Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

ATD 557-587

2007-01-06T19:01:39Z

Crazymonk: /* Page 582 */

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

==Page 557==

'''Viktor Mulciber''' 
???

'''bespoke''' 
made to order, hence hand-made and expensive. Somewhere in the novel is a reference to 1 Savile Row, the address of Gieves and Hawkes, a very traditional English tailor.

'''Basil Zaharoff''' 
???

'''trains of history... run''' 
???

'''Balkan ''komitadji''''' 
???

'''waybill''' 
???

'''metamorphosed into an American Negro''' 
Cf honorary Negro (Frank above).

'''Nipponese''' 
Japanese

'''Hertzian''' 
Electromagnetic waves, first demonstrated by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Rudolf_Hertz Heinrich Hertz]

==Page 558==

'''scalar part''' 
Quaternion equivalent of the real part

'''baritone in a barbershop quartet''' 
[http://www.barbershop.org/web/groups/public/documents/pages/pub_id_000827.hcsp Quote]:Technically speaking, barbershop harmony is a style of unaccompanied singing with three voices harmonizing to the melody. The lead usually sings the melody, with the tenor harmonizing above the lead. The bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes and the baritone provides in-between notes, either above or below the lead to make chords (specifically, dominant-type or "barbershop" sevenths) that give barbershop its distinctive, "full" sound.

'''viola in a string quartet''' 
Two violins, a viola, and a violoncello make up a string quartet. The viola is between the others in pitch and is generally considered to have been given the least interesting parts in Classical and Romantic music for string quartet.

'''Further Term''' 
The three parts of a quaternion that are multiples of '''i''', '''j''' and '''k'''

'''laterite''' 
A mineral structure formed by erosion, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laterite Wikipedia].

'''Inner Boulevards''' 
???

'''Gare du Midi''' 
The largest railway station in Brussels and a haunt of prostitutes.

'''Edouard Gevaert''' 
(No ligature?)

==Page 559==

'''Krupp field-piece''' 
The Krupps are an ancient German family, famous for making weapons. A field-piece is a light-cannon.

'''vaguely glandular''' 
???

'''''ostinato''''' 
A continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm.

'''poleaxed''' 
Stunned, brought to a mental standstill. (I believe a poleaxe was used in slaughterhouses. --[[User:Volver|Volver]] 11:31, 3 January 2007 (PST))

'''lost to silence''' 
(Not silent, or very?)

==Page 560==

'''Estacade''' 
???

'''''mousmée... mouchard''' 
???

'''always lead an irregular life''' 
Cf GR.

'''Maria Bayley Hamilton''' 
???

'''council meeting''' 
???

==Page 561==

'''Brougham Bridge''' 
???

'''pulls a knife''' 
(Folklore, really later?)

'''on the stone''' 
???

'''Pentecostal''' 
???

'''official Mischief Opportunity''' 
???

'''absinthe spoons''' 
???

'''cravats''' 
???

'''"four-door farce"''' 
(See eg Bogdanovich's "What's Up, Doc?")
This is also a pun on the name of Georges Feydeau, French writer of farces who was writing when Pynchon's novel is set. One of the recurring physical jokes involves sets with many doors and people coming in and out, just missing each other....

==Page 562==

'''Minque''' 
???

'''carillons... carilloneur''' 
???

'''Hanseatic''' 
???

'''burghers''' 
???

'''silted up''' 
???

'''Damme and Sluis''' 
???

==Page 563==

'''trusted his intuitiveness''' 
???

'''''"Jou moerskont!"''... Afrikaans''' 
Possibly "you horse's ass"?

==Page 564==

'''immense choir''' 
???

'''''Voetsak''''' 
Dutch or Afrikaans, "Go away!", also spelled "voertsek" or "voetsek"

'''starers''' 
???

'''tobacco-stricken''' 
???

'''half-silvering''' 
A design for an optical [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_splitter beam splitter] that causes half of the incident light to be transmitted and the other half to be reflected.

'''four cusps... index-surface''' 
???

'''co-conscious''' 
???

==Page 565==

'''true icosahedron''' 
Probably an regular icosahedron, where the sides are formed by 20 equilateral triangles

'''12+8... pyrites''' 
Pyrite crystals form a structure that can be decomposed into unit cells that contain (part of) 12 sulphur atoms and 8 iron atoms.

'''Riemann sphere''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_sphere Wikipedia]

'''Felix Klein''' 
German mathematician ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Klein Wikipedia])

'''ebonite''' 
An early plastic([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebonite Wikipedia])

'''Ohmic Drift''' 
???

'''speed of the earth... kinetic energy''' 
???

'''Recently Lorentz's paper''' 
Lorentz's 1904 "Electromagnetic phenomena in a system moving with any velocity less than that of light" ([http://www.soso.ch/wissen/hist/SRT/L-1904.pdf PDF])

'''Lord Rayleigh''' 
British physicist ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rayleigh Wikipedia])

==Page 566==

'''In a dream...''' 

This passage, describing Kit's dream of Umeki and the message it conveys, pulls together many of the main themes of ''Against the Day'', tying things together in a way that Pynchon seldom does, almost as if he's providing a rather large piece of the puzzle to help the reader understand the novel:

:"Deep among the equations describing the behavor of light, field equations, Vector and Quaternion equations, lies a set of directions, an intinerary, a map to a hidden space. Double refraction appears again and again as a key element, permitting a view into a Creation set just to the side of this one, so close as to overlap, where the membrane between the worlds, in many places, has become too frail, too permeable, for safety.... Within the mirror, with the scalar term, within the daylit and obvious and taken-for-granted has always lain, as if in wait, the dark intinerary, the corrupted pilgrim's guide, the nameless Station before the first, in the lightless uncreated, where salvation does not yet exist."

'''analogies''' 
(Pynchonian heuristics.)

'''nameless Station''' 
???

'''lightless uncreated''' 
(Gnostic heresy?)

'''stuffed sinus''' 
???

'''''Konichiwa''''' 
Japanese greeting

==Page 567==

'''new Puccini opera''' 
Obviously, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Butterfly Madame Butterfly]

'''Borel-Clerc... "La Matchiche"''' 
Popular vaudeville song from 1903. "La Matchiche" is French for the Brazilian dance Maxixe.

'''western anchor''' 
What about France, Spain, Portugal?

'''Compaignie Internationale des Wagons-Lits''' 
"International Sleeping-Car Company", [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlson_Wagonlit Wikipedia]

'''two hundred francs''' 
???

'''theory of sets''' 
???

'''Bruges Canal''' 
???

==Page 568==

'''vaporetto''' 
A Venetian water-bus.

'''Grand Canal''' 
The main canal that runs through the heart of Venice and down past San Marco, the city's main square.

'''San Marco end''' 
See above. This is where Florian's (appears in the novel) is situated.

'''Piazzetta''' 
???

'''San Giorgio Maggiore''' 
A rather over-ornate church on the Grand Canal opposite San Marco.

'''spreading... cloak''' 
Cliche/allusion?

'''live here forever''' 
Pynchon special-pleading that Dally isn't just another tourist.
Or is this just a typical reaction of the tourist? And a Pynchonesque longing for home?
==Page 569==

'''Malibran... Polo's house''' 
The Teatro Malibran, built at the site of Marco Polo's house, which was destroyed in 1596.

'''"pincette" pass''' 
Probably from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pincer_movement pincer movement] of military strategy.

'''profondes''' 
"Large pockets in tail coats which can be used for vanishes or productions", [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conjuring_terms Wikipedia]

'''Vincenzo Miserere''' 
???

'''train to Trieste''' 
???

'''Svegli''' 
???

'''shark leather''' 
Different from sharkskin?

'''''Specchiere''''' 
Mirror-maker

'''glassmakers on Murano''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murano Wikipedia]

==Page 570==

'''another one of his stories''' 
(Jackson Pynchon should highlight all the AtD passages that originated as bedtime stories.)

'''TERAPIA''' 
Italian, "therapy"

'''San Servolo''' 
An island in the Venetian archipelago, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Servolo Wikipedia], [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=45.418654+N,+12.35698+E&ie=UTF8&z=17&ll=45.418651,12.35698&spn=0.006891,0.010793&t=k&om=1&iwloc=addr Google Maps]

'''Palazzo Ducale''' 
The Ducal Palace in Venice, residence of the Doge. It's by San Marco.

'''''manicomio''''' 
Italian, "madhouse"

'''uterine vellum''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vellum Vellum] produced from the skin of an unborn calf

'''pitch, rouge''' 
Products used in the grinding of lenses and mirrors.

==Page 571==

'''La Doppiatrice''' 
???

'''Ettore Sananzolo''' 
???

'''Maskelyne cabinet''' 
After Neville Maskelyne, from ''Mason and Dixon.'' Maskelyne sent M and D to record the Transit of Venus.

More likely a descendant, Jasper M., famous stage magician and designer of dazzle camouflage.[[User:Volver|Volver]] 15:34, 2 January 2007 (PST)

==Page 572==

'''smoke back into a cigar''' 
Time's arrow/ entropy motif.

'''hard-as-a-rock black cigar''' 
???

'''thumping''' 
???

'''''salso''''' 
???

'''''sandoli''''' 
???

'''trains pulling in''' 
Famous early film.

==Page 573==

'''Cannareggio''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannaregio Cannaregio]

==Page 574==

'''thirty years older''' 
About 65yo?

'''that day''' 
In NYC when Dally showed up.

'''when she was born''' 
Cf Pretenders/Chryssie Hynde.

'''Stronzo''' 
Italian curse word, roughly "asshole"

'''''In bocc' al lupo!''''' 
From the Roman dialect, in which the Italians - including Rocco and Pino - seem to speak. Meaning, literally, "In the
mouth of the wolf," and idiomatically, "Good luck."

Specifically the good-luck wish among actors: "Break a leg!" [[User:Volver|Volver]] 15:36, 2 January 2007 (PST)

'''''campielli''''' 
???

==Page 575==

'''Riva''' 
???

'''middy blouses''' 
???

'''not yet been rebuilt''' 
Remember p256.

'''''lucciole''''' 
???

'''''fondamenta''''' 
A waterside street in Venice

'''''ombreta''''' 
???

'''light's good here''' 
Old joke about drunk looking for car keys under streetlight though he dropped them somewhere else.

'''microcosm''' 
???

==Page 576==

'''twelve soldi''' 
???

'''franc... ten francs''' 
???

'''Canaletto''' 
???

'''Beppo''' 
???

'''pitch''' 
???

'''Bauer-Grünwald''' 
An expensive hotel near San Marco in Venice.

==Page 577==

''''Safe'''' 
Recent art-movie title?

'''Castello''' 
???

'''Evening Gun''' 
???

'''importunate''' 
???

'''Dr. Grace''' 
Renowned, full-bearded 19th-century English cricket player.

==Page 578==

'''Dorsoduro''' 
An area of Venice.

'''''pensione''''' 
A cheap Italian hotel, like a bed and breakfast.

'''La Calcina''' 
???

'''Zattere''' 
An area of wide waterfront pavements in Venice.

'''''cimici''''' 
???

'''bora''' 
???

==Page 579==

'''Tintoretto's ''Abduction...''''' 
???

'''Accademia''' 
The major art-gallery in Venice

'''Titian''' 
16th century Venetian painter.

'''Infancy Gospel of Thomas''' 
???

==Page 580==

'''Pentecost story in Acts''' 
???

'''Galilean dialect''' 
Of Aramaic.

'''''rii''''' 
Plural of ''rio''.

==Page 581==

'''''sotopòrteghi''''' 
An open doorway for public access.

'''Bodeo 10.4 mm''' 
???

==Page 582==

'''''foschetta''''' 
???

'''''masègni''''' 
???

'''''patrone''''' 
???

'''wine trains up from Puglia''' 
???

'''Winter''' 
1904-1905?

'''Principessa Spongiatosta''' 
Is Pugnax's book from p6 at all relevant here?

'''Ca'''' 
Abbreviated form of "Casa," Italian for "house."

'''Roman Composite order''' 
???

'''japonica''' 
???

==Page 583==

'''Iron Bridge''' 
???

'''Le Havre''' 
???

'''''ma via''''' 
???

'''third eyes touching''' 
???

==Page 584==

'''"Swiss insurance salesman. Wolf. No, Putzi."''' 
Bria's had so many beaux she gets them confused?

'''''topo''''' 
???

'''Dogana''' 
???

'''Andrea Tancredi''' 
???

'''Seurat and Signac''' 
George Seurat (1859-1891) and Paul Signac (1863-1935), French painters who developed pointillism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism Wikipedia entry].

'''Divisionism''' 
???

'''Marinetti''' 
???

'''"Futurists"''' 
Practitioners or followers of Futurism, an early 20th century art movement that is considered the genesis of Cubism, Dada and Art Deco. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism_%28art%29 Wikipedia entry].

'''brutalism''' 
???

'''Torcello''' 
A lonely Venetian island: very peaceful and beautiful with a church and little else.

'''primitivo''' 
???

==Page 585==

'''green-and-lavender''' 
Another clashing color scheme.

'''sirocco''' 
A hot dust-laden wind from the Libyan deserts that blows on the northern Mediterranean coast chiefly in Italy, Malta, and Sicily.

'''San Michele''' 
???

'''futuristic vehicle''' 
P155.

'''''Preliminary Studies...''''' 
???

==Page 586==

'''Always with us.''' 
Gospel of ?.

'''''vero''''' 
Cf 'verdad'.

'''orpiment yellow''' 
A yellow color pigment ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpiment Wikipedia])

'''Nürnberg violet''' 
An artificial color pigment discovered in 1868 in the city of Nuremberg

==Page 587==

'''''nebbia, nebbietta, foschia, caligo, sfumato''''' 
???

'''speed of sound''' 
Air temperature is more important that density.

'''''La Velocità del Suono''''' 
Italian, "speed of sound"

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

ATD 358-373

2006-12-16T23:16:14Z

Crazymonk: /* Page 359 */

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

==Page 358==

'''Camp Bird''' 
???

'''Archie Dipple''' 
???

'''imported years ago''' 
???

'''cylindrical hats''' 
pic?

==Page 359==

'''bunco-steerer''' 
A con man or fraudster, but the use here seems less malicious than usual.

'''Macking for a mack''' 
???

==Page 360==

'''across the day''' 
???

'''taken in''' 
Out = alive; in = living dead.

'''Saturday nights''' 
Since "V" Pynchon has presented heavy drinking as a virtue.

'''sanctuary''' 
(Why leave free places at all, though?)

'''Chicago-built''' 
Railway hub leads to manufacture of heavy goods.

'''Sean O'Farrells''' 
???

'''army "A" tents''' 
???

'''bars had toothmarks''' 
(Patrons so drunk they sit on floor and gnaw edge of bar?)

==Page 361==

'''cowboy-dancing''' 
(I can't picture this.)

'''undeniable miracle''' 
Hipster resuscitates sappy cliche.

'''Willow''' 
???

==Page 363==

'''the Wall''' 
Death?

'''''chavalitos''''' 
Kids (Spanish).

'''calico recital''' 
IE, wife's conventional plea.

==Page 364==

'''Denver''' 
Actually mine school at Golden, 15 miles west?

'''purple... orange''' 
(Clashing colors keep turning up as a motif.)

'''January colt''' 
???

'''Borrasca''' 
Borrasca in Spanish means storm, squall, depression, or area of low pressure. But apparently it can also mean an exhausted mine, and 'Going borrasca' means "becoming mined-out". Interestingly, this is very close to the English word 'borassic', ie. out of cash. This comes from Cockney Rhyming Slang: 'boracic lint' meaning 'skint', ie without any money.

==Page 365==

'''Bridget McGonigal''' 
???

'''fill the day''' 
(Day motif.)

==Page 366==

'''sled''' 
(Cf Dally and Frank.)

'''Jake''' 
Okay (slang).

==Page 367==

'''Thrapston Cheesely III''' 
???

'''Madame Aubergine''' 
???

'''Ruperta Chirpingdon-Groin''' 
???

'''Yup Toy''' 
Expensive yuppie gadget, eg iPod.

'''naphtha-light''' 
Obscure fuel-into-light motif variant.

==Page 368==

'''$3.50-a-quart''' 
About $75 today.

'''an exquisite''' 
???

'''Monsieur Peychaud''' 
???

'''Sazeracs''' 
???

'''Bob Stockton''' 
???

'''bengaline''' 
???

'''Medici collar''' 
???

'''bastard chinchilla''' 
???

==Page 369==

'''cheurice''' 
???

'''Italian Troubles''' 
???

'''''Va fongool-a''''' 
???

'''Maman Tant Gras Hall''' 
Mama-So-Fat Hall.

'''''guignette''''' 
???

'''"Dope" Breedlove and his Merry Coons''' 
???

'''traps''' 
???

==Page 370==

'''Ramos gin fizz''' 
???

'''Benjamin Tucker''' 
???

'''Land League''' 
???

'''Wolfe Tone O'Rooney''' 
???

'''Fenian''' 
???

'''invented boycotting''' 
???

'''tenor''' 
???

==Page 371==

'''Red Onion''' 
???

'''Deux Espèces''' 
???

'''Flaco''' 
Skinny man (Spanish).

==Page 372==

'''Montjuich''' 
???

'''latifundios''' 
???

'''assassinated''' 
(Date.)

'''readily found''' 
(Why?)

==Page 373==

'''conjugate... spill''' 
???

'''''Despedida''''' 
???

'''beignets''' 
???

'''Bakunin''' 
???

'''Kropotkin''' 
???

'''Eusebio Gómez''' 
???

'''''a sus órdenes''''' 
???

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

Talk:ATD 296-317

2006-12-16T03:02:25Z

Crazymonk:

Is it appropriate to add all of the unknown phrases to the annotation pages? How and when do we decide that something like, say, "matte-surface" isn't in need of being on the annotations page? Or do we just let these things accumulate? [[User:Crazymonk|Crazymonk]] 19:02, 15 December 2006 (PST)

Talk:ATD 296-317

2006-12-16T03:01:27Z

Crazymonk:

ATD 273-295

2006-12-15T00:43:27Z

Crazymonk: /* Page 293 */

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

==Page 273==

'''the electric''' 
???

==Page 274==

'''Arapahoe''' 
???

'''drygulched''' 
???

'''after Repeal in '93''' 
Refers to the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, which required the U.S. government to purchase an additional 4.5 million ounces of silver bullion every month with notes that could be redeemed for either silver or gold. Repealed by Congress after the Panic of 1893 to prevent depletion of the country's gold reserves. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Silver_Purchase_Act Wikipedia entry].

'''Lake County''' 
Colorado county of which Leadville is the county seat.

'''Haw Tabor''' 
Horace Tabor, a prospector, businessman, politician, and one of the wealthiest men in Colorado in the 19th Century. Tabor moved to Denver in 1859, later settling in Leadville in 1877. With the wealth he accumulated from his silver mine, Tabor established newspapers, a bank, and an opera house in Leadville (which still stands), and the Tabor Grand Opera House and the Tabor Block in Denver. In 1878, Tabor was elected Lieutenant Governor of Colorado and served in that post until January 1884. He served as U.S. Senator from Colorado for two months in 1883. Tabor ran unsuccessfully for Colorado governor in 1884, 1886, and 1888. In 1893, the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act devastated Tabor's fortune and his far-flung holdings were sold off. He died from appendicitis in 1899, and his legend still persists in Colorado.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Tabor Wikipedia entry].

'''Matchless''' 
The Matchless Mine in Leadville, formerly owned by Horace Tabor. Oscar Wilde visited the Matchless in 1882. The "widow" is Elizabeth Bonduel McCourt Doe, a/k/a "Baby Doe" Tabor, Horace Tabor's second wife (and his mistress before he married her in 1883). Baby Doe and her stubborn retention of the Matchless Mine is another Colorado legend. When Horace Tabor fell ill with appendicitis in 1899, his final request of Baby Doe was that she "hold onto the Matchless." This she did, with tragic results. After living in a shack beside the mine for 36 years, she froze to death one night in March 1935 after she ran out of firewood. Her body was found frozen with her arms crossed peacefully across her chest. After her death, 17 iron trunks that had been placed in storage in Denver were opened, as well as several gunny sacks and four trunks that had been left at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Leadville. All that was left from the Tabor fortune were several bolts of unique, untouched and exquisite cloth, several pieces of china, a tea service and some jewelry, including a diamond and sapphire ring. Baby Doe's story has inspired numerous works, including a movie and an opera by Douglas Moore, ''The Ballad of Baby Doe.'' More on Baby Doe Tabor, including pictures of the Matchless and the shack she lived and died in, can be found at these links: [http://www.babydoetabor.com/ Baby Doe Tabor.com]; [http://www.babydoe.org/index.php BabyDoe.org]

'''Zinc Rush''' 
???

'''some bright engineer''' 
???

==Page 275==

'''Molly-be-damned''' 
Molybdenum, which is still mined outside of Leadville.

'''Wren Provenance''' 
???

'''anthropologist''' 
Anachronism?

'''heaps''' 
pic?

'''Sons of Heaven section''' 
???

==Page 276==

'''Jennie Rogers's House of Mirrors''' 
Jennie Rogers (1843-1909) was a notorious Denver madam who built the "House of Mirrors" at 1946 Market Street in Denver in 1889 and ran it until her death in 1909. The House of Mirrors embodies the Romanesque architecture of the era, and was specifically desgined as a bordello. It was later taken over by the even more notorious Mattie Silks (1846-1929), who operated it until 1915, when it fell victim to so-called "reformers." The House of Mirrors still stands, and today operates as a bar and restauant. (This contributor has been drinking there many times.) More on its history, including pictures, and on the history of Denver's Market Street red-light district, can be found at [http://www.mattieshouseofmirrors.com/index.html this website].

'''dress cavalry helmet''' 
pic?

==Page 277==

'''Aztlán''' 
???

'''thirteenth century''' 
???

'''images of creatures''' 
pic?

==Page 278==

'''the report''' 
???

'''Albany... bar mirror''' 
???

'''Booth Virbling''' 
???

==Page 279==

'''Bulkley Wells''' 
???

'''Ice Saw murder''' 
???

'''sparking''' 
???

==Page 280==

'''South Pacific islands''' 
Cf Margaret Mead.

==Page 281==

'''first city''' 
???

'''"Beside the tracks at one bend stood a local lunatic"''' 
Like starting a Disney land ride.
:how so? [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 14:46, 4 December 2006 (PST)

==Page 282==

'''level of hatred''' 
Cf capacitance?

'''vagging bee''' 
Neologism?

==Page 283==

'''''"joven"''''' 
Young fellow (Spanish).

'''Ellmore Disco''' 
???

'''when it was still Leadville''' 
???

'''Seven-Toed Pete''' 
???

==Page 284==

'''jaconet... tartalan... crepe lissé''' 
???

'''Liberty's of London''' 
???

'''Grand Rapids style''' 
???

'''Four Corners Boys''' 
???

==Page 285==

'''million apiece''' 
Current values?

'''wackyzacky''' 
???

'''Cal Rutan''' 
???

==Page 286==

'''Loomis''' 
Loomis Disco.

'''lowland alkali''' 
???

'''hardpan''' 
???

==Page 287==

'''chicharrones''' 
Fried pork skins.

'''''Ristras''''' 
Strings of dried red chiles.

'''sixty-degree wedges''' 
One-sixth of a pie.

'''''"Por poco te faltó La Blanca"''''' 
Translates to "You just missed La Blanca."

==Page 288==

'''Montrose''' 
A city on Colorado's Western Slope. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montrose%2C_Colorado Wikipedia entry].

'''popcorn snows''' 
???

'''vanning''' 
???

'''''comal''''' 
???

==Page 289==

'''half a cubic foot''' 
12" by 12" by 6".

==Page 290==

'''gad''' 
???

'''McBryan's''' 
???

'''trick animal''' 
???

==Page 291==

'''Cosmopolitan''' 
Cf p260.

'''Mr. Edison's scheme... static electricity''' 
???

'''Wetherill's magnet''' 
If electric, that's Kit's domain.

==Page 292==

'''Hieronymus Wheel''' 
???

'''bellows''' 
pic?

==Page 293==

'''''"Sumimasen... Bobusan desu... Gonnusuringaa... mottomo abunai desu"''''' 
Don't know the rest, but "Bobusan" refers to Bob and "Gonnusuringaa" is likely "Gunslinger."

'''''"Anna koto"''''' 
???

'''fulgurescence''' 
???

'''packing out pyrites''' 
Mining fool's gold?

'''katana''' 
???

==Page 294==

'''Baron Akashi''' 
???

'''Squirrel and sarsaparilla''' 
???

==Page 295==

'''summer of '89''' 
???

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

ATD 119-148

2006-12-07T05:08:20Z

Crazymonk: /* Page 140 */

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

==Page 122==

'''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 Wainbow''), 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.

==Page 123==

'''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 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."

'''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.

'''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 the 1980s. 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.

==Page 124==

'''Na sobrat' ya po nebo!''' 
?

==Page 125==
'''a ''roman-feuilleton'' by M. Eugène Sue''' 
A ''roman-feuilleton'' or serial novel. M. Eugène Sue 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 M. Eugène Sue]

'''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...

'''Isafjördr''' 
Seems to be in Iceland?

'''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."

==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. [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?

'''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].

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

==Page 127==

'''Constance Penhallow''' 
Hallow: to set apart as holy, to honor greatly. Her name then pairs the virtue of canstancy with honoring the pen. Note also that her grandson, mentioned on page 128, 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...

'''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]

==Page 128==

'''Hunter Penhallow''' 
See above, Constance Penhallow.

'''Bay of Röerford''' 
Does not seem to exist, at least with this spelling.

==Page 133==

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

'''... 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]

==Page 134==
'''visitors from elsewhere, of non-human aspect''' 
Extraterrestrials. "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".

'''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".

==Page 136==

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

==Page 138==
'''From the Journals of Mr. Fleetwood Vibe...''' 
So begins a short narrative, spanning pp.138-155, which bears some of the hallmarks characteristic of the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft: (1) a narrator (Fleetwood) who relates a series of horrible, cosmic events in the form of a memoir or journal entry; (2) a slumbering entity, or "visitor" (p149), mistaken for a more mundane object (meteorite, in this case), and; (3) the incapacity of humans to anticipate or respond to the foreignness of this cosmic vistior and its actions. Given that this horrible thing was retrieved from the Arctic, it is reminiscent of Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" (though, ''Antarctic'' in setting; 1931; [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/At_the_Mountains_of_Madness Wikisource text of the novella]) and, given the meteor-like form of this visitor, "The Colour out of Space" (1927; [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Colour_Out_of_Space Wikisource text of the story]).

'''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==
'''Dr. Counterfly''' 
Last seen as a boy with low rank. How much time has elapsed?

'''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].

==Page 140==

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

'''Bréguet-style arrowheads''' 
A distinctive fine watch of French design. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breguet_(watch) Wikipedia entry]

'''Poulson's Telegraphone''' 
Invented in 1898, the first magnetic recording machine was patented by Valdemar Poulson. The theory behind this machine was worked out theoretically by Oberlin Smith of the UK in 1888. Poulson'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.

The "second sight" Dr. Vormance refers to is the subject of Stephen King's novel The Shining, wherein the child Danny Torrance, born with a caul, is possessed with the eponymous supernatural power.

==Page 141==

'''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.

==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.

'''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.

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.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jameson_raid Wikipedia entry]

==Page 148==

'''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]