography, they are invariably depicted as fearsome beings, often with many heads, hands or feet; blue, black or red skin; and a fierce expression with protruding fangs. Though dharmapalas have a terrifying appearance, they are all bodhisattvas or buddhas- embodiments of compassion that act in a wrathful way for the sake of sentient beings.Wikipedia

==Page 613==

'''tiny German hand camera''' 
Probably a Zeiss Ikon. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss Wikipedia Entry]

A Zeiss Ikon would be an anachronism, as this company was created as a merger in 1926.

The description somehow suggests the classic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minox Minox] "spy cameras", but also these were created only in the 1930ies (originally in Latvia, mass production in Germany).

A small German camera matching the time would be [http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Gnom Gnom], a version of which was also sold in the UK.

'''raw light''' 
light from a gaslight is not 'artificial' as from electric lights, streetlamps, etc. Cf. Telleruide section.

'''Gasophilia''' 
Love of gas.

'''Schwärmer''' 
The name is a German word meaning visionary, zealot, raver.

'''Waves in a timeless stream of Gas''' 
Replevin equates piped gas to the æther.

'''Sensitive Flame''' 
A burner flame adjusted so that it responds to the tiniest disturbance in the
air. Used by both physicists and spiritualists.

'''cognizant nose...medium for the most exquisite poetry'''

see Proust

'''Chidambaram''' 
A city in south India and Chidambaram is one of the Panchabhoota Sthalams - temples built for the 5 elements said to embody Shiva - at Chidambaram (space), Kalahasti (wind), Thiruvanaikaval (water), Tiruvannamalai (fire) and Kanchipuram (earth).

'''''Akaša''''' 
Akasa is the fifth element,the ether, unseen and invisible but an important element permeating the whole universe. It is also considered
to be indentical with Brahma, the creator..... 
Akasa is 'simple,continuous infinite substance and is the substratum of sound.' Both from Indian Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Occultist Eliphas Levi associated akasa with what he called the "Astral Light". He writes: "[T]his electromagnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric (Perhaps this explains Pynchon's insistence on the term "luminiferous aether"?), is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis which twines round two poles and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of Saturn" -- emblem of infinity, immortality, and Kronos -- 'Time'". He says it is "a force in Nature," by means of which "a single man who can master it... might throw the world into confusion and transform its face"; for it is the "great Arcanum of transcendent Magic." It is a "blind force... which souls must conquer in order to detach themselves from the chains of Earth; 'for if they should not,' they will be absorbed by the same power which first produced them and will return to the central and eternal fire."

It gets better... He writes: "It is through this Force that all the nervous centres secretly communicate with each other; from it -- that sympathy and antipathy are born; from it -- that we have our dreams; and that the phenomena of second sight and extra-natural visions take place... Astral Light, acting under the impulsion of powerful wills, destroys, coagulates, separates, breaks, gathers in all things... God created it on that day when he said: Fiat Lux..." He refers to akasa/Astral Light variably as "the body of the Holy Ghost", the "grand Agent Magique", "Lucifer" and "Baphomet", the winged-goat figure that served as the inspiration for the Devil Tarot card designed by Colman-Smith. [http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-1-12.htm From Madame Blavatsky's "The Secret Doctrine"][http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-2-06.htm Más]

[http://laluni.helloyou.ws/askbaba/prasnottaravahini/prasnottara01.html This page] also equates akasa with the ether and sez that "each subsequent element originated from the previous one" with akasa being the first, similar to the Kaballic Tree of Life.

'''Atman''' 
''Sanskrit''. In Hinduisim, the innermost essence of each individual. Also, the soul. ''Cf.'' Weed Atman in ''Vineland''.

''''''Chaos'''''' 
allusion is seems to Genesis. "Chaos" is in fact the Greek word [for without form and void], says this site.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."
-- Genesis 1: 1-4 (KJV)

'''van Helmont''' 
He claimed to have coined the word "gas" in just the way described here.

'In his "Physica" (1633), the Rosicrucian alchemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, wrote: "Ad huc spiritum incognitum Gas voco," i.e., "This hitherto unknown Spirit I call Gas." Further on in the same work he says, "This vapor which I have called Gas is not far removed from the Chaos the ancients spoke of."' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_light#Esoteric_conceptions wiki]

'''stridently unpopulated''' 
Cf p610.

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

ATD 588-614

2010-09-01T01:12:59Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 590 */

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

==Page 588==

'''tannery''' 
In ancient history, tanning was considered a noxious or "odiferous trade" and relegated to the outskirts of town, amongst the poor. Indeed, tanning by ancient methods is so foul smelling that tanneries are still isolated from those towns today where the old methods are used.

'''Gottlob''' 
Literally "praise to God", as an exclamation also "Thank God!". Though it is rare, it is a real German name. 
Very much so: for example of mathematician/philospher Gottlob Frege, who did study at Göttingen, but not at this time.

'''Humfried''' 
A German translation of Humphrey. This was not an existing German name any time after the medieval, though.

'''Gauss's brain''' 
After Carl Friedrich Gauss died in 1855, his brain was preserved for research purposes. To this day, it is in the possession of the University of Göttingen. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].

'''impervious to the wind''' 
(Attribute of tanned leather?)

'''''"Heiliger Bimbam!"''''' 
A German expression of surprise, translated elsewhere as "Holy Moly!"

'''It is she, she!''' 
probably an allusion to H. Rider Haggard's She. See Wikipedia entry. She has been purified by a pillar of fire. In ''Against the day'', she rises from the swamp. Carl Jung, who used the novel ''She'' (1887) as an example of anima, posited the anima is an archetypical form, expressing the fact that a man has a minority of female genes. Haggard's Queen Ayesha is an unmistakable anima type the ultimate guide and mediator to the inner world. The idea has also connections with the observations of James Frazer in his classical study ''The Golden Bough''. Haggard's idea of a journey into the "darkest Africa," which turns into a spiritual search, has been used by a number of writers, including Joseph Conrad in ''Heart of Darkness'' (1902). 
"My empire is of thy imagination", She says in the novel, "She". Cf. a line, [which I am checking] in "The Crying of Lot 49".

She is 'discovered' somewhere in unknown Africa by some British 'explorers' in a hidden kingdom, and she first appears in a sort of late 19th century private boudoir there. She came to that place via a complicated story some 2000 years earlier, and is of Yemenite origin, having come to the world in pretty much the normal fashion. Yashmeen seems indeed to be based on some fin-de-siecle imaginations of the 'ideal' woman (her looks in general, and the often mentioned streaming black hair of hers), but unlike Haggard's She, Yashmeen is rather powerless in the long run, despite her obvious erotic influence on the men and women in ATD. - Tommaso

:Powerless is a term worth lots of discussion here. [User: MKOHUT]

:It is certainly possible that the line is an allusion, but I think it may simply be a set-up to another goofy Pynchonian linguistic joke-- "Not 'chichi,' idiot..."

'''rim''' 
Kit pretends to think he's referring to monocle as 'chichi' (stylish).

'''Kovalevskaia''' 
Sofia Kovalevskaia, 1850-1891. Russian mathematician, in 1884 appointed professor in Stockholm. The third female professor in Europe ever. Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Sofia Kovalevskaia]] and (Wikipedia)

'''Roentgen-ray spectacles''' 
The X-ray glasses that used to be advertised in comic books.

'''''natürlich''''' 
German: naturally.

==Page 589==

'''Those curves are everywhere continuous but nowhere differentiable''' 
This is exactly a description of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weierstrass_function Weierstrass function] (1872), a pathological example of a real-valued function on the real line. This function was cited on page 594 by Yashmeen as one of the crises in mathermatics. Also see [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/WeierstrassFunction.html Weierstrass function from MathWorld] and Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 500|page 500:Karl Weierstrass]].

'''Those curves . . . ''Noli me tangere''''' 
A well-turned wordplay: The operation of differentiating a curve involves drawing ''tangents'' to it at selected points. The curves in question are continuous, but the injunction ''Noli me tangere'' means you can't draw the tangents.

:If a curve is nowhere differentiable then there will be no tangents anywhere. The curve is everywhere ''untouchable''.

'''''Noli me tangere''''' 
Latin for 'don't touch me'

or, in the immortal words of MC Hammer; "You can't touch this"

'''And is that a revolver you're carrying''' 
Implying, perhaps, an unvocalized "or are you just happy to see me?" Which would be in accord with Kit's reaction to the sight of a woman wearing a toque.

'''''Hausknochen''''' 
German: a giant housekey, as defined, literally House Bone,with perhaps a
double entendre on bone?

Also, slang for [http://www.russki-mat.net/page.php?l=DeFr&a=H penis].

==Page 590==

'''Hadamard... Poussin... Prime Number Theorem''' 
Jacques Hadamard and Charles de la Vallée-Poussin independently proved the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number_theorem prime number theorem] in 1896, relying on Riemann's Zeta function. The prime number theorem makes assertions about the distribution of prime numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hadamard.html Jacques Hadamard] (1865-1963), a French mathematician best known for his proof of the Prime Number Theorem in 1896.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Vallee_Poussin.html de la Vallée Poissin] (1866-1962), a Belgian mathematician best known for his proof (independently) of the Prime Number Theorem and his major work ''Cours d'Analyse''.

The Prime Number Theorem defied proof for several decades, and legend at the time had it that whoever did prove it would live forever. Examination of the dates of birth and death of both Hadamard and de la Vallée-Poussin show that this was not too far from the truth.

'''patent ''Kühlbox''''' 
''Kühlbox'' here just means "icebox" or "cooler." Refrigerators were available at the time of the action but not widely used, so an icebox is more likely. It's upstairs in Kit's room, so not necessarily portable.

"Patent," attached to a noun like [[ATD_429-459#Page_457|leather or pencil,]] could mean really, officially patented ''or'' novel and gimmicky. Patent medicines are sold under protected names but not genuine patents in most cases. So the icebox features some radical or distinctive design. My money's on asbestos insulation between the zinc sheets.

[http://www.dhm.de/datenbank/index.html?/datenbank/rb00/rb000891.html Pic of a ca. 1920 Eiskiste-model]. According to German Wikipedia, the mobile "Eiskiste" (icebox) had to be filled with (natural) ice, while its successor, the Kühlbox, worked/works with "Kühlaggregate" (cooling units). The contributor is not sure if suchlike were around at that time. German Wikipedia on [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiskiste Eiskiste] and [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BChlbox Kühlbox].

'''beleaguered subset''' 
a group (from the whole) under attack

'''That is, is it was ''some smile''''' 
Typo, for That is, it was ''some smile''.

'''Prime Number Theorem''' 
The Prime Number Theorem constitutes any number of equivalent statements concerning the distribution of prime numbers. Let ''π(n)'' be the number of primes that are less than ''n'', and let ''p''''n'' denote the ''n''th prime number. The Prime Number Theorem states that

<math>\lim_{n\to\infty}\frac{\pi(n)}{n/\ln n} = 1,</math>

or equivalently that

<math>\lim_{n\to\infty}\frac{p_n}{n\ln n} = 1</math>.

In other words, the relative error in approximating the prime counting function ''π(n)'' by the simpler function ''n/ln n'' approaches zero as ''n'' approaches infinity.

==Page 591==

'''prats''' 
Literally the buttocks. As a slang term, a 'prat' is an [[Idiots and Idiocy in Against the Day|idiot]].

'''''Die Nullstellen der ζ-Funktion''''' 
German: the zeroes of the ζ function. (Null = zero; Stelle = location.) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_zeta_function#Zeros_of_the_Riemann_zeta_function Wikipedia] on the "Zeros of the Riemann zeta-function".

'''not all that hard to prove''' 
Kit will upset the applecart if he can prove the Riemann Hypothesis; Yashmeen's research topic will shrink to triviality. (Last time I checked, no one had yet proved the hypothesis.)

'''"Richard Harding Davis"''' 
Popular writer of fiction and drama, journalist/war-correspondent and a major male-role-model of his time (1864 - 1916). He was considered the model for illustrator Charles Dana Gibson's dashing Gibson man, the male equivalent of his famous Gibson Girl. He is also referenced early in Sinclair Lewis's book, ''Dodsworth'' as the example of an exciting, adventure-seeking legitimate hero. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Harding_Davis Wikipedia]. Among other things, he reported on Belgian atrocities in the Congo.

'''seldom, if ever''' 
Cf p559 re Umeki!?

'''tetralatry''' 
made up from greek "tettares" (prefix -tetra) = four and "latreia" = worship

'''C. Howard Hinton''' 
Charles Howard Hinton (1853 – 1907) was a British mathematician and writer of science fiction works titled ''Scientific Romances''. He was interested in higher dimensions, particularly the fourth dimension, and is known for coining the word ''tesseract'' and for his work on methods of visualising the geometry of higher dimensions. He also had a strong interest in theosophy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Howard_Hinton Wikipedia Entry]

'''Johann K.F. Zöllner''' 
Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (1834–1882) was a German astrophysicist. Studied Photometrie and optical illusions. He insisted a fourth dimension should be considered in Physics and tried to scientifically explain spiritist phenomena.

'''vogue... 'vague'''' 
Nice wordplay as Yashmeen seems to think the vogue of mysticism is not very precise, is 'vague' intellectually. Further play on "vague" = wave, as in an intellectual fad, e.g. in film, the French "Nouvelle Vague" (New Wave).

==Page 592==

'''upside-down triangles''' 
Also Pléiade p538. In mathematics that would be the operator ''del'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del Wikipedia]. Since pre-history and across most cultures the upside-down triangle is a symbol for the female (genitals).

Florian Cajori's ''A History of Mathematical Notations'' (v.2 p.135) states that the del (aka Hamiltonian operator) was introduced by William Hamilton in his 1853 lecture on Quaternions. Rumour has it that it is supposed to be a drawing of an ancient Hebrew harp (nabla). It is also known as the atled (backword delta).

This in turn suggests (within the context of AtD (atled??) a reversal of time or a mirror image of change.

'''screamingly obvious fallacy in this . . . "proof" of yours''' 
Yashmeen reacts in a slight panic to Kit's threat (page 591).

'''metallic banging''' 
Hausknochen on doors, with 'banging' entendre.

'''"metric interval"''' 
In Euclidean (three-dimensional) space a distance is just what you think it is. In other geometrical systems the term "metric interval" is preferred as a generalized distance.

'''social life is unpredictable''' 
mirrors the situation in the "Hotel Noctambulo", p. 462. Are all these guys "chums of chance"?

[Not sure about the "chums" idea, but more confusion between public and private space on pg. 155 -- Hunter Penhallow leaving the ruined city, presumably in a time machine: "At some point he must have come indoors, entering a sort of open courtyard....Without intending to, he was walking through inhabited rooms."]

'''Weenderstrasse '''
The main shopping street in Göttingen.

'''Prinzenstrasse and Weenderstrasse''' 
A street corner at the very center of Göttingen ([http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=g%C3%B6ttingen,+germany&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=17&ll=51.534284,9.935417&spn=0.006107,0.010793&t=h Google Maps]), "known to mathematicians here as the origin of the city of Göttingen's coordinate system". 
The intersection of these two streets is colloquial called "the navel". For visitors it is not that spectacular, but it's the number one meeting point for people who live in Göttingen before going to a cafe or pub. (I don't know, why we allways meet there, but we allways do!) So Pynchon definitley knows, why he compares this street corner with the origin of Göttingen's coordinate system. 
By the way, one of the oldest bookstores of Göttingen is situated right at the described corner of Prinzen- and Weenderstrasse.

==Page 593==

'''twenty marks''' 
A mark is short for deutschemark, a German monetary unit. 
That was the case after the Second World War, but the unit was just called the mark until at least the end of the empire. [http://www.thegoldcoinstore.com/WorldGold/German_Gold_20_Marks_Kaizer_Wilhelm_II.php Here] is a picture of a 20 mark coin from the period of the action.

'''''der Pistolenheld''''' 
German: the pistol hero. Meaning: the gunman. 'Pistolenheld' seems rather funny, the correct German word is: der Revolverheld.

'''automorphic functions and the Anharmonic Pencil''' 
[http://mathworld.wolfram.com/AutomorphicFunction.html Automorphic Functions] are generalizations of trigonometric functions and elliptic functions.

Anharmonic Pencil see [[ATD_525-556#Page 532|page 532:Anharmonic Pencil]].

'''''das Nichtharmonischestrahlenbündel''''' 
Or ''das nichtharmonische Strahlenbündel.'' German: the anharmonic pencil. A "pencil" is the set of lines passing through a point.

'''Euler''' 
Leonhard Euler (pronounced Oiler; IPA [ˈɔʏlɐ]) (April 15, 1707 – September 7, 1783) was a Russian-German mathematician and physicist of Swiss descent. From Wikipedia and below:

Euler made important discoveries in fields as diverse as calculus, number theory, and topology. He also introduced much of the modern mathematical terminology and notation, particularly for mathematical analysis, such as the notion of a mathematical function. [1] He is also renowned for his work in mechanics, optics, and astronomy.

Euler is considered to be the preeminent mathematician of the 18th century and one of the greatest of all time.

'''Felix Klein''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Klein.html Felix Klein] (1849-1925), a German mathematician, best known for his work in non-Euclidean goemetry, for his work on the connections between geometry and group theory, and for results in function theory. Cf [[ATD_557-587#Page 565|page 565:Felix Klein]].

'''''Mathematical Theory of the Top''''' 
Published in the U.S. in 1897. Compare Felix Klein and Arnold Sommerfeld, ''Über die Theorie des Kreisels,'' 4 volumes, 1897-1910.

'''Leopold Kronecker''' and '''Cantor''' 
[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Kronecker.html Leopold Kronecker] (1823-1891), a German mathematician, primary contributions were in the theory of equations. He made major contributions in elliptic functions and the theory of algebraic numbers.

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Cantor.html Georg Cantor] (1845-1918), a German mathematician. He founded set theory and introduced the concept of infinite numbers with his discovery of cardinal numbers. He also advanced the study of trigonometric series. (Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 250|page 250:Dr. Cantor]]).

The "monumental quarrel between Kronecker and Cantor" is also referred to as a "religious war," appropriately enough. It's based in a disagreement over the legitimacy of numbers. Kronecker held that "'the positive integers were created by God, and all else is the work of man.'" This is contradicted by "'Cantor with his ''Kontinuum'', professing an equally strong belief in just those regions, infinitely divisible, which lie ''between'' the whole numbers so demanding of all Kronecker's devotion.'"

The disagreement between the two mathematicians is reminiscent of (or does it anticipate?) the rift between Pointsman and Mexico in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Kronecker's integers "created by God" have become a Pavlovian digital binary for Pointsman, but the two oppositions track faithfully right down to the italicized "between."

"The young statistician [Mexico] is devoted to number and to method, not table-rapping or wishful thinking. But in the domain of zero to one, not-something to something, Pointsman can only possess the zero and the one. He cannot, like Mexico, survive anyplace in between. Like his master I. P. Pavlov before him, he imagines the cortex of the brain as a mosaic of tiny on/off elements.... But to Mexico belongs the domain ''between'' zero and one." [Page 55]

It should be noted, however, that the continuous number line was a modern innovation. In Greek number theory, a number is a collection of indivisible units. Irrationals, such as the square root of 2 are not numbers but "magnitudes." One is not even a number for it is not a number of units. There are no negative numbers as well. (see Klein's Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra.) So Kronecker's position may be less of a crazy innovation as much as a maintenance of ancient theory.

:That last paragraph makes an excellent point.

'''the square root of minus one''' 
The imaginary number ''i''. Cf [[ATD_119-148#Page 133|page 133:Imarginary Number]].

'''the square root of ''plus two''' 
From Carl B. Boyer's ''A History of Mathematics'', 2nd Ed. 1991, pp.564 & 565): 
The domain of rational numbers can be extended to form a continuum of real numbers if one assumes Cantor-Dedekind axiom that the points on a line can be put into one-to-one correspondence with the real numbers. "Arithmetically expressed, this means that for every division of the rational numbers into two classes A and B such that every number of the first class, A, is less than every number of the second class, B, there is one and only one real number producing this ''Schnitt'', or . . . cut. If A has a largest number, or if B contains a smallest number, the cut defines a rational number; but if A has no largest number and B no smallest, then the cut defines an irrational number. If, for example, we put in A all negative rational numbers and also all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2, and in B all positive rational numbers whose squares are more than 2, we have subdivided the entire field of rational numbers in a manner defining an irrational number—in this case the number that we usually write as" ''suqare root of 2''. In fact, the squae root of ''plus two'' "can be defined simply as that segment or subclass of the set of rational numbers made up of all positive rational numbers whose squares are less than 2 and also of all negative rational numbers." —— This is what Kronecker did not believe.

'''''Kontinuum''''' 
This passage closely parallels the one about the "microcosm of Venice" on page 575.

==Page 594==

'''''Nervenklinik''''' 
German: nerve clinic. Three-dollar word for a mental hospital.

'''boundless epsilonic world''' 
Epsilon, Greek letter like E. In mathematics (particularly calculus), an arbitrary (or nearly so) small positive quantity is commonly denoted ε; see limit.
By analogy with this, the late mathematician Paul Erdős also used the term "epsilons" to refer to children (Hoffman 1998, p. 4). Wikipedia; of Huxley's five classes of citizens in ''Brave New World'' epsilons were purposely stunted physically and intellectually.

'''Der Finsterzwerg''' 
The choice of the tavern "The Dwarf of Darkness" may have been meant as a dig at five-foot-tall Kronecker.

'''chloral hydrate''' 
A/k/a "knockout drops" a/k/a a "Mickey Finn". Hence the ''Mickifest''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloral_hydrate Wikipedia entry].

'''''Kneipe''''' 
German: pub

'''Gauss passing to Weber a remark''' 
Carl Friedrich Gauss (Gauß) (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician and scientist of profound genius who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy and optics. Sometimes known as "the prince of mathematicians" and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", Gauss had a remarkable influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians. (Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 498|page 498:Gauss]].)

That influence is seen in the field of statistics where the Gaussian distribution (also known as the normal distribution, popularly known as the bell curve) is named after him. With its ability to correctly model "psychological measurements and physical phenomena" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution] and its resemblance to both the rainbow and the rocket's arc, there's no surprise Pynchon references it often in GR, even having Roger Mexico quote the formula as "an old saying among my people" (p.709, the Mexico quotation is actually some strange variant of the Normal distribution).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Eduard_Weber Wilhelm Weber] (1804-91), a noted German physicist. He studied magnetism with Gauss and in 1831, on the recommendation of Gauss, he was appointed as professor of physics at Göttingen. And in 1833 Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph. The SI unit of magnetic flux, the ''weber'', is named after him.

In 1831 Gauss developed a fruitful collaboration with the physics professor Wilhelm Weber; it led to new knowledge in the field of magnetism (including finding a representation for the unit of magnetism in terms of mass, length and time) and the discovery of Kirchhoff's circuit laws in electricity. Gauss and Weber constructed the first electromagnetic telegraph in 1833, which connected the observatory with the institute for physics in Göttingen. Gauss ordered a magnetic observatory to be built in the garden of the observatory and with Weber founded the magnetischer Verein ("magnetic club"), which supported measurements of earth's magnetic field in many regions of the world. He developed a method of measuring the horizontal intensity of the magnetic field which has been in use well into the second half of the 20th century and worked out the mathematical theory for separating the inner (core and crust) and outer (magnetospheric) sources of Earth's magnetic field

'''Göttingen . . . in the war with Prussia''' 
This refers to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Prussian_war Austro-Prussian War], (also called Seven Weeks' War), June 15–August 23, 1866, between Prussia, allied with Italy, and Austria, allied with Bavaria, Wüttemberg, Saxony (where Göttingen is located), Hanover, Baden and several other smaller German states. It was Bismarck's aim to expel, by force, Austria from the German Confederation as a step toward the unification of Germany under Prussian dominace.
:Göttingen is in Saxony now (specifically the state of ''Niedersachsen'' or Lower Saxony), but until 1866 it was an important city in the Kingdom of Hanover.

'''political crisis in Europe''' 
The period of 1870 to 1914 was characterized by the Anglo-German naval race and European powers - Germany, Italy, Belgium, Britain and France - scrambled for Africa. The major events in Europe were: 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War; 1905 Russian Revolution; 1908 Bosnia Crisis; 1911-12 Italian Turkish War; 1912-13 Balkan War; 1914 World War I began.

'''crisis in mathematics . . . Weierstrass functions, Cantor's continuum, Russell's inexhaustible capacity for mischief''' 
A genuine crisis as well-established ideas were challenged. Weierstrass functions have the unheard-of property that they are "continuous but nowhere differentiable." Cantor's ideas about the continuum violated a longstanding prohibition against infinite quantities. Bertrand Russell around this time was setting the cat among the pigeons by identifying paradoxes and inconsistencies in set theory and number theory.

'''"the infinite" was all but a conjuror's convenience''' 
There is a very good book relating how the infinite, between the 18th and early 20th centuries, finally found a place in mathematics: ''In Search of Infinity'' by N.Ya. Vilenkin (translated by Abe Shenitzer).

==Page 595==

'''That winter, in St. Petersburg . . . Hundreds were killed and wounded.''' 
22 Jan 1905, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_%281905%29 Bloody Sunday]. 

The event on January 22, 1905, ''Bloody Sunday'', was a watershed in the Russian history. 
Russia's armies were losing to the Japanese in the Far East. Her workers at home were challenging the rule of Romanov's Autocracy. At the beginning of 1905, the workers of ''Putilov Works'' of St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, went on stike for better living and working conditions. They were joined by many from other factories. Father Gapon, a priest, urged the striking workers to present directly to the Tsar on January 22, 1905 a petition to seek justice and protection. They would beg Nicholas II to come to their aid. The morning of January 22 was very cold (about five degrees below freezing) and some 200,000 workers and their wives and children came peacefully and orderly carrying icons, portraits of Nicholas, and no revolutionary placards not even red handkerchiefs. To stop the workers' march upon the Palace Square barricades were set across several avenues that connected to the city center. At each of these points, soldiers tried to turn back the marchers and, at several of them, officers ordered to fire into the crowds. The worst slaughter took place on the Winter Palace Square itself, between 150 and 200 men, women, and children lay shot dead and another 450 to 800 had been wounded while the Cossacks charged into the dispersing crowds with sabers drawn. 
Bloody Sunday, as that tragic day soon became known, marked the beginning of what the Tsar's mother called the "year of nightmares", and the beginning of what many others called the "year of revolution". (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)).

'''Grand Duke Sergei''' 
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov (1857-1905) was the uncle and brother-in-law of Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918, Reign: 1894-1917). In 1891 he was appointed as Moscow Governor General. In 1894 he also was a member of the State Council. He resigned from the Governorship on January 1, 1905 but continued as Commander of the Moscow military district. In the afternoon of February 17, 1905, in a carriage leaving the Kremlin Grand Duke Sergei was killed by a nitroglycerine bomb thrown by a Socialist Revolutionary terrorist directly into his lap. He was literally blown to bits and pieces. The assassination of Grand Duke Sergei signaled the beginning of a broader wave of popular unrest that had been sparked by the events of Bloody Sunday and swept the whole nation. Many more assassinations, strikes, disorders and uprisings followed during the year.
(Grand Duke Sergei's replacement, Shurvalov, was assassinated on July 11 of the same year.)

'''More strikes . . . peasant and military insurections . . . into the summer''' 
In January-February, turbulent reaction to Bloody Sunday spread across neighboring regions, especially the industrial centers which experienced spontaneous workers' strikes: Vilno, Kovno, Kiev, Moscow were paralyzed. In February-March the labor unrests reached Saratov Province and the Caucasus, and Siberia. Labor unrests were persistent throughout Russia into August. In early March university students left their classrooms, and at the end of the month the authorities closed down all the universities throughout the whole country for the rest of the academic year. (Student unrest even reached Orthodox seminaries.) 
In March, peasant unrests erupted widely, especially in Kursk, and Chernigov and Orel provinces and northwest regions of European Russia. In June, the Battleship ''Potemkin'' mutinied and in the Black Sea port city Odessa there was a large scale uprising by the sailors, soldiers, workers and ordinary citizens. On June 28 afternoon hundreds of protesters were killed on the Odessa Steps which was immortalized by the classic movie sequence in the 1925 Eisenstein's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Batlleship_Potemkin ''The Battleship Potemkin''] (considered by some one of the greatest films of all time). In summer widespread peasants' attacks on landowners' estates dramatically increased throughout Russia. The Peasant Union was organized at a secret August 13-14 Moscow conference.

'''Kronstadt''' 
Kronstadt was a naval fortress in the Gulf of Finland 18 miles west of St. Petersburg. Following the destruction of the Baltic Fleet by the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) (Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 318|page 318: The Russo-Japanese War]]) Kronstadt joined the general uprising which swept the whole Russian country. The first Kronstadt uprising on November 8-9, 1905, participated in by the majority of Kronstadt's 13,000 sailors and soldiers, was basically a large armed riot accompanied by liberal political demands. It lasted only two days. Kronstadt's second uprising took place in July 1906 but was brutally suppressed.

'''Sebastopol''' 
A port city of Russia (now, Sevastopol of Ukrain), located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimean peninsula west of Yalta. Sebastopol was associated with rebellion, mutiny and civil war. 
On June 27, 1905 the battleship ''Potemkin'' sailed from Sebastopol to Odessa and to mutiny against the ship's oppressive officers. The mutineers killed seven of the eighteen officers, including the Captain and the Second in Command. The ship eventually sailed to Romania and turned over to the authority there on July 7. (Sergei Eisenstein's ''The Battlehip Potemkin'' made her famous well beyond Russia.) 
On October 1, 1905, citizen of Sebastopol and sailors from the Black Fleet demonstrated in the city center demanding the authority to free political prisoners, etc, but were met with gun fire. Wide spread unrest and naval mutinies followed. In November the cruiser ''Ochakov'' led a rebellion joined by several other warships. The rebellion was eventually suppressed by a stronger government force a couple of months later.

'''Black Hundreds''' 
Anti-Semitic vigilantes.

The name was a derogatory one, adapted from the term "White Hundreds", which was used in medieval Russia for the privileged caste of nobles and wealthy merchants. The lower-class types who joined the Black Hundreds were not in this class hence their ironic nomenclature. It was formed in response to the October Manifesto by those who had either lost or were afraid of losing their petty status in the social hierachy as a result of modernization and reform. They blamed the Jews as the ultimate cuase for Tsar's retreat. Fighting revolution in the streets was their way of revenging themselves, a means of putting the clock back and restoring the social and racial hierarchy. (Based on Orlando Figes' ''A People's Tragedy'' (1996))

'''Japanese won''' 
The Japanese destroyed the bulk of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima Strait on May 27-28, 1905. In ''GR'', the soon-to-be-defeated fleet puts in at German Southwest Africa during the 1904 Herero Revolt; Tchicherine's father, a sailor in that fleet, may also be the father of Enzian, leader of the Schwarzcommando.

By January 1905 the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo_Japanese_War Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)] had been going on in Manchuria for nearly a year. In the summer of 1904, the Russia's Pacific Fleet was bottled up inside Port Arthur (now, Lüshun, Liaoning, China) and the port was under siege as from August. In October, the Tsar sent the entire Baltic Fleet to relief the siege. At the beginning of 1905, Port Arthur finally fell after a siege and bombardment lasted 156 days. In March 1905 Russia and Japan fought the greatest land battle in the history up to then at Mukden (Shenyang, Liaoning). Each side committed more than 300,000 troops and over 1,000 pieces of artillery. After nearly one month's fighting both lost more than 50,000 killed and wounded, but the Russians withrew 40 miles to the north. After streaming halfway around the world in a grueling voyage of many months without adequate logistic support, on May 27 the Russian fleet met the waiting Japanese (under Admiral Togo) in the Tsuhsima Straits that separated Japan and Korea. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima Battle of Tsushima Straits (May 27-28)] was one of the most decisive naval battles in history. Even though the Russians had more ships and more heavy guns, but within a few hours, they lost 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 5 minelayers and 4 other ships. Four more battleship surrendered next day, and the Russian commanding admiral (Admiral Rozhdestvenskii) was also captured. The Japanese lost only a total of 3 torpedo boats. (Based on W. Bruce Lincoln's ''Romanovs'' (1981)). 
After two months' negotiation, the Russo-Japanese War officially ended with the signing of the Peace Treaty of Porstmouth (New Hampshire) on September 5, 1905.

'''A general strike in the autumn . . .''' 
In late September a printers' strike in Moscow was in progress for over a fortnight. By October 18 it seemed that the strike was losing steam. But on October 20 railroad workers struck the Moscow-Kazan Railway and the strike spread outward along all the railroad lines: to St Petersburg in the west, to Voronesh and Kharkov in the south; and by October 23 it had reached Siberia. Twenty-six thougsand miles of track were immobilized as 750,000 railroad employees struck. At this time much of European Russia was in the grip of one of the greatest and most effective general strikes in the history of labor protest anywhere in the world. All of Russia's industry ground to a halt, everyone stopped work. Factory workers, servants, postal workers, telegraph operators, janitors, and hackney drivers all walked off their jobs, as did bank clerks, shop clerks, and clerks in government office. Doctors, laywers, schoolteachers, university professors, even the entire corps de ballet of the great Imperial Mariinskii Theatre—all joined the strike. There were no newspapers, no streetlights, no tramcars . . . As all rail traffic stopped and telegraph line dead, Russia was isolated from the rest of the world. At the same time, the revolutionary groups organized a new body for coordinating the activities of the striking workers and for expressing their joint political and economic demands: the "St. Petersburg
''Soviet'' of Workers' Deputies". Many other Soviets were set up and developed later as alternate governing organizations. The name and organization ''Soviet'' (Russian word ''Sovet'' means council) took on a legendary meaning from then on and became historical. 
With the regime on the verge of collapse, in response, the Tsar, advised by the Prime Minister, issued the famouse ''October Manifesto'' on October 30, 1905, by which Nicholas granted to all Russian civil rights, agreed to summon a Duma (Parliament) elected by wide (though not universal) suffrage, and agreed that all laws must be approved by the Duma. In the meantime, on December 16, troops were sent to arrest some three hundred members of the St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers' Deputies. The Revolution of 1905 in the Capital passed into history.

'''In December . . . another major uprising''' 
In Moscow, the Soviet of Workers' Deputies proclaimed a general strike for December 20. When the authorities moved to arrest the stike leaders, an armed uprising broke out. Barricades went up in workers' quarter of the city, and revolutionaries from St. Petersburg, Odessa, and elsewhere joined in the struggle. Nicholas dispatched elite troops with artillery which reduced the rebels' area to ruins. By December 31, the rebellion in Moscow was over. The number of killed and wounded totaled over a thousand.

'''In the East . . . up and down the railroad lines''' 
The Russo-Japanese War was officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on August 23, 1905. In late summer there were numerous minor mutinies by troop returning from Manchuria on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. Fighting between the left and the right erupted on October 20 around Tomsk. On November 12, mutinous soldiers and sailors destroyed much of Vladivostok on the Pacific coast, the end of the Trans-Siberian. There were unrests and uprisings in Chita (November 29), Irkutsk (December 13), and Novorossiisk (December 22) as well.

'''Muslim rebellion''' 
The downfall of the Ottoman Empire by Turkey?

:No. In this whole paragraph Pynchon only factually describes the events in Russia and the Russian 1905 Revolution.

:Muslims in Central Asia (Kirghiz, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tadzhik, and others) had never been happy as pawns in the "Great Game" and now (1905) attempted to throw off Russian domination. Turkey, center of the Ottoman Empire, had its rebellion a few years later.

:The text said "'''''a''''' Muslim rebellion". Anyone knows this 1905 Muslim Rebellion in Russia?

'''the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere''' 
The well-known 1905 Revolution in Russian history was the beginning of the fall of the ''Old Regime''. The text "as the Revolution went collapsing" refered exactly to this one, not the February and October Revolutions in 1917. So "the year that followed" refered to 1906. In fact, Pynchon explicitly stated on page 602: "''By 1906'' there were Russians everywhere, . . ."

Soon after the collapse of the 1905 Revolution many Russians emmigrated abroad. They were 1) opponents to the Tsar regime feared of reprisal and backlash; 2) intelligentsia who were frightened by what just happened and afraid of a more violent upheaval in the future (Maxim Gorky, the writer, left Russia in the spring of 1906); 3) Jews, the victims of the large scale pogroms in 1905-06 (1964 Broadway musical ''Fiddler on the Roof'' told the story of how one Jewish family being forced to leave Russia in 1906); 4) youngsters who escaped the compulsory millitary service or looked for a quieter place for education. This was the second wave (1905-1917) of Russian emmigration. (1st wave: 1880-1905; 3rd: 1917-1939; 4th: 1945-1960; 5th: 1991-current).

'''as the Revolution went collapsing''' 
The first paragraph of this page is a factual description of the revolutionary events occured in Russia in 1905 which were later collectively called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Revolution_of_1905 1905 Revolution]. It was the foreshock of that of 1917. It had all of Russia in its grip, and its outbreak had not been planned; it had simply grown spontaneously. It failed under the usual combination of repression and concessions. (see Richard Pipes' ''The Russian Revolution'' (1990)). In Soviet Marxist history 1905 Revolution is second only in importance to 1917 October Revolution, one of the most important revolutionary iconic events. (The 1917 Frebruary Revolution, the one actually overthrew the Tsar's Regime, was lightly mentioned because it was considered a ''bourgeois revolution''.) Numerous books, songs, poems, films . . . had been devoted to this Revolution. To the west the most memorable are the Eisenstein's silent film ''Battleship Potmekin'' (1925) and Shostakovich's ''Symphony No 11: The year 1905'' (1957).

'''Peter and Paul Fortress''' 
At St. Petersburg, established by Peter the Great. Political prisoners were confined there from the first half of the 1700s. Conditions were notoriously harsh.

'''kazatsky''' 
A Cossack dance, stereotypical Russian behavior.

'''raid....Waziristan''' 
Waziristan (Pashto: وزیرستان) is a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11 585 km² (4,473 mi²). It comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The North-West Frontier Province lies immediately to the east. The region was an independent tribal territory from 1893, remaining outside of British-ruled empire and Afghanistan. Tribal raiding into British-ruled territory was a constant problem for the British, eliciting frequent punitive expeditions between 1860 and 1945. Wikipedia

Currently, it is thought to be the last stronghold of Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.

:Worth noting, perhaps, that Yashmeen came from Russia and had been ''transported'' to Waziristan for sale as a slave.

==Page 596==

'''as-ever transcendentally interesting hair''' 
(Perhaps a reference to Albert Einstein?)

Possibly, but given the numerous mentions of the Zeta function it is most likely a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_numbers Transcendental Numbers]. These are irrational numbers that do not exist as the zero (or solution) to any algebraic function. A number of groundbreaking results regarding transcendentalism were made around the time the novel is set, and most if not all of the mathematicians and mathematical methods mentioned in the book revolve around transcendental numbers and functions.

Given that these numbers are often expressed as an infinite series, in which successive terms add ever-more-minuscule amounts to the value of the number, yet each digit is fascinatingly unique (since the decimal never repeats), it seems to me that Pynchon is suggesting that Yashmeen's hair has the quality of being endlessly fascinating, that even the observation of a single hair (or even a portion of a single hair) is involving and invigorating. This would mirror Kit's fascination and infatuation with Yashmeen, and the term would likely spring readily to the mind of a mathematician of the era.[[User:Dharper|Dharper]] 08:15, 16 January 2007 (PST)

'''. . . the Revolution''' 
Russian 1905 Revolution.

'''...it all finds its way back to the T.W.I.T. people....'''

"and what comes out of their shop can surprisingly often be trusted"

Suggestive of the CIA's Stargate Project in Remote Viewing

''''gen'''' 
British military slang for information. To gen-up is to learn quickly. OED gives earliest recorded use of the word as 1940.

'''a soul impaled . . . as if to bisect me''' 
Harks back to the fate of La Jarretière in ''V.''

'''Afghani dirhan''' 
An Afghani coin, more usually transliterated as "dirham". [http://ghaznavid.ancients.info/ This site] has pictures and more information.

'''Ghaznivid Empire''' 
Usually transliterated as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaznavid_Empire Ghaznavid Empire] (Wikipedia)

'''coffee scion''' 
Coffee motif. More likely: coffee heir.

'''Günther von Quassel''' 
"quasseln" is a German verb, meaning roughly "to jabber"

'''less than universally respected Ludwig Boltzmann''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Boltzmann Boltzmann] proposed an explanation of thermodynamics based on the statistical behaviour of atoms. Many influential colleagues at the time did not believe in the reality of atoms and thus worked to discredit Boltzmann.

==Page 597==

'''Gymnasium child''' 
A Gymnasium is a German secondary school

'''Some sort of ... steam-engine word''' 
Prior to Boltzmann, entropy was defined only by means of heat and temperature. Boltzmann gave the first statistical definition. [[Ludwig Boltzmann|Read his bio...]]

'''Except for the usual constants...''' 
This is Boltzmann's statistical definition of entropy.
[[Image:boltzmann.jpg|200px|thumb|Boltzmann's grave with his entropy formula inscribed|right]]

'''''Ach, die Zetamanie''''' 
German: Oh, the zeta-mania.

'''one measure of the chaos''' 
Via Boltzmann's definition, entropy can be interpreted as measuring the "chaos" or "disorder" in a physical system. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy Wikipedia Entry] 

Cf. p. 188, where Neville and Nigel are referred to as "the N's," and to the proliferation of N name in T.W.I.T. in general.

'''crime...narrative puzzle''' 
Hinting at Webb's role in the novel?

One of Pynchon's central themes and best depicted in The Crying of Lot 49 which can be read as a satire on the order of crime novels and a comment on the central order of narrative structures. Certainly ATD can be read as a vast extension on this theme. The chaos/ order binary has already been a introduced a couple of lines above.

Humfried's comment reiterates something Pynchon says in his essay 'Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?', in virtually the same words.

'''Göttingen tradition'''...'''statue''' 
Like other university towns, Göttingen has developed its own folklore. On the day of their doctorate, postgraduate students are drawn in handcarts from the Great Hall to the Gänseliesel-Fountain in front of the Old Town Hall. There they have to climb the fountain and kiss the statue of the Gänseliesel (Goose girl). This practice is actually forbidden by law, but the law is not at all enforced. She is considered to be the most-kissed girl in the world. Wikipedia.

Addendum of interest for GR and ATD.
Nearly untouched by allied bombing in World War II (the informal understanding during the war was that Germany wouldn't bomb Cambridge and Oxford and the allies wouldn't bomb Heidelberg and Göttingen).

'''Rathaus square''' 
The square in front of City Hall.

==Page 598==

'''Axioms of Zermelo''' 
The basic axioms of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermelo-Frankel_set_theory#The_axioms Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory].

'''Poincaré''' 
Henri Poincaré (1854-1912), one of France's greatest mathermaticians and theorectical physicists. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9 Wikipedia])

'''Cauchy''' 
Augustin Louis Cauchy (1789-1857), a French mathematician. His name was connected with many other mathematicians mentioned in ATD: Cauchy-Riemann equation, Cauchy-Frobenious lemma, Cauchy-Euler equation, Cauchy-Kovalevskaia theorem. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Louis_Cauchy Wikipedia])

'''Whittaker and Watson''' 
A standard mathematics textbook of the time ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittaker_and_Watson Wikipedia])

'''two point one''' 
(Cf Sondheim lyric, "A Little Night Music" [http://lynxfeather.net/nest/lyrics/nightmusic-nowlatersoon.html lyrics].)

:I think here just point-by-point listing was being used: 1); 2); 2.1).

==Page 599==

'''Each time he would respond...''' 
Günther suffers from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity "relativity of simultaneity"], as predicted by Einstein and further clarified by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Minkowski Minkowski]. Events detected as simultaneous in one reference frame may be detected as nonsimultaneous in another. Events may even change their order of occurrence in time, depending on the reference frame.

'''"What here is he ''doing?''" . . . "Obviously, we must now a duel fight."''' 
In keeping with his name (see p. 596 annotations), Günther speaks in a stage-German accent.

Because of relativity of simultaneity, Günther's direct object arrives in our reference frame before his verb. In physics, the effect is accentuated when motion is faster and the reference frames are farther apart, so perhaps Günther acts in this fashion when he's psychologically "distant" or "moving fast".

'''dueling-society cap''' 
Probably student corporation insignia.

'''inconvenience''' 
Obviously the name of the Chums' airship; whenever the word appears there seems to be a reference to the Chums; here: "...Here, not completely...slightly...somewhere else" as the airship always seems to be.

'''''Liebchen''''' 
German, "sweetheart"

'''''Egal was, meine Schatze''''' 
German, "No matter what, my darling" - though "meine Schatze" is an improper femininization, which ought to be "mein Schatz".

Meine Schatze literally means "my treasure" and is the term of endearment I used with my German girlfriend. She never mentioned it being "improper".

:"Meine Schatze" is definitely no German phrase, and it also sounds really strange to my (Austrian German) ears. "Meine Schätze" would be the plural, but that does not seem to make sense in this context. "Mein Schatz" instead would fit perfectly.

I'm thinking Yiddish, mebbe?

'''''Schläger''''' 
A specialized weapon for student duels. See Wikipedia's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_fencing Academic fencing] article.

'''Krummsäbel''' 
German, "scimitar".

'''Korbrapier''' 
A rapier with a basket ("Korb" in German) like protection hilt.

'''épée''' 
French for sword

A sharp-pointed duelling sword.

==Page 600==

'''Colt six-shooters''' 
I guess Kit's luggage beat him to Gottingen.

'''''Verbindung''''' 
German: connection, union. Here the student corps one belongs to.

'''upon the face of the other, ''to inscribe one's mark''''' 
In several of his movies, the actor Erich von Stroheim appeared with a nasty scar on the left side of his face. Dueling was a pastime of honor at some universities, and the sword scar was the mark of having sustained one's honor there. Special weapons, masks and inflaming treatments were employed to produce this lifelong disfigurement.

'''a Mexican tilde''' 
The wavy mark over the letter ñ in Spanish.

'''restoring moment, elastic constants''' 
Günther's scar is tilde-shaped because as his opponent's sword passed across his face it vibrated up and down once and returned to its starting position. The following would be a reasonable problem for a high-school physics student: If you know how fast the blade tip was traveling side to side and you're allowed to measure the scar, what was the frequency of the up-and-down motion? A second-year university physics student could work out the frequency of vibration given certain properties of the sword and swordsman. A ''restoring moment'' acts to swing the blade back to its mean position when it is deflected; the duelist's wrist exerts one restoring moment and the elasticity of the steel exerts a second one. The restoring moment depends in part on a number called ''elastic constant'' that relates force to linear deflection (think of the classic fisherman's scale, where more weight extends the spring farther).

'''wasn't going to converge . . . skipped a step . . . ''divided by zero''''' 
Kit insults Günther by pointing out blunders in the proof he gave to Yashmeen.

'''Geheimrat Hilbert''' 
German: confidential counsellor. A title of honor given to prominent civilian figures in Germany. For Hilbert Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Dr. Hilbert]].

==Page 601==

'''''Ehrenkodex''''' 
German, "code of honor"

'''Tyrolean hats''' 
[http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tirolerhut&btnG=Search+Images Images]

'''''Schnurrbartbinde''''' 
A device to keep one's mustache safe from entanglement when sleeping, like [http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/mm/2006/01/1137360569.70341.gif this].

'''Zeiss "Palmos Panoram"''' 
An early panoramic camera, mentioned in the 1911 Britannica's [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Photography Photography] article.

'''''"Auf die Mensur!"''''' 
German, "to the duel"

'''Andaman Islands''' 
[http://www.openencyclopedia.net/index.php/Andaman_Islands Here]'s a mention of tattooing practices in the Andaman Islands

'''Stephanie du Motel... group-theory godfather Évariste Galois''' 
Évariste Galois died in a duel at the age of 20. Though much confusion surrounds the affair, it is suspected that he provoked the duel after being rejected by one Stéphanie-Felice du Motel. ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evariste_Galois#Final_days Wikipedia])

==Page 602==

'''By 1906 there were Russians everywhere, flown and fleeing westward''' 
Cf [[ATD_588-614#Page 595|page 595:the year that followed . . . Russians everywhere]]. fleeing westward: most popular destination for Russian refugees was then France, later America.

'''young Ouspensky''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Uspensky Peter D. Ouspensky] (1878-1947), Russian mystic and philosopher, author of ''The Fourth Dimension'', appropriate to Pynchon's themes in ''ATD''.

An anachronism: Ouspensky's ''The Fourth Dimension'' wasn't published until 1909. (See Linda Dalrymple Henderson's ''The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art''.)

'''Theosophoid''' 
A Pynchonism. From Theosophist Cf [[ATD_219-242#Page 219|page 219:Madame Blavatsky, Theosophical Society]]. the suffix "oid" often used in mathematics, indicates a "similarity, not necessarily exact, to something else". (android: similar to a man, ovoid: similar to an egg, etc.) As it is explained in the next sentence, "That's a Theosophist, only not entirely". Fitting, in a book that is obsessed with doppelgängers and people who are at once themselves, but not quite (see the transformations of Dr. V Ganesh Rao)

'''Chong''' 
A strange and seemingly unlikely visitor to Göttingen. The name might be taken from the Chinese philosopher Wang Chong, or Wang Ch'ung. Could also be Cheech Marin's partner, Tommy Chong (C.Marin alluded to earlier p.477). - This is Sidney Reilly, a famous spy of the time, in disguise. See the note on Sidney below.

'''"The what?"''' 
(Precipitous drop in authorial expectations?)

'''Chinese Bolshevik''' 
Chinese Communist. For the true meaning of Bolshevik Cf [[ATD_615-643#Page 616|page 616:Bolshevists]]

'''Sidney . . . Kensington Sid''' 
Kensington is where elected officials worked. 

This is Sidney Reilly, the famous Ace of Spies. The reference is made clear by Swome on page 630, and, to the extent that any appearance here makes sense, a spy makes more sense than a political theorist. An annotation on page 630 includes a Wikipedia reference for Reilly. I don't know whether Reilly (or British spies of the day in general) had a particular association with Kensington, or whether the reference is to Chunxton Crescent, which is placed in roughly that part of London.

'''transtriadic''' 
Beyond the three.

==Page 603==

'''"Spiritual... At Göttingen?"''' 
Gottingen is materialistic. Preserved brains as like in a tannery.

'''Applied Mechanics Institute''' 
An institute of the University of Göttingen

'''Prandtl's recent discovery of the boundary layer''' 
Ludwig Prandtl ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Prandtl Wikipedia]) in 1904 developed the theory of the boundary layer ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary%20layer Wikipedia]) in aerodynamics, greatly simplifying aerodynamic calculations.

'''powered flight . . . at the edge of history''' 
In 1905 already a reality, but the pioneering empirical work was taking place in Ohio, not Germany.

This is an excellent point that applies to many of the mathematicians mentioned in this chapter.
Minkowski invented spacetime, but Einstein created Relativity Theory. Hilbert proved his Spectral Theorem, but Heisenberg and Schrodinger created Quantum Mechanics. History was being made elsewhere. Cf Yashmeen's rant on page 594.

'''brambled guttie''' 
A proto golf-ball, see [http://www.che.rochester.edu/users/dafoster/ChE243/SciAm%20GolfBall.pdf here].

'''Bürgerstrasse''' 
German, "Citizen's Street", a street in Göttingen.<bre>
This translation is correct but here "Bürger" refers to the German poet Gottfried August Bürger (1748 - 1794) who lived in Göttingen.

'''brambling''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brambling Brambling] (''Fringilla montifringilla'') is a finch related to chaffinches, and is plumed orange, black, and white. Widespread in northern Europe and Asia, it occasionally strays to Alaska and farther south.

'''Brauweg''' 
German, "Brewery Way", a street in Göttingen.

'''Zhukovsky's Transformation''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joukowsky_transform Joukowsky Transform] maps the unit circle in the complex plane to a shape very much like an airfoil.

'''Geheimrat Klein ''' 
Geheimrat = Privy councillor. 
In geometry, the Klein model, also called the projective model... is a model of n-dimensional hyperbolic geometry in which the points of the geometry are in an n-dimensional disk, or ball, and the lines of the geometry are line segments contained in the disk; that is, with endpoints on the boundary of the disk. 

'''glass of tea''' 
(Why not 'cup'?)
because in Europe, as opposed to in England, tea may be drunk from glassware.

'''draw pictures . . . flights of arrows . . . vectors without pictures''' 
Vectors can be visualized as arrows in a plane or three-dimensional space; more generally they can be represented as arrays of coefficients, and now they are not limited to three dimensions.

'''''"...according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity." "And beyond, " added Gunther, nodding earnestly.''''' 
Reference to Buzz Lightyear's stock character phrase in 1995's TOY STORY (Pixar/Disney):
"To Infinity... and Beyond!"
--[[User:Btchakir|Btchakir]] 07:43, 19 December 2006 (PST)
:This reminded me of the caption "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" in the movie ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. [[User:WolfgangFaber|WolfgangFaber]] 07:44, 10 October 2008 (PDT)

'''according to Spectral Theory, up to infinity''' 
Cf [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:Spectral Theory]] and [[ATD_318-335#Page 324|page 324:''infinite'' dimensions]].

==Page 604==

'''nontrivial zeroes''' 
The Riemann zeta function has two classes of zeros, the trivial zeroes being at negative even integers (-2, -4...), the non-trivial complex numbers, believed (but not proven) to have Re(z)=1/2. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_hypothesis Wikipedia]. or Cf [[ATD_489-524#Page 496|page 496:Zeta function conjecture]].

'''much-noted talk''' 
At the 1900 International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris, Hilbert proposed a research programme of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert%27s_problems#Tabulated_information 23 problems]. The Riemann hypothesis is number 8 on the list.

'''Sorbonne''' 
Until 1971, the name ''Sorbonne'' refered to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France, one of the best universities in France. The name is derived from the ''Collège de Sorbonne'', founded in 1257 by Robert de Sorbon as one of the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris; the university itself as such predates the college by about a centure. In 1971, after the univeristy reforms, the five faculties of the former University of Paris were split and then reformed into thirteen interdisciplinary universities. Three of them as true "heirs" to the original, have kept the Sorbonne name as part of their official title: Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), the New Sorbonne, and the Panthéon-Sorbonne. [http://www.paris4.sorbonne.fr/en/sommaire.php3 The University of Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV)] was the inheritor of the former University of Paris' Arts and Sciences Faculties.

'''the outstanding problems in mathematics''' 
Hilbert's Problems are 23 (originally) unsolved problems in mathematics proposed by Hilbert. Of the 23 total appearing in the printed address, 10 were actually presented at the Second International Congress of Mathematics at the Sorbonne, Paris on August 8, 1900. [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HilbertsProblems.html Hilbert's Problems] were designed to serve as examples for the kinds of problems whose solutions would lead to the furthering of disciplines in mathermatics. As such, some were areas for investigation and therefore not strictly "problems".

'''eigenvalues''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalue Wikipedia] Dudley Eigenvalue, D.D.S., was a character in ''V.''

'''Hermitian operator''' 
A Hermitian operator generalises some of the ideas of symmetry when complex numbers are involved. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitian_operator Wikipedia]

'''spine of reality . . . ''"Rückgrat von Wirklichkeit"''''' 
Probably a reference to the main diagonal of a Hermitian matrix, which can contain only real numbers. The German phrase is one accurate way to translate the English.

:are there any others? Translate the German back to English and you get "backbone of reality"

'''Hilbert-Polya Conjecture''' 
The conjecture that the zeroes of the Riemann function would be the eigenvalues of a Hermitian operator, just what Yashmeen is suggesting. 

The most recent refinement of the Hilbert-Polya Conjecture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert–Pólya_conjecture Wikipedia] is that the operator in question arises from the quantization of a chaotic dynamical system. The zeroes would then correspond to the possible energy levels of the system. This would answer Hilbert's prompt to Yasmeen "''some'' equation" on this page, and would provide the link between prime numbers and chaos intuited by Gunther on page 597.

==Page 605==

'''Vance Aychrome''' 
The voracious detective is a stock figure in the mystery genre (Nero Wolfe, Mycroft Holmes, Inspector Dover, D.C.I. Dalziel and others). 
Is his name pronounced Eye Chrome, as in private eye? Weak possible connection?-- a truck light called Big Eye Chrome. The name sounds like 'fancy chrome.' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo_Vance Philo Vance] is an effete fictional detective created by S. S. Van Dyne in the 1920's. Vance Aychrome, as depicted by Pynchon, seems quite different from Philo Vance.

'''Full English Breakfast''' 
Bacon, eggs, tomato, toast... otherwise known as a fry-up.

'''Pythagorean dietary''' 
The Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who lived towards the end of the 6th century BC, was a prominent proponent of vegetarianism. The Pythagorean diet came to mean an avoidance of the flesh of slaughtered animals. Pythagorean ethics first became a philosophical morality between 490-430 BC with a desire to create a universal and absolute law including injunctions not to kill "living creatures," to abstain from "harsh-sounding bloodshed," in particular animal sacrifice, and "never to eat meat." (From a review of ''The Heretics Feast: a History of Vegetarianism'' by Colin Spencer, University Press of New England, 1995)
 
and never to eat beans (strange but true).

'''kippers and bloaters''' 
Different words (both Scottish) for smoked herrings

'''baps''' 
soft bread rolls - another Scottish word

'''Spong machine''' 
Appropriate technology. An English-made hand-cranked coffee grinder that doesn't light up, lacks a readout to tell when the beans are ready, and signally fails to function before the user wakes up. Only drawback is that some spouses compare its sound to half a load of cobbles being dumped on the roof.

'''thinned''' 
From full 78. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Wikipedia]

'''vegetarian haggis''' 
It exists: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22vegetarian+haggis Google search]

==Page 606==

'''Lamont Replevin''' 
"Replevin" is a legal term for a form of civil action to recover possession of property being wrongfully held by another.

'''Elflock Villa''' 
Elflock: A lock of hair tangled as if by elves. Often used in the plural.

'''Stuffed Edge, Herts''' 
An imaginary village in the South-East English county of Hertfordshire. Stuffed hedge?

'''kedgeree''' 
A hot breakfast dish of fish, rice, and eggs.

'''Cesare Lombroso''' 
Anthropologist who devised a method of identifying criminal "types" from their facial structures. (Cf [[ATD_171-198#Page 172|page 172: Dr. Lombroso]]).

Brock Vond, Pynchon's villain in ''Vineland'', is also a follower of Lombroso's theories. Cf. page 272-273 of ''Vineland''.

'''Trans-Oxanian''' 
From the other side of the Oxus River (now Amu-Darya) in Central Asia. Cf. [[ATD_429-459#Page 439|page 439:the Oxus]].

'''Graeco-Buddhist''' 
The hybrid cultural background evidenced in Shambhala. Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Graeco-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in Central Asia in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism Wikipedia] and Cf [[ATD_429-459#Page 438|page 438:Graeco-Buddhist]].

'''bad hats''' 
A bad hat is a slang term for a rascal

==Page 607==

'''Gas Office''' 
As explained in the text, the Scotland Yard bureau that kept gas communications under surveillance.

'''communication by means of coal-gas''' 
Cf Nabokov's "Ada". Also inverse of Tesla's energy-transmitter. A parallel to the Tristero, too. The description of communication by gas seems like a self-parody of ''The Crying of Lot 49.''

'''bombs... Suffragettes''' 
(Did they bomb post offices?!?)post boxes:Suffragettes carried out direct action such as chaining themselves to railings, setting fire to the contents of mailboxes, smashing windows and on occasions setting off bombs. Wikipedia

'''Persian''' 
Majority language in Iran, now called Farsi.

'''Pashto''' 
A language spoken in Afghanistan and nearby.

'''Tadjik''' 
A language spoken in Tadjikistan. "Mountain Tadjik" presumably dominates in the 60% or so of the country that is in high mountains.

'''Seven Dials''' 
In Covent Garden, London - a place where 7 roads meet. An unsavory assignment for a policeman.

==Page 608==

'''"Avoid beans"''' 
Pythagoreans follow a proscription against eating beans.

'''spotted dick''' 
A suet pudding with raisins or currants

'''Yarmouth bloater''' 
A cured herring from the port town of Yarmouth.

'''...if not for these unauthorized dilettantes all pottering about...''' 
Oddly reminiscent of the villains' perennial complaint in the old "Scooby-Doo" cartoons.

'''queering the pitch''' 
[http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/297387.html Disrupting someone's business;] compare [[ATD_748-767#Page_758|"yakitori pitches," p. 758.]]

''''shape'''' 
a doughnut,which comes in various shapes? Including the math-relevant
shape: a torus. But probably just a bit of bun, scone, etc. listed as Vance's breakfast...no doughnut listed.

'Shape' is another word for blancmange, which is made of gelatin, derived probably from the bones of some animal. Aychrome wonders "what's it made of", to which Lew responds "Maybe you don't want to know." [[User:Nehoccramcire|Nehoccramcire]] 09:14, 12 March 2007 (PDT)

'''the Embankment''' 
Victoria Embankment, London, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_yard Scotland Yard] was located there from 1890 to 1967. Scotland Yard was founded on September 29, 1829, on a street off Whitehall; and in 1967 it moved to the present location at 10 Broadway Street, London.

'''blue lamps''' 
Traditionally hung outside police stations in England.

'''lamé surfaces''' 
Lamé (fabric), a fabric inwoven metallic threads 
Lamé, name of the electrically conductive jacket worn by foil and sabre fencers 
Lamé (armor), an unarticulated component of a larger piece of armor 

'''yarmulke... high crown... dented Trilby style''' 
[http://www.wpclipart.com/clothes/hats/index.html Image of a Trilby hat.]

==Page 609==

'''Bukhara''' 
Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page 425|page 425:Bukhara]]

'''''Kelly's Suburban Dictionary''''' 
The peerless [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/22/design360.icon.az/index.html ''London A to Z''] did not come along until the 1930s.

'''wenlets''' 
Politician and journalist William Cobbett (1763-1835) called London "the great wen." It was not a compliment, because ''wen'' means a sebaceous cyst. Wenlets are small versions of the "great" wen.

==Page 610==

'''daylight oil''' 
from the streetlamps, lit up for hours?

'''a moon no one could see''' 
Note that the ''Inconvenience'' is repeatedly referred to as a "moon" ([[ATD_119-148#Page_144|p. 144,]] [[ATD_171-198#Page_187|p. 187]]) and is sometimes seen under other guises ([[ATD_199-218#Page_215|p. 215,]] [[ATD_243-272#Page_272|p. 272]]).

'''refused to dim''' 
(Nicely vivid.)

'''Vontz's Universal Pick''' 
Vontz (Yiddish): bedbug.

'''alchemized coke''' 
Gas works that manufacture syngas also produce coke as an end product, called gas house coke.

Fluid coking is a process by which heavy residual crude is converted into lighter products such as naptha, kerosene, heating oil, and hydrocarbon gases. The "fluid" term refers to the fact that coke particles are in a continuous system versus older batch coking technology. Wikipedia

'''Lincrusta-Walton''' 
an embossed fabric used for covering walls, invented in 1877 by Frederick Walton as an alternative to more expensive wallpapers (wikipedia).

'''hipshot''' 
having one hip lower than the other: a Greek statue in hipshot pose.M-W.

'''captive maiden''' 
In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', Oedipa Maas is referred to as a "captive maiden" in the scene where she's standing in front of the Remedios Varo painting. It would certainly be worth while to examine the parallels more closely.

'''scalene polygons''' 
Polygons with sides of unequal length.

'''jet''' 
jet black, a color.

'''Apotheosis Sparkless Torch''' 

==Page 611==

'''magnalium''' 
An alloy of magnesium and aluminum.

'''Lamont Replevin (for it was he)''' 
Formula from penny-dreadful literature: Open the chapter with an unknown character (referred to ahead of time but never yet making an appearance), describe looks and some little action, then spring the name on the reader.

'''''The Slow and the Stupefied''''' 
Daytime soap 'The Young and the Restless'.

'''gas-head''' 
Cf pothead, acidhead, etc.

'''Pike's Peak''' 
Lew's old stompinground.

'''Gus Swallowfield''' 
A curious pseudonym assumed by Lew Basnight while in the presence of Lamont Replevin. As Mr. Swallowfield, Lew professes to be an insurance salesman. The name is very overtly British and is possibly referential to the Swallowfield estate in Berkshire, which itself has a curious history.

'''most theft policies''' 
(Fact?)

'''pantechnicon''' 
A closed van or carryall. (Is TRP trying to put a burr under S. Weisenburger's saddle by bringing this vehicle back? SW's gloss in the ''GR Companion,'' at page 19 of the Viking edition, is famously wrong.) 

Pantechnicon can mean either a furniture warehouse (originally a bazaar) or a removal van. The reference in GR to "the piano in the pantechnicon" is therefore ambiguous. TRP might say that he meant a van, not a bazaar, but that would not mean that SW was wrong. Just that SW and TRP had different readings of the novel. And the author's reading does not necessarily have primacy.

This assertion is generally debateable and in the case of TRP his conscious intentions in his fully thought out novels carries a lot of primacy most of the time, most might argue. This wiki attests to that.

:Lots of people would say the wiki is wrong then. You can discover sources and you may be able to parse processes (rewrites, selection of information), but the author's intentions are not accessible; only the work is. Therefore (and so on and so forth). A philosophical question and probably not wiki-able.

'''legitimate bill of sale''' 
That is, a stolen object with a stolen bill of sale cannot be proved to be stolen; the thief has the receipt.

'''burglary insurance''' 
Although TRP writes that most theft policies were written in the US by the time Lew speaks to Replevin, the first burglary policy was in fact offered by Cuthbert Heath, an Underwriter at Lloyd's, London in about 1889, which would seem to be a few years earlier than the scene. Antony Brown, ''Cuthbert Heath'' ( David & Charles, New Abbot London 1984)at pages 72-76. [[User:TheKenoshaKid|TheKenoshaKid]] 15:52, 9 March 2008 (PDT)

==Page 612==

'''''Pavonazzetto''''' 
brecciated white marble with violet veins from Docimia, Asia Minor.

'''Phrygian marble''' 
Phrygia is an ancient region of west central Asia Minor, to the south of Bithynia. Marble from there was highly valued.

'''Atys... Agdistis''' 
From Greek and Roman mythology. Atys (or Attis) is a young lover of the goddess Cybele (also known as Agdistis in Phrygia). When he wished to marry, Cybele drove him mad and he castrated himself. Catullus wrote a poem on the subject.

'''''The Mutilation of Atys''''' 
No images: [http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=%22Mutilation%20of%20Atys&btnG=Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi Google image search]

But under the name Attis, this two-panel sequence: [http://www.aztriad.com/aacarati.html page 1,] [http://www.aztriad.com/aacatals.html page 2,] from "Seladore's Historical Cartoons." And [http://paxnortona.notfrisco2.com/?p=2332 a photo] of what appears to be an old statue of Attis.

'''Arturo Naunt, Chelsea's own, shocking the bourgeoisie since 1889''' 
Phrasing reminiscent of advertising.

'''shocking the bourgeoisie''' 
A popular pastime for young and not-so-young soi-disant radicals ("Epater le bourgeois").

'''koumiss vessel''' 
A container for fermented horse's milk. Perhaps like this one:
[http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/husa/origins/szkitahist/scythianvessel.html]

According to the OED, an early form of the word 'koumiss' was 'cosmos' - its appearance here doesn't seem coincidental given the short disquisition on the etymology of 'chaos' soon to follow. For the Greeks 'cosmos' was the antithetical concept to 'chaos'. Pythagoras is said to be the first to apply the original meaning of 'cosmos', i.e., 'an orderly arrangement' to the universe itself.

'''depending on the angle you hold it at, sometimes it doesn't look like anything at all''' 
A concise description of anamorphic and paramorphic images; this one needs the Paramorphoscope to interpret it.

'''wrathful deities from Tantric Buddhism''' 
Tantric Buddhism is also known as Varjayana Buddhism. In Varjayana Buddhism, a dharmapāla (Tibetan drag-gshed) is a type of wrathful deity. The name means "Dharma-defender" in Sanskrit, and the dharmapalas are also known as the Defenders of the Law (Dharma) or the Protectors of the Law in English.
In Buddhist iconography, they are invariably depicted as fearsome beings, often with many heads, hands or feet; blue, black or red skin; and a fierce expression with protruding fangs. Though dharmapalas have a terrifying appearance, they are all bodhisattvas or buddhas- embodiments of compassion that act in a wrathful way for the sake of sentient beings.Wikipedia

==Page 613==

'''tiny German hand camera''' 
Probably a Zeiss Ikon. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeiss Wikipedia Entry]

A Zeiss Ikon would be an anachronism, as this company was created as a merger in 1926.

The description somehow suggests the classic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minox Minox] "spy cameras", but also these were created only in the 1930ies (originally in Latvia, mass production in Germany).

A small German camera matching the time would be [http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Gnom Gnom], a version of which was also sold in the UK.

'''raw light''' 
light from a gaslight is not 'artificial' as from electric lights, streetlamps, etc. Cf. Telleruide section.

'''Gasophilia''' 
Love of gas.

'''Schwärmer''' 
The name is a German word meaning visionary, zealot, raver.

'''Waves in a timeless stream of Gas''' 
Replevin equates piped gas to the æther.

'''Sensitive Flame''' 
A burner flame adjusted so that it responds to the tiniest disturbance in the
air. Used by both physicists and spiritualists.

'''cognizant nose...medium for the most exquisite poetry'''

see Proust

'''Chidambaram''' 
A city in south India and Chidambaram is one of the Panchabhoota Sthalams - temples built for the 5 elements said to embody Shiva - at Chidambaram (space), Kalahasti (wind), Thiruvanaikaval (water), Tiruvannamalai (fire) and Kanchipuram (earth).

'''''Akaša''''' 
Akasa is the fifth element,the ether, unseen and invisible but an important element permeating the whole universe. It is also considered
to be indentical with Brahma, the creator..... 
Akasa is 'simple,continuous infinite substance and is the substratum of sound.' Both from Indian Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Occultist Eliphas Levi associated akasa with what he called the "Astral Light". He writes: "[T]his electromagnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric (Perhaps this explains Pynchon's insistence on the term "luminiferous aether"?), is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis which twines round two poles and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of Saturn" -- emblem of infinity, immortality, and Kronos -- 'Time'". He says it is "a force in Nature," by means of which "a single man who can master it... might throw the world into confusion and transform its face"; for it is the "great Arcanum of transcendent Magic." It is a "blind force... which souls must conquer in order to detach themselves from the chains of Earth; 'for if they should not,' they will be absorbed by the same power which first produced them and will return to the central and eternal fire."

It gets better... He writes: "It is through this Force that all the nervous centres secretly communicate with each other; from it -- that sympathy and antipathy are born; from it -- that we have our dreams; and that the phenomena of second sight and extra-natural visions take place... Astral Light, acting under the impulsion of powerful wills, destroys, coagulates, separates, breaks, gathers in all things... God created it on that day when he said: Fiat Lux..." He refers to akasa/Astral Light variably as "the body of the Holy Ghost", the "grand Agent Magique", "Lucifer" and "Baphomet", the winged-goat figure that served as the inspiration for the Devil Tarot card designed by Colman-Smith. [http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-1-12.htm From Madame Blavatsky's "The Secret Doctrine"][http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-2-06.htm Más]

[http://laluni.helloyou.ws/askbaba/prasnottaravahini/prasnottara01.html This page] also equates akasa with the ether and sez that "each subsequent element originated from the previous one" with akasa being the first, similar to the Kaballic Tree of Life.

'''Atman''' 
''Sanskrit''. In Hinduisim, the innermost essence of each individual. Also, the soul. ''Cf.'' Weed Atman in ''Vineland''.

''''''Chaos'''''' 
allusion is seems to Genesis. "Chaos" is in fact the Greek word [for without form and void], says this site.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."
-- Genesis 1: 1-4 (KJV)

'''van Helmont''' 
He claimed to have coined the word "gas" in just the way described here.

'In his "Physica" (1633), the Rosicrucian alchemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, wrote: "Ad huc spiritum incognitum Gas voco," i.e., "This hitherto unknown Spirit I call Gas." Further on in the same work he says, "This vapor which I have called Gas is not far removed from the Chaos the ancients spoke of."' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_light#Esoteric_conceptions wiki]

'''stridently unpopulated''' 
Cf p610.

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

ATD 243-272

2010-07-18T20:35:38Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 250 */

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

==Page 243==

'''The Chums return''' 
When were the Chums last seen in AtD? As far back as page 142?

A brief reminder of who the Chums are and what we know about them so far:
:'''Randolph St. Cosmo''', commander.
:'''Lindsay Noseworth''', Master-at-Arms and second in command, hates slackers and slang.
:'''Miles Blundell''', handyman, awkward, with an "ample waist" (11), also ship's Commissary, whose cooking ranges from pure cordon bleu to inedible. (110)
:'''Darby Suckling''', the baby of the crew, served "as both factotum and mascotte". By page 141 or so, has transformed from spirited youth to bomb obsessed, (111) sneering, snide cynic. Because of hitting adolescence?
:'''Chick Counterfly''', the newest member of the crew, picked up by the Chums in the South while on the run from the KKK. At last appearance, had become Dr. Counterfly, knowledgeable Science Officer aboard the Inconvenience (141). Reliably humorous. (110). Chick's style of speech here seems intermediate between the country boy of the early chapters and the sophisticated Dr Counterfly who met the Vormance expedition. Are we also at an intermediate point on the timeline?

[[image:fumaioli.jpg|thumb|150px|Fumaioli in Venice|right]]
'''''fumaioli''''' 
Italian: ''funnels''; fumaioli are large wide-topped chimneys, common to the rooftops of Venice.

'''''certo''''' 
sure, certain.

'''''Seccatura''''' 
Italian: ''Inconvenience''

==Page 244==

'''''ragazza''''' 
Italian: ''girl''.

'''Picardy thirds''' 
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. Miles seems just as moved by them as Lew. [[ATD_26-56#Page_50 | Cf p50]]

The gondolier is singing harmony with himself, or else Miles is imagining the accompaniment.

Picardie is also a region in northern France and "during the Middle Ages... included the Dutch speaking Flanders." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy] The region was a hotbed of action along the Western Front in WWI and played host to the Battle of the Somme, which totaled more than a million casualties and was "one of the bloodiest battles in human history."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme]

'''''stabilimento''''' 
Italian: establishment.

==Page 245==
'''Garibaldi''' 
Famous Italian leader, major figure in the Italian Unification. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garibaldi Wikipedia]

'''''"Ehi, sugo!"''''' 
"Hey, sauce!" Does this make sense to anyone?
It does not make any sense in Italian. 
To a good approximation, this is what the Fonz used to say in the TV series ''Happy Days.'' People mostly understood his melodic "Aaayy" as a variant of "Hey," but maybe instead it was something his Uncle Pio brought from the old country.

'''twentyfold''' 
5 chums times 4 suspects each. (Randolph suspects Lindsay, Miles, Darby and Chick of being the leak; and so on around the crew. And that assumes no one suspects Pugnax!)

'''''osteria''''' 
tavern.

'''San Polo''' 
The smallest district/area in Venice, and among the oldest. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Polo Wikipedia]

'''''rio''''' 
narrow waterway in Venice.

'''against the night''' 
OK...

'''''calli''''' 
Venetian 'street' or 'lane'.

==Page 246==

'''''sotoporteghi''''' 
passageways. See picture for one example [http://www.dialetto-veneto.it/images/FotoComano/Comano-Cattognano.jpg].

'''''"Sa stai, O! Lungo, ehi!"''''' 
It does not mean anything in Italian or in the Venetian dialect. One possibility is mimicking the callouts of gondoliers. ''Lungo'' could be someone's nickname. 
Other possibility is a wrong lettering of: ''Xa star, oh! Lungo, ehi!'', meaning ''Ehi, Lungo, let it be and let's go!'' or something similar.

'''''cameriere''''' 
Italian: waitresses (plural of ''cameriera'').

'''''pallonisti''''' 
(fake-)Italian: balloonists.

'''''Ehi, macché, Pina! ''''' 
Italian: Ehi, Giusep(Pina), what are you telling me?

'''''giadrul''''' 
Again, doesn't mean anything in Italian or Venetian dialect. Seems to be a [https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0007&L=irtrad-l&D=0&T=0&P=94630 term of insult], variously described as American-Italian only (see previous link) and southern Italian (see next). One source gives one meaning as "[http://it.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070318034908AAem49X zuccone]" - this appears to mean "[http://notes.tranq.com/archives/2004/01/23/zuccone/ pumpkinhead]". I guess we're looking for something phallic, given the context. 
(''as far as I can see, it is an American-Italian deformation of the correct italian word "citrullo", which in fact is some sort of "dumb ass", and is derived from neapolitan for "cetriolo", that is, "cucumber" '')

'''"with all the spaghetti-joints in this town to choose from, are you saying those dadblame Russians have come in ''here''?"''' 
reminiscent of a similar line from the film ''Casablanca'', spoken by Humphrey Bogart: "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."

==Page 247==

'''tacchino in pomegranate sauce''' 
turkey in pomegranate sauce and, presumably, the "Purple Thanksgiving" to which Miles refers above.

'''''Dum vivimus, bibamus''''' 
While we live, let us drink. Paraphrase of "Dum vivimus, vivamus".

'''vini frizzanti''' 
sparkling wine (plural).

'''SANGUIS RUBER, MENS PURA''' 
Latin: Red blood, clean mind.

'''''Serrata del Maggior Consiglio''''' 
Great Council Lockout, 1297. Link to the "Maggior Consiglio" entry on Reference.com [http://www.reference.com/browse/all/Maggior%20Consiglio]

'''Napoleon's abolition''' 
1797. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doge_of_Venice Wikipedia]

'''Polos' return''' 
Marco Polo together with his father and uncle returned to Venice in 1295 from their travel to China started in 1271. 

''Marco Polo'' (1254-1324), a Venetian traveller. Was born of a nobel family at Venice, while his father and uncle had gone on a mercantile expedition by Constantinople and the Crimea to Bokhara and to Cathy (China). The Mongol prince commissioned them as envoys to the Pope, a commission they tried in vain to carry out in Italy (1269). The Polos started again a new trip to China in 1271, taking with them young Marco,
and arrived at the court of Kublai Khan in 1275 by way of Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan to Lop Nor, then across the Gobi desert to Kansu and Shang-tu. Marco Polo entered the diplomatic service of Kublai Khan and was sent on missions to various parts of the Mongol empire. The Polos left China on 1282 and returned by way of Sumatra, India, and Persia to Venice (1295). In 1298 Marco was in command of a galley at the battle of Curzola, where the Venetians were defeated by the Genoese, and he was a prisoner for a year at Genoa. Here it was thought that he dictated to another captive an account of his travels, published under the title of ''Divisamemt dou monde''. (English title: ''The Travels of Marco Polo''.) ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo Marco Polo].)

''Kublai Khan'' (1214-94), Mongol khan, emperor of China, grandson of Jenghiz Khan. He completed the conquest of northern China and became the first foreigner ever to rule China. An enegetic prince, he suppressed his rivals, adopted the Chinese mode of civilisation, encouraged men of letters and made Buddhism the state religion. But his attempt to invade Japan ended in disaster. His dominions extended from Arctic Ocean to the Strait of Malacca, and from Korea to Asia Minor and the confines of Hungary. The splendor of his court inspired the graphic pages of Marco Polo. (from Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 1984 edition.) 
Jack Weatherford, in ''Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World'' (2004), calls him Khubilai Khan and makes rather different statements about the extent of his realm and his treatment of religion. 
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1816 poem "Kubla Khan" uses yet another spelling. Weatherford identifies "Xanadu" as Shengdu.

==Page 248==

[[image:doge.jpg|thumb|100px|Doge by Giovanni Bellini|right]]'''Doge's hat''' 
For some thousand years, the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice was styled the Doge, a rare but not unique Italian title derived from the Latin Dux, as the major Italian parallel Duce and the English Duke. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doge_of_Venice Wikipedia entry]

'''''Attenzione al culo''''' 
Italian: watch your ass.

'''Shambhala''' 
In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala is a mystical kingdom hidden somewhere beyond the snowpeaks of the Himalayas. Shambhala is believed to be a society where all the inhabitants are enlightened. During the 19th century, Theosophical Society founder H.P. Blavatsky alluded to the Shambhala myth, giving it currency for Western occult enthusiasts. Later esoteric writers further emphasized and elaborated on the concept of a hidden land inhabited by a hidden mystic brotherhood whose members labor for the good of humanity. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala Wikipedia entry]

'''cicerone''' 
A guide who shows and explains the antiquities or curiosities of a place to strangers. <ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''Professor Svegli of the University of Pisa''' 
The fictional professor's name comes from the Italian ''sveglio'' for "clever, dextrous, skillful."

'''"try to forget the usual picture in two dimensions"''' 
Cf. page 220, the idea behind the ''Tetractys'' as explained by Nigel and Neville.

'''an episode of intentional blindness''' 
Echoes the "denial of ordinary vision" that Lew sees when he meets Professor Renfrew (p. 240). Might these "blind spots" in sense evoke Iceland Spar?

==Page 249==

'''"there are two distinct versions of 'Asia' out there, one an object of political struggle among the Powers of the Earth -- the other a timeless faith by whose terms all such earthly struggle is illusion."''' 
Perhaps a reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism Orientalism], or Western (mis)representations of indigenous cultures, which functioned as the knowledge apparatus of the colonial project. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism_(book) The eponymous text], a seminal one in literary theory, was written in 1978 by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Said Edward Said].

'''"Those whose enduring object is power in this world are only too happy to use without remorse the others, whose aim is of course to transcend all question of power. Each regards the other as a pack of deluded fools."''' 
Over time, Pynchon appears to have come to a belief in a massive conflict between cultures "valuing analysis and differentiation" and those valuing "unity and integration". The two alternate maps of Asia could be a reference to these disparate worldviews.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V. Wikipedia entry on V.]

'''The problem lies with the projection''' 
(a) Projection by each group of its own obsession onto the other group. (b) Cartographic projection, i.e., how the round world gets imaged onto a flat sheet of paper.

'''Imaginary surface''' 
Presumably meant to mean (or at least allude to) imaginary in the mathematical sense: involving the square root of -1.

'''paramorphoscope''' 
AtD is itself a paramorphoscope; satire and science fiction typically hold up a distorting mirror to the world in which they are written, and present worlds "set to the side of the one we have taken". In the end the correct paramorphic "mirror" shows the world clearly.

'''"a certain percentage of them went mad and ended up in the asylum on San Servolo"''' 
Cf. the Northern Ohio Insane Asylum with its light-obsessed inmates at [[ATD_57-80#Page_59|page 59]].

'''the asylum on San Servolo''' 
First established as a military hospital in 1715, later became a mental asylum. Seems that San Servolo is to Venice what Bedlam is to London. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Servolo Wikipedia]

'''Clifford's term''' 
W.K. Clifford, (1845-1879): an English mathematician. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kingdon_Clifford Wikipedia]

==Page 250==

[[Image:stmarks.jpg|thumb|200px|right|St Mark's Basilica (Basilica di San Marco) in Venice]]
'''Dr. Cantor''' 
Georg Cantor (1845 - 1918), German mathematician who elucidated the theory of the cardinality of a set. He discovered that some infinite sets are in a fundamental way larger than other infinite sets, for example the natural numbers and fractions have the same cardinality, but the cardinality of all real numbers is strictly greater than the cardinality of the natural numbers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantor%27s_theorem Cantor's Theorem] is what is most relevant to his mention here.

'''the plano-convex designs of Griendl von Ach''' 
For a brief history of the compound-lens microscope, and the roles played by the Italians and the Dutch, including Griendl von Ach, see:
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Microscope

'''prophetic vision of St. Mark''' 
Mark the Evangelist (1st century) is traditionally believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark and a companion of Peter. From [http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/brown-venice.html this site]: "...a prophetic dream that Mark was said to have experienced during his earlier, supposed ministry in the area of the Venetian lagoon. In it he was visited by an angel who told him that he would find his final resting place on the very site where San Marco would later be built." In the first century there was no settlement worth mentioning in the Lagoon yet. The prophecy was "fulfilled" in 828 when the saint's remains stolen on orders of Doge Giustiniano Participazio in Alexandria were brought to Venice. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_the_Evangelist Wikipedia entry] St. Mark is represented by a winged lion and is the patron saint of Venice [http://www.catholic-forum.com/SAINTS/saintm08.htm].

'''''but in reverse''''' 
Miles now takes the place of the angel. Who or what is the "Being" and what form does the prophecy take?

'''cormorant''' 
A large and voracious sea-bird, about three feet in length, and of a lustrous black color. <ref>Def.1. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''scirocco''' 
An oppressively hot and blighting wind, blowing from the north coast of Africa over the Mediterranean and affecting part of southern Europe. <ref>Def.1a. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''neither sails, masts, nor oars''' 
Not a craft that is driven by the wind or human muscle. To say more could spoil a plot point.

==Page 251==

[[Image:stmarklion.jpg|thumb|600px|center|The Lion of St. Mark, by Carpaccio]]

'''Lion of St. Mark by Carpaccion''' 
Vittore Carpaccio (c.1460–1525/6) was a Venetian painter. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittore_Carpaccio Wikipedia entry]

'''the vision of St. Mark, but in reverse''' 
In St. Mark's vision, an angel appeared to Mark and informed him that his remains would one day end up in his present location, which later became Venice. Here, Miles seems to assume the form of the angel (in the form of a lion?) and the 'promise' Pynchon mentions seems to be the angel's promise to Mark.

'''our own duty, our own fate... the real journey''' 
Pynchon's one-paragraph summation of human life and its meaning recalls a letter Pynchon wrote in the early 1960s, [[The_World_is_at_Fault|The World is at Fault]], in which he also summed up the entirety of human life in a few tidy sentences. Both employ the word 'pilgrimage.'

==Page 252==

'''''sotopòrteghi''''' 
Tunnels or passageways under large buildings.

'''tenebrous''' 
Means "shadowy" but is also a link back to the previous paragraph. The Tenebrae Service is a special form that is meant to recreate the feelings of the Passion story, also represented by the Stations of the Cross.

'''Renata''' 
Note that Renata is the name of the female protagonist in Ernest Hemingway's ''Across the River and into the Trees'', set in Venice.

'''Glagolitic''' 
The Glagolitic Alphabet is the oldest known Slavic alphabet (9th c.). It originated as a tactic to lessen the dependence of the subjects of the Prince of Greater Moravia on Frankish priests, who banned it but could not suppress it; it played a similar role in preserving Bulgarian independence from Byzantium. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glagolitic] It appears to be a nexus of the kind of simultaneous temporal and spiritual tasks the Chums of Chance are now involved in. In this, it raises the issues first explored by Pynchon in the "Tchitcherine in Kyrghizia" sections of ''Gravity's Rainbow'' in which the introduction of a written alphabet causes immense political and social change.

'''Gauloise''' 
famous French cigarette. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauloise Wikipedia].

'''''scusi''''' 
Italian: Excuse me.

'''''Affascinante, caro''''' 
Italian: Fascinating, dear (addressed to a male person).

'''''ragazzo''''' 
Italian: Boy.

'''''Mattoidi''''' 
Italian: Semi-insane persons. The word was [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-mat1.htm coined by Cesare Lombroso,] the physiognomist.

'''''Prego''''' 
Italian: Please.

==Page 253==

'''Pozzuoli''' 
A city in the Province of Naples (''Napoli'') in the region of Campania. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozzuoli Wikipedia].

'''The Tarocchi are much, much older.''' 
Not at all! This is one of those ideas that rarely gets questioned, especially since some "interpreters" of the tarot claim ancient Egyptian origins. The actually only [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot date back to the 15th century], as playing cards, and tarot divination was invented in the 19th century, with absolutely no historical precedent.

However, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley Aleister Crowley] in his writings and the design of his own version of the tarot, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Thoth_(Crowley) Thoth Deck], made a case for the Tarot unifying and being rooted in much older divination methods from Ancient egypt to the[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah Kabbalah] to Greek [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology astrology]. Crowley's Golden Dawn gets a previous mention in ATD. Though work on the Thoth deck would not begin until 1938, Crowley´s assignment of the Kabbalah's [http://jktarot.com/naples Sephiroth to the major arcana] probably bears attention when considering the chapter structure of ATD: he called the correspondence "The Naples Arrangement" in honour of having worked it out there, and this passage's mention of Renata's business associate being in Naples at this moment is unlikely to be coincidence.
:Surely a robust skepticism toward Crowley and his research methods is in order? Consider, for example, this [http://www.tarothermit.com/letter.htm "open letter"] to tarot users—from a judicious scholar and believer, not a committed skeptic—making the point that if the cards embody images (of whatever origin) "speaking" to the reader or student, it isn't essential to press the further claim that they were invented by the god Thoth. The paintings lack a couple of millennia of "temporal bandwidth" but aren't necessarily voided of appeal by that, any more than Michelangelo's ''Pietà'' is a less-valid devotional object for having been sculpted 1500 years after the event.

'''''sfumato''''' 
Refers to a well known painting method which blends so subtly the colors and tones that no perceptible transition is visible, as demonstrated by Leonardo da Vince's ''Mona Lisa''. See [http://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/Sfumato Wikipedia]. 
The context seems to imply ''smoke'', then ''fumo'' instead should be used.
:No, the evocation of the painterly effect becomes a metaphor for the way the boat comes into sight.

:might just be a description the morning fog over the water, but the following sentence ("which would not burn off till later in the morning"), although possibly another element of the allegory, could point to actual smoke.

==Page 254==

'''''Pax tibi, Darbe''''' 
Latin: Peace to you, Darby. ''Pax tibi'' is not at all obscure—devout Catholics used it as a parting formula—but Chick has Latinized Darby's name to ''Darbus'' (vocative case ''Darbe'') and may be consciously echoing the text in [[#Page_251|Carpaccio's lion painting]] or on a [[#Page_247|pre-Napoleonic]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Most_Serene_Republic_of_Venice.svg flag of the Most Serene Republic of Venice:] ''Pax tibi Marce evangelista meus,'' "Peace to you, Mark, my evangelist."

'''like some damned ''Farewell'' Symphony''' 
Franz Josef Haydn, 1772, Hungary. Musicians at Count Esterházy's court had been kept too long on duty (and away from their families). Going on strike would have been disrespectful, so in the last movement of Haydn's hinting work, the players one by one extinguish their candles and exit, leaving two violins to play the last phrases.

'''"Chums of Chance were expected to die on the job. Or else live forever, there being two schools of thought, actually."''' 
Possibly a reference to the fact that the Chums seem to live simultaneously in the "real" world of the novel and also in fictional stories within the novel.

'''Irredentist''' 
In Italian politics (after 1878), an adherent of the party which advocated the recovery and union to Italy of all Italian-speaking districts subject to other countries (OED).

==Page 255==

'''Mostruccio''' 
Italian, literally: small monster, meant as a lovely nickname.

[[Image:samoyeds.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Samoyeds]]
'''Samoyeds''' 
These nomadic reindeer herders help with the herding, pull sleds, and are sometimes called "the smiley dog" in reference to their seemingly smiling faces. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoyed_(dog) Wikipedia]

'''Bastille Day''' 
The Campanile di San Marco collapsed 14 July 1902. Pynchon Wiki on the [[Campanile]].

'''''lasagnoni''''' 
Italian, plural of ''lasagnone'': Blowhard, braggart.

A hint may come from an Italian dictionary: a ''lasagnone'' being an awkward, simple person, the kind of loafers who abound on city squares or street corners and, consequently, may appear in tourists' pictures.

==Page 256==
[[Image:Campanile.jpg|thumb|200px|right]]

'''dual citizenship''' 
They live in two places, there are two skycraft, they point a gun at one place but the shell strikes a different place. Lots of '''bi-''' somethings in this passage.

'''the little-understood enigmata of the simultaneous''' 
The concept of simultaneous events, including the accurate definition and, moreover, the very ''need'' of such a definition, played a significant role in the soon-to-be formulated [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity Special Relativity Theory]. One of the main consequences of the theory is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity relativity of simultaneity].

'''four-brick groupings''' 
Padzhitnoff sees the Campanile come apart as a game of Tetris! The "four-brick groupings [...] begin their gentle, undeadly descent, rotating and translating in all available modes". (See [[ATD_119-148#Page_123|page 123]] for more on Tetris.)

'''the tower collapses''' 
Might have some relation to the final poem of ''Gravity's Rainbow''. The fall of the tower is foreshadowed -- foretold, actually -- in Chick´s Tarot reading by Renata (See [[ATD_243-272#Page_253|page 253]]).

==Page 257==

'''What stood for a thousand years''' 
Pretty close: Construction of the Campanile began in the year 912.

'''deciduous''' 
Something that falls, drops or is shed, like leaves from a tree or baby teeth.

'''We had the weather-gauge''' 
In the days of sail, [http://www.weathergage.com/ weather gage] described the relative position of two ships or forces. If you were downwind you could run or, if you meant to engage the enemy, tack to approach him. Every time you changed tack you lost an opportunity to shoot (because your guns pointed left and right). If you lay upwind, you could keep your guns trained on the enemy throughout the engagement. The weather gage was an often decisive battle advantage, and the phrase is common in nautical narratives.

'''Or we might send in pursuit your maternal relation...transform them all into masonry''' 
Yet another Mother joke. This time in reference to her being as ugly as Medusa and therefore able to turn the crew of the enemy airship into stone (masonry).

'''neuræsthenic prostration''' 
This is the third (at least) time Randolph has exhibited this tendency.

:This is the third time that this word has appeared so far, but in the second instance (page 188) it was used by Nigel to describe Lew Basnight, not Randolph.

:Not the word, but this reaction in Randolph occurred on pages 12 and 28. It seems to be a regular thing with him.

==Page 258==
'''Vibrational Rays... sympathetic frequency... divergent oscillation''' 

ie, what took down the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_Collapse Tacoma Narrows], the famous wobbly bridge collapse I'm sure we've all seen footage of. Same phenomenon weaponized taking down the Campanile, or at least, this is the best guess by Dr. Gerasimoff.

'''Tetralith''' 
Modern math term for three dimensional solid formed by merging three hyperbolic paraboloids in a manner that they have a common midpoint. See [http://www.tetranometry.com/#tetralith Tetralith Photo #2]. Pynchon just means a Tetris-shaped projectile, a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetromino Tetromino].
:A "monolith" (as in ''2001: A Space Odyssey'')means an "object made of a single block of stone". Hence "tetralith" means an "object made of four blocks of stone", which is exactly what you see on the game "Tetris".

'''Japanese character for "four" being same as that for "death"''' 
Not quite correct. The Japanese kanji (Chinese) characters for four 四 and death 死 are quite distinct, but can be pronounced in the same way, hence the taboo.

'''Ryohei Uchida''' 
Ultra-nationalist, founder of the Black Dragon Soceity (see below), a right-wing, paramilitary organization. See [http://members.tripod.com/ravenshrine/uchida.html Ryohei Uchida].

Interestingly - or, perhaps, as certain sorts of people might be inclined to say, coincidentally - the name 'Uchida' is homonymous with the Italian 'uccidere', meaning 'to kill', in several of its commonly seen conjugated forms.

'''''polny pizdets''''' 
Crude Russian: a total screwup.

'''Black Dragon Society''' 
A paramiltary, ultra-nationalist, right-wing organization in Japan founded by Ryohei Uchida in 1901. Its initial public goal was to support Janpanese expansion in Manchuria. Therefore, during the period from 1901 to the end of World War I, it aimed to help the Japanese government drive the Russian presence out of that region. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 (a war fought over Manchuria, with the Russians soundly defeated) it was active in espionage, sabotage and assassination against the Russians. During the 20's, 30's and later periods the Black Dragon Society evolved and expanded its activities around the world, including the United States. It was finally disbanded in 1946 by General MacArthur after World War II. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokuryu-kai Wikipedia entry].

'''''Smirno''''' 
Russian: quiet!

==Page 259==

'''''dov'era, com'era''''' 
Italian: where it was, as it was. See [http://veniceblog.typepad.com/veniceblog/2003/12/comera_dovera.html veniceblog]. On July 14, 1902 the St. Mark's Campanile in Piazza San Marco, Venice, mysteriously and totally collapsed. Under the 'battle cry' of '''''com'era, dov'era''''' it was rebuilt. The Campanile was reopened on April 25 (St. Mark's Day) 1912. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mark's_Campanile St. Mark's Campanile]. Also, Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 256|page 256:the tower collapses]].

''''La Marangona''''' 
The largest bell in the campanile is called la Marangona. At midnight, that massive bell resounds alone from high in the Piazza, and can be heard from almost any point in the city. There are four other bells in the campanile and they each have a name.

'''"Bells are the most ancient objects. They call to us out of eternity"''' 
This chapter is bookended by references to bells. It opens, "Across the city noontide a field of bells emerged into flower."

==Page 260==

'''Deuce and Sloat return''' 
These two, it will be recalled, are the men hired by the mine owners to kill Webb Traverse. (193) It is unclear who is whose sidekick. ([[ATD_171-198#Page_195|195]]) Sloat tends to bodies, Deuce the spirit. ([[ATD_171-198#Page_197|197]])

'''Curly Dee''' 
Mathematicians call the "partial derivative" symbol "curly d." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_derivative Wikipedia shows the symbol.]

'''Big Billy's or Jew Fanny's''' 
Big Billy (or "Billie") was a madam at the Silver Bell in Telluride, Colorado. Found on the corner of Pacific Avenue and Spruce Street, the Silver Bell was situated in the center of Telluride’s red-light district. According to [http://telluridepublishing.com/articles.asp?title=112 this source], Jew Fanny was a prostitute who worked for Big Billy.

[[image:Cosmopolitan.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Interior of Cosmopolitan Saloon, c. 1905]]'''the Cosmopolitan''' 
The Cosmopolitan Saloon in Telluride, Colorado, featured all the masculine comforts gambling, plenty of bar space, tables for talk, and an assortment of saloon art. [http://books.google.com/books?id=X3hSG8xhScMC&pg=PA147&lpg=PA147&dq=cosmopolitan+%2B+saloon+%2B++telluride+%2B+gambling+%2B+mining&source=web&ots=YyBLNquez5&sig=cyt612wQnVOEVU8yPrwqiQQWfw4&hl=en]

The Cosmopolitan was a sophisticated establishment located at 109 East Colorado Avenue and was frequented by merchants, lawyers, and mine officials. Its bill of fare listed "fine old California wines and champaigns." Papered walls were hung with art, and a hired hand kept the spittoon and brass rails polished. At the bar, lawman Kenneth Angus Maclean keeps an eye on things (at right). [http://books.google.com/books?id=HPNgqJI7WJoC&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&dq=%22cosmopolitan+saloon%22+telluride&source=web&ots=l9Zw--XiJa&sig=A_YlheB44cus8oh-n3kAOlFPAs0&hl=en#PPA85,M1]

'''"Pussy on the brain, Big S."''' 
Cf. the "Beavers of the Brain"/"Beaver on the Brain" episode, [[ATD_171-198#Page_183|p.183]]

'''inside out''' 
Optical illusion.

'''Deuce's on-and-off romance with Hsiang-Chiao''' 

Hsiang-Chiao: (Chinese) Banana

==Page 261==

'''Nonpareil Eating House''' 
The motto over the door was probably "None Like It!"

French, meaning "without equal". Webster's also lists other definitions, including this one, pertaining to the animal kingdom: "Marked with bright colors; as, the painted turtle; painted bunting". I have also noticed that whenever I buy capers, they tend to be of the "nonpareille" variety (at least that's what the label says). This most likely refers to their size, as nonpareil is also a printing term that describes "A size of type next smaller than minion and next larger than agate".

'''Mayva and Lake''' 
Webb Traverse's wife and daughter.

'''lard smoke''' 
Cf. p. 10, "tall smokestacks unceasingly vomiting black grease-smoke," and p. 216, "Just greasy ashes by the trailside."

'''biscuit-shooter''' 
I.e., a cook.

'''Cañon City''' 
Site of the Colorado State Penitentiary, meant to suggest Deuce and Sloat had done time there.

'''gong''' 
???
17:18, 1 January 2007 (PST)[[User:Bklyn48|Bklyn48]]
 "kicking the gong around" is slang for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_the_Moocher smoking opium]. Here, Sloat seems to mean that Deuce's opium smoking has affected his judgement.

==Page 262==

'''Willis Turnstone''' 
Turnstones are members of the sandpiper family, stocky birds that use their stout bills to flip over rocks and such in search of food. There are two species: Black Turnstone (''Arenaria melanocephala'') and Ruddy Turnstone (''A. interpres''). The [http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Ruddy_Turnstone.html Ruddy's] breeding plumage is a bold calico of white, orange, and black.

==Page 263==

'''"Crazier."''' 
Cf Bonnie and Clyde.

'''Oleander Prudge''' 
A name that brings joy to the heart of any Dickensian who happens to be reading along.

==Page 264==

'''single-jacker''' 
A miner who with a hammer and spike cuts a hole into rock for placement of a stick of dynamite. A set of holes are cut for each "synchronized" blast.
(Double jackers work as a team.)
Infer (this) one as a loner, a bit crazy, single minded, silent, easily hurt or misunderstood, doesn't play well with others...

'''How I feel about Mr. Kindred...and...Webb Traverse are two different things''' 

This is an interesting exchange between Lake and Oleander Prudge. Clearly Oleander hits a nerve as Lake spills the hotcakes. Lake goes into denial, saying her love of someone she would normally hate (Deuce -- her father's killer) and hating someone she would normally love (her father Webb) are "two different things."

Oleanders rejoinder, "they can't be," has the finality of a mathematical proof.

It's as if Lake is looking at passion through an emotional lense of iceland spar and sees two sets of images (father/lover, hate/love)and wants to believe they're different, whereas Oleander sees that in fact they are one. This won't be the last time Lake gets herself a "twofer."

==Page 265==

'''backing away down the valley''' 
It's instructive to look at a [http://www.vacationtelluride.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=standard&categoryId=11&subCategoryId=0 map or satellite photo of Telluride.] You could very well lay a single track from the mouth of the valley up to the town, but no farther. So the train drives into the station, then backs out until there's room for a spur where it can turn around.

'''gullet of days''' 
Metaphor. The miners' lives "as easily (as jug whisky)disappeared down the throat of everyday life".

==Page 266==

'''white-throated swift''' 
A swift is a small plainly colored bird similar to a swallow. The [http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/187/_/White-throated_Swift.aspx white-throated species,] which breeds in the western U.S. and winters in Mexico, is less plain than some. And get the species name: '''''Aeronaut'''es saxatalis.''

'''November''' 
November 1903.

'''in January, martial law''' 
January 3, 1904.

'''nymph du pave''' 
should probably read "nymphE du pave": [http://dict.die.net/nymphe%20du%20pave/ street-whore]. Theoretically this could also translate as: (image of a) nymph on a mosaic (tesselated floor) - like the huge roman one of Ariadne in the Rue du Pavé in Avenche (Switzerland) [http://www.stub.unibe.ch/welten/texte/herzig.html german weblink]

Most likely not (the mosaic idea); this is a consecrated term for prostitute. Note: in French, pavé means cobblestone. --[[User:Kirkm|Kirkm]] 02:09, 3 March 2007 (PST)

'''geometric episode''' 
Vaguely reminiscent of Proust on Combray: "And on one of the longest walks we ever took from Combray there was a spot where the narrow road emerged suddenly on to an immense plain, closed at the horizon by strips of forest over which rose and stood alone the fine point of Saint-Hilaire's steeple, but so sharpened and so pink that it seemed to be no more than sketched on the sky by the finger-nail of a painter anxious to give to such a landscape, to so pure a piece of 'nature,' this little sign of art, this single indication of human existence." [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/8swnn10.txt etext]

'''Engelmann spruce''' 
[http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=175 Picea engelmannii,] a light-colored, easily worked wood with fairly straight grain and slight contrast between heartwood and sapwood; [http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/boise/trees/engelmann.shtml uses include] piano sounding boards and the tops of violins and guitars, hence the association with the acoustics of the church.

A short biography of Dr. Engelmann (lit. Angel-Man) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Engelmann Wikipedia-Entry], more elaborated on [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Engelmann german site]

'''albatross cloth''' 
Evidently a distinct color/design for a wedding or wedding party dress in the West at the time. I have no OED at the moment, but there are at least two online "diaries" or descriptions using the phrase. Here is one: "We were married August 6, 1896 at 7:30 AM at my folk’s residence among friends and relatives. To honor the event, my folks had our parlor decorated with many flowers including roses, myrtle and geraniums. I wore an elegant gown of white silk and albatross cloth."

==Page 267==

'''Osterbybruk''' 
Town noted for ironmaking, 20 miles (32 km) north of Uppsala, eastern Sweden, nowhere near Jämtland (next entry).

The reference is probably more to a tune than a place. Swedish folk fiddlers, accordionists etc. have lots of bridal marches, waltzes etc. called after the place where they were composed/first used. There are collections of folk tunes from Österby bruk. I would guess that TRP has probably heard a recording of this kind of music.

'''Jemt-land''' 
A Province in west central Sweden [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A4mtland Wikipedia.] The hyphen is not part of the name and probably marks a syncopation in the rev's delivery.

Vintage Books paperback edition gives "Jämtland" as the name of the region.

'''Virgin bride''' 
Oh no she wasn't. See pp 190-191.

'''Child of the storm''' 
See the [http://againsttheday.wordpress.com/?s=child+of+the+storm ATD Weblog entry]. And page 190.

==Page 268==

'''sideways pussy''' 
Folklore.

'''side hobbles''' 
A hobble is a device for a horse or a dog that restricts the range of motion of the legs. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobble Wikipedia entry]. 
A [http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/archive/index.php/t-67850.html side hobble or Scotch hobble] links the horse's two left or two right legs, restricting its movement. 
"Hobble" also describes a type of skirt used (apparently) in bondage, see this [http://www.darksidecreations.com/product.asp?productid=19 example (not safe for work)] in latex.

==Page 269==

'''items, nearly always stolen''' 
Cf bower-bird.

'''marmot''' 
A stout-bodied, short-legged rodent that has coarse fur, a short bushy tail, and very short ears, lives in burrows, and hibernates in winter; also: a prairie dog or one of the larger ground squirrels. Marmots are native to Colorado and live at the higher altitudes. They are about the size of a weasel.

'''''"huevón"''''' 
From huevo (egg). According to [http://juantornoe.blogs.com/hispanictrending/2004/06/huevon_and_guey.html this blog] huevon "literally refers to the size of a mans "cojones" (another pseudo decent word that has seen a lot of mainstream play). It is commonly used to indicate how lazy someone is. The bigger the "huevon" you are, the lazier. As with "guey", however, this too has often been used to say dude or buddy."

'''''pinche cabron''''' 
fucking asshole.

==Page 270==

'''same hour, just before dawn...he even bombs by the moon''' 
I.e., he waits for a favorable phase. People who "plant by the signs," for example, associate days of the lunar month to parts of the plant and of the human body. They sow squash (vines) under one sign and lettuce (leaves) under another; they sow nothing at all when the moon is waning. Would a moon-guided bomber blow up trestles (legs) at one phase and plutocrats (belly) at another?

Here we see that Webb is "deuced" again -- first by being killed by Deuce, second by having his modus [operandi] imitated.

The time signature for the modus is given in both solar terms -- "the same hour just before dawn" -- and lunar terms. Depending on the time of year, the bombings probably happen from 4am to 6am.

It would be interesting if the anarchists had esoteric moon teachings as to which moon position is best for success.

Given that the authorities know the time of day and that the moon is the same in a relative way, they pretty much can predict the time of the next bombing, they just don't know exactly where. Sort of a variation of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

Since TRP is conversant with astrology and the moon seems to be signaling ideas in AtD, it may be of interest to drill down into this passage a bit more from an astronomical, astrological perspective.

In the Northern Hemisphere, in the hours just before dawn, any visible moon will be a waning moon along the full to new moon spectrum. Vedic astrology calls this the Krishna Paksha or dark half of the full lunar cycle. A waning moon 72 degrees (approx) past full (a waning moon less than 108 degrees from the sun) takes on a negative, slightly malefic tone. If you had a clock where the sun was the hour hand stuck at noon, and the minute hand was the moon, the moon turns bad at 18 minutes to the hour and reaches it nadir in badness at the hour or new moon. 

Drilling down further, Indian astrological analysis considers the tithi. A tithi does not consider the stellar zodiacal place of the moon, but the angular distance between sun and moon -- in the clock metaphor, we look at the minute. Instead of the 8 phases of standard western classificaton, there are 30 tithis, each lasting a little less than a day. Each tithi has its own interpretation. 

If there were an esoteric aspect to anarchist bombing technique regarding an auspicious time for maximum destruction, it would perhaps be in the Mars-ruled 11th tithi (Ekadasi), a time of strong, energetic conflict, fighting, explosions. Such a moon can be seen the morning of Oct 6th, 2007. At 42 to 54 degress before new moon, it's analogous to the sun at noon and the moon at 7-9 minutes to the hour. It's your basic waning crescent moon. Further, this moon can be in the 12th house (loss and secret enemies) when the sun is predawn, but only for about 2.5 hours.
In Telluride, CO, on Oct 6th, 2007, this type of moon will be in the 12th house from about 3:14am to 5:42am with sunrise at 7:15am. So one could expect an explosion probably between first predawn light and 5:42am.

==Page 271==

'''"...sufficient unto the day and so forth"''' 
Deuce is reiterating Webb's own words from Matthew 6:34 [[ATD_81-96#Page 96]]"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

'''skip''' 
In mining, a skip is "an iron bucket, which slides between guides,
for hoisting mineral and rock." Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 

'''ex-Danite''' 
Danites were Joseph Smith's vigilantes, "Armies of Israel", during the Mormon War 1838 in Missouri, i.e., before travel to Utah.

'''"Avenging Angels"''' 
Refers to [http://www.ugca.org/ugca1099/ugca1099main.htm Civil War-vintage Colt pistols] usually with sawn off barrels.

==Page 272==

'''the Dolores''' 
Dolores River runs through Cortez (where Deuce seems to be, next to exploding cactus p270). "We woke up in the Dolores... [VALLEY/REGION/HOTEL]"

'''a luminous face suspended''' 

Some large convex object in the sky.

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

ATD 318-335

2010-07-18T20:30:32Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 324 */

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

==Page 318==
'''Tengo que get el fuck out of aquí''' 
"I have to get the fuck out of here."
Just a literal translation of the English phrase. The Spanish equivalent could be "Tengo que salir cagando de aquí" ("I have to go shitting out of here").

'''Yale... how little the place was about studying and learning''' 
Pynchon's sustained attack on Yale follows his treatment of Harvard in GR -- "'Harvard's there for other reasons. The "educating" part of it is just sort of a front'" (GR 193).
:I wonder if Pynchon's skewering of the Ivies is tied to both his admiration for ''The Education of Henry Adams'' (Adams said that at Harvard, he got little from his professors and less from his classmates) and Pynchon's autodidacticism. [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 20:55, 10 May 2007 (PDT)

:Not to mention that Pynchon went to Cornell.

'''Kabbalah''' 
Jewish mysticism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah Wikipedia]. Also see p.227: 'Kabbalist Tree of Life' tattooed 'below Madame Eskimoff's bared nape.'

'''latent in the Maxwell Field Equations years before Hertz found them''' 
Physics lore says that Maxwell's Equations, written to illuminate processes in fairly slow systems, were at first regarded as having fantastical solutions that predicted undetectable waves in the æther. No one until Hertz connected the equations with observed electromagnetic vibrations (and ultimately with light waves).

'''Hertz''' 
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-94), German physicist, born at Hamburg, studied under Kirchhoff and Helmholtz, and ultimately became professor at Bonn in 1899. In 1887 he realized Maxwell's predictions, by his fundamental discovery of electromagnetic waves, which, excepting wavelength, behave like light waves. The wave frequency unit, ''hertz'', cycle per second, was named after him in 1930. A crater at the far side of the Moon, just behind the eastern rim, was named in his honor. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Rudolf_Hertz Hertz]].

'''Shunkichi Kimura''' 
Shunkichi Kimura is mentioned in [http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ve3m-snd/japan.html this] article on Tesla's relationship with Japan. Cf [[ATD_26-56#Page 29|page 29]].

'''war with Russia''' 
Started 10 February 1904. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War Wikipedia].

'''Gibbs had died''' 
28 April 1903. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_Gibbs Wikipedia] Pynchon's interest in Gibbs may stem from Gibbs's work in thermodynamics, particularly entropy, a theme that pervades Pynchon's work.

'''high-hat''' 
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/high-hat High-hat] is an adjective in this context and so means snobbish; haughty.

==Page 319==

'''"he [would later ask] why did I want ''that'' so much?"''' 
Similar to a comment by Siegel in his Playboy article: (to paraphrase from memory) Pynchon was disappointed that he was not admitted to a fraternity at Cornell, but he lacked the crude sociability for that.

'''eyes in leafy ambuscade''' 
eyes behind a bush (with leaves) waiting in [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ambush ambush], (a bit of a pun) in the sense of the hiding place used for the surprise attack (no surprise attack in this context).

==Page 320==

'''Kit dreamed''' 
[http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/03/we-shall-pretend-to-know-nothing-pp-318.html Chumps of Choice] sez, "Just like Reef and Frank before him, now Kit has a conversation with his father -- though unlike the others, he does not yet know that Webb is dead."

'''scout''' 
In British universities, a housekeeper/valet. At Yale too?

'''Proximus''' 
Latin; means nearest, closest, next. It also is the name of, among many other things, a computer code performing a non-orthogonal matrix transform based on recursive partitioning of a data set.

May refer to Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star, part of the Alpha Centauri star system and the nearest star to the Sun at a distance of 4.22 light-years. As the name suggests, it is located in the constellation of Centaurus.

'''Quincke''' 
Georg Hermann Quincke (1834-1924) was a German physicist. He was a physics professor at the Univeristy of Berlin between 1865 and 1872. As from 1875 he was the professor of physics at the University of Heidelberg until he retired in 1907. One of his many research works was to investigate experimentally the reflection of light, especially from the metallic surfaces. (Not sure whether this was done at Berlin or Heidelberg.) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Hermann_Quincke Wikipedia].

==Page 321==

==Page 322==

'''Moriarty's''' 
The unofficial Yale club, founded circa 1861, nicknamed Mory's, incorporated into the "Whiffenpoof Song" about 1909. The "Louie" in the song is Louis Linder, not to be confused with next entry.

'''Louis Lassen''' 
Founder of Louis' Lunch in New Haven, CT, still in operation today. Founded in 1895 and claims to have served the first hamburger in the US. [http://www.louislunch.com/ Website]. 

'''West Rock''' 
One of two prominent natural features near New Haven, CT. Reported to have been the location of a cave where [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regicides_of_Charles_I officials who presided over the execution of Charles I] took refuge when the Restoration reversed their political fortunes. West Rock is also the subject of [http://www.arttimesjournal.com/art/reviews/04church_frederic_copy.jpg a well known painting by Frederick Church] and sits over today's Wilbur Cross Parkway.

[[Image:wardenclyffe.png|thumb|right|200px]]'''trusswork tower''' 
Nikola Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower (1901 – 1917) also known as the Tesla Tower, was an early wireless telecommunications aerial tower intended for commercial wireless trans-Atlantic telephony, broadcasting, and to demonstrate the transmission of power without interconnecting wires. The core facility was never fully operational and was not completed due to economic problems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower Wikipedia]

'''ten years before''' 
The meeting between Vibe and Vanderjuice in Chicago in 1892.
:1893?

==Page 323==

'''"apizza"''' 
A style of pizza common in New Haven, CT, distinguished by its white sauce and clams. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apizza Wikipedia entry]

'''tropism''' 
The turning of an organism, or a part of one, in a particular direction (either in the way of growth, bending, or locomotion) in response to some special external stimulus, as that of light (''phototropism, heliotropism''), heat (''thermotropism''), gravity (''geotropism''), etc. <ref>'''Oxford English Dictionary''' 2nd Ed. 1989</ref>

'''at the far edges of his visual field, a glimmering winged object''' 
Unusual imagery.
:Possibly a reference to Yeats. Yeats: "I began to imagine [around 1904], as always at my left side just out of the range of sight, a brazen winged beast which I associated with laughing, ecstatic destruction", noting that the beast was "Afterwards described in my poem 'The Second Coming'". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Coming_(poem)]

:Or the word 'glimmering' may be key in understanding that the peripheral winged object is none other than the famous firefly of the song "Glow little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer" written circa 1908 and re-recorded by Pynchon's beloved Spike Jones in 1946. In addition to the glow-worm being a glimmering winged object, the song makes multiple references to electricity and lightning, all very much in context with this section in particular and the novel in general. [http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/g/glowworm.shtml Lyrics]

:Both of these seem a stretch. [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]]

:Pynchon is being sarcastic; Vanderjuice is not actually seeing visions. At the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893 (pgs. 31-35) Vanderjuice sold-out to Vibe (metaphorically sold his soul to the Devil) and agreed to sabotage Tesla. Vanderjuice never finished the work and Vibe never required it. Vanderjuice has realized his moral error and his "soul" and conscience are returning; metaphorically he is finally seeing his "soul', AWOL since 1893. He advises Kit against Vibe. Good souls are traditionally depicted as glimmering and flying to heaven. In the choice between the Angel on one shoulder and the Devil on the other, Vanderjuice chooses the Angel.

==Page 324==

'''P.G. Tait on Quaternions''' 
Peter Guthrie Tait, a Scottish physicist and mathematician, wrote two books on Quaternions, "An Elementary Treatise on Quaternions" and "Introduction to Quaternions"

''''lamp' this''' 
"Look at this" ; "Check this out".

'''Grassman's ''Ausdehnungslehre''''' 
A treatise on the foundations of linear algebra (including vector spaces) by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Grassmann Hermann Grassmann].
:Literally, ''Ausdehnungslehre'' means Theory of Extension.

But in context, the statement that "Grassmann's ''Ausdehnungslehre'' can be extended to any number of dimensions you like" indicates that we are talking about a mathematical theory, not a book. The word Ausdehnungslehre has actually been borrowed in English, but the subject is more often referred to as "exterior algebra" or "algebra of the exterior product." It relates to an antisymmetric operator that acts on "differential forms." It is definitely a Vectorist pursuit.

'''a ukulele of some dark exotic wood''' 
[http://www.thomaspynchon.com/hawaiian-vacations-pynchon.html Ukulele and Hawaiian references] abound in Pynchon's novels [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Hawaiian_Islands_and_Ukuleles ''Vineland''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Hawaiian_Islands_and_Ukuleles ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. [[Hawaii|More on Hawaiian references in ''Against the Day'']]...

'''That Göttingen Rag''' 
Reminiscent of [http://members.aol.com/quentncree/lehrer/vatican.htm The Vatican Rag] by American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lehrer Tom Lehrer].

'''Dr. Hilbert''' 
[http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Hilbert.html David Hilbert] (1862-1943), German mathematician. Hilbert's work in integral equations in about 1909 led directly to 20th-century research in functional analysis (the branch of mathematics in which functions are studied collectively). This work also established the basis for his work on infinite-dimensional space, later called Hilbert space, a concept that is useful in mathematical analysis and quantum mechanics. He studied mathematics at the University of Königsber and received his doctorate in 1885. One of Hilbert's friends was Minkowski who also was a doctoral student at Königsberg. He became professor at Königsberg (1893-1895) and Göttingen (1895 to retirement), made important contributions to the theory of numbers, the theory of invariants and the application of integral equation to physical problems. His work in geometry had the greatest influence in that area after Euclid.

'''Minkowski''' 
[http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Minkowski.html Hermann Minkowski] (1864-1909), German mathematician. He was born near Kovna, Russia (now Kaunas, Lithuania) to German parents. When Minkowski was eight the family returned to Germany and settled in Königsberg. He entered the University of Königsberg at 1880 and became close friend with Hilbert. He received his doctorate in 1885. He was professor at Bonn, Königsberg, Zürich (where Einstein was his student), and Göttengen. He wrote on the theory of numbers and on space and time (1909). Minkowski developed a new view of space and time, and laid the mathematical foundation of Einstein's the Theory of Relativity.

'''Spectral Theory''' 
Introduced by Hilbert. In mathematics, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_theory Spectral Theory] is an inclusive term for theories extending the eigenvector and eigenvalue theory of a single square matrix.

'''''infinite'' dimensions''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert_space Hilbert space] can be of infinite dimensions.
In Pynchon's paramorphoscope, the physics of 1900 (the mathematics revealed multiple dimensions beyond the 4 of space and time) is concerned with the same issues as the physics of 2000 (in which string theory requires multiple dimensions). The relation of physics and mathematics to centers of political and economic power are echoes as well, here drawn together in Kit's life.

'''Eigenheit''''' 
A term used in some of David Hilbert's mathematical and logical systems, it appears to have several disputed meanings, including something like "peculiarities" or "unique values or characterizations" (eigenheiten) [http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Talk:Eigenvector].

But Eigenheit also means :"Own-ness" or "Self-Ownership" [http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/stirner/theego9.html], a concept of the German individualist-anarchist Max Stirner (Johann Caspar Schmidt)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Stirner], an issue of real concern to Kit, both in his immediate situation vis a vis Scarsdale Vibe, and perhaps also because of Stirner's radical individualist concept of trade union activity.

'''Hamburg Amerika Line''''' 
Transatlantic shipping company established in Hamburg, Germany in 1847 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburg_America_Line Wikipedia]. By 1872 the company was making weekly passages to New York from Hamburg via Southampton.

'''Felix Klein''' 
Another professor of mathematics at Göttingen and a contemporary of Hilbert, Minkowski and company (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_klein wikipedia]). His major contribution to mathematics was as the father of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlangen_program Erlangen Program], wherein he proposed to classify all non-Euclidean geometries by the transformations to which the geometry is invariant, i.e. their symmetry groups.
See also the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klein_bottle Klein bottle].

==Page 325==

'''problem-set''' 
A set of physics problems to be worked out as homework.

'''th' Four-Color Problem's just a Stu-dent prank''' 
How many colors are necessary to color a map so that no adjacent regions have the same color? The theorem was first stated as a conjecture in the mid-1800s; a number of faulty or incomplete proofs were published around the turn of the century.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_color_theorem The Wikipedia entry] gives an account of the 1976 proof and the controversy surrounding it. 
The conjecture, now theorem, is that you can color any map in a plane with four colors. Regions are adjacent if they share a boundary but not if they share a single point. The Four Corners is familiar in ''AtD,'' so paint New Mexico red, Arizona green, and Utah beige. What color does Colorado have to be? Green works (no boundary with Arizona), so this map takes only three colors. But imagine the state of New Colozontah, a one-mile circle centered at the Corners; no matter how you assign the first three colors, now you have to have a fourth. And you can't draw a map that takes five, not without cheating (e.g., folding the paper).

'''wanted to trust 'Fax''' 
Suggests that he also wanted to trust "facts." 'Fax also suggests
a copy [of his father]?

'''good skate''' 
A good guy.

==Page 326==

'''all but careened''' 
The boat is nearly turned on its side by the force of the wind. You careen a boat on purpose (on dry land) for cleaning, caulking, or repairing areas well below the waterline.

'''McKim, Mead, and White''' 
Architectural firm established by Charles McKim, William Mead, and Stanford White. Introducing the Roman and Italian Renaissance style to public architecture and urban planning on the east coast around 1900. Asscociated with the "American Renaissance", "Beaux Arts" and the "City Beautiful" movement [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKim,_Mead,_and_White Wiki].

'''Granitza''' 
In various Slavic languages: boundary.

'''Curl''' 
In vector calculus, curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's rate of rotation.

'''Laplacian''' 
In mathematics, Laplacian, or Laplace operator, is a differential operator. It is widely used in areas of wave propagation, heat flow, electrostatics, quatum mechanic, etc. It is named after French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827). ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Simon_Laplace Laplace].)

'''Velebit''' 
A ridge near the Adriatic coastline of Croatia. The terrain is limestone karst, characterized by eroded cavities and channels.

==Page 327==

'''one day''' 
???

'''Parthian''' 
from Parthia, 'an ancient country corresponding to modern northeast Iran,however, Parthian also means "delivered in or as if in retreat", according to the American Heritage Dictionary. The use cited comes from Bret Harte, American writer about the West of this book's time: "a Parthian volley of expletives from Uncle Billy".

The full expression "Parthian Shot" comes from the Parthian cavalryman's ability to fire arrows over their shoulders while retreating.

'''''morra''''' 
It is a hand game played for points by two people. Both players show either one or two fingers and simultaneously call out loud the number of fingers the other player will show. A correct call wins the number of points. [http://www.frontier.net/~grifftoe/morra.html morra].

==Page 328==

''''North Hempstead Turnpike'''' 
New York State Route 25A. 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_State_Route_25A Wikipedia]

''''North River jibes'''' 
In sailing, to jibe is to shift a fore-and-aft sail from one side of a vessel to the other while sailing before the wind so as to sail on the opposite tack. This means the boom, a long spar extending from the mast to hold or extend the foot of the sail, shifts from one side of the vessel to the other, since the sail is attached to it. One does not want to get hit with the boom during a jibe (kind of like getting hit by a big baseball bat): it will hurt, if not kill, you and most likely knock you out if the boat. Apparently, 'Fax jibes a lot in the North River.

'''Sunny Jim'''
"[..] was a cartoon character created in 1902 in the United States by writer Minnie Maud Hanff and artist Dorothy Ficken for an advertising campaign designed to promote Force cereal, the first commercially successful wheat flake." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_Jim Link]

==Page 329==

==Page 330==

'''Neofungoline''' 
??? Speculation: A fungo, baseball jargon (origin unknown), is a fly ball hit for fielding practice by a player who tosses the ball up and hits it on its way down with a long, thin, light bat, called a fungo bat. This is the only use of the word so possibly neofungoline is more Pynchon inventiveness and cleverness. 
I read this as a spoof of an anti-fungal or anti-biotic product like Neosporin (as "Smegmo" is a spoof on Crisco).

'''have that long''' 
Vibe is about 60 years old.

'''trying not to speak too carefully''' 
Cf phony Yale posing.

==Page 331==

'''forward of the stacks''' 
Preferred cabins located upwind of soot and smuts from the ship's funnels.

'''So back in '63 had he paid not to have to go and fight''' 
Vibe had paid a civil war deferment to buy his way out of the army. Vibe was in good company: 
"men purchased army deferments and used the war years to amass tremendous personal wealth. On the Confederate side, men who owned 50 or more slaves were exempted from serving in the army, whereas wealthy Northern men were able to purchase deferments from the Union for the sum of $300. Among those who purchased deferments and went on to become millionaires as a result of war profiteering were John D Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J Pierpont Morgan, Philip Armour, James Mellon, and Jay Gould." [http://books.google.com/books?id=N2pyIc8VoWcC&pg=PA523&lpg=PA523&dq=civil+war+deferment&source=bl&ots=J21FP1thXT&sig=j67qab9X5FmSWzl9YkUp886jons&hl=en&ei=zwlQSvIukKqzA_Pq9aoN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2 Rothenberg, _Race, class, and gender in the United States_]

'''one of those negative results with resonance far beyond itself''' 
Like the Michelson-Morley experiment.

'''Grand Central Station''' 
This was called Grand Central Terminal until the "new" Grand Central Station opened in 1912, which was after this episode occurs. [http://grandcentralterminal.com/pages/getpage.aspx?id=75133219-5FAF-40D2-B946-D3A6693EFF32 History of Grand Central Station]

==Page 332==

'''how mighty are the wings we shelter beneath''' 
Wings of God, thinks Vibe. There have been hints this is not so. 
Compare p. 211, where the Rev. Lube Carnal says, "We like to think of Jeshimon as being under God's wing," to which Reef protests, "But wait a minute, God doesn't have wings—" And Carnal replies, "The God you're thinking of, maybe not. But out here, the one who looks after us, it's a kind of winged God, you see." 
Maybe wings of power?

'''the bloodline of my enemy''' 
Interesting phrase. Not the blood of his enemy. Vibe says his own seed is cursed, and he is seeking by adoption to make the Traverse bloodline his own. See also [[ATD_149-170#Page_158|"it was desire," p. 158.]]

==Page 333==

'''I didn't have my war then''' 
Vibe saying his time to fight was not 1862 but in the 1890s. 
And note: above, Vibe bought a deferment out of civil war.

'''My civil war was yet to come ... Invasion of Chicago, battles of Homestead, Coeur d'Alene, San Juans...communards ... labor syndicates ...''' 
Vibe's battle is not the civil war between north and south, but rather civil war between workers and owners, labor and capital.

:Chigago Invasion: Haymarket bomb and following action? 1885 / 1886. Labor action beginning in Chicago

:battle of Homestead: 1892, seminal lockout and strike at Carnegie-owned steel plant in PA. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike wikipedia article]

:Coeur d'Alene, San Juans: 1892, 1899, miners strikes, union activitiy, etc. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeur_d%27Alene_miners%27_dispute wikipedia on Coeur d'Alene]

:timelines: 
:[http://www.lutins.org/labor.html An Eclectic List of Events in U.S. Labor History] 
:[http://www.ohiohistory.org/historyworksohio/timeline/timeline_detail.cfm?start=1877&end=1899 timeline: 1877 - 1899.]

'''headquarters in Pearl Street''' 
In Manhattan's financial district; on [http://www.mustseenewyork.com/maps/nyc-lower-manhattan-hotels.html this street map] it runs northeast from the ferry terminals. [http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/nycolonial/index.html Fraunces Tavern] (built 1719) stands at the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets.

'''a ruler isolated in self-resonant fantasy''' 
Perhaps speaking to the furniture and hearing the echo agree with him. "No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

==Page 334==

'''the moderate American tradition of Massachusetts Bay or Utah''' 
Benign, homegrown theocracy contrasted with deranged foreign theocracy.

'''Cooper Square''' 
Cooper Square where Fourth and Third Avenue merge into the Bowery in New York City.

'''This boy Christopher, for one thing''' 
above (pg 332), Vibe wants to adopt webb family, Kit in particular. Here he indicates attraction to Kit. Wants to be molesting father?

'''Tenderloin''' 
A district of vice in New York City (''American Heritage Dictionary''). The West Side from about 27th Street to about 62nd Street. Gave its name to a very funny musical (1960; music by Jerry Bock, book by George Abbott and Jerome Weidman, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick).

'''Nellie Noonan or Anna Held''' 
Anna Held was a popular stage performer of the 1890s and 1900s [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Held wikipedia]. Nellie Noonan may be a reference to the title character in ''Little Nellie Kelly'', a George M. Cohan musical made into a film starring Judy Garland in 1940 ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032718/ imdb]), but Cohan wrote the musical in 1922.

==Page 335==

'''the Wilderness''' 
A Civil War battle in May 1864, just before the battle of Cold Harbor. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Wilderness Wikipedia]

'''Cold Harbor''' 
Where Foley Walker, acting as Civil War Substitute, "took a Reb bullet" for Scarsdale Vibe - see p.100/101.

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

ATD 219-242

2010-07-06T18:31:37Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 239 */

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

==Page 219==

'''they would have little clue . . . their more or less ambushed keesters''' 
One of half a dozen Pynchonian circumlocutions for "wouldn't know [blank] if it bit them in the ass."

[[image:tetractys.png|thumb|175px|right|The Tetractys]]'''True Worshippers of the Ineffable Tetractys''' 
The Tetractys is a triangular figure consisting of ten points arranged in four rows: one, two, three, and four points in each row. As a mystical symbol, it was very important to the followers of the secret worship of the Pythagoreans, Kabbalists, and nutbars of other affiliations since. It has all kinds of symbological meaning, including the four elements, the organization of space, the Tarot, etc. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetractys Wikipedia entry];

:In the Pythagorean tetractys the supreme symbol of universal forces and processes are set forth the theories of the Greeks concerning color and music. The first three dots represent the threefold White Light, which is the Godhead containing potentially all sound and color. The remaining seven dots are the colors of the spectrum and the notes of the musical scale. The colors and tones are the active creative powers which, emanating from the First Cause, establish the universe. The seven are divided into two groups, one containing three powers and the other four a relationship also shown in the tetractys. The higher group that of three becomes the spiritual nature of the created universe; the lower group that of four manifests as the irrational sphere, or inferior world. <ref>From [http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/ ''The Secret Teachings of All Ages''] by Manly P. Hall (1928)</ref>

:This division (three/four) has to be related to the "trivium" (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and "quadrivium" (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy) of the [http://www.cosmopolis.com/villa/liberal-arts.html Medieval liberal arts.]

More effably, if you flip the Tetractys left to right, it gives the positions of the pins in ten-pin bowling.

The acronym T.W.I.T is most appropriate: a twit is an ineffectual buffoon. Neville and Nigel are certainly twits.

I believe the above really misses the Big Symbol, i.e., Pynchon's linking of T.W.I.T. with the vagina, i.e., the female ''sex'' organ. "T.W.I.T." sounds like no, ''is'' a cross between "clit" and "twat." And, natch, it's headed up by [[#Page 220|Nookshaft]]. And, let's face it, that tetractys is surely an inverted beaver, yes? (See [[ATD 171-198#Page 183|"Beavers of the Brain"]]). Its male counterpart is [[ATD 397-428#Page 405|Candlebrow U.]], to be encountered down the road apiece (and that ain't no spoiler!).

"The Tetractys" is also the name of a poem by the Quaternionist prophet Hamilton. I can't imagine Pynchon didn't find it fairly interesting reading. [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/node24.html Read it for yourself here]

'''Chunxton Crescent''' 
Invented by Pynchon. "Crescent" is a female symbol in many mythologies and cultures, and it reinforces T.W.I.T.'s association with the female sex. But "Chunxton"?

:The moon is seen as a female symbol, and was worshipped in ancient times as a powerful force. It is believed to be linked to the unconscious and our feminine side. The sacredness of the moon has been connected with the basic cyclic rhythms of life. The changing phases of the moon were linked to the death and rebirth seen in crops and the seasons, and also to the female monthly cycle that controls human fertility. The moon calendar is still important and many festivals exist around the lunar phases. [http://www.new-age.co.uk/moon-dates.htm]

[[image:bap.gif|thumb|200px|right|Eliphas Levi's Baphomet]]
The crescent is also said "to represent silver (the metal associated with the moon) in alchemy, where, by inference, it can also be used to represent
qualities that silver possesses." (Alchemy and Symbols, By M. E. Glidewell, Epsilon.)

Additionally, the crescent was an important symbol for Eliphas Levi, occultist, magician, and spiritual antecedent to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and, in turn, the T.W.I.T.

''Chunxton'' may be derived from "chunk stone" or "chunk(s) town." I'm inclined to favor the first. "Chunk stone" has two main meanings: (1) stone that's quarried in chunks instead of blocks, slabs or crystals; (2) a magical stone that figures in some American Indian stories. Turquoise and amethyst chunk stones are often made into jewelry as-is, or [http://www.bridastone.com/chunkstone.htm larger chunks of (say) marble] can be used as decoration. Here are links to two Indian stories in which people use chunk stones in finding or tracking: [http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/se/mtsi/mtsi156.htm first,] [http://romeoandjuliet.ws/books/native_american/se/mtsi/mtsi270.shtml second.] Of course it's also possible that "chunk" is the verb meaning "throw," in which case there ought to be a "glass houses" connection somewhere; I can't find it.

:Pure speculation here, but our own moon is a giant "chunk" of "stone". And how did that "chunk" get there? Well, this being Thomas Pynchon's universe, sometime early in the solar system's history, this proto-planet called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus#Orpheus_in_astronomy Orpheus] comes along and smacks into the Earth so violently that it not only creates the moon, but at the same time expels enough water and gas to make "it possible for life on Earth to evolve as we currently know it." Seems to me like something worthy of Occultist reverence

:In [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''CoL49''], TRP states at least twice that the Pacific Ocean is "the hole left by the moon's tearing-free and the monument to her exile." ([http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_3 ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.41])

'''Tyburnia''' 
"Tyburnia occupies the ground on the north side of Hyde-park and Kensington-gardens, and stretches from Edgware-road on the east to about Inverness-terrace on the west. This is not, strictly speaking, a fashionable quarter; but it is not absolutely unfashionable, and is a very favourite part with those — lawyers, merchants, and others—who have to reside in town the greater part of the year." Charles Dickens (Jr.), ''Dickens's Dictionary of London'', 1879.

'''Sir John Soane''' 
(1753 – 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Soane Wikipedia entry]

'''Madame Blavatsky''' 
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), Russian-born founder of the Theosophical Society. Madame Blavatsky claimed that all religions were both true in their inner teachings and false or imperfect in their external conventional manifestations. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Blavatsky Wikipedia]

[[image:Ts_seal.gif|thumb|200px|right|Theosophical Society Seal]]
'''Theosophical Society''' 
The Theosophical Society was founded in New York City, USA, in 1875 by H.P. Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others. Its initial objective was the investigation, study and explanation of mediumistic phenomena. After a few years Olcott and Blavatsky moved to India and established the International Headquarters at Adyar, Madras (Chennai). There, they also became interested in studying Eastern religions, and these were included in the Society's agenda. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophical_Society Wikipedia entry]
"Its post-blavatskian fragments" refers to the schism that occured between some of the founding members after the passing of H.P. Blavatsky in 1891.

'''Society for Psychical Research''' 
The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a non-profit organization which started in the United Kingdom and was later imitated in other countries. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena in a scientific and unbiased way."[1] It was founded in 1882 by a group of eminent thinkers including Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, William Fletcher Barrett, Henry Sidgwick, and Edmund Dawson Rogers. The Society's headquarters are in Marloes Road, London. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Psychical_Research Wikipedia entry]

[[image:Gdrosycross.gif|thumb|140px|right|Rosy Cross of the Golden Dawn]]
'''Order of the Golden Dawn''' 
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or, more commonly, the Golden Dawn) was a magical order of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, practicing a form of theurgy and spiritual development. William Wynn Westcott, also a member of the Theosophical Society, appears to have been the initial driving force behind the establishment of the Golden Dawn. See also the aforementioned schism within the Theosophical Society. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Golden_Dawn Wikipedia entry]

'''of whom there seemed an ever-increasing supply''' 
Supply of seekers, not of "arrangements." (Well, this contributor read it wrong . . . twice.)

'''century had rushed . . . out the other side''' 
An instant of zero, not a whole year, because they aren't yet "out the other side" of 1900. ??? A century is 100 years. The one referred to here lasted from 1800-1899 and, since it's 1900, it has "rushed to its end."
:Missing the point. The image focuses on the ''zero.'' And please, let's not have that sterile argument about when a century begins! 
Don't know if this is of any significance, but in the Tarot the Fool (or Jester), says Wikipedia, is "often numbered 0." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_(Tarot_card)]

==Page 220==

'''not even if that tartan were authentic''' 
It's a solecism in England, but is (or was—at least until well up in the 19th century) a prosecutable offense in Scotland, to wear the tartan of a clan one doesn't belong to. At the time of the action, Lew's offense against taste is not to wear tartan (see below in this entry) but to wear a tartan he isn't entitled to wear.

The previous statement doesn't quite jibe. In the late 17 cent. it was prosecutable for any '''Scot''' (read Highlander) to wear a tartan. Those tartans we see ascribed to clans were creations made to please Queen Victoria. Tartans and the Kilt are from Scottish '''and Irish''' Clans; from the oppressed. Thus, the fun in the line comes from the fact that an '''''authentic''''' tartan was false to begin with, but that doesn't keep Nigel from ''lording'' the ''fact'' that Lew's argyle sox are not up to snuff. 
Kilts came from an earlier garment which covered more of the body than today's piece, and those in plaid were called '''''Breacan''''', meaning partially colored or speckled. The plaids also came in trews (trousers), and ruanas (shawls). Many had uniformity in design, but probably because those were the colors available and thus recognized as part of a family, clan or sept. 

'''Caen stone''' 
A cream-colored limestone for building, found near Caen, France.

'''syrinx''' 
a primitive wind instrument consisting of several parallel pipes bound together; panpipes.

'''lyre''' 
an ancient form of harp, so syrinx and lyre are like flute and harp. A famous Concerto for flute and harp is the work of G. F. Handel, who also composed the ''Messiah.''

'''ten-in-one''' 
Ten sideshow acts for one admission. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideshow Wikipedia]

Also, a description of the Tetractys.

'''masses of shadow . . . bright presences''' 
We've had suggestions, at least, that shadow is more hospitable than brightness.

'''humans reincarnated as cats, dogs, and mice''' 
Do the T.W.I.T. members just take the word of the creatures, or do they have some way to be sure?

'''Nicholas Nookshaft''' 
Grand Cohen Nicholas Nookshaft's name reinforces the linking of [[#Page 219|T.W.I.T.]] to the female sex organ, "Nooky shaft" being a vulgarism for the vagina. Interestingly, "shaft" is both a rod or pole, or penis, as well as a vertical passageway, thus its connations are bisexual.

Anyone familiar with Ceremonial Magick is aware of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley Aleister Crowley]. Crowley was famously bisexual, responsible for one of the most famous Tarot Decks the "Thoth" deck and was involved in spycraft for British Intelligence and, it is rumored, was a double agent for the Germans as well. Nicholas Nookshaft is a parody of Crowley.

'''Grand Cohen''' 
'Cohen' is Hebrew for 'priest'.

==Page 221==

'''Couldn't have been the same world as the one you're in now''' 
We can infer that Lew got blown up in one world and shifted to another. A review of the explosion episode, particularly with [[ATD_171-198#Page_188|the annotations to p. 188,]] will be worthwhile.

'''"Lateral world-sets, other parts of the Creation, lie all around us, each with its crossover points or gates of transfer from one to another, and they can be anywhere, really."''' 
Could this be the explanation for some of the most inexplicable scenes from the book thus far: Lew Basnight's mysterious offense, causing him to lose his wife, and his first encounter with the Drave group (around [[ATD_26-56#Page_39|page 39]]); and Hunter Penhallow's escape from the mysterious creature (around [[ATD_149-170#Pages_154-155|page 154]])? Parallel worlds?

'''Yashmeen Halfcourt''' 
Her initials YH are the first half of the Tetragrammaton -- YHVH or YHWH in English.

'''seventeenth degree Adept''' 
Masonic and other esoteric mystery schools have differing number of degrees. Attaining a degree shows that one has sufficiently mastered the material, undergone the tests and passed through any initiations involved with that degree.

The Masonic system has three degrees. These are extended to 32 in the Scottish Rite and a 33rd degree is the ultimate akin to a Distinguished Service award. By comparison, the Golden Dawn has 11 degrees divided in three orders; and the Order of the Temple of the East (Order Templi Orientis, O.T.O) has 12. In TWIT, the 17th appears to be the final degree where one becomes a Master TWIT or a Grand TWIT, I suppose.

Why 17 degrees? Other than 17 being prime, there seems to be no symbolic or geometric significance to 17. Since the Crowley-associated systems do not reach 17, whereas the Masonic system does, looking to the Masonic A & A Scottish Rite [http://www.freemasonry101.org.uk/the_book/219-17th_degree/17th_degree.htm 17th degree] we find it is the "Knight of the East and West" which teaches that loyalty to God is man's primary allegiance, and the temporal governments not founded upon God and His righteousness will inevitably fall. Compare this to the Bogomils later in AtD.

On the other hand, T.W.I.T. is centered on Tarot cards, so the relationship between number and any correspondences to the Tarot would be very much to the point. In this case, the Major Arcana assigned to the number 17 is the [http://www.angelpaths.com/majors/star.html Star]. The Crowley-associated system for Tarot consists of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoth Thoth ] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Tarot] deck, along with Crowley's "explanatory" [http://tinyurl.com/yu4ye3 'Book of Thoth']:

:As has been explained elsewhere. It refers to the Zodiacal sign of Aquarius, the water-bearer. The picture represents Nuith, our Lady of the Stars. For the full meaning of this sentence it is necessary to understand the first chapter of the ''Book of the Law''. . . .

The full text can be found at [http://altreligion.about.com/library/texts/bl_thoth34.htm About.com's] site on the Thoth "Star" card, albiet with the wrong card illustrated, in this case atu 18, "The Moon".

:'''Symbolic and Cultural Meanings of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17_%28number%29#In_culture 17]:''' 

Because 17 has no symbolic significance, it does! In ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy,'' the symbol for Discordianism includes a pyramid with 17 steps because 17 has "virtually no interesting geometric, arithmetic, or mystical qualities." 

In the Harry Potter universe, 17 is the coming of age for wizards. 

Described at MIT as 'the most random number', according to hackers' lore. This is supposedly because in a study where respondents were asked to choose a random number from 1 to 20, 17 was the most common choice. 

The number of syllables in a haiku (5+7+5). 

The number of special significance to Yellow Pig's Day and Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics.

and on and on.....

''''Tzaddik'''' 
A righteous Jew. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzadik Wikipedia]
"One whose merit surpasses his iniquity."
The Talmud says that at least 36 anonymous tzadikim are living among us at all times; they are anonymous, and it is for their sake alone that the world is not destroyed.

The common theme between the Masonic 17th degree and Tzaddik seems to be '''righteousness'''.

==Page 222==

'''The Tetractys isn't the only thing round here that's ineffable''' 
Schoolyard joke. "F" a euphemism for fuck, so "ineffable" = unfuckable also describes Yashmeen.

'''squadron commander''' 
A [http://pinetreeweb.com/13th-south-african-war-36-01.htm squadron of hussars] would number 100-200 troopers commanded by a major. (The linked page concerns Baden-Powell's regiment—the 13th, not the 18th—in the South African War.)

'''Auberon Halfcourt''' 
Auberon means royal or noble bear. 
Punning, "Au" is the chemical symbol for gold, thus, "Golden Bear", mascotte of UC Berkeley. 

'''Eighteenth Hussars''' 
Prestigious British cavalry regiment. Stationed in India 1864-76 and 1890-98; Halfcourt's secondment must have taken place at one of these times.

'''Simla''' 
Summer capital of the British Raj in India in the Himalayas. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimla Wikipedia]. 
A terminus of the Kalka-Simla railway line (built 1906) aka the "British Jewel of the Orient." 
Named for the goddess Shyamala Devi, an incarnation of the Hindu Goddess Kali.

'''Smartly taken at silly point''' 
A cricketing reference. Silly point is a fielding position very close to the batsman. [http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=smartly.taken+silly.point examples] 
With the infield pulled in for a bunt, the cleanup man swings away and pulls a clothesline drive between third and short, which the shortstop snares for the out. (Teach ''you'' lot to come over here and talk cricket.)

'''To know, to dare, to will, to keep silent''' 
Mystical formula. [http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=to.know.to.dare.to.will examples]
The four precepts of Western Magick, extensively discussed in the writings of Aleister Crowley.

'''In the States, "detective" doesn't mean—''' 
. . . An agent who solves criminal cases. The major "detective" bureaus hired personnel out as bodyguards and muscle.

'''"There is but one 'case' which occupies us"''' 
This echoes the famous quote from Wittgenstein's ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'': "The world is all that is the case." (See the full text of the ''Tractatus'' [http://www.kfs.org/~jonathan/witt/tlph.html here].) This quote also factors in heavily in V. (Specifically, in two places: there's the [http://www.phil-reed.com/2006/02/14/the-love-songs-of-thomas-pynchon/ P's and Q's love song], and also in Captain Weissman's repeating, encoded, hallucinated message over the telegraph in Africa.)

'''The Number 22''' 
I found it interesting that the significance of the number 22 was first brought up on page 222. might be nothing, really. 22 is the number of cards in the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck, the section of the deck that has been removed from the modern playing deck which only has the suits (elements) and the Court cards. The 22 Major Arcana are numbers 0 to 21 and move from The Fool card to the Universe. Purportedly and symbolically, the progression of cards tell a tale of the evolutionary path of the Soul in its course. The 22 cards also, in some systems, map onto the 22 paths that connect the spheres of the Kabalistic Tree of Life (which also is mentioned in this chapter). An understanding of the Tarot cards cannot be achieved with an understanding how they relate to the Tree of Life. They are the relationships between the Sephiroths which in turn at 10 in number, just like the Tetractys and portray the energies that flow from the highest monad of Divinity (Kether) down into the manifested world (Malkuth). Pynchon makes use of both the Tarot and the Kabalah in Against the Day as well as Gravity's Rainbow.

See also the novel ''The Greater Trumps'' by Charles Williams for a similar intrusion of the characters of the Major Arcana into everyday English life.

22 is two times two, so a quaternion...

==Page 223==

'''"And the crime... just what would be the nature of that?"''' 
Might Lew himself be one of the 22 suspects? Perhaps the ineffable crime is what made people treat him like a pariah earlier in the book.

==Page 224==

'''"'walking out'"''' 
A walking date.

'''the veil of ''maya''''' 
In Hinduism, maya is the phenomenal world of separate objects and people, which creates for some the illusion that it is the only reality. In Hindu philosophy, maya is believed to be an illusion, a veiling of the true, unitary Self. Many philosophies or religions seek to "pierce the veil" in order to glimpse the transcendent truth. Arthur Schopenhauer used the term "Veil of Maya" to describe his view of ''The World as Will and Representation''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(illusion) Wikipedia entry]

'''the ancient London landscape . . . known to the Druids''' 
Peter Ackroyd's recent ''London, the Biography'' devotes many pages to sacred and magical features of the city. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid "Druid"].

'''Trumper's''' 
London's royal barbers since 1875. [http://www.trumpers.com/ site] 
And what other barber would you mention in a passage about the Greater Trumps . . . .

'''On this island [...] all English, spoken or written, is looked down on as no more than strings of text cleverly encrypted''' 
A sentiment echoed in the first sentence of Pynchon's December 2006 letter written in defense of novelist Ian McEwan: "Given the British genius for coded utterance..." [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/06/nwriter06.xml Image of Letter]

'''crosswords in newspapers''' 
The first crossword to appear in a newspaper was in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossword#History 1913]. Cryptic crosswords in British newspapers certainly match Pynchon's description. See, for example, [http://www.crossword.org.uk/listen.htm the Listener crossword].

==Page 225==

'''Girton College''' 
Of Cambridge University, for women, founded 1869. [http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/about/history/brief.html history]

'''Next they'll be letting you folks vote.''' 
Women over the age of 30 were, subject to certain qualifications, granted the right to vote in the UK by the Representation of the People Act 1918. The Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 granted women the vote on the same basis as men (i.e. from the age 21).

'''"the vast jangling thronged somehow monumental London evening"''' 
This kind of eschewing of punctuation might be expected in Joyce but it's not typical of Pynchon and seems to serve no special purpose here. A typo?

:Purposive or no, that ain't no typo. First, numerous compound adjectives reminiscent of Faulknerian portmanteau words are sprinkled throughout the book. Second, this particular deployment of zero-degree punctuation and massing of modifiers jibes with TRP's obvious delight in tripping us readers up and sending us back into sentences for another looksee. Finally, the musicality of this phrase sounds properly Pynchonlike t'me.

'''Pamela Colman Smith''' 
Illustrator of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Colman_Smith "Wikipedia"].

'''Arthur Edward Waite''' 
Occultist and co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Waite Wikipedia]

'''four stone''' 
56 pounds.

'''Uckenfays''' 
Ucken-fay is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_Latin "pig latin"] for 'fucken'.

'''''gaver du visage''''' 
A literal translation of "stuff one's face", though this is not how it is said in French (it would be se gaver or se baffrer). [http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/g/gaver.htm cite]

'''cigar-divan''' 
A smoking salon (divan) for cigar smokers.

Interestingly, a work by Robert Louis Stevenson, from 1903, entitled The Dynamiter begins with a "Prologue of the Cigar Divan".

==Page 226==

'''Seven Dials''' 
bad area in London, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Dials Wikipedia entry]

[[image:tarotdevil.jpg|thumb|150px|right|The Devil by Colman-Smith]]

'''growler''' 
Four-wheeled [http://www.bbno.freeserve.co.uk/glossary.htm carriage] drawn by four horses. Supplanted by the Hansom cab.

<div id="renfrew"></div>'''Renfrew at Cambridge and Werfner at Göttingen''' 
Note that each Professor's name is the other's spelled backward.

Also notice the theme of dual natures or forces. The two professors are "bound and ... could not separate even if they wanted to." They become rivals within the broader conflict of the 'Great Game' -- the political rivalry over Central Asia being played out by the various European powers, but especially by Great Britain and the Russian Empire.

Pynchon toys with the idea that World War I was really just the extension of an academic rivalry. This secret scholastic conspiracy also references the role supposedly played in the US policy establishment by neoconservatives [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism] (or "neocons") in the run up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Just as Pynchon's professors held great influence over a number of their students, "[s]ome of whom found employment with the Foreign Services", etc., neoconservative professors such as Leo Strauss [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss] had a number of disciplines who came to occupy key positions in government and business (for example, Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001-2005) Paul Wolfowitz [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz]). This interpretation is further bolstered by the geographic positioning of the "Bagdad" (sic) railway, and the Ottoman territories as the region "where Renfrew and Werfner have often found their best opportunities to make mischief".

[http://www.cam.ac.uk/cambuniv/index.html Cambridge University] is one of the oldest and the best universities in the world. In 2009 it will be celebrating its 800th Anniversary. In its early day, Cambridge was a center of the new learning of the Renaissance and of the theology of the Reformation; in modern times it has excelled in science. It is now a confederation of 31 Colleges (such as King's, Girton, St.John, Trinity and others mentioned in ATD), consists of over 100 departments and faculties, and other institutions. Since 1904, 81 affiliates of Cambridge have won Nobel Prize in every category: 29 in Physics, 22 in Medicine, 19 in Chemistry, 7 in Economics, 2 in Literature and 2 in Peace.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg-August_University_of_G%C3%B6ttingen Göttingen University], one of the most famous universities in Europe, founded in Göttingen, Germany, in 1737 by King George II of England in his capacity as Elector of Hanover. At the end of the 19th century, it became world famous because of its Departments of Mathematics and Physics and rivaled Cambridge for eminence. The reputation of the university was founded by many eminent professors who are commemorated by statues and plaques all over the campus. It claimed 44 Nobel Laureates. But it suffered from the 1933 Great Purge of the Nazi crackdown on "Jewish Physics" and never recovered its original fame. David Hilbert, one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century and a professor at Göttingen, was asked in the 40s about the state of mathematics there now that the Jewish influence had been purged; he replied that there was no mathematics left at Göttingen now that the Jewish influence had been purged.

'''Berlin Conference of 1878''' 
Divided Balkans after Russo-Turkish War. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Berlin Wikipedia]

'''bickering-at-a-distance'''
A play on the idea of "action at a distance" theories in physics, a topic that came under much scrutiny at the time of AtD owing to its pertinence in the theories of electromagnetism and gravitation. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_at_a_distance_%28physics%29 wikipedia] for a further discussion and its relevance in quantum mechanics.

'''English, . . . , Japanese—not to mention indigenous—components''' 
''Not to mention'' them was exactly the point as the Great Powers sorted out the Ottoman possessions.

==Page 227==

'''"The Great Game"''' 
The Great Game was a term used to describe the rivalry and strategic conflict between the British Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. The term was later popularized by Rudyard Kipling in his novel, ''Kim''. The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running from approximately 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game Wikipedia entry] Also the name of Padzhitnoff's airship. I believe the great game stands for Espionage in the Age of Gentlemen, the substance of Pynchon's '''''Under the Rose'''''. 

'''mamluk lamps''' 
A [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/07/nfe/hob_17.190.985.htm mosque lamp]
from the [http://www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/mehistorydatabase/mamluks.php mamluk] era.

'''...the Kabbalist Tree of Life, with the names of the Sephiroth spelled out in Hebrew, which had brought her more than enough of that uniquely snot-nosed British anti-Semitism... ''' 

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah Kabbalah] is the ancient study of Jewish mysticism, long shrouded in mystery and kept from all but a devout few of the most dedicated Talmudic scholars. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tree_of_Life_Medieval.jpg.jpg Tree of Life] is one of the central symbols of Kabbalah, supposedly a physical representation of the path of enlightenment from the most base knowledge of the physical world (at the bottom), to the highest spiritual planes of understanding (at the top). The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephirot Sephiroth] are the nodes of the Tree, representing the various "stages" of understanding. Of course, tihs is all a very gross oversimplifcation and hardly does justice to the term itself.

The "Quabbalah" or "Cabalah" being studied by Madonna and others in Hollywood is a secularized and co-opted form of the original Kabbalah, which is deeply connected to the Torah and Jewish life.

In Medieval Europe, Kabbalist scholars wore amulets and other symbols on their clothing, and were often misunderstood to be magicians or wizards (think Merlin). The common magician's expression "abra cadabra" has Kabbalistic origins.

'''"Eskimoff . . . I say what sort of name is that?"''' 
Tiptoeing around the real question, "Is she Jewish?"

'''English Rose''' 
The phrase "English Rose" or "Bonnie English Rose" when applied to a woman means her skin is unblemished, her coloring subtle, her temper sweet. Madame Eskimoff, in short, is a beauty in a traditional English style. 
(Incidentally, an officially unrecognized designation of [http://www.marinrose.org/englishroses.html roses].)

==Page 228==

'''Oliver Lodge''' 
English physicist, inventor and writer (1851-1940) involved in the development of wireless telegraphy and radio. After the death of his son in 1915, Lodge became interested in spiritualism and life after death and wrote several books on the subject. Lodge conducted research on lightning, electricity, electromagnetism and wrote about the aether, themes that are repeated throughout ''ATD.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Joseph_Lodge Wikipedia entry].

'''William Crookes''' 
English chemist and physicist (1832-1919) who worked in spectroscopy and whose work pioneered the construction and use of vacuum tubes. Like Oliver Lodge, Crookes was also a spiritualist, which appears to be Pynchon's reason for grouping him with others in this passage, although his experiments in electricity and light also tie in with these themes in ''ATD.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crookes Wikipedia entry].

'''Mrs. Piper''' 
Probably [http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htm Leonora Piper] 1857-1950.

'''Eusapia Palladino''' 
(1854-1918) Famous italian spiritualist medium.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusapia_Palladino Wikipedia entry]. It's fair to say she was often caught cheating.

'''W.T. Stead''' 
William T. Stead (1849-1912), British writer, poet, social crusader, and spiritualist. He went down with the ''Titanic.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomas_Stead Wikipedia entry].

'''Mrs. Burchell''' 
The Yorkshire Seeress, investigated by WT Stead. [http://www.wholeagain.com/prophecyfodor.html cite]

'''assassination''' 
Trouble with the time here. Lew's timeline points pretty strongly to autumn 1900. A séance that's "about to" go on Mme. Eskimoff's résumé, however, leads the murder of the Serbian king and queen by three months, and the murder itself occurred in June 1903, which seems to imply March of that year. 

This seems as good an instance as any to question the insistence of some here to pin down the exact date (and season?). Pynchon doesn't knock it to the wall, doesn't find cause to bother and I think the reason for that is obvious... the ambiguity lends a freer hand with which to paint. So don't fuck with the butterfly on the wheel. 

'''Alexander and Draga Obrenovich, the King and Queen of Serbia''' 
According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Obrenovich Wikipedia] the assassination occured on 11 June 1903, so the seance at which Mrs. Burchell "witnessed" it, should have taken place in March 1903.

'''Parsons-Short Auxetophone''' 
[http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/auxetophone/auxetoph.htm pic and info]. The Auxetophone appears to have been a sound amplification device, not a recorder. Parsons did not enter the picture till 1903, so the apparatus would not have this name in 1900, but Short demonstrated it as early as 1898.

'''electros of the original wax impressions''' 
A thin film of metal was electroplated onto the wax, then peeled off and wrapped around a new cylinder.

'''"Bagdad" railway''' 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Railway

==Page 229==

'''syntonic''' 
A term used in both engineering and psychology. Psychology: "Characterized by a high degree of emotional responsiveness to the environment." Electricity: "Of or relating to two oscillating circuits having the same resonant frequency."

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntonic_comma syntonic comma], a small interval in the frequency ratio of 81:80, is a problem in musical [http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/tmprment.html temperament].

'''the Russo-Turkish War''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War,_1877–1878 The Russo-Turkish War] (1877-1878), the latest Russo-Turkish War of many fought between these two contries since 16th century as a result of Russian attempts to find an outlet on the Black Sea and to conquer the Caucasus, dominate the Balkan Peninsula, gain control of the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits, and retain access to world trade routes. The last Russo-Turkish War came as a result of the anti-Ottoman uprising (1875) in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria. On Russian instigation, Serbia and Montenegro joined the rebels; after securing Austrian neutrality, Russia openly entered the War in 1877. The War ended in 1878 resulted in the Treaty of San Stefano which so thoroughly revised the map in favor of Russia and her client, Bulgaria, that the European powers called a conference (the Congress of Berlin) to revise its terms by the Treaty of Berlin.

'''kilometric guarantee''' 
Money offered by the government to building companies.
Apparently, the railroad companies fooled the Ottoman Empire building trails which were much longer than needed.
[http://books.google.es/books?id=uei7q4YCaqUC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=kilometric+guarantee&source=web&ots=fK9IVpG7Yx&sig=-7WX_2T0OPqXp2DEVAtRIRJPBQY&hl=ca&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result Google books citation]

==Page 230==

'''King's... Girton''' 
King's College is one of the most famous and historic colleges at Cambridge, founded in 1441. Girton College, Cambridge, was established in 1869 as the first residential college for women in England.

'''Michaelmas term''' 
The fall term, starting early October (1900 here). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaelmas_term Wikipedia]

'''tweeny''' 
A [http://www.bartleby.com/68/30/830.html between-maid].

'''Edward Oxford''' 
attempted to shoot Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, at the time of her first pregnancy (1840).[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Oxford Wikipedia]

'''had the young Queen died then without issue''' 
Nookshaft posits two scenarios: (1) The implicit, unmentioned, and not as "interesting" possibility that everything is actual, as it "appears" to be in the "real" world, surrounding Queen Victoria; that she is simply an old, vain regent. (2) "the 'real' Vic is elsewhere," and the current, aged Victoria is a ghostly stand-in. Nookshaft implies that this figure is a proxy or puppet of Ernst-August. If this were "the case," then the question shifts to the following: (a) Is the ruler of the underworld, who holds the "real," eternally young Victoria captive in cahoots with Ernst-August in the "real" world? or: (b) Is the ruler of the underworld, who holds the "real," eternally young Victoria captive NOT in cahoots with Ernst-August, who nevertheless ascends to the throne with real-Vic out of the way, and imposes the stand-in? In which case: What would be the motivation of the underworld-entity third-party? And who, or what, specifically, is it?

'''sixty years ago''' 
One event of 1840, the attempt on Victoria's life, is referred to as sixty years ago; another, the issue of the first adhesive stamps, as more than sixty years ago. 
If it weren't for these nagging problems in Lew's timeline, we could peg the date as 1900.

'''Salic law''' 
originated in the Late Roman Empire as Germanic tribes invaded and their law codes were translated into Latin and written down. Salic Law was that of the
Franks who settled in present-day northern France and the law code of Charlemagne. Over the course of the Middle Ages it was largely replaced by Roman Law. For examples, see [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/salic-law.html]. 

However, Salic Law continued to be used in a number of European areas to decide matters of noble inheritance. Specifically, Salic Law stated that no female could inherit rulership (above by [[User:Owl of Minerva|Owl of Minerva]] 18:03, 4 April 2007 (PDT)) and, indeed, a royal or noble title could be inherited only through the "male line." When King William IV, ruler of both the United Kingdom and Hanover, died, the Crowns separated. Hanover practiced Salic law, while Britain did not. King William's niece Victoria ascended to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland, but the throne of Hanover went to William's brother Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salic_Law Wikipedia entry]

'''Tory despotism''' 
Thatcher?
: Not necessarily-- it describes Ernest himself. "The Duke of Cumberland had a reputation as one of the least pleasant of the sons of George III. Politically an arch-reactionary, he opposed the 1828 Catholic Emancipation Bill proposed by the government of the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Augustus_I_of_Hanover Wikipedia entry]

It can describe Ernst August and still be an allegory of Thatcher. The description of Ireland fits that of some world-views during her time.

All parallels between past and present are worth considering. They don't have to be direct references. The present-day Ernst August - famous for pissing on the Turkish Pavilion at EXPO 2000 - carries on the family tradition.

'''Catholics''' 
Someone famously cited James Joyce as proof that Catholics shouldn't get university educations.

==Page 231==

'''Orange Lodges''' 
Lodges of the Orange Order, a protestant fraternal organisation based predominantly in Northern Ireland and Scotland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_lodge Wikipedia entry]. The Orange Order was founded to subvert the '''''United Irishmen''''' of Wolfe Tone by agitating against Protestant and Catholic community. It was hostile to the idea of Irish Home Rule or independence. In the 1880's it developed the Ulster Unionist Party to politically parry Parliamentary attempts at Home Rule for Ireland.

'''"from the first to the twelfth of July, anniversaries of the Boyne and Aughrim."''' 
i.e. anniversaries of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Boyne Battle of the Boyne] and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aughrim Battle of Aughrim] of the Williamite War in Ireland. 
This was and still is known as "Marching Season" in Northern Ireland; the time when 'parades' are traditionally a source of fear and violence. Nearly all the parades are organized by the Orange Lodges and hence anti-Catholic.

[[Image:pennyblack.jpg|thumb|100px|right|The first adhesive stamp, 1840]]
'''"the first adhesive stamps of 1840"''' 
This stamp has come to be called the Penny Black. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black Wikipedia entry] 
Penny Black is also the name of a character ([[ATD_1-25#Page 18|p.18]])

'''"immune to Time, [...] neither of them aging"''' 
Cf Oscar Wilde's only novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray The Picture of Dorian Gray], in which Dorian Gray remains young while his portrait ages.

'''springtide''' 
Cf Stray's pregnancy, a "dreamy thing" (page 201). The definition of springtide is springtime.

==Page 232==

'''Éliphaz Lévi''' 
A/K/A Eliphas Levi, ''nom de plume'' of Alphonse Louis Constant (1810-1875), French occultist and writer who pioneered a revival of Magick in the 19th Century, and was an influence on A.E. Waite, the Order of the Golden Dawn, and Aleister Crowley. An acquaintance of novelist Edward ("It was a dark and stormy night") Bulwer-Lytton. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliphas_Levi Wikipedia entry].

'''punters''' 
Punter is being used in the sense of someone who bets, someone who is taking a chance.
Or more probably in the common extended sense meaning merely "customer"

'''''akousmata''''' 
Greek: things heard. [[A|Good information under "A" in the alpha index.]]

'''number twenty-four''' 
Or 25? [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gvp/gvp11.htm etext]

'''Iamblichus''' 
(ca. 245 - ca. 325, Greek) was a neoplatonist philosopher who determined the direction taken by later Neoplatonic philosophy, and perhaps western Paganism itself. He is perhaps best known for his compendium on Pythagorean philosophy.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iamblichus_%28philosopher%29 Wikipedia]

'''maquillage''' 
Make-up, cosmetics; the application of make-up (especially in heavy or theatrical fashion).<ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989</ref>

==Page 233==
'''catarrh''' 
Inflammation of a mucous membrane; usually restricted to that of the nose, throat, and bronchial tubes, causing increased flow of mucus, and often attended with sneezing, cough, and fever; constituting a common ‘cold’.<ref>Def.3. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''Collis Brown's Mixture''' 
Contained morphine, chloroform, and caramel, among other things. [http://admin.safescript.com/drugcgic.cgi/DRUG?1006901319+0 Full ingredients]

'''xylene''' 
Xylene abuse is similar to "glue sniffing"-- xylene is a strong solvent able to cause several damages to health, especially to the brain. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylene wikipedia]

'''a thousand pounds a year''' 
Over $100,000 today. [http://futureboy.homeip.net/fsp/dollar.fsp?quantity=1000&currency=pounds&fromYear=1900 cite]

'''"pinky"''' 
Condy's fluid is pink to purple. Methylated spirits is a kind of denatured alcohol: 95% ethyl alcohol, 5% methyl alcohol. "Pinky" would have a variety of effects, very possibly including blindness.

==Page 234==

'''Condy's fluid''' 
A disinfectant used to treat and prevent Scarlet Fever, among other things. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Bollmann_Condy Wikipedia]

'''''tonight's the night''''' 
Considering the content here, probable reference to Neil Young's drug-addled album and its title song, "Tonight's The Night" from 1975. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonight%27s_the_Night_%28album%29 Wiki]

'''Cheapside''' 
an important market street in the City of London.

'''mews''' 
A street originally for stabling; but in modern times often converted into houses/apartments.

'''Coombs de Bottle''' 
"comes the bottle" ?

'''Russian duck''' 
Duck is strong, untwilled linen or cotton, lighter and finer than canvas. Russian duck is coarse, heavy and unbleached but softer than English duck.

==Page 235==

'''sensitive flames''' 
Cf GR p.29-32, 715.

'''extractors . . . distillation columns''' 
Separatory apparatus. An extractor works on differences in solubility, a distillation column differences in volatility.

'''tremblers and timers''' 
A trembler is a kind of motion detector used in both bombs and alarms; one kind has a flexible stem with a heavy contact on the free end so that disturbing the package it contains causes a trigger circuit to close. A timer uses a clocklike mechanism to bring two contacts together.

'''proper solvent procedures''' 
Famous 1960s "Anarchist Cookbook" was infamously inaccurate. [http://www.amazon.com/Anarchist-Cookbook-C-066-William-Powell/dp/0962303208 Amazon w/author's note]

==Page 236==

'''Breathless hush in the close tonight''' 
Dr. De Bottle quoting from Henry Newbolt's poem [[Vitai Lampada|"Vitaï Lampada,"]] which makes school games a metaphor and model for martial bravery.

'''The Gentleman Bomber of Headingly''' 
Cf Hornung's 'Gentleman Thief' and cricket player, Raffles. [http://www.mysterynet.com/books/testimony/hardknox.shtml info]

Reminds me of the Krikkit Robots in Douglas Adams' ''Life, The Universe, and Everything,'' where a bomb is put in place of a Cricket Ball at a match between Britain and Australia. 

Also, acronymically, the GBH=Grievous Bodily Harm, the British term for felonious assault.

Here and elswhere the spelling of the cricket ground should be 'Headingley'.

'''The Ashes''' 
An international cricket series between England and Australia dating back to 1882. [http://www.334notout.com/ashes/reports/report21.htm dates] A number of references in this chapter relate to this rivalry. For example, on this page the English cricket ball is compared to the Australian "kookaburra". Kookaburra is the brand name of the balls used in Australia, in England it's Duke. The properties of the English ball was one of the keys to England's success in the summer of 2005. Was Pynchon's writing here influenced by the hype in the UK at the time?

'''Phosgene''' 
A poison gas used in World War I.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene Wikipedia]

'''logwood''' 
Source of red dye. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logwood Wikipedia]

'''adjutor''' 
A helper, assistant. <ref>Def.1. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''exhiliration''' 
Misspelling of ''exhilaration.''

==Page 237==

'''beige substance''' 
Presumably Cyclomite.

'''Happy Birthday! . . . Gemini''' 
Ordinarily you would think this tagged the date as 21 May to 20 June [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_%28astrology%29 Wikipedia.] But other evidence in the text points to deepening autumn.

One of two possible explanations: 
1. The T.W.I.T. is perhaps using an ascendent or lunar based astrological system rather than the solar-based system commonly used in the West. This resolves the apparent contradiction of a Gemini in autumn since the ascendent travels through all signs every 24 hours and the moon travels through the entire zodiac once a month. For example, Vedic astrology looks primarily to the ascendent, then the moon, and lastly the sun to study respectively the body, the mind and the spirit of the native. Basnight does have a mind that operates on two planes -- hence a moon in Gemini reading. 
2. The explosion carried Lew to a place on the other side of the Sun. Deep autumn would then be November 23 to December 21th, our sign of Sagittarius.

'''get the Ashes back . . . next year''' 
On page 236 the Ashes (Test Matches, cricket competitions between England and Australia) are "in progress." At some time previous to this conversation Mme. Eskimoff said England will regain the trophy "next year" provided they use the young bowler Bosanquet (next entry). Test Matches took place in (a) December 1901 to March 1902, Australia victorious; (b) May to August 1902, Australia again; (c) December 1903 to March 1904, England bringing back the Ashes and Bosanquet figuring as a key bowler.

If Mme. Eskimoff has foreseen aright, "next year" is 1904 and the time of the action is 1903. The conflict in dates is troubling: In a matter of weeks and a few pages, Lew just misses the 1900 Hurricane and gets information that definitely points to 1903. (And he proves to be a Gemini with an autumn birthday!) I don't think there is anything accidental—or negligible—about the discrepancies.

'''Bosanquet''' 
Another Ashes reference. [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/9158.html Bernard Bosanquet] invented the bosie (or googly), as described here, around 1900. A major factor in England's 2005 Ashes success was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_swing reverse swing], another type of delivery whose physical dynamics are poorly understood.

Check out the [[Cricket_in_Against_the_Day|"Cricket in ''Against the Day'' article]] by Peter Vernon, which is an in-depth look at, well, cricket in ''Against the Day''.

'''Pom''' 
A somewhat derogatory term for a British person, commonly used in Australian English. Also [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/287200.html Pommy or Pommie.]

'''Hebrew letter Shin''' 
Obviously a nod to the Vulcan greeting in ''Star Trek'', with the distinctive hand sign and the phrase, "Live long and prosper." Perhaps also to the Jewish faith of Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock. See [http://www.pinenet.com/~rooster/v-salute.html The Jewish origin of the Vulcan Salute]

Pynchon placed one of these in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Mason & Dixon''], as well:

:Dixon discovers "The Rabbi of Prague, headquarters of a Kabbalistick Faith, in Correspondence with the Elect Cohens of Paris, whose private Salute they now greet Dixon with, the Fingers spread two and two, and the Thumb held away from them likewise, said to represent the Hebrew letter ''Shin'' and to signify, 'Live long and prosper.'([http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_50:_484-490 ''M&D'' p.485]) 
Might there be a further connection between The Cohen of T.W.I.T., the "Cohens of Paris" and these backwoods Kabbalists?

Also, note the hand on the devil tarot card above.

Shin "also stands for the word Shaddai, a name for God. Because of this, a kohen (priest) forms the letter Shin with his hands as he recites the Priestly Blessing. In the mid 1960s, actor Leonard Nimoy used a single-handed version of this gesture to create the Vulcan Hand Salute for his character, Mr. Spock, on Star Trek."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_%28letter%29#In_Judaism]

"In the Septuagint and other early translations Shaddai was translated with words meaning "Almighty". The root word "shadad" (שדד) means "to overpower" or "to destroy". This would give Shaddai the meaning of "destroyer" as one of the aspects of God. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism#Shaddai]

...and if we look back to the Devil tarot card we see the shin hand sign and the inverted pentagram. Thus through Eliphas Levi and then Coleman-Smith/Waite a connection is created between shin and the inverted pentagram. And then we can make connections with the Jeshimonians and the TWITsters.

This might be why "the cure grows right next to the cause" in Jeshimon. They are under the winged protection of God-the-Destroyer.

'''bog-standard''' 
British term indicating complete ordinariness.
Possible Entymology (Dog's Bollocks, British Or German Standard): [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bog_standard Wiktionary]

==Page 238==

'''Second Law of Thermodynamics''' 
The law of entropy... "The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium." (Rudolf Clausius) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics]

There's no such thing as a perfectly efficient engine, i.e., a box that does work by taking in heat from where there is lots of heat (e.g., combustion chamber) and throwing off heat where there is not much (exhaust pipe). Something always gets lost. Similarly, the transfer of money from where there is plenty (bank) to where there isn't much (Europe) is never perfectly efficient.

"He began then, bewilderingly, to talk about something called entropy. The word bothered him... But it was too technical for her. She did gather that there were two distinct kinds of this entropy. One having to do with heat engines, the other to do with communication... The two fields were entirely unconnected, except at one point: Maxwell's Demon. As the Demon sat and sorted his molecules into hot and cold, the system was said to lose entropy. But somehow the loss was offset by the information the Demon gained about what molecules were where... Entropy is a figure of speech, then, a metaphor. It connects the world of thermodynamics to the world of information flow." ''The Crying of Lot 49'' (Pages 84 - 85)

'''''morsus fundamento''''' 
Latin: A bite on the ass?

The meaning is that he wouldn't know metaphysics if it bit him in the ass. Like "octogenarihexation" ("86"-ing) in Vineland--the vulgar faux fancied up.

'''three-percent consols''' 
British "consolidated" bonds, for many years the conservative investment ''par excellence.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consols wikipedia]

==Page 239==

'''mental''' 
Not mental as in "of the mind" but mental as in "mad". "You're mental, you are" is a common british playground taunt.

'''Colney Hatch''' 
London lunatic asylum. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colney_Hatch_Lunatic_Asylum Wikipedia]

'''Out of the dust . . . beam of morning sunlight''' 
I.e., sometimes your horse wins.

'''ENCYCLICAL''' 
An encyclical is a letter circulated by the pope or other figure of high authority in a body of believers. A comprehensive [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclical Wikipedia article] explains and adds a list of papal encyclicals. An encyclical usually takes its first 2 or 3 words as its title (''Multi et Unus'' in this case).

Of course, the Vatican would strongly protest that McTaggart, an atheist, should send out an encyclical!

'''MCTAGGART . . . HARDY''' 
Seems to refer to a historical logician joke. [http://www.anvari.org/shortjoke/Science_Humor/1210.html explanation] Professor McTaggart was, perhaps, the most famous philosopher
who argued that Time did not exist as we seem to experience it.
W.H. Hardy was a very famous Cambridge mathematician who knew all the
famous philosophers in England. 

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._E._McTaggart John McTaggart Ellis (J. M. E.) McTaggart] (1866-1925), British philosopher. He was born in London and educated at Clifton College, Bristol and Trinity College, Cambridge. He lectured Philosophy at Trinity College from 1897 to 1923. His brilliant commentaries and studies on Hegel's dialectic (1896), cosmology (1901) and logic (1910) were preliminaries to his own constructive system-building in ''Nature of Existence'' (3 vols., 1921-1927). In his 1908 essay "The Unreality of Time" he argued that our perception of time is an illusion (Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page_412|page 412]]: dismissing . . . the ''existence'' of Time).

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hardy.html Godfrey Harold Hardy] (1877-1947), English mathematician. He was a lecturer at Cambridge (1906-1919), professor at Oxford (1919-31) and Cambridge (1931-47). Concurrently with Wilhelm Weinberg developed Hardy-Weinberg law (1906) describing genetic distribution and dequilibrium in large populations. He was also known for contributions to complex analysis, Diophantine analysis, Fourier series, distribution of prime numbers, etc.

'''''Multi et Unus''''' 
Many and One.

'''CREATE MORE DUKES''' and '''EXPROPRIATE CHUCKERS''' 
Is the grafitti in Cambridge another cricketing reference? Dukes are the balls used in England (cf. p236). Chucking (or bending the arm when bowling) is an emotive topic in cricket that arises from time to time. It first arose around 1900 [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/258016.html]. In 2005 it caused administrators to change the rules of the game [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/144358.html].

"Create More Dukes" has a second meaning, suggested by the odd choice of verb. ''Duke'' in Britain refers to the highest rank of nobility, and fittingly there are not many of them. At present only about a dozen people hold the title. Since sometime in the 1870s new dukes have been ''created'' (by decree of the monarch) only in the royal family. Most recently at the time of the action, Queen Victoria had promoted a run-of-the-mill marquess to the dukedom of Fife to set the stage for his marriage to one of her granddaughters. If some group of activists thought the nation needed to beef up its peerage, they might adopt the slogan found here as a graffito. 
[http://www.ukdukes.co.uk/ Here is a colorful summary] of UK dukes today and through history, although it is '''unsound''' on coats of arms and such. [http://website.lineone.net/~david.beamish/index.htm This site] has more names and fewer pictures, listing all the titles (from dukes to lowly barons) created since the year Dot.

'''the Laplacian, a relatively remote mathematicians' pub''' 
A little Pynchonian joke? The Laplacian operator is a component of the Schrödinger equation, the basis of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics was famously rejected by Albert Einstein (many references on the net but see [http://www.hawking.org.uk/lectures/dice.html Stephen Hawking]), known for his theories of relativity. Moreover, quantum mechanics deals with the very small and relativity with the very large (this is a simplification of course), so the Laplacian is indeed remote from relativity!
:No such pub during ''my'' stay in Cambridge (1998-2000). Also not today, according to [http://www.cambridgepubs.com/alphabetical/ this] list.

:Obviously more than a little joke. Refers to Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (1749-1827)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace Wikipedia Entry], aka "the French Newton", probably the greatest mathematician and astronomer of his time. Most of the scientific principles derived from his findings are explored in AtD (from lumineferous ether to the existence of black holes). Laplace was also instrumental in the advancement of the science of probabilities.
:The ever quotable Laplace, much loved by atheists worldwide, famously replied to Napoléon, when he asked why there was no mention of God in his treatise on astronomy: "Sir, there was no need for that hypothesis". Also responsible for what is known as the Laplacian principle: "The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness."

:The literal translation of Laplace is "The Place".

:The connection of the Laplace operator to the Schrödinger equation and quantum mechanics is a bit of a stretch -- the Laplace operator is ubiquitous, appearing in the heat equation, the wave equation and the Navier-Stokes equations.

==Page 240==

'''Worse than Gordon at Khartoum''' 
Refers to Charles George Gordon, British Major-General, whose attempted defense of Khartoum versus Arabi rebels in 1884-85 ended with his beheading. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_George_Gordon Wikipedia] cf. Basil Dearden's 1966 film ''Khartoum'', in which the role of Gordon is played by Charlton Heston.

==Page 241==

'''"You recognize him?"''' 
As, presumably, Webb.
:How can that be? Webb is dead, there's nothing to suggest he went to England, the costume is not right for him, and—most tellingly—his medium is dynamite, not phosgene.
:Who might Lew recognize in the photo? The "suspects" are Neville, Nigel, the Grand Cohen, Dr. Coombs De Bottle, Clive Crouchmas and Professor Renfrew. If Prof. Werfner looks much like Prof. Renfrew, he goes on the list too. If the "Gentleman Bomber" could possibly be female, add Yashmeen and Mme. Eskimoff. We haven't met anyone else (except members of the Icosadyad, who don't have faces).

:Suppose we rule out the ladies and Werfner. Neville or Nigel wouldn't be able to hide their identities with a suit of white flannels. Renfrew is sitting right there when Lew sees the picture, but Lew's reaction (his stomach sinks) does not seem Lew-like if it's Renfrew he has recognized, plus Renfrew himself wants to meet the Bomber. That leaves the Cohen, De Bottle and Crouchmas.

:Would Lew experience dread on spotting Crouchmas? He doesn't know much about C.C. at this point, so it isn't clear why he would suppress that recognition.

:Seeing the Cohen might lead to this gastric reaction: Lew might think he's on the fringe of an anarchist group again (and look where it got him the last time). The Cohen stays on the list.

:Dr. De Bottle not only follows cricket but bets on it; he speaks almost with reverence about phosgene; he knows a nonobvious fact about the bombs; and he dresses like a gentleman. None of these points applies to the Cohen. And recognizing De Bottle would give Lew that sinking feeling because D.B. is purportedly fighting against bombers on behalf of the government. De Bottle goes to the top of the short list.

::Alternately, there's no clear answer and not enough clues (especially considering the role of time, forces beyond anyone's control, double agents, etc.). This Gentleman Bomber can be any person from Lew's past or a deja vu from the future. The G. Bomber seems to be England's answer to the Kieselguhr Kid, a nebulous personality working against the forces of history. The important thing about this situation is not the Bomber's identity, but the fact that Lew is being thrown into an assignment much like his last one in America (and we know how that ended...) He's obviously not very happy about it, and not inclined to tell anyone what he knows, or might know.

:: For what it's worth, my take was also Webb, especially in the context of all the bilocation business. It isn't "Webb" but evil alter-land "Webb"! (no dig on ya'll Brit folk intended, although the "...''my'' stay at Cambridge" bit was just wonderful :)

::--There is a suspect that was left off that list, who occurred to me before any of the others--Lew himself. If we're dealing with bilocation, doubles, and the possibility that 'our' Lew was brought here via the explosion in the creek bed, couldn't the G.B.H. be this world's Lew? Recall that just prior to the explosion, Lew had resolved to choose a side in the Anarchist/plutocrat battle, and had come down on the side of the people. Did this world's Lew make the same choice, somehow ending up in Britain... Also conspicuous is that it is Renfrew showing him the photo with a sly expression, Renfrew who's own double, Werfner, is his very own nemesis? That's how I read it anyway. But, much like the Kieselguhr Kid, we the readers never actually know the identity of this renegade bomb-lobber.

'''A bosie from a beamer''' 
More cricket! A bosie is now more commonly known as a googly (cf. p237). A beamer is a full-pitched delivery that reaches the batsman above waist height.

==Page 242==

[[Image:globenorth.gif|thumb|150px|The northern hemisphere]]

'''''unheimlich''''' 
German: uncanny, sinister.

 

==References==
<references />

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

ATD 219-242

2010-07-03T01:49:03Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 226 */

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

==Page 219==

'''they would have little clue . . . their more or less ambushed keesters''' 
One of half a dozen Pynchonian circumlocutions for "wouldn't know [blank] if it bit them in the ass."

[[image:tetractys.png|thumb|175px|right|The Tetractys]]'''True Worshippers of the Ineffable Tetractys''' 
The Tetractys is a triangular figure consisting of ten points arranged in four rows: one, two, three, and four points in each row. As a mystical symbol, it was very important to the followers of the secret worship of the Pythagoreans, Kabbalists, and nutbars of other affiliations since. It has all kinds of symbological meaning, including the four elements, the organization of space, the Tarot, etc. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetractys Wikipedia entry];

:In the Pythagorean tetractys the supreme symbol of universal forces and processes are set forth the theories of the Greeks concerning color and music. The first three dots represent the threefold White Light, which is the Godhead containing potentially all sound and color. The remaining seven dots are the colors of the spectrum and the notes of the musical scale. The colors and tones are the active creative powers which, emanating from the First Cause, establish the universe. The seven are divided into two groups, one containing three powers and the other four a relationship also shown in the tetractys. The higher group that of three becomes the spiritual nature of the created universe; the lower group that of four manifests as the irrational sphere, or inferior world. <ref>From [http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/ ''The Secret Teachings of All Ages''] by Manly P. Hall (1928)</ref>

:This division (three/four) has to be related to the "trivium" (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and "quadrivium" (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy) of the [http://www.cosmopolis.com/villa/liberal-arts.html Medieval liberal arts.]

More effably, if you flip the Tetractys left to right, it gives the positions of the pins in ten-pin bowling.

The acronym T.W.I.T is most appropriate: a twit is an ineffectual buffoon. Neville and Nigel are certainly twits.

I believe the above really misses the Big Symbol, i.e., Pynchon's linking of T.W.I.T. with the vagina, i.e., the female ''sex'' organ. "T.W.I.T." sounds like no, ''is'' a cross between "clit" and "twat." And, natch, it's headed up by [[#Page 220|Nookshaft]]. And, let's face it, that tetractys is surely an inverted beaver, yes? (See [[ATD 171-198#Page 183|"Beavers of the Brain"]]). Its male counterpart is [[ATD 397-428#Page 405|Candlebrow U.]], to be encountered down the road apiece (and that ain't no spoiler!).

"The Tetractys" is also the name of a poem by the Quaternionist prophet Hamilton. I can't imagine Pynchon didn't find it fairly interesting reading. [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/node24.html Read it for yourself here]

'''Chunxton Crescent''' 
Invented by Pynchon. "Crescent" is a female symbol in many mythologies and cultures, and it reinforces T.W.I.T.'s association with the female sex. But "Chunxton"?

:The moon is seen as a female symbol, and was worshipped in ancient times as a powerful force. It is believed to be linked to the unconscious and our feminine side. The sacredness of the moon has been connected with the basic cyclic rhythms of life. The changing phases of the moon were linked to the death and rebirth seen in crops and the seasons, and also to the female monthly cycle that controls human fertility. The moon calendar is still important and many festivals exist around the lunar phases. [http://www.new-age.co.uk/moon-dates.htm]

[[image:bap.gif|thumb|200px|right|Eliphas Levi's Baphomet]]
The crescent is also said "to represent silver (the metal associated with the moon) in alchemy, where, by inference, it can also be used to represent
qualities that silver possesses." (Alchemy and Symbols, By M. E. Glidewell, Epsilon.)

Additionally, the crescent was an important symbol for Eliphas Levi, occultist, magician, and spiritual antecedent to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and, in turn, the T.W.I.T.

''Chunxton'' may be derived from "chunk stone" or "chunk(s) town." I'm inclined to favor the first. "Chunk stone" has two main meanings: (1) stone that's quarried in chunks instead of blocks, slabs or crystals; (2) a magical stone that figures in some American Indian stories. Turquoise and amethyst chunk stones are often made into jewelry as-is, or [http://www.bridastone.com/chunkstone.htm larger chunks of (say) marble] can be used as decoration. Here are links to two Indian stories in which people use chunk stones in finding or tracking: [http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/se/mtsi/mtsi156.htm first,] [http://romeoandjuliet.ws/books/native_american/se/mtsi/mtsi270.shtml second.] Of course it's also possible that "chunk" is the verb meaning "throw," in which case there ought to be a "glass houses" connection somewhere; I can't find it.

:Pure speculation here, but our own moon is a giant "chunk" of "stone". And how did that "chunk" get there? Well, this being Thomas Pynchon's universe, sometime early in the solar system's history, this proto-planet called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus#Orpheus_in_astronomy Orpheus] comes along and smacks into the Earth so violently that it not only creates the moon, but at the same time expels enough water and gas to make "it possible for life on Earth to evolve as we currently know it." Seems to me like something worthy of Occultist reverence

:In [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''CoL49''], TRP states at least twice that the Pacific Ocean is "the hole left by the moon's tearing-free and the monument to her exile." ([http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_3 ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.41])

'''Tyburnia''' 
"Tyburnia occupies the ground on the north side of Hyde-park and Kensington-gardens, and stretches from Edgware-road on the east to about Inverness-terrace on the west. This is not, strictly speaking, a fashionable quarter; but it is not absolutely unfashionable, and is a very favourite part with those — lawyers, merchants, and others—who have to reside in town the greater part of the year." Charles Dickens (Jr.), ''Dickens's Dictionary of London'', 1879.

'''Sir John Soane''' 
(1753 – 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Soane Wikipedia entry]

'''Madame Blavatsky''' 
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), Russian-born founder of the Theosophical Society. Madame Blavatsky claimed that all religions were both true in their inner teachings and false or imperfect in their external conventional manifestations. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Blavatsky Wikipedia]

[[image:Ts_seal.gif|thumb|200px|right|Theosophical Society Seal]]
'''Theosophical Society''' 
The Theosophical Society was founded in New York City, USA, in 1875 by H.P. Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others. Its initial objective was the investigation, study and explanation of mediumistic phenomena. After a few years Olcott and Blavatsky moved to India and established the International Headquarters at Adyar, Madras (Chennai). There, they also became interested in studying Eastern religions, and these were included in the Society's agenda. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophical_Society Wikipedia entry]
"Its post-blavatskian fragments" refers to the schism that occured between some of the founding members after the passing of H.P. Blavatsky in 1891.

'''Society for Psychical Research''' 
The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a non-profit organization which started in the United Kingdom and was later imitated in other countries. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena in a scientific and unbiased way."[1] It was founded in 1882 by a group of eminent thinkers including Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, William Fletcher Barrett, Henry Sidgwick, and Edmund Dawson Rogers. The Society's headquarters are in Marloes Road, London. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Psychical_Research Wikipedia entry]

[[image:Gdrosycross.gif|thumb|140px|right|Rosy Cross of the Golden Dawn]]
'''Order of the Golden Dawn''' 
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or, more commonly, the Golden Dawn) was a magical order of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, practicing a form of theurgy and spiritual development. William Wynn Westcott, also a member of the Theosophical Society, appears to have been the initial driving force behind the establishment of the Golden Dawn. See also the aforementioned schism within the Theosophical Society. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Golden_Dawn Wikipedia entry]

'''of whom there seemed an ever-increasing supply''' 
Supply of seekers, not of "arrangements." (Well, this contributor read it wrong . . . twice.)

'''century had rushed . . . out the other side''' 
An instant of zero, not a whole year, because they aren't yet "out the other side" of 1900. ??? A century is 100 years. The one referred to here lasted from 1800-1899 and, since it's 1900, it has "rushed to its end."
:Missing the point. The image focuses on the ''zero.'' And please, let's not have that sterile argument about when a century begins! 
Don't know if this is of any significance, but in the Tarot the Fool (or Jester), says Wikipedia, is "often numbered 0." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_(Tarot_card)]

==Page 220==

'''not even if that tartan were authentic''' 
It's a solecism in England, but is (or was—at least until well up in the 19th century) a prosecutable offense in Scotland, to wear the tartan of a clan one doesn't belong to. At the time of the action, Lew's offense against taste is not to wear tartan (see below in this entry) but to wear a tartan he isn't entitled to wear.

The previous statement doesn't quite jibe. In the late 17 cent. it was prosecutable for any '''Scot''' (read Highlander) to wear a tartan. Those tartans we see ascribed to clans were creations made to please Queen Victoria. Tartans and the Kilt are from Scottish '''and Irish''' Clans; from the oppressed. Thus, the fun in the line comes from the fact that an '''''authentic''''' tartan was false to begin with, but that doesn't keep Nigel from ''lording'' the ''fact'' that Lew's argyle sox are not up to snuff. 
Kilts came from an earlier garment which covered more of the body than today's piece, and those in plaid were called '''''Breacan''''', meaning partially colored or speckled. The plaids also came in trews (trousers), and ruanas (shawls). Many had uniformity in design, but probably because those were the colors available and thus recognized as part of a family, clan or sept. 

'''Caen stone''' 
A cream-colored limestone for building, found near Caen, France.

'''syrinx''' 
a primitive wind instrument consisting of several parallel pipes bound together; panpipes.

'''lyre''' 
an ancient form of harp, so syrinx and lyre are like flute and harp. A famous Concerto for flute and harp is the work of G. F. Handel, who also composed the ''Messiah.''

'''ten-in-one''' 
Ten sideshow acts for one admission. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideshow Wikipedia]

Also, a description of the Tetractys.

'''masses of shadow . . . bright presences''' 
We've had suggestions, at least, that shadow is more hospitable than brightness.

'''humans reincarnated as cats, dogs, and mice''' 
Do the T.W.I.T. members just take the word of the creatures, or do they have some way to be sure?

'''Nicholas Nookshaft''' 
Grand Cohen Nicholas Nookshaft's name reinforces the linking of [[#Page 219|T.W.I.T.]] to the female sex organ, "Nooky shaft" being a vulgarism for the vagina. Interestingly, "shaft" is both a rod or pole, or penis, as well as a vertical passageway, thus its connations are bisexual.

Anyone familiar with Ceremonial Magick is aware of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley Aleister Crowley]. Crowley was famously bisexual, responsible for one of the most famous Tarot Decks the "Thoth" deck and was involved in spycraft for British Intelligence and, it is rumored, was a double agent for the Germans as well. Nicholas Nookshaft is a parody of Crowley.

'''Grand Cohen''' 
'Cohen' is Hebrew for 'priest'.

==Page 221==

'''Couldn't have been the same world as the one you're in now''' 
We can infer that Lew got blown up in one world and shifted to another. A review of the explosion episode, particularly with [[ATD_171-198#Page_188|the annotations to p. 188,]] will be worthwhile.

'''"Lateral world-sets, other parts of the Creation, lie all around us, each with its crossover points or gates of transfer from one to another, and they can be anywhere, really."''' 
Could this be the explanation for some of the most inexplicable scenes from the book thus far: Lew Basnight's mysterious offense, causing him to lose his wife, and his first encounter with the Drave group (around [[ATD_26-56#Page_39|page 39]]); and Hunter Penhallow's escape from the mysterious creature (around [[ATD_149-170#Pages_154-155|page 154]])? Parallel worlds?

'''Yashmeen Halfcourt''' 
Her initials YH are the first half of the Tetragrammaton -- YHVH or YHWH in English.

'''seventeenth degree Adept''' 
Masonic and other esoteric mystery schools have differing number of degrees. Attaining a degree shows that one has sufficiently mastered the material, undergone the tests and passed through any initiations involved with that degree.

The Masonic system has three degrees. These are extended to 32 in the Scottish Rite and a 33rd degree is the ultimate akin to a Distinguished Service award. By comparison, the Golden Dawn has 11 degrees divided in three orders; and the Order of the Temple of the East (Order Templi Orientis, O.T.O) has 12. In TWIT, the 17th appears to be the final degree where one becomes a Master TWIT or a Grand TWIT, I suppose.

Why 17 degrees? Other than 17 being prime, there seems to be no symbolic or geometric significance to 17. Since the Crowley-associated systems do not reach 17, whereas the Masonic system does, looking to the Masonic A & A Scottish Rite [http://www.freemasonry101.org.uk/the_book/219-17th_degree/17th_degree.htm 17th degree] we find it is the "Knight of the East and West" which teaches that loyalty to God is man's primary allegiance, and the temporal governments not founded upon God and His righteousness will inevitably fall. Compare this to the Bogomils later in AtD.

On the other hand, T.W.I.T. is centered on Tarot cards, so the relationship between number and any correspondences to the Tarot would be very much to the point. In this case, the Major Arcana assigned to the number 17 is the [http://www.angelpaths.com/majors/star.html Star]. The Crowley-associated system for Tarot consists of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoth Thoth ] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Tarot] deck, along with Crowley's "explanatory" [http://tinyurl.com/yu4ye3 'Book of Thoth']:

:As has been explained elsewhere. It refers to the Zodiacal sign of Aquarius, the water-bearer. The picture represents Nuith, our Lady of the Stars. For the full meaning of this sentence it is necessary to understand the first chapter of the ''Book of the Law''. . . .

The full text can be found at [http://altreligion.about.com/library/texts/bl_thoth34.htm About.com's] site on the Thoth "Star" card, albiet with the wrong card illustrated, in this case atu 18, "The Moon".

:'''Symbolic and Cultural Meanings of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17_%28number%29#In_culture 17]:''' 

Because 17 has no symbolic significance, it does! In ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy,'' the symbol for Discordianism includes a pyramid with 17 steps because 17 has "virtually no interesting geometric, arithmetic, or mystical qualities." 

In the Harry Potter universe, 17 is the coming of age for wizards. 

Described at MIT as 'the most random number', according to hackers' lore. This is supposedly because in a study where respondents were asked to choose a random number from 1 to 20, 17 was the most common choice. 

The number of syllables in a haiku (5+7+5). 

The number of special significance to Yellow Pig's Day and Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics.

and on and on.....

''''Tzaddik'''' 
A righteous Jew. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzadik Wikipedia]
"One whose merit surpasses his iniquity."
The Talmud says that at least 36 anonymous tzadikim are living among us at all times; they are anonymous, and it is for their sake alone that the world is not destroyed.

The common theme between the Masonic 17th degree and Tzaddik seems to be '''righteousness'''.

==Page 222==

'''The Tetractys isn't the only thing round here that's ineffable''' 
Schoolyard joke. "F" a euphemism for fuck, so "ineffable" = unfuckable also describes Yashmeen.

'''squadron commander''' 
A [http://pinetreeweb.com/13th-south-african-war-36-01.htm squadron of hussars] would number 100-200 troopers commanded by a major. (The linked page concerns Baden-Powell's regiment—the 13th, not the 18th—in the South African War.)

'''Auberon Halfcourt''' 
Auberon means royal or noble bear. 
Punning, "Au" is the chemical symbol for gold, thus, "Golden Bear", mascotte of UC Berkeley. 

'''Eighteenth Hussars''' 
Prestigious British cavalry regiment. Stationed in India 1864-76 and 1890-98; Halfcourt's secondment must have taken place at one of these times.

'''Simla''' 
Summer capital of the British Raj in India in the Himalayas. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimla Wikipedia]. 
A terminus of the Kalka-Simla railway line (built 1906) aka the "British Jewel of the Orient." 
Named for the goddess Shyamala Devi, an incarnation of the Hindu Goddess Kali.

'''Smartly taken at silly point''' 
A cricketing reference. Silly point is a fielding position very close to the batsman. [http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=smartly.taken+silly.point examples] 
With the infield pulled in for a bunt, the cleanup man swings away and pulls a clothesline drive between third and short, which the shortstop snares for the out. (Teach ''you'' lot to come over here and talk cricket.)

'''To know, to dare, to will, to keep silent''' 
Mystical formula. [http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=to.know.to.dare.to.will examples]
The four precepts of Western Magick, extensively discussed in the writings of Aleister Crowley.

'''In the States, "detective" doesn't mean—''' 
. . . An agent who solves criminal cases. The major "detective" bureaus hired personnel out as bodyguards and muscle.

'''"There is but one 'case' which occupies us"''' 
This echoes the famous quote from Wittgenstein's ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'': "The world is all that is the case." (See the full text of the ''Tractatus'' [http://www.kfs.org/~jonathan/witt/tlph.html here].) This quote also factors in heavily in V. (Specifically, in two places: there's the [http://www.phil-reed.com/2006/02/14/the-love-songs-of-thomas-pynchon/ P's and Q's love song], and also in Captain Weissman's repeating, encoded, hallucinated message over the telegraph in Africa.)

'''The Number 22''' 
I found it interesting that the significance of the number 22 was first brought up on page 222. might be nothing, really. 22 is the number of cards in the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck, the section of the deck that has been removed from the modern playing deck which only has the suits (elements) and the Court cards. The 22 Major Arcana are numbers 0 to 21 and move from The Fool card to the Universe. Purportedly and symbolically, the progression of cards tell a tale of the evolutionary path of the Soul in its course. The 22 cards also, in some systems, map onto the 22 paths that connect the spheres of the Kabalistic Tree of Life (which also is mentioned in this chapter). An understanding of the Tarot cards cannot be achieved with an understanding how they relate to the Tree of Life. They are the relationships between the Sephiroths which in turn at 10 in number, just like the Tetractys and portray the energies that flow from the highest monad of Divinity (Kether) down into the manifested world (Malkuth). Pynchon makes use of both the Tarot and the Kabalah in Against the Day as well as Gravity's Rainbow.

See also the novel ''The Greater Trumps'' by Charles Williams for a similar intrusion of the characters of the Major Arcana into everyday English life.

22 is two times two, so a quaternion...

==Page 223==

'''"And the crime... just what would be the nature of that?"''' 
Might Lew himself be one of the 22 suspects? Perhaps the ineffable crime is what made people treat him like a pariah earlier in the book.

==Page 224==

'''"'walking out'"''' 
A walking date.

'''the veil of ''maya''''' 
In Hinduism, maya is the phenomenal world of separate objects and people, which creates for some the illusion that it is the only reality. In Hindu philosophy, maya is believed to be an illusion, a veiling of the true, unitary Self. Many philosophies or religions seek to "pierce the veil" in order to glimpse the transcendent truth. Arthur Schopenhauer used the term "Veil of Maya" to describe his view of ''The World as Will and Representation''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(illusion) Wikipedia entry]

'''the ancient London landscape . . . known to the Druids''' 
Peter Ackroyd's recent ''London, the Biography'' devotes many pages to sacred and magical features of the city. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid "Druid"].

'''Trumper's''' 
London's royal barbers since 1875. [http://www.trumpers.com/ site] 
And what other barber would you mention in a passage about the Greater Trumps . . . .

'''On this island [...] all English, spoken or written, is looked down on as no more than strings of text cleverly encrypted''' 
A sentiment echoed in the first sentence of Pynchon's December 2006 letter written in defense of novelist Ian McEwan: "Given the British genius for coded utterance..." [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/06/nwriter06.xml Image of Letter]

'''crosswords in newspapers''' 
The first crossword to appear in a newspaper was in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossword#History 1913]. Cryptic crosswords in British newspapers certainly match Pynchon's description. See, for example, [http://www.crossword.org.uk/listen.htm the Listener crossword].

==Page 225==

'''Girton College''' 
Of Cambridge University, for women, founded 1869. [http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/about/history/brief.html history]

'''Next they'll be letting you folks vote.''' 
Women over the age of 30 were, subject to certain qualifications, granted the right to vote in the UK by the Representation of the People Act 1918. The Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 granted women the vote on the same basis as men (i.e. from the age 21).

'''"the vast jangling thronged somehow monumental London evening"''' 
This kind of eschewing of punctuation might be expected in Joyce but it's not typical of Pynchon and seems to serve no special purpose here. A typo?

:Purposive or no, that ain't no typo. First, numerous compound adjectives reminiscent of Faulknerian portmanteau words are sprinkled throughout the book. Second, this particular deployment of zero-degree punctuation and massing of modifiers jibes with TRP's obvious delight in tripping us readers up and sending us back into sentences for another looksee. Finally, the musicality of this phrase sounds properly Pynchonlike t'me.

'''Pamela Colman Smith''' 
Illustrator of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Colman_Smith "Wikipedia"].

'''Arthur Edward Waite''' 
Occultist and co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Waite Wikipedia]

'''four stone''' 
56 pounds.

'''Uckenfays''' 
Ucken-fay is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_Latin "pig latin"] for 'fucken'.

'''''gaver du visage''''' 
A literal translation of "stuff one's face", though this is not how it is said in French (it would be se gaver or se baffrer). [http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/g/gaver.htm cite]

'''cigar-divan''' 
A smoking salon (divan) for cigar smokers.

Interestingly, a work by Robert Louis Stevenson, from 1903, entitled The Dynamiter begins with a "Prologue of the Cigar Divan".

==Page 226==

'''Seven Dials''' 
bad area in London, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Dials Wikipedia entry]

[[image:tarotdevil.jpg|thumb|150px|right|The Devil by Colman-Smith]]

'''growler''' 
Four-wheeled [http://www.bbno.freeserve.co.uk/glossary.htm carriage] drawn by four horses. Supplanted by the Hansom cab.

<div id="renfrew"></div>'''Renfrew at Cambridge and Werfner at Göttingen''' 
Note that each Professor's name is the other's spelled backward.

Also notice the theme of dual natures or forces. The two professors are "bound and ... could not separate even if they wanted to." They become rivals within the broader conflict of the 'Great Game' -- the political rivalry over Central Asia being played out by the various European powers, but especially by Great Britain and the Russian Empire.

Pynchon toys with the idea that World War I was really just the extension of an academic rivalry. This secret scholastic conspiracy also references the role supposedly played in the US policy establishment by neoconservatives [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism] (or "neocons") in the run up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Just as Pynchon's professors held great influence over a number of their students, "[s]ome of whom found employment with the Foreign Services", etc., neoconservative professors such as Leo Strauss [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss] had a number of disciplines who came to occupy key positions in government and business (for example, Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001-2005) Paul Wolfowitz [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz]). This interpretation is further bolstered by the geographic positioning of the "Bagdad" (sic) railway, and the Ottoman territories as the region "where Renfrew and Werfner have often found their best opportunities to make mischief".

[http://www.cam.ac.uk/cambuniv/index.html Cambridge University] is one of the oldest and the best universities in the world. In 2009 it will be celebrating its 800th Anniversary. In its early day, Cambridge was a center of the new learning of the Renaissance and of the theology of the Reformation; in modern times it has excelled in science. It is now a confederation of 31 Colleges (such as King's, Girton, St.John, Trinity and others mentioned in ATD), consists of over 100 departments and faculties, and other institutions. Since 1904, 81 affiliates of Cambridge have won Nobel Prize in every category: 29 in Physics, 22 in Medicine, 19 in Chemistry, 7 in Economics, 2 in Literature and 2 in Peace.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg-August_University_of_G%C3%B6ttingen Göttingen University], one of the most famous universities in Europe, founded in Göttingen, Germany, in 1737 by King George II of England in his capacity as Elector of Hanover. At the end of the 19th century, it became world famous because of its Departments of Mathematics and Physics and rivaled Cambridge for eminence. The reputation of the university was founded by many eminent professors who are commemorated by statues and plaques all over the campus. It claimed 44 Nobel Laureates. But it suffered from the 1933 Great Purge of the Nazi crackdown on "Jewish Physics" and never recovered its original fame. David Hilbert, one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century and a professor at Göttingen, was asked in the 40s about the state of mathematics there now that the Jewish influence had been purged; he replied that there was no mathematics left at Göttingen now that the Jewish influence had been purged.

'''Berlin Conference of 1878''' 
Divided Balkans after Russo-Turkish War. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Berlin Wikipedia]

'''bickering-at-a-distance'''
A play on the idea of "action at a distance" theories in physics, a topic that came under much scrutiny at the time of AtD owing to its pertinence in the theories of electromagnetism and gravitation. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_at_a_distance_%28physics%29 wikipedia] for a further discussion and its relevance in quantum mechanics.

'''English, . . . , Japanese—not to mention indigenous—components''' 
''Not to mention'' them was exactly the point as the Great Powers sorted out the Ottoman possessions.

==Page 227==

'''"The Great Game"''' 
The Great Game was a term used to describe the rivalry and strategic conflict between the British Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. The term was later popularized by Rudyard Kipling in his novel, ''Kim''. The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running from approximately 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game Wikipedia entry] Also the name of Padzhitnoff's airship. I believe the great game stands for Espionage in the Age of Gentlemen, the substance of Pynchon's '''''Under the Rose'''''. 

'''mamluk lamps''' 
A [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/07/nfe/hob_17.190.985.htm mosque lamp]
from the [http://www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/mehistorydatabase/mamluks.php mamluk] era.

'''...the Kabbalist Tree of Life, with the names of the Sephiroth spelled out in Hebrew, which had brought her more than enough of that uniquely snot-nosed British anti-Semitism... ''' 

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah Kabbalah] is the ancient study of Jewish mysticism, long shrouded in mystery and kept from all but a devout few of the most dedicated Talmudic scholars. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tree_of_Life_Medieval.jpg.jpg Tree of Life] is one of the central symbols of Kabbalah, supposedly a physical representation of the path of enlightenment from the most base knowledge of the physical world (at the bottom), to the highest spiritual planes of understanding (at the top). The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephirot Sephiroth] are the nodes of the Tree, representing the various "stages" of understanding. Of course, tihs is all a very gross oversimplifcation and hardly does justice to the term itself.

The "Quabbalah" or "Cabalah" being studied by Madonna and others in Hollywood is a secularized and co-opted form of the original Kabbalah, which is deeply connected to the Torah and Jewish life.

In Medieval Europe, Kabbalist scholars wore amulets and other symbols on their clothing, and were often misunderstood to be magicians or wizards (think Merlin). The common magician's expression "abra cadabra" has Kabbalistic origins.

'''"Eskimoff . . . I say what sort of name is that?"''' 
Tiptoeing around the real question, "Is she Jewish?"

'''English Rose''' 
The phrase "English Rose" or "Bonnie English Rose" when applied to a woman means her skin is unblemished, her coloring subtle, her temper sweet. Madame Eskimoff, in short, is a beauty in a traditional English style. 
(Incidentally, an officially unrecognized designation of [http://www.marinrose.org/englishroses.html roses].)

==Page 228==

'''Oliver Lodge''' 
English physicist, inventor and writer (1851-1940) involved in the development of wireless telegraphy and radio. After the death of his son in 1915, Lodge became interested in spiritualism and life after death and wrote several books on the subject. Lodge conducted research on lightning, electricity, electromagnetism and wrote about the aether, themes that are repeated throughout ''ATD.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Joseph_Lodge Wikipedia entry].

'''William Crookes''' 
English chemist and physicist (1832-1919) who worked in spectroscopy and whose work pioneered the construction and use of vacuum tubes. Like Oliver Lodge, Crookes was also a spiritualist, which appears to be Pynchon's reason for grouping him with others in this passage, although his experiments in electricity and light also tie in with these themes in ''ATD.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crookes Wikipedia entry].

'''Mrs. Piper''' 
Probably [http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htm Leonora Piper] 1857-1950.

'''Eusapia Palladino''' 
(1854-1918) Famous italian spiritualist medium.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusapia_Palladino Wikipedia entry]. It's fair to say she was often caught cheating.

'''W.T. Stead''' 
William T. Stead (1849-1912), British writer, poet, social crusader, and spiritualist. He went down with the ''Titanic.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomas_Stead Wikipedia entry].

'''Mrs. Burchell''' 
The Yorkshire Seeress, investigated by WT Stead. [http://www.wholeagain.com/prophecyfodor.html cite]

'''assassination''' 
Trouble with the time here. Lew's timeline points pretty strongly to autumn 1900. A séance that's "about to" go on Mme. Eskimoff's résumé, however, leads the murder of the Serbian king and queen by three months, and the murder itself occurred in June 1903, which seems to imply March of that year. 

This seems as good an instance as any to question the insistence of some here to pin down the exact date (and season?). Pynchon doesn't knock it to the wall, doesn't find cause to bother and I think the reason for that is obvious... the ambiguity lends a freer hand with which to paint. So don't fuck with the butterfly on the wheel. 

'''Alexander and Draga Obrenovich, the King and Queen of Serbia''' 
According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Obrenovich Wikipedia] the assassination occured on 11 June 1903, so the seance at which Mrs. Burchell "witnessed" it, should have taken place in March 1903.

'''Parsons-Short Auxetophone''' 
[http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/auxetophone/auxetoph.htm pic and info]. The Auxetophone appears to have been a sound amplification device, not a recorder. Parsons did not enter the picture till 1903, so the apparatus would not have this name in 1900, but Short demonstrated it as early as 1898.

'''electros of the original wax impressions''' 
A thin film of metal was electroplated onto the wax, then peeled off and wrapped around a new cylinder.

'''"Bagdad" railway''' 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Railway

==Page 229==

'''syntonic''' 
A term used in both engineering and psychology. Psychology: "Characterized by a high degree of emotional responsiveness to the environment." Electricity: "Of or relating to two oscillating circuits having the same resonant frequency."

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntonic_comma syntonic comma], a small interval in the frequency ratio of 81:80, is a problem in musical [http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/tmprment.html temperament].

'''the Russo-Turkish War''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War,_1877–1878 The Russo-Turkish War] (1877-1878), the latest Russo-Turkish War of many fought between these two contries since 16th century as a result of Russian attempts to find an outlet on the Black Sea and to conquer the Caucasus, dominate the Balkan Peninsula, gain control of the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits, and retain access to world trade routes. The last Russo-Turkish War came as a result of the anti-Ottoman uprising (1875) in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria. On Russian instigation, Serbia and Montenegro joined the rebels; after securing Austrian neutrality, Russia openly entered the War in 1877. The War ended in 1878 resulted in the Treaty of San Stefano which so thoroughly revised the map in favor of Russia and her client, Bulgaria, that the European powers called a conference (the Congress of Berlin) to revise its terms by the Treaty of Berlin.

'''kilometric guarantee''' 
Money offered by the government to building companies.
Apparently, the railroad companies fooled the Ottoman Empire building trails which were much longer than needed.
[http://books.google.es/books?id=uei7q4YCaqUC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=kilometric+guarantee&source=web&ots=fK9IVpG7Yx&sig=-7WX_2T0OPqXp2DEVAtRIRJPBQY&hl=ca&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result Google books citation]

==Page 230==

'''King's... Girton''' 
King's College is one of the most famous and historic colleges at Cambridge, founded in 1441. Girton College, Cambridge, was established in 1869 as the first residential college for women in England.

'''Michaelmas term''' 
The fall term, starting early October (1900 here). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaelmas_term Wikipedia]

'''tweeny''' 
A [http://www.bartleby.com/68/30/830.html between-maid].

'''Edward Oxford''' 
attempted to shoot Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, at the time of her first pregnancy (1840).[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Oxford Wikipedia]

'''had the young Queen died then without issue''' 
Nookshaft posits two scenarios: (1) The implicit, unmentioned, and not as "interesting" possibility that everything is actual, as it "appears" to be in the "real" world, surrounding Queen Victoria; that she is simply an old, vain regent. (2) "the 'real' Vic is elsewhere," and the current, aged Victoria is a ghostly stand-in. Nookshaft implies that this figure is a proxy or puppet of Ernst-August. If this were "the case," then the question shifts to the following: (a) Is the ruler of the underworld, who holds the "real," eternally young Victoria captive in cahoots with Ernst-August in the "real" world? or: (b) Is the ruler of the underworld, who holds the "real," eternally young Victoria captive NOT in cahoots with Ernst-August, who nevertheless ascends to the throne with real-Vic out of the way, and imposes the stand-in? In which case: What would be the motivation of the underworld-entity third-party? And who, or what, specifically, is it?

'''sixty years ago''' 
One event of 1840, the attempt on Victoria's life, is referred to as sixty years ago; another, the issue of the first adhesive stamps, as more than sixty years ago. 
If it weren't for these nagging problems in Lew's timeline, we could peg the date as 1900.

'''Salic law''' 
originated in the Late Roman Empire as Germanic tribes invaded and their law codes were translated into Latin and written down. Salic Law was that of the
Franks who settled in present-day northern France and the law code of Charlemagne. Over the course of the Middle Ages it was largely replaced by Roman Law. For examples, see [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/salic-law.html]. 

However, Salic Law continued to be used in a number of European areas to decide matters of noble inheritance. Specifically, Salic Law stated that no female could inherit rulership (above by [[User:Owl of Minerva|Owl of Minerva]] 18:03, 4 April 2007 (PDT)) and, indeed, a royal or noble title could be inherited only through the "male line." When King William IV, ruler of both the United Kingdom and Hanover, died, the Crowns separated. Hanover practiced Salic law, while Britain did not. King William's niece Victoria ascended to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland, but the throne of Hanover went to William's brother Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salic_Law Wikipedia entry]

'''Tory despotism''' 
Thatcher?
: Not necessarily-- it describes Ernest himself. "The Duke of Cumberland had a reputation as one of the least pleasant of the sons of George III. Politically an arch-reactionary, he opposed the 1828 Catholic Emancipation Bill proposed by the government of the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Augustus_I_of_Hanover Wikipedia entry]

It can describe Ernst August and still be an allegory of Thatcher. The description of Ireland fits that of some world-views during her time.

All parallels between past and present are worth considering. They don't have to be direct references. The present-day Ernst August - famous for pissing on the Turkish Pavilion at EXPO 2000 - carries on the family tradition.

'''Catholics''' 
Someone famously cited James Joyce as proof that Catholics shouldn't get university educations.

==Page 231==

'''Orange Lodges''' 
Lodges of the Orange Order, a protestant fraternal organisation based predominantly in Northern Ireland and Scotland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_lodge Wikipedia entry]. The Orange Order was founded to subvert the '''''United Irishmen''''' of Wolfe Tone by agitating against Protestant and Catholic community. It was hostile to the idea of Irish Home Rule or independence. In the 1880's it developed the Ulster Unionist Party to politically parry Parliamentary attempts at Home Rule for Ireland.

'''"from the first to the twelfth of July, anniversaries of the Boyne and Aughrim."''' 
i.e. anniversaries of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Boyne Battle of the Boyne] and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aughrim Battle of Aughrim] of the Williamite War in Ireland. 
This was and still is known as "Marching Season" in Northern Ireland; the time when 'parades' are traditionally a source of fear and violence. Nearly all the parades are organized by the Orange Lodges and hence anti-Catholic.

[[Image:pennyblack.jpg|thumb|100px|right|The first adhesive stamp, 1840]]
'''"the first adhesive stamps of 1840"''' 
This stamp has come to be called the Penny Black. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black Wikipedia entry] 
Penny Black is also the name of a character ([[ATD_1-25#Page 18|p.18]])

'''"immune to Time, [...] neither of them aging"''' 
Cf Oscar Wilde's only novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray The Picture of Dorian Gray], in which Dorian Gray remains young while his portrait ages.

'''springtide''' 
Cf Stray's pregnancy, a "dreamy thing" (page 201). The definition of springtide is springtime.

==Page 232==

'''Éliphaz Lévi''' 
A/K/A Eliphas Levi, ''nom de plume'' of Alphonse Louis Constant (1810-1875), French occultist and writer who pioneered a revival of Magick in the 19th Century, and was an influence on A.E. Waite, the Order of the Golden Dawn, and Aleister Crowley. An acquaintance of novelist Edward ("It was a dark and stormy night") Bulwer-Lytton. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliphas_Levi Wikipedia entry].

'''punters''' 
Punter is being used in the sense of someone who bets, someone who is taking a chance.
Or more probably in the common extended sense meaning merely "customer"

'''''akousmata''''' 
Greek: things heard. [[A|Good information under "A" in the alpha index.]]

'''number twenty-four''' 
Or 25? [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gvp/gvp11.htm etext]

'''Iamblichus''' 
(ca. 245 - ca. 325, Greek) was a neoplatonist philosopher who determined the direction taken by later Neoplatonic philosophy, and perhaps western Paganism itself. He is perhaps best known for his compendium on Pythagorean philosophy.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iamblichus_%28philosopher%29 Wikipedia]

'''maquillage''' 
Make-up, cosmetics; the application of make-up (especially in heavy or theatrical fashion).<ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989</ref>

==Page 233==
'''catarrh''' 
Inflammation of a mucous membrane; usually restricted to that of the nose, throat, and bronchial tubes, causing increased flow of mucus, and often attended with sneezing, cough, and fever; constituting a common ‘cold’.<ref>Def.3. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''Collis Brown's Mixture''' 
Contained morphine, chloroform, and caramel, among other things. [http://admin.safescript.com/drugcgic.cgi/DRUG?1006901319+0 Full ingredients]

'''xylene''' 
Xylene abuse is similar to "glue sniffing"-- xylene is a strong solvent able to cause several damages to health, especially to the brain. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylene wikipedia]

'''a thousand pounds a year''' 
Over $100,000 today. [http://futureboy.homeip.net/fsp/dollar.fsp?quantity=1000&currency=pounds&fromYear=1900 cite]

'''"pinky"''' 
Condy's fluid is pink to purple. Methylated spirits is a kind of denatured alcohol: 95% ethyl alcohol, 5% methyl alcohol. "Pinky" would have a variety of effects, very possibly including blindness.

==Page 234==

'''Condy's fluid''' 
A disinfectant used to treat and prevent Scarlet Fever, among other things. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Bollmann_Condy Wikipedia]

'''''tonight's the night''''' 
Considering the content here, probable reference to Neil Young's drug-addled album and its title song, "Tonight's The Night" from 1975. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonight%27s_the_Night_%28album%29 Wiki]

'''Cheapside''' 
an important market street in the City of London.

'''mews''' 
A street originally for stabling; but in modern times often converted into houses/apartments.

'''Coombs de Bottle''' 
"comes the bottle" ?

'''Russian duck''' 
Duck is strong, untwilled linen or cotton, lighter and finer than canvas. Russian duck is coarse, heavy and unbleached but softer than English duck.

==Page 235==

'''sensitive flames''' 
Cf GR p.29-32, 715.

'''extractors . . . distillation columns''' 
Separatory apparatus. An extractor works on differences in solubility, a distillation column differences in volatility.

'''tremblers and timers''' 
A trembler is a kind of motion detector used in both bombs and alarms; one kind has a flexible stem with a heavy contact on the free end so that disturbing the package it contains causes a trigger circuit to close. A timer uses a clocklike mechanism to bring two contacts together.

'''proper solvent procedures''' 
Famous 1960s "Anarchist Cookbook" was infamously inaccurate. [http://www.amazon.com/Anarchist-Cookbook-C-066-William-Powell/dp/0962303208 Amazon w/author's note]

==Page 236==

'''Breathless hush in the close tonight''' 
Dr. De Bottle quoting from Henry Newbolt's poem [[Vitai Lampada|"Vitaï Lampada,"]] which makes school games a metaphor and model for martial bravery.

'''The Gentleman Bomber of Headingly''' 
Cf Hornung's 'Gentleman Thief' and cricket player, Raffles. [http://www.mysterynet.com/books/testimony/hardknox.shtml info]

Reminds me of the Krikkit Robots in Douglas Adams' ''Life, The Universe, and Everything,'' where a bomb is put in place of a Cricket Ball at a match between Britain and Australia. 

Also, acronymically, the GBH=Grievous Bodily Harm, the British term for felonious assault.

Here and elswhere the spelling of the cricket ground should be 'Headingley'.

'''The Ashes''' 
An international cricket series between England and Australia dating back to 1882. [http://www.334notout.com/ashes/reports/report21.htm dates] A number of references in this chapter relate to this rivalry. For example, on this page the English cricket ball is compared to the Australian "kookaburra". Kookaburra is the brand name of the balls used in Australia, in England it's Duke. The properties of the English ball was one of the keys to England's success in the summer of 2005. Was Pynchon's writing here influenced by the hype in the UK at the time?

'''Phosgene''' 
A poison gas used in World War I.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene Wikipedia]

'''logwood''' 
Source of red dye. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logwood Wikipedia]

'''adjutor''' 
A helper, assistant. <ref>Def.1. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''exhiliration''' 
Misspelling of ''exhilaration.''

==Page 237==

'''beige substance''' 
Presumably Cyclomite.

'''Happy Birthday! . . . Gemini''' 
Ordinarily you would think this tagged the date as 21 May to 20 June [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_%28astrology%29 Wikipedia.] But other evidence in the text points to deepening autumn.

One of two possible explanations: 
1. The T.W.I.T. is perhaps using an ascendent or lunar based astrological system rather than the solar-based system commonly used in the West. This resolves the apparent contradiction of a Gemini in autumn since the ascendent travels through all signs every 24 hours and the moon travels through the entire zodiac once a month. For example, Vedic astrology looks primarily to the ascendent, then the moon, and lastly the sun to study respectively the body, the mind and the spirit of the native. Basnight does have a mind that operates on two planes -- hence a moon in Gemini reading. 
2. The explosion carried Lew to a place on the other side of the Sun. Deep autumn would then be November 23 to December 21th, our sign of Sagittarius.

'''get the Ashes back . . . next year''' 
On page 236 the Ashes (Test Matches, cricket competitions between England and Australia) are "in progress." At some time previous to this conversation Mme. Eskimoff said England will regain the trophy "next year" provided they use the young bowler Bosanquet (next entry). Test Matches took place in (a) December 1901 to March 1902, Australia victorious; (b) May to August 1902, Australia again; (c) December 1903 to March 1904, England bringing back the Ashes and Bosanquet figuring as a key bowler.

If Mme. Eskimoff has foreseen aright, "next year" is 1904 and the time of the action is 1903. The conflict in dates is troubling: In a matter of weeks and a few pages, Lew just misses the 1900 Hurricane and gets information that definitely points to 1903. (And he proves to be a Gemini with an autumn birthday!) I don't think there is anything accidental—or negligible—about the discrepancies.

'''Bosanquet''' 
Another Ashes reference. [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/9158.html Bernard Bosanquet] invented the bosie (or googly), as described here, around 1900. A major factor in England's 2005 Ashes success was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_swing reverse swing], another type of delivery whose physical dynamics are poorly understood.

Check out the [[Cricket_in_Against_the_Day|"Cricket in ''Against the Day'' article]] by Peter Vernon, which is an in-depth look at, well, cricket in ''Against the Day''.

'''Pom''' 
A somewhat derogatory term for a British person, commonly used in Australian English. Also [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/287200.html Pommy or Pommie.]

'''Hebrew letter Shin''' 
Obviously a nod to the Vulcan greeting in ''Star Trek'', with the distinctive hand sign and the phrase, "Live long and prosper." Perhaps also to the Jewish faith of Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock. See [http://www.pinenet.com/~rooster/v-salute.html The Jewish origin of the Vulcan Salute]

Pynchon placed one of these in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Mason & Dixon''], as well:

:Dixon discovers "The Rabbi of Prague, headquarters of a Kabbalistick Faith, in Correspondence with the Elect Cohens of Paris, whose private Salute they now greet Dixon with, the Fingers spread two and two, and the Thumb held away from them likewise, said to represent the Hebrew letter ''Shin'' and to signify, 'Live long and prosper.'([http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_50:_484-490 ''M&D'' p.485]) 
Might there be a further connection between The Cohen of T.W.I.T., the "Cohens of Paris" and these backwoods Kabbalists?

Also, note the hand on the devil tarot card above.

Shin "also stands for the word Shaddai, a name for God. Because of this, a kohen (priest) forms the letter Shin with his hands as he recites the Priestly Blessing. In the mid 1960s, actor Leonard Nimoy used a single-handed version of this gesture to create the Vulcan Hand Salute for his character, Mr. Spock, on Star Trek."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_%28letter%29#In_Judaism]

"In the Septuagint and other early translations Shaddai was translated with words meaning "Almighty". The root word "shadad" (שדד) means "to overpower" or "to destroy". This would give Shaddai the meaning of "destroyer" as one of the aspects of God. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism#Shaddai]

...and if we look back to the Devil tarot card we see the shin hand sign and the inverted pentagram. Thus through Eliphas Levi and then Coleman-Smith/Waite a connection is created between shin and the inverted pentagram. And then we can make connections with the Jeshimonians and the TWITsters.

This might be why "the cure grows right next to the cause" in Jeshimon. They are under the winged protection of God-the-Destroyer.

'''bog-standard''' 
British term indicating complete ordinariness.
Possible Entymology (Dog's Bollocks, British Or German Standard): [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bog_standard Wiktionary]

==Page 238==

'''Second Law of Thermodynamics''' 
The law of entropy... "The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium." (Rudolf Clausius) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics]

There's no such thing as a perfectly efficient engine, i.e., a box that does work by taking in heat from where there is lots of heat (e.g., combustion chamber) and throwing off heat where there is not much (exhaust pipe). Something always gets lost. Similarly, the transfer of money from where there is plenty (bank) to where there isn't much (Europe) is never perfectly efficient.

"He began then, bewilderingly, to talk about something called entropy. The word bothered him... But it was too technical for her. She did gather that there were two distinct kinds of this entropy. One having to do with heat engines, the other to do with communication... The two fields were entirely unconnected, except at one point: Maxwell's Demon. As the Demon sat and sorted his molecules into hot and cold, the system was said to lose entropy. But somehow the loss was offset by the information the Demon gained about what molecules were where... Entropy is a figure of speech, then, a metaphor. It connects the world of thermodynamics to the world of information flow." ''The Crying of Lot 49'' (Pages 84 - 85)

'''''morsus fundamento''''' 
Latin: A bite on the ass?

The meaning is that he wouldn't know metaphysics if it bit him in the ass. Like "octogenarihexation" ("86"-ing) in Vineland--the vulgar faux fancied up.

'''three-percent consols''' 
British "consolidated" bonds, for many years the conservative investment ''par excellence.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consols wikipedia]

==Page 239==

'''mental''' 
Not mental as in "of the mind" but mental as in "mad". "You're mental, you are" is a common british playground taunt.

'''Colney Hatch''' 
London lunatic asylum. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colney_Hatch_Lunatic_Asylum Wikipedia]

'''Out of the dust . . . beam of morning sunlight''' 
I.e., sometimes your horse wins.

'''ENCYCLICAL''' 
An encyclical is a letter circulated by the pope or other figure of high authority in a body of believers. A comprehensive [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclical Wikipedia article] explains and adds a list of papal encyclicals. An encyclical usually takes its first 2 or 3 words as its title (''Multi et Unus'' in this case).

Of course, the Vatican would strongly protest that McTaggart, an atheist, should send out an encyclical!

'''MCTAGGART . . . HARDY''' 
Seems to refer to a historical logician joke. [http://www.anvari.org/shortjoke/Science_Humor/1210.html explanation] Professor McTaggart was, perhaps, the most famous philosopher
who argued that Time did not exist as we seem to experience it.
W.H. Hardy was a very famous Cambridge mathematician who knew all the
famous philosophers in England. 

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._E._McTaggart John McTaggart Ellis (J. M. E.) McTaggart] (1866-1925), British philosopher. He was born in London and educated at Clifton College, Bristol and Trinity College, Cambridge. He lectured Philosophy at Trinity College from 1897 to 1923. His brilliant commentaries and studies on Hegel's dialectic (1896), cosmology (1901) and logic (1910) were preliminaries to his own constructive system-building in ''Nature of Existence'' (3 vols., 1921-1927). In his 1908 essay "The Unreality of Time" he argued that our perception of time is an illusion (Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page_412|page 412]]: dismissing . . . the ''existence'' of Time).

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hardy.html Godfrey Harold Hardy] (1877-1947), English mathematician. He was a lecturer at Cambridge (1906-1919), professor at Oxford (1919-31) and Cambridge (1931-47). Concurrently with Wilhelm Weinberg developed Hardy-Weinberg law (1906) describing genetic distribution and dequilibrium in large populations. He was also known for contributions to complex analysis, Diophantine analysis, Fourier series, distribution of prime numbers, etc.

'''''Multi et Unus''''' 
Many and One.

'''CREATE MORE DUKES''' and '''EXPROPRIATE CHUCKERS''' 
Is the grafitti in Cambridge another cricketing reference? Dukes are the balls used in England (cf. p236). Chucking (or bending the arm when bowling) is an emotive topic in cricket that arises from time to time. It first arose around 1900 [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/258016.html]. In 2005 it caused administrators to change the rules of the game [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/144358.html].

"Create More Dukes" has a second meaning, suggested by the odd choice of verb. ''Duke'' in Britain refers to the highest rank of nobility, and fittingly there are not many of them. At present only about a dozen people hold the title. Since sometime in the 1870s new dukes have been ''created'' (by decree of the monarch) only in the royal family. Most recently at the time of the action, Queen Victoria had promoted a run-of-the-mill marquess to the dukedom of Fife to set the stage for his marriage to one of her granddaughters. If some group of activists thought the nation needed to beef up its peerage, they might adopt the slogan found here as a graffito. 
[http://www.ukdukes.co.uk/ Here is a colorful summary] of UK dukes today and through history, although it is '''unsound''' on coats of arms and such. [http://website.lineone.net/~david.beamish/index.htm This site] has more names and fewer pictures, listing all the titles (from dukes to lowly barons) created since the year Dot.

'''the Laplacian, a relatively remote mathematicians' pub''' 
A little Pynchonian joke? The Laplacian operator is a component of the Schrödinger equation, the basis of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics was famously rejected by Albert Einstein (many references on the net but see [http://www.hawking.org.uk/lectures/dice.html Stephen Hawking]), known for his theories of relativity. Moreover, quantum mechanics deals with the very small and relativity with the very large (this is a simplification of course), so the Laplacian is indeed remote from relativity!
:No such pub during ''my'' stay in Cambridge (1998-2000). Also not today, according to [http://www.cambridgepubs.com/alphabetical/ this] list.

:Obviously more than a little joke. Refers to Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (1749-1827)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace Wikipedia Entry], aka "the French Newton", probably the greatest mathematician and astronomer of his time. Most of the scientific principles derived from his findings are explored in AtD (from lumineferous ether to the existence of black holes). Laplace was also instrumental in the advancement of the science of probabilities.
:The ever quotable Laplace, much loved by atheists worldwide, famously replied to Napoléon, when he asked why there was no mention of God in his treatise on astronomy: "Sir, there was no need for that hypothesis". Also responsible for what is known as the Laplacian principle: "The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness."

:The literal translation of Laplace is "The Place".

==Page 240==

'''Worse than Gordon at Khartoum''' 
Refers to Charles George Gordon, British Major-General, whose attempted defense of Khartoum versus Arabi rebels in 1884-85 ended with his beheading. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_George_Gordon Wikipedia] cf. Basil Dearden's 1966 film ''Khartoum'', in which the role of Gordon is played by Charlton Heston.

==Page 241==

'''"You recognize him?"''' 
As, presumably, Webb.
:How can that be? Webb is dead, there's nothing to suggest he went to England, the costume is not right for him, and—most tellingly—his medium is dynamite, not phosgene.
:Who might Lew recognize in the photo? The "suspects" are Neville, Nigel, the Grand Cohen, Dr. Coombs De Bottle, Clive Crouchmas and Professor Renfrew. If Prof. Werfner looks much like Prof. Renfrew, he goes on the list too. If the "Gentleman Bomber" could possibly be female, add Yashmeen and Mme. Eskimoff. We haven't met anyone else (except members of the Icosadyad, who don't have faces).

:Suppose we rule out the ladies and Werfner. Neville or Nigel wouldn't be able to hide their identities with a suit of white flannels. Renfrew is sitting right there when Lew sees the picture, but Lew's reaction (his stomach sinks) does not seem Lew-like if it's Renfrew he has recognized, plus Renfrew himself wants to meet the Bomber. That leaves the Cohen, De Bottle and Crouchmas.

:Would Lew experience dread on spotting Crouchmas? He doesn't know much about C.C. at this point, so it isn't clear why he would suppress that recognition.

:Seeing the Cohen might lead to this gastric reaction: Lew might think he's on the fringe of an anarchist group again (and look where it got him the last time). The Cohen stays on the list.

:Dr. De Bottle not only follows cricket but bets on it; he speaks almost with reverence about phosgene; he knows a nonobvious fact about the bombs; and he dresses like a gentleman. None of these points applies to the Cohen. And recognizing De Bottle would give Lew that sinking feeling because D.B. is purportedly fighting against bombers on behalf of the government. De Bottle goes to the top of the short list.

::Alternately, there's no clear answer and not enough clues (especially considering the role of time, forces beyond anyone's control, double agents, etc.). This Gentleman Bomber can be any person from Lew's past or a deja vu from the future. The G. Bomber seems to be England's answer to the Kieselguhr Kid, a nebulous personality working against the forces of history. The important thing about this situation is not the Bomber's identity, but the fact that Lew is being thrown into an assignment much like his last one in America (and we know how that ended...) He's obviously not very happy about it, and not inclined to tell anyone what he knows, or might know.

:: For what it's worth, my take was also Webb, especially in the context of all the bilocation business. It isn't "Webb" but evil alter-land "Webb"! (no dig on ya'll Brit folk intended, although the "...''my'' stay at Cambridge" bit was just wonderful :)

::--There is a suspect that was left off that list, who occurred to me before any of the others--Lew himself. If we're dealing with bilocation, doubles, and the possibility that 'our' Lew was brought here via the explosion in the creek bed, couldn't the G.B.H. be this world's Lew? Recall that just prior to the explosion, Lew had resolved to choose a side in the Anarchist/plutocrat battle, and had come down on the side of the people. Did this world's Lew make the same choice, somehow ending up in Britain... Also conspicuous is that it is Renfrew showing him the photo with a sly expression, Renfrew who's own double, Werfner, is his very own nemesis? That's how I read it anyway. But, much like the Kieselguhr Kid, we the readers never actually know the identity of this renegade bomb-lobber.

'''A bosie from a beamer''' 
More cricket! A bosie is now more commonly known as a googly (cf. p237). A beamer is a full-pitched delivery that reaches the batsman above waist height.

==Page 242==

[[Image:globenorth.gif|thumb|150px|The northern hemisphere]]

'''''unheimlich''''' 
German: uncanny, sinister.

 

==References==
<references />

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

ATD 219-242

2010-07-03T01:46:05Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 226 */

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

==Page 219==

'''they would have little clue . . . their more or less ambushed keesters''' 
One of half a dozen Pynchonian circumlocutions for "wouldn't know [blank] if it bit them in the ass."

[[image:tetractys.png|thumb|175px|right|The Tetractys]]'''True Worshippers of the Ineffable Tetractys''' 
The Tetractys is a triangular figure consisting of ten points arranged in four rows: one, two, three, and four points in each row. As a mystical symbol, it was very important to the followers of the secret worship of the Pythagoreans, Kabbalists, and nutbars of other affiliations since. It has all kinds of symbological meaning, including the four elements, the organization of space, the Tarot, etc. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetractys Wikipedia entry];

:In the Pythagorean tetractys the supreme symbol of universal forces and processes are set forth the theories of the Greeks concerning color and music. The first three dots represent the threefold White Light, which is the Godhead containing potentially all sound and color. The remaining seven dots are the colors of the spectrum and the notes of the musical scale. The colors and tones are the active creative powers which, emanating from the First Cause, establish the universe. The seven are divided into two groups, one containing three powers and the other four a relationship also shown in the tetractys. The higher group that of three becomes the spiritual nature of the created universe; the lower group that of four manifests as the irrational sphere, or inferior world. <ref>From [http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/ ''The Secret Teachings of All Ages''] by Manly P. Hall (1928)</ref>

:This division (three/four) has to be related to the "trivium" (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and "quadrivium" (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy) of the [http://www.cosmopolis.com/villa/liberal-arts.html Medieval liberal arts.]

More effably, if you flip the Tetractys left to right, it gives the positions of the pins in ten-pin bowling.

The acronym T.W.I.T is most appropriate: a twit is an ineffectual buffoon. Neville and Nigel are certainly twits.

I believe the above really misses the Big Symbol, i.e., Pynchon's linking of T.W.I.T. with the vagina, i.e., the female ''sex'' organ. "T.W.I.T." sounds like no, ''is'' a cross between "clit" and "twat." And, natch, it's headed up by [[#Page 220|Nookshaft]]. And, let's face it, that tetractys is surely an inverted beaver, yes? (See [[ATD 171-198#Page 183|"Beavers of the Brain"]]). Its male counterpart is [[ATD 397-428#Page 405|Candlebrow U.]], to be encountered down the road apiece (and that ain't no spoiler!).

"The Tetractys" is also the name of a poem by the Quaternionist prophet Hamilton. I can't imagine Pynchon didn't find it fairly interesting reading. [http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/octonions/node24.html Read it for yourself here]

'''Chunxton Crescent''' 
Invented by Pynchon. "Crescent" is a female symbol in many mythologies and cultures, and it reinforces T.W.I.T.'s association with the female sex. But "Chunxton"?

:The moon is seen as a female symbol, and was worshipped in ancient times as a powerful force. It is believed to be linked to the unconscious and our feminine side. The sacredness of the moon has been connected with the basic cyclic rhythms of life. The changing phases of the moon were linked to the death and rebirth seen in crops and the seasons, and also to the female monthly cycle that controls human fertility. The moon calendar is still important and many festivals exist around the lunar phases. [http://www.new-age.co.uk/moon-dates.htm]

[[image:bap.gif|thumb|200px|right|Eliphas Levi's Baphomet]]
The crescent is also said "to represent silver (the metal associated with the moon) in alchemy, where, by inference, it can also be used to represent
qualities that silver possesses." (Alchemy and Symbols, By M. E. Glidewell, Epsilon.)

Additionally, the crescent was an important symbol for Eliphas Levi, occultist, magician, and spiritual antecedent to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and, in turn, the T.W.I.T.

''Chunxton'' may be derived from "chunk stone" or "chunk(s) town." I'm inclined to favor the first. "Chunk stone" has two main meanings: (1) stone that's quarried in chunks instead of blocks, slabs or crystals; (2) a magical stone that figures in some American Indian stories. Turquoise and amethyst chunk stones are often made into jewelry as-is, or [http://www.bridastone.com/chunkstone.htm larger chunks of (say) marble] can be used as decoration. Here are links to two Indian stories in which people use chunk stones in finding or tracking: [http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/se/mtsi/mtsi156.htm first,] [http://romeoandjuliet.ws/books/native_american/se/mtsi/mtsi270.shtml second.] Of course it's also possible that "chunk" is the verb meaning "throw," in which case there ought to be a "glass houses" connection somewhere; I can't find it.

:Pure speculation here, but our own moon is a giant "chunk" of "stone". And how did that "chunk" get there? Well, this being Thomas Pynchon's universe, sometime early in the solar system's history, this proto-planet called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus#Orpheus_in_astronomy Orpheus] comes along and smacks into the Earth so violently that it not only creates the moon, but at the same time expels enough water and gas to make "it possible for life on Earth to evolve as we currently know it." Seems to me like something worthy of Occultist reverence

:In [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''CoL49''], TRP states at least twice that the Pacific Ocean is "the hole left by the moon's tearing-free and the monument to her exile." ([http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_3 ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.41])

'''Tyburnia''' 
"Tyburnia occupies the ground on the north side of Hyde-park and Kensington-gardens, and stretches from Edgware-road on the east to about Inverness-terrace on the west. This is not, strictly speaking, a fashionable quarter; but it is not absolutely unfashionable, and is a very favourite part with those — lawyers, merchants, and others—who have to reside in town the greater part of the year." Charles Dickens (Jr.), ''Dickens's Dictionary of London'', 1879.

'''Sir John Soane''' 
(1753 – 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Soane Wikipedia entry]

'''Madame Blavatsky''' 
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), Russian-born founder of the Theosophical Society. Madame Blavatsky claimed that all religions were both true in their inner teachings and false or imperfect in their external conventional manifestations. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Blavatsky Wikipedia]

[[image:Ts_seal.gif|thumb|200px|right|Theosophical Society Seal]]
'''Theosophical Society''' 
The Theosophical Society was founded in New York City, USA, in 1875 by H.P. Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others. Its initial objective was the investigation, study and explanation of mediumistic phenomena. After a few years Olcott and Blavatsky moved to India and established the International Headquarters at Adyar, Madras (Chennai). There, they also became interested in studying Eastern religions, and these were included in the Society's agenda. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophical_Society Wikipedia entry]
"Its post-blavatskian fragments" refers to the schism that occured between some of the founding members after the passing of H.P. Blavatsky in 1891.

'''Society for Psychical Research''' 
The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a non-profit organization which started in the United Kingdom and was later imitated in other countries. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena in a scientific and unbiased way."[1] It was founded in 1882 by a group of eminent thinkers including Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, William Fletcher Barrett, Henry Sidgwick, and Edmund Dawson Rogers. The Society's headquarters are in Marloes Road, London. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_for_Psychical_Research Wikipedia entry]

[[image:Gdrosycross.gif|thumb|140px|right|Rosy Cross of the Golden Dawn]]
'''Order of the Golden Dawn''' 
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (or, more commonly, the Golden Dawn) was a magical order of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, practicing a form of theurgy and spiritual development. William Wynn Westcott, also a member of the Theosophical Society, appears to have been the initial driving force behind the establishment of the Golden Dawn. See also the aforementioned schism within the Theosophical Society. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Golden_Dawn Wikipedia entry]

'''of whom there seemed an ever-increasing supply''' 
Supply of seekers, not of "arrangements." (Well, this contributor read it wrong . . . twice.)

'''century had rushed . . . out the other side''' 
An instant of zero, not a whole year, because they aren't yet "out the other side" of 1900. ??? A century is 100 years. The one referred to here lasted from 1800-1899 and, since it's 1900, it has "rushed to its end."
:Missing the point. The image focuses on the ''zero.'' And please, let's not have that sterile argument about when a century begins! 
Don't know if this is of any significance, but in the Tarot the Fool (or Jester), says Wikipedia, is "often numbered 0." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_(Tarot_card)]

==Page 220==

'''not even if that tartan were authentic''' 
It's a solecism in England, but is (or was—at least until well up in the 19th century) a prosecutable offense in Scotland, to wear the tartan of a clan one doesn't belong to. At the time of the action, Lew's offense against taste is not to wear tartan (see below in this entry) but to wear a tartan he isn't entitled to wear.

The previous statement doesn't quite jibe. In the late 17 cent. it was prosecutable for any '''Scot''' (read Highlander) to wear a tartan. Those tartans we see ascribed to clans were creations made to please Queen Victoria. Tartans and the Kilt are from Scottish '''and Irish''' Clans; from the oppressed. Thus, the fun in the line comes from the fact that an '''''authentic''''' tartan was false to begin with, but that doesn't keep Nigel from ''lording'' the ''fact'' that Lew's argyle sox are not up to snuff. 
Kilts came from an earlier garment which covered more of the body than today's piece, and those in plaid were called '''''Breacan''''', meaning partially colored or speckled. The plaids also came in trews (trousers), and ruanas (shawls). Many had uniformity in design, but probably because those were the colors available and thus recognized as part of a family, clan or sept. 

'''Caen stone''' 
A cream-colored limestone for building, found near Caen, France.

'''syrinx''' 
a primitive wind instrument consisting of several parallel pipes bound together; panpipes.

'''lyre''' 
an ancient form of harp, so syrinx and lyre are like flute and harp. A famous Concerto for flute and harp is the work of G. F. Handel, who also composed the ''Messiah.''

'''ten-in-one''' 
Ten sideshow acts for one admission. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideshow Wikipedia]

Also, a description of the Tetractys.

'''masses of shadow . . . bright presences''' 
We've had suggestions, at least, that shadow is more hospitable than brightness.

'''humans reincarnated as cats, dogs, and mice''' 
Do the T.W.I.T. members just take the word of the creatures, or do they have some way to be sure?

'''Nicholas Nookshaft''' 
Grand Cohen Nicholas Nookshaft's name reinforces the linking of [[#Page 219|T.W.I.T.]] to the female sex organ, "Nooky shaft" being a vulgarism for the vagina. Interestingly, "shaft" is both a rod or pole, or penis, as well as a vertical passageway, thus its connations are bisexual.

Anyone familiar with Ceremonial Magick is aware of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley Aleister Crowley]. Crowley was famously bisexual, responsible for one of the most famous Tarot Decks the "Thoth" deck and was involved in spycraft for British Intelligence and, it is rumored, was a double agent for the Germans as well. Nicholas Nookshaft is a parody of Crowley.

'''Grand Cohen''' 
'Cohen' is Hebrew for 'priest'.

==Page 221==

'''Couldn't have been the same world as the one you're in now''' 
We can infer that Lew got blown up in one world and shifted to another. A review of the explosion episode, particularly with [[ATD_171-198#Page_188|the annotations to p. 188,]] will be worthwhile.

'''"Lateral world-sets, other parts of the Creation, lie all around us, each with its crossover points or gates of transfer from one to another, and they can be anywhere, really."''' 
Could this be the explanation for some of the most inexplicable scenes from the book thus far: Lew Basnight's mysterious offense, causing him to lose his wife, and his first encounter with the Drave group (around [[ATD_26-56#Page_39|page 39]]); and Hunter Penhallow's escape from the mysterious creature (around [[ATD_149-170#Pages_154-155|page 154]])? Parallel worlds?

'''Yashmeen Halfcourt''' 
Her initials YH are the first half of the Tetragrammaton -- YHVH or YHWH in English.

'''seventeenth degree Adept''' 
Masonic and other esoteric mystery schools have differing number of degrees. Attaining a degree shows that one has sufficiently mastered the material, undergone the tests and passed through any initiations involved with that degree.

The Masonic system has three degrees. These are extended to 32 in the Scottish Rite and a 33rd degree is the ultimate akin to a Distinguished Service award. By comparison, the Golden Dawn has 11 degrees divided in three orders; and the Order of the Temple of the East (Order Templi Orientis, O.T.O) has 12. In TWIT, the 17th appears to be the final degree where one becomes a Master TWIT or a Grand TWIT, I suppose.

Why 17 degrees? Other than 17 being prime, there seems to be no symbolic or geometric significance to 17. Since the Crowley-associated systems do not reach 17, whereas the Masonic system does, looking to the Masonic A & A Scottish Rite [http://www.freemasonry101.org.uk/the_book/219-17th_degree/17th_degree.htm 17th degree] we find it is the "Knight of the East and West" which teaches that loyalty to God is man's primary allegiance, and the temporal governments not founded upon God and His righteousness will inevitably fall. Compare this to the Bogomils later in AtD.

On the other hand, T.W.I.T. is centered on Tarot cards, so the relationship between number and any correspondences to the Tarot would be very much to the point. In this case, the Major Arcana assigned to the number 17 is the [http://www.angelpaths.com/majors/star.html Star]. The Crowley-associated system for Tarot consists of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoth Thoth ] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot Tarot] deck, along with Crowley's "explanatory" [http://tinyurl.com/yu4ye3 'Book of Thoth']:

:As has been explained elsewhere. It refers to the Zodiacal sign of Aquarius, the water-bearer. The picture represents Nuith, our Lady of the Stars. For the full meaning of this sentence it is necessary to understand the first chapter of the ''Book of the Law''. . . .

The full text can be found at [http://altreligion.about.com/library/texts/bl_thoth34.htm About.com's] site on the Thoth "Star" card, albiet with the wrong card illustrated, in this case atu 18, "The Moon".

:'''Symbolic and Cultural Meanings of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17_%28number%29#In_culture 17]:''' 

Because 17 has no symbolic significance, it does! In ''The Illuminatus! Trilogy,'' the symbol for Discordianism includes a pyramid with 17 steps because 17 has "virtually no interesting geometric, arithmetic, or mystical qualities." 

In the Harry Potter universe, 17 is the coming of age for wizards. 

Described at MIT as 'the most random number', according to hackers' lore. This is supposedly because in a study where respondents were asked to choose a random number from 1 to 20, 17 was the most common choice. 

The number of syllables in a haiku (5+7+5). 

The number of special significance to Yellow Pig's Day and Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics.

and on and on.....

''''Tzaddik'''' 
A righteous Jew. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzadik Wikipedia]
"One whose merit surpasses his iniquity."
The Talmud says that at least 36 anonymous tzadikim are living among us at all times; they are anonymous, and it is for their sake alone that the world is not destroyed.

The common theme between the Masonic 17th degree and Tzaddik seems to be '''righteousness'''.

==Page 222==

'''The Tetractys isn't the only thing round here that's ineffable''' 
Schoolyard joke. "F" a euphemism for fuck, so "ineffable" = unfuckable also describes Yashmeen.

'''squadron commander''' 
A [http://pinetreeweb.com/13th-south-african-war-36-01.htm squadron of hussars] would number 100-200 troopers commanded by a major. (The linked page concerns Baden-Powell's regiment—the 13th, not the 18th—in the South African War.)

'''Auberon Halfcourt''' 
Auberon means royal or noble bear. 
Punning, "Au" is the chemical symbol for gold, thus, "Golden Bear", mascotte of UC Berkeley. 

'''Eighteenth Hussars''' 
Prestigious British cavalry regiment. Stationed in India 1864-76 and 1890-98; Halfcourt's secondment must have taken place at one of these times.

'''Simla''' 
Summer capital of the British Raj in India in the Himalayas. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimla Wikipedia]. 
A terminus of the Kalka-Simla railway line (built 1906) aka the "British Jewel of the Orient." 
Named for the goddess Shyamala Devi, an incarnation of the Hindu Goddess Kali.

'''Smartly taken at silly point''' 
A cricketing reference. Silly point is a fielding position very close to the batsman. [http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=smartly.taken+silly.point examples] 
With the infield pulled in for a bunt, the cleanup man swings away and pulls a clothesline drive between third and short, which the shortstop snares for the out. (Teach ''you'' lot to come over here and talk cricket.)

'''To know, to dare, to will, to keep silent''' 
Mystical formula. [http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=to.know.to.dare.to.will examples]
The four precepts of Western Magick, extensively discussed in the writings of Aleister Crowley.

'''In the States, "detective" doesn't mean—''' 
. . . An agent who solves criminal cases. The major "detective" bureaus hired personnel out as bodyguards and muscle.

'''"There is but one 'case' which occupies us"''' 
This echoes the famous quote from Wittgenstein's ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'': "The world is all that is the case." (See the full text of the ''Tractatus'' [http://www.kfs.org/~jonathan/witt/tlph.html here].) This quote also factors in heavily in V. (Specifically, in two places: there's the [http://www.phil-reed.com/2006/02/14/the-love-songs-of-thomas-pynchon/ P's and Q's love song], and also in Captain Weissman's repeating, encoded, hallucinated message over the telegraph in Africa.)

'''The Number 22''' 
I found it interesting that the significance of the number 22 was first brought up on page 222. might be nothing, really. 22 is the number of cards in the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck, the section of the deck that has been removed from the modern playing deck which only has the suits (elements) and the Court cards. The 22 Major Arcana are numbers 0 to 21 and move from The Fool card to the Universe. Purportedly and symbolically, the progression of cards tell a tale of the evolutionary path of the Soul in its course. The 22 cards also, in some systems, map onto the 22 paths that connect the spheres of the Kabalistic Tree of Life (which also is mentioned in this chapter). An understanding of the Tarot cards cannot be achieved with an understanding how they relate to the Tree of Life. They are the relationships between the Sephiroths which in turn at 10 in number, just like the Tetractys and portray the energies that flow from the highest monad of Divinity (Kether) down into the manifested world (Malkuth). Pynchon makes use of both the Tarot and the Kabalah in Against the Day as well as Gravity's Rainbow.

See also the novel ''The Greater Trumps'' by Charles Williams for a similar intrusion of the characters of the Major Arcana into everyday English life.

22 is two times two, so a quaternion...

==Page 223==

'''"And the crime... just what would be the nature of that?"''' 
Might Lew himself be one of the 22 suspects? Perhaps the ineffable crime is what made people treat him like a pariah earlier in the book.

==Page 224==

'''"'walking out'"''' 
A walking date.

'''the veil of ''maya''''' 
In Hinduism, maya is the phenomenal world of separate objects and people, which creates for some the illusion that it is the only reality. In Hindu philosophy, maya is believed to be an illusion, a veiling of the true, unitary Self. Many philosophies or religions seek to "pierce the veil" in order to glimpse the transcendent truth. Arthur Schopenhauer used the term "Veil of Maya" to describe his view of ''The World as Will and Representation''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_(illusion) Wikipedia entry]

'''the ancient London landscape . . . known to the Druids''' 
Peter Ackroyd's recent ''London, the Biography'' devotes many pages to sacred and magical features of the city. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid "Druid"].

'''Trumper's''' 
London's royal barbers since 1875. [http://www.trumpers.com/ site] 
And what other barber would you mention in a passage about the Greater Trumps . . . .

'''On this island [...] all English, spoken or written, is looked down on as no more than strings of text cleverly encrypted''' 
A sentiment echoed in the first sentence of Pynchon's December 2006 letter written in defense of novelist Ian McEwan: "Given the British genius for coded utterance..." [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/06/nwriter06.xml Image of Letter]

'''crosswords in newspapers''' 
The first crossword to appear in a newspaper was in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossword#History 1913]. Cryptic crosswords in British newspapers certainly match Pynchon's description. See, for example, [http://www.crossword.org.uk/listen.htm the Listener crossword].

==Page 225==

'''Girton College''' 
Of Cambridge University, for women, founded 1869. [http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/about/history/brief.html history]

'''Next they'll be letting you folks vote.''' 
Women over the age of 30 were, subject to certain qualifications, granted the right to vote in the UK by the Representation of the People Act 1918. The Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 granted women the vote on the same basis as men (i.e. from the age 21).

'''"the vast jangling thronged somehow monumental London evening"''' 
This kind of eschewing of punctuation might be expected in Joyce but it's not typical of Pynchon and seems to serve no special purpose here. A typo?

:Purposive or no, that ain't no typo. First, numerous compound adjectives reminiscent of Faulknerian portmanteau words are sprinkled throughout the book. Second, this particular deployment of zero-degree punctuation and massing of modifiers jibes with TRP's obvious delight in tripping us readers up and sending us back into sentences for another looksee. Finally, the musicality of this phrase sounds properly Pynchonlike t'me.

'''Pamela Colman Smith''' 
Illustrator of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Colman_Smith "Wikipedia"].

'''Arthur Edward Waite''' 
Occultist and co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Waite Wikipedia]

'''four stone''' 
56 pounds.

'''Uckenfays''' 
Ucken-fay is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_Latin "pig latin"] for 'fucken'.

'''''gaver du visage''''' 
A literal translation of "stuff one's face", though this is not how it is said in French (it would be se gaver or se baffrer). [http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/g/gaver.htm cite]

'''cigar-divan''' 
A smoking salon (divan) for cigar smokers.

Interestingly, a work by Robert Louis Stevenson, from 1903, entitled The Dynamiter begins with a "Prologue of the Cigar Divan".

==Page 226==

'''Seven Dials''' 
bad area in London, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Dials Wikipedia entry]

[[image:tarotdevil.jpg|thumb|150px|right|The Devil by Colman-Smith]]

'''growler''' 
Four-wheeled [http://www.bbno.freeserve.co.uk/glossary.htm carriage] drawn by four horses. Supplanted by the Hansom cab.

<div id="renfrew"></div>'''Renfrew at Cambridge and Werfner at Göttingen''' 
Note that each Professor's name is the other's spelled backward.

Also notice the theme of dual natures or forces. The two professors are "bound and ... could not separate even if they wanted to." They become rivals within the broader conflict of the 'Great Game' -- the political rivalry over Central Asia being played out by the various European powers, but especially by Great Britain and the Russian Empire.

Pynchon toys with the idea that World War I was really just the extension of an academic rivalry. This secret scholastic conspiracy also references the role supposedly played in the US policy establishment by neoconservatives [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism] (or "neocons") in the run up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Just as Pynchon's professors held great influence over a number of their students, "[s]ome of whom found employment with the Foreign Services", etc., neoconservative professors such as Leo Strauss [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Strauss] had a number of disciplines who came to occupy key positions in government and business (for example, Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001-2005) Paul Wolfowitz [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz]). This interpretation is further bolstered by the geographic positioning of the "Bagdad" (sic) railway, and the Ottoman territories as the region "where Renfrew and Werfner have often found their best opportunities to make mischief".

[http://www.cam.ac.uk/cambuniv/index.html Cambridge University] is one of the oldest and the best universities in the world. In 2009 it will be celebrating its 800th Anniversary. In its early day, Cambridge was a center of the new learning of the Renaissance and of the theology of the Reformation; in modern times it has excelled in science. It is now a confederation of 31 Colleges (such as King's, Girton, St.John, Trinity and others mentioned in ATD), consists of over 100 departments and faculties, and other institutions. Since 1904, 81 affiliates of Cambridge have won Nobel Prize in every category: 29 in Physics, 22 in Medicine, 19 in Chemistry, 7 in Economics, 2 in Literature and 2 in Peace.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg-August_University_of_G%C3%B6ttingen Göttingen University], one of the most famous universities in Europe, founded in Göttingen, Germany, in 1737 by King George II of England in his capacity as Elector of Hanover. At the end of the 19th century, it became world famous because of its Departments of Mathematics and Physics and rivaled Cambridge for eminence. The reputation of the university was founded by many eminent professors who are commemorated by statues and plaques all over the campus. It claimed 44 Nobel Laureates. But it suffered from the 1933 Great Purge of the Nazi crackdown on "Jewish Physics" and never recovered its original fame.

'''Berlin Conference of 1878''' 
Divided Balkans after Russo-Turkish War. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Berlin Wikipedia]

'''bickering-at-a-distance'''
A play on the idea of "action at a distance" theories in physics, a topic that came under much scrutiny at the time of AtD owing to its pertinence in the theories of electromagnetism and gravitation. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_at_a_distance_%28physics%29 wikipedia] for a further discussion and its relevance in quantum mechanics.

'''English, . . . , Japanese—not to mention indigenous—components''' 
''Not to mention'' them was exactly the point as the Great Powers sorted out the Ottoman possessions.

==Page 227==

'''"The Great Game"''' 
The Great Game was a term used to describe the rivalry and strategic conflict between the British Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. The term was later popularized by Rudyard Kipling in his novel, ''Kim''. The classic Great Game period is generally regarded as running from approximately 1813 to the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game Wikipedia entry] Also the name of Padzhitnoff's airship. I believe the great game stands for Espionage in the Age of Gentlemen, the substance of Pynchon's '''''Under the Rose'''''. 

'''mamluk lamps''' 
A [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/07/nfe/hob_17.190.985.htm mosque lamp]
from the [http://www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/mehistorydatabase/mamluks.php mamluk] era.

'''...the Kabbalist Tree of Life, with the names of the Sephiroth spelled out in Hebrew, which had brought her more than enough of that uniquely snot-nosed British anti-Semitism... ''' 

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah Kabbalah] is the ancient study of Jewish mysticism, long shrouded in mystery and kept from all but a devout few of the most dedicated Talmudic scholars. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tree_of_Life_Medieval.jpg.jpg Tree of Life] is one of the central symbols of Kabbalah, supposedly a physical representation of the path of enlightenment from the most base knowledge of the physical world (at the bottom), to the highest spiritual planes of understanding (at the top). The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephirot Sephiroth] are the nodes of the Tree, representing the various "stages" of understanding. Of course, tihs is all a very gross oversimplifcation and hardly does justice to the term itself.

The "Quabbalah" or "Cabalah" being studied by Madonna and others in Hollywood is a secularized and co-opted form of the original Kabbalah, which is deeply connected to the Torah and Jewish life.

In Medieval Europe, Kabbalist scholars wore amulets and other symbols on their clothing, and were often misunderstood to be magicians or wizards (think Merlin). The common magician's expression "abra cadabra" has Kabbalistic origins.

'''"Eskimoff . . . I say what sort of name is that?"''' 
Tiptoeing around the real question, "Is she Jewish?"

'''English Rose''' 
The phrase "English Rose" or "Bonnie English Rose" when applied to a woman means her skin is unblemished, her coloring subtle, her temper sweet. Madame Eskimoff, in short, is a beauty in a traditional English style. 
(Incidentally, an officially unrecognized designation of [http://www.marinrose.org/englishroses.html roses].)

==Page 228==

'''Oliver Lodge''' 
English physicist, inventor and writer (1851-1940) involved in the development of wireless telegraphy and radio. After the death of his son in 1915, Lodge became interested in spiritualism and life after death and wrote several books on the subject. Lodge conducted research on lightning, electricity, electromagnetism and wrote about the aether, themes that are repeated throughout ''ATD.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Joseph_Lodge Wikipedia entry].

'''William Crookes''' 
English chemist and physicist (1832-1919) who worked in spectroscopy and whose work pioneered the construction and use of vacuum tubes. Like Oliver Lodge, Crookes was also a spiritualist, which appears to be Pynchon's reason for grouping him with others in this passage, although his experiments in electricity and light also tie in with these themes in ''ATD.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crookes Wikipedia entry].

'''Mrs. Piper''' 
Probably [http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htm Leonora Piper] 1857-1950.

'''Eusapia Palladino''' 
(1854-1918) Famous italian spiritualist medium.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusapia_Palladino Wikipedia entry]. It's fair to say she was often caught cheating.

'''W.T. Stead''' 
William T. Stead (1849-1912), British writer, poet, social crusader, and spiritualist. He went down with the ''Titanic.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomas_Stead Wikipedia entry].

'''Mrs. Burchell''' 
The Yorkshire Seeress, investigated by WT Stead. [http://www.wholeagain.com/prophecyfodor.html cite]

'''assassination''' 
Trouble with the time here. Lew's timeline points pretty strongly to autumn 1900. A séance that's "about to" go on Mme. Eskimoff's résumé, however, leads the murder of the Serbian king and queen by three months, and the murder itself occurred in June 1903, which seems to imply March of that year. 

This seems as good an instance as any to question the insistence of some here to pin down the exact date (and season?). Pynchon doesn't knock it to the wall, doesn't find cause to bother and I think the reason for that is obvious... the ambiguity lends a freer hand with which to paint. So don't fuck with the butterfly on the wheel. 

'''Alexander and Draga Obrenovich, the King and Queen of Serbia''' 
According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Obrenovich Wikipedia] the assassination occured on 11 June 1903, so the seance at which Mrs. Burchell "witnessed" it, should have taken place in March 1903.

'''Parsons-Short Auxetophone''' 
[http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/auxetophone/auxetoph.htm pic and info]. The Auxetophone appears to have been a sound amplification device, not a recorder. Parsons did not enter the picture till 1903, so the apparatus would not have this name in 1900, but Short demonstrated it as early as 1898.

'''electros of the original wax impressions''' 
A thin film of metal was electroplated onto the wax, then peeled off and wrapped around a new cylinder.

'''"Bagdad" railway''' 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Railway

==Page 229==

'''syntonic''' 
A term used in both engineering and psychology. Psychology: "Characterized by a high degree of emotional responsiveness to the environment." Electricity: "Of or relating to two oscillating circuits having the same resonant frequency."

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntonic_comma syntonic comma], a small interval in the frequency ratio of 81:80, is a problem in musical [http://www.albany.edu/piporg-l/tmprment.html temperament].

'''the Russo-Turkish War''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War,_1877–1878 The Russo-Turkish War] (1877-1878), the latest Russo-Turkish War of many fought between these two contries since 16th century as a result of Russian attempts to find an outlet on the Black Sea and to conquer the Caucasus, dominate the Balkan Peninsula, gain control of the Dardanelles and Bosporus straits, and retain access to world trade routes. The last Russo-Turkish War came as a result of the anti-Ottoman uprising (1875) in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria. On Russian instigation, Serbia and Montenegro joined the rebels; after securing Austrian neutrality, Russia openly entered the War in 1877. The War ended in 1878 resulted in the Treaty of San Stefano which so thoroughly revised the map in favor of Russia and her client, Bulgaria, that the European powers called a conference (the Congress of Berlin) to revise its terms by the Treaty of Berlin.

'''kilometric guarantee''' 
Money offered by the government to building companies.
Apparently, the railroad companies fooled the Ottoman Empire building trails which were much longer than needed.
[http://books.google.es/books?id=uei7q4YCaqUC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=kilometric+guarantee&source=web&ots=fK9IVpG7Yx&sig=-7WX_2T0OPqXp2DEVAtRIRJPBQY&hl=ca&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result Google books citation]

==Page 230==

'''King's... Girton''' 
King's College is one of the most famous and historic colleges at Cambridge, founded in 1441. Girton College, Cambridge, was established in 1869 as the first residential college for women in England.

'''Michaelmas term''' 
The fall term, starting early October (1900 here). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaelmas_term Wikipedia]

'''tweeny''' 
A [http://www.bartleby.com/68/30/830.html between-maid].

'''Edward Oxford''' 
attempted to shoot Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, at the time of her first pregnancy (1840).[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Oxford Wikipedia]

'''had the young Queen died then without issue''' 
Nookshaft posits two scenarios: (1) The implicit, unmentioned, and not as "interesting" possibility that everything is actual, as it "appears" to be in the "real" world, surrounding Queen Victoria; that she is simply an old, vain regent. (2) "the 'real' Vic is elsewhere," and the current, aged Victoria is a ghostly stand-in. Nookshaft implies that this figure is a proxy or puppet of Ernst-August. If this were "the case," then the question shifts to the following: (a) Is the ruler of the underworld, who holds the "real," eternally young Victoria captive in cahoots with Ernst-August in the "real" world? or: (b) Is the ruler of the underworld, who holds the "real," eternally young Victoria captive NOT in cahoots with Ernst-August, who nevertheless ascends to the throne with real-Vic out of the way, and imposes the stand-in? In which case: What would be the motivation of the underworld-entity third-party? And who, or what, specifically, is it?

'''sixty years ago''' 
One event of 1840, the attempt on Victoria's life, is referred to as sixty years ago; another, the issue of the first adhesive stamps, as more than sixty years ago. 
If it weren't for these nagging problems in Lew's timeline, we could peg the date as 1900.

'''Salic law''' 
originated in the Late Roman Empire as Germanic tribes invaded and their law codes were translated into Latin and written down. Salic Law was that of the
Franks who settled in present-day northern France and the law code of Charlemagne. Over the course of the Middle Ages it was largely replaced by Roman Law. For examples, see [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/salic-law.html]. 

However, Salic Law continued to be used in a number of European areas to decide matters of noble inheritance. Specifically, Salic Law stated that no female could inherit rulership (above by [[User:Owl of Minerva|Owl of Minerva]] 18:03, 4 April 2007 (PDT)) and, indeed, a royal or noble title could be inherited only through the "male line." When King William IV, ruler of both the United Kingdom and Hanover, died, the Crowns separated. Hanover practiced Salic law, while Britain did not. King William's niece Victoria ascended to the throne of Great Britain and Ireland, but the throne of Hanover went to William's brother Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salic_Law Wikipedia entry]

'''Tory despotism''' 
Thatcher?
: Not necessarily-- it describes Ernest himself. "The Duke of Cumberland had a reputation as one of the least pleasant of the sons of George III. Politically an arch-reactionary, he opposed the 1828 Catholic Emancipation Bill proposed by the government of the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Augustus_I_of_Hanover Wikipedia entry]

It can describe Ernst August and still be an allegory of Thatcher. The description of Ireland fits that of some world-views during her time.

All parallels between past and present are worth considering. They don't have to be direct references. The present-day Ernst August - famous for pissing on the Turkish Pavilion at EXPO 2000 - carries on the family tradition.

'''Catholics''' 
Someone famously cited James Joyce as proof that Catholics shouldn't get university educations.

==Page 231==

'''Orange Lodges''' 
Lodges of the Orange Order, a protestant fraternal organisation based predominantly in Northern Ireland and Scotland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_lodge Wikipedia entry]. The Orange Order was founded to subvert the '''''United Irishmen''''' of Wolfe Tone by agitating against Protestant and Catholic community. It was hostile to the idea of Irish Home Rule or independence. In the 1880's it developed the Ulster Unionist Party to politically parry Parliamentary attempts at Home Rule for Ireland.

'''"from the first to the twelfth of July, anniversaries of the Boyne and Aughrim."''' 
i.e. anniversaries of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Boyne Battle of the Boyne] and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aughrim Battle of Aughrim] of the Williamite War in Ireland. 
This was and still is known as "Marching Season" in Northern Ireland; the time when 'parades' are traditionally a source of fear and violence. Nearly all the parades are organized by the Orange Lodges and hence anti-Catholic.

[[Image:pennyblack.jpg|thumb|100px|right|The first adhesive stamp, 1840]]
'''"the first adhesive stamps of 1840"''' 
This stamp has come to be called the Penny Black. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black Wikipedia entry] 
Penny Black is also the name of a character ([[ATD_1-25#Page 18|p.18]])

'''"immune to Time, [...] neither of them aging"''' 
Cf Oscar Wilde's only novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray The Picture of Dorian Gray], in which Dorian Gray remains young while his portrait ages.

'''springtide''' 
Cf Stray's pregnancy, a "dreamy thing" (page 201). The definition of springtide is springtime.

==Page 232==

'''Éliphaz Lévi''' 
A/K/A Eliphas Levi, ''nom de plume'' of Alphonse Louis Constant (1810-1875), French occultist and writer who pioneered a revival of Magick in the 19th Century, and was an influence on A.E. Waite, the Order of the Golden Dawn, and Aleister Crowley. An acquaintance of novelist Edward ("It was a dark and stormy night") Bulwer-Lytton. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliphas_Levi Wikipedia entry].

'''punters''' 
Punter is being used in the sense of someone who bets, someone who is taking a chance.
Or more probably in the common extended sense meaning merely "customer"

'''''akousmata''''' 
Greek: things heard. [[A|Good information under "A" in the alpha index.]]

'''number twenty-four''' 
Or 25? [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gvp/gvp11.htm etext]

'''Iamblichus''' 
(ca. 245 - ca. 325, Greek) was a neoplatonist philosopher who determined the direction taken by later Neoplatonic philosophy, and perhaps western Paganism itself. He is perhaps best known for his compendium on Pythagorean philosophy.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iamblichus_%28philosopher%29 Wikipedia]

'''maquillage''' 
Make-up, cosmetics; the application of make-up (especially in heavy or theatrical fashion).<ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989</ref>

==Page 233==
'''catarrh''' 
Inflammation of a mucous membrane; usually restricted to that of the nose, throat, and bronchial tubes, causing increased flow of mucus, and often attended with sneezing, cough, and fever; constituting a common ‘cold’.<ref>Def.3. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''Collis Brown's Mixture''' 
Contained morphine, chloroform, and caramel, among other things. [http://admin.safescript.com/drugcgic.cgi/DRUG?1006901319+0 Full ingredients]

'''xylene''' 
Xylene abuse is similar to "glue sniffing"-- xylene is a strong solvent able to cause several damages to health, especially to the brain. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylene wikipedia]

'''a thousand pounds a year''' 
Over $100,000 today. [http://futureboy.homeip.net/fsp/dollar.fsp?quantity=1000&currency=pounds&fromYear=1900 cite]

'''"pinky"''' 
Condy's fluid is pink to purple. Methylated spirits is a kind of denatured alcohol: 95% ethyl alcohol, 5% methyl alcohol. "Pinky" would have a variety of effects, very possibly including blindness.

==Page 234==

'''Condy's fluid''' 
A disinfectant used to treat and prevent Scarlet Fever, among other things. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Bollmann_Condy Wikipedia]

'''''tonight's the night''''' 
Considering the content here, probable reference to Neil Young's drug-addled album and its title song, "Tonight's The Night" from 1975. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonight%27s_the_Night_%28album%29 Wiki]

'''Cheapside''' 
an important market street in the City of London.

'''mews''' 
A street originally for stabling; but in modern times often converted into houses/apartments.

'''Coombs de Bottle''' 
"comes the bottle" ?

'''Russian duck''' 
Duck is strong, untwilled linen or cotton, lighter and finer than canvas. Russian duck is coarse, heavy and unbleached but softer than English duck.

==Page 235==

'''sensitive flames''' 
Cf GR p.29-32, 715.

'''extractors . . . distillation columns''' 
Separatory apparatus. An extractor works on differences in solubility, a distillation column differences in volatility.

'''tremblers and timers''' 
A trembler is a kind of motion detector used in both bombs and alarms; one kind has a flexible stem with a heavy contact on the free end so that disturbing the package it contains causes a trigger circuit to close. A timer uses a clocklike mechanism to bring two contacts together.

'''proper solvent procedures''' 
Famous 1960s "Anarchist Cookbook" was infamously inaccurate. [http://www.amazon.com/Anarchist-Cookbook-C-066-William-Powell/dp/0962303208 Amazon w/author's note]

==Page 236==

'''Breathless hush in the close tonight''' 
Dr. De Bottle quoting from Henry Newbolt's poem [[Vitai Lampada|"Vitaï Lampada,"]] which makes school games a metaphor and model for martial bravery.

'''The Gentleman Bomber of Headingly''' 
Cf Hornung's 'Gentleman Thief' and cricket player, Raffles. [http://www.mysterynet.com/books/testimony/hardknox.shtml info]

Reminds me of the Krikkit Robots in Douglas Adams' ''Life, The Universe, and Everything,'' where a bomb is put in place of a Cricket Ball at a match between Britain and Australia. 

Also, acronymically, the GBH=Grievous Bodily Harm, the British term for felonious assault.

Here and elswhere the spelling of the cricket ground should be 'Headingley'.

'''The Ashes''' 
An international cricket series between England and Australia dating back to 1882. [http://www.334notout.com/ashes/reports/report21.htm dates] A number of references in this chapter relate to this rivalry. For example, on this page the English cricket ball is compared to the Australian "kookaburra". Kookaburra is the brand name of the balls used in Australia, in England it's Duke. The properties of the English ball was one of the keys to England's success in the summer of 2005. Was Pynchon's writing here influenced by the hype in the UK at the time?

'''Phosgene''' 
A poison gas used in World War I.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosgene Wikipedia]

'''logwood''' 
Source of red dye. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logwood Wikipedia]

'''adjutor''' 
A helper, assistant. <ref>Def.1. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''exhiliration''' 
Misspelling of ''exhilaration.''

==Page 237==

'''beige substance''' 
Presumably Cyclomite.

'''Happy Birthday! . . . Gemini''' 
Ordinarily you would think this tagged the date as 21 May to 20 June [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_%28astrology%29 Wikipedia.] But other evidence in the text points to deepening autumn.

One of two possible explanations: 
1. The T.W.I.T. is perhaps using an ascendent or lunar based astrological system rather than the solar-based system commonly used in the West. This resolves the apparent contradiction of a Gemini in autumn since the ascendent travels through all signs every 24 hours and the moon travels through the entire zodiac once a month. For example, Vedic astrology looks primarily to the ascendent, then the moon, and lastly the sun to study respectively the body, the mind and the spirit of the native. Basnight does have a mind that operates on two planes -- hence a moon in Gemini reading. 
2. The explosion carried Lew to a place on the other side of the Sun. Deep autumn would then be November 23 to December 21th, our sign of Sagittarius.

'''get the Ashes back . . . next year''' 
On page 236 the Ashes (Test Matches, cricket competitions between England and Australia) are "in progress." At some time previous to this conversation Mme. Eskimoff said England will regain the trophy "next year" provided they use the young bowler Bosanquet (next entry). Test Matches took place in (a) December 1901 to March 1902, Australia victorious; (b) May to August 1902, Australia again; (c) December 1903 to March 1904, England bringing back the Ashes and Bosanquet figuring as a key bowler.

If Mme. Eskimoff has foreseen aright, "next year" is 1904 and the time of the action is 1903. The conflict in dates is troubling: In a matter of weeks and a few pages, Lew just misses the 1900 Hurricane and gets information that definitely points to 1903. (And he proves to be a Gemini with an autumn birthday!) I don't think there is anything accidental—or negligible—about the discrepancies.

'''Bosanquet''' 
Another Ashes reference. [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/9158.html Bernard Bosanquet] invented the bosie (or googly), as described here, around 1900. A major factor in England's 2005 Ashes success was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_swing reverse swing], another type of delivery whose physical dynamics are poorly understood.

Check out the [[Cricket_in_Against_the_Day|"Cricket in ''Against the Day'' article]] by Peter Vernon, which is an in-depth look at, well, cricket in ''Against the Day''.

'''Pom''' 
A somewhat derogatory term for a British person, commonly used in Australian English. Also [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/287200.html Pommy or Pommie.]

'''Hebrew letter Shin''' 
Obviously a nod to the Vulcan greeting in ''Star Trek'', with the distinctive hand sign and the phrase, "Live long and prosper." Perhaps also to the Jewish faith of Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock. See [http://www.pinenet.com/~rooster/v-salute.html The Jewish origin of the Vulcan Salute]

Pynchon placed one of these in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Mason & Dixon''], as well:

:Dixon discovers "The Rabbi of Prague, headquarters of a Kabbalistick Faith, in Correspondence with the Elect Cohens of Paris, whose private Salute they now greet Dixon with, the Fingers spread two and two, and the Thumb held away from them likewise, said to represent the Hebrew letter ''Shin'' and to signify, 'Live long and prosper.'([http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_50:_484-490 ''M&D'' p.485]) 
Might there be a further connection between The Cohen of T.W.I.T., the "Cohens of Paris" and these backwoods Kabbalists?

Also, note the hand on the devil tarot card above.

Shin "also stands for the word Shaddai, a name for God. Because of this, a kohen (priest) forms the letter Shin with his hands as he recites the Priestly Blessing. In the mid 1960s, actor Leonard Nimoy used a single-handed version of this gesture to create the Vulcan Hand Salute for his character, Mr. Spock, on Star Trek."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_%28letter%29#In_Judaism]

"In the Septuagint and other early translations Shaddai was translated with words meaning "Almighty". The root word "shadad" (שדד) means "to overpower" or "to destroy". This would give Shaddai the meaning of "destroyer" as one of the aspects of God. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_God_in_Judaism#Shaddai]

...and if we look back to the Devil tarot card we see the shin hand sign and the inverted pentagram. Thus through Eliphas Levi and then Coleman-Smith/Waite a connection is created between shin and the inverted pentagram. And then we can make connections with the Jeshimonians and the TWITsters.

This might be why "the cure grows right next to the cause" in Jeshimon. They are under the winged protection of God-the-Destroyer.

'''bog-standard''' 
British term indicating complete ordinariness.
Possible Entymology (Dog's Bollocks, British Or German Standard): [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bog_standard Wiktionary]

==Page 238==

'''Second Law of Thermodynamics''' 
The law of entropy... "The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium." (Rudolf Clausius) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics]

There's no such thing as a perfectly efficient engine, i.e., a box that does work by taking in heat from where there is lots of heat (e.g., combustion chamber) and throwing off heat where there is not much (exhaust pipe). Something always gets lost. Similarly, the transfer of money from where there is plenty (bank) to where there isn't much (Europe) is never perfectly efficient.

"He began then, bewilderingly, to talk about something called entropy. The word bothered him... But it was too technical for her. She did gather that there were two distinct kinds of this entropy. One having to do with heat engines, the other to do with communication... The two fields were entirely unconnected, except at one point: Maxwell's Demon. As the Demon sat and sorted his molecules into hot and cold, the system was said to lose entropy. But somehow the loss was offset by the information the Demon gained about what molecules were where... Entropy is a figure of speech, then, a metaphor. It connects the world of thermodynamics to the world of information flow." ''The Crying of Lot 49'' (Pages 84 - 85)

'''''morsus fundamento''''' 
Latin: A bite on the ass?

The meaning is that he wouldn't know metaphysics if it bit him in the ass. Like "octogenarihexation" ("86"-ing) in Vineland--the vulgar faux fancied up.

'''three-percent consols''' 
British "consolidated" bonds, for many years the conservative investment ''par excellence.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consols wikipedia]

==Page 239==

'''mental''' 
Not mental as in "of the mind" but mental as in "mad". "You're mental, you are" is a common british playground taunt.

'''Colney Hatch''' 
London lunatic asylum. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colney_Hatch_Lunatic_Asylum Wikipedia]

'''Out of the dust . . . beam of morning sunlight''' 
I.e., sometimes your horse wins.

'''ENCYCLICAL''' 
An encyclical is a letter circulated by the pope or other figure of high authority in a body of believers. A comprehensive [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclical Wikipedia article] explains and adds a list of papal encyclicals. An encyclical usually takes its first 2 or 3 words as its title (''Multi et Unus'' in this case).

Of course, the Vatican would strongly protest that McTaggart, an atheist, should send out an encyclical!

'''MCTAGGART . . . HARDY''' 
Seems to refer to a historical logician joke. [http://www.anvari.org/shortjoke/Science_Humor/1210.html explanation] Professor McTaggart was, perhaps, the most famous philosopher
who argued that Time did not exist as we seem to experience it.
W.H. Hardy was a very famous Cambridge mathematician who knew all the
famous philosophers in England. 

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._E._McTaggart John McTaggart Ellis (J. M. E.) McTaggart] (1866-1925), British philosopher. He was born in London and educated at Clifton College, Bristol and Trinity College, Cambridge. He lectured Philosophy at Trinity College from 1897 to 1923. His brilliant commentaries and studies on Hegel's dialectic (1896), cosmology (1901) and logic (1910) were preliminaries to his own constructive system-building in ''Nature of Existence'' (3 vols., 1921-1927). In his 1908 essay "The Unreality of Time" he argued that our perception of time is an illusion (Cf [[ATD_397-428#Page_412|page 412]]: dismissing . . . the ''existence'' of Time).

[http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Hardy.html Godfrey Harold Hardy] (1877-1947), English mathematician. He was a lecturer at Cambridge (1906-1919), professor at Oxford (1919-31) and Cambridge (1931-47). Concurrently with Wilhelm Weinberg developed Hardy-Weinberg law (1906) describing genetic distribution and dequilibrium in large populations. He was also known for contributions to complex analysis, Diophantine analysis, Fourier series, distribution of prime numbers, etc.

'''''Multi et Unus''''' 
Many and One.

'''CREATE MORE DUKES''' and '''EXPROPRIATE CHUCKERS''' 
Is the grafitti in Cambridge another cricketing reference? Dukes are the balls used in England (cf. p236). Chucking (or bending the arm when bowling) is an emotive topic in cricket that arises from time to time. It first arose around 1900 [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/258016.html]. In 2005 it caused administrators to change the rules of the game [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/144358.html].

"Create More Dukes" has a second meaning, suggested by the odd choice of verb. ''Duke'' in Britain refers to the highest rank of nobility, and fittingly there are not many of them. At present only about a dozen people hold the title. Since sometime in the 1870s new dukes have been ''created'' (by decree of the monarch) only in the royal family. Most recently at the time of the action, Queen Victoria had promoted a run-of-the-mill marquess to the dukedom of Fife to set the stage for his marriage to one of her granddaughters. If some group of activists thought the nation needed to beef up its peerage, they might adopt the slogan found here as a graffito. 
[http://www.ukdukes.co.uk/ Here is a colorful summary] of UK dukes today and through history, although it is '''unsound''' on coats of arms and such. [http://website.lineone.net/~david.beamish/index.htm This site] has more names and fewer pictures, listing all the titles (from dukes to lowly barons) created since the year Dot.

'''the Laplacian, a relatively remote mathematicians' pub''' 
A little Pynchonian joke? The Laplacian operator is a component of the Schrödinger equation, the basis of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics was famously rejected by Albert Einstein (many references on the net but see [http://www.hawking.org.uk/lectures/dice.html Stephen Hawking]), known for his theories of relativity. Moreover, quantum mechanics deals with the very small and relativity with the very large (this is a simplification of course), so the Laplacian is indeed remote from relativity!
:No such pub during ''my'' stay in Cambridge (1998-2000). Also not today, according to [http://www.cambridgepubs.com/alphabetical/ this] list.

:Obviously more than a little joke. Refers to Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (1749-1827)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace Wikipedia Entry], aka "the French Newton", probably the greatest mathematician and astronomer of his time. Most of the scientific principles derived from his findings are explored in AtD (from lumineferous ether to the existence of black holes). Laplace was also instrumental in the advancement of the science of probabilities.
:The ever quotable Laplace, much loved by atheists worldwide, famously replied to Napoléon, when he asked why there was no mention of God in his treatise on astronomy: "Sir, there was no need for that hypothesis". Also responsible for what is known as the Laplacian principle: "The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness."

:The literal translation of Laplace is "The Place".

==Page 240==

'''Worse than Gordon at Khartoum''' 
Refers to Charles George Gordon, British Major-General, whose attempted defense of Khartoum versus Arabi rebels in 1884-85 ended with his beheading. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_George_Gordon Wikipedia] cf. Basil Dearden's 1966 film ''Khartoum'', in which the role of Gordon is played by Charlton Heston.

==Page 241==

'''"You recognize him?"''' 
As, presumably, Webb.
:How can that be? Webb is dead, there's nothing to suggest he went to England, the costume is not right for him, and—most tellingly—his medium is dynamite, not phosgene.
:Who might Lew recognize in the photo? The "suspects" are Neville, Nigel, the Grand Cohen, Dr. Coombs De Bottle, Clive Crouchmas and Professor Renfrew. If Prof. Werfner looks much like Prof. Renfrew, he goes on the list too. If the "Gentleman Bomber" could possibly be female, add Yashmeen and Mme. Eskimoff. We haven't met anyone else (except members of the Icosadyad, who don't have faces).

:Suppose we rule out the ladies and Werfner. Neville or Nigel wouldn't be able to hide their identities with a suit of white flannels. Renfrew is sitting right there when Lew sees the picture, but Lew's reaction (his stomach sinks) does not seem Lew-like if it's Renfrew he has recognized, plus Renfrew himself wants to meet the Bomber. That leaves the Cohen, De Bottle and Crouchmas.

:Would Lew experience dread on spotting Crouchmas? He doesn't know much about C.C. at this point, so it isn't clear why he would suppress that recognition.

:Seeing the Cohen might lead to this gastric reaction: Lew might think he's on the fringe of an anarchist group again (and look where it got him the last time). The Cohen stays on the list.

:Dr. De Bottle not only follows cricket but bets on it; he speaks almost with reverence about phosgene; he knows a nonobvious fact about the bombs; and he dresses like a gentleman. None of these points applies to the Cohen. And recognizing De Bottle would give Lew that sinking feeling because D.B. is purportedly fighting against bombers on behalf of the government. De Bottle goes to the top of the short list.

::Alternately, there's no clear answer and not enough clues (especially considering the role of time, forces beyond anyone's control, double agents, etc.). This Gentleman Bomber can be any person from Lew's past or a deja vu from the future. The G. Bomber seems to be England's answer to the Kieselguhr Kid, a nebulous personality working against the forces of history. The important thing about this situation is not the Bomber's identity, but the fact that Lew is being thrown into an assignment much like his last one in America (and we know how that ended...) He's obviously not very happy about it, and not inclined to tell anyone what he knows, or might know.

:: For what it's worth, my take was also Webb, especially in the context of all the bilocation business. It isn't "Webb" but evil alter-land "Webb"! (no dig on ya'll Brit folk intended, although the "...''my'' stay at Cambridge" bit was just wonderful :)

::--There is a suspect that was left off that list, who occurred to me before any of the others--Lew himself. If we're dealing with bilocation, doubles, and the possibility that 'our' Lew was brought here via the explosion in the creek bed, couldn't the G.B.H. be this world's Lew? Recall that just prior to the explosion, Lew had resolved to choose a side in the Anarchist/plutocrat battle, and had come down on the side of the people. Did this world's Lew make the same choice, somehow ending up in Britain... Also conspicuous is that it is Renfrew showing him the photo with a sly expression, Renfrew who's own double, Werfner, is his very own nemesis? That's how I read it anyway. But, much like the Kieselguhr Kid, we the readers never actually know the identity of this renegade bomb-lobber.

'''A bosie from a beamer''' 
More cricket! A bosie is now more commonly known as a googly (cf. p237). A beamer is a full-pitched delivery that reaches the batsman above waist height.

==Page 242==

[[Image:globenorth.gif|thumb|150px|The northern hemisphere]]

'''''unheimlich''''' 
German: uncanny, sinister.

 

==References==
<references />

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

ATD 199-218

2010-07-02T23:17:57Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 204 */

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

==Page 199==

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

==Page 200==

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

'''Estrella''' 
Spanish: star. In New World Spanish the middle syllable is pronounced just about like "Stray."
:and in Old World Spanish too 
She is a star in the "little night."

The name of a character in Dickens' ''Great Expectations.''

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

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

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

==Page 202==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 203==

'''Cooper, cont'd'''

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

This is all far too tenous and speculative, surely?

==Page 204==

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 205==

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

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

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

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

==Page 206==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 207==

'''"Bob Meldrum"''' 
1920s outlaw. [http://www.museumnwco.org/lookBackArticle.php?lookBackID=35 cite]

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

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

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

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

==Page 209==

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

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

==Page 210==

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

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

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

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

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

'''accommodations''' 
Decent burial.

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

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

== Page 211 ==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 212==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 213==

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

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

==Page 214==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 215==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 216==

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

'''disrespect''' 
Corruption setting in?

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

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

==Page 217==

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

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

==Page 218==

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

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

ATD 119-148

2010-06-18T00:50:46Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 132 */

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

==Page 121==

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 122==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 123==

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

'''Igor Padzhitnoff''' 
The whole passage that introduces the rival airship captain is a play on Tetris. Igor's surname is similar to that of the creator of Tetris, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Pazhitnov Alexey Pazhitnov]. Also, the captain himself serves "a program of mischief", flies a ship called "The Great Game" and drops "bricks and masonry, always in the four-block fragments which had become his "signature," to fall on and damage targets designated by his superiors."

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 124==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

with:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 127==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 128==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 129==

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

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

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

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

==Page 130==

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

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

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

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

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

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

[[image:ex-voti-isernia.jpg|thumb|175px|''Ex Voti'' of Wax, from Isernia|right]]What ''is'' a "candlebrow"? Consider those [[St. Cosmo|phallic ''ex voti'' candles offered up to St. Cosmo]]. The head of the candle-phallus, brow shaped, sits atop the cylindrical candle-shaft and is, metaphorically, the candle's brow. And, natch, Gideon Candlebrow made the bucks necessary to fund Candlebrow U. with the miracle product "Smegmo," the "Messiah of kitchen fats" (Imperial Margarine was advertised as "the King of Margarines") and we all know what [http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Asmegma&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official smegma] is. Also, the Biblical Gideon was associated with Phallus worship which was not considered at all shocking back in the day. When Gideon was asked by the Israelites to rule over them, he demurred stating that Yahveh shall rule over them, and he called on the people for all their golden ornaments, and of these be made the golden ephod (conventionally viewed as a priestly apron; controversially viewed as a phallus). The ephod was thus Yahveh or his idol. [http://kspark.kaist.ac.kr/Old%20Testament/Sex%20Worship%20and%20Idols.htm] [[The Sexual Angle|More on this...]]

Pynchon consistently calls it Candlebrow '''U.''' instead of simply Candlebrow or Candlebrow University because the letter's ''shape'', like the inverted-vagina shape of the Tetractys, echoes its phallic connotation. Pynchon similarly emphasizes the phallic by using "Dick" Counterfly (''with'' the quotes) instead of simply Dick. Hmmm, Ewball / U-ball?

Or, heck, maybe it's just Pynchon's oblique way of saying "fuck you"...

And, of course, this is all connected with how [[St. Cosmo|that Randy St. Cosmo]] got his name...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 131==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 132==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 133==

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 134==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 135==

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 136==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 138==

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

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

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

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

==Page 139==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 140==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 141==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 142==

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 143==

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 144==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 145==

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

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

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

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

c.f. the man-shaped light on 153

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

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

==Page 146==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 147==

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

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

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

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

==Page 148==

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

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

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

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

ATD 119-148

2010-06-18T00:45:59Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 131 */

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

==Page 121==

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 122==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 123==

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

'''Igor Padzhitnoff''' 
The whole passage that introduces the rival airship captain is a play on Tetris. Igor's surname is similar to that of the creator of Tetris, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexey_Pazhitnov Alexey Pazhitnov]. Also, the captain himself serves "a program of mischief", flies a ship called "The Great Game" and drops "bricks and masonry, always in the four-block fragments which had become his "signature," to fall on and damage targets designated by his superiors."

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 124==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

with:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 127==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 128==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 129==

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

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

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

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

==Page 130==

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

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

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

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

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

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

[[image:ex-voti-isernia.jpg|thumb|175px|''Ex Voti'' of Wax, from Isernia|right]]What ''is'' a "candlebrow"? Consider those [[St. Cosmo|phallic ''ex voti'' candles offered up to St. Cosmo]]. The head of the candle-phallus, brow shaped, sits atop the cylindrical candle-shaft and is, metaphorically, the candle's brow. And, natch, Gideon Candlebrow made the bucks necessary to fund Candlebrow U. with the miracle product "Smegmo," the "Messiah of kitchen fats" (Imperial Margarine was advertised as "the King of Margarines") and we all know what [http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Asmegma&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official smegma] is. Also, the Biblical Gideon was associated with Phallus worship which was not considered at all shocking back in the day. When Gideon was asked by the Israelites to rule over them, he demurred stating that Yahveh shall rule over them, and he called on the people for all their golden ornaments, and of these be made the golden ephod (conventionally viewed as a priestly apron; controversially viewed as a phallus). The ephod was thus Yahveh or his idol. [http://kspark.kaist.ac.kr/Old%20Testament/Sex%20Worship%20and%20Idols.htm] [[The Sexual Angle|More on this...]]

Pynchon consistently calls it Candlebrow '''U.''' instead of simply Candlebrow or Candlebrow University because the letter's ''shape'', like the inverted-vagina shape of the Tetractys, echoes its phallic connotation. Pynchon similarly emphasizes the phallic by using "Dick" Counterfly (''with'' the quotes) instead of simply Dick. Hmmm, Ewball / U-ball?

Or, heck, maybe it's just Pynchon's oblique way of saying "fuck you"...

And, of course, this is all connected with how [[St. Cosmo|that Randy St. Cosmo]] got his name...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 131==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 132==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 133==

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 134==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 135==

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 136==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 138==

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

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

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

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

==Page 139==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 140==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 141==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 142==

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 143==

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 144==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 145==

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

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

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

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

c.f. the man-shaped light on 153

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

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

==Page 146==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 147==

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

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

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

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

==Page 148==

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

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

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

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

ATD 97-118

2010-06-15T20:05:42Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 99 */

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

==Page 97==

'''the iron of their shoes . . . seeking the magnetic memory of that long-ago visit''' 
Familiar cartoon gag, a ''horseshoe'' magnet attracting all sorts of hardware as it flies through the air.
:But here, TRP suggests, Tesla's activities really do cause electromagnetic upheaval in Colorado.

'''the Rebellion''' 
What the North called the Civil War. ([[ATD_1-25#Page_7|See p.7]])

'''Tesla, Dr. Nikola''' (1856-1943) 
Tesla was a Serb-American inventor, engineer and physicist whose patents and theoretical work form the basis of modern alternating current electric power (AC) systems, radio, and a bunch of other stuff. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla Wikipedia entry] Tesla researched in Colorado Springs from May 1899 - January 1900, a location he chose because of the frequent thunderstorms, the high altitude, and the dryness of the air. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla#Colorado_Springs Wikipedia on Tesla at Colorado Springs].

Much of the the funding for his Colorado Springs laboratory came from Colonel John Jacob Astor. Tesla's friend and patent lawyer, Leonard E. Curtis, persuaded the El Paso Power Company to supply Tesla with all the electricity he wanted, free of charge. The arrangement ended the night Tesla's activities burned out the dynamo and the entire city lost power. [http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_colspr.html PBS: Tesla - Master of Lightning]

"Tesla logged in his diary on July 3, 1899 that a separate resonance transformer tuned to the same high frequency as a larger high-voltage resonance transformer would transceive energy from the larger coil, acting as a transmitter of wireless energy, which was used to confirm Tesla's patent for radio during later disputes in the courts. These air core high-frequency resonate coils were the predecessors of systems from radio to radar and medical magnetic resonance imaging devices." [http://www.crystalinks.com/tesla.html] This information was later used to confirm his patent for radio which he received posthumously in 1946, 3 years after his death. [http://www.resonanceresearch.com/nikola-tesla-coils-picture-colorado-1899-labratory.htm].

Pynchon confuses this 03 July 'vision', during a natural electrical storm, with later experimental generation of high voltages.

[http://www.teslasociety.com The Tesla Society] confusingly describes Tesla as a "Serbian-born American" but states his birthplace as Smiljan, Croatia.

'''Vectorist . . . by way of the Electricity''' 
Vector symbolism offers an economical way to describe electrical processes; electrical engineers still use vector algebra and vector analysis combined with concepts from complex number theory.

==Page 98==

'''a turbine generator located underneath a waterfall''' 
Not sitting there to catch the falling water. A waterfall is a convenient place for a power plant because you can get easy access to two elevations: take in water at the top, install your turbine at the bottom. The mention of penstocks and other plumbing farther down the page confirms that the flow is being captured in pipes at the head of the fall and run through a turbine at the bottom.

'''engineering students... from Cornell, Yale''' 
Cornell is Pynchon's alma mater, where he initially studied engineering. [[Thomas Pynchon|Pynchon bio]]

'''Maxwell''' 
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was a Scottish mathematical physicist of the mid- to late-19th century and arguably one of the greatest physicists to have ever lived, ranking with Newton and Einstein. Maxwell's correction of Ampere's circuital law and the resulting set of four equations -- later named after Maxwell himself -- constitute the beginning of his numerous contributions to the theory of electromagnetism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell's_equations Maxwell's equations] From this discovery, he was able to deduce the existence of electromagnetic waves. The fact that their wave speed was exactly the speed of light prompted him to hypothesize that light was just such a wave.

Pynchon made use of his theoretical "Maxwell's Demon" in ''The Crying of Lot 49''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell Wikipedia entry]

'''Maxwell's ''Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism'' of 1873''' 
Full text of [http://www.archive.org/details/electricandmagne01maxwrich Volume 1] and [http://www.archive.org/details/electricandmag02maxwrich Volume 2] at the Internet Archive.

==Page 99==

'''the Invisible''' 
Up to this point there have been many mentions of things invisible, here capitalized. Recalling Blundell's quote from p. 24, suddenly everything connects and makes sense to Kit after his revelation. It is a mystical experience for him as he reaches this knowledge through something like a voice telling him.
:So we have as opposites light/ dark; visible/ invisible. And to this point in the book, Miles, Lew Basnight, and Kit have experienced the Invisible. Note that there are various ways of seeing, and not all of them use light.

'''So is altitude transformed, continuously, to light''' 
The potential energy of water at an altitude is realized when it falls, producing the flow of electricity required for the production of artificial light. 

'''Hamilton had experienced at Brougham Bridge in Ireland''' 
William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865) was an Irish mathematician, physicist, and astronomer who made important contributions to the development of optics, dynamics, and algebra. His discovery of quaternions is perhaps his best known investigation. The discovery of quaternions reportedly occurred during a walk with his wife by the Royal Canal in Dublin. Upon having the inspiration for the formula, he promptly carved it into the side of the nearby [[Brougham_Bridge |Broom (or Brougham) Bridge]]. Maxwell's equations were originally expressed in quaternion algebra, before vector algebra became more popular. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rowan_Hamilton Wikipedia entry]

'''a jump from one place to another''' 
An allusion to quantum jump (or quantum leap), which would be proposed some years later as a model for the electron's transition between energy states within an atom and as the sole cause of the emission of electromagnetic radiation, including that of ''light'', by atoms. Interestingly enough, the term "quantum leap" would later become a standard vernacular term to describe abrupt advances. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_leap Wikipedia entry]

The phrase also suggests either bilocation (Foley Walker and Scarsdale Vibe, cf. p. 100) or changing dimensions (moving to another parallel world?), which Lew Basnight appears to have done without knowing it (p. 24).

'''with . . . what perilous æther opening between and beneath''' 
The etymology of ''air'' includes ''æther.'' The gap between initial and final states is a region where there's nothing to "support" the particle making the quantum jump.
:Is there any link between this and the earlier discussion of Aetherists at Case Western when Michaelson and Morley are experimenting?

'''the truth he now possessed in his personal interior, certain and unshakable''' 
Kit's belief in Vectorism is solidified. 
Not belief. He's broken through to a state where he doesn't have to write the math down—he sees directly from problem statement to solution.

'''Jack, we're seventeen''' 
Around 1900.

'''Pike's Peak or Bust!''' 
The slogan of miners heading to Colorado during the Gold Rush of 1859.

'''The cog-railway car''' 
Still running. See it [http://www.cograilway.com/ here].

'''Frank got so nervous about climbing''' 
Is Frank acrophobic?

'''Cañon City alumnus''' 
An ex-convict who has done time in the Colorado pen.

'''swamping''' 
Menial work.

==Page 100==

'''Lieutenants of Industry Scholarship Program''' 
The metaphor "Captain of Industry" gets dusted off; Vibe is the captain, so his minions can't go any higher than lieutenants.

'''School of Mines''' 
A respected engineering university near Golden, CO. More [http://www.mines.edu/ here].

'''Mr. Merriwell, we really need this touchdown''' 
An allusion to the fictional character Frank Merriwell, an adventuresome student at Yale and football hero, he was created by the pulp fiction writer Gilbert Patten, who wrote under the pen name Burt L. Standish. The first story, "Frank Merriwell: or, First Days at Fardale" appeared in ''Tip Top Weekly'' on April 18, 1896. Merriwell went on to appear in comic books, radio programs, and dime novels. As the passage suggests, Merriwell constituted an idealized picture of the east coast, old money elite. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Merriwell Wikipedia Entry on Frank Merriwell]

'''Yale''' 
This possible deal with the devil that Kit makes to get into Yale recalls the evil pact made to get Tyrone Slothrop into Harvard in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.

'''Horsefeathers''' 
The title of a 1932 Marx Brothers film ("Horse Feathers"). Another possible indication for the promised Groucho Marx cameo. See also "ducksoup" (p.25)

'''Antietam''' 
The first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil, in 1862. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with almost 23,000 casualties.

'''substitute conscriptee''' 
The Enrollment Act of 1863 allowed draftees to pay $300 to a substitute who would serve for them. (See [http://www.rootsweb.com/~nygenese/purchase.jpg here] for an example substitution form.) J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Jay Gould, James Mellon and future president Grover Cleveland all hired substitutes. Within a year the price had gone up to $1,100, however. [http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1994/winter/civil-war-draft-records.html Civil War Draft Records: Exemptions and Enrollments]

==Page 101==

'''Cold Harbor''' 
There were two battles of Cold Harbor: the first, in 1862, predated Antietam, so this would have been the second in 1864 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cold_Harbor Wikipedia].

'''the Brain and its Mysteries''' 
This is a recurring theme, with suggestions of neurological symptoms already seen, such as Miles Blondell's weird feelings and Lew Basnight's malady. As seen below, the presence of the bullet has some effects on his brain: he receives "communications, from far, far away," which can be symptoms of brain injuries.

For more on auditory hallucinations see the recently published ''Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination'' by Daniel B. Smith.

'''Minié ball''' 
Prior to the development of the minie ball, rifles were not used in combat due to the difficulty in loading. The ammunition used by rifles was the same diameter as the barrel in order for the bullet to engage the groves of the rifled barrel. As a result the ball had to be forced into the barrel. The minie ball, originally designed by Captain Claude-Etienne Minie of France and improved on by manufacturers in the United States, changed warfare. Since the minie ball was smaller than the diameter of the barrel, it could be loaded quickly by dropping the bullet down the barrel. This conical lead bullet had two or three grooves and a conical cavity in its base. The gases, formed by the burning of powder once the firearm was fired, expanded the base of the bullet so that it engaged the rifling in the barrel. Thus, rifles could be loaded quickly and yet fired accurately; 620; [http://www.civilwar.si.edu/weapons_minieball.html From the Smithsonian website]

However, Minié balls are relatively large, generally .58 caliber, so that would be a mighty large piece of lead lodged in his brain. [http://www.eclectichistorian.net/RifleMusket/Minies.html Picture]

'''You know what the Indians out west believe? . . .''' 
Almost the exact same line appears in ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_20#Page_363 (pg. 363).]

'''"far, far away"''' 
A nod to the opening lines of ''Star Wars''? “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." 
A similar episode is in Richard Powers' "Three Farmers on their Way to a Dance" (1985), in which a character affirms that he can get military radio communications thanks to a dental filling. Richard Powers has often been compared to Pynchon.

'''physical well-being''' 
The dichotomy of bodily and spiritual well-being appears in the [[The World is at Fault]] letter that Pynchon wrote in the early 60s.

'''"if it exists"''' 
Assuming this is c1882, when the Standard Oil Trust was formed, it was already well-known.

==Page 102==
'''ten gallons of coffee''' 
Major caffeine abuse also figured in to ''Mason & Dixon''.

'''Twin Vibes''' 
Vibe and Walker work together in part because of Walker's "powers". These "vibrations" could be the source of the name Vibe.

This is the first mention of the Doppelgaenger theme of the book, which Wikipedia calls "a sinister form of bilocation."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelg%C3%A4nger]

'''With that kind of personal faith . . . handling snakes''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_handling Wikipedia] says snake-handling did not become a movement until the 1920s but was a sensational practice before the end of the 19th century. The requisite "personal faith" is defined in Mark 16:17-18: "And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name . . . [t]hey shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Southern Appalachia is now the epicenter of snake-handling.

'''''"Izvinite... Hvala"''''' 
'Excuse me'... 'Thank you' in Croatian. [http://www.bugeurope.com/essentials/croatian.html [cite]] Also in Serbian, though written in a different alphabet.

==Page 103==

'''por vida''' 
For life.

'''a message from perhaps farther beyond...''' 
Kit may think it another message from the Invisible. Due to his belief in Vectorism?

'''how Mr. Vibe . . . had been left free to behave''' 
The mission given to Walker is to constrain Vibe, who in some sense shares a "karma" with him.

==Page 104==

'''"Tithing," Tesla said, "giving back to the day."''' 
Tesla's contempt for this tithing positions him as—wait for it—against the day.

==Page 105==

'''Jake with me''' 
Fine with me.

'''"not here on the desolate lee shore whose back country is death"''' 
Wonderful, just wonderful...

==Page 107==

Since this is 1899, the Chums should be six years older than they were in Chicago. But they seem to age at a slower rate than folks on earth below.

'''this era of desuetude''' 
Time when usual rules and customs are not being practiced.

'''midwatch''' 
The time between midnight and 4 a.m. Another naval practice observed by the Chums.

'''A boy . . . under a baggy cap with its bill turned sidewise''' 
I can't identify this as to title or date, but the subject appeared in lithographs that hung in many homes in the first half of the 20th century. It was also famous via Charlie Chaplin's work w/ the child Jackie Coogan.

'''Tesla device''' 
A radio. He received a patent for the radio after his death. The transmissions of July 3, 1899 (see Page 97, above) were used as evidence that he should be granted the patent.

:A member of the wiki has pointed out that Tesla recorded thunderstorm observations on that date but did not carry out transmissions.

'''voices . . . difficult to credit with any origin in the material sphere . . . hoarse whispering''' 
Messages coming from a world the Chums don't inhabit? From outside their novel, I suggest, specifically from their author, who is preparing to take over the narration again. 

I would suggest that in the early days of radio even Tesla himself thought he was receiving messages from [http://www.borderlands.com/archives/arch/marscom.htm Mars], when in fact he was discovering the foundation of radio telescopy. Edison and Marconi also thought radio would allow them to converse with the dead. That the Chums also hear voices is probably to be expected. On the other hand, please see [http://www.strangenation.com.au/Articles/sna_evp_vod.htm Electronic Voice Phenomena] for a paranormal discussion on the phenomena.

I think there is more to this. Above, a reader noted that Merle works with light AND sound. Just as one might "see" via the Invisible (Miles, Lew, and Kit), one might "hear" via the invisible, as Foley Walker does, as well as the Chums here.

'''Indian Ocean islands of Amsterdam and St.Paul''' 
As noted in the text, Indian Ocean Islands. Both are volcanic in origin. Strangely (given the CofC's prior location in Chicago), they are located in the very southern part of the Indian Ocean, in line with South Africa. They remain without permanent residents.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Ele_Saint-Paul Wikipedia article on St. Paul Island]

'''westerlies''' 
A westerly is a wind that is ''coming from'' the west, not heading toward the west. Given the location of the two islands they flew over, they must have come from south of the equator near the southern parts of South America or Africa or possibly even Australia.

==Page 108==

'''islets vanished from the nautical charts''' 
Do features really vanish from charts? Could it be that their ''names'' were no longer recorded?

It is possible that some small islands collapse or are eroded, and disappear below the sea, to "rejoin the Invisible".

'''St. Masque''' 
This island's name may have been one of the ones to vanish.
:I think TRP created this name, since the island masks the underground installation.

'''huge underground construction''' 
The description calls to mind Boston's "Big Dig," or a bunker such as those built by SAC, NORAD or other military organizations. In particular it brings to mind the Cheyenne Mountain Directorate in Colorado Springs, CO.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne_Mountain]

It's also similar to the people living underground in Pynchon's story "Low-Lands."

'''''Megaera''''' 
One of the Greek Furies. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaera [Wikipedia]]

Apparently a real shipwreck as well. [http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/book_excerpt.asp?bookid=1535 [Scroll down to St. Paul Island]]

'''four hundred of us made it''' 
The informative page linked in the preceding entry is pretty clear: 330-odd of them made it.

'''"Curious," Chick said.''' 
His register of speech is very different from what we heard in earlier episodes. And he has somehow now got enough education to have been named "Scientific Officer."

==Page 109==

'''the volcano''' 
''Not'' Krakatoa. The Chums are in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

'''antipodal to Colorado Springs''' 
Amsterdam and St. Paul are, to within a few dozen miles, exactly on the opposite side of the Earth to the Springs. Because Tesla's work there wound up early in 1900, the antipodal point could not have held much interest after that. The 1899 dating holds.

'''Chums of Chance Logistical Services''' 
In the whole series of novels this is probably the only mention of CoCLS. All the other books had instruments, weapons, etc., just appear without explanation. "Never questioned, always on time" simply because it's written (or unwritten) that way.
:I think it is more sinister -- their shadowy organization has the reach and the resources to make things appear, but a) the boys' location away from sources of supply and b) the boys' growing awareness (such as Chick's "scientific knowledge") lead them to notice.

'''mephitically seeping volcano''' 
"Mephitic" means foul-smelling.

'''President McKinley''' 
Since McKinley was assassinated (by an anarchist) in September, 1901, this situates the episode some time between 1899 and 1901.

'''a beach so intensely sunlit as to appear almost colorless''' 
Again an excess of light takes away from the ambience rather than adding to it -- a sun bleached beach.

'''blindness at the heart of a diamond''' 
This enigmatic imagery is reflected (no pun intended) in a few references: [http://books.google.com//books?num=100&q=heart.of.a.diamond&as_brr=0 more] 

"where the light came down sifted through so many emerald screens that it was as flawless as the heart of a diamond. " (''Anne of Green Gables'', Chapt. 15, by Lucy Maud Montgomery) 

"It was a singularly sharp night, and clear as the heart of a diamond."'' A Story that is Untrue'' by Ambrose Bierce 

blindness seems not to be a positive with this metaphor. No light, a heart that cannot see. Diamonds = lightlessness.
:I interpreted it as lots of light = blindness; i.e., again the distinction between seeing, learning, understanding vs. light.

An important diamond with a blindness at its heart is the one in Wilkie Collins's novel ''The Moonstone'' (1868)([http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/155 Project Gutenberg]). The diamond brings misfortune to its possessor; it is stolen twice early in the novel, and various characters try to regain it. It may be worth noting that, in Collins, a big diamond with a blindness at its heart is worth less than its compounds, if it's cut into pieces.

'''Since his''' (Darby's) '''voice had changed''' 
In three-quarters of a century Tom Swift didn't age half a dozen years. The Chums could not have aged much before ''AtD'' opened, because they weren't very old when we met them. Now the mascotte who sang the treble parts has become an adolescent.

==Page 110==

'''The once cheery mascotte... into a distrust of authority''' 
In this section Darby Suckling looks to be the "punk" of the Chums ala Darby Crash. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darby_Crash Wikipedia]

'''Nihilism''' 
Nihilism comes from the Latin ''nihil'', or nothing. It appears in the verb "annihilate", meaning to bring to nothing, to destroy completely. Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy. Nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) who argued that its corrosive effects would eventually destroy all moral, religious, and metaphysical convictions and precipitate the greatest crisis in human history. Ivan Turgenev's ''Fathers and Sons'' (1862) popularized ''nihilism'' by his character Bazarov who preached a creed of total negation. In Russia, nihilism became identified with a loosely organized revolutionary movement (1860-1917) that rejected the authority of the state, church, and family. The movement advocated a social arrangement based on rationalism and materialism as the sole source of knowledge, and individual freedom as the highest goal. The movement eventually deteriorated into an ethos of subversion, destruction, and anarchy. And by the late 1870s, a nihilist was anyone associated with clandestine political groups advocating terrorism and assassination. ([http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm Nihilism]).

'''Platonic polyhedra''' 
In the Timaeus of Plato, the eponymous character claims, in what he calls his "likely story," that the cosmos was created by the gathering of triangles into regular solids which coincide with the four elements: the pyramid (fire), cube (earth), octahedron (air), icosahedron (water), and dodecahedron. The dodecahedron becomes associated with Æther.

In his early work Mysterium Cosmographicum, Johannes Kepler used the Platonic polyhedra to model the solar system.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid Wikipedia entry on the Platonic polyhedra, including a picture of Kepler's polyhedra model of the solar system]

'''Clarendons''' 
Clarendon is a serif typeface created in 1845 that was often used for wanted posters in the Old West. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarendon_%28typeface%29 Wikipedia entry, with a sample]

'''FUNDAMENT-SEIZING''' 
Ass-grabbing.

'''"Zumbledy bongbong," [Miles Blundell] called encouragingly, as the food flew. "Vamble, Vamble!"''' 
Miles's odd speech may be an allusion to that of the Muppets' Swedish Chef.

He may also be speaking in tongues, or simply have some sort of apraxia of speech, given these comments and those on the following page.

Or mebbe he's talking with his mouth full, the young ruffian.

:Remember that Miles is the Chum who did not see the crockery, was preoccupied, and says that he "sees" at times in a different dimension. Now, like Foley's voices, above, we have Miles with an auditory (as well as his visual) affliction.

==Page 111==

'''unmix a failed sauce''' 
There is a folk belief, however, that mayonnaise and other egg-based sauces will separate during a thunderstorm. You can, however, re-mix sauces of this kind that have de-emulsified.

'''time is intrinsic in every recipe''' 
Not whether you bake the pie for 20 minutes or 40. What's intrinsic is that the recipe always takes you forward in time. Start with ground meat, end with a hamburger, never the other way around.

'''"Of the metawarble of blibfloth zep"''' 
Poor Miles' communication problems continue.

'''dog's dinner''' 
Something that is ostentatiously smart [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/dogs-dinner.html Definition].
"bone china" takes on new meaning!

'''In the U.S.A., it was almost the Fourth of July''' 
''Inconvenience'' is a day ahead of the U.S., being well west of the International Date Line.

'''noteworthy episodes of military explosion . . . necessary to maintain the integrity of the American homeland''' 
Put the stress on ''military.'' Other explosions achieve different purposes.

'''Explosion without an objective . . . is politics in its purest form''' 
Set this against not only the next entry but also against Drave's aphorism "Remorse without an object is a doorway to deliverance" (p. 39).

'''Haymarket bomb . . . wonders of chemistry''' 
Cf. p. 79, "the widely admired Mexican principle of politics through chemistry."

==Page 112==

'''I wish I knew what they were arguing about''' 
Randolph's consciousness has not been raised, as we used to say in the 1970s.

'''"the nature of the skyrocket's ascent"''' 
Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/01/dance-of-anarchy-and-change.html suggests] that this refers to ''Gravity's Rainbow.''

'''about the trajectories of your own lives''' 
Miles has divined that the Chums have adventures (the display) but also intervals when their movement is unsensed from outside: between the end of one of their novels and the beginning of the next one.

'''"Think, bloviators, think!"''' 
To bloviate means to speak or write at length in a pompous or boastful manner. CoC blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/01/dance-of-anarchy-and-change.html suggests] that this, coupled with the verbose allusion to ''Gravity's Rainbow'' above, is Pynchon's message to jargony commentators of his work, presumably in academia.

Presumably, us as well

'''By the time ''Inconvenience'' was ready to take once more to the sky''' 
Another damned anticlimax. They travel halfway around the world, Logistical Services puts on a big push to supply the experimental station, and we get ''not one single word'' about any data collected or knowledge gained as a result of Tesla's experiments.

Although . . . recall that the night of the experiment was introduced as "the amazing, world-reversing night of Fourth of July eve" - I think we are to read the amazing reversal in the internal affairs of the ''Inconvenience'' as the most noteworthy result.

'''President McKinley . . . naked woman . . . National Bird . . . something to eat . . . one of the Platonic polyhedra . . . draped female personage''' 
It is hard to see how the final figurehead choice is a "compromise" among these candidates.

==Page 113==

'''X.O.''' 
In many militaries' units, the executive officer (XO) is the second-in-command, reporting to the commanding officer (CO).

'''"contamination by the secular"''' 
Secular can be defined as "denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis." As the Chums have so far not been overtly religious, perhaps they mean secular in the spiritual sense?

Secular also means "worldly", as in, that which the Chums of Chance are literally above: 113: "That sort of bickering may be for ground people, but it is not for us."

'''Gloymbroognitz thidfusp''' 
Odd. Sounds like something from Adams' ''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', but isn't. Anyone?
Famous, surreal Polish writer of the 20th Century, Gombrowicz, Witold ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Gombrowicz Wikipedia entry]). 
Miles is having trouble communicating in words. See p. 110 and 111
:When language fails him (an auditory communication), perhaps he is away among the Invisible.

'''Surabaya''' 
Today in Indonesia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surabaya Wikipedia entry]

'''"Special Japanese Oyster"''' 
The pearl that comes from this oyster that facilitates communications from the Chums' Upper Hierarchy is a result of Japanese experimentation "a pearl of quite uncommon size and iridescence, seeming indeed to glow
from within" that connects with the red calcite that powers the Q-weapon, as well as Merle's and Bounce's device later in the novel. [[Q-weapon and Photography|Read on...]]

This seems to be a standard mode of communication as the Chums get out the equipment, pull the blinds, etc., as if per usual.

The pearl as means of communication from the "Upper Hierarchy" bears some similarity to the Gnostic/Manichean/Eastern Orthodox passage from the apocryphal ''Acts of Thomas.'' called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymn_of_the_Pearl ''The Hymn of the Pearl'']. The gnostic gloss on the story is that we (here The Chums) are spirits lost in the world of matter who forget our true origin, until a divine being, i.e. "The Upper Hierarchy", sends a message by way of a revealer (usually Jesus, here the pearl) to help us remember our mission. 

In the hymn the son of the king of kings is sent to retrieve a pearl from a serpent. There is no obvious serpent at this point in AtD, but the Chums get the pearl in Surabaya, whose name derives from ''suro'' (shark) and ''baya'' (crocodile), in this case both white, which together bear a mytho-poetic parallel to, a "paramorphic encryption" of a serpent. 

And like the calcite that powers the Q-weapon, in Biblical studies there is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_document Q] document which when mixed with the book of Mark yields Matthew and Luke. Prominent Biblical scholars theorize that such a book consisting of the saying of Jesus must exist based on textual analysis, but a copy has never been found. Certain texts are, as one of the Librarians says, "outside of time" but may be inferred from the evidence. (p.133)

The oysters are sold to Miles with "unusual persuasiveness" at "what did seem a remarkably attractive price." This might be an inversion, a "parable parody," a parody of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Pearl ''Parable of the Pearl.''] wherein Jesus likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a pearl of great price; whereas here, at first glance, Miles gets his pearl at discount. In re-reading it though, we are not actually told the pearl is cheap, but that whatever price it came at was remarkably attractive and unusually persuasive, in other words, the Kingdom of Heaven is an attractive bargain and persuasive at any rate of exchange with worldly goods.

It is of note that MILES gets the pearl, since he is the Chum able to enter the dimension of Invisibility (vs. visible). And it occurs after he fails to successfully master the auditory as well (language, above).

==Page 114==

'''Nernst lamps''' An early incandescent lamp invented by Hermann Nernst (1864-1941), which made use of a heated ceramic rod to produce light in ambient air (in contrast to Edison's incandescent, which required a vacuum to operate). [http://www.nernst.de/lamp/nernstlamp.htm Link]

'''Dr. Mikimoto (Kokichi)''' Produced the first cultured pearl in 1893 in Toba, Japan. As he left school at 13 to help support his family, any Doctorate he may have obtained must have been honorary.

And the Japanese:

:Through a highly secret technical process, developed in Japan at around the same time Dr. Mikimoto was producing his first cultured pearls, portions of the original aragonite which made up the nacreous layers of the pearl had, through “induced paramorphism,” as it was known to the artful sons of Nippon, been selectively changed here and there to a different form of calcium carbonate namely, to microscopic crystals of the doubly-refracting calcite known as Iceland spar.

'''Iceland Spar''' 
"Spar," in mineralogy: a transparent or translucent light-colored crystalline mineral, usually readily cleaved and somewhat lustrous; e.g. Iceland spar (calcite) . . . . (paraphrased from Bates & Jackson, ''Glossary of Geology,'' 2nd ed.)

See this handy "About Geology" page [http://geology.about.com/library/bl/images/blcalcite.htm], with an illustration demonstrating a spar's double-refraction effect on printed letters--remarkably like that on the cover of ATD! This kind of calcite has rhombohedral cleavage, because each of its faces is a rhombus, a warped rectangle in which none of the corners are square. Is each of the rectangular pages of ATD then a warped cleavage from some sort of crystalline whole, refracting its text in several directions at once? Of course, to the Chums the text message they receive from Upper Hierarchy has but one simple meaning. "Paramorphism" = the structural alteration of a mineral without any change in its external form or chemical composition.

And look at this too, how to make Iceland Spar animations:
[http://images.google.it/imgres?imgurl=http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/imgmay04/dwd/dwf1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artmay04/dwjpegcyc.html&h=300&w=400&sz=15&hl=it&start=12&tbnid=NQMhCqiW1apqNM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Diceland%2Bspar%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Dit]

Doubling / Advertisements / Stereo Lamps / Lounge / Beach Citadel / Restaurants / Brooklyn-Manhattan-Queens / Windows / Electromagnetic sun / Art Galleries / New Front / New Media / Doubling: New York 2000 (Summer) even in the multi-colored food. Talk about scent, high-end music and multifaceted sensorial experience. The reflection of candlelights in every television set.

'''divided into two separate rays, termed "ordinary" and "extraordinary" 
In the optics lab, physics students split a laser beam into two rays, which impinge on an object and are reflected onto a photographic plate, generating a hologram. The Japanese here anticipate the process, using the differently polarized rays (split by the Iceland spar) instead of laser light and replacing the plate with minute crystals in the pearl. The idea of three-dimensional holography and data storage in solid crystals would not resurface until the 1950s or 60s.

This parallels the doubling of people in AtD. So far we have seen Foley Walker as a double of Scarsdale Vibe.

'''the limitless mischief of pearls''' 
A book's worth of superstitions exist around pearls. Pearls bring tears. The bride must wear pearls. The bride who wears pearls will be unhappy. If your pearl loses its luster, you are about to die. A pearl dissolved in wine is a poison. A pearl dissolved in wine is a love potion.

'''get up buoyancy''' 
A surface ship "gets up steam" in preparation for departure. Another naval or nautical analog.

'''Etienne-Louis Malus''' 
1775-1812, a French officer and mathematician whose work was predominantly concerned with light. He studied ray systems, and his theory on polarisation was published in 1809. His theory of the double refraction of light in crystals was published in 1810. Malus is best known for his law describing intensity of light as it passes through polarized materials. There are delicious metaphorical implications for any reader of a Pynchon novel.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etienne-Louis_Malus Wikipedia] 

Malus is also the genus of the apple. And in Latin, ''malus'' means "bad," "evil," or "wicked." Note that in the narrative to come, the ship is frequently referred to simply as the Malus.

'''pearls''' 
Probably meant to contrast the "blindness at the heart of a diamond" referred to on p. 109. Pynchon may want to call to mind ''The Scarlet Letter'', in which Pearl, the child produced by the union of the protagonist, Hester Prynne, and the Rev. Dimsdale, becomes a symbol of beauty derived from sin (there, and likely here, represented by the grain of sand around which the pearl forms). This also serves to link the pearl to the ship Malus (above).

'''Dr. Alden Vormance''' "
Vormance's surname may be meant to combine "Romance" and "worm," calling to mind the Romantic exuberance that motivated 19th century exploratory expeditions as well as the serpent of the Biblical expulsion story. 
Another Pynchonian "V" name and we know what Pynchon thinks of "Romantic exuberance". See GR, at least. And a remark in ATD [to find]. 
Alternatively, Vormance may be a conflation of the German prefix ''vor-'' (meaning "forward" or "before") with the -mancy combining form (e.g. necromancy) meaning prophecy--[[User:Gobbag|Gobbag]] 12:38, 11 February 2007 (PST)

'''a strong presumption of Bad Taste''' 
The Chums seek to avoid this accusation just as Peter Pan tries to avert Captain Hook's taunt, "Bad form." The phrase occurs in J.M. Barrie's novel ''Peter Pan'' (''Peter and Wendy''), possibly also in the stage version, and again in the movie ''Hook.''

==Page 115==
'''(Johannes) Kepler''' 
(1571-1630), mathematician best known for his laws of planetary motion, one of the foundations of Isaac Newton's theory of gravity. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Kepler Wikipedia] Kepler was a Platonist who believed that mathematics and music were instrinsically linked[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_spheres] and that both were signs of God, as the physical and spiritual were linked. We have already seen many examples in AtD of mysterious singing, humming, and other noises coming out of the atmosphere.

'''Edmond Halley''' 
1656-1742, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Halley Halley] was an English physical scientist most remembered for the comet he which he predicted would return. In 1692 he proposed that the earth was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth hollow]. In 1698 he departed on a two year voyage as captain of the HMS Paramore in order to measure variations in the Earth's magnetic field. In 1716 he suggested timing the transit of Venus to determine the distance between the earth and the sun.

'''(Leonhard) Euler''' 
The method of traverse (pun ignored) by which the Chums proceed became known as a Symmes' Hole after John Cleeves Symmes who, in 1818 circulated a pamphlet arguing for the existence of such holes in the polar regions and further volunteered to lead an expedition to said regions.

Symmes' following lecture tours were further carried forth by one J.N. Reynolds. "[Edgar Allen] Poe is said to have repeatedly called out the name "Reynolds" on the night before his death, though no one has ever been able to identify the person to whom he referred." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_allen_poe Edgar Allen Poe's] first published short story, "Ms. Found in a Bottle" (1833) took, as its premise, the existence of Symmes' Holes: theoretical holes in the polar areas which led to a hollow interior. And his novel ''The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym'' recounts a voyage to the South Pole, where suddenly everything gets warmer and the sailors find themselves approaching the entrance to a hollow earth. For a Wikipedia discussion,[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Narrative_of_Arthur_Gordon_Pym_of_Nantucket]

:Research has its charms, but so does mindless surfing. [http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/03/ This blog] presents a map of the Earth inside the Earth, complete with Shambhala. The layout unfortunately doesn't fit the ''AtD'' account, but it's quite funny.

'''the great portal . . . ''noticeably smaller''''' 
Unrelieved light is unendurable; the entry into the Earth offers shadow, but the region of shelter has shrunk. Unrelieved ultraviolet light is deadly; the "ozone layer" in the atmosphere serves as protection, but the cover has shrunk—particularly in the Antarctic—as the "ozone hole" has grown larger. A small parallel, but it forwards the theme a little.
:Wouldn't additional warmth bring a ''larger'' opening?

'''the airship entered the planet's interior''' 
As did Jeremiah Dixon in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_55:_542-553#Page_548 ''Mason & Dixon''], Pynchon's 1997 novel, guided by what seemed to be an extraterrestrial Being. This passage links the two books interestingly, as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_earth Hollow Earth] is a fairly prominent trope in ''M&D'', although there is no mention of the portal's small size. Has it shrunken because the theory is losing ground?

==Page 116==

'''vatic''' 
Prophetic. [http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2004/10/21.html [def]]

'''this is a self-protective reflex''' 
In his mystical phase Miles proves to be a believer in [http://www.ecolo.org/lovelock/ James Lovelock's "Gaia."]

'''the ship's nitro-lycopodium engines''' 
''Inconvenience'' has gone through a major refit, apparently: no more hydrogen power. Lycopodium consists of spores from a club moss, usually ''Lycopodium clavatum.'' It is a highly flammable yellowish powder. Photographers used it for flash illumination. In principle, an internal combustion engine can run on a powdered fuel, though difficulties abound in practice. The "nitro" part is a puzzle; nitromethane (called "nitro" or, in drag racing, simply "fuel") seems the most obvious reference. Do the ship's engines use a slurry of lycopodium in nitromethane? That would be a tricky fuel to handle. 
I don't think "nitro" refers to a particular, separate substance. The prefix nitro- indicates a substance whose molecules have the group NO2 attached to them. The oxygen in this group is easily released, with the result that nitro-compounds usually burn very rapidly and intensely, effectively having their own internal oxygen supply. Strictly the prefix should be applied to well defined molecular species such as nitromethane, nitrobenzene, etc, etc. However it is also used for complex biological substances treated with a nitrating agent such as nitric acid: nitrocotton (gun cotton) is a common example. Pynchon has probably invented nitro-lycopodium as a plausible though non-existent propellant, in the fashion we're accustomed to seeing with him.--[[User:Gobbag|Gobbag]] 06:57, 11 February 2007 (PST)

That is probably right, and a good point. "Plausible though non-existent" in Pynchon works because it is surrounded by the ''existent'' or prospectively existent: A modest collection of real ''AtD'' minerals/rocks/gems (lorandite, jade, Iceland spar) makes a context in which "Special Japanese Pearl" can nestle. Similarly, nitro-lycopodium falls into a class that already contains hydrogen, coal, muscle power (wheelfolk), petroleum derivatives and waterfalls. And Pynchon's fictional history is underpinned by historical events described in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica.''

'''night-glass''' 
Telescopes and binoculars are described by their magnifying power (say 7X) and the diameter of their objective lens or "pupil" (say 35 mm). For many years 7X35 binoculars were a practical compromise for field use (army issue, etc.), but these were useless at night because they could not collect enough light. "Night" binoculars might be 7X50 or even larger. Similarly, a night-glass is a telescope with an oversized lens in front.

'''electrical sound-magnifier''' 
What would come to be called an ''amplifier'' in post-Chums times.

'''human timbres and rhythms, not speech so much as music''' 
Again the "choir" image as on [[ATD_1-25#Page_19|page 19.]] The Music of the Spheres as well.

==Page 117==

'''bolts of intense greenish light''' 
Hmm, the Chums are getting the same view of this war as America got of the "Shock and Awe" campaign in Baghdad.

'''In an emergency, that choice lies at the Commander's discretion''' 
Not the people. Freedom of speech and the President's sole decision to go into war resembles some sort of Catch-22 paradox. Its what maintains a Dynasty in power for years, decades or even centuries. Its about money, power and greed. Not freedom or humanity.

'''the byzantine politics of the region''' 
Byzantine: fiendishly complicated, from ''Byzantium,'' the name of the city that would later become Constantinople and later again Istanbul. The claim indicates that Inner Earth has politics similar to those of Outer Earth.

'''royal court of Chthonica''' 
The adjective ''chthonic'' means "of the earth" or "of the underworld" and is often used to refer to the gods and other entities residing under the surface of the earth. The adjective is used creatively, and most famously, in the fictional works of H.P. Lovecraft ... a chief deity of his ficitional universe being Cthulhu.

'''Plutonia''' 
[http://www.trussel.com/prehist/plutonia.htm ''Plutonia''] is the title of a novel written by Russian geologist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Obruchev Vladimir Obruchev], published in 1915. According to [http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2000/cur0002.htm this sf site], it's a hollow-earth story.

The "Plutonist" movement, as opposed to the "Neptunist", was quite in vogue in the late 1800s, being a theory of geography which held that the interior heat of the earth was somehow responsible for various geological processes.

'''Tunbridge Wells''' 
[http://www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/disgusted-of-tunbridge-wells "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells"] is an archetypal figure of conservative England whose correspondence can be found frequently in newspapers railing at the latest outrages of modernity. Tunbridge Wells briefly features in Gravity's Rainbow.

On whether this and the subterranean adventure may allude to ''Gravity's Rainbow,'' see [[Talk:ATD_97-118|Discussion]].

'''my harmless little intraterrestrial scherzo''' 
Once again, the unseen narrator appears. By inference, the narrator is also the author of the various ''Chums of Chance...'' books referenced in ATD. This episode's also a little ''inter-textual'' scherzo: Poe (''Arthur Gordon Pym''), Jules Verne, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Earth%27s_Core_%28novel%29 Edgar Rice Burroughs and Pelucidar], ''Star Trek'', Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth... and Jeremiah Dixon's own underground journey in M&D. Doesn't Chick Counterfly sound rather Spockian here (cf. 115, bottom)?

==Page 118==

'''a tiny circle of brightness far ahead''' 
Literally "the light at the end of the tunnel," a metaphor used repeatedly, and to no good effect, by American political leaders starting some weeks after the beginning of the Vietnam War.

'''a tricky bit of steering''' 
If you emerge at the North Pole, every way you steer is south, so ''which'' south will take you to the rendezvous?

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

ATD 97-118

2010-06-15T20:03:17Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 98 */

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

==Page 97==

'''the iron of their shoes . . . seeking the magnetic memory of that long-ago visit''' 
Familiar cartoon gag, a ''horseshoe'' magnet attracting all sorts of hardware as it flies through the air.
:But here, TRP suggests, Tesla's activities really do cause electromagnetic upheaval in Colorado.

'''the Rebellion''' 
What the North called the Civil War. ([[ATD_1-25#Page_7|See p.7]])

'''Tesla, Dr. Nikola''' (1856-1943) 
Tesla was a Serb-American inventor, engineer and physicist whose patents and theoretical work form the basis of modern alternating current electric power (AC) systems, radio, and a bunch of other stuff. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla Wikipedia entry] Tesla researched in Colorado Springs from May 1899 - January 1900, a location he chose because of the frequent thunderstorms, the high altitude, and the dryness of the air. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla#Colorado_Springs Wikipedia on Tesla at Colorado Springs].

Much of the the funding for his Colorado Springs laboratory came from Colonel John Jacob Astor. Tesla's friend and patent lawyer, Leonard E. Curtis, persuaded the El Paso Power Company to supply Tesla with all the electricity he wanted, free of charge. The arrangement ended the night Tesla's activities burned out the dynamo and the entire city lost power. [http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_colspr.html PBS: Tesla - Master of Lightning]

"Tesla logged in his diary on July 3, 1899 that a separate resonance transformer tuned to the same high frequency as a larger high-voltage resonance transformer would transceive energy from the larger coil, acting as a transmitter of wireless energy, which was used to confirm Tesla's patent for radio during later disputes in the courts. These air core high-frequency resonate coils were the predecessors of systems from radio to radar and medical magnetic resonance imaging devices." [http://www.crystalinks.com/tesla.html] This information was later used to confirm his patent for radio which he received posthumously in 1946, 3 years after his death. [http://www.resonanceresearch.com/nikola-tesla-coils-picture-colorado-1899-labratory.htm].

Pynchon confuses this 03 July 'vision', during a natural electrical storm, with later experimental generation of high voltages.

[http://www.teslasociety.com The Tesla Society] confusingly describes Tesla as a "Serbian-born American" but states his birthplace as Smiljan, Croatia.

'''Vectorist . . . by way of the Electricity''' 
Vector symbolism offers an economical way to describe electrical processes; electrical engineers still use vector algebra and vector analysis combined with concepts from complex number theory.

==Page 98==

'''a turbine generator located underneath a waterfall''' 
Not sitting there to catch the falling water. A waterfall is a convenient place for a power plant because you can get easy access to two elevations: take in water at the top, install your turbine at the bottom. The mention of penstocks and other plumbing farther down the page confirms that the flow is being captured in pipes at the head of the fall and run through a turbine at the bottom.

'''engineering students... from Cornell, Yale''' 
Cornell is Pynchon's alma mater, where he initially studied engineering. [[Thomas Pynchon|Pynchon bio]]

'''Maxwell''' 
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was a Scottish mathematical physicist of the mid- to late-19th century and arguably one of the greatest physicists to have ever lived, ranking with Newton and Einstein. Maxwell's correction of Ampere's circuital law and the resulting set of four equations -- later named after Maxwell himself -- constitute the beginning of his numerous contributions to the theory of electromagnetism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell's_equations Maxwell's equations] From this discovery, he was able to deduce the existence of electromagnetic waves. The fact that their wave speed was exactly the speed of light prompted him to hypothesize that light was just such a wave.

Pynchon made use of his theoretical "Maxwell's Demon" in ''The Crying of Lot 49''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Clerk_Maxwell Wikipedia entry]

'''Maxwell's ''Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism'' of 1873''' 
Full text of [http://www.archive.org/details/electricandmagne01maxwrich Volume 1] and [http://www.archive.org/details/electricandmag02maxwrich Volume 2] at the Internet Archive.

==Page 99==

'''the Invisible''' 
Up to this point there have been many mentions of things invisible, here capitalized. Recalling Blundell's quote from p. 24, suddenly everything connects and makes sense to Kit after his revelation. It is a mystical experience for him as he reaches this knowledge through something like a voice telling him.
:So we have as opposites light/ dark; visible/ invisible. And to this point in the book, Miles, Lew Basnight, and Kit have experienced the Invisible. Note that there are various ways of seeing, and not all of them use light.

'''So is altitude transformed, continuously, to light''' 
The potential energy of water at an altitude is realized when it falls, producing the flow of electricity required for the production of artificial light. 

'''Hamilton had experienced at Brougham Bridge in Ireland''' 
William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865) was an Irish mathematician, physicist, and astronomer who made important contributions to the development of optics, dynamics, and algebra. His discovery of quaternions is perhaps his best known investigation. The discovery of quaternions reportedly occurred during a walk with his wife by the Royal Canal in Dublin. Upon having the inspiration for the formula, he promptly carved it into the side of the nearby [[Brougham_Bridge |Broom (or Brougham) Bridge]]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rowan_Hamilton Wikipedia entry]

'''a jump from one place to another''' 
An allusion to quantum jump (or quantum leap), which would be proposed some years later as a model for the electron's transition between energy states within an atom and as the sole cause of the emission of electromagnetic radiation, including that of ''light'', by atoms. Interestingly enough, the term "quantum leap" would later become a standard vernacular term to describe abrupt advances. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_leap Wikipedia entry]

The phrase also suggests either bilocation (Foley Walker and Scarsdale Vibe, cf. p. 100) or changing dimensions (moving to another parallel world?), which Lew Basnight appears to have done without knowing it (p. 24).

'''with . . . what perilous æther opening between and beneath''' 
The etymology of ''air'' includes ''æther.'' The gap between initial and final states is a region where there's nothing to "support" the particle making the quantum jump.
:Is there any link between this and the earlier discussion of Aetherists at Case Western when Michaelson and Morley are experimenting?

'''the truth he now possessed in his personal interior, certain and unshakable''' 
Kit's belief in Vectorism is solidified. 
Not belief. He's broken through to a state where he doesn't have to write the math down—he sees directly from problem statement to solution.

'''Jack, we're seventeen''' 
Around 1900.

'''Pike's Peak or Bust!''' 
The slogan of miners heading to Colorado during the Gold Rush of 1859.

'''The cog-railway car''' 
Still running. See it [http://www.cograilway.com/ here].

'''Frank got so nervous about climbing''' 
Is Frank acrophobic?

'''Cañon City alumnus''' 
An ex-convict who has done time in the Colorado pen.

'''swamping''' 
Menial work.

==Page 100==

'''Lieutenants of Industry Scholarship Program''' 
The metaphor "Captain of Industry" gets dusted off; Vibe is the captain, so his minions can't go any higher than lieutenants.

'''School of Mines''' 
A respected engineering university near Golden, CO. More [http://www.mines.edu/ here].

'''Mr. Merriwell, we really need this touchdown''' 
An allusion to the fictional character Frank Merriwell, an adventuresome student at Yale and football hero, he was created by the pulp fiction writer Gilbert Patten, who wrote under the pen name Burt L. Standish. The first story, "Frank Merriwell: or, First Days at Fardale" appeared in ''Tip Top Weekly'' on April 18, 1896. Merriwell went on to appear in comic books, radio programs, and dime novels. As the passage suggests, Merriwell constituted an idealized picture of the east coast, old money elite. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Merriwell Wikipedia Entry on Frank Merriwell]

'''Yale''' 
This possible deal with the devil that Kit makes to get into Yale recalls the evil pact made to get Tyrone Slothrop into Harvard in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.

'''Horsefeathers''' 
The title of a 1932 Marx Brothers film ("Horse Feathers"). Another possible indication for the promised Groucho Marx cameo. See also "ducksoup" (p.25)

'''Antietam''' 
The first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil, in 1862. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with almost 23,000 casualties.

'''substitute conscriptee''' 
The Enrollment Act of 1863 allowed draftees to pay $300 to a substitute who would serve for them. (See [http://www.rootsweb.com/~nygenese/purchase.jpg here] for an example substitution form.) J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Jay Gould, James Mellon and future president Grover Cleveland all hired substitutes. Within a year the price had gone up to $1,100, however. [http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1994/winter/civil-war-draft-records.html Civil War Draft Records: Exemptions and Enrollments]

==Page 101==

'''Cold Harbor''' 
There were two battles of Cold Harbor: the first, in 1862, predated Antietam, so this would have been the second in 1864 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cold_Harbor Wikipedia].

'''the Brain and its Mysteries''' 
This is a recurring theme, with suggestions of neurological symptoms already seen, such as Miles Blondell's weird feelings and Lew Basnight's malady. As seen below, the presence of the bullet has some effects on his brain: he receives "communications, from far, far away," which can be symptoms of brain injuries.

For more on auditory hallucinations see the recently published ''Muses, Madmen, and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science, and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination'' by Daniel B. Smith.

'''Minié ball''' 
Prior to the development of the minie ball, rifles were not used in combat due to the difficulty in loading. The ammunition used by rifles was the same diameter as the barrel in order for the bullet to engage the groves of the rifled barrel. As a result the ball had to be forced into the barrel. The minie ball, originally designed by Captain Claude-Etienne Minie of France and improved on by manufacturers in the United States, changed warfare. Since the minie ball was smaller than the diameter of the barrel, it could be loaded quickly by dropping the bullet down the barrel. This conical lead bullet had two or three grooves and a conical cavity in its base. The gases, formed by the burning of powder once the firearm was fired, expanded the base of the bullet so that it engaged the rifling in the barrel. Thus, rifles could be loaded quickly and yet fired accurately; 620; [http://www.civilwar.si.edu/weapons_minieball.html From the Smithsonian website]

However, Minié balls are relatively large, generally .58 caliber, so that would be a mighty large piece of lead lodged in his brain. [http://www.eclectichistorian.net/RifleMusket/Minies.html Picture]

'''You know what the Indians out west believe? . . .''' 
Almost the exact same line appears in ''Inherent Vice'' [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_20#Page_363 (pg. 363).]

'''"far, far away"''' 
A nod to the opening lines of ''Star Wars''? “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." 
A similar episode is in Richard Powers' "Three Farmers on their Way to a Dance" (1985), in which a character affirms that he can get military radio communications thanks to a dental filling. Richard Powers has often been compared to Pynchon.

'''physical well-being''' 
The dichotomy of bodily and spiritual well-being appears in the [[The World is at Fault]] letter that Pynchon wrote in the early 60s.

'''"if it exists"''' 
Assuming this is c1882, when the Standard Oil Trust was formed, it was already well-known.

==Page 102==
'''ten gallons of coffee''' 
Major caffeine abuse also figured in to ''Mason & Dixon''.

'''Twin Vibes''' 
Vibe and Walker work together in part because of Walker's "powers". These "vibrations" could be the source of the name Vibe.

This is the first mention of the Doppelgaenger theme of the book, which Wikipedia calls "a sinister form of bilocation."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelg%C3%A4nger]

'''With that kind of personal faith . . . handling snakes''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_handling Wikipedia] says snake-handling did not become a movement until the 1920s but was a sensational practice before the end of the 19th century. The requisite "personal faith" is defined in Mark 16:17-18: "And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name . . . [t]hey shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Southern Appalachia is now the epicenter of snake-handling.

'''''"Izvinite... Hvala"''''' 
'Excuse me'... 'Thank you' in Croatian. [http://www.bugeurope.com/essentials/croatian.html [cite]] Also in Serbian, though written in a different alphabet.

==Page 103==

'''por vida''' 
For life.

'''a message from perhaps farther beyond...''' 
Kit may think it another message from the Invisible. Due to his belief in Vectorism?

'''how Mr. Vibe . . . had been left free to behave''' 
The mission given to Walker is to constrain Vibe, who in some sense shares a "karma" with him.

==Page 104==

'''"Tithing," Tesla said, "giving back to the day."''' 
Tesla's contempt for this tithing positions him as—wait for it—against the day.

==Page 105==

'''Jake with me''' 
Fine with me.

'''"not here on the desolate lee shore whose back country is death"''' 
Wonderful, just wonderful...

==Page 107==

Since this is 1899, the Chums should be six years older than they were in Chicago. But they seem to age at a slower rate than folks on earth below.

'''this era of desuetude''' 
Time when usual rules and customs are not being practiced.

'''midwatch''' 
The time between midnight and 4 a.m. Another naval practice observed by the Chums.

'''A boy . . . under a baggy cap with its bill turned sidewise''' 
I can't identify this as to title or date, but the subject appeared in lithographs that hung in many homes in the first half of the 20th century. It was also famous via Charlie Chaplin's work w/ the child Jackie Coogan.

'''Tesla device''' 
A radio. He received a patent for the radio after his death. The transmissions of July 3, 1899 (see Page 97, above) were used as evidence that he should be granted the patent.

:A member of the wiki has pointed out that Tesla recorded thunderstorm observations on that date but did not carry out transmissions.

'''voices . . . difficult to credit with any origin in the material sphere . . . hoarse whispering''' 
Messages coming from a world the Chums don't inhabit? From outside their novel, I suggest, specifically from their author, who is preparing to take over the narration again. 

I would suggest that in the early days of radio even Tesla himself thought he was receiving messages from [http://www.borderlands.com/archives/arch/marscom.htm Mars], when in fact he was discovering the foundation of radio telescopy. Edison and Marconi also thought radio would allow them to converse with the dead. That the Chums also hear voices is probably to be expected. On the other hand, please see [http://www.strangenation.com.au/Articles/sna_evp_vod.htm Electronic Voice Phenomena] for a paranormal discussion on the phenomena.

I think there is more to this. Above, a reader noted that Merle works with light AND sound. Just as one might "see" via the Invisible (Miles, Lew, and Kit), one might "hear" via the invisible, as Foley Walker does, as well as the Chums here.

'''Indian Ocean islands of Amsterdam and St.Paul''' 
As noted in the text, Indian Ocean Islands. Both are volcanic in origin. Strangely (given the CofC's prior location in Chicago), they are located in the very southern part of the Indian Ocean, in line with South Africa. They remain without permanent residents.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Ele_Saint-Paul Wikipedia article on St. Paul Island]

'''westerlies''' 
A westerly is a wind that is ''coming from'' the west, not heading toward the west. Given the location of the two islands they flew over, they must have come from south of the equator near the southern parts of South America or Africa or possibly even Australia.

==Page 108==

'''islets vanished from the nautical charts''' 
Do features really vanish from charts? Could it be that their ''names'' were no longer recorded?

It is possible that some small islands collapse or are eroded, and disappear below the sea, to "rejoin the Invisible".

'''St. Masque''' 
This island's name may have been one of the ones to vanish.
:I think TRP created this name, since the island masks the underground installation.

'''huge underground construction''' 
The description calls to mind Boston's "Big Dig," or a bunker such as those built by SAC, NORAD or other military organizations. In particular it brings to mind the Cheyenne Mountain Directorate in Colorado Springs, CO.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne_Mountain]

It's also similar to the people living underground in Pynchon's story "Low-Lands."

'''''Megaera''''' 
One of the Greek Furies. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaera [Wikipedia]]

Apparently a real shipwreck as well. [http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/book_excerpt.asp?bookid=1535 [Scroll down to St. Paul Island]]

'''four hundred of us made it''' 
The informative page linked in the preceding entry is pretty clear: 330-odd of them made it.

'''"Curious," Chick said.''' 
His register of speech is very different from what we heard in earlier episodes. And he has somehow now got enough education to have been named "Scientific Officer."

==Page 109==

'''the volcano''' 
''Not'' Krakatoa. The Chums are in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

'''antipodal to Colorado Springs''' 
Amsterdam and St. Paul are, to within a few dozen miles, exactly on the opposite side of the Earth to the Springs. Because Tesla's work there wound up early in 1900, the antipodal point could not have held much interest after that. The 1899 dating holds.

'''Chums of Chance Logistical Services''' 
In the whole series of novels this is probably the only mention of CoCLS. All the other books had instruments, weapons, etc., just appear without explanation. "Never questioned, always on time" simply because it's written (or unwritten) that way.
:I think it is more sinister -- their shadowy organization has the reach and the resources to make things appear, but a) the boys' location away from sources of supply and b) the boys' growing awareness (such as Chick's "scientific knowledge") lead them to notice.

'''mephitically seeping volcano''' 
"Mephitic" means foul-smelling.

'''President McKinley''' 
Since McKinley was assassinated (by an anarchist) in September, 1901, this situates the episode some time between 1899 and 1901.

'''a beach so intensely sunlit as to appear almost colorless''' 
Again an excess of light takes away from the ambience rather than adding to it -- a sun bleached beach.

'''blindness at the heart of a diamond''' 
This enigmatic imagery is reflected (no pun intended) in a few references: [http://books.google.com//books?num=100&q=heart.of.a.diamond&as_brr=0 more] 

"where the light came down sifted through so many emerald screens that it was as flawless as the heart of a diamond. " (''Anne of Green Gables'', Chapt. 15, by Lucy Maud Montgomery) 

"It was a singularly sharp night, and clear as the heart of a diamond."'' A Story that is Untrue'' by Ambrose Bierce 

blindness seems not to be a positive with this metaphor. No light, a heart that cannot see. Diamonds = lightlessness.
:I interpreted it as lots of light = blindness; i.e., again the distinction between seeing, learning, understanding vs. light.

An important diamond with a blindness at its heart is the one in Wilkie Collins's novel ''The Moonstone'' (1868)([http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/155 Project Gutenberg]). The diamond brings misfortune to its possessor; it is stolen twice early in the novel, and various characters try to regain it. It may be worth noting that, in Collins, a big diamond with a blindness at its heart is worth less than its compounds, if it's cut into pieces.

'''Since his''' (Darby's) '''voice had changed''' 
In three-quarters of a century Tom Swift didn't age half a dozen years. The Chums could not have aged much before ''AtD'' opened, because they weren't very old when we met them. Now the mascotte who sang the treble parts has become an adolescent.

==Page 110==

'''The once cheery mascotte... into a distrust of authority''' 
In this section Darby Suckling looks to be the "punk" of the Chums ala Darby Crash. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darby_Crash Wikipedia]

'''Nihilism''' 
Nihilism comes from the Latin ''nihil'', or nothing. It appears in the verb "annihilate", meaning to bring to nothing, to destroy completely. Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy. Nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) who argued that its corrosive effects would eventually destroy all moral, religious, and metaphysical convictions and precipitate the greatest crisis in human history. Ivan Turgenev's ''Fathers and Sons'' (1862) popularized ''nihilism'' by his character Bazarov who preached a creed of total negation. In Russia, nihilism became identified with a loosely organized revolutionary movement (1860-1917) that rejected the authority of the state, church, and family. The movement advocated a social arrangement based on rationalism and materialism as the sole source of knowledge, and individual freedom as the highest goal. The movement eventually deteriorated into an ethos of subversion, destruction, and anarchy. And by the late 1870s, a nihilist was anyone associated with clandestine political groups advocating terrorism and assassination. ([http://www.iep.utm.edu/n/nihilism.htm Nihilism]).

'''Platonic polyhedra''' 
In the Timaeus of Plato, the eponymous character claims, in what he calls his "likely story," that the cosmos was created by the gathering of triangles into regular solids which coincide with the four elements: the pyramid (fire), cube (earth), octahedron (air), icosahedron (water), and dodecahedron. The dodecahedron becomes associated with Æther.

In his early work Mysterium Cosmographicum, Johannes Kepler used the Platonic polyhedra to model the solar system.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_solid Wikipedia entry on the Platonic polyhedra, including a picture of Kepler's polyhedra model of the solar system]

'''Clarendons''' 
Clarendon is a serif typeface created in 1845 that was often used for wanted posters in the Old West. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarendon_%28typeface%29 Wikipedia entry, with a sample]

'''FUNDAMENT-SEIZING''' 
Ass-grabbing.

'''"Zumbledy bongbong," [Miles Blundell] called encouragingly, as the food flew. "Vamble, Vamble!"''' 
Miles's odd speech may be an allusion to that of the Muppets' Swedish Chef.

He may also be speaking in tongues, or simply have some sort of apraxia of speech, given these comments and those on the following page.

Or mebbe he's talking with his mouth full, the young ruffian.

:Remember that Miles is the Chum who did not see the crockery, was preoccupied, and says that he "sees" at times in a different dimension. Now, like Foley's voices, above, we have Miles with an auditory (as well as his visual) affliction.

==Page 111==

'''unmix a failed sauce''' 
There is a folk belief, however, that mayonnaise and other egg-based sauces will separate during a thunderstorm. You can, however, re-mix sauces of this kind that have de-emulsified.

'''time is intrinsic in every recipe''' 
Not whether you bake the pie for 20 minutes or 40. What's intrinsic is that the recipe always takes you forward in time. Start with ground meat, end with a hamburger, never the other way around.

'''"Of the metawarble of blibfloth zep"''' 
Poor Miles' communication problems continue.

'''dog's dinner''' 
Something that is ostentatiously smart [http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/dogs-dinner.html Definition].
"bone china" takes on new meaning!

'''In the U.S.A., it was almost the Fourth of July''' 
''Inconvenience'' is a day ahead of the U.S., being well west of the International Date Line.

'''noteworthy episodes of military explosion . . . necessary to maintain the integrity of the American homeland''' 
Put the stress on ''military.'' Other explosions achieve different purposes.

'''Explosion without an objective . . . is politics in its purest form''' 
Set this against not only the next entry but also against Drave's aphorism "Remorse without an object is a doorway to deliverance" (p. 39).

'''Haymarket bomb . . . wonders of chemistry''' 
Cf. p. 79, "the widely admired Mexican principle of politics through chemistry."

==Page 112==

'''I wish I knew what they were arguing about''' 
Randolph's consciousness has not been raised, as we used to say in the 1970s.

'''"the nature of the skyrocket's ascent"''' 
Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/01/dance-of-anarchy-and-change.html suggests] that this refers to ''Gravity's Rainbow.''

'''about the trajectories of your own lives''' 
Miles has divined that the Chums have adventures (the display) but also intervals when their movement is unsensed from outside: between the end of one of their novels and the beginning of the next one.

'''"Think, bloviators, think!"''' 
To bloviate means to speak or write at length in a pompous or boastful manner. CoC blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/01/dance-of-anarchy-and-change.html suggests] that this, coupled with the verbose allusion to ''Gravity's Rainbow'' above, is Pynchon's message to jargony commentators of his work, presumably in academia.

Presumably, us as well

'''By the time ''Inconvenience'' was ready to take once more to the sky''' 
Another damned anticlimax. They travel halfway around the world, Logistical Services puts on a big push to supply the experimental station, and we get ''not one single word'' about any data collected or knowledge gained as a result of Tesla's experiments.

Although . . . recall that the night of the experiment was introduced as "the amazing, world-reversing night of Fourth of July eve" - I think we are to read the amazing reversal in the internal affairs of the ''Inconvenience'' as the most noteworthy result.

'''President McKinley . . . naked woman . . . National Bird . . . something to eat . . . one of the Platonic polyhedra . . . draped female personage''' 
It is hard to see how the final figurehead choice is a "compromise" among these candidates.

==Page 113==

'''X.O.''' 
In many militaries' units, the executive officer (XO) is the second-in-command, reporting to the commanding officer (CO).

'''"contamination by the secular"''' 
Secular can be defined as "denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis." As the Chums have so far not been overtly religious, perhaps they mean secular in the spiritual sense?

Secular also means "worldly", as in, that which the Chums of Chance are literally above: 113: "That sort of bickering may be for ground people, but it is not for us."

'''Gloymbroognitz thidfusp''' 
Odd. Sounds like something from Adams' ''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', but isn't. Anyone?
Famous, surreal Polish writer of the 20th Century, Gombrowicz, Witold ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Gombrowicz Wikipedia entry]). 
Miles is having trouble communicating in words. See p. 110 and 111
:When language fails him (an auditory communication), perhaps he is away among the Invisible.

'''Surabaya''' 
Today in Indonesia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surabaya Wikipedia entry]

'''"Special Japanese Oyster"''' 
The pearl that comes from this oyster that facilitates communications from the Chums' Upper Hierarchy is a result of Japanese experimentation "a pearl of quite uncommon size and iridescence, seeming indeed to glow
from within" that connects with the red calcite that powers the Q-weapon, as well as Merle's and Bounce's device later in the novel. [[Q-weapon and Photography|Read on...]]

This seems to be a standard mode of communication as the Chums get out the equipment, pull the blinds, etc., as if per usual.

The pearl as means of communication from the "Upper Hierarchy" bears some similarity to the Gnostic/Manichean/Eastern Orthodox passage from the apocryphal ''Acts of Thomas.'' called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymn_of_the_Pearl ''The Hymn of the Pearl'']. The gnostic gloss on the story is that we (here The Chums) are spirits lost in the world of matter who forget our true origin, until a divine being, i.e. "The Upper Hierarchy", sends a message by way of a revealer (usually Jesus, here the pearl) to help us remember our mission. 

In the hymn the son of the king of kings is sent to retrieve a pearl from a serpent. There is no obvious serpent at this point in AtD, but the Chums get the pearl in Surabaya, whose name derives from ''suro'' (shark) and ''baya'' (crocodile), in this case both white, which together bear a mytho-poetic parallel to, a "paramorphic encryption" of a serpent. 

And like the calcite that powers the Q-weapon, in Biblical studies there is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_document Q] document which when mixed with the book of Mark yields Matthew and Luke. Prominent Biblical scholars theorize that such a book consisting of the saying of Jesus must exist based on textual analysis, but a copy has never been found. Certain texts are, as one of the Librarians says, "outside of time" but may be inferred from the evidence. (p.133)

The oysters are sold to Miles with "unusual persuasiveness" at "what did seem a remarkably attractive price." This might be an inversion, a "parable parody," a parody of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Pearl ''Parable of the Pearl.''] wherein Jesus likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a pearl of great price; whereas here, at first glance, Miles gets his pearl at discount. In re-reading it though, we are not actually told the pearl is cheap, but that whatever price it came at was remarkably attractive and unusually persuasive, in other words, the Kingdom of Heaven is an attractive bargain and persuasive at any rate of exchange with worldly goods.

It is of note that MILES gets the pearl, since he is the Chum able to enter the dimension of Invisibility (vs. visible). And it occurs after he fails to successfully master the auditory as well (language, above).

==Page 114==

'''Nernst lamps''' An early incandescent lamp invented by Hermann Nernst (1864-1941), which made use of a heated ceramic rod to produce light in ambient air (in contrast to Edison's incandescent, which required a vacuum to operate). [http://www.nernst.de/lamp/nernstlamp.htm Link]

'''Dr. Mikimoto (Kokichi)''' Produced the first cultured pearl in 1893 in Toba, Japan. As he left school at 13 to help support his family, any Doctorate he may have obtained must have been honorary.

And the Japanese:

:Through a highly secret technical process, developed in Japan at around the same time Dr. Mikimoto was producing his first cultured pearls, portions of the original aragonite which made up the nacreous layers of the pearl had, through “induced paramorphism,” as it was known to the artful sons of Nippon, been selectively changed here and there to a different form of calcium carbonate namely, to microscopic crystals of the doubly-refracting calcite known as Iceland spar.

'''Iceland Spar''' 
"Spar," in mineralogy: a transparent or translucent light-colored crystalline mineral, usually readily cleaved and somewhat lustrous; e.g. Iceland spar (calcite) . . . . (paraphrased from Bates & Jackson, ''Glossary of Geology,'' 2nd ed.)

See this handy "About Geology" page [http://geology.about.com/library/bl/images/blcalcite.htm], with an illustration demonstrating a spar's double-refraction effect on printed letters--remarkably like that on the cover of ATD! This kind of calcite has rhombohedral cleavage, because each of its faces is a rhombus, a warped rectangle in which none of the corners are square. Is each of the rectangular pages of ATD then a warped cleavage from some sort of crystalline whole, refracting its text in several directions at once? Of course, to the Chums the text message they receive from Upper Hierarchy has but one simple meaning. "Paramorphism" = the structural alteration of a mineral without any change in its external form or chemical composition.

And look at this too, how to make Iceland Spar animations:
[http://images.google.it/imgres?imgurl=http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/imgmay04/dwd/dwf1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artmay04/dwjpegcyc.html&h=300&w=400&sz=15&hl=it&start=12&tbnid=NQMhCqiW1apqNM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Diceland%2Bspar%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Dit]

Doubling / Advertisements / Stereo Lamps / Lounge / Beach Citadel / Restaurants / Brooklyn-Manhattan-Queens / Windows / Electromagnetic sun / Art Galleries / New Front / New Media / Doubling: New York 2000 (Summer) even in the multi-colored food. Talk about scent, high-end music and multifaceted sensorial experience. The reflection of candlelights in every television set.

'''divided into two separate rays, termed "ordinary" and "extraordinary" 
In the optics lab, physics students split a laser beam into two rays, which impinge on an object and are reflected onto a photographic plate, generating a hologram. The Japanese here anticipate the process, using the differently polarized rays (split by the Iceland spar) instead of laser light and replacing the plate with minute crystals in the pearl. The idea of three-dimensional holography and data storage in solid crystals would not resurface until the 1950s or 60s.

This parallels the doubling of people in AtD. So far we have seen Foley Walker as a double of Scarsdale Vibe.

'''the limitless mischief of pearls''' 
A book's worth of superstitions exist around pearls. Pearls bring tears. The bride must wear pearls. The bride who wears pearls will be unhappy. If your pearl loses its luster, you are about to die. A pearl dissolved in wine is a poison. A pearl dissolved in wine is a love potion.

'''get up buoyancy''' 
A surface ship "gets up steam" in preparation for departure. Another naval or nautical analog.

'''Etienne-Louis Malus''' 
1775-1812, a French officer and mathematician whose work was predominantly concerned with light. He studied ray systems, and his theory on polarisation was published in 1809. His theory of the double refraction of light in crystals was published in 1810. Malus is best known for his law describing intensity of light as it passes through polarized materials. There are delicious metaphorical implications for any reader of a Pynchon novel.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etienne-Louis_Malus Wikipedia] 

Malus is also the genus of the apple. And in Latin, ''malus'' means "bad," "evil," or "wicked." Note that in the narrative to come, the ship is frequently referred to simply as the Malus.

'''pearls''' 
Probably meant to contrast the "blindness at the heart of a diamond" referred to on p. 109. Pynchon may want to call to mind ''The Scarlet Letter'', in which Pearl, the child produced by the union of the protagonist, Hester Prynne, and the Rev. Dimsdale, becomes a symbol of beauty derived from sin (there, and likely here, represented by the grain of sand around which the pearl forms). This also serves to link the pearl to the ship Malus (above).

'''Dr. Alden Vormance''' "
Vormance's surname may be meant to combine "Romance" and "worm," calling to mind the Romantic exuberance that motivated 19th century exploratory expeditions as well as the serpent of the Biblical expulsion story. 
Another Pynchonian "V" name and we know what Pynchon thinks of "Romantic exuberance". See GR, at least. And a remark in ATD [to find]. 
Alternatively, Vormance may be a conflation of the German prefix ''vor-'' (meaning "forward" or "before") with the -mancy combining form (e.g. necromancy) meaning prophecy--[[User:Gobbag|Gobbag]] 12:38, 11 February 2007 (PST)

'''a strong presumption of Bad Taste''' 
The Chums seek to avoid this accusation just as Peter Pan tries to avert Captain Hook's taunt, "Bad form." The phrase occurs in J.M. Barrie's novel ''Peter Pan'' (''Peter and Wendy''), possibly also in the stage version, and again in the movie ''Hook.''

==Page 115==
'''(Johannes) Kepler''' 
(1571-1630), mathematician best known for his laws of planetary motion, one of the foundations of Isaac Newton's theory of gravity. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Kepler Wikipedia] Kepler was a Platonist who believed that mathematics and music were instrinsically linked[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_spheres] and that both were signs of God, as the physical and spiritual were linked. We have already seen many examples in AtD of mysterious singing, humming, and other noises coming out of the atmosphere.

'''Edmond Halley''' 
1656-1742, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Halley Halley] was an English physical scientist most remembered for the comet he which he predicted would return. In 1692 he proposed that the earth was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth hollow]. In 1698 he departed on a two year voyage as captain of the HMS Paramore in order to measure variations in the Earth's magnetic field. In 1716 he suggested timing the transit of Venus to determine the distance between the earth and the sun.

'''(Leonhard) Euler''' 
The method of traverse (pun ignored) by which the Chums proceed became known as a Symmes' Hole after John Cleeves Symmes who, in 1818 circulated a pamphlet arguing for the existence of such holes in the polar regions and further volunteered to lead an expedition to said regions.

Symmes' following lecture tours were further carried forth by one J.N. Reynolds. "[Edgar Allen] Poe is said to have repeatedly called out the name "Reynolds" on the night before his death, though no one has ever been able to identify the person to whom he referred." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_allen_poe Edgar Allen Poe's] first published short story, "Ms. Found in a Bottle" (1833) took, as its premise, the existence of Symmes' Holes: theoretical holes in the polar areas which led to a hollow interior. And his novel ''The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym'' recounts a voyage to the South Pole, where suddenly everything gets warmer and the sailors find themselves approaching the entrance to a hollow earth. For a Wikipedia discussion,[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Narrative_of_Arthur_Gordon_Pym_of_Nantucket]

:Research has its charms, but so does mindless surfing. [http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/03/ This blog] presents a map of the Earth inside the Earth, complete with Shambhala. The layout unfortunately doesn't fit the ''AtD'' account, but it's quite funny.

'''the great portal . . . ''noticeably smaller''''' 
Unrelieved light is unendurable; the entry into the Earth offers shadow, but the region of shelter has shrunk. Unrelieved ultraviolet light is deadly; the "ozone layer" in the atmosphere serves as protection, but the cover has shrunk—particularly in the Antarctic—as the "ozone hole" has grown larger. A small parallel, but it forwards the theme a little.
:Wouldn't additional warmth bring a ''larger'' opening?

'''the airship entered the planet's interior''' 
As did Jeremiah Dixon in [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_55:_542-553#Page_548 ''Mason & Dixon''], Pynchon's 1997 novel, guided by what seemed to be an extraterrestrial Being. This passage links the two books interestingly, as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_earth Hollow Earth] is a fairly prominent trope in ''M&D'', although there is no mention of the portal's small size. Has it shrunken because the theory is losing ground?

==Page 116==

'''vatic''' 
Prophetic. [http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2004/10/21.html [def]]

'''this is a self-protective reflex''' 
In his mystical phase Miles proves to be a believer in [http://www.ecolo.org/lovelock/ James Lovelock's "Gaia."]

'''the ship's nitro-lycopodium engines''' 
''Inconvenience'' has gone through a major refit, apparently: no more hydrogen power. Lycopodium consists of spores from a club moss, usually ''Lycopodium clavatum.'' It is a highly flammable yellowish powder. Photographers used it for flash illumination. In principle, an internal combustion engine can run on a powdered fuel, though difficulties abound in practice. The "nitro" part is a puzzle; nitromethane (called "nitro" or, in drag racing, simply "fuel") seems the most obvious reference. Do the ship's engines use a slurry of lycopodium in nitromethane? That would be a tricky fuel to handle. 
I don't think "nitro" refers to a particular, separate substance. The prefix nitro- indicates a substance whose molecules have the group NO2 attached to them. The oxygen in this group is easily released, with the result that nitro-compounds usually burn very rapidly and intensely, effectively having their own internal oxygen supply. Strictly the prefix should be applied to well defined molecular species such as nitromethane, nitrobenzene, etc, etc. However it is also used for complex biological substances treated with a nitrating agent such as nitric acid: nitrocotton (gun cotton) is a common example. Pynchon has probably invented nitro-lycopodium as a plausible though non-existent propellant, in the fashion we're accustomed to seeing with him.--[[User:Gobbag|Gobbag]] 06:57, 11 February 2007 (PST)

That is probably right, and a good point. "Plausible though non-existent" in Pynchon works because it is surrounded by the ''existent'' or prospectively existent: A modest collection of real ''AtD'' minerals/rocks/gems (lorandite, jade, Iceland spar) makes a context in which "Special Japanese Pearl" can nestle. Similarly, nitro-lycopodium falls into a class that already contains hydrogen, coal, muscle power (wheelfolk), petroleum derivatives and waterfalls. And Pynchon's fictional history is underpinned by historical events described in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica.''

'''night-glass''' 
Telescopes and binoculars are described by their magnifying power (say 7X) and the diameter of their objective lens or "pupil" (say 35 mm). For many years 7X35 binoculars were a practical compromise for field use (army issue, etc.), but these were useless at night because they could not collect enough light. "Night" binoculars might be 7X50 or even larger. Similarly, a night-glass is a telescope with an oversized lens in front.

'''electrical sound-magnifier''' 
What would come to be called an ''amplifier'' in post-Chums times.

'''human timbres and rhythms, not speech so much as music''' 
Again the "choir" image as on [[ATD_1-25#Page_19|page 19.]] The Music of the Spheres as well.

==Page 117==

'''bolts of intense greenish light''' 
Hmm, the Chums are getting the same view of this war as America got of the "Shock and Awe" campaign in Baghdad.

'''In an emergency, that choice lies at the Commander's discretion''' 
Not the people. Freedom of speech and the President's sole decision to go into war resembles some sort of Catch-22 paradox. Its what maintains a Dynasty in power for years, decades or even centuries. Its about money, power and greed. Not freedom or humanity.

'''the byzantine politics of the region''' 
Byzantine: fiendishly complicated, from ''Byzantium,'' the name of the city that would later become Constantinople and later again Istanbul. The claim indicates that Inner Earth has politics similar to those of Outer Earth.

'''royal court of Chthonica''' 
The adjective ''chthonic'' means "of the earth" or "of the underworld" and is often used to refer to the gods and other entities residing under the surface of the earth. The adjective is used creatively, and most famously, in the fictional works of H.P. Lovecraft ... a chief deity of his ficitional universe being Cthulhu.

'''Plutonia''' 
[http://www.trussel.com/prehist/plutonia.htm ''Plutonia''] is the title of a novel written by Russian geologist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Obruchev Vladimir Obruchev], published in 1915. According to [http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2000/cur0002.htm this sf site], it's a hollow-earth story.

The "Plutonist" movement, as opposed to the "Neptunist", was quite in vogue in the late 1800s, being a theory of geography which held that the interior heat of the earth was somehow responsible for various geological processes.

'''Tunbridge Wells''' 
[http://www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/disgusted-of-tunbridge-wells "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells"] is an archetypal figure of conservative England whose correspondence can be found frequently in newspapers railing at the latest outrages of modernity. Tunbridge Wells briefly features in Gravity's Rainbow.

On whether this and the subterranean adventure may allude to ''Gravity's Rainbow,'' see [[Talk:ATD_97-118|Discussion]].

'''my harmless little intraterrestrial scherzo''' 
Once again, the unseen narrator appears. By inference, the narrator is also the author of the various ''Chums of Chance...'' books referenced in ATD. This episode's also a little ''inter-textual'' scherzo: Poe (''Arthur Gordon Pym''), Jules Verne, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_the_Earth%27s_Core_%28novel%29 Edgar Rice Burroughs and Pelucidar], ''Star Trek'', Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth... and Jeremiah Dixon's own underground journey in M&D. Doesn't Chick Counterfly sound rather Spockian here (cf. 115, bottom)?

==Page 118==

'''a tiny circle of brightness far ahead''' 
Literally "the light at the end of the tunnel," a metaphor used repeatedly, and to no good effect, by American political leaders starting some weeks after the beginning of the Vietnam War.

'''a tricky bit of steering''' 
If you emerge at the North Pole, every way you steer is south, so ''which'' south will take you to the rendezvous?

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

ATD 81-96

2010-06-09T20:43:48Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 89 */

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

==Page 81==
'''July Fourth started hot and grew hotter,...''' 

[[image:Gpynch.jpg|thumb|Guardan Review|right]] On Saturday, 18 November 2006, the UK's Guardian newspaper, in a Review section which featured a drawing of what Pynchon might now look like on its cover, published a full-page excerpt from ''Against the Day''. This comprised pages 81 to 85 (up to "he wondered sometimes if he would've ever signed on."), with the addition of the final paragraph from page 96, ending with "Happy Fourth of July, Webb." This was a much more substantial excerpt than the one which appeared in the Penguin Press catalogue, and was arguably a more alluring one in terms of attracting the general reader. These were the only official excerpts published before ATD itself, on 21 November 2006.

The Guardian excerpt is now online:
[http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,,1950566,00.html]

The timing of this chapter, opening on a summer morning, parallels that of the novel's very first chapter.

Makes reference to that July Fourth feeling in YR 2000 New York when the internet / new economy / electronic revolution was getting hot while reaching its maximum peak.

'''nitro beginning to ooze out of dynamite sticks''' 
The important point about dynamite is when it '''doesn't''' blow up. Alfred Nobel discovered that he could stabilize nitroglycerine by soaking it into a powdered clay; the product was not sensitive to shock or heat. That is, until it separated in hot weather, with greasy-feeling free nitro collecting on the outside of the sticks. (A minor plot point in the TV series ''Lost,'' isn't it?)

'''Feast of St. Barbara''' 
According to legend, Saint Barbara was the extremely beautiful daughter of a wealthy heathen named Dioscorus, who lived near Nicomedia in Asia Minor, in the 4th Century AD. Because of her singular beauty and fearful that she be demanded in marriage and taken away from him, he jealously shut her up in a tower to protect her from the outside world. When Barbara converted to Christianity, her enraged father killed her and was subsequently struck down by lightening. St. Barbara was venerated as early as the seventh century. The legend of the lightning bolt which struck down her father caused her to be regarded as the patron saint in time of danger from thunderstorms, fires and sudden death. When gunpowder made its appearance in the Western world, Saint Barbara was invoked for aid against accidents resulting from explosions since some of the earlier artillery pieces often blew up instead of firing their projectile, Saint Barbara became the patroness of the artillerymen. [http://sill-www.army.mil/pao/pabarbar.htm]

'''Propaganda of the Deed''' 
Anarchist terrorism.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_of_the_deed [Wikipedia]]

'''Zarzuela''' 
Webb's horse is named for a Spanish genre of musical theater. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarzuela [Wikipedia]]

'''cicadas''' 
[http://www.ext.colostate.edu/Pubs/insect/05590.html Cicadas in Colorado] are annual, not 17- or 13-year periodical species, so they don't help pin down the year of the action.

==Page 82==
'''Skinner''' 
Commonly, a skinner is a person who skins sections of animals or whole animals, such as cattle, sheep, and pigs, to prepare them for cooking. Historically the term referred to those engaged in the trade of skins and furs.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinner (profession) Wikipedia] However, in this context, "skinner" refers to a more obscure definition: a worker who drives mules. Long teams of mules, up to ten pairs of mules on one wagon were used to haul borax from the mines to the railroads. A skinner could "skin" or outsmart a mule. ("skin" is old criminal slang for "defraud" or "cheat.")

'''"Rocky Mountain canaries"''' 
This was the nickname the miners gave to burros, because of their braying.

'''Chinaman''' 
There was a large number of Chinese who worked on the railroads in the Rocky Mountains, especially as dynamiters, in the late 18th and early 20th centuries.

'''burro-puncher''' 
See [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=donkey+punch donkey punch].

'''Eclipse Union mine''' 
The Eclipse mine was one of many in the Cripple Creek District, Lake County, Colorado, in the late 19th century. From this [http://www.scripophily.net/jaflmiandtuc.html website]:

:The Ajax vein had been staked over its length by five adjoining claims located in 1878 the Ajax, Bobtail, Nero, Park View, and Union Flag. All were patented in 1883 by the Eclipse Mining Company, which had been incorporated a year earlier with capital stock of $50,000. A year later the mine was developed via three adits (40, 100, and 400 feet long) and three shafts (each 30 feet deep). Immediately adjacent to the claims along the vein the company owned four patented mill sites of 5 acres each (Corregan and Lingane 1883).

Doubtful that the "Union" capital "U" infers that the mine was unionized, rather the Eclipse Union mine is likely a fictional entity, based on the actual existence of the Eclipse and Union mines, both active in the late 19th century in Lake County, Colorado [http://www.topozone.com/states/Colorado.asp?county=Lake&feature=Mine], with a double-entendre that references the mine owners' drive to ''eclipse'' the unions, i.e., wipe them out. Or perhaps Pynchon simply came across such a named mine in his research...

[[image:Moses.jpg|thumb|Michelangelo's "Moses"|right|160px]]'''flames issuing out of his head''' 
This hallucination likely refers to Veikko's "insane fanaticism" "even on his calmest days," his eyes "illuminated from within" [[#Page 83|p.83]]. There's also the allusion to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses Moses] coming from the mountain with fire from his head; this is the source for Michelangelo's "horns" on his statue, as well as other 17th century depictions of Moses. These depictions were based on a mistranslation of a Hebrew word that can mean horns or ray of light. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#Horned_Moses here]. Veikko carries the word, but won't be allowed into the new "Promised Land." Like Moses, Veikko is fanatical about freeing his people from enslavement, in ''ATD'' from the mine owners and bosses. This is the first we meet Veikko which sounds close to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giambattista_Vico Giambattista Vico], a possible source of Pynchonian elements. 

This can also allude to the Pentecost, as described in the second chapter of Acts: "Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them." [http://mamalong.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/pentecost1.jpg Here] is a typical image of the disciples with flames on their heads.

'''dynamite headache''' 
In the early 20th century, the nitroglycerin in dynamite was discovered to cause severe headaches. Dynamite (DNT) is highly skin-penetrating and such headaches, dubbed "dynamite headaches," were often suffered by workers in plants manufacturing explosives. Dynamite headaches were also common among miners, who were often exposed to vaporized nitroglycerin when detonating dynamite.

'''Cour d'Alene bullpens''' 
Spelled ''Coeur'', actually. During the July 1892 strikes, the violence provided the mine owners and the governor with an excuse to bring in six companies of the Idaho National Guard to "suppress insurrection and violence." Federal troops also arrived, and they confined six hundred miners in bullpens without any hearings or formal charges. Some were later "sent up" for violating injunctions, others for obstructing the United States mail. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeur_d'Alene_miners'_dispute Wikipedia entry]

'''Cripple Creek''' 
Cripple Creek was the location of a miner's strike in 1894. It was a significant labor event and it was the first time that a state Militia was called out in support of the miners. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cripple_Creek_miners'_strike_of_1894 Wikipedia entry]

'''side-door pullman''' 
Boxcar.

==Page 83==

'''They thought it was funny''' 
Many authorities report that Indians think almost everything whites do is funny. In particular:

'''Colorado . . . created as a reservation for whites''' 
Drawing straight lines on the ground and calling them limits. Most of the reservations in the West and on the Plains are bounded by such lines rather than "natural" boundaries like crestlines. So is Colorado: "four straight lines on paper" -- a Cartesian state of geography.

'''General Bobrikoff''' 
Or Bobrikov, N.I. (1839-1904), given dictatorial powers in Finland, viewed there as oppressor, assassinated on June 16, 1904, the day of the action in Joyce's Ulysses.

'''mean and cold, same wealth without conscience, same poor people in misery, army and police free as wolves to commit cruelties on behalf of the bosses, bosses ready to do anything to protect what they had stolen''' 
So simple and yet so truthful. History keeps repeating itself... One endless vicious cycle of the same lame old... One reason for James Joyce spend years writing thousand pages of sophisticated {Finnegan/Ulyssean} gibberish in defense of such unvarnished genuine statement. John Zorn once said... "governments have been thinking for thousands of years on how to fuck us up." And its the artist role to break away from that and say... now look...

'''neuræsthenic''' 
Neurasthenia (Fatigue syndrome) is a neurotic disorder. [http://www.who.int/classifications/apps/icd/icd10online/?gf40.htm+f480 Definition/Symptoms]

This word appears again on [[ATD_171-198#Page_188|page 188]]. It may be a reference to Proust, who was neurasthenic. It may also simply be a fancy word for disinterested in this context. 
:The diagnosis was frequently used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially for men (women were "hysterics"). In World War I, soldiers suffering what we would call post-traumatic stress disorder were diagnosed as neurasthenic -- if they weren't refused medical aid and/ or executed as deserters. See Elaine Showalter, '''''The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980''''' (NY: Pantheon, 1985)

==Page 84==

'''1900''' 
So the current Fourth of July must be 1901 or later (not 1899). 
And not 1904: Gen. Bobrikoff (preceding page) was assassinated in June of that year, so Veikko's toast goes stale. Therefore 1901, '02 or '03.

On August 14, 1900, American, British, Russian and American troops entered Beijing to quell the Boxer Rebellion.

'''''Minneskort''''' 
Modern Swedish word for computer memory cards. Swedish is a minority language in Finland. (TRP likely saw it on a Nokia phone.)

'''Fink trusses''' 
This [http://pghbridges.com/basics.htm perfectly delightful site] for bridge spotters identifies the Fink truss as a design by Albert Fink dating from the 1860s. It's illustrated way down toward the bottom of the page. All the compression and tension members lie below the plane of the deck where the tracks are laid.

'''...it bein a three-day holiday''' 
Indicates that this passage takes place in 1902, as the Fourth of July fell on a Friday. ([http://www.hf.rim.or.jp/~kaji/cal/cal.cgi?1902 Source])

==Page 85==

'''nippers''' 
Boys who assist a costermonger, carter, etc. Later (more generally): the most junior members of a group of workmen, esp. one employed in menial tasks. (def.4a. ''The Oxford English Dictionary.'' 2nd ed. 1989.)

'''swampers''' 
Workmen who clear a road for lumberers in a ‘swamp’ or forest. Though the OED doesn't specify mining work in it definition, it is probable that swampers also clear the roads and paths for miners. (def.1a. ''The Oxford English Dictionary.'' 2nd ed. 1989.)

'''Innocent Victims . . . Monsters That Did the Deed''' 
Use of capitals seems to emphasize the fact that these persons are simply convenient stock characters in the forwarding of the owners'/government's agenda.

'''"some of these explosions, the more deadly of them, in fact, were really set off to begin with not by Anarchists but by the owners themselves."''' 
Is this an allusion to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_demolition_hypothesis_for_the_collapse_of_the_World_Trade_Center Controlled demolition hypothesis] for the collapse of the WTC? 

NO! In labor history, many 'accidents' and some planned deeds by owners were blamed on radicals, anarchists, etc. It was common in the early days of the labor movement for owners to conspire to make the unions look bad in this manner. One such example is cited [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_labor_issues_and_events here] in 1910, and it is certainly far from the only one.

See, however, a much more straightforward allusion in [[ATD_171-198#Page_175|page 175]].
:While it's true that many "anarchist" explosions were planned by the owners of industry, to suggest that this is NOT! an allusion to the possibility of US Government involvement in the 9-11 attacks seems rather limiting. Pynchon hinted strongly that this novel is an allegory for our own time in the jacket blurb, and much of what makes this chapter interesting is the way it creates a disturbing analogy between the terrorism carried out by Webb, a highly sympathetic figure, and that carried out by the 9-11 hijackers, whom we so love to hate.

'''Which left precious few targets except for the railroad.''' 
Frank Norris's 1901 novel ''The Octopus'' is summed up in one short paragraph. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Octopus_%28Frank_Norris%29 Wikipedia entry].

==Page 86==
'''faro''' 
An old card game that was very popular in the nineteenth-century American West. For example, the great [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Jay Ricky Jay] plays a faro dealer in the TV show ''Deadwood''. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faro_(card_game) here].

'''Shorty's Billiard Saloon''' 
This is based on real accounts of billiard balls sparking and exploding in saloons. The balls in question used a then-new thermoplastic compound of cellulose nitrate and camphor developed and patented under the trademark "celluloid" by John Wesley Hyatt as a substitute for ivory. See [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=C Celluloid] for Wikipedia links to Hyatt and Celluloid.

'''without being hit once''' 
Similar to a pivotal scene in the film ''Pulp Fiction''. Samuel Jackson's character is shot at in fairly close range and is not hit even once. This prompts a spiritual awakening and his decisions to leave his life of crime.

'''a state of heightened receptivity''' 
People who talk about enlightenment and unsubstantiated alternative "therapies" use this phrase a lot—[http://www.enlightenment.com/forums/msgs.cfm?msg=708&forum=6&tz=240 example]—but in simplest terms it just means [http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/pdf%2F8004%2F8004r2.pdf hypnosis.]

'''pernicious''' 
Of a thing, action, intent, etc.: causing or likely to cause harm, esp. in a gradual or insidious manner; dangerous, destructive; evil. Also in weakened use: having a harmful influence; undesirable. (def.2a. ''The Oxford English Dictionary.'' 2nd ed. 1989.)

==Page 87==

'''those French Anarchists . . . Emile Henry . . . Vaillant''' 
Emile Henry (1872 - May 21, 1894) was a French anarchist who on February 12, 1894 detonated a bomb at the Café Terminus in the Parisian Gare Saint-Lazare killing one person and wounding twenty. Henry was angered over the execution of another Anarchist, Auguste Vaillant, for the destruction of a government building that hurt no one, and took it upon himself to strike back to avenge his fellow revolutionary's death. He saw the Cafe as a representation of the bourgeois itself and his intent was to kill as many people as possible in the bombing. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile_Henry Wikipedia entry].

'''how can anyone set off a bomb that will take innocent lives?''' 
Rev. Moss Gatlin's rhetorical question and its wisecrack response, "Long fuse" seems a calculated echo of Kubrick's ''Full Metal Jacket.'' ("How you shoot women and children?" "Easy -- don't lead 'em so much.") Discussion here also recalls the Weathermen, a violent off-shoot of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) during the Vietnam Era.

'''listening . . . to the sermon . . . those absolute terms''' 
While there is a movement or school called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_anarchism Christian anarchism] (use the Wikipedia article with caution), Gatlin's ideas do not harmonize with it. As his sermon on pages 86-87 makes plain, he follows quite a different line.

'''Mason-Dixon line''' 
We learn that the Traverse family had been "an old ridegerunning clan from southern Pennsylvania, close to the Mason-Dixon." No Traverses appear, however, in Pynchon's ''Mason & Dixon'' (except in the sense that the whole M-D survey was conducted by the traverse method), but one can speculate that had they been, the Traverse ancestors may have been victims of the Line's bad Feng Shui. From this, one could infer a connection between the Line and Colorado Anarchism.

'''Civil War''' 
This is the first instance of the term, for a war so far in the novel being referred to as "The Rebellion".

==Page 88==

'''westward drift''' 
Webb Traverse's wanderings are referred to as "this westward drift". The phrase is probably not accidental: in scientific circles "westward drift" is used for either of two geophysical phenomena: the gradual westward [http://home.jesus.ox.ac.uk/~dacheson/res2.html movement of the magnetic north pole] and the westward [http://bulletin.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/118/1-2/199 rotation of the outer layers of the Earth] (the lithosphere) relative to the inner layers.

In Frederick Jackson Turnerian circles, this westward momentum would be in harmony with both the progress of the US frontier as well as the westward transfer, according to Bishop Berkeley, of empire.

'''twelve-cylinder Confederate Colt''' 
A hard weapon to identify. Some Colt revolvers were sold to the Southern forces in the first few days after Fort Sumter, but it's far more likely that this is a knockoff of Colt's 1851 design made, for example, at Augusta, Georgia. Plenty of these got into service. Caliber is probably .36 or .44, but there are other possibilities. "Twelve-cylinder" is nonsense; there is a rare version of the Colt cylinder with ''twelve cylinder stops,'' but it holds ''six'' percussion rounds (ball and cap system). The cylinder stops are depressions on the outer surface of the cylinder forming part of the mechanism that aligns the chamber with the barrel for firing. Photos of sidearms online are ephemeral (many vanish once the auction concludes), so no link here, even if any of the available images did show the variant. To see today's selection, trying [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22confederate+revolver%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a googling "Confederate revolver"]...

==Page 89==

'''silver-boom babies''' 
Assuming the silver boom of 1890-1892 is meant, Webb's kids were aged about 9 to 16. [[Timeline|Timeline with spoilers]]

'''Ace of spades...death card''' 
The ace of spades seems to have been considered the "death card" in the Vietnam War. [http://www.newtscards.com/secret_weapon_death_playing_cards.asp Article]

Oh, ''long'' before that. Schoolchildren in the 1950s (who would pretty reliably believe anything) believed in the association, and aren't there about a shelf's worth of spy and mystery novels where the Ace of Spades portends death?

Going back farther,
:''In Robert Louis Stevenson's story "The Suicide Club" (1878), the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_of_Spades Ace of Spades] functions as the "sign of death" within a secret society whose members commit "suicide" by submitting to be killed, if they draw the Ace of Spades from a pack of 52 cards during a club meeting, by another member drawing the Ace of Clubs.''

Also, as the highest card in the deck, it commonly defeats everything else, as does death. 
Why Mayva should be likened to the Ace of Spades is still to be explained.

'''fancy briar pipe . . . beat-up old corncob''' 
Briar pipes appeared in Europe from the 1850s on. The Missouri Meerschaum brand of corncob pipe dates from 1869. Until close to 1900, clay pipes were probably more common than either.

'''took the cog railway up Pike's Peak''' 
Something you can still do today. Make your reservations [http://www.cograilway.com/ here]!

'''Bob Ford's Funeral''' 
Robert Ford assassinated his famous fellow outlaw Jesse James. His funeral took place in June 1892. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ford_(outlaw) [Wikipedia]]

'''Creede''' 
Central Colorado mining town, now a ski resort.

'''Telluride''' 
Far southwestern Colorado mining town, now a ski and mountain resort, with an annual film festival. Named for the telluride ores typical of the vicinity, but the name has more possible significance in AtD.

Used as an adjective, Telluric: Of or belonging to the earth; terrestrial; pertaining to the earth as a planet; also, arising from the earth or soil (OED). In turn the origin of Tellurism: Magnetic influence or principle supposed by some to pervade all nature, and to produce the phenomenon of Animal Magnetism; also the theory of Animal Magnetism based on this, propounded in 1822 by Keiser in Germany (OED). "Animal Magnetism" is referred to in English as Mesmerism [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Magnetism].

'''extreme and unmerciful whiteness''' 
It doesn't seem to be accidental that "white" and "whiteness" are hard to endure in ''AtD.'' Consider [[ATD_26-56#Page_52|"the whiteness of the place nearly unbearable";]] the White City and White City Investigations; and other uses.

'''repeal of the Silver Act''' 
Prior to 1892, both Silver and Gold were used as a metallic standard for currency in the United States. The Sherman Act authorized the treasury to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver per month. This inflated the price of silver, causing eastern investors to start hoarding gold as a hedge. The unrest this caused in the Colorado mines resulted in the repeal of the Act. When this happened, the mining of silver began to rapidly decline, causing further destabilization in the silver mining industry.

'''tiresome moral exercise''' 
May be a preterite association with President Clinton's impeachment and Senate trial over the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

==Page 90==

'''before he got shot''' 
1899. [http://www.butchandsundance.com/players/ketchumgang.htm [cite]]

'''the Cornish wives in Jacktown''' 
Many Western miners came from Cornwall. The stock nickname for any Cornishman was "Cousin Jack." So Jacktown is the area where the Cornish families live.

'''Lake''' 
'Lake Traverse' is a real lake between Minnesota and South Dakota. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Traverse Wikipedia]

'''dynamited carny jump up out of that blast good as new''' 
This passage recalls Daffy Duck cartoons.

==Page 91==

'''theory and practice of resistance to power''' 
[http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/maotsetun138236.html Mao Tse-tung] (or Mao Zedong) said, "The guerrilla must move among the people as a fish swims in the sea." Gatlin anticipates the principle, with a kicker that's especially pertinent to ''AtD:'' to succeed at invisibility, you must first succeed at visibility.

'''"Sleep? is when you sleep"''' 
Not likely this is a typo. We often include a question in our answer, in this case summarising the question with "sleep?" then immediately answering. And just as it does falling at the end of a sentence, the "?" reflects a change of vocal pitch/stress. As for the sentence fragment, Webb is a man of few words, and "The reservation I have about what you say is" are not some of them.

Alludes Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki's teachings on Zen... "shower is when you shower." First pages of William Burroughs' The Ticket That Exploded comes to mind ~ the notion about sleep, heartbeat and mind/spiritual/innerSelf survivalism... that fearful feeling of falling asleep and never waking up again to fulfill your true revolutionary objectives.

==Page 92==

'''$3-blessed-50 a day''' 
This might be an over-estimate; in 2006 dollars, that comes to over $86 a day, not a bad wage indeed. [http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppowerus/ Calculator]

$86 dollars a day not a bad wage?? Assuming an 8-12 hour day, that comes out to about today's minimum wage -- which is hardly a living wage. This seems about right. Just enough to keep body, soul and family together. Maybe. The text implies that $3.50/day was just barely a "living wage."

Compare $3.50 in context on [[ATD_374-396|p. 378]]...

'''Western Federation of Miners''' 
A radical labor union created in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Federation_of_Miners Wikipedia] Their history was very violent.

'''. . . a mule dropping on the edge of life's mountain trail, ready to be either squashed flat or kicked into the void.''' 
Brings directly to mind a scene from Cormac McCarthy's 1985 highly praised novel ''Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness In The West'':
:"The following evening as they rode up onto the western rim they lost one of the mules. It went skittering off down the canyon wall with the contents of the panniers exploding soundlessly in the hot dry air and it fell through sunlight and through shade, turning in that lonely void until it fell from sight into a sink of cold blue space that absolved it forever of memory in the mind of any living thing that was." (Modern Library Edition 2001, p. 147).
The novel is considered as one of the 20th century American masterpieces ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian Wikipedia entry]). It is set about 45 years before the beginning of AtD (1849-50) at the Mexico - Texas borderlands. In fact, partly due to Pynchon's frequent references to ''red'' light, ''west'' and ''sunset'' (see [[Red%2C_West_and_Sunsets|here]] for a growing list), I suspect a kind of deeper relation between the two novels, but more evidence is required.
:I hate to mention this, because the McCarthy connection is so cogent, but doesn't that phrase in ''AtD'' refer to a "mule dropping" rather than a mule that drops? Or rather: doesn't that phrase ''refract'' (or bi-refract) the passage from ''Blood Meridian,'' bringing the mule's flight to mind while overtly talking about a turd? (A mule doesn't have the option of being squashed flat, but a dropping does.)

:This entry spurred me to read ''Blood Meridian,'' and while ''AtD'' is completely independent of that work, yes, the two novels do reflect a ruddy western light on each other. A really voracious reader will find, I suspect, that ''AtD'' is subtly linked to many other late-20th/early-21st century fictions. Contributors to this wiki have noted some such parallels; one that I found by chance is described in the [[ATD_119-148#Page_142|annotations to p. 142]] ("scentless snow walls"). These relationships suggest yet another interpretation of the title, if we needed another: The book is to be read as object against ground, ''against'' the literature of ''the day.''—[[User:Volver|Volver]]

:I agree, apart from the 'late-20th/early-21st century' point - I think that the link you suggest does exist but extends much beyond. See for example [http://againsttheday.wordpress.com/2007/01/20/child-of-the-storm-ii/ this] extremely interesting entry in the AtD Weblog. [[User:Ctsats|Ctsats]] 01:45, 2 May 2007 (PDT)

'''no fugitive laws for them''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_slave_law Fugitive Slave Law] allowed Southern slave owners to chase their escaped slaves into free territory and retrieve their "property."

'''That's wicked, Rev.''' 
Switch that around and you've got Rev. Wicks (Cherrycoke), the narrator of '''Mason & Dixon'''.

==Page 93==
'''Labor produces all wealth . . .''' 
This was [http://www.laborarts.org/collections/item.cfm?itemid=178 the slogan] for the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Federation_of_Miners Western Federation of Miners].

'''plutes''' 
Plutocrats: members of the wealthy class controlling a government

'''Labor produces all wealth. Wealth belongs to the producer thereof.''' 
Reviewers of ATD have quoted this line, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601252.html] but Pynchon did not make it up. It comes from authentic miner's union literature of the time. [http://laborarts.org/collections/item.cfm?itemid=178]

'''Compassion''' 
With 'Republicans' below, a possible reference to 'compassionate conservatism' of the Bush administration. "...starving, homeless, and dead..." is what the Republicans mean by compassion, demonstrating the need for the "foreign phrase book". Has always been thus,historically and now?

'''Republicans''' 
William McKinley was elected in 1896 on the Republican ticket, defeating Democrat William Jennings Bryan, ushering in a chain of Republican Presidents until Woodrow Wilson was elected in 1912. Obviously, could also be interpreted as a jab at the current Republican Party.

==Page 94==

'''duster''' 
Long coat. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duster_(clothing) Wikipedia entry]

'''the people's work, if not God's, the two forces according to Reverend Gatlin having the same voice''' 
Gatlin has in mind the proverb ''Vox populi vox Dei,'' "the voice of the people is the voice of God." There's a twist, though; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_populi see Wikipedia.]

'''"Don't beg, you hear me? Don't any of you ever, fucking, beg, me or nobody, for nothin." 
Could have easily been TRP's response to interview requests!!!

:I think it's about honor, not annoyance.

'''There's a master list in Washington, D.C...maintained by the U.S. Secret Service.''' 
The Secret Service, founded in 1865 as a treasury force, was not a presidential protection force until 1902. Prior to this, it functioned more or less like the FBI today. This passage suggests that we are after McKinley's assassination (1901) and the period when the Secret Service began protecting the president, though page 97 suggests that this occurred in 1899.

'''Say, open up em peepers 'fore you walk over a cliff someplace''' 
Card 0 of the Rider-Waite Tarot depicts The Fool walking in bright sunlight, his eyes shut, about to fall over a precipice if he doesn't heed the little dog who's trying to warn him of the peril. It isn't out of the question that Webb has encountered the Tarot, but if he has not, his use of the image speaks strongly for its archetypal nature.

==Page 95==

'''dynamite rounders''' 
Rounders was a precursor to baseball. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rounders [Wikipedia]]

Consider the alternative, that the "rounders" are the kids; "every sheriff has at least a dozen in his county" can refer to the game of rounders only by a stretch of meaning. Rounders: rascals, mischief-makers, in this case making mischief with dynamite.

'''waiting for the rest of the joke''' 
Cf Dally and Lindsay, p27.

==Page 96==

'''"We ready?"''' 
The destruction of the railroad bridge is reminiscent of scenes in Edward Abbey's anarchistic 1975 novel ''The Monkey Wrench Gang.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey_Wrench_Gang Wikipedia entry].

'''Sufficient unto the day''' 
From [http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/matthew.htm#c6 The Gospel According to Saint Matthew: 6:34]. "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (The New Testament of the King James Bible). This phrase also appears in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']:

:"No one knows exactly when the hit will come every morning, before the markets open, out before the milkmen, They make Their new update and decide on what's going to be sufficient unto the day." [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_537-548#Page_544 ''Gravity's Rainbow'', page 544].

'''Happy Fourth of July, Webb''' 
Endearing? Veikko is eight years older than Webb.

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

ATD 81-96

2010-06-09T20:41:18Z

Compsonheir: /* Page 82 */

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

==Page 81==
'''July Fourth started hot and grew hotter,...''' 

[[image:Gpynch.jpg|thumb|Guardan Review|right]] On Saturday, 18 November 2006, the UK's Guardian newspaper, in a Review section which featured a drawing of what Pynchon might now look like on its cover, published a full-page excerpt from ''Against the Day''. This comprised pages 81 to 85 (up to "he wondered sometimes if he would've ever signed on."), with the addition of the final paragraph from page 96, ending with "Happy Fourth of July, Webb." This was a much more substantial excerpt than the one which appeared in the Penguin Press catalogue, and was arguably a more alluring one in terms of attracting the general reader. These were the only official excerpts published before ATD itself, on 21 November 2006.

The Guardian excerpt is now online:
[http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,,1950566,00.html]

The timing of this chapter, opening on a summer morning, parallels that of the novel's very first chapter.

Makes reference to that July Fourth feeling in YR 2000 New York when the internet / new economy / electronic revolution was getting hot while reaching its maximum peak.

'''nitro beginning to ooze out of dynamite sticks''' 
The important point about dynamite is when it '''doesn't''' blow up. Alfred Nobel discovered that he could stabilize nitroglycerine by soaking it into a powdered clay; the product was not sensitive to shock or heat. That is, until it separated in hot weather, with greasy-feeling free nitro collecting on the outside of the sticks. (A minor plot point in the TV series ''Lost,'' isn't it?)

'''Feast of St. Barbara''' 
According to legend, Saint Barbara was the extremely beautiful daughter of a wealthy heathen named Dioscorus, who lived near Nicomedia in Asia Minor, in the 4th Century AD. Because of her singular beauty and fearful that she be demanded in marriage and taken away from him, he jealously shut her up in a tower to protect her from the outside world. When Barbara converted to Christianity, her enraged father killed her and was subsequently struck down by lightening. St. Barbara was venerated as early as the seventh century. The legend of the lightning bolt which struck down her father caused her to be regarded as the patron saint in time of danger from thunderstorms, fires and sudden death. When gunpowder made its appearance in the Western world, Saint Barbara was invoked for aid against accidents resulting from explosions since some of the earlier artillery pieces often blew up instead of firing their projectile, Saint Barbara became the patroness of the artillerymen. [http://sill-www.army.mil/pao/pabarbar.htm]

'''Propaganda of the Deed''' 
Anarchist terrorism.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_of_the_deed [Wikipedia]]

'''Zarzuela''' 
Webb's horse is named for a Spanish genre of musical theater. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarzuela [Wikipedia]]

'''cicadas''' 
[http://www.ext.colostate.edu/Pubs/insect/05590.html Cicadas in Colorado] are annual, not 17- or 13-year periodical species, so they don't help pin down the year of the action.

==Page 82==
'''Skinner''' 
Commonly, a skinner is a person who skins sections of animals or whole animals, such as cattle, sheep, and pigs, to prepare them for cooking. Historically the term referred to those engaged in the trade of skins and furs.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skinner (profession) Wikipedia] However, in this context, "skinner" refers to a more obscure definition: a worker who drives mules. Long teams of mules, up to ten pairs of mules on one wagon were used to haul borax from the mines to the railroads. A skinner could "skin" or outsmart a mule. ("skin" is old criminal slang for "defraud" or "cheat.")

'''"Rocky Mountain canaries"''' 
This was the nickname the miners gave to burros, because of their braying.

'''Chinaman''' 
There was a large number of Chinese who worked on the railroads in the Rocky Mountains, especially as dynamiters, in the late 18th and early 20th centuries.

'''burro-puncher''' 
See [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=donkey+punch donkey punch].

'''Eclipse Union mine''' 
The Eclipse mine was one of many in the Cripple Creek District, Lake County, Colorado, in the late 19th century. From this [http://www.scripophily.net/jaflmiandtuc.html website]:

:The Ajax vein had been staked over its length by five adjoining claims located in 1878 the Ajax, Bobtail, Nero, Park View, and Union Flag. All were patented in 1883 by the Eclipse Mining Company, which had been incorporated a year earlier with capital stock of $50,000. A year later the mine was developed via three adits (40, 100, and 400 feet long) and three shafts (each 30 feet deep). Immediately adjacent to the claims along the vein the company owned four patented mill sites of 5 acres each (Corregan and Lingane 1883).

Doubtful that the "Union" capital "U" infers that the mine was unionized, rather the Eclipse Union mine is likely a fictional entity, based on the actual existence of the Eclipse and Union mines, both active in the late 19th century in Lake County, Colorado [http://www.topozone.com/states/Colorado.asp?county=Lake&feature=Mine], with a double-entendre that references the mine owners' drive to ''eclipse'' the unions, i.e., wipe them out. Or perhaps Pynchon simply came across such a named mine in his research...

[[image:Moses.jpg|thumb|Michelangelo's "Moses"|right|160px]]'''flames issuing out of his head''' 
This hallucination likely refers to Veikko's "insane fanaticism" "even on his calmest days," his eyes "illuminated from within" [[#Page 83|p.83]]. There's also the allusion to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses Moses] coming from the mountain with fire from his head; this is the source for Michelangelo's "horns" on his statue, as well as other 17th century depictions of Moses. These depictions were based on a mistranslation of a Hebrew word that can mean horns or ray of light. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses#Horned_Moses here]. Veikko carries the word, but won't be allowed into the new "Promised Land." Like Moses, Veikko is fanatical about freeing his people from enslavement, in ''ATD'' from the mine owners and bosses. This is the first we meet Veikko which sounds close to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giambattista_Vico Giambattista Vico], a possible source of Pynchonian elements. 

This can also allude to the Pentecost, as described in the second chapter of Acts: "Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them." [http://mamalong.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/pentecost1.jpg Here] is a typical image of the disciples with flames on their heads.

'''dynamite headache''' 
In the early 20th century, the nitroglycerin in dynamite was discovered to cause severe headaches. Dynamite (DNT) is highly skin-penetrating and such headaches, dubbed "dynamite headaches," were often suffered by workers in plants manufacturing explosives. Dynamite headaches were also common among miners, who were often exposed to vaporized nitroglycerin when detonating dynamite.

'''Cour d'Alene bullpens''' 
Spelled ''Coeur'', actually. During the July 1892 strikes, the violence provided the mine owners and the governor with an excuse to bring in six companies of the Idaho National Guard to "suppress insurrection and violence." Federal troops also arrived, and they confined six hundred miners in bullpens without any hearings or formal charges. Some were later "sent up" for violating injunctions, others for obstructing the United States mail. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeur_d'Alene_miners'_dispute Wikipedia entry]

'''Cripple Creek''' 
Cripple Creek was the location of a miner's strike in 1894. It was a significant labor event and it was the first time that a state Militia was called out in support of the miners. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cripple_Creek_miners'_strike_of_1894 Wikipedia entry]

'''side-door pullman''' 
Boxcar.

==Page 83==

'''They thought it was funny''' 
Many authorities report that Indians think almost everything whites do is funny. In particular:

'''Colorado . . . created as a reservation for whites''' 
Drawing straight lines on the ground and calling them limits. Most of the reservations in the West and on the Plains are bounded by such lines rather than "natural" boundaries like crestlines. So is Colorado: "four straight lines on paper" -- a Cartesian state of geography.

'''General Bobrikoff''' 
Or Bobrikov, N.I. (1839-1904), given dictatorial powers in Finland, viewed there as oppressor, assassinated on June 16, 1904, the day of the action in Joyce's Ulysses.

'''mean and cold, same wealth without conscience, same poor people in misery, army and police free as wolves to commit cruelties on behalf of the bosses, bosses ready to do anything to protect what they had stolen''' 
So simple and yet so truthful. History keeps repeating itself... One endless vicious cycle of the same lame old... One reason for James Joyce spend years writing thousand pages of sophisticated {Finnegan/Ulyssean} gibberish in defense of such unvarnished genuine statement. John Zorn once said... "governments have been thinking for thousands of years on how to fuck us up." And its the artist role to break away from that and say... now look...

'''neuræsthenic''' 
Neurasthenia (Fatigue syndrome) is a neurotic disorder. [http://www.who.int/classifications/apps/icd/icd10online/?gf40.htm+f480 Definition/Symptoms]

This word appears again on [[ATD_171-198#Page_188|page 188]]. It may be a reference to Proust, who was neurasthenic. It may also simply be a fancy word for disinterested in this context. 
:The diagnosis was frequently used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially for men (women were "hysterics"). In World War I, soldiers suffering what we would call post-traumatic stress disorder were diagnosed as neurasthenic -- if they weren't refused medical aid and/ or executed as deserters. See Elaine Showalter, '''''The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980''''' (NY: Pantheon, 1985)

==Page 84==

'''1900''' 
So the current Fourth of July must be 1901 or later (not 1899). 
And not 1904: Gen. Bobrikoff (preceding page) was assassinated in June of that year, so Veikko's toast goes stale. Therefore 1901, '02 or '03.

On August 14, 1900, American, British, Russian and American troops entered Beijing to quell the Boxer Rebellion.

'''''Minneskort''''' 
Modern Swedish word for computer memory cards. Swedish is a minority language in Finland. (TRP likely saw it on a Nokia phone.)

'''Fink trusses''' 
This [http://pghbridges.com/basics.htm perfectly delightful site] for bridge spotters identifies the Fink truss as a design by Albert Fink dating from the 1860s. It's illustrated way down toward the bottom of the page. All the compression and tension members lie below the plane of the deck where the tracks are laid.

'''...it bein a three-day holiday''' 
Indicates that this passage takes place in 1902, as the Fourth of July fell on a Friday. ([http://www.hf.rim.or.jp/~kaji/cal/cal.cgi?1902 Source])

==Page 85==

'''nippers''' 
Boys who assist a costermonger, carter, etc. Later (more generally): the most junior members of a group of workmen, esp. one employed in menial tasks. (def.4a. ''The Oxford English Dictionary.'' 2nd ed. 1989.)

'''swampers''' 
Workmen who clear a road for lumberers in a ‘swamp’ or forest. Though the OED doesn't specify mining work in it definition, it is probable that swampers also clear the roads and paths for miners. (def.1a. ''The Oxford English Dictionary.'' 2nd ed. 1989.)

'''Innocent Victims . . . Monsters That Did the Deed''' 
Use of capitals seems to emphasize the fact that these persons are simply convenient stock characters in the forwarding of the owners'/government's agenda.

'''"some of these explosions, the more deadly of them, in fact, were really set off to begin with not by Anarchists but by the owners themselves."''' 
Is this an allusion to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_demolition_hypothesis_for_the_collapse_of_the_World_Trade_Center Controlled demolition hypothesis] for the collapse of the WTC? 

NO! In labor history, many 'accidents' and some planned deeds by owners were blamed on radicals, anarchists, etc. It was common in the early days of the labor movement for owners to conspire to make the unions look bad in this manner. One such example is cited [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_labor_issues_and_events here] in 1910, and it is certainly far from the only one.

See, however, a much more straightforward allusion in [[ATD_171-198#Page_175|page 175]].
:While it's true that many "anarchist" explosions were planned by the owners of industry, to suggest that this is NOT! an allusion to the possibility of US Government involvement in the 9-11 attacks seems rather limiting. Pynchon hinted strongly that this novel is an allegory for our own time in the jacket blurb, and much of what makes this chapter interesting is the way it creates a disturbing analogy between the terrorism carried out by Webb, a highly sympathetic figure, and that carried out by the 9-11 hijackers, whom we so love to hate.

'''Which left precious few targets except for the railroad.''' 
Frank Norris's 1901 novel ''The Octopus'' is summed up in one short paragraph. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Octopus_%28Frank_Norris%29 Wikipedia entry].

==Page 86==
'''faro''' 
An old card game that was very popular in the nineteenth-century American West. For example, the great [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Jay Ricky Jay] plays a faro dealer in the TV show ''Deadwood''. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faro_(card_game) here].

'''Shorty's Billiard Saloon''' 
This is based on real accounts of billiard balls sparking and exploding in saloons. The balls in question used a then-new thermoplastic compound of cellulose nitrate and camphor developed and patented under the trademark "celluloid" by John Wesley Hyatt as a substitute for ivory. See [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=C Celluloid] for Wikipedia links to Hyatt and Celluloid.

'''without being hit once''' 
Similar to a pivotal scene in the film ''Pulp Fiction''. Samuel Jackson's character is shot at in fairly close range and is not hit even once. This prompts a spiritual awakening and his decisions to leave his life of crime.

'''a state of heightened receptivity''' 
People who talk about enlightenment and unsubstantiated alternative "therapies" use this phrase a lot—[http://www.enlightenment.com/forums/msgs.cfm?msg=708&forum=6&tz=240 example]—but in simplest terms it just means [http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/pdf%2F8004%2F8004r2.pdf hypnosis.]

'''pernicious''' 
Of a thing, action, intent, etc.: causing or likely to cause harm, esp. in a gradual or insidious manner; dangerous, destructive; evil. Also in weakened use: having a harmful influence; undesirable. (def.2a. ''The Oxford English Dictionary.'' 2nd ed. 1989.)

==Page 87==

'''those French Anarchists . . . Emile Henry . . . Vaillant''' 
Emile Henry (1872 - May 21, 1894) was a French anarchist who on February 12, 1894 detonated a bomb at the Café Terminus in the Parisian Gare Saint-Lazare killing one person and wounding twenty. Henry was angered over the execution of another Anarchist, Auguste Vaillant, for the destruction of a government building that hurt no one, and took it upon himself to strike back to avenge his fellow revolutionary's death. He saw the Cafe as a representation of the bourgeois itself and his intent was to kill as many people as possible in the bombing. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile_Henry Wikipedia entry].

'''how can anyone set off a bomb that will take innocent lives?''' 
Rev. Moss Gatlin's rhetorical question and its wisecrack response, "Long fuse" seems a calculated echo of Kubrick's ''Full Metal Jacket.'' ("How you shoot women and children?" "Easy -- don't lead 'em so much.") Discussion here also recalls the Weathermen, a violent off-shoot of the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) during the Vietnam Era.

'''listening . . . to the sermon . . . those absolute terms''' 
While there is a movement or school called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_anarchism Christian anarchism] (use the Wikipedia article with caution), Gatlin's ideas do not harmonize with it. As his sermon on pages 86-87 makes plain, he follows quite a different line.

'''Mason-Dixon line''' 
We learn that the Traverse family had been "an old ridegerunning clan from southern Pennsylvania, close to the Mason-Dixon." No Traverses appear, however, in Pynchon's ''Mason & Dixon'' (except in the sense that the whole M-D survey was conducted by the traverse method), but one can speculate that had they been, the Traverse ancestors may have been victims of the Line's bad Feng Shui. From this, one could infer a connection between the Line and Colorado Anarchism.

'''Civil War''' 
This is the first instance of the term, for a war so far in the novel being referred to as "The Rebellion".

==Page 88==

'''westward drift''' 
Webb Traverse's wanderings are referred to as "this westward drift". The phrase is probably not accidental: in scientific circles "westward drift" is used for either of two geophysical phenomena: the gradual westward [http://home.jesus.ox.ac.uk/~dacheson/res2.html movement of the magnetic north pole] and the westward [http://bulletin.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/118/1-2/199 rotation of the outer layers of the Earth] (the lithosphere) relative to the inner layers.

In Frederick Jackson Turnerian circles, this westward momentum would be in harmony with both the progress of the US frontier as well as the westward transfer, according to Bishop Berkeley, of empire.

'''twelve-cylinder Confederate Colt''' 
A hard weapon to identify. Some Colt revolvers were sold to the Southern forces in the first few days after Fort Sumter, but it's far more likely that this is a knockoff of Colt's 1851 design made, for example, at Augusta, Georgia. Plenty of these got into service. Caliber is probably .36 or .44, but there are other possibilities. "Twelve-cylinder" is nonsense; there is a rare version of the Colt cylinder with ''twelve cylinder stops,'' but it holds ''six'' percussion rounds (ball and cap system). The cylinder stops are depressions on the outer surface of the cylinder forming part of the mechanism that aligns the chamber with the barrel for firing. Photos of sidearms online are ephemeral (many vanish once the auction concludes), so no link here, even if any of the available images did show the variant. To see today's selection, trying [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22confederate+revolver%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a googling "Confederate revolver"]...

==Page 89==

'''silver-boom babies''' 
Assuming the silver boom of 1890-1892 is meant, Webb's kids were aged about 9 to 16. [[Timeline|Timeline with spoilers]]

'''Ace of spades...death card''' 
The ace of spades seems to have been considered the "death card" in the Vietnam War. [http://www.newtscards.com/secret_weapon_death_playing_cards.asp Article]

Oh, ''long'' before that. Schoolchildren in the 1950s (who would pretty reliably believe anything) believed in the association, and aren't there about a shelf's worth of spy and mystery novels where the Ace of Spades portends death?

Going back farther,
:''In Robert Louis Stevenson's story "The Suicide Club" (1878), the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_of_Spades Ace of Spades] functions as the "sign of death" within a secret society whose members commit "suicide" by submitting to be killed, if they draw the Ace of Spades from a pack of 52 cards during a club meeting, by another member drawing the Ace of Clubs.''

Also, as the highest card in the deck, it commonly defeats everything else, as does death. 
Why Mayva should be likened to the Ace of Spades is still to be explained.

'''fancy briar pipe . . . beat-up old corncob''' 
Briar pipes appeared in Europe from the 1850s on. The Missouri Meerschaum brand of corncob pipe dates from 1869. Until close to 1900, clay pipes were probably more common than either.

'''took the cog railway up Pike's Peak''' 
Something you can still do today. Make your reservations [http://www.cograilway.com/ here]!

'''Bob Ford's Funeral''' 
June 1892 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ford_(outlaw) [Wikipedia]]

'''Creede''' 
Central Colorado mining town, now a ski resort.

'''Telluride''' 
Far southwestern Colorado mining town, now a ski and mountain resort, with an annual film festival. Named for the telluride ores typical of the vicinity, but the name has more possible significance in AtD.

Used as an adjective, Telluric: Of or belonging to the earth; terrestrial; pertaining to the earth as a planet; also, arising from the earth or soil (OED). In turn the origin of Tellurism: Magnetic influence or principle supposed by some to pervade all nature, and to produce the phenomenon of Animal Magnetism; also the theory of Animal Magnetism based on this, propounded in 1822 by Keiser in Germany (OED). "Animal Magnetism" is referred to in English as Mesmerism [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Magnetism].

'''extreme and unmerciful whiteness''' 
It doesn't seem to be accidental that "white" and "whiteness" are hard to endure in ''AtD.'' Consider [[ATD_26-56#Page_52|"the whiteness of the place nearly unbearable";]] the White City and White City Investigations; and other uses.

'''repeal of the Silver Act''' 
Prior to 1892, both Silver and Gold were used as a metallic standard for currency in the United States. The Sherman Act authorized the treasury to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver per month. This inflated the price of silver, causing eastern investors to start hoarding gold as a hedge. The unrest this caused in the Colorado mines resulted in the repeal of the Act. When this happened, the mining of silver began to rapidly decline, causing further destabilization in the silver mining industry.

'''tiresome moral exercise''' 
May be a preterite association with President Clinton's impeachment and Senate trial over the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

==Page 90==

'''before he got shot''' 
1899. [http://www.butchandsundance.com/players/ketchumgang.htm [cite]]

'''the Cornish wives in Jacktown''' 
Many Western miners came from Cornwall. The stock nickname for any Cornishman was "Cousin Jack." So Jacktown is the area where the Cornish families live.

'''Lake''' 
'Lake Traverse' is a real lake between Minnesota and South Dakota. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Traverse Wikipedia]

'''dynamited carny jump up out of that blast good as new''' 
This passage recalls Daffy Duck cartoons.

==Page 91==

'''theory and practice of resistance to power''' 
[http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/maotsetun138236.html Mao Tse-tung] (or Mao Zedong) said, "The guerrilla must move among the people as a fish swims in the sea." Gatlin anticipates the principle, with a kicker that's especially pertinent to ''AtD:'' to succeed at invisibility, you must first succeed at visibility.

'''"Sleep? is when you sleep"''' 
Not likely this is a typo. We often include a question in our answer, in this case summarising the question with "sleep?" then immediately answering. And just as it does falling at the end of a sentence, the "?" reflects a change of vocal pitch/stress. As for the sentence fragment, Webb is a man of few words, and "The reservation I have about what you say is" are not some of them.

Alludes Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki's teachings on Zen... "shower is when you shower." First pages of William Burroughs' The Ticket That Exploded comes to mind ~ the notion about sleep, heartbeat and mind/spiritual/innerSelf survivalism... that fearful feeling of falling asleep and never waking up again to fulfill your true revolutionary objectives.

==Page 92==

'''$3-blessed-50 a day''' 
This might be an over-estimate; in 2006 dollars, that comes to over $86 a day, not a bad wage indeed. [http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppowerus/ Calculator]

$86 dollars a day not a bad wage?? Assuming an 8-12 hour day, that comes out to about today's minimum wage -- which is hardly a living wage. This seems about right. Just enough to keep body, soul and family together. Maybe. The text implies that $3.50/day was just barely a "living wage."

Compare $3.50 in context on [[ATD_374-396|p. 378]]...

'''Western Federation of Miners''' 
A radical labor union created in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Federation_of_Miners Wikipedia] Their history was very violent.

'''. . . a mule dropping on the edge of life's mountain trail, ready to be either squashed flat or kicked into the void.''' 
Brings directly to mind a scene from Cormac McCarthy's 1985 highly praised novel ''Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness In The West'':
:"The following evening as they rode up onto the western rim they lost one of the mules. It went skittering off down the canyon wall with the contents of the panniers exploding soundlessly in the hot dry air and it fell through sunlight and through shade, turning in that lonely void until it fell from sight into a sink of cold blue space that absolved it forever of memory in the mind of any living thing that was." (Modern Library Edition 2001, p. 147).
The novel is considered as one of the 20th century American masterpieces ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian Wikipedia entry]). It is set about 45 years before the beginning of AtD (1849-50) at the Mexico - Texas borderlands. In fact, partly due to Pynchon's frequent references to ''red'' light, ''west'' and ''sunset'' (see [[Red%2C_West_and_Sunsets|here]] for a growing list), I suspect a kind of deeper relation between the two novels, but more evidence is required.
:I hate to mention this, because the McCarthy connection is so cogent, but doesn't that phrase in ''AtD'' refer to a "mule dropping" rather than a mule that drops? Or rather: doesn't that phrase ''refract'' (or bi-refract) the passage from ''Blood Meridian,'' bringing the mule's flight to mind while overtly talking about a turd? (A mule doesn't have the option of being squashed flat, but a dropping does.)

:This entry spurred me to read ''Blood Meridian,'' and while ''AtD'' is completely independent of that work, yes, the two novels do reflect a ruddy western light on each other. A really voracious reader will find, I suspect, that ''AtD'' is subtly linked to many other late-20th/early-21st century fictions. Contributors to this wiki have noted some such parallels; one that I found by chance is described in the [[ATD_119-148#Page_142|annotations to p. 142]] ("scentless snow walls"). These relationships suggest yet another interpretation of the title, if we needed another: The book is to be read as object against ground, ''against'' the literature of ''the day.''—[[User:Volver|Volver]]

:I agree, apart from the 'late-20th/early-21st century' point - I think that the link you suggest does exist but extends much beyond. See for example [http://againsttheday.wordpress.com/2007/01/20/child-of-the-storm-ii/ this] extremely interesting entry in the AtD Weblog. [[User:Ctsats|Ctsats]] 01:45, 2 May 2007 (PDT)

'''no fugitive laws for them''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugitive_slave_law Fugitive Slave Law] allowed Southern slave owners to chase their escaped slaves into free territory and retrieve their "property."

'''That's wicked, Rev.''' 
Switch that around and you've got Rev. Wicks (Cherrycoke), the narrator of '''Mason & Dixon'''.

==Page 93==
'''Labor produces all wealth . . .''' 
This was [http://www.laborarts.org/collections/item.cfm?itemid=178 the slogan] for the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Federation_of_Miners Western Federation of Miners].

'''plutes''' 
Plutocrats: members of the wealthy class controlling a government

'''Labor produces all wealth. Wealth belongs to the producer thereof.''' 
Reviewers of ATD have quoted this line, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601252.html] but Pynchon did not make it up. It comes from authentic miner's union literature of the time. [http://laborarts.org/collections/item.cfm?itemid=178]

'''Compassion''' 
With 'Republicans' below, a possible reference to 'compassionate conservatism' of the Bush administration. "...starving, homeless, and dead..." is what the Republicans mean by compassion, demonstrating the need for the "foreign phrase book". Has always been thus,historically and now?

'''Republicans''' 
William McKinley was elected in 1896 on the Republican ticket, defeating Democrat William Jennings Bryan, ushering in a chain of Republican Presidents until Woodrow Wilson was elected in 1912. Obviously, could also be interpreted as a jab at the current Republican Party.

==Page 94==

'''duster''' 
Long coat. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duster_(clothing) Wikipedia entry]

'''the people's work, if not God's, the two forces according to Reverend Gatlin having the same voice''' 
Gatlin has in mind the proverb ''Vox populi vox Dei,'' "the voice of the people is the voice of God." There's a twist, though; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_populi see Wikipedia.]

'''"Don't beg, you hear me? Don't any of you ever, fucking, beg, me or nobody, for nothin." 
Could have easily been TRP's response to interview requests!!!

:I think it's about honor, not annoyance.

'''There's a master list in Washington, D.C...maintained by the U.S. Secret Service.''' 
The Secret Service, founded in 1865 as a treasury force, was not a presidential protection force until 1902. Prior to this, it functioned more or less like the FBI today. This passage suggests that we are after McKinley's assassination (1901) and the period when the Secret Service began protecting the president, though page 97 suggests that this occurred in 1899.

'''Say, open up em peepers 'fore you walk over a cliff someplace''' 
Card 0 of the Rider-Waite Tarot depicts The Fool walking in bright sunlight, his eyes shut, about to fall over a precipice if he doesn't heed the little dog who's trying to warn him of the peril. It isn't out of the question that Webb has encountered the Tarot, but if he has not, his use of the image speaks strongly for its archetypal nature.

==Page 95==

'''dynamite rounders''' 
Rounders was a precursor to baseball. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rounders [Wikipedia]]

Consider the alternative, that the "rounders" are the kids; "every sheriff has at least a dozen in his county" can refer to the game of rounders only by a stretch of meaning. Rounders: rascals, mischief-makers, in this case making mischief with dynamite.

'''waiting for the rest of the joke''' 
Cf Dally and Lindsay, p27.

==Page 96==

'''"We ready?"''' 
The destruction of the railroad bridge is reminiscent of scenes in Edward Abbey's anarchistic 1975 novel ''The Monkey Wrench Gang.'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey_Wrench_Gang Wikipedia entry].

'''Sufficient unto the day''' 
From [http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/matthew.htm#c6 The Gospel According to Saint Matthew: 6:34]. "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (The New Testament of the King James Bible). This phrase also appears in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']:

:"No one knows exactly when the hit will come every morning, before the markets open, out before the milkmen, They make Their new update and decide on what's going to be sufficient unto the day." [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_537-548#Page_544 ''Gravity's Rainbow'', page 544].

'''Happy Fourth of July, Webb''' 
Endearing? Veikko is eight years older than Webb.

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