https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Dedalus204Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]2026-06-04T07:40:27ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.43.6https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13912ATD 460-4882007-09-04T07:24:45Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 464 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel,_California Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''old Spanish Trail'''<br><br />
Opened as a trade route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Spanish Trail became a major link connecting New Mexico and southern California from 1829 to 1848. It was used chiefly by New Mexican traders, who found a ready market for woolen goods--serapes, rugs, blankets, bedspreads, yardage--in the California settlements. Pack trains with as many as a hundred traders left Santa Fe in annual caravans. The textiles were exchanged in California for horses and mules, which were then marketed in New Mexico. Traders returning to Santa Fe often drove as many as a thousand or more animals, some of them, perhaps, having been stolen from the herds of the California missions and ranchos. <br />
<br />
[http://www.media.utah.edu:80/UHE/s/SPANISHTRAIL.html Utah History Encyclopedia]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Nochecita'''<br><br />
"Nochecita" translates into "nightfall" or "dusk" (literally, "little night").<br />
<br />
[http://www.babelpoint.com/1/?w=nochecita Translation]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''the spur line of his destiny'''<br><br />
A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_line Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''not about to suffer fools'''<br><br />
... with echoes of Scarsdale Vibe to Ray Ipsow, p. 32:<br />
<br />
2nd Corinthians 11:16 - 21: <br />
<br />
I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. <br />
<br />
That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. <br />
<br />
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. <br />
<br />
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.<br />
<br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html Corinthians 2]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''newer tenants continued to move in'''<br><br />
Main Entry: gen·tri·fi·ca·tion <br />
<br />
Pronunciation: "jen-tr&-f&-'kA-sh&n<br />
<br />
Function: noun<br />
<br />
: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces earlier usually poorer residents <br />
<br />
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?gentrification<br />
<br />
<br />
[...] Gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district's character and culture. The term is often used negatively, suggesting the displacement of poor communities by rich outsiders. But the effects of gentrification are complex and contradictory, and its real impact varies. <br />
<br />
Many aspects of the gentrification process are desirable. Who wouldn't want to see reduced crime, new investment in buildings and infrastructure, and increased economic activity in their neighborhoods? Unfortunately, the benefits of these changes are often enjoyed disproportionately by the new arrivals, while the established residents find themselves economically and socially marginalized. <br />
<br />
Gentrification has been the cause of painful conflict in many American cities, often along racial and economic fault lines. Neighborhood change is often viewed as a miscarriage of social justice, in which wealthy, usually white, newcomers are congratulated for "improving" a neighborhood whose poor, minority residents are displaced by skyrocketing rents and economic change. <br />
<br />
Although there is not a clear-cut technical definition of gentrification, it is characterized by several changes. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/flagwars/special_gentrification.html Gentrification article]<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''He wondered if he could be his own ghost'''<br><br />
"Out of body" experiences (OBEs) are personal experiences during which people feel as if they are perceiving the physical world from a location outside of their physical bodies. At least 5 and perhaps as many as 35 of every 100 people have had an OBE at least once in their lives (Blackmore, 1982). OBEs are highly arousing; they can be either deeply disturbing or profoundly moving. Understanding the nature of this widespread and potent experience would no doubt help us better understand the experience of being alive and human." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.lucidity.com/NL32.OBEandLD.html Article from The Lucidity Institute]<br />
<br />
Out-of-body experiences are 'all in the mind' <br />
New Scientist - Aug 29, 2007<br> An Illusion created experimentally is the first to give people their own "out-of-body" experiences.[http://technology.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12531&amp;feedId=online-news_rss20}<br />
<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
i.e., 'gone bust'<br />
<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
A reference to the title motif.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Stray with her hair down and her baby in her arms'''<br><br />
Kinda suggests the classic image of the Virgin Mary in Christian symbolism (not to mention the wonderful pun on her name given this suggestion). Interestingly, visual depictions of the Virgin Mother rarely portray her with her hair down (representing sexual promiscuity). Her hair is usually up and covered, thus:<br />
<br />
[http://biblia.com/christianity2/virgin-child29.jpg Traditional image]<br />
<br />
[http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2007/01/virgin_450x600.jpg Contemporary image]<br />
<br />
[http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006-08/virgin-mary-turtle.jpg Turtle image]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Linnet Dawes'''<br><br />
The girl's name Linette \l(i)-nette, lin(et)-te\ is pronounced LIN-et. It is of Welsh and Old French origin, and its meaning is "idol; linnet, a small songbird". Probably a variant of Lynette.<br />
<br />
Linette has 10 variant forms: Lenette, Lanette, Linet, Linetta, Linnet, Linnette, Lonette, Lynette, Lynnet and Lynnette.<br />
<br />
[http://www.xs4all.nl:80/~sbpoley/scinames.htm Scientific bird names explained]<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
While "Fickle Creek" doesn't seem to be in New Mexico, it is apparently known for its eggs (i.e., in North Carolina, not New Mexico): <br />
<br />
"Standing in front of the Weaver Street Market egg case, I ruminated on the varieties of eggs -- from the lowest-priced traditional white eggs from conventionally raised, confined chickens at Latta's Egg Ranch to the most costly speckled, variegated eggs from free-range chickens raised outdoors on bugs and corn at Fickle Creek Farms. <br />
<br />
For the past 10 years I've mostly eaten from the middle of the road: moderately expensive cage-free eggs from Latta's. That's my compromise between price, cruelty and ostensibly gastronomic quality." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.chapelhillnews.com/108/story/6046.html Chapel Hill News]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''whoop-de-do'''<br><br />
noun (plural whoop-de-dos) (plural whoop-de-doos) <br />
<br />
Definition: <br />
<br />
1. party: a large-scale party or celebration that is lively or noisy<br />
2. U.S. publicity: noisy activity meant to attract attention the whoop-de-do surrounding the movie's release<br />
3. fuss: a noisy public commotion or outcry<br />
<br />
interjection <br />
<br />
Definition: <br />
<br />
expressing excitement: used to express excitement ( often used ironically ) <br />
<br />
[Mid-20th century. Expressive alteration of whoop] <br />
<br />
[http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861713053/whoop-de-do.html Definition]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
Constructed from the Latin "nocturnus" (by night, nightly, nocturnal) + "ambulo" (to walk)<br />
<br />
[...] is a Sleep Disorder characterized by walking or other activity while seemingly still asleep. Sleepwalking (Somnambulism) is a series of complex behaviors that are initiated during slow wave sleep and result in walking during sleep. Sleepwalking is a rapid eye movement (REM) behavior disorder occurring in the dream stage of sleep. During this phase, the body releases a chemical that paralyzes the body. However, those who sleepwalk do not have this chemical trigger, hence the behavior. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.crescentlife.com/disorders/sleepwalking.htm Sleepwalking article]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
The passage is somewhat reminiscent of Lew Basnight's encounter with the Esthonia Hotel (pp. 38 - 39), and echos the "Voyage to Laputa" from ''Gulliver's Travels''.<br />
<br />
[http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver/bk3/chap3-5.html Gulliver passage]<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
Also cf. the Zoltan Fortune Teller Arcade Machine <br />
<br />
They were a project done by Robert B. Bourque and Robert Cottle, a lifelong friend of Bourques. Mr. Cottle provided the deep voice you hear on the machines. Mr. Bourque at one time played the part of Captain Bob on a Boston children's TV show. <br />
<br />
Year Built: 1967 to the early 1970's, in Massachusettes <br />
<br />
[http://www.pinballrebel.com/fortune/zoltan/zoltan.htm Description of machine]<br />
<br />
[http://www.gameroomshow.com/index.php?photos/album/2/photo/120.php Photo of Machine]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
On January 7, 1898, the brothers Michel and Eugene Werner, two émigré Russian journalists, patented their "Motocyclette" powered two-wheeler, which had its engine mounted above the steering head, driving the front wheel by belt. They had already built two prototype.<br />
<br />
[http://www.bikerenews.com/AntiqueBikes/1904WernerMotorcyle.html Description and photo]<br />
<br />
Also, this reference serves as an allusion to Wernher Von Braun, rocket scientist:<br />
<br />
"Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death." <br />
<br />
-- Wernher Von Braun (GR, p. 1)<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''flapjack emporium'''<br><br />
Pynchon having some fun here with the International House of Pancakes (IHOP).<br />
<br />
[...] In North America, flapjack is another term for a thin pancake that is not only crispy, but slightly chewy as well. A largely defining attribute of a flapjack is its large diameter, commonly measuring 12" or more. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapjack Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
Emporium is a Latin term for a department store and for marketplaces or trading centers in ancient cities.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
Excelsior was founded in 1907 by Ignaz Schwinn, namesake for the famous Chicago based bicycle manufacturer. Schwinn would become one of the United States' largest motorcycle builders with its line of Excelsior Autocycles (as it termed its motorcycles in an early sales play), and also with its Henderson Four line, which was introduced in the twenties. Schwinn would not stay in cycles, however. Eventually, the market got the best of him, and he shifted to strictly bicycle making - the brand still carries his name to this day. <br />
<br />
[...] The Excelsior Autocycle was offered in a wide variety of models in the 1910s beginning with a 449cc single cylinder and V-twins of 746cc and 996cc. Early models fed power to the rear wheel via a leather band; by 1914, Excelsior had moved up to linked chain drive.<br />
<br />
[ http://www.bikerenews.com/AntiqueBikes/1914ExcelsiorVtwin.html Description and photo]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
Vang is a municipality in the county of Oppland, Norway.<br />
<br />
Vang was established as a municipality January 1, 1838.<br />
<br />
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old farm Vang (Norse Vangr), since the first church was built here. The name is identical with the word vangr m 'field, meadow'.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vang Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
Interestingly, "field" or "meadow" = "prairie"?? Again, Pynchon playing with names that correspond to nature.<br />
<br />
[http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx/feeley-family-crest.htm Feeley family crest]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
<br />
'''duster'''<br><br />
A duster is a light, loose-fitting coat.<br />
<br />
The original dusters were full-length, light-colored canvas or linen coats worn by horsemen to protect their clothing from trail dust. These dusters were typically slit up the back to hip level for ease of wear on horseback. At the turn of the 20th century, both men and women wore dusters to protect their clothes when riding in open motorcars on the dirt roads of the day. In the 1950s, a duster was a woman's knee-length, button-front unfitted housecoat which could be thrown on over underwear for housework or cooking. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duster_(clothing) Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13911ATD 460-4882007-09-04T07:18:07Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 464 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel,_California Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''old Spanish Trail'''<br><br />
Opened as a trade route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Spanish Trail became a major link connecting New Mexico and southern California from 1829 to 1848. It was used chiefly by New Mexican traders, who found a ready market for woolen goods--serapes, rugs, blankets, bedspreads, yardage--in the California settlements. Pack trains with as many as a hundred traders left Santa Fe in annual caravans. The textiles were exchanged in California for horses and mules, which were then marketed in New Mexico. Traders returning to Santa Fe often drove as many as a thousand or more animals, some of them, perhaps, having been stolen from the herds of the California missions and ranchos. <br />
<br />
[http://www.media.utah.edu:80/UHE/s/SPANISHTRAIL.html Utah History Encyclopedia]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Nochecita'''<br><br />
"Nochecita" translates into "nightfall" or "dusk" (literally, "little night").<br />
<br />
[http://www.babelpoint.com/1/?w=nochecita Translation]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''the spur line of his destiny'''<br><br />
A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_line Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''not about to suffer fools'''<br><br />
... with echoes of Scarsdale Vibe to Ray Ipsow, p. 32:<br />
<br />
2nd Corinthians 11:16 - 21: <br />
<br />
I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. <br />
<br />
That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. <br />
<br />
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. <br />
<br />
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.<br />
<br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html Corinthians 2]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''newer tenants continued to move in'''<br><br />
Main Entry: gen·tri·fi·ca·tion <br />
<br />
Pronunciation: "jen-tr&-f&-'kA-sh&n<br />
<br />
Function: noun<br />
<br />
: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces earlier usually poorer residents <br />
<br />
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?gentrification<br />
<br />
<br />
[...] Gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district's character and culture. The term is often used negatively, suggesting the displacement of poor communities by rich outsiders. But the effects of gentrification are complex and contradictory, and its real impact varies. <br />
<br />
Many aspects of the gentrification process are desirable. Who wouldn't want to see reduced crime, new investment in buildings and infrastructure, and increased economic activity in their neighborhoods? Unfortunately, the benefits of these changes are often enjoyed disproportionately by the new arrivals, while the established residents find themselves economically and socially marginalized. <br />
<br />
Gentrification has been the cause of painful conflict in many American cities, often along racial and economic fault lines. Neighborhood change is often viewed as a miscarriage of social justice, in which wealthy, usually white, newcomers are congratulated for "improving" a neighborhood whose poor, minority residents are displaced by skyrocketing rents and economic change. <br />
<br />
Although there is not a clear-cut technical definition of gentrification, it is characterized by several changes. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/flagwars/special_gentrification.html Gentrification article]<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''He wondered if he could be his own ghost'''<br><br />
"Out of body" experiences (OBEs) are personal experiences during which people feel as if they are perceiving the physical world from a location outside of their physical bodies. At least 5 and perhaps as many as 35 of every 100 people have had an OBE at least once in their lives (Blackmore, 1982). OBEs are highly arousing; they can be either deeply disturbing or profoundly moving. Understanding the nature of this widespread and potent experience would no doubt help us better understand the experience of being alive and human." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.lucidity.com/NL32.OBEandLD.html Article from The Lucidity Institute]<br />
<br />
Out-of-body experiences are 'all in the mind' <br />
New Scientist - Aug 29, 2007<br> An Illusion created experimentally is the first to give people their own "out-of-body" experiences.[http://technology.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12531&amp;feedId=online-news_rss20}<br />
<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
i.e., 'gone bust'<br />
<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
A reference to the title motif.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Stray with her hair down and her baby in her arms'''<br><br />
Kinda suggests the classic image of the Virgin Mary in Christian symbolism (not to mention the wonderful pun on her name given this suggestion). Interestingly, visual depictions of the Virgin Mother rarely portray her with her hair down (representing sexual promiscuity). Her hair is usually up and covered, thus:<br />
<br />
[http://biblia.com/christianity2/virgin-child29.jpg Traditional image]<br />
<br />
[http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2007/01/virgin_450x600.jpg Contemporary image]<br />
<br />
[http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006-08/virgin-mary-turtle.jpg Turtle image]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Linnet Dawes'''<br><br />
The girl's name Linette \l(i)-nette, lin(et)-te\ is pronounced LIN-et. It is of Welsh and Old French origin, and its meaning is "idol; linnet, a small songbird". Probably a variant of Lynette.<br />
<br />
Linette has 10 variant forms: Lenette, Lanette, Linet, Linetta, Linnet, Linnette, Lonette, Lynette, Lynnet and Lynnette.<br />
<br />
[http://www.xs4all.nl:80/~sbpoley/scinames.htm Scientific bird names explained]<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
While "Fickle Creek" doesn't seem to be in New Mexico, it is apparently known for its eggs (i.e., in North Carolina, not New Mexico): <br />
<br />
"Standing in front of the Weaver Street Market egg case, I ruminated on the varieties of eggs -- from the lowest-priced traditional white eggs from conventionally raised, confined chickens at Latta's Egg Ranch to the most costly speckled, variegated eggs from free-range chickens raised outdoors on bugs and corn at Fickle Creek Farms. <br />
<br />
For the past 10 years I've mostly eaten from the middle of the road: moderately expensive cage-free eggs from Latta's. That's my compromise between price, cruelty and ostensibly gastronomic quality." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.chapelhillnews.com/108/story/6046.html Chapel Hill News]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''whoop-de-do'''<br><br />
noun (plural whoop-de-dos) (plural whoop-de-doos) <br />
<br />
Definition: <br />
<br />
1. party: a large-scale party or celebration that is lively or noisy<br />
2. U.S. publicity: noisy activity meant to attract attention the whoop-de-do surrounding the movie's release<br />
3. fuss: a noisy public commotion or outcry<br />
<br />
interjection <br />
<br />
Definition: <br />
<br />
expressing excitement: used to express excitement ( often used ironically ) <br />
<br />
[Mid-20th century. Expressive alteration of whoop] <br />
<br />
[http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861713053/whoop-de-do.html Definition]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
Constructed from the Latin "nocturnus" (by night, nightly, nocturnal) + "ambulo" (to walk)<br />
<br />
[...] is a Sleep Disorder characterized by walking or other activity while seemingly still asleep. Sleepwalking (Somnambulism) is a series of complex behaviors that are initiated during slow wave sleep and result in walking during sleep. Sleepwalking is a rapid eye movement (REM) behavior disorder occurring in the dream stage of sleep. During this phase, the body releases a chemical that paralyzes the body. However, those who sleepwalk do not have this chemical trigger, hence the behavior. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.crescentlife.com/disorders/sleepwalking.htm Sleepwalking article]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
The passage is somewhat reminiscent of Lew Basnight's encounter with the Esthonia Hotel (pp. 38 - 39), and echos the "Voyage to Laputa" from ''Gulliver's Travels''.<br />
<br />
[http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver/bk3/chap3-5.html Gulliver passage]<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
Also cf. the Zoltan Fortune Teller Arcade Machine <br />
<br />
They were a project done by Robert B. Bourque and Robert Cottle, a lifelong friend of Bourques. Mr. Cottle provided the deep voice you hear on the machines. Mr. Bourque at one time played the part of Captain Bob on a Boston children's TV show. <br />
<br />
Year Built: 1967 to the early 1970's, in Massachusettes <br />
<br />
[http://www.pinballrebel.com/fortune/zoltan/zoltan.htm Description of machine]<br />
<br />
[http://www.gameroomshow.com/index.php?photos/album/2/photo/120.php Photo of Machine]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
On January 7, 1898, the brothers Michel and Eugene Werner, two émigré Russian journalists, patented their "Motocyclette" powered two-wheeler, which had its engine mounted above the steering head, driving the front wheel by belt. They had already built two prototype.<br />
<br />
[http://www.bikerenews.com/AntiqueBikes/1904WernerMotorcyle.html Description and photo]<br />
<br />
Also, this reference serves as an allusion to Wernher Von Braun, rocket scientist:<br />
<br />
"Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death." <br />
<br />
-- Wernher Von Braun (GR, p. 1)<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
Excelsior was founded in 1907 by Ignaz Schwinn, namesake for the famous Chicago based bicycle manufacturer. Schwinn would become one of the United States' largest motorcycle builders with its line of Excelsior Autocycles (as it termed its motorcycles in an early sales play), and also with its Henderson Four line, which was introduced in the twenties. Schwinn would not stay in cycles, however. Eventually, the market got the best of him, and he shifted to strictly bicycle making - the brand still carries his name to this day. <br />
<br />
[...] The Excelsior Autocycle was offered in a wide variety of models in the 1910s beginning with a 449cc single cylinder and V-twins of 746cc and 996cc. Early models fed power to the rear wheel via a leather band; by 1914, Excelsior had moved up to linked chain drive.<br />
<br />
[ http://www.bikerenews.com/AntiqueBikes/1914ExcelsiorVtwin.html Description and photo]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
Vang is a municipality in the county of Oppland, Norway.<br />
<br />
Vang was established as a municipality January 1, 1838.<br />
<br />
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old farm Vang (Norse Vangr), since the first church was built here. The name is identical with the word vangr m 'field, meadow'.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vang Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
Interestingly, "field" or "meadow" = "prairie"?? Again, Pynchon playing with names that correspond to nature.<br />
<br />
[http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx/feeley-family-crest.htm Feeley family crest]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
<br />
'''duster'''<br><br />
A duster is a light, loose-fitting coat.<br />
<br />
The original dusters were full-length, light-colored canvas or linen coats worn by horsemen to protect their clothing from trail dust. These dusters were typically slit up the back to hip level for ease of wear on horseback. At the turn of the 20th century, both men and women wore dusters to protect their clothes when riding in open motorcars on the dirt roads of the day. In the 1950s, a duster was a woman's knee-length, button-front unfitted housecoat which could be thrown on over underwear for housework or cooking. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duster_(clothing) Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13910ATD 460-4882007-09-04T07:08:56Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 463 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel,_California Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''old Spanish Trail'''<br><br />
Opened as a trade route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Spanish Trail became a major link connecting New Mexico and southern California from 1829 to 1848. It was used chiefly by New Mexican traders, who found a ready market for woolen goods--serapes, rugs, blankets, bedspreads, yardage--in the California settlements. Pack trains with as many as a hundred traders left Santa Fe in annual caravans. The textiles were exchanged in California for horses and mules, which were then marketed in New Mexico. Traders returning to Santa Fe often drove as many as a thousand or more animals, some of them, perhaps, having been stolen from the herds of the California missions and ranchos. <br />
<br />
[http://www.media.utah.edu:80/UHE/s/SPANISHTRAIL.html Utah History Encyclopedia]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Nochecita'''<br><br />
"Nochecita" translates into "nightfall" or "dusk" (literally, "little night").<br />
<br />
[http://www.babelpoint.com/1/?w=nochecita Translation]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''the spur line of his destiny'''<br><br />
A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_line Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''not about to suffer fools'''<br><br />
... with echoes of Scarsdale Vibe to Ray Ipsow, p. 32:<br />
<br />
2nd Corinthians 11:16 - 21: <br />
<br />
I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. <br />
<br />
That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. <br />
<br />
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. <br />
<br />
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.<br />
<br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html Corinthians 2]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''newer tenants continued to move in'''<br><br />
Main Entry: gen·tri·fi·ca·tion <br />
<br />
Pronunciation: "jen-tr&-f&-'kA-sh&n<br />
<br />
Function: noun<br />
<br />
: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces earlier usually poorer residents <br />
<br />
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?gentrification<br />
<br />
<br />
[...] Gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district's character and culture. The term is often used negatively, suggesting the displacement of poor communities by rich outsiders. But the effects of gentrification are complex and contradictory, and its real impact varies. <br />
<br />
Many aspects of the gentrification process are desirable. Who wouldn't want to see reduced crime, new investment in buildings and infrastructure, and increased economic activity in their neighborhoods? Unfortunately, the benefits of these changes are often enjoyed disproportionately by the new arrivals, while the established residents find themselves economically and socially marginalized. <br />
<br />
Gentrification has been the cause of painful conflict in many American cities, often along racial and economic fault lines. Neighborhood change is often viewed as a miscarriage of social justice, in which wealthy, usually white, newcomers are congratulated for "improving" a neighborhood whose poor, minority residents are displaced by skyrocketing rents and economic change. <br />
<br />
Although there is not a clear-cut technical definition of gentrification, it is characterized by several changes. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/flagwars/special_gentrification.html Gentrification article]<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''He wondered if he could be his own ghost'''<br><br />
"Out of body" experiences (OBEs) are personal experiences during which people feel as if they are perceiving the physical world from a location outside of their physical bodies. At least 5 and perhaps as many as 35 of every 100 people have had an OBE at least once in their lives (Blackmore, 1982). OBEs are highly arousing; they can be either deeply disturbing or profoundly moving. Understanding the nature of this widespread and potent experience would no doubt help us better understand the experience of being alive and human." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.lucidity.com/NL32.OBEandLD.html Article from The Lucidity Institute]<br />
<br />
Out-of-body experiences are 'all in the mind' <br />
New Scientist - Aug 29, 2007<br> An Illusion created experimentally is the first to give people their own "out-of-body" experiences.[http://technology.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12531&amp;feedId=online-news_rss20}<br />
<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
i.e., 'gone bust'<br />
<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
A reference to the title motif.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Stray with her hair down and her baby in her arms'''<br><br />
Kinda suggests the classic image of the Virgin Mary in Christian symbolism (not to mention the wonderful pun on her name given this suggestion). Interestingly, visual depictions of the Virgin Mother rarely portray her with her hair down (representing sexual promiscuity). Her hair is usually up and covered, thus:<br />
<br />
[http://biblia.com/christianity2/virgin-child29.jpg Traditional image]<br />
<br />
[http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2007/01/virgin_450x600.jpg Contemporary image]<br />
<br />
[http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006-08/virgin-mary-turtle.jpg Turtle image]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Linnet Dawes'''<br><br />
The girl's name Linette \l(i)-nette, lin(et)-te\ is pronounced LIN-et. It is of Welsh and Old French origin, and its meaning is "idol; linnet, a small songbird". Probably a variant of Lynette.<br />
<br />
Linette has 10 variant forms: Lenette, Lanette, Linet, Linetta, Linnet, Linnette, Lonette, Lynette, Lynnet and Lynnette.<br />
<br />
[http://www.xs4all.nl:80/~sbpoley/scinames.htm Scientific bird names explained]<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
While "Fickle Creek" doesn't seem to be in New Mexico, it is apparently known for its eggs (i.e., in North Carolina, not New Mexico): <br />
<br />
"Standing in front of the Weaver Street Market egg case, I ruminated on the varieties of eggs -- from the lowest-priced traditional white eggs from conventionally raised, confined chickens at Latta's Egg Ranch to the most costly speckled, variegated eggs from free-range chickens raised outdoors on bugs and corn at Fickle Creek Farms. <br />
<br />
For the past 10 years I've mostly eaten from the middle of the road: moderately expensive cage-free eggs from Latta's. That's my compromise between price, cruelty and ostensibly gastronomic quality." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.chapelhillnews.com/108/story/6046.html Chapel Hill News]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''whoop-de-do'''<br><br />
noun (plural whoop-de-dos) (plural whoop-de-doos) <br />
<br />
Definition: <br />
<br />
1. party: a large-scale party or celebration that is lively or noisy<br />
2. U.S. publicity: noisy activity meant to attract attention the whoop-de-do surrounding the movie's release<br />
3. fuss: a noisy public commotion or outcry<br />
<br />
interjection <br />
<br />
Definition: <br />
<br />
expressing excitement: used to express excitement ( often used ironically ) <br />
<br />
[Mid-20th century. Expressive alteration of whoop] <br />
<br />
[http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861713053/whoop-de-do.html Definition]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
Constructed from the Latin "nocturnus" (by night, nightly, nocturnal) + "ambulo" (to walk)<br />
<br />
[...] is a Sleep Disorder characterized by walking or other activity while seemingly still asleep. Sleepwalking (Somnambulism) is a series of complex behaviors that are initiated during slow wave sleep and result in walking during sleep. Sleepwalking is a rapid eye movement (REM) behavior disorder occurring in the dream stage of sleep. During this phase, the body releases a chemical that paralyzes the body. However, those who sleepwalk do not have this chemical trigger, hence the behavior. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.crescentlife.com/disorders/sleepwalking.htm Sleepwalking article]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
The passage is somewhat reminiscent of Lew Basnight's encounter with the Esthonia Hotel (pp. 38 - 39), and echos the "Voyage to Laputa" from ''Gulliver's Travels''.<br />
<br />
[http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver/bk3/chap3-5.html Gulliver passage]<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
Also cf. the Zoltan Fortune Teller Arcade Machine <br />
<br />
They were a project done by Robert B. Bourque and Robert Cottle, a lifelong friend of Bourques. Mr. Cottle provided the deep voice you hear on the machines. Mr. Bourque at one time played the part of Captain Bob on a Boston children's TV show. <br />
<br />
Year Built: 1967 to the early 1970's, in Massachusettes <br />
<br />
[http://www.pinballrebel.com/fortune/zoltan/zoltan.htm Description of machine]<br />
<br />
[http://www.gameroomshow.com/index.php?photos/album/2/photo/120.php Photo of Machine]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
On January 7, 1898, the brothers Michel and Eugene Werner, two émigré Russian journalists, patented their "Motocyclette" powered two-wheeler, which had its engine mounted above the steering head, driving the front wheel by belt. They had already built two prototype.<br />
<br />
[http://www.bikerenews.com/AntiqueBikes/1904WernerMotorcyle.html Description and photo]<br />
<br />
Also, this reference serves as an allusion to Wernher Von Braun, rocket scientist:<br />
<br />
"Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death." <br />
<br />
-- Wernher Von Braun (GR, p. 1)<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13909ATD 460-4882007-09-04T07:04:05Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 463 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel,_California Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''old Spanish Trail'''<br><br />
Opened as a trade route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Spanish Trail became a major link connecting New Mexico and southern California from 1829 to 1848. It was used chiefly by New Mexican traders, who found a ready market for woolen goods--serapes, rugs, blankets, bedspreads, yardage--in the California settlements. Pack trains with as many as a hundred traders left Santa Fe in annual caravans. The textiles were exchanged in California for horses and mules, which were then marketed in New Mexico. Traders returning to Santa Fe often drove as many as a thousand or more animals, some of them, perhaps, having been stolen from the herds of the California missions and ranchos. <br />
<br />
[http://www.media.utah.edu:80/UHE/s/SPANISHTRAIL.html Utah History Encyclopedia]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Nochecita'''<br><br />
"Nochecita" translates into "nightfall" or "dusk" (literally, "little night").<br />
<br />
[http://www.babelpoint.com/1/?w=nochecita Translation]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''the spur line of his destiny'''<br><br />
A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_line Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''not about to suffer fools'''<br><br />
... with echoes of Scarsdale Vibe to Ray Ipsow, p. 32:<br />
<br />
2nd Corinthians 11:16 - 21: <br />
<br />
I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. <br />
<br />
That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. <br />
<br />
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. <br />
<br />
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.<br />
<br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html Corinthians 2]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''newer tenants continued to move in'''<br><br />
Main Entry: gen·tri·fi·ca·tion <br />
<br />
Pronunciation: "jen-tr&-f&-'kA-sh&n<br />
<br />
Function: noun<br />
<br />
: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces earlier usually poorer residents <br />
<br />
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?gentrification<br />
<br />
<br />
[...] Gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district's character and culture. The term is often used negatively, suggesting the displacement of poor communities by rich outsiders. But the effects of gentrification are complex and contradictory, and its real impact varies. <br />
<br />
Many aspects of the gentrification process are desirable. Who wouldn't want to see reduced crime, new investment in buildings and infrastructure, and increased economic activity in their neighborhoods? Unfortunately, the benefits of these changes are often enjoyed disproportionately by the new arrivals, while the established residents find themselves economically and socially marginalized. <br />
<br />
Gentrification has been the cause of painful conflict in many American cities, often along racial and economic fault lines. Neighborhood change is often viewed as a miscarriage of social justice, in which wealthy, usually white, newcomers are congratulated for "improving" a neighborhood whose poor, minority residents are displaced by skyrocketing rents and economic change. <br />
<br />
Although there is not a clear-cut technical definition of gentrification, it is characterized by several changes. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/flagwars/special_gentrification.html Gentrification article]<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''He wondered if he could be his own ghost'''<br><br />
"Out of body" experiences (OBEs) are personal experiences during which people feel as if they are perceiving the physical world from a location outside of their physical bodies. At least 5 and perhaps as many as 35 of every 100 people have had an OBE at least once in their lives (Blackmore, 1982). OBEs are highly arousing; they can be either deeply disturbing or profoundly moving. Understanding the nature of this widespread and potent experience would no doubt help us better understand the experience of being alive and human." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.lucidity.com/NL32.OBEandLD.html Article from The Lucidity Institute]<br />
<br />
Out-of-body experiences are 'all in the mind' <br />
New Scientist - Aug 29, 2007<br> An Illusion created experimentally is the first to give people their own "out-of-body" experiences.[http://technology.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12531&amp;feedId=online-news_rss20}<br />
<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
i.e., 'gone bust'<br />
<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
A reference to the title motif.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Stray with her hair down and her baby in her arms'''<br><br />
Kinda suggests the classic image of the Virgin Mary in Christian symbolism (not to mention the wonderful pun on her name given this suggestion). Interestingly, visual depictions of the Virgin Mother rarely portray her with her hair down (representing sexual promiscuity). Her hair is usually up and covered, thus:<br />
<br />
[http://biblia.com/christianity2/virgin-child29.jpg Traditional image]<br />
<br />
[http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2007/01/virgin_450x600.jpg Contemporary image]<br />
<br />
[http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006-08/virgin-mary-turtle.jpg Turtle image]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Linnet Dawes'''<br><br />
The girl's name Linette \l(i)-nette, lin(et)-te\ is pronounced LIN-et. It is of Welsh and Old French origin, and its meaning is "idol; linnet, a small songbird". Probably a variant of Lynette.<br />
<br />
Linette has 10 variant forms: Lenette, Lanette, Linet, Linetta, Linnet, Linnette, Lonette, Lynette, Lynnet and Lynnette.<br />
<br />
[http://www.xs4all.nl:80/~sbpoley/scinames.htm Scientific bird names explained]<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
While "Fickle Creek" doesn't seem to be in New Mexico, it is apparently known for its eggs (i.e., in North Carolina, not New Mexico): <br />
<br />
"Standing in front of the Weaver Street Market egg case, I ruminated on the varieties of eggs -- from the lowest-priced traditional white eggs from conventionally raised, confined chickens at Latta's Egg Ranch to the most costly speckled, variegated eggs from free-range chickens raised outdoors on bugs and corn at Fickle Creek Farms. <br />
<br />
For the past 10 years I've mostly eaten from the middle of the road: moderately expensive cage-free eggs from Latta's. That's my compromise between price, cruelty and ostensibly gastronomic quality." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.chapelhillnews.com/108/story/6046.html Chapel Hill News]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''whoop-de-do'''<br><br />
noun (plural whoop-de-dos) (plural whoop-de-doos) <br />
<br />
Definition: <br />
<br />
1. party: a large-scale party or celebration that is lively or noisy<br />
2. U.S. publicity: noisy activity meant to attract attention the whoop-de-do surrounding the movie's release<br />
3. fuss: a noisy public commotion or outcry<br />
<br />
interjection <br />
<br />
Definition: <br />
<br />
expressing excitement: used to express excitement ( often used ironically ) <br />
<br />
[Mid-20th century. Expressive alteration of whoop] <br />
<br />
[http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861713053/whoop-de-do.html Definition]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
Constructed from the Latin "nocturnus" (by night, nightly, nocturnal) + "ambulo" (to walk)<br />
<br />
[...] is a Sleep Disorder characterized by walking or other activity while seemingly still asleep. Sleepwalking (Somnambulism) is a series of complex behaviors that are initiated during slow wave sleep and result in walking during sleep. Sleepwalking is a rapid eye movement (REM) behavior disorder occurring in the dream stage of sleep. During this phase, the body releases a chemical that paralyzes the body. However, those who sleepwalk do not have this chemical trigger, hence the behavior. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.crescentlife.com/disorders/sleepwalking.htm Sleepwalking article]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
The passage is somewhat reminiscent of Lew Basnight's encounter with the Esthonia Hotel (pp. 38 - 39), and echos the "Voyage to Laputa" from ''Gulliver's Travels''.<br />
<br />
[http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver/bk3/chap3-5.html Gulliver passage]<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
Also cf. the Zoltan Fortune Teller Arcade Machine <br />
<br />
They were a project done by Robert B. Bourque and Robert Cottle, a lifelong friend of Bourques. Mr. Cottle provided the deep voice you hear on the machines. Mr. Bourque at one time played the part of Captain Bob on a Boston children's TV show. <br />
<br />
Year Built: 1967 to the early 1970's, in Massachusettes <br />
<br />
[http://www.pinballrebel.com/fortune/zoltan/zoltan.htm Description of machine]<br />
<br />
[http://www.gameroomshow.com/index.php?photos/album/2/photo/120.php Photo of Machine]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13908ATD 460-4882007-09-04T06:57:39Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 462 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel,_California Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''old Spanish Trail'''<br><br />
Opened as a trade route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Spanish Trail became a major link connecting New Mexico and southern California from 1829 to 1848. It was used chiefly by New Mexican traders, who found a ready market for woolen goods--serapes, rugs, blankets, bedspreads, yardage--in the California settlements. Pack trains with as many as a hundred traders left Santa Fe in annual caravans. The textiles were exchanged in California for horses and mules, which were then marketed in New Mexico. Traders returning to Santa Fe often drove as many as a thousand or more animals, some of them, perhaps, having been stolen from the herds of the California missions and ranchos. <br />
<br />
[http://www.media.utah.edu:80/UHE/s/SPANISHTRAIL.html Utah History Encyclopedia]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Nochecita'''<br><br />
"Nochecita" translates into "nightfall" or "dusk" (literally, "little night").<br />
<br />
[http://www.babelpoint.com/1/?w=nochecita Translation]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''the spur line of his destiny'''<br><br />
A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_line Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''not about to suffer fools'''<br><br />
... with echoes of Scarsdale Vibe to Ray Ipsow, p. 32:<br />
<br />
2nd Corinthians 11:16 - 21: <br />
<br />
I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. <br />
<br />
That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. <br />
<br />
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. <br />
<br />
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.<br />
<br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html Corinthians 2]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''newer tenants continued to move in'''<br><br />
Main Entry: gen·tri·fi·ca·tion <br />
<br />
Pronunciation: "jen-tr&-f&-'kA-sh&n<br />
<br />
Function: noun<br />
<br />
: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces earlier usually poorer residents <br />
<br />
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?gentrification<br />
<br />
<br />
[...] Gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district's character and culture. The term is often used negatively, suggesting the displacement of poor communities by rich outsiders. But the effects of gentrification are complex and contradictory, and its real impact varies. <br />
<br />
Many aspects of the gentrification process are desirable. Who wouldn't want to see reduced crime, new investment in buildings and infrastructure, and increased economic activity in their neighborhoods? Unfortunately, the benefits of these changes are often enjoyed disproportionately by the new arrivals, while the established residents find themselves economically and socially marginalized. <br />
<br />
Gentrification has been the cause of painful conflict in many American cities, often along racial and economic fault lines. Neighborhood change is often viewed as a miscarriage of social justice, in which wealthy, usually white, newcomers are congratulated for "improving" a neighborhood whose poor, minority residents are displaced by skyrocketing rents and economic change. <br />
<br />
Although there is not a clear-cut technical definition of gentrification, it is characterized by several changes. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/flagwars/special_gentrification.html Gentrification article]<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''He wondered if he could be his own ghost'''<br><br />
"Out of body" experiences (OBEs) are personal experiences during which people feel as if they are perceiving the physical world from a location outside of their physical bodies. At least 5 and perhaps as many as 35 of every 100 people have had an OBE at least once in their lives (Blackmore, 1982). OBEs are highly arousing; they can be either deeply disturbing or profoundly moving. Understanding the nature of this widespread and potent experience would no doubt help us better understand the experience of being alive and human." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.lucidity.com/NL32.OBEandLD.html Article from The Lucidity Institute]<br />
<br />
Out-of-body experiences are 'all in the mind' <br />
New Scientist - Aug 29, 2007<br> An Illusion created experimentally is the first to give people their own "out-of-body" experiences.[http://technology.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12531&amp;feedId=online-news_rss20}<br />
<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
i.e., 'gone bust'<br />
<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
A reference to the title motif.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Stray with her hair down and her baby in her arms'''<br><br />
Kinda suggests the classic image of the Virgin Mary in Christian symbolism (not to mention the wonderful pun on her name given this suggestion). Interestingly, visual depictions of the Virgin Mother rarely portray her with her hair down (representing sexual promiscuity). Her hair is usually up and covered, thus:<br />
<br />
[http://biblia.com/christianity2/virgin-child29.jpg Traditional image]<br />
<br />
[http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2007/01/virgin_450x600.jpg Contemporary image]<br />
<br />
[http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006-08/virgin-mary-turtle.jpg Turtle image]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Linnet Dawes'''<br><br />
The girl's name Linette \l(i)-nette, lin(et)-te\ is pronounced LIN-et. It is of Welsh and Old French origin, and its meaning is "idol; linnet, a small songbird". Probably a variant of Lynette.<br />
<br />
Linette has 10 variant forms: Lenette, Lanette, Linet, Linetta, Linnet, Linnette, Lonette, Lynette, Lynnet and Lynnette.<br />
<br />
[http://www.xs4all.nl:80/~sbpoley/scinames.htm Scientific bird names explained]<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
While "Fickle Creek" doesn't seem to be in New Mexico, it is apparently known for its eggs (i.e., in North Carolina, not New Mexico): <br />
<br />
"Standing in front of the Weaver Street Market egg case, I ruminated on the varieties of eggs -- from the lowest-priced traditional white eggs from conventionally raised, confined chickens at Latta's Egg Ranch to the most costly speckled, variegated eggs from free-range chickens raised outdoors on bugs and corn at Fickle Creek Farms. <br />
<br />
For the past 10 years I've mostly eaten from the middle of the road: moderately expensive cage-free eggs from Latta's. That's my compromise between price, cruelty and ostensibly gastronomic quality." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.chapelhillnews.com/108/story/6046.html Chapel Hill News]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''whoop-de-do'''<br><br />
noun (plural whoop-de-dos) (plural whoop-de-doos) <br />
<br />
Definition: <br />
<br />
1. party: a large-scale party or celebration that is lively or noisy<br />
2. U.S. publicity: noisy activity meant to attract attention the whoop-de-do surrounding the movie's release<br />
3. fuss: a noisy public commotion or outcry<br />
<br />
interjection <br />
<br />
Definition: <br />
<br />
expressing excitement: used to express excitement ( often used ironically ) <br />
<br />
[Mid-20th century. Expressive alteration of whoop] <br />
<br />
[http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861713053/whoop-de-do.html Definition]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
Constructed from the Latin "nocturnus" (by night, nightly, nocturnal) + "ambulo" (to walk)<br />
<br />
[...] is a Sleep Disorder characterized by walking or other activity while seemingly still asleep. Sleepwalking (Somnambulism) is a series of complex behaviors that are initiated during slow wave sleep and result in walking during sleep. Sleepwalking is a rapid eye movement (REM) behavior disorder occurring in the dream stage of sleep. During this phase, the body releases a chemical that paralyzes the body. However, those who sleepwalk do not have this chemical trigger, hence the behavior. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.crescentlife.com/disorders/sleepwalking.htm Sleepwalking article]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
The passage is somewhat reminiscent of Lew Basnight's encounter with the Esthonia Hotel (pp. 38 - 39), and echos the "Voyage to Laputa" from ''Gulliver's Travels''.<br />
<br />
[http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver/bk3/chap3-5.html Gulliver passage]<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13907ATD 460-4882007-09-04T06:49:54Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 461 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel,_California Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''old Spanish Trail'''<br><br />
Opened as a trade route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Spanish Trail became a major link connecting New Mexico and southern California from 1829 to 1848. It was used chiefly by New Mexican traders, who found a ready market for woolen goods--serapes, rugs, blankets, bedspreads, yardage--in the California settlements. Pack trains with as many as a hundred traders left Santa Fe in annual caravans. The textiles were exchanged in California for horses and mules, which were then marketed in New Mexico. Traders returning to Santa Fe often drove as many as a thousand or more animals, some of them, perhaps, having been stolen from the herds of the California missions and ranchos. <br />
<br />
[http://www.media.utah.edu:80/UHE/s/SPANISHTRAIL.html Utah History Encyclopedia]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Nochecita'''<br><br />
"Nochecita" translates into "nightfall" or "dusk" (literally, "little night").<br />
<br />
[http://www.babelpoint.com/1/?w=nochecita Translation]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''the spur line of his destiny'''<br><br />
A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_line Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''not about to suffer fools'''<br><br />
... with echoes of Scarsdale Vibe to Ray Ipsow, p. 32:<br />
<br />
2nd Corinthians 11:16 - 21: <br />
<br />
I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. <br />
<br />
That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. <br />
<br />
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. <br />
<br />
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.<br />
<br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html Corinthians 2]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''newer tenants continued to move in'''<br><br />
Main Entry: gen·tri·fi·ca·tion <br />
<br />
Pronunciation: "jen-tr&-f&-'kA-sh&n<br />
<br />
Function: noun<br />
<br />
: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces earlier usually poorer residents <br />
<br />
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?gentrification<br />
<br />
<br />
[...] Gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district's character and culture. The term is often used negatively, suggesting the displacement of poor communities by rich outsiders. But the effects of gentrification are complex and contradictory, and its real impact varies. <br />
<br />
Many aspects of the gentrification process are desirable. Who wouldn't want to see reduced crime, new investment in buildings and infrastructure, and increased economic activity in their neighborhoods? Unfortunately, the benefits of these changes are often enjoyed disproportionately by the new arrivals, while the established residents find themselves economically and socially marginalized. <br />
<br />
Gentrification has been the cause of painful conflict in many American cities, often along racial and economic fault lines. Neighborhood change is often viewed as a miscarriage of social justice, in which wealthy, usually white, newcomers are congratulated for "improving" a neighborhood whose poor, minority residents are displaced by skyrocketing rents and economic change. <br />
<br />
Although there is not a clear-cut technical definition of gentrification, it is characterized by several changes. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/flagwars/special_gentrification.html Gentrification article]<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''He wondered if he could be his own ghost'''<br><br />
"Out of body" experiences (OBEs) are personal experiences during which people feel as if they are perceiving the physical world from a location outside of their physical bodies. At least 5 and perhaps as many as 35 of every 100 people have had an OBE at least once in their lives (Blackmore, 1982). OBEs are highly arousing; they can be either deeply disturbing or profoundly moving. Understanding the nature of this widespread and potent experience would no doubt help us better understand the experience of being alive and human." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.lucidity.com/NL32.OBEandLD.html Article from The Lucidity Institute]<br />
<br />
Out-of-body experiences are 'all in the mind' <br />
New Scientist - Aug 29, 2007<br> An Illusion created experimentally is the first to give people their own "out-of-body" experiences.[http://technology.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12531&amp;feedId=online-news_rss20}<br />
<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
i.e., 'gone bust'<br />
<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
A reference to the title motif.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Stray with her hair down and her baby in her arms'''<br><br />
Kinda suggests the classic image of the Virgin Mary in Christian symbolism (not to mention the wonderful pun on her name given this suggestion). Interestingly, visual depictions of the Virgin Mother rarely portray her with her hair down (representing sexual promiscuity). Her hair is usually up and covered, thus:<br />
<br />
[http://biblia.com/christianity2/virgin-child29.jpg Traditional image]<br />
<br />
[http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2007/01/virgin_450x600.jpg Contemporary image]<br />
<br />
[http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006-08/virgin-mary-turtle.jpg Turtle image]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Linnet Dawes'''<br><br />
The girl's name Linette \l(i)-nette, lin(et)-te\ is pronounced LIN-et. It is of Welsh and Old French origin, and its meaning is "idol; linnet, a small songbird". Probably a variant of Lynette.<br />
<br />
Linette has 10 variant forms: Lenette, Lanette, Linet, Linetta, Linnet, Linnette, Lonette, Lynette, Lynnet and Lynnette.<br />
<br />
[http://www.xs4all.nl:80/~sbpoley/scinames.htm Scientific bird names explained]<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
While "Fickle Creek" doesn't seem to be in New Mexico, it is apparently known for its eggs (i.e., in North Carolina, not New Mexico): <br />
<br />
"Standing in front of the Weaver Street Market egg case, I ruminated on the varieties of eggs -- from the lowest-priced traditional white eggs from conventionally raised, confined chickens at Latta's Egg Ranch to the most costly speckled, variegated eggs from free-range chickens raised outdoors on bugs and corn at Fickle Creek Farms. <br />
<br />
For the past 10 years I've mostly eaten from the middle of the road: moderately expensive cage-free eggs from Latta's. That's my compromise between price, cruelty and ostensibly gastronomic quality." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.chapelhillnews.com/108/story/6046.html Chapel Hill News]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
Constructed from the Latin "nocturnus" (by night, nightly, nocturnal) + "ambulo" (to walk)<br />
<br />
[...] is a Sleep Disorder characterized by walking or other activity while seemingly still asleep. Sleepwalking (Somnambulism) is a series of complex behaviors that are initiated during slow wave sleep and result in walking during sleep. Sleepwalking is a rapid eye movement (REM) behavior disorder occurring in the dream stage of sleep. During this phase, the body releases a chemical that paralyzes the body. However, those who sleepwalk do not have this chemical trigger, hence the behavior. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.crescentlife.com/disorders/sleepwalking.htm Sleepwalking article]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
The passage is somewhat reminiscent of Lew Basnight's encounter with the Esthonia Hotel (pp. 38 - 39), and echos the "Voyage to Laputa" from ''Gulliver's Travels''.<br />
<br />
[http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver/bk3/chap3-5.html Gulliver passage]<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13906ATD 460-4882007-09-04T06:47:56Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 462 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel,_California Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''old Spanish Trail'''<br><br />
Opened as a trade route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Spanish Trail became a major link connecting New Mexico and southern California from 1829 to 1848. It was used chiefly by New Mexican traders, who found a ready market for woolen goods--serapes, rugs, blankets, bedspreads, yardage--in the California settlements. Pack trains with as many as a hundred traders left Santa Fe in annual caravans. The textiles were exchanged in California for horses and mules, which were then marketed in New Mexico. Traders returning to Santa Fe often drove as many as a thousand or more animals, some of them, perhaps, having been stolen from the herds of the California missions and ranchos. <br />
<br />
[http://www.media.utah.edu:80/UHE/s/SPANISHTRAIL.html Utah History Encyclopedia]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Nochecita'''<br><br />
"Nochecita" translates into "nightfall" or "dusk" (literally, "little night").<br />
<br />
[http://www.babelpoint.com/1/?w=nochecita Translation]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''the spur line of his destiny'''<br><br />
A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_line Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''not about to suffer fools'''<br><br />
... with echoes of Scarsdale Vibe to Ray Ipsow, p. 32:<br />
<br />
2nd Corinthians 11:16 - 21: <br />
<br />
I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. <br />
<br />
That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. <br />
<br />
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. <br />
<br />
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.<br />
<br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html Corinthians 2]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''newer tenants continued to move in'''<br><br />
Main Entry: gen·tri·fi·ca·tion <br />
<br />
Pronunciation: "jen-tr&-f&-'kA-sh&n<br />
<br />
Function: noun<br />
<br />
: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces earlier usually poorer residents <br />
<br />
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?gentrification<br />
<br />
<br />
[...] Gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district's character and culture. The term is often used negatively, suggesting the displacement of poor communities by rich outsiders. But the effects of gentrification are complex and contradictory, and its real impact varies. <br />
<br />
Many aspects of the gentrification process are desirable. Who wouldn't want to see reduced crime, new investment in buildings and infrastructure, and increased economic activity in their neighborhoods? Unfortunately, the benefits of these changes are often enjoyed disproportionately by the new arrivals, while the established residents find themselves economically and socially marginalized. <br />
<br />
Gentrification has been the cause of painful conflict in many American cities, often along racial and economic fault lines. Neighborhood change is often viewed as a miscarriage of social justice, in which wealthy, usually white, newcomers are congratulated for "improving" a neighborhood whose poor, minority residents are displaced by skyrocketing rents and economic change. <br />
<br />
Although there is not a clear-cut technical definition of gentrification, it is characterized by several changes. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/flagwars/special_gentrification.html Gentrification article]<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''He wondered if he could be his own ghost'''<br><br />
"Out of body" experiences (OBEs) are personal experiences during which people feel as if they are perceiving the physical world from a location outside of their physical bodies. At least 5 and perhaps as many as 35 of every 100 people have had an OBE at least once in their lives (Blackmore, 1982). OBEs are highly arousing; they can be either deeply disturbing or profoundly moving. Understanding the nature of this widespread and potent experience would no doubt help us better understand the experience of being alive and human." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.lucidity.com/NL32.OBEandLD.html Article from The Lucidity Institute]<br />
<br />
Out-of-body experiences are 'all in the mind' <br />
New Scientist - Aug 29, 2007<br> An Illusion created experimentally is the first to give people their own "out-of-body" experiences.[http://technology.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12531&amp;feedId=online-news_rss20}<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
Eg 'gone bust'? Yes.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
Title motif.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Stray with her hair down and her baby in her arms'''<br><br />
Kinda suggests the classic image of the Virgin Mary in Christian symbolism (not to mention the wonderful pun on her name given this suggestion). Interestingly, visual depictions of the Virgin Mother rarely portray her with her hair down (representing sexual promiscuity). Her hair is usually up and covered, thus:<br />
<br />
[http://biblia.com/christianity2/virgin-child29.jpg Traditional image]<br />
<br />
[http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2007/01/virgin_450x600.jpg Contemporary image]<br />
<br />
[http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006-08/virgin-mary-turtle.jpg Turtle image]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Linnet Dawes'''<br><br />
The girl's name Linette \l(i)-nette, lin(et)-te\ is pronounced LIN-et. It is of Welsh and Old French origin, and its meaning is "idol; linnet, a small songbird". Probably a variant of Lynette.<br />
<br />
Linette has 10 variant forms: Lenette, Lanette, Linet, Linetta, Linnet, Linnette, Lonette, Lynette, Lynnet and Lynnette.<br />
<br />
[http://www.xs4all.nl:80/~sbpoley/scinames.htm Scientific bird names explained]<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
While "Fickle Creek" doesn't seem to be in New Mexico, it is apparently known for its eggs (i.e., in North Carolina, not New Mexico): <br />
<br />
"Standing in front of the Weaver Street Market egg case, I ruminated on the varieties of eggs -- from the lowest-priced traditional white eggs from conventionally raised, confined chickens at Latta's Egg Ranch to the most costly speckled, variegated eggs from free-range chickens raised outdoors on bugs and corn at Fickle Creek Farms. <br />
<br />
For the past 10 years I've mostly eaten from the middle of the road: moderately expensive cage-free eggs from Latta's. That's my compromise between price, cruelty and ostensibly gastronomic quality." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.chapelhillnews.com/108/story/6046.html Chapel Hill News]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
Constructed from the Latin "nocturnus" (by night, nightly, nocturnal) + "ambulo" (to walk)<br />
<br />
[...] is a Sleep Disorder characterized by walking or other activity while seemingly still asleep. Sleepwalking (Somnambulism) is a series of complex behaviors that are initiated during slow wave sleep and result in walking during sleep. Sleepwalking is a rapid eye movement (REM) behavior disorder occurring in the dream stage of sleep. During this phase, the body releases a chemical that paralyzes the body. However, those who sleepwalk do not have this chemical trigger, hence the behavior. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.crescentlife.com/disorders/sleepwalking.htm Sleepwalking article]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
The passage is somewhat reminiscent of Lew Basnight's encounter with the Esthonia Hotel (pp. 38 - 39), and echos the "Voyage to Laputa" from ''Gulliver's Travels''.<br />
<br />
[http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver/bk3/chap3-5.html Gulliver passage]<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13901ATD 460-4882007-09-03T04:58:39Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 462 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel,_California Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''old Spanish Trail'''<br><br />
Opened as a trade route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Spanish Trail became a major link connecting New Mexico and southern California from 1829 to 1848. It was used chiefly by New Mexican traders, who found a ready market for woolen goods--serapes, rugs, blankets, bedspreads, yardage--in the California settlements. Pack trains with as many as a hundred traders left Santa Fe in annual caravans. The textiles were exchanged in California for horses and mules, which were then marketed in New Mexico. Traders returning to Santa Fe often drove as many as a thousand or more animals, some of them, perhaps, having been stolen from the herds of the California missions and ranchos. <br />
<br />
[http://www.media.utah.edu:80/UHE/s/SPANISHTRAIL.html Utah History Encyclopedia]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Nochecita'''<br><br />
"Nochecita" translates into "nightfall" or "dusk" (literally, "little night").<br />
<br />
[http://www.babelpoint.com/1/?w=nochecita Translation]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''the spur line of his destiny'''<br><br />
A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_line Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''not about to suffer fools'''<br><br />
... with echoes of Scarsdale Vibe to Ray Ipsow, p. 32:<br />
<br />
2nd Corinthians 11:16 - 21: <br />
<br />
I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. <br />
<br />
That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. <br />
<br />
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. <br />
<br />
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.<br />
<br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html Corinthians 2]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''newer tenants continued to move in'''<br><br />
Main Entry: gen·tri·fi·ca·tion <br />
<br />
Pronunciation: "jen-tr&-f&-'kA-sh&n<br />
<br />
Function: noun<br />
<br />
: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces earlier usually poorer residents <br />
<br />
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?gentrification<br />
<br />
<br />
[...] Gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district's character and culture. The term is often used negatively, suggesting the displacement of poor communities by rich outsiders. But the effects of gentrification are complex and contradictory, and its real impact varies. <br />
<br />
Many aspects of the gentrification process are desirable. Who wouldn't want to see reduced crime, new investment in buildings and infrastructure, and increased economic activity in their neighborhoods? Unfortunately, the benefits of these changes are often enjoyed disproportionately by the new arrivals, while the established residents find themselves economically and socially marginalized. <br />
<br />
Gentrification has been the cause of painful conflict in many American cities, often along racial and economic fault lines. Neighborhood change is often viewed as a miscarriage of social justice, in which wealthy, usually white, newcomers are congratulated for "improving" a neighborhood whose poor, minority residents are displaced by skyrocketing rents and economic change. <br />
<br />
Although there is not a clear-cut technical definition of gentrification, it is characterized by several changes. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/flagwars/special_gentrification.html Gentrification article]<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''He wondered if he could be his own ghost'''<br><br />
"Out of body" experiences (OBEs) are personal experiences during which people feel as if they are perceiving the physical world from a location outside of their physical bodies. At least 5 and perhaps as many as 35 of every 100 people have had an OBE at least once in their lives (Blackmore, 1982). OBEs are highly arousing; they can be either deeply disturbing or profoundly moving. Understanding the nature of this widespread and potent experience would no doubt help us better understand the experience of being alive and human." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.lucidity.com/NL32.OBEandLD.html Article from The Lucidity Institute]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
Eg 'gone bust'? Yes.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
Title motif.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Stray with her hair down and her baby in her arms'''<br><br />
Kinda suggests the classic image of the Virgin Mary in Christian symbolism (not to mention the wonderful pun on her name given this suggestion). Interestingly, visual depictions of the Virgin Mother rarely portray her with her hair down (representing sexual promiscuity). Her hair is usually up and covered, thus:<br />
<br />
[http://biblia.com/christianity2/virgin-child29.jpg Traditional image]<br />
<br />
[http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2007/01/virgin_450x600.jpg Contemporary image]<br />
<br />
[http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006-08/virgin-mary-turtle.jpg Turtle image]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Linnet Dawes'''<br><br />
The girl's name Linette \l(i)-nette, lin(et)-te\ is pronounced LIN-et. It is of Welsh and Old French origin, and its meaning is "idol; linnet, a small songbird". Probably a variant of Lynette.<br />
<br />
Linette has 10 variant forms: Lenette, Lanette, Linet, Linetta, Linnet, Linnette, Lonette, Lynette, Lynnet and Lynnette.<br />
<br />
[http://www.xs4all.nl:80/~sbpoley/scinames.htm Scientific bird names explained]<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
While "Fickle Creek" doesn't seem to be in New Mexico, it is apparently known for its eggs (i.e., in North Carolina, not New Mexico): <br />
<br />
"Standing in front of the Weaver Street Market egg case, I ruminated on the varieties of eggs -- from the lowest-priced traditional white eggs from conventionally raised, confined chickens at Latta's Egg Ranch to the most costly speckled, variegated eggs from free-range chickens raised outdoors on bugs and corn at Fickle Creek Farms. <br />
<br />
For the past 10 years I've mostly eaten from the middle of the road: moderately expensive cage-free eggs from Latta's. That's my compromise between price, cruelty and ostensibly gastronomic quality." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.chapelhillnews.com/108/story/6046.html Chapel Hill News]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13900ATD 460-4882007-09-03T04:54:13Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 461 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel,_California Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''old Spanish Trail'''<br><br />
Opened as a trade route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Spanish Trail became a major link connecting New Mexico and southern California from 1829 to 1848. It was used chiefly by New Mexican traders, who found a ready market for woolen goods--serapes, rugs, blankets, bedspreads, yardage--in the California settlements. Pack trains with as many as a hundred traders left Santa Fe in annual caravans. The textiles were exchanged in California for horses and mules, which were then marketed in New Mexico. Traders returning to Santa Fe often drove as many as a thousand or more animals, some of them, perhaps, having been stolen from the herds of the California missions and ranchos. <br />
<br />
[http://www.media.utah.edu:80/UHE/s/SPANISHTRAIL.html Utah History Encyclopedia]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Nochecita'''<br><br />
"Nochecita" translates into "nightfall" or "dusk" (literally, "little night").<br />
<br />
[http://www.babelpoint.com/1/?w=nochecita Translation]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''the spur line of his destiny'''<br><br />
A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_line Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''not about to suffer fools'''<br><br />
... with echoes of Scarsdale Vibe to Ray Ipsow, p. 32:<br />
<br />
2nd Corinthians 11:16 - 21: <br />
<br />
I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. <br />
<br />
That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. <br />
<br />
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. <br />
<br />
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.<br />
<br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html Corinthians 2]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''newer tenants continued to move in'''<br><br />
Main Entry: gen·tri·fi·ca·tion <br />
<br />
Pronunciation: "jen-tr&-f&-'kA-sh&n<br />
<br />
Function: noun<br />
<br />
: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces earlier usually poorer residents <br />
<br />
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?gentrification<br />
<br />
<br />
[...] Gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district's character and culture. The term is often used negatively, suggesting the displacement of poor communities by rich outsiders. But the effects of gentrification are complex and contradictory, and its real impact varies. <br />
<br />
Many aspects of the gentrification process are desirable. Who wouldn't want to see reduced crime, new investment in buildings and infrastructure, and increased economic activity in their neighborhoods? Unfortunately, the benefits of these changes are often enjoyed disproportionately by the new arrivals, while the established residents find themselves economically and socially marginalized. <br />
<br />
Gentrification has been the cause of painful conflict in many American cities, often along racial and economic fault lines. Neighborhood change is often viewed as a miscarriage of social justice, in which wealthy, usually white, newcomers are congratulated for "improving" a neighborhood whose poor, minority residents are displaced by skyrocketing rents and economic change. <br />
<br />
Although there is not a clear-cut technical definition of gentrification, it is characterized by several changes. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/flagwars/special_gentrification.html Gentrification article]<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''He wondered if he could be his own ghost'''<br><br />
"Out of body" experiences (OBEs) are personal experiences during which people feel as if they are perceiving the physical world from a location outside of their physical bodies. At least 5 and perhaps as many as 35 of every 100 people have had an OBE at least once in their lives (Blackmore, 1982). OBEs are highly arousing; they can be either deeply disturbing or profoundly moving. Understanding the nature of this widespread and potent experience would no doubt help us better understand the experience of being alive and human." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.lucidity.com/NL32.OBEandLD.html Article from The Lucidity Institute]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
Eg 'gone bust'? Yes.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
Title motif.<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Stray with her hair down and her baby in her arms'''<br><br />
Kinda suggests the classic image of the Virgin Mary in Christian symbolism (not to mention the wonderful pun on her name given this suggestion). Interestingly, visual depictions of the Virgin Mother rarely portray her with her hair down (representing sexual promiscuity). Her hair is usually up and covered, thus:<br />
<br />
[http://biblia.com/christianity2/virgin-child29.jpg Traditional image]<br />
<br />
[http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2007/01/virgin_450x600.jpg Contemporary image]<br />
<br />
[http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006-08/virgin-mary-turtle.jpg Turtle image]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Linnet Dawes'''<br><br />
The girl's name Linette \l(i)-nette, lin(et)-te\ is pronounced LIN-et. It is of Welsh and Old French origin, and its meaning is "idol; linnet, a small songbird". Probably a variant of Lynette.<br />
<br />
Linette has 10 variant forms: Lenette, Lanette, Linet, Linetta, Linnet, Linnette, Lonette, Lynette, Lynnet and Lynnette.<br />
<br />
[http://www.xs4all.nl:80/~sbpoley/scinames.htm Scientific bird names explained]<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13899ATD 460-4882007-09-03T04:52:42Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 461 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel,_California Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''old Spanish Trail'''<br><br />
Opened as a trade route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Spanish Trail became a major link connecting New Mexico and southern California from 1829 to 1848. It was used chiefly by New Mexican traders, who found a ready market for woolen goods--serapes, rugs, blankets, bedspreads, yardage--in the California settlements. Pack trains with as many as a hundred traders left Santa Fe in annual caravans. The textiles were exchanged in California for horses and mules, which were then marketed in New Mexico. Traders returning to Santa Fe often drove as many as a thousand or more animals, some of them, perhaps, having been stolen from the herds of the California missions and ranchos. <br />
<br />
[http://www.media.utah.edu:80/UHE/s/SPANISHTRAIL.html Utah History Encyclopedia]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Nochecita'''<br><br />
"Nochecita" translates into "nightfall" or "dusk" (literally, "little night").<br />
<br />
[http://www.babelpoint.com/1/?w=nochecita Translation]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''the spur line of his destiny'''<br><br />
A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_line Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''not about to suffer fools'''<br><br />
... with echoes of Scarsdale Vibe to Ray Ipsow, p. 32:<br />
<br />
2nd Corinthians 11:16 - 21: <br />
<br />
I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. <br />
<br />
That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. <br />
<br />
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. <br />
<br />
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.<br />
<br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html Corinthians 2]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''newer tenants continued to move in'''<br><br />
Main Entry: gen·tri·fi·ca·tion <br />
<br />
Pronunciation: "jen-tr&-f&-'kA-sh&n<br />
<br />
Function: noun<br />
<br />
: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces earlier usually poorer residents <br />
<br />
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?gentrification<br />
<br />
<br />
[...] Gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district's character and culture. The term is often used negatively, suggesting the displacement of poor communities by rich outsiders. But the effects of gentrification are complex and contradictory, and its real impact varies. <br />
<br />
Many aspects of the gentrification process are desirable. Who wouldn't want to see reduced crime, new investment in buildings and infrastructure, and increased economic activity in their neighborhoods? Unfortunately, the benefits of these changes are often enjoyed disproportionately by the new arrivals, while the established residents find themselves economically and socially marginalized. <br />
<br />
Gentrification has been the cause of painful conflict in many American cities, often along racial and economic fault lines. Neighborhood change is often viewed as a miscarriage of social justice, in which wealthy, usually white, newcomers are congratulated for "improving" a neighborhood whose poor, minority residents are displaced by skyrocketing rents and economic change. <br />
<br />
Although there is not a clear-cut technical definition of gentrification, it is characterized by several changes. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/flagwars/special_gentrification.html Gentrification article]<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''He wondered if he could be his own ghost'''<br><br />
"Out of body" experiences (OBEs) are personal experiences during which people feel as if they are perceiving the physical world from a location outside of their physical bodies. At least 5 and perhaps as many as 35 of every 100 people have had an OBE at least once in their lives (Blackmore, 1982). OBEs are highly arousing; they can be either deeply disturbing or profoundly moving. Understanding the nature of this widespread and potent experience would no doubt help us better understand the experience of being alive and human." [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.lucidity.com/NL32.OBEandLD.html Article from The Lucidity Institute]<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
Eg 'gone bust'? Yes.<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
Title motif.<br />
<br />
'''Stray with her hair down and her baby in her arms'''<br><br />
Kinda suggests the classic image of the Virgin Mary in Christian symbolism (not to mention the wonderful pun on her name given this suggestion). Interestingly, visual depictions of the Virgin Mother rarely portray her with her hair down (representing sexual promiscuity). Her hair is usually up and covered, thus:<br />
<br />
[http://biblia.com/christianity2/virgin-child29.jpg Traditional image]<br />
<br />
[http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2007/01/virgin_450x600.jpg Contemporary image]<br />
<br />
[http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006-08/virgin-mary-turtle.jpg Turtle image]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Linnet Dawes'''<br><br />
The girl's name Linette \l(i)-nette, lin(et)-te\ is pronounced LIN-et. It is of Welsh and Old French origin, and its meaning is "idol; linnet, a small songbird". Probably a variant of Lynette.<br />
<br />
Linette has 10 variant forms: Lenette, Lanette, Linet, Linetta, Linnet, Linnette, Lonette, Lynette, Lynnet and Lynnette.<br />
<br />
[http://www.xs4all.nl:80/~sbpoley/scinames.htm Scientific bird names explained]<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13898ATD 460-4882007-09-03T04:36:00Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 460 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel,_California Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''old Spanish Trail'''<br><br />
Opened as a trade route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Spanish Trail became a major link connecting New Mexico and southern California from 1829 to 1848. It was used chiefly by New Mexican traders, who found a ready market for woolen goods--serapes, rugs, blankets, bedspreads, yardage--in the California settlements. Pack trains with as many as a hundred traders left Santa Fe in annual caravans. The textiles were exchanged in California for horses and mules, which were then marketed in New Mexico. Traders returning to Santa Fe often drove as many as a thousand or more animals, some of them, perhaps, having been stolen from the herds of the California missions and ranchos. <br />
<br />
[http://www.media.utah.edu:80/UHE/s/SPANISHTRAIL.html Utah History Encyclopedia]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Nochecita'''<br><br />
"Nochecita" translates into "nightfall" or "dusk" (literally, "little night").<br />
<br />
[http://www.babelpoint.com/1/?w=nochecita Translation]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''the spur line of his destiny'''<br><br />
A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_line Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''not about to suffer fools'''<br><br />
... with echoes of Scarsdale Vibe to Ray Ipsow, p. 32:<br />
<br />
2nd Corinthians 11:16 - 21: <br />
<br />
I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. <br />
<br />
That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. <br />
<br />
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. <br />
<br />
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.<br />
<br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html Corinthians 2]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''newer tenants continued to move in'''<br><br />
Main Entry: gen·tri·fi·ca·tion <br />
<br />
Pronunciation: "jen-tr&-f&-'kA-sh&n<br />
<br />
Function: noun<br />
<br />
: the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces earlier usually poorer residents <br />
<br />
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?gentrification<br />
<br />
<br />
[...] Gentrification is a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the district's character and culture. The term is often used negatively, suggesting the displacement of poor communities by rich outsiders. But the effects of gentrification are complex and contradictory, and its real impact varies. <br />
<br />
Many aspects of the gentrification process are desirable. Who wouldn't want to see reduced crime, new investment in buildings and infrastructure, and increased economic activity in their neighborhoods? Unfortunately, the benefits of these changes are often enjoyed disproportionately by the new arrivals, while the established residents find themselves economically and socially marginalized. <br />
<br />
Gentrification has been the cause of painful conflict in many American cities, often along racial and economic fault lines. Neighborhood change is often viewed as a miscarriage of social justice, in which wealthy, usually white, newcomers are congratulated for "improving" a neighborhood whose poor, minority residents are displaced by skyrocketing rents and economic change. <br />
<br />
Although there is not a clear-cut technical definition of gentrification, it is characterized by several changes. [...]<br />
<br />
[http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/flagwars/special_gentrification.html Gentrification article]<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
Eg 'gone bust'? Yes.<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
Title motif.<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
'''came by'''<br><br />
(Page ref.)<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13897ATD 460-4882007-09-03T04:32:44Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 460 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel,_California Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''old Spanish Trail'''<br><br />
Opened as a trade route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Spanish Trail became a major link connecting New Mexico and southern California from 1829 to 1848. It was used chiefly by New Mexican traders, who found a ready market for woolen goods--serapes, rugs, blankets, bedspreads, yardage--in the California settlements. Pack trains with as many as a hundred traders left Santa Fe in annual caravans. The textiles were exchanged in California for horses and mules, which were then marketed in New Mexico. Traders returning to Santa Fe often drove as many as a thousand or more animals, some of them, perhaps, having been stolen from the herds of the California missions and ranchos. <br />
<br />
[http://www.media.utah.edu:80/UHE/s/SPANISHTRAIL.html Utah History Encyclopedia]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''Nochecita'''<br><br />
"Nochecita" translates into "nightfall" or "dusk" (literally, "little night").<br />
<br />
[http://www.babelpoint.com/1/?w=nochecita Translation]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''the spur line of his destiny'''<br><br />
A branch line is a relatively minor railway line which branches off a more important through route. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_line Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''not about to suffer fools'''<br><br />
... with echoes of Scarsdale Vibe to Ray Ipsow, p. 32:<br />
<br />
2nd Corinthians 11:16 - 21: <br />
<br />
I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. <br />
<br />
That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. <br />
<br />
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
<br />
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. <br />
<br />
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.<br />
<br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html Corinthians 2]<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
Eg 'gone bust'? Yes.<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
Title motif.<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
'''came by'''<br><br />
(Page ref.)<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13896ATD 460-4882007-09-03T04:26:36Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 460 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel,_California Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
<br />
'''old Spanish Trail'''<br><br />
Opened as a trade route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Spanish Trail became a major link connecting New Mexico and southern California from 1829 to 1848. It was used chiefly by New Mexican traders, who found a ready market for woolen goods--serapes, rugs, blankets, bedspreads, yardage--in the California settlements. Pack trains with as many as a hundred traders left Santa Fe in annual caravans. The textiles were exchanged in California for horses and mules, which were then marketed in New Mexico. Traders returning to Santa Fe often drove as many as a thousand or more animals, some of them, perhaps, having been stolen from the herds of the California missions and ranchos. <br />
<br />
[http://www.media.utah.edu:80/UHE/s/SPANISHTRAIL.html Utah History Encyclopedia]<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
Eg 'gone bust'? Yes.<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
Title motif.<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
'''came by'''<br><br />
(Page ref.)<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13895ATD 460-4882007-09-03T04:23:34Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 460 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel,_California Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
Eg 'gone bust'? Yes.<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
Title motif.<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
'''came by'''<br><br />
(Page ref.)<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13894ATD 460-4882007-09-03T04:21:34Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 460 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''San Gabriel'''<br><br />
The rich history of the City of San Gabriel dates back to 1771 with the founding of the Mission San Gabriel Archangel, a California State historical landmark, and establishes San Gabriel as the birthplace of the Los Angeles region. The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel, "Pride of the California Missions," founded by Father Junipero Serra in 1771, is the fourth of twenty-one California Missions, and has long been a center for culture and art. As the original and oldest settlement north of San Diego and south of San Luis Obispo, it is from San Gabriel that the City of Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area were established.<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
Eg 'gone bust'? Yes.<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
Title motif.<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
'''came by'''<br><br />
(Page ref.)<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13811ATD 460-4882007-08-09T16:41:10Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 473 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''so close... rocking'''<br><br />
(Fact?)<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
Eg 'gone bust'? Yes.<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
Title motif.<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
'''came by'''<br><br />
(Page ref.)<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among Illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13810ATD 460-4882007-08-09T16:40:24Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 473 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''so close... rocking'''<br><br />
(Fact?)<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
Eg 'gone bust'? Yes.<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
Title motif.<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
'''came by'''<br><br />
(Page ref.)<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on p.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here." Also, among illinois residents Decatur's tornado activity is well-known to be slightly higher than the state average, which adds mild humor to Deuce's exchange with Levi at the bottom of p. 473.<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13809ATD 460-4882007-08-09T16:27:27Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 473 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''so close... rocking'''<br><br />
(Fact?)<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
Eg 'gone bust'? Yes.<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
Title motif.<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
'''came by'''<br><br />
(Page ref.)<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they hope to turn North at Cairo, Illinois and travel the Ohio River into free territory. First mentioned on P.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City. Also echoes "Little Egypt," a performer at the 1893 World's Fair (p. 26).<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here."<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=13808ATD 460-4882007-08-09T16:22:58Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 473 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''so close... rocking'''<br><br />
(Fact?)<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
Eg 'gone bust'? Yes.<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
Title motif.<br />
<br />
'''phantom rooms'''<br><br />
cf the Vibe mansion, p.160<br />
<br />
'''came by'''<br><br />
(Page ref.)<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
the points(temperature) at which water freezes for a given pressure which is falling as one goes up a mountain<br />
:Well, no, the freezing point doesn't vary perceptibly under these conditions. He looks down from the toll station to the valley. The light down there seems green and cold but sound is carrying easily up to him. Snow in the air would deaden the sound, so it isn't snowing. Fragments of ice slowly falling through the air could affect the color without muffling the whoop-de-do. You could get this effect if an ascending breeze slowed the fall of ice crystals through the air. I think that's what "ice-points" means: tiny sparkles.<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
Customary phrase in Westerns for bad corn whiskey from a licensed distillery. "White whiskey" is made from the same ingredients but briefly aged in a jug (and without the formality of paying excise tax).<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc? (Or college dormitories.)<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
The very first production model made by Harley-Davidson, about 1903.<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''ancient flat-out labor nihilists'''<br><br />
Notice fierce value judgment.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
Their palms are scarred by labor, to a point their futures cannot be told.<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
Name given to Sloat and Deuce after what they did to Deuce's wife, Lake, at the Four Corners. Evidently, the gang has many more members now.<br />
<br />
A Google search suggests this is a popular urban gang name. In the world of paperback adult Western fiction, there's ''Longarm and the Four Corners Gang,'' by Tabor Evans. The Longarm series includes 370 titles (as of Feb. 28, 2007) dating back to 1978, so Evans can be spotted on the street by the scars from his carpal tunnel surgeries. There's not really any reason to think Deuce, Lake and Sloat have any connection with these bikers, though.<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
According to this website [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Taos-lightning Taos Lightning]] is a slang for a straight Earth bourbon of dubious origin and low quality. Injured in a barfight with Wyatt Earp, Doctor McCoy tended to Captain Kirk's wounds by dabbing them with ''Taos Lightning'', much to Kirk's discomfort—referring to it as "fire". McCoy suggested that the stuff is "medicinal" in small amounts, to which Kirk replied that it should be labeled "For External Use Only." . . .<br />
:That's a Star Trek fan wiki ("Earth bourbon," give me a break). Taos Lightning was one name for corn whiskey [http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/econ/cornhog.htm made by freelance distillers.] Not bourbon because it didn't come from Kentucky and never saw the inside of an oak barrel. Romantic Old West tales say it was colored with burnt sugar and flavored with chewing tobacco, but if Western moonshiners were like those in the Appalachians, many of them took pride in selling a quality product.<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
Fearless of usual dangers but is afraid of crosses and avoids mirrors; i.e. a vampire.<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
Allusion, homage, to Werner von Braun, rocket scientist?<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''divide a fellow into two'''<br><br />
Iceland spar motif.<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
Muffler cutout.<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
[[ATD_171-198#Page_176|See the fine annotation to page 176.]]<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
Northern Mexican state where Frank unexpectedly found--and shot--Sloat Fresno in a Cantina.<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
Alt. Jephtha. (Heb. יפתח). Israelite judge who semi-purposefully sacrificed his daughter to God following his victories of war against the Ammons. Judges 11-12.<br />
<br />
'''Cherry Creek'''<br><br />
Tributary of the South Platte River, with which it joins in downtown Denver. It was a stage route from the East into Denver; Four Mile House museum, 4 miles out from the center of Denver, is a preserved stage stop perhaps the inspiration for Jephthah's "road ranch". Speer Boulevard and a long bicycle path run along present-day Cherry Creek, and the Cherry Creek shopping area, recently gone very upscale, was long the site of the famous Tattered Cover Bookstore.(Personal note: in the 1980s the Tattered Cover stumbled upon a cache of hardcover copies of ''GR'', all, of course, First Editions, and sold them--in the spirit of fairness, and despite their rarity--for their retail price). <br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ("D&RG") network consisted of standard gauge trackage (4 ft. 81/2 ins. between the rails) for main East-West (to Salt Lake City) and North-South (Front Range cities) lines, plus a standard gauge line along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to Leadville. Lines to the mountain towns were "narrow gauge"--smaller distance between the rails, thus requiring a narrower roadbed and permitting tighter turns in the confined spaces of mountain passes; also smaller, lighter rolling stock. Fragments of the narrow gauge lines survive as tourist railroads: the beautiful Durango & Silverton survives intact, the Cripple Creek & Victor takes tourists between these mining (now gambling) towns, and the spectacular Georgetown Loop climbs from Georgetown to Silver Plume west of Denver. Now-trackless roadbeds are terrific cross-country ski and snowshoe trails. <br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
Working class man or woman who worked for the interests of the bosses; aka finks (informers), stooges, goons (company strong-arm men), scabs (strikebreakers). <br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Not sure, but usually "mucking" refers to either cleaning manure from a stall and is also used for "dirty jobs" around latrines or septic systems.<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
Groucho did tour the West, at age 15 in the summer of 1905, as part of the "Leroy Trio." And he was indeed abandoned by his partners in Cripple Creek, who stole his money. To get money to go home he took a job driving a grocery wagon through the mountains between Cripple Creek and Victor, though he knew nothing about horses. [Hector Arce, _Groucho_, NY: Perigree Books, 1979, pp. 56-57]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald's fictional detective. One of MacDonald's later novels had a front-page NYTimes Book Review review, by Eudora Welty, in the early 70s. [Before GR was published]<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
<br />
The Marx family lived at 179 E. 93rd St. from 1895 to 1910 (across the street from Harry Houdini! ).<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Prince Albert'''<br><br />
[http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=P&TID=1207 A Burley tobacco blend] for the pipe or handrolled cigarette, produced since 1907 and still popular.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
Evidently sisters. Princess Poutine: An older, oblivious, French-Canadian scatter-brained female in authority (such as a manager, teacher, CEO) who has a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and is overtly overweight and disproportionate [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Princess+Poutine]. From Poutine: a French-Canadian dish of French Fries with cheese curds and gravy.<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
[[ATD_358-373#Page_368|See page 368.]]<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
San Francisco neighborhood once known for gambling, prostitution and crime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast,_San_Francisco,_California].<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
Was an arena or course for chariot racing. Later used as a course for walking. In this instance most likely connected to the motorcycle and "wall of death" motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
criminal sensor. Palp is an elongated, often segmented appendage usually found near the mouth in invertebrate organisms such as mollusks, crustaceans and insects, the functions of which include ''sensation'', locomotion and feeding. Also called ''palpus''.<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''absquatulator'''<br><br />
One who absconds; a neologism from the 1830s.<br />
[http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-abs1.htm Absquatulate on World Wide Words]<br />
<br />
'''not so much gone as consciously committing absence'''<br><br />
A heartbreakingly beautiful little phrase. How parents must sometimes feel after their children are away.<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights . . . casementing'''<br><br />
Extended and complicated figure likening, in part, a sky full of an approaching storm to a window in an old house. Specifically the sound of thunder is compared to sash-weights, the counter-balances built into all wooden windows (which enable an opened window, for example, to remain open instead of slamming shut), the sky itself the casement, or "neatly carpentered" frame, concealing those sash-weights.<br />
<br />
'''Egypt'''<br><br />
Far southern tip of Illinois, centered on Cairo, where the Ohio Rvier joins the Mississippi River, evidently Deuce's home territory. Allusions perhaps to Egyptian exile, Flight Into Egypt, and the goal of Huck and Jim's raft journey, where they can turn North on the Ohio into free territory. First mentioned on P.18 as starting point of Penny Black and the ''Tzigane (Gypsy)’s'' trip to the White City.<br />
<br />
'''Decatur'''<br><br />
A city of central Illinois east of Springfield. Abraham Lincoln practiced law here. Population: 77,800. ([http://www.answers.com/topic/decatur-illinois Answers.com]). We learn in this passage that, in his younger years, Deuce left the region of Decatur in an effort to go west and "rise above" his origins. Ironically, the city's motto is "Decatur, We Like It Here."<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''As must happen to all badmen . . . deputy's star'''<br><br />
A cliché from Westerns, but not without some truth. Bob Meldrum, for example, worked both sides of the law.<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
To ride the Wall of Death, rev up your motorcycle and guide it onto the inside of the cylindrical wall. Centripetal force keeps you up. The act works best with multiple bikes. Either the wall is open gridwork or the "tip" (audience) sits above looking down into the cylinder. (The second mention of this attraction; first was on p. 184.)<br />
<br />
'''when viewed from overhead reminding widely-traveled aeronauts'''<br><br />
Are the Chums observing this episode? (This switch or twitch in point of view is something Nabokov practiced.)<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
Roman arenas, like most American football stadiums today, were generally built so that the perimeter created an ellipse.<br />
<br />
'''some suburban fatality in the dwellings presently appearing at human random around it'''<br><br />
I believe this is an odd printer's error resulting in garbled syntax and marring a carefully patterned passage. My conjecture is based on internal evidence. The whole passage, a paragraph-long sentence running from the bottom of 476 to the top of 477, is an intricate, lyrical riff on the idea of its ominous closing phrase: "structures in their vanishing. . . ." It's a beautifully layered play on the drift of time and space as the panaorama moving outward from the Wall of Death evokes a movement in time as well, from the "legendary" to the "suburban." But right in the heart of it one runs nose first into the little knot quoted above. That "at human random" must be wrong. It makes no sense semantically (or grammatically, I think); it so obviously breaks the patterned flow of phrasing; even the sound is blocked—the vowels, "m" and "n" sounds are ugly and labor intensive.<br />
Of course, my first thought was that it was some coinage or that I had missed something, yet the more I pored over it, the more clearly out of place it seemed. But simply shifting the word "human" backward so it modifies "dwellings" yields:<br />
<br />
"some suburban fatality in the human dwellings presently appearing at random around it"<br />
<br />
which makes everything click into place. It makes sense on the content level, smoothly advancing the temporal reference points of the structures evoked by the passage and presaging the momentary arrival of the "wheelfolk and picnickers," and formally it is clearly more satisfying, especially the restored assonance and the cadence. [[At Human Random|DISCUSSION]]<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
A crime information service similar to a stock ticker; [[ATD_336-357#Page_348|see annotations to p. 348.]]<br />
<br />
'''Reporting officer C. Marin'''<br><br />
Allusion to Cheech Marin, of Cheech and Chong and other entertainments.<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''Sloat Eddie Fresno, dead'''<br><br />
We've made a jump in time back to the date of the Bolsón de Mapimí shooting.<br />
<br />
'''''señorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
Senorita fuck fuck<br />
<br />
'''''más cerveza'''''<br><br />
More beer<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
Cf [[ATD_525-556#Page 527|page 527:co-conscious]].<br><br />
<br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
Short for Eustatia? Anastasia?<br />
<br />
No -- an actual name. My great-great-grandmother's name (b. 1863)<br />
Tace McLean. Could be of Scottish derivation?<br />
:And our Tace was a Mickie before she married into law enforcement. The smart money says they were both Scots or Scotch-Irish. A generation or two before Tace, though, there could well have been a family member or admired figure with a longer name. Scotch-Irish in America have a fairly common practice of giving old diminutives, like my mother's Kate, as full names.<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
Series of childrens' books written by Martha Finley between 1867 and 1905 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Dinsmore].<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
In context, Tace's brother's name.<br />
<br />
Thesis: Roy (Disney) Mick(ey Mouse) -- the brother/creation of Walt Disney. In fact Mickey was the creation of Ub Iwerks (how Pynchonesque a name is that!) but is often thought to be Walt's "baby," financed by Roy.<br />
So, reading back into the context: the illegitimate issue of an incestuous liaison. <br />
<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
Town in South Central Colorado, in a high valley west of Pueblo on the Arkansas River, at the northern tip of the Sangre de Christo Mountains.<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
Mountain wildflower, a pale blue in color, that opens in July; state flower of Colorado.<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''She was only a dynamiter's daughter'''<br><br />
Old joke template:<br />
<blockquote>She was only a photographer's daughter, but my, was she well developed!<br><br />
She was only a hash-slinger's daughter, but could she ever dish it out!</blockquote><br />
See James N. Tidwell, ''A Treasury of American Folk Humor,'' pp. 543-44.<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''you run away, out of reach, behind the wall of death'''<br><br />
"Wall of death" as carnival attraction, town, and now metaphor for a barrier between worlds. See pp. 184 and 476 for other occurrences.<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this. And he is grammatically correct so to do.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
The Erinyes, or euphemistically the Eumenides (“Kindly Ones”): three Greek goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone, Electa, Megaera.<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
'''Chloe'''<br><br />
Chloe, "the green shoot," an epithet of the Greek goddess of agriculture [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter Demeter].<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
Phoebe, a bird in the genus ''Sayornis'', in the tyrant flycatcher family. A favored feeding strategy of these birds is to wait on a conspicuous perch until an insect flies by, make a short flight to catch the insect, and return to the same perch.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, one of the Titans of Greek mythology.<br />
<br />
Phoebe, another name for the Greek goddess Artemis.<br />
<br />
"Sloper" suggests Catharine Sloper, main character of Henry James's ''Washington Square''.<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
To Deuce, Webb mentions Lake only once (p. 196). No trace of Lake being "all he talked about" in the text. On page 197, he cries out the names of his sons.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190. Deuce is not present during that passage.<br />
<br />
'''frying pan...spider'''<br><br />
See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/74/F0347400.html this note] on the once-prevalent differences in regional dialectal use of ''frying pan'' (and its variants), ''skillet,'' and ''spider.'' And [http://www.journalofantiques.com/hearthjan01.htm this article] for spider pics.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_26-56&diff=4660ATD 26-562006-12-29T04:29:52Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 33 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 26==<br />
<br />
'''Little Egypt'''<br><br />
was the stage name for two popular exotic dancers, Ashea Wabe who danced at the Seeley banquet at the 1893 World's Fair and Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(dancer) Wikipedia entry] Also a 1961 [[Little_Egypt|song]] by the Coasters.<br />
<br />
==Page 27==<br />
<br />
'''Bacchanale'''<br><br />
From ''Samson et Dalila'', op. 47 (1877) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Delilah_%28opera%29 Wikipedia entry]. Listen to a [http://themodernword.com/wiki/bacchanale.mp3 30 second MP3 sample]<br />
<br />
'''Dally'''<br><br />
Merle's relationship with Dally is reminiscent of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's characters in the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, "Paper Moon".<br />
<br />
==Page 28==<br />
<br />
'''''Imbottigliata!'''''<br>Italian for "bottled".<br />
<br />
'''Dahlia Rideout'''<br><br />
The lolita motif is common in Pynchon's works. Other lolitas include Bianca in ''Gravity's Rainbow.''<br />
'''Dahlia is four or five years old! She is not a lolita motif here. Lolita was twelve and Humbert was sick. Even her sick father, Merle Rideout, who would sell her to one of the Chums, won't until she is sixteen, maybe fifteen.<br />
<br />
==Page 29==<br />
<br />
'''a l'étouffée'''<br><br />
French, meaning a dish fried in a pan. So, pan-fried alligator meat.<br />
<br />
'''Sloane Laboratory'''<br><br />
Yale's physics lab built 1882.<br />
<br />
'''Ray Ipsow'''<br><br />
In Latin ''re ipso'' means "the thing itself." "To the thing itself" was the motto and rallying cry of the investigational method known as phenomenology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology Wikipedia entry] developed by Edmund Husserl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Husserl Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Outer Indianoplace'''<br><br />
Derogatory nickname for Indianapolis.<br />
<br />
'''Khartoum... Mahdi's army... Oltre Giubba, instead of down in Alex'''<br><br />
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army was an Islamic group in the 1880s that advocated a return to strict Islamic values and battled with the government of Khartoum and Egyptian armies. More on these convoluted events at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sudan_(1884-1898) Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
==Page 30==<br />
<br />
'''railroad watch'''<br><br />
High-quality pocket watch. [http://www.pockethorology.org/Railroad/Railroad.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
==Page 31==<br />
<br />
'''Scarsdale Vibe'''<br><br />
Scarsdale NY boasts that it's Westchester County's wealthiest community, so a 'Scarsdale vibe' implies 'stinking of money'. Vibe is another Pynchon baddie whose last name starts with "V", ''e.g.'', Brock Vond in ''Vineland.''<br />
<br />
'''Foley Walker'''<br><br />
"Foley walker" is a term used to indicate a sound-effects expert. Also known as a foley artist [http://www.natf.org/wad/foley.htm [cite]]<br />
<br />
'''Forty-seventh and Ashland'''<br><br />
[...] First, the story [...] about Ashland being named for the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire is an urban legend. Ashland Avenue, first known as Reuben Street, was already developed before the fire and was considered the height of suburban living on the West Side in the 1860s. <br />
[http://www.gapersblock.com/airbags/archives/ashland_the_great_fire_and_the_ruins_of_chicago/ [cite]] [...] The spread of movie palaces in the automobile age presaged the spread of commercial buildings from the Loop to the neighborhoods and suburbs. By 1930, Marshall Field & Co. had created smaller versions of its downtown store in Evanston and Oak Park, while neighborhood retailers like Goldblatt's and Wieboldt's were moving downtown. Chicago developed regional shopping districts at 47th and Ashland, 63rd and Halsted, Irving Park and Pulaski, and many other locations. Certain areas catered to specialized industries, such as “Automobile Row” on South Michigan Avenue, or the Maxwell Street Market, an open-air European-style market that resisted every effort at modernization until its destruction in the 1990s. [...]<br />
[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/316.html [cite]]<br />
[http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/img/crops/478.jpg [photo]]<br />
<br />
==Page 32==<br />
<br />
'''Second Corinthians'''<br><br />
This exchange between Vibe and Ipsow refers specifically to 2 Corinthians 11:19 -- For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 33==<br />
<br />
'''"Old Zip Coon"'''<br><br />
"Old Zip Coon" dates from as early as 1834 and is considered the original name for the 19th-century American folk song, 'Turkey in the Straw'. [[Old Zip Coon | lyrics]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Straw Wikipedia] See also [http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/Amsong59.htm] and [http://www.csufresno.edu:80/folklore/ballads/RJ19258.html]<br />
<br />
'''Sloane Lab'''<br><br />
Completed in 1912, was the gift of Henry T. Sloane, BA 1866, and William D. Sloane, MA HON. 1889. Of Longmeadow stone, it is Collegiate Gothic in style. Charles C. Haight was the architect. (An underground addition was constructed in 1958 to house a Van de Graaff machine-now removed. The John A. Hartford Foundation, Inc., and the U.S. Public Health Service financed it. Sloane Lab was the first University constructed on the Hillhouse Estate (less the three acres adjoining Sachem’s Wood). The property was a gift in 1910 of Mrs. Russell Sage, and called Pierson Sage Square. The University had wanted to acquire the land to develop into a turn-of-the-century “science park”. The well-known landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmstead advised in the land’s development. [217 Prospect Street] <br />
[http://www.facilities.yale.edu/campus/Building1.asp?lstBldg=1075 [cite]]<br />
[http://www.facilities.yale.edu/images/BFS/1075.jpg photo]]<br />
<br />
Interestingly, Frederick Law Olmstead was also pivital in the development of the grounds for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. His famous "Wooded Isle" remains a centerpiece in Chicago's Jackson Park.<br />
<br />
[http://www.hydepark.org/parks/jpac/jpkhistoryandfair.htm [link]]<br />
<br />
[http://www.hydepark.org/parks/pics/laggen4.JPG [photo]]<br />
<br />
For a more detailed account of Olmstead's landscape architecture as it relates to the 1893 World's Fair, see Erik Larson's ''The Devil in the White City''.<br />
<br />
==Page 34==<br />
<br />
'''"Pierpont"'''<br><br />
John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker, who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation.<br />
[...]<br />
In 1900, Morgan financed inventor Nikola Tesla and his Wardenclyffe Tower with $150,000 for experiments in radio. Tesla was unsuccessful and, in 1904, Morgan pulled out. Later, Tesla created a AC generator<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 36==<br />
<br />
'''Lew Basnight'''<br><br />
"Bas" is French for "low."<br />
<br />
A detective named 'Lew' reminds us of Ross Macdonald's character Lew Archer which in turn recalls another detective, Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade in San Francisco detective agency Spade & Archer. This may be a bad pun on 'lube-ass night'.<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
The name recalls the White Visitation of ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Any connection?<br />
<br />
==Page 37==<br />
'''fictitiousness'''<br><br />
On this and the previous page, there is a question raised of whether the Chums are fictional. Or it could be saying that such fantastical sights as the airship are easy to miss at the fair. <br />
<br />
'''Wyatt Earp'''<br><br />
(1848–1929), was a teamster, sometime buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, and saloon-keeper in the Wild West and the U.S. mining frontier from California to Alaska. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''Nellie Bly'''<br><br />
(1864-1922) was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''"Although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction."'''<br><br />
May express Pynchon's reaction to the press' treatment of him over the years. In 1964, when Pynchon heard that the ''New York Herald Tribune'' was writing an article about him, Pynchon wrote to his agent that he assumed the piece "will be riddled with the same lies, calumnies and all-around knavish disregard for my privacy" as previous articles. ("Pynchon's Letters Nudge His Mask," ''New York Times,'' 4 Mar 1998). <br />
<br />
==Page 39==<br />
<br />
'''kazoos'''<br><br />
This silly instrument appears in several Pynchon novels.<br />
<br />
'''slow ritual movement'''<br><br />
Maybe tai chi, or anachronistic Gurdjieffian dance?<br />
<br />
'''Drave'''<br><br />
Possibly a back formation from 'Dravidians,' referring to David Koresh's Branch Davidians.<br />
: huh? [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 16:23, 19 December 2006 (PST)<br />
Another possibility is that Pynchon had in mind the Scottish noun "drave," which the OED defines as a "fishing expedition in which several men take part, each supplying a net and receiving a share of the profits made. Later, A haul (of fish); also, a shoal." This resonates with the evangelical role that Drave plays (Cf. Matthew 4:18, where Jesus addresses Peter and Matthew, "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.")<br />
<br />
It should be noted, though, that there is also a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drave Drave river] in south central Europe, though there seems to be little textual evidence to support this association.<br />
<br />
'''"liable for criminal penalties"'''<br><br />
Law and the legal profession so far appear in AtD more than any other Pynchon novel (perhaps save ''The Crying of Lot 49''), and so far, like here, in a negative or confusing light, perhaps as part of the establishment Pynchon seems to rail against in the novel.<br />
<br />
==Page 40==<br />
<br />
'''remembrance stick'''<br><br />
Similar to keisaku in Zen Buddhism, an attempt by a sensei to alert students to their mindlessness in zazen (sitting meditation), usually administered by a stick. An English translation is stick of compassion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyosaku [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
==Page 42==<br />
'''scorcher cap'''<br><br />
The cap of an early bicycling enthusiast. According to [http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288 this] site, <br />
<br />
:"In […]1892 [… a] bicyclist to be considered genuine had to be dressed in bicycle clothes. A man had to wear bicycle pants which were baggy at the top and tight to the legs below. Then he had to have bicycle socks and shoes. The shoes were made of canvass. Then he had to have a loose fitting grey colored short which we would designate now as a sport shirt. Then on his head he had to wear a tight fitting cap with a long bill in front, the longer the better up to a certain ceiling length. With this outfit and a bicycle with drop handlebars he was ready to appear in public as a real cyclist. If he could make 20 miles an hour on a good track he was called a 'scorcher,' the idea being that he was going so fast that he would scorch at least the end of his nose if nothing else."<br />
<br />
==Page 43==<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
Since the White City dates from 01 May 1893, this ought to be later.<br />
<br />
'''"leisurely rips through the fabric of the day"'''<br><br />
See below<br />
<br />
==Page 44==<br />
<br />
'''"He had learned to step to the side of the day."'''<br><br />
Through the book there are juxtapositions of things with and against the day. Here, we see Lew set "to the side" of the day.<br />
<br />
==Page 45==<br />
<br />
'''Trabants'''<br><br />
"Trabanten" (German for 'satellites') originally - during the Thirty Years' War - were lightly armed foot soldiers; later this term was used for servants and/or bodyguards of high-ranking persons.<br />
<br />
'''"have a lawyer explain civil liability to you"'''<br><br />
Again, law. Pynchon must have boned up on legal jargon (or perhaps he got sued?). <br />
<br />
'''Francis Ferdinand'''<br><br />
This is indeed the same Franz Ferdinand whose assassination in 1914 triggered World War I. At the time of his appearance in AtD, he would have been 30, and his two passions throughout young adulthood and his 20s were travel and hunting (it is estimated that he shot more than 5,000 deer in his lifetime). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria Wikipedia entry]. He did indeed attend the Chicago Exposition. [http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/ch27.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 46==<br />
<br />
'''"staff"'''<br><br />
[http://ftp.apci.net/~truax/1904wf/WF_Mem-Staff.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
'''"In Austria, the Archduke was explaining"......through the line about<br />
renting out the Chicago Stockyards "for a weekend's amusement", Pynchon <br />
continues his linking of the Stockyard killing-floor with the genocidal horrors of the 2oth Century, it seems. See above. Heidegger (sic) made this connection somewhere and J.M Coetze's novel Elizabeth Costello uses it in a key chapter that was published separately. Researching the details. <br />
<br />
'''"Hungarians are the lowest level of brute existence"'''<br><br />
It is unclear whether this shocking sentiment (especially to Hungarians!) expressed by the Archduke is more fictitious than factual. Hungary had become an equal partner in the Austro-Hungarian empire by the 1890s, and Empress Elizabeth herself spoke the Hungarian language and loved its country and people, visiting and residing there often. Pynchon's portrayal of Franz seems to indicate, however, that despite the historic nature of his assassination, he deserved it...!<br />
<br />
'''Mannlicher'''<br><br />
A double-barreled rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. It is reported that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had several of these made special for him.<br />
<br />
Interestingly enough, the rifle is also mentioned in ''Green Hills of Africa'' and ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' by Ernest Hemingway, who used it extensively on hunting.<br />
<br />
Franz was eventually assassinated in Sarajevo. Coincidentally (?), fellow assassinee JFK was initially claimed to have been a victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher rifle.<br />
<br />
==Page 47==<br />
<br />
'''K&K Special Security'''<br><br />
"K&K" stands for "Kaiserlich und Königlich," German for "imperial and royal (kingly)," to indicate the Austrian two titles of the ruler of the Dual Monarchy: King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserlich_und_königlich Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit'''<br><br />
This is not a german word as far as I know and most likely not even a degenerate Habsburg will have used it (but then i havent read Franz Ferdinands account of his travels...). Sounds more like some babelfish automatic translation of "pastry-depravity" to me. I wonder what the german translator will make of this. My guess is, s/he will not make a "typical german" combined noun out of it, but turn the phrase to be able to use an adverb like "mehlspeisennarrisch" instead (what with in Austria and Bavaria there is a word for (mostly sweet) pastry: "Mehlspeise" (literally "flour-meal), and "narrisch" is Austrian/Viennese for being (slightly) mad). But then, of course, there might be a pun intended I as a bad english-speaker just dont get. Maybe via the pronounciation? Check out this [http://www.dict.cc/?s=Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit dictionary], head for "continue searching" and press "voice output" - voila, thats what "Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit" sounds like.<br />
<br />
'''...the only place in Chicago a man could find a decent orange phosphate...'''<br><br />
A reference to the modern stereotype that black people like orange soda, here called a phosphate.<br />
<br />
==Page 48==<br />
<br />
'''grip cars'''<br><br />
The lead cars in cable-car systems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_City_Railway [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
''' ''"...'st los, Hund?"'' '''<br><br />
German for "'s up, dog?"<br />
<br />
'''And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!'''<br><br />
WWI?<br />
<br />
==Page 49==<br />
<br />
'''Kinsley's'''<br><br />
A famous steakhouse at 105-107 Adams St. in downtown Chicago. The building was erected in 1885.<br />
<br />
'''Welsbach mantles'''<br><br />
One of the most important advances in the history of lighting, the Welsbach mantle (for a period so ubiquitous it became more commonly known simply as 'gas mantle') was first sold commercially in 1892 and quickly spread throughout Europe. It remained an important part of street lighting until the widespread introduction of electric lighting in the early 1900s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Reverend Moss Gatlin'''<br><br />
A fictional character. Is he connected to Rev. Cherrycoke? They are both Reverends with strong political opinions and you can hear Pynchon's voice here very strong.<br />
<br />
'''fascinators'''<br><br />
Hair adornments. [http://www.ribbonsandpearls.co.uk/catalogue/fascinators/fascinator_hair_accessories_intro.htm [pix]]<br />
<br />
'''"bearing the insults of the day"'''<br><br />
See note on page 44 above<br />
<br />
'''Blake's Jerusalem'''<br><br />
The original lines From William Blake's poem are:<br />
<br />
I will not cease from mental fight,<br><br />
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand<br><br />
Till we have built Jerusalem<br><br />
In England's green and pleasant land.<br><br />
<br />
==Page 50==<br />
<br />
'''Picardy third'''<br><br />
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
==Page 51==<br />
<br />
'''deadfalls'''<br><br />
Low points where refuse collects? Cf. Pynchon's story, Low-Lands?[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deadfalls [def]]<br />
<br />
'''"prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate"'''<br><br />
Coupled with the cover blurb Pynchon wrote: "If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction." Could ''Against the Day'' be Pynchon's prophecy of a future America?<br />
<br />
'''The Unsleeping Eye'''<br><br />
an apparent reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency. See also [[ATD_1-25#Page_13|page 13]].<br />
<br />
==Page 52==<br />
<br />
'''''Inconvenience'''''<br><br />
Lew Basnight's temporary presence on the airship may be the first clue as to why it's called ''Inconvenience''. Perhaps his growing sympathy for the anarchists will lead to greater involvement by him, the Chums, or at least the book in portraying the anarchist movement, which is viewed as an inconvenience to the ruling classes. Pynchon may consider his novel's message, similarly, as an inconvenient truth about America's past, present or both.<br />
<br />
:I thought it was just a polysyllable that sounds stately but means the opposite.--[[User:Robot|Robot]] 13:18, 5 December 2006 (PST)<br />
<br />
'''"some weeks till the fair closes"'''<br><br />
30 October 1893.<br />
<br />
'''Freddie Turner'''<br><br />
"The Significance of the Frontier in American History" From this paper:"In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave--the meeting point between savagery and civilization." <br />
[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1893turner.html [etext]]<br />
<br />
==Page 53==<br />
<br />
'''Blitz Instruments and Wackett Punches'''<br><br />
Mentioned in 1911 Britannica article 'Slaughter-house' [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Slaughter-house [etext]]<br />
<br />
'''"The frontier ends and disconnection begins"'''<br><br />
Here, the free cowboy myth of Buffalo Bill's show is replaced by the grim reality of the stockyard worker.<br />
<br />
'''Cause and effect'''<br><br />
A major theme in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.<br />
<br />
'''How the dickens do I know?'''<br><br />
A possible reference to the novels of Charles Dickens, who critiques in such works as ''Hard Times'' (1854) the onset of urban decay, and the choked living and working conditions of the proletariat as the Industrial Revolution steams onward.<br />
<br />
==Page 55==<br />
'''"...they continued in a fragmented reverie which,... often announced some change in the works"'''<br><br />
Good to notice when the Chums get like this again: i.e. unfocused, depressed, without direction, it may lead to patterns in the plot.<br />
<br />
'''"Speculation begun to fill the day."'''<br><br />
See note on [[ATD_26-56#Page_44|page 44]] above<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_26-56&diff=4657ATD 26-562006-12-29T04:18:55Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 33 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 26==<br />
<br />
'''Little Egypt'''<br><br />
was the stage name for two popular exotic dancers, Ashea Wabe who danced at the Seeley banquet at the 1893 World's Fair and Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(dancer) Wikipedia entry] Also a 1961 [[Little_Egypt|song]] by the Coasters.<br />
<br />
==Page 27==<br />
<br />
'''Bacchanale'''<br><br />
From ''Samson et Dalila'', op. 47 (1877) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Delilah_%28opera%29 Wikipedia entry]. Listen to a [http://themodernword.com/wiki/bacchanale.mp3 30 second MP3 sample]<br />
<br />
'''Dally'''<br><br />
Merle's relationship with Dally is reminiscent of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's characters in the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, "Paper Moon".<br />
<br />
==Page 28==<br />
<br />
'''''Imbottigliata!'''''<br>Italian for "bottled".<br />
<br />
'''Dahlia Rideout'''<br><br />
The lolita motif is common in Pynchon's works. Other lolitas include Bianca in ''Gravity's Rainbow.''<br />
'''Dahlia is four or five years old! She is not a lolita motif here. Lolita was twelve and Humbert was sick. Even her sick father, Merle Rideout, who would sell her to one of the Chums, won't until she is sixteen, maybe fifteen.<br />
<br />
==Page 29==<br />
<br />
'''a l'étouffée'''<br><br />
French, meaning a dish fried in a pan. So, pan-fried alligator meat.<br />
<br />
'''Sloane Laboratory'''<br><br />
Yale's physics lab built 1882.<br />
<br />
'''Ray Ipsow'''<br><br />
In Latin ''re ipso'' means "the thing itself." "To the thing itself" was the motto and rallying cry of the investigational method known as phenomenology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology Wikipedia entry] developed by Edmund Husserl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Husserl Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Outer Indianoplace'''<br><br />
Derogatory nickname for Indianapolis.<br />
<br />
'''Khartoum... Mahdi's army... Oltre Giubba, instead of down in Alex'''<br><br />
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army was an Islamic group in the 1880s that advocated a return to strict Islamic values and battled with the government of Khartoum and Egyptian armies. More on these convoluted events at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sudan_(1884-1898) Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
==Page 30==<br />
<br />
'''railroad watch'''<br><br />
High-quality pocket watch. [http://www.pockethorology.org/Railroad/Railroad.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
==Page 31==<br />
<br />
'''Scarsdale Vibe'''<br><br />
Scarsdale NY boasts that it's Westchester County's wealthiest community, so a 'Scarsdale vibe' implies 'stinking of money'. Vibe is another Pynchon baddie whose last name starts with "V", ''e.g.'', Brock Vond in ''Vineland.''<br />
<br />
'''Foley Walker'''<br><br />
"Foley walker" is a term used to indicate a sound-effects expert. Also known as a foley artist [http://www.natf.org/wad/foley.htm [cite]]<br />
<br />
'''Forty-seventh and Ashland'''<br><br />
[...] First, the story [...] about Ashland being named for the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire is an urban legend. Ashland Avenue, first known as Reuben Street, was already developed before the fire and was considered the height of suburban living on the West Side in the 1860s. <br />
[http://www.gapersblock.com/airbags/archives/ashland_the_great_fire_and_the_ruins_of_chicago/ [cite]] [...] The spread of movie palaces in the automobile age presaged the spread of commercial buildings from the Loop to the neighborhoods and suburbs. By 1930, Marshall Field & Co. had created smaller versions of its downtown store in Evanston and Oak Park, while neighborhood retailers like Goldblatt's and Wieboldt's were moving downtown. Chicago developed regional shopping districts at 47th and Ashland, 63rd and Halsted, Irving Park and Pulaski, and many other locations. Certain areas catered to specialized industries, such as “Automobile Row” on South Michigan Avenue, or the Maxwell Street Market, an open-air European-style market that resisted every effort at modernization until its destruction in the 1990s. [...]<br />
[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/316.html [cite]]<br />
[http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/img/crops/478.jpg [photo]]<br />
<br />
==Page 32==<br />
<br />
'''Second Corinthians'''<br><br />
This exchange between Vibe and Ipsow refers specifically to 2 Corinthians 11:19 -- For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 33==<br />
<br />
'''"Old Zip Coon"'''<br><br />
"Old Zip Coon" dates from as early as 1834 and is considered the original name for the 19th-century American folk song, 'Turkey in the Straw'. [[Old Zip Coon | lyrics]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Straw Wikipedia] See also [http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/Amsong59.htm] and [http://www.csufresno.edu:80/folklore/ballads/RJ19258.html]<br />
<br />
'''Sloane Lab'''<br><br />
Completed in 1912, was the gift of Henry T. Sloane, BA 1866, and William D. Sloane, MA HON. 1889. Of Longmeadow stone, it is Collegiate Gothic in style. Charles C. Haight was the architect. (An underground addition was constructed in 1958 to house a Van de Graaff machine-now removed. The John A. Hartford Foundation, Inc., and the U.S. Public Health Service financed it. Sloane Lab was the first University constructed on the Hillhouse Estate (less the three acres adjoining Sachem’s Wood). The property was a gift in 1910 of Mrs. Russell Sage, and called Pierson Sage Square. The University had wanted to acquire the land to develop into a turn-of-the-century “science park”. The well-known landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmstead advised in the land’s development. [217 Prospect Street] <br />
[http://www.facilities.yale.edu/campus/Building1.asp?lstBldg=1075 [cite]]<br />
[http://www.facilities.yale.edu/images/BFS/1075.jpg photo]]<br />
<br />
Interestingly, Frederick Law Olmstead was also pivital in the development of the grounds for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. His famous "Wooded Isle" remains a centerpiece in Chicago's Jackson Park.<br />
<br />
[http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hydepark.org/parks/pics/laggen4.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.hydepark.org/parks/jpac/jpkhistoryandfair.htm&h=228&w=349&sz=27&hl=en&start=9&tbnid=MMHMTrlhc_81EM:&tbnh=78&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dolmstead%2B%252B%2Bjackson%2Bpark%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D [link]]<br />
<br />
[http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hydepark.org/parks/jpac/pics/newboardwalk.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hydepark.org/parks/jpac/lagphotogal.htm&h=225&w=300&sz=38&hl=en&start=13&tbnid=ZVyOSZA286CLgM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dolmstead%2B%252B%2Bjackson%2Bpark%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D [link]]<br />
<br />
==Page 34==<br />
<br />
'''"Pierpont"'''<br><br />
John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker, who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation.<br />
[...]<br />
In 1900, Morgan financed inventor Nikola Tesla and his Wardenclyffe Tower with $150,000 for experiments in radio. Tesla was unsuccessful and, in 1904, Morgan pulled out. Later, Tesla created a AC generator<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 36==<br />
<br />
'''Lew Basnight'''<br><br />
"Bas" is French for "low."<br />
<br />
A detective named 'Lew' reminds us of Ross Macdonald's character Lew Archer which in turn recalls another detective, Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade in San Francisco detective agency Spade & Archer. This may be a bad pun on 'lube-ass night'.<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
The name recalls the White Visitation of ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Any connection?<br />
<br />
==Page 37==<br />
'''fictitiousness'''<br><br />
On this and the previous page, there is a question raised of whether the Chums are fictional. Or it could be saying that such fantastical sights as the airship are easy to miss at the fair. <br />
<br />
'''Wyatt Earp'''<br><br />
(1848–1929), was a teamster, sometime buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, and saloon-keeper in the Wild West and the U.S. mining frontier from California to Alaska. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''Nellie Bly'''<br><br />
(1864-1922) was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''"Although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction."'''<br><br />
May express Pynchon's reaction to the press' treatment of him over the years. In 1964, when Pynchon heard that the ''New York Herald Tribune'' was writing an article about him, Pynchon wrote to his agent that he assumed the piece "will be riddled with the same lies, calumnies and all-around knavish disregard for my privacy" as previous articles. ("Pynchon's Letters Nudge His Mask," ''New York Times,'' 4 Mar 1998). <br />
<br />
==Page 39==<br />
<br />
'''kazoos'''<br><br />
This silly instrument appears in several Pynchon novels.<br />
<br />
'''slow ritual movement'''<br><br />
Maybe tai chi, or anachronistic Gurdjieffian dance?<br />
<br />
'''Drave'''<br><br />
Possibly a back formation from 'Dravidians,' referring to David Koresh's Branch Davidians.<br />
: huh? [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 16:23, 19 December 2006 (PST)<br />
Another possibility is that Pynchon had in mind the Scottish noun "drave," which the OED defines as a "fishing expedition in which several men take part, each supplying a net and receiving a share of the profits made. Later, A haul (of fish); also, a shoal." This resonates with the evangelical role that Drave plays (Cf. Matthew 4:18, where Jesus addresses Peter and Matthew, "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.")<br />
<br />
It should be noted, though, that there is also a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drave Drave river] in south central Europe, though there seems to be little textual evidence to support this association.<br />
<br />
'''"liable for criminal penalties"'''<br><br />
Law and the legal profession so far appear in AtD more than any other Pynchon novel (perhaps save ''The Crying of Lot 49''), and so far, like here, in a negative or confusing light, perhaps as part of the establishment Pynchon seems to rail against in the novel.<br />
<br />
==Page 40==<br />
<br />
'''remembrance stick'''<br><br />
Similar to keisaku in Zen Buddhism, an attempt by a sensei to alert students to their mindlessness in zazen (sitting meditation), usually administered by a stick. An English translation is stick of compassion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyosaku [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
==Page 42==<br />
'''scorcher cap'''<br><br />
The cap of an early bicycling enthusiast. According to [http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288 this] site, <br />
<br />
:"In […]1892 [… a] bicyclist to be considered genuine had to be dressed in bicycle clothes. A man had to wear bicycle pants which were baggy at the top and tight to the legs below. Then he had to have bicycle socks and shoes. The shoes were made of canvass. Then he had to have a loose fitting grey colored short which we would designate now as a sport shirt. Then on his head he had to wear a tight fitting cap with a long bill in front, the longer the better up to a certain ceiling length. With this outfit and a bicycle with drop handlebars he was ready to appear in public as a real cyclist. If he could make 20 miles an hour on a good track he was called a 'scorcher,' the idea being that he was going so fast that he would scorch at least the end of his nose if nothing else."<br />
<br />
==Page 43==<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
Since the White City dates from 01 May 1893, this ought to be later.<br />
<br />
'''"leisurely rips through the fabric of the day"'''<br><br />
See below<br />
<br />
==Page 44==<br />
<br />
'''"He had learned to step to the side of the day."'''<br><br />
Through the book there are juxtapositions of things with and against the day. Here, we see Lew set "to the side" of the day.<br />
<br />
==Page 45==<br />
<br />
'''Trabants'''<br><br />
"Trabanten" (German for 'satellites') originally - during the Thirty Years' War - were lightly armed foot soldiers; later this term was used for servants and/or bodyguards of high-ranking persons.<br />
<br />
'''"have a lawyer explain civil liability to you"'''<br><br />
Again, law. Pynchon must have boned up on legal jargon (or perhaps he got sued?). <br />
<br />
'''Francis Ferdinand'''<br><br />
This is indeed the same Franz Ferdinand whose assassination in 1914 triggered World War I. At the time of his appearance in AtD, he would have been 30, and his two passions throughout young adulthood and his 20s were travel and hunting (it is estimated that he shot more than 5,000 deer in his lifetime). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria Wikipedia entry]. He did indeed attend the Chicago Exposition. [http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/ch27.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 46==<br />
<br />
'''"staff"'''<br><br />
[http://ftp.apci.net/~truax/1904wf/WF_Mem-Staff.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
'''"In Austria, the Archduke was explaining"......through the line about<br />
renting out the Chicago Stockyards "for a weekend's amusement", Pynchon <br />
continues his linking of the Stockyard killing-floor with the genocidal horrors of the 2oth Century, it seems. See above. Heidegger (sic) made this connection somewhere and J.M Coetze's novel Elizabeth Costello uses it in a key chapter that was published separately. Researching the details. <br />
<br />
'''"Hungarians are the lowest level of brute existence"'''<br><br />
It is unclear whether this shocking sentiment (especially to Hungarians!) expressed by the Archduke is more fictitious than factual. Hungary had become an equal partner in the Austro-Hungarian empire by the 1890s, and Empress Elizabeth herself spoke the Hungarian language and loved its country and people, visiting and residing there often. Pynchon's portrayal of Franz seems to indicate, however, that despite the historic nature of his assassination, he deserved it...!<br />
<br />
'''Mannlicher'''<br><br />
A double-barreled rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. It is reported that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had several of these made special for him.<br />
<br />
Interestingly enough, the rifle is also mentioned in ''Green Hills of Africa'' and ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' by Ernest Hemingway, who used it extensively on hunting.<br />
<br />
Franz was eventually assassinated in Sarajevo. Coincidentally (?), fellow assassinee JFK was initially claimed to have been a victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher rifle.<br />
<br />
==Page 47==<br />
<br />
'''K&K Special Security'''<br><br />
"K&K" stands for "Kaiserlich und Königlich," German for "imperial and royal (kingly)," to indicate the Austrian two titles of the ruler of the Dual Monarchy: King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserlich_und_königlich Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit'''<br><br />
This is not a german word as far as I know and most likely not even a degenerate Habsburg will have used it (but then i havent read Franz Ferdinands account of his travels...). Sounds more like some babelfish automatic translation of "pastry-depravity" to me. I wonder what the german translator will make of this. My guess is, s/he will not make a "typical german" combined noun out of it, but turn the phrase to be able to use an adverb like "mehlspeisennarrisch" instead (what with in Austria and Bavaria there is a word for (mostly sweet) pastry: "Mehlspeise" (literally "flour-meal), and "narrisch" is Austrian/Viennese for being (slightly) mad). But then, of course, there might be a pun intended I as a bad english-speaker just dont get. Maybe via the pronounciation? Check out this [http://www.dict.cc/?s=Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit dictionary], head for "continue searching" and press "voice output" - voila, thats what "Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit" sounds like.<br />
<br />
'''...the only place in Chicago a man could find a decent orange phosphate...'''<br><br />
A reference to the modern stereotype that black people like orange soda, here called a phosphate.<br />
<br />
==Page 48==<br />
<br />
'''grip cars'''<br><br />
The lead cars in cable-car systems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_City_Railway [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
''' ''"...'st los, Hund?"'' '''<br><br />
German for "'s up, dog?"<br />
<br />
'''And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!'''<br><br />
WWI?<br />
<br />
==Page 49==<br />
<br />
'''Kinsley's'''<br><br />
A famous steakhouse at 105-107 Adams St. in downtown Chicago. The building was erected in 1885.<br />
<br />
'''Welsbach mantles'''<br><br />
One of the most important advances in the history of lighting, the Welsbach mantle (for a period so ubiquitous it became more commonly known simply as 'gas mantle') was first sold commercially in 1892 and quickly spread throughout Europe. It remained an important part of street lighting until the widespread introduction of electric lighting in the early 1900s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Reverend Moss Gatlin'''<br><br />
A fictional character. Is he connected to Rev. Cherrycoke? They are both Reverends with strong political opinions and you can hear Pynchon's voice here very strong.<br />
<br />
'''fascinators'''<br><br />
Hair adornments. [http://www.ribbonsandpearls.co.uk/catalogue/fascinators/fascinator_hair_accessories_intro.htm [pix]]<br />
<br />
'''"bearing the insults of the day"'''<br><br />
See note on page 44 above<br />
<br />
'''Blake's Jerusalem'''<br><br />
The original lines From William Blake's poem are:<br />
<br />
I will not cease from mental fight,<br><br />
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand<br><br />
Till we have built Jerusalem<br><br />
In England's green and pleasant land.<br><br />
<br />
==Page 50==<br />
<br />
'''Picardy third'''<br><br />
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
==Page 51==<br />
<br />
'''deadfalls'''<br><br />
Low points where refuse collects? Cf. Pynchon's story, Low-Lands?[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deadfalls [def]]<br />
<br />
'''"prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate"'''<br><br />
Coupled with the cover blurb Pynchon wrote: "If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction." Could ''Against the Day'' be Pynchon's prophecy of a future America?<br />
<br />
'''The Unsleeping Eye'''<br><br />
an apparent reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency. See also [[ATD_1-25#Page_13|page 13]].<br />
<br />
==Page 52==<br />
<br />
'''''Inconvenience'''''<br><br />
Lew Basnight's temporary presence on the airship may be the first clue as to why it's called ''Inconvenience''. Perhaps his growing sympathy for the anarchists will lead to greater involvement by him, the Chums, or at least the book in portraying the anarchist movement, which is viewed as an inconvenience to the ruling classes. Pynchon may consider his novel's message, similarly, as an inconvenient truth about America's past, present or both.<br />
<br />
:I thought it was just a polysyllable that sounds stately but means the opposite.--[[User:Robot|Robot]] 13:18, 5 December 2006 (PST)<br />
<br />
'''"some weeks till the fair closes"'''<br><br />
30 October 1893.<br />
<br />
'''Freddie Turner'''<br><br />
"The Significance of the Frontier in American History" From this paper:"In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave--the meeting point between savagery and civilization." <br />
[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1893turner.html [etext]]<br />
<br />
==Page 53==<br />
<br />
'''Blitz Instruments and Wackett Punches'''<br><br />
Mentioned in 1911 Britannica article 'Slaughter-house' [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Slaughter-house [etext]]<br />
<br />
'''"The frontier ends and disconnection begins"'''<br><br />
Here, the free cowboy myth of Buffalo Bill's show is replaced by the grim reality of the stockyard worker.<br />
<br />
'''Cause and effect'''<br><br />
A major theme in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.<br />
<br />
'''How the dickens do I know?'''<br><br />
A possible reference to the novels of Charles Dickens, who critiques in such works as ''Hard Times'' (1854) the onset of urban decay, and the choked living and working conditions of the proletariat as the Industrial Revolution steams onward.<br />
<br />
==Page 55==<br />
'''"...they continued in a fragmented reverie which,... often announced some change in the works"'''<br><br />
Good to notice when the Chums get like this again: i.e. unfocused, depressed, without direction, it may lead to patterns in the plot.<br />
<br />
'''"Speculation begun to fill the day."'''<br><br />
See note on [[ATD_26-56#Page_44|page 44]] above<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_26-56&diff=4656ATD 26-562006-12-29T04:01:39Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 31 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 26==<br />
<br />
'''Little Egypt'''<br><br />
was the stage name for two popular exotic dancers, Ashea Wabe who danced at the Seeley banquet at the 1893 World's Fair and Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(dancer) Wikipedia entry] Also a 1961 [[Little_Egypt|song]] by the Coasters.<br />
<br />
==Page 27==<br />
<br />
'''Bacchanale'''<br><br />
From ''Samson et Dalila'', op. 47 (1877) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Delilah_%28opera%29 Wikipedia entry]. Listen to a [http://themodernword.com/wiki/bacchanale.mp3 30 second MP3 sample]<br />
<br />
'''Dally'''<br><br />
Merle's relationship with Dally is reminiscent of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's characters in the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, "Paper Moon".<br />
<br />
==Page 28==<br />
<br />
'''''Imbottigliata!'''''<br>Italian for "bottled".<br />
<br />
'''Dahlia Rideout'''<br><br />
The lolita motif is common in Pynchon's works. Other lolitas include Bianca in ''Gravity's Rainbow.''<br />
'''Dahlia is four or five years old! She is not a lolita motif here. Lolita was twelve and Humbert was sick. Even her sick father, Merle Rideout, who would sell her to one of the Chums, won't until she is sixteen, maybe fifteen.<br />
<br />
==Page 29==<br />
<br />
'''a l'étouffée'''<br><br />
French, meaning a dish fried in a pan. So, pan-fried alligator meat.<br />
<br />
'''Sloane Laboratory'''<br><br />
Yale's physics lab built 1882.<br />
<br />
'''Ray Ipsow'''<br><br />
In Latin ''re ipso'' means "the thing itself." "To the thing itself" was the motto and rallying cry of the investigational method known as phenomenology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology Wikipedia entry] developed by Edmund Husserl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Husserl Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Outer Indianoplace'''<br><br />
Derogatory nickname for Indianapolis.<br />
<br />
'''Khartoum... Mahdi's army... Oltre Giubba, instead of down in Alex'''<br><br />
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army was an Islamic group in the 1880s that advocated a return to strict Islamic values and battled with the government of Khartoum and Egyptian armies. More on these convoluted events at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sudan_(1884-1898) Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
==Page 30==<br />
<br />
'''railroad watch'''<br><br />
High-quality pocket watch. [http://www.pockethorology.org/Railroad/Railroad.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
==Page 31==<br />
<br />
'''Scarsdale Vibe'''<br><br />
Scarsdale NY boasts that it's Westchester County's wealthiest community, so a 'Scarsdale vibe' implies 'stinking of money'. Vibe is another Pynchon baddie whose last name starts with "V", ''e.g.'', Brock Vond in ''Vineland.''<br />
<br />
'''Foley Walker'''<br><br />
"Foley walker" is a term used to indicate a sound-effects expert. Also known as a foley artist [http://www.natf.org/wad/foley.htm [cite]]<br />
<br />
'''Forty-seventh and Ashland'''<br><br />
[...] First, the story [...] about Ashland being named for the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire is an urban legend. Ashland Avenue, first known as Reuben Street, was already developed before the fire and was considered the height of suburban living on the West Side in the 1860s. <br />
[http://www.gapersblock.com/airbags/archives/ashland_the_great_fire_and_the_ruins_of_chicago/ [cite]] [...] The spread of movie palaces in the automobile age presaged the spread of commercial buildings from the Loop to the neighborhoods and suburbs. By 1930, Marshall Field & Co. had created smaller versions of its downtown store in Evanston and Oak Park, while neighborhood retailers like Goldblatt's and Wieboldt's were moving downtown. Chicago developed regional shopping districts at 47th and Ashland, 63rd and Halsted, Irving Park and Pulaski, and many other locations. Certain areas catered to specialized industries, such as “Automobile Row” on South Michigan Avenue, or the Maxwell Street Market, an open-air European-style market that resisted every effort at modernization until its destruction in the 1990s. [...]<br />
[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/316.html [cite]]<br />
[http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/img/crops/478.jpg [photo]]<br />
<br />
==Page 32==<br />
<br />
'''Second Corinthians'''<br><br />
This exchange between Vibe and Ipsow refers specifically to 2 Corinthians 11:19 -- For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 33==<br />
<br />
'''"Old Zip Coon"'''<br><br />
"Old Zip Coon" dates from as early as 1834 and is considered the original name for the 19th-century American folk song, 'Turkey in the Straw'. [[Old Zip Coon | lyrics]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Straw Wikipedia] See also [http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/Amsong59.htm] and [http://www.csufresno.edu:80/folklore/ballads/RJ19258.html]<br />
<br />
<br />
==Page 34==<br />
<br />
'''"Pierpont"'''<br><br />
John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker, who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation.<br />
[...]<br />
In 1900, Morgan financed inventor Nikola Tesla and his Wardenclyffe Tower with $150,000 for experiments in radio. Tesla was unsuccessful and, in 1904, Morgan pulled out. Later, Tesla created a AC generator<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 36==<br />
<br />
'''Lew Basnight'''<br><br />
"Bas" is French for "low."<br />
<br />
A detective named 'Lew' reminds us of Ross Macdonald's character Lew Archer which in turn recalls another detective, Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade in San Francisco detective agency Spade & Archer. This may be a bad pun on 'lube-ass night'.<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
The name recalls the White Visitation of ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Any connection?<br />
<br />
==Page 37==<br />
'''fictitiousness'''<br><br />
On this and the previous page, there is a question raised of whether the Chums are fictional. Or it could be saying that such fantastical sights as the airship are easy to miss at the fair. <br />
<br />
'''Wyatt Earp'''<br><br />
(1848–1929), was a teamster, sometime buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, and saloon-keeper in the Wild West and the U.S. mining frontier from California to Alaska. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''Nellie Bly'''<br><br />
(1864-1922) was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''"Although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction."'''<br><br />
May express Pynchon's reaction to the press' treatment of him over the years. In 1964, when Pynchon heard that the ''New York Herald Tribune'' was writing an article about him, Pynchon wrote to his agent that he assumed the piece "will be riddled with the same lies, calumnies and all-around knavish disregard for my privacy" as previous articles. ("Pynchon's Letters Nudge His Mask," ''New York Times,'' 4 Mar 1998). <br />
<br />
==Page 39==<br />
<br />
'''kazoos'''<br><br />
This silly instrument appears in several Pynchon novels.<br />
<br />
'''slow ritual movement'''<br><br />
Maybe tai chi, or anachronistic Gurdjieffian dance?<br />
<br />
'''Drave'''<br><br />
Possibly a back formation from 'Dravidians,' referring to David Koresh's Branch Davidians.<br />
: huh? [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 16:23, 19 December 2006 (PST)<br />
Another possibility is that Pynchon had in mind the Scottish noun "drave," which the OED defines as a "fishing expedition in which several men take part, each supplying a net and receiving a share of the profits made. Later, A haul (of fish); also, a shoal." This resonates with the evangelical role that Drave plays (Cf. Matthew 4:18, where Jesus addresses Peter and Matthew, "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.")<br />
<br />
It should be noted, though, that there is also a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drave Drave river] in south central Europe, though there seems to be little textual evidence to support this association.<br />
<br />
'''"liable for criminal penalties"'''<br><br />
Law and the legal profession so far appear in AtD more than any other Pynchon novel (perhaps save ''The Crying of Lot 49''), and so far, like here, in a negative or confusing light, perhaps as part of the establishment Pynchon seems to rail against in the novel.<br />
<br />
==Page 40==<br />
<br />
'''remembrance stick'''<br><br />
Similar to keisaku in Zen Buddhism, an attempt by a sensei to alert students to their mindlessness in zazen (sitting meditation), usually administered by a stick. An English translation is stick of compassion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyosaku [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
==Page 42==<br />
'''scorcher cap'''<br><br />
The cap of an early bicycling enthusiast. According to [http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288 this] site, <br />
<br />
:"In […]1892 [… a] bicyclist to be considered genuine had to be dressed in bicycle clothes. A man had to wear bicycle pants which were baggy at the top and tight to the legs below. Then he had to have bicycle socks and shoes. The shoes were made of canvass. Then he had to have a loose fitting grey colored short which we would designate now as a sport shirt. Then on his head he had to wear a tight fitting cap with a long bill in front, the longer the better up to a certain ceiling length. With this outfit and a bicycle with drop handlebars he was ready to appear in public as a real cyclist. If he could make 20 miles an hour on a good track he was called a 'scorcher,' the idea being that he was going so fast that he would scorch at least the end of his nose if nothing else."<br />
<br />
==Page 43==<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
Since the White City dates from 01 May 1893, this ought to be later.<br />
<br />
'''"leisurely rips through the fabric of the day"'''<br><br />
See below<br />
<br />
==Page 44==<br />
<br />
'''"He had learned to step to the side of the day."'''<br><br />
Through the book there are juxtapositions of things with and against the day. Here, we see Lew set "to the side" of the day.<br />
<br />
==Page 45==<br />
<br />
'''Trabants'''<br><br />
"Trabanten" (German for 'satellites') originally - during the Thirty Years' War - were lightly armed foot soldiers; later this term was used for servants and/or bodyguards of high-ranking persons.<br />
<br />
'''"have a lawyer explain civil liability to you"'''<br><br />
Again, law. Pynchon must have boned up on legal jargon (or perhaps he got sued?). <br />
<br />
'''Francis Ferdinand'''<br><br />
This is indeed the same Franz Ferdinand whose assassination in 1914 triggered World War I. At the time of his appearance in AtD, he would have been 30, and his two passions throughout young adulthood and his 20s were travel and hunting (it is estimated that he shot more than 5,000 deer in his lifetime). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria Wikipedia entry]. He did indeed attend the Chicago Exposition. [http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/ch27.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 46==<br />
<br />
'''"staff"'''<br><br />
[http://ftp.apci.net/~truax/1904wf/WF_Mem-Staff.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
'''"In Austria, the Archduke was explaining"......through the line about<br />
renting out the Chicago Stockyards "for a weekend's amusement", Pynchon <br />
continues his linking of the Stockyard killing-floor with the genocidal horrors of the 2oth Century, it seems. See above. Heidegger (sic) made this connection somewhere and J.M Coetze's novel Elizabeth Costello uses it in a key chapter that was published separately. Researching the details. <br />
<br />
'''"Hungarians are the lowest level of brute existence"'''<br><br />
It is unclear whether this shocking sentiment (especially to Hungarians!) expressed by the Archduke is more fictitious than factual. Hungary had become an equal partner in the Austro-Hungarian empire by the 1890s, and Empress Elizabeth herself spoke the Hungarian language and loved its country and people, visiting and residing there often. Pynchon's portrayal of Franz seems to indicate, however, that despite the historic nature of his assassination, he deserved it...!<br />
<br />
'''Mannlicher'''<br><br />
A double-barreled rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. It is reported that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had several of these made special for him.<br />
<br />
Interestingly enough, the rifle is also mentioned in ''Green Hills of Africa'' and ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' by Ernest Hemingway, who used it extensively on hunting.<br />
<br />
Franz was eventually assassinated in Sarajevo. Coincidentally (?), fellow assassinee JFK was initially claimed to have been a victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher rifle.<br />
<br />
==Page 47==<br />
<br />
'''K&K Special Security'''<br><br />
"K&K" stands for "Kaiserlich und Königlich," German for "imperial and royal (kingly)," to indicate the Austrian two titles of the ruler of the Dual Monarchy: King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserlich_und_königlich Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit'''<br><br />
This is not a german word as far as I know and most likely not even a degenerate Habsburg will have used it (but then i havent read Franz Ferdinands account of his travels...). Sounds more like some babelfish automatic translation of "pastry-depravity" to me. I wonder what the german translator will make of this. My guess is, s/he will not make a "typical german" combined noun out of it, but turn the phrase to be able to use an adverb like "mehlspeisennarrisch" instead (what with in Austria and Bavaria there is a word for (mostly sweet) pastry: "Mehlspeise" (literally "flour-meal), and "narrisch" is Austrian/Viennese for being (slightly) mad). But then, of course, there might be a pun intended I as a bad english-speaker just dont get. Maybe via the pronounciation? Check out this [http://www.dict.cc/?s=Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit dictionary], head for "continue searching" and press "voice output" - voila, thats what "Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit" sounds like.<br />
<br />
'''...the only place in Chicago a man could find a decent orange phosphate...'''<br><br />
A reference to the modern stereotype that black people like orange soda, here called a phosphate.<br />
<br />
==Page 48==<br />
<br />
'''grip cars'''<br><br />
The lead cars in cable-car systems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_City_Railway [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
''' ''"...'st los, Hund?"'' '''<br><br />
German for "'s up, dog?"<br />
<br />
'''And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!'''<br><br />
WWI?<br />
<br />
==Page 49==<br />
<br />
'''Kinsley's'''<br><br />
A famous steakhouse at 105-107 Adams St. in downtown Chicago. The building was erected in 1885.<br />
<br />
'''Welsbach mantles'''<br><br />
One of the most important advances in the history of lighting, the Welsbach mantle (for a period so ubiquitous it became more commonly known simply as 'gas mantle') was first sold commercially in 1892 and quickly spread throughout Europe. It remained an important part of street lighting until the widespread introduction of electric lighting in the early 1900s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Reverend Moss Gatlin'''<br><br />
A fictional character. Is he connected to Rev. Cherrycoke? They are both Reverends with strong political opinions and you can hear Pynchon's voice here very strong.<br />
<br />
'''fascinators'''<br><br />
Hair adornments. [http://www.ribbonsandpearls.co.uk/catalogue/fascinators/fascinator_hair_accessories_intro.htm [pix]]<br />
<br />
'''"bearing the insults of the day"'''<br><br />
See note on page 44 above<br />
<br />
'''Blake's Jerusalem'''<br><br />
The original lines From William Blake's poem are:<br />
<br />
I will not cease from mental fight,<br><br />
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand<br><br />
Till we have built Jerusalem<br><br />
In England's green and pleasant land.<br><br />
<br />
==Page 50==<br />
<br />
'''Picardy third'''<br><br />
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
==Page 51==<br />
<br />
'''deadfalls'''<br><br />
Low points where refuse collects? Cf. Pynchon's story, Low-Lands?[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deadfalls [def]]<br />
<br />
'''"prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate"'''<br><br />
Coupled with the cover blurb Pynchon wrote: "If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction." Could ''Against the Day'' be Pynchon's prophecy of a future America?<br />
<br />
'''The Unsleeping Eye'''<br><br />
an apparent reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency. See also [[ATD_1-25#Page_13|page 13]].<br />
<br />
==Page 52==<br />
<br />
'''''Inconvenience'''''<br><br />
Lew Basnight's temporary presence on the airship may be the first clue as to why it's called ''Inconvenience''. Perhaps his growing sympathy for the anarchists will lead to greater involvement by him, the Chums, or at least the book in portraying the anarchist movement, which is viewed as an inconvenience to the ruling classes. Pynchon may consider his novel's message, similarly, as an inconvenient truth about America's past, present or both.<br />
<br />
:I thought it was just a polysyllable that sounds stately but means the opposite.--[[User:Robot|Robot]] 13:18, 5 December 2006 (PST)<br />
<br />
'''"some weeks till the fair closes"'''<br><br />
30 October 1893.<br />
<br />
'''Freddie Turner'''<br><br />
"The Significance of the Frontier in American History" From this paper:"In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave--the meeting point between savagery and civilization." <br />
[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1893turner.html [etext]]<br />
<br />
==Page 53==<br />
<br />
'''Blitz Instruments and Wackett Punches'''<br><br />
Mentioned in 1911 Britannica article 'Slaughter-house' [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Slaughter-house [etext]]<br />
<br />
'''"The frontier ends and disconnection begins"'''<br><br />
Here, the free cowboy myth of Buffalo Bill's show is replaced by the grim reality of the stockyard worker.<br />
<br />
'''Cause and effect'''<br><br />
A major theme in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.<br />
<br />
'''How the dickens do I know?'''<br><br />
A possible reference to the novels of Charles Dickens, who critiques in such works as ''Hard Times'' (1854) the onset of urban decay, and the choked living and working conditions of the proletariat as the Industrial Revolution steams onward.<br />
<br />
==Page 55==<br />
'''"...they continued in a fragmented reverie which,... often announced some change in the works"'''<br><br />
Good to notice when the Chums get like this again: i.e. unfocused, depressed, without direction, it may lead to patterns in the plot.<br />
<br />
'''"Speculation begun to fill the day."'''<br><br />
See note on [[ATD_26-56#Page_44|page 44]] above<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_26-56&diff=4655ATD 26-562006-12-29T03:59:55Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 31 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 26==<br />
<br />
'''Little Egypt'''<br><br />
was the stage name for two popular exotic dancers, Ashea Wabe who danced at the Seeley banquet at the 1893 World's Fair and Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(dancer) Wikipedia entry] Also a 1961 [[Little_Egypt|song]] by the Coasters.<br />
<br />
==Page 27==<br />
<br />
'''Bacchanale'''<br><br />
From ''Samson et Dalila'', op. 47 (1877) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Delilah_%28opera%29 Wikipedia entry]. Listen to a [http://themodernword.com/wiki/bacchanale.mp3 30 second MP3 sample]<br />
<br />
'''Dally'''<br><br />
Merle's relationship with Dally is reminiscent of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's characters in the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, "Paper Moon".<br />
<br />
==Page 28==<br />
<br />
'''''Imbottigliata!'''''<br>Italian for "bottled".<br />
<br />
'''Dahlia Rideout'''<br><br />
The lolita motif is common in Pynchon's works. Other lolitas include Bianca in ''Gravity's Rainbow.''<br />
'''Dahlia is four or five years old! She is not a lolita motif here. Lolita was twelve and Humbert was sick. Even her sick father, Merle Rideout, who would sell her to one of the Chums, won't until she is sixteen, maybe fifteen.<br />
<br />
==Page 29==<br />
<br />
'''a l'étouffée'''<br><br />
French, meaning a dish fried in a pan. So, pan-fried alligator meat.<br />
<br />
'''Sloane Laboratory'''<br><br />
Yale's physics lab built 1882.<br />
<br />
'''Ray Ipsow'''<br><br />
In Latin ''re ipso'' means "the thing itself." "To the thing itself" was the motto and rallying cry of the investigational method known as phenomenology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology Wikipedia entry] developed by Edmund Husserl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Husserl Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Outer Indianoplace'''<br><br />
Derogatory nickname for Indianapolis.<br />
<br />
'''Khartoum... Mahdi's army... Oltre Giubba, instead of down in Alex'''<br><br />
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army was an Islamic group in the 1880s that advocated a return to strict Islamic values and battled with the government of Khartoum and Egyptian armies. More on these convoluted events at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sudan_(1884-1898) Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
==Page 30==<br />
<br />
'''railroad watch'''<br><br />
High-quality pocket watch. [http://www.pockethorology.org/Railroad/Railroad.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
==Page 31==<br />
<br />
'''Scarsdale Vibe'''<br><br />
Scarsdale NY boasts that it's Westchester County's wealthiest community, so a 'Scarsdale vibe' implies 'stinking of money'. Vibe is another Pynchon baddie whose last name starts with "V", ''e.g.'', Brock Vond in ''Vineland.''<br />
<br />
'''Foley Walker'''<br><br />
"Foley walker" is a term used to indicate a sound-effects expert. Also known as a foley artist [http://www.natf.org/wad/foley.htm [cite]]<br />
<br />
'''Forty-seventh and Ashland'''<br><br />
[...] First, the story [...] about Ashland being named for the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire is an urban legend. Ashland Avenue, first known as Reuben Street, was already developed before the fire and was considered the height of suburban living on the West Side in the 1860s. <br />
[http://www.gapersblock.com/airbags/archives/ashland_the_great_fire_and_the_ruins_of_chicago/ [cite]] [...] The spread of movie palaces in the automobile age presaged the spread of commercial buildings from the Loop to the neighborhoods and suburbs. By 1930, Marshall Field & Co. had created smaller versions of its downtown store in Evanston and Oak Park, while neighborhood retailers like Goldblatt's and Wieboldt's were moving downtown. Chicago developed regional shopping districts at 47th and Ashland, 63rd and Halsted, Irving Park and Pulaski, and many other locations. Certain areas catered to specialized industries, such as “Automobile Row” on South Michigan Avenue, or the Maxwell Street Market, an open-air European-style market that resisted every effort at modernization until its destruction in the 1990s. [...]<br />
[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/316.html [cite]]<br />
[http://www.chicago.com/neighborhoods/Back_of_the_Yards/ [photo]] <br />
[http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/img/crops/478.jpg [photo]][http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/FRONTIER/Image/fr-bufbill.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/FRONTIER/Image/index.html&h=277&w=408&sz=112&hl=en&start=17&tbnid=IQe3x_SZ_hqfQM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3D47th%2Band%2Bashland%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D [Photograph of rally at 47th and Ashland during 1904 Chicago meatpackers's strike]]<br />
<br />
==Page 32==<br />
<br />
'''Second Corinthians'''<br><br />
This exchange between Vibe and Ipsow refers specifically to 2 Corinthians 11:19 -- For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 33==<br />
<br />
'''"Old Zip Coon"'''<br><br />
"Old Zip Coon" dates from as early as 1834 and is considered the original name for the 19th-century American folk song, 'Turkey in the Straw'. [[Old Zip Coon | lyrics]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Straw Wikipedia] See also [http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/Amsong59.htm] and [http://www.csufresno.edu:80/folklore/ballads/RJ19258.html]<br />
<br />
<br />
==Page 34==<br />
<br />
'''"Pierpont"'''<br><br />
John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker, who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation.<br />
[...]<br />
In 1900, Morgan financed inventor Nikola Tesla and his Wardenclyffe Tower with $150,000 for experiments in radio. Tesla was unsuccessful and, in 1904, Morgan pulled out. Later, Tesla created a AC generator<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 36==<br />
<br />
'''Lew Basnight'''<br><br />
"Bas" is French for "low."<br />
<br />
A detective named 'Lew' reminds us of Ross Macdonald's character Lew Archer which in turn recalls another detective, Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade in San Francisco detective agency Spade & Archer. This may be a bad pun on 'lube-ass night'.<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
The name recalls the White Visitation of ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Any connection?<br />
<br />
==Page 37==<br />
'''fictitiousness'''<br><br />
On this and the previous page, there is a question raised of whether the Chums are fictional. Or it could be saying that such fantastical sights as the airship are easy to miss at the fair. <br />
<br />
'''Wyatt Earp'''<br><br />
(1848–1929), was a teamster, sometime buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, and saloon-keeper in the Wild West and the U.S. mining frontier from California to Alaska. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''Nellie Bly'''<br><br />
(1864-1922) was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''"Although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction."'''<br><br />
May express Pynchon's reaction to the press' treatment of him over the years. In 1964, when Pynchon heard that the ''New York Herald Tribune'' was writing an article about him, Pynchon wrote to his agent that he assumed the piece "will be riddled with the same lies, calumnies and all-around knavish disregard for my privacy" as previous articles. ("Pynchon's Letters Nudge His Mask," ''New York Times,'' 4 Mar 1998). <br />
<br />
==Page 39==<br />
<br />
'''kazoos'''<br><br />
This silly instrument appears in several Pynchon novels.<br />
<br />
'''slow ritual movement'''<br><br />
Maybe tai chi, or anachronistic Gurdjieffian dance?<br />
<br />
'''Drave'''<br><br />
Possibly a back formation from 'Dravidians,' referring to David Koresh's Branch Davidians.<br />
: huh? [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 16:23, 19 December 2006 (PST)<br />
Another possibility is that Pynchon had in mind the Scottish noun "drave," which the OED defines as a "fishing expedition in which several men take part, each supplying a net and receiving a share of the profits made. Later, A haul (of fish); also, a shoal." This resonates with the evangelical role that Drave plays (Cf. Matthew 4:18, where Jesus addresses Peter and Matthew, "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.")<br />
<br />
It should be noted, though, that there is also a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drave Drave river] in south central Europe, though there seems to be little textual evidence to support this association.<br />
<br />
'''"liable for criminal penalties"'''<br><br />
Law and the legal profession so far appear in AtD more than any other Pynchon novel (perhaps save ''The Crying of Lot 49''), and so far, like here, in a negative or confusing light, perhaps as part of the establishment Pynchon seems to rail against in the novel.<br />
<br />
==Page 40==<br />
<br />
'''remembrance stick'''<br><br />
Similar to keisaku in Zen Buddhism, an attempt by a sensei to alert students to their mindlessness in zazen (sitting meditation), usually administered by a stick. An English translation is stick of compassion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyosaku [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
==Page 42==<br />
'''scorcher cap'''<br><br />
The cap of an early bicycling enthusiast. According to [http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288 this] site, <br />
<br />
:"In […]1892 [… a] bicyclist to be considered genuine had to be dressed in bicycle clothes. A man had to wear bicycle pants which were baggy at the top and tight to the legs below. Then he had to have bicycle socks and shoes. The shoes were made of canvass. Then he had to have a loose fitting grey colored short which we would designate now as a sport shirt. Then on his head he had to wear a tight fitting cap with a long bill in front, the longer the better up to a certain ceiling length. With this outfit and a bicycle with drop handlebars he was ready to appear in public as a real cyclist. If he could make 20 miles an hour on a good track he was called a 'scorcher,' the idea being that he was going so fast that he would scorch at least the end of his nose if nothing else."<br />
<br />
==Page 43==<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
Since the White City dates from 01 May 1893, this ought to be later.<br />
<br />
'''"leisurely rips through the fabric of the day"'''<br><br />
See below<br />
<br />
==Page 44==<br />
<br />
'''"He had learned to step to the side of the day."'''<br><br />
Through the book there are juxtapositions of things with and against the day. Here, we see Lew set "to the side" of the day.<br />
<br />
==Page 45==<br />
<br />
'''Trabants'''<br><br />
"Trabanten" (German for 'satellites') originally - during the Thirty Years' War - were lightly armed foot soldiers; later this term was used for servants and/or bodyguards of high-ranking persons.<br />
<br />
'''"have a lawyer explain civil liability to you"'''<br><br />
Again, law. Pynchon must have boned up on legal jargon (or perhaps he got sued?). <br />
<br />
'''Francis Ferdinand'''<br><br />
This is indeed the same Franz Ferdinand whose assassination in 1914 triggered World War I. At the time of his appearance in AtD, he would have been 30, and his two passions throughout young adulthood and his 20s were travel and hunting (it is estimated that he shot more than 5,000 deer in his lifetime). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria Wikipedia entry]. He did indeed attend the Chicago Exposition. [http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/ch27.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 46==<br />
<br />
'''"staff"'''<br><br />
[http://ftp.apci.net/~truax/1904wf/WF_Mem-Staff.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
'''"In Austria, the Archduke was explaining"......through the line about<br />
renting out the Chicago Stockyards "for a weekend's amusement", Pynchon <br />
continues his linking of the Stockyard killing-floor with the genocidal horrors of the 2oth Century, it seems. See above. Heidegger (sic) made this connection somewhere and J.M Coetze's novel Elizabeth Costello uses it in a key chapter that was published separately. Researching the details. <br />
<br />
'''"Hungarians are the lowest level of brute existence"'''<br><br />
It is unclear whether this shocking sentiment (especially to Hungarians!) expressed by the Archduke is more fictitious than factual. Hungary had become an equal partner in the Austro-Hungarian empire by the 1890s, and Empress Elizabeth herself spoke the Hungarian language and loved its country and people, visiting and residing there often. Pynchon's portrayal of Franz seems to indicate, however, that despite the historic nature of his assassination, he deserved it...!<br />
<br />
'''Mannlicher'''<br><br />
A double-barreled rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. It is reported that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had several of these made special for him.<br />
<br />
Interestingly enough, the rifle is also mentioned in ''Green Hills of Africa'' and ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' by Ernest Hemingway, who used it extensively on hunting.<br />
<br />
Franz was eventually assassinated in Sarajevo. Coincidentally (?), fellow assassinee JFK was initially claimed to have been a victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher rifle.<br />
<br />
==Page 47==<br />
<br />
'''K&K Special Security'''<br><br />
"K&K" stands for "Kaiserlich und Königlich," German for "imperial and royal (kingly)," to indicate the Austrian two titles of the ruler of the Dual Monarchy: King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserlich_und_königlich Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit'''<br><br />
This is not a german word as far as I know and most likely not even a degenerate Habsburg will have used it (but then i havent read Franz Ferdinands account of his travels...). Sounds more like some babelfish automatic translation of "pastry-depravity" to me. I wonder what the german translator will make of this. My guess is, s/he will not make a "typical german" combined noun out of it, but turn the phrase to be able to use an adverb like "mehlspeisennarrisch" instead (what with in Austria and Bavaria there is a word for (mostly sweet) pastry: "Mehlspeise" (literally "flour-meal), and "narrisch" is Austrian/Viennese for being (slightly) mad). But then, of course, there might be a pun intended I as a bad english-speaker just dont get. Maybe via the pronounciation? Check out this [http://www.dict.cc/?s=Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit dictionary], head for "continue searching" and press "voice output" - voila, thats what "Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit" sounds like.<br />
<br />
'''...the only place in Chicago a man could find a decent orange phosphate...'''<br><br />
A reference to the modern stereotype that black people like orange soda, here called a phosphate.<br />
<br />
==Page 48==<br />
<br />
'''grip cars'''<br><br />
The lead cars in cable-car systems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_City_Railway [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
''' ''"...'st los, Hund?"'' '''<br><br />
German for "'s up, dog?"<br />
<br />
'''And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!'''<br><br />
WWI?<br />
<br />
==Page 49==<br />
<br />
'''Kinsley's'''<br><br />
A famous steakhouse at 105-107 Adams St. in downtown Chicago. The building was erected in 1885.<br />
<br />
'''Welsbach mantles'''<br><br />
One of the most important advances in the history of lighting, the Welsbach mantle (for a period so ubiquitous it became more commonly known simply as 'gas mantle') was first sold commercially in 1892 and quickly spread throughout Europe. It remained an important part of street lighting until the widespread introduction of electric lighting in the early 1900s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Reverend Moss Gatlin'''<br><br />
A fictional character. Is he connected to Rev. Cherrycoke? They are both Reverends with strong political opinions and you can hear Pynchon's voice here very strong.<br />
<br />
'''fascinators'''<br><br />
Hair adornments. [http://www.ribbonsandpearls.co.uk/catalogue/fascinators/fascinator_hair_accessories_intro.htm [pix]]<br />
<br />
'''"bearing the insults of the day"'''<br><br />
See note on page 44 above<br />
<br />
'''Blake's Jerusalem'''<br><br />
The original lines From William Blake's poem are:<br />
<br />
I will not cease from mental fight,<br><br />
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand<br><br />
Till we have built Jerusalem<br><br />
In England's green and pleasant land.<br><br />
<br />
==Page 50==<br />
<br />
'''Picardy third'''<br><br />
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
==Page 51==<br />
<br />
'''deadfalls'''<br><br />
Low points where refuse collects? Cf. Pynchon's story, Low-Lands?[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deadfalls [def]]<br />
<br />
'''"prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate"'''<br><br />
Coupled with the cover blurb Pynchon wrote: "If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction." Could ''Against the Day'' be Pynchon's prophecy of a future America?<br />
<br />
'''The Unsleeping Eye'''<br><br />
an apparent reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency. See also [[ATD_1-25#Page_13|page 13]].<br />
<br />
==Page 52==<br />
<br />
'''''Inconvenience'''''<br><br />
Lew Basnight's temporary presence on the airship may be the first clue as to why it's called ''Inconvenience''. Perhaps his growing sympathy for the anarchists will lead to greater involvement by him, the Chums, or at least the book in portraying the anarchist movement, which is viewed as an inconvenience to the ruling classes. Pynchon may consider his novel's message, similarly, as an inconvenient truth about America's past, present or both.<br />
<br />
:I thought it was just a polysyllable that sounds stately but means the opposite.--[[User:Robot|Robot]] 13:18, 5 December 2006 (PST)<br />
<br />
'''"some weeks till the fair closes"'''<br><br />
30 October 1893.<br />
<br />
'''Freddie Turner'''<br><br />
"The Significance of the Frontier in American History" From this paper:"In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave--the meeting point between savagery and civilization." <br />
[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1893turner.html [etext]]<br />
<br />
==Page 53==<br />
<br />
'''Blitz Instruments and Wackett Punches'''<br><br />
Mentioned in 1911 Britannica article 'Slaughter-house' [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Slaughter-house [etext]]<br />
<br />
'''"The frontier ends and disconnection begins"'''<br><br />
Here, the free cowboy myth of Buffalo Bill's show is replaced by the grim reality of the stockyard worker.<br />
<br />
'''Cause and effect'''<br><br />
A major theme in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.<br />
<br />
'''How the dickens do I know?'''<br><br />
A possible reference to the novels of Charles Dickens, who critiques in such works as ''Hard Times'' (1854) the onset of urban decay, and the choked living and working conditions of the proletariat as the Industrial Revolution steams onward.<br />
<br />
==Page 55==<br />
'''"...they continued in a fragmented reverie which,... often announced some change in the works"'''<br><br />
Good to notice when the Chums get like this again: i.e. unfocused, depressed, without direction, it may lead to patterns in the plot.<br />
<br />
'''"Speculation begun to fill the day."'''<br><br />
See note on [[ATD_26-56#Page_44|page 44]] above<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_26-56&diff=4654ATD 26-562006-12-29T03:53:28Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 34 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 26==<br />
<br />
'''Little Egypt'''<br><br />
was the stage name for two popular exotic dancers, Ashea Wabe who danced at the Seeley banquet at the 1893 World's Fair and Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(dancer) Wikipedia entry] Also a 1961 [[Little_Egypt|song]] by the Coasters.<br />
<br />
==Page 27==<br />
<br />
'''Bacchanale'''<br><br />
From ''Samson et Dalila'', op. 47 (1877) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Delilah_%28opera%29 Wikipedia entry]. Listen to a [http://themodernword.com/wiki/bacchanale.mp3 30 second MP3 sample]<br />
<br />
'''Dally'''<br><br />
Merle's relationship with Dally is reminiscent of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's characters in the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, "Paper Moon".<br />
<br />
==Page 28==<br />
<br />
'''''Imbottigliata!'''''<br>Italian for "bottled".<br />
<br />
'''Dahlia Rideout'''<br><br />
The lolita motif is common in Pynchon's works. Other lolitas include Bianca in ''Gravity's Rainbow.''<br />
'''Dahlia is four or five years old! She is not a lolita motif here. Lolita was twelve and Humbert was sick. Even her sick father, Merle Rideout, who would sell her to one of the Chums, won't until she is sixteen, maybe fifteen.<br />
<br />
==Page 29==<br />
<br />
'''a l'étouffée'''<br><br />
French, meaning a dish fried in a pan. So, pan-fried alligator meat.<br />
<br />
'''Sloane Laboratory'''<br><br />
Yale's physics lab built 1882.<br />
<br />
'''Ray Ipsow'''<br><br />
In Latin ''re ipso'' means "the thing itself." "To the thing itself" was the motto and rallying cry of the investigational method known as phenomenology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology Wikipedia entry] developed by Edmund Husserl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Husserl Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Outer Indianoplace'''<br><br />
Derogatory nickname for Indianapolis.<br />
<br />
'''Khartoum... Mahdi's army... Oltre Giubba, instead of down in Alex'''<br><br />
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army was an Islamic group in the 1880s that advocated a return to strict Islamic values and battled with the government of Khartoum and Egyptian armies. More on these convoluted events at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sudan_(1884-1898) Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
==Page 30==<br />
<br />
'''railroad watch'''<br><br />
High-quality pocket watch. [http://www.pockethorology.org/Railroad/Railroad.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
==Page 31==<br />
<br />
'''Scarsdale Vibe'''<br><br />
Scarsdale NY boasts that it's Westchester County's wealthiest community, so a 'Scarsdale vibe' implies 'stinking of money'. Vibe is another Pynchon baddie whose last name starts with "V", ''e.g.'', Brock Vond in ''Vineland.''<br />
<br />
'''Foley Walker'''<br><br />
"Foley walker" is a term used to indicate a sound-effects expert. Also known as a foley artist [http://www.natf.org/wad/foley.htm [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 32==<br />
<br />
'''Second Corinthians'''<br><br />
This exchange between Vibe and Ipsow refers specifically to 2 Corinthians 11:19 -- For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 33==<br />
<br />
'''"Old Zip Coon"'''<br><br />
"Old Zip Coon" dates from as early as 1834 and is considered the original name for the 19th-century American folk song, 'Turkey in the Straw'. [[Old Zip Coon | lyrics]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Straw Wikipedia] See also [http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/Amsong59.htm] and [http://www.csufresno.edu:80/folklore/ballads/RJ19258.html]<br />
<br />
<br />
==Page 34==<br />
<br />
'''"Pierpont"'''<br><br />
John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker, who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation.<br />
[...]<br />
In 1900, Morgan financed inventor Nikola Tesla and his Wardenclyffe Tower with $150,000 for experiments in radio. Tesla was unsuccessful and, in 1904, Morgan pulled out. Later, Tesla created a AC generator<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 36==<br />
<br />
'''Lew Basnight'''<br><br />
"Bas" is French for "low."<br />
<br />
A detective named 'Lew' reminds us of Ross Macdonald's character Lew Archer which in turn recalls another detective, Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade in San Francisco detective agency Spade & Archer. This may be a bad pun on 'lube-ass night'.<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
The name recalls the White Visitation of ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Any connection?<br />
<br />
==Page 37==<br />
'''fictitiousness'''<br><br />
On this and the previous page, there is a question raised of whether the Chums are fictional. Or it could be saying that such fantastical sights as the airship are easy to miss at the fair. <br />
<br />
'''Wyatt Earp'''<br><br />
(1848–1929), was a teamster, sometime buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, and saloon-keeper in the Wild West and the U.S. mining frontier from California to Alaska. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''Nellie Bly'''<br><br />
(1864-1922) was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''"Although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction."'''<br><br />
May express Pynchon's reaction to the press' treatment of him over the years. In 1964, when Pynchon heard that the ''New York Herald Tribune'' was writing an article about him, Pynchon wrote to his agent that he assumed the piece "will be riddled with the same lies, calumnies and all-around knavish disregard for my privacy" as previous articles. ("Pynchon's Letters Nudge His Mask," ''New York Times,'' 4 Mar 1998). <br />
<br />
==Page 39==<br />
<br />
'''kazoos'''<br><br />
This silly instrument appears in several Pynchon novels.<br />
<br />
'''slow ritual movement'''<br><br />
Maybe tai chi, or anachronistic Gurdjieffian dance?<br />
<br />
'''Drave'''<br><br />
Possibly a back formation from 'Dravidians,' referring to David Koresh's Branch Davidians.<br />
: huh? [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 16:23, 19 December 2006 (PST)<br />
Another possibility is that Pynchon had in mind the Scottish noun "drave," which the OED defines as a "fishing expedition in which several men take part, each supplying a net and receiving a share of the profits made. Later, A haul (of fish); also, a shoal." This resonates with the evangelical role that Drave plays (Cf. Matthew 4:18, where Jesus addresses Peter and Matthew, "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.")<br />
<br />
It should be noted, though, that there is also a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drave Drave river] in south central Europe, though there seems to be little textual evidence to support this association.<br />
<br />
'''"liable for criminal penalties"'''<br><br />
Law and the legal profession so far appear in AtD more than any other Pynchon novel (perhaps save ''The Crying of Lot 49''), and so far, like here, in a negative or confusing light, perhaps as part of the establishment Pynchon seems to rail against in the novel.<br />
<br />
==Page 40==<br />
<br />
'''remembrance stick'''<br><br />
Similar to keisaku in Zen Buddhism, an attempt by a sensei to alert students to their mindlessness in zazen (sitting meditation), usually administered by a stick. An English translation is stick of compassion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyosaku [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
==Page 42==<br />
'''scorcher cap'''<br><br />
The cap of an early bicycling enthusiast. According to [http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288 this] site, <br />
<br />
:"In […]1892 [… a] bicyclist to be considered genuine had to be dressed in bicycle clothes. A man had to wear bicycle pants which were baggy at the top and tight to the legs below. Then he had to have bicycle socks and shoes. The shoes were made of canvass. Then he had to have a loose fitting grey colored short which we would designate now as a sport shirt. Then on his head he had to wear a tight fitting cap with a long bill in front, the longer the better up to a certain ceiling length. With this outfit and a bicycle with drop handlebars he was ready to appear in public as a real cyclist. If he could make 20 miles an hour on a good track he was called a 'scorcher,' the idea being that he was going so fast that he would scorch at least the end of his nose if nothing else."<br />
<br />
==Page 43==<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
Since the White City dates from 01 May 1893, this ought to be later.<br />
<br />
'''"leisurely rips through the fabric of the day"'''<br><br />
See below<br />
<br />
==Page 44==<br />
<br />
'''"He had learned to step to the side of the day."'''<br><br />
Through the book there are juxtapositions of things with and against the day. Here, we see Lew set "to the side" of the day.<br />
<br />
==Page 45==<br />
<br />
'''Trabants'''<br><br />
"Trabanten" (German for 'satellites') originally - during the Thirty Years' War - were lightly armed foot soldiers; later this term was used for servants and/or bodyguards of high-ranking persons.<br />
<br />
'''"have a lawyer explain civil liability to you"'''<br><br />
Again, law. Pynchon must have boned up on legal jargon (or perhaps he got sued?). <br />
<br />
'''Francis Ferdinand'''<br><br />
This is indeed the same Franz Ferdinand whose assassination in 1914 triggered World War I. At the time of his appearance in AtD, he would have been 30, and his two passions throughout young adulthood and his 20s were travel and hunting (it is estimated that he shot more than 5,000 deer in his lifetime). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria Wikipedia entry]. He did indeed attend the Chicago Exposition. [http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/ch27.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 46==<br />
<br />
'''"staff"'''<br><br />
[http://ftp.apci.net/~truax/1904wf/WF_Mem-Staff.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
'''"In Austria, the Archduke was explaining"......through the line about<br />
renting out the Chicago Stockyards "for a weekend's amusement", Pynchon <br />
continues his linking of the Stockyard killing-floor with the genocidal horrors of the 2oth Century, it seems. See above. Heidegger (sic) made this connection somewhere and J.M Coetze's novel Elizabeth Costello uses it in a key chapter that was published separately. Researching the details. <br />
<br />
'''"Hungarians are the lowest level of brute existence"'''<br><br />
It is unclear whether this shocking sentiment (especially to Hungarians!) expressed by the Archduke is more fictitious than factual. Hungary had become an equal partner in the Austro-Hungarian empire by the 1890s, and Empress Elizabeth herself spoke the Hungarian language and loved its country and people, visiting and residing there often. Pynchon's portrayal of Franz seems to indicate, however, that despite the historic nature of his assassination, he deserved it...!<br />
<br />
'''Mannlicher'''<br><br />
A double-barreled rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. It is reported that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had several of these made special for him.<br />
<br />
Interestingly enough, the rifle is also mentioned in ''Green Hills of Africa'' and ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' by Ernest Hemingway, who used it extensively on hunting.<br />
<br />
Franz was eventually assassinated in Sarajevo. Coincidentally (?), fellow assassinee JFK was initially claimed to have been a victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher rifle.<br />
<br />
==Page 47==<br />
<br />
'''K&K Special Security'''<br><br />
"K&K" stands for "Kaiserlich und Königlich," German for "imperial and royal (kingly)," to indicate the Austrian two titles of the ruler of the Dual Monarchy: King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserlich_und_königlich Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit'''<br><br />
This is not a german word as far as I know and most likely not even a degenerate Habsburg will have used it (but then i havent read Franz Ferdinands account of his travels...). Sounds more like some babelfish automatic translation of "pastry-depravity" to me. I wonder what the german translator will make of this. My guess is, s/he will not make a "typical german" combined noun out of it, but turn the phrase to be able to use an adverb like "mehlspeisennarrisch" instead (what with in Austria and Bavaria there is a word for (mostly sweet) pastry: "Mehlspeise" (literally "flour-meal), and "narrisch" is Austrian/Viennese for being (slightly) mad). But then, of course, there might be a pun intended I as a bad english-speaker just dont get. Maybe via the pronounciation? Check out this [http://www.dict.cc/?s=Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit dictionary], head for "continue searching" and press "voice output" - voila, thats what "Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit" sounds like.<br />
<br />
'''...the only place in Chicago a man could find a decent orange phosphate...'''<br><br />
A reference to the modern stereotype that black people like orange soda, here called a phosphate.<br />
<br />
==Page 48==<br />
<br />
'''grip cars'''<br><br />
The lead cars in cable-car systems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_City_Railway [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
''' ''"...'st los, Hund?"'' '''<br><br />
German for "'s up, dog?"<br />
<br />
'''And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!'''<br><br />
WWI?<br />
<br />
==Page 49==<br />
<br />
'''Kinsley's'''<br><br />
A famous steakhouse at 105-107 Adams St. in downtown Chicago. The building was erected in 1885.<br />
<br />
'''Welsbach mantles'''<br><br />
One of the most important advances in the history of lighting, the Welsbach mantle (for a period so ubiquitous it became more commonly known simply as 'gas mantle') was first sold commercially in 1892 and quickly spread throughout Europe. It remained an important part of street lighting until the widespread introduction of electric lighting in the early 1900s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Reverend Moss Gatlin'''<br><br />
A fictional character. Is he connected to Rev. Cherrycoke? They are both Reverends with strong political opinions and you can hear Pynchon's voice here very strong.<br />
<br />
'''fascinators'''<br><br />
Hair adornments. [http://www.ribbonsandpearls.co.uk/catalogue/fascinators/fascinator_hair_accessories_intro.htm [pix]]<br />
<br />
'''"bearing the insults of the day"'''<br><br />
See note on page 44 above<br />
<br />
'''Blake's Jerusalem'''<br><br />
The original lines From William Blake's poem are:<br />
<br />
I will not cease from mental fight,<br><br />
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand<br><br />
Till we have built Jerusalem<br><br />
In England's green and pleasant land.<br><br />
<br />
==Page 50==<br />
<br />
'''Picardy third'''<br><br />
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
==Page 51==<br />
<br />
'''deadfalls'''<br><br />
Low points where refuse collects? Cf. Pynchon's story, Low-Lands?[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deadfalls [def]]<br />
<br />
'''"prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate"'''<br><br />
Coupled with the cover blurb Pynchon wrote: "If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction." Could ''Against the Day'' be Pynchon's prophecy of a future America?<br />
<br />
'''The Unsleeping Eye'''<br><br />
an apparent reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency. See also [[ATD_1-25#Page_13|page 13]].<br />
<br />
==Page 52==<br />
<br />
'''''Inconvenience'''''<br><br />
Lew Basnight's temporary presence on the airship may be the first clue as to why it's called ''Inconvenience''. Perhaps his growing sympathy for the anarchists will lead to greater involvement by him, the Chums, or at least the book in portraying the anarchist movement, which is viewed as an inconvenience to the ruling classes. Pynchon may consider his novel's message, similarly, as an inconvenient truth about America's past, present or both.<br />
<br />
:I thought it was just a polysyllable that sounds stately but means the opposite.--[[User:Robot|Robot]] 13:18, 5 December 2006 (PST)<br />
<br />
'''"some weeks till the fair closes"'''<br><br />
30 October 1893.<br />
<br />
'''Freddie Turner'''<br><br />
"The Significance of the Frontier in American History" From this paper:"In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave--the meeting point between savagery and civilization." <br />
[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1893turner.html [etext]]<br />
<br />
==Page 53==<br />
<br />
'''Blitz Instruments and Wackett Punches'''<br><br />
Mentioned in 1911 Britannica article 'Slaughter-house' [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Slaughter-house [etext]]<br />
<br />
'''"The frontier ends and disconnection begins"'''<br><br />
Here, the free cowboy myth of Buffalo Bill's show is replaced by the grim reality of the stockyard worker.<br />
<br />
'''Cause and effect'''<br><br />
A major theme in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.<br />
<br />
'''How the dickens do I know?'''<br><br />
A possible reference to the novels of Charles Dickens, who critiques in such works as ''Hard Times'' (1854) the onset of urban decay, and the choked living and working conditions of the proletariat as the Industrial Revolution steams onward.<br />
<br />
==Page 55==<br />
'''"...they continued in a fragmented reverie which,... often announced some change in the works"'''<br><br />
Good to notice when the Chums get like this again: i.e. unfocused, depressed, without direction, it may lead to patterns in the plot.<br />
<br />
'''"Speculation begun to fill the day."'''<br><br />
See note on [[ATD_26-56#Page_44|page 44]] above<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_26-56&diff=4653ATD 26-562006-12-29T03:50:43Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 34 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 26==<br />
<br />
'''Little Egypt'''<br><br />
was the stage name for two popular exotic dancers, Ashea Wabe who danced at the Seeley banquet at the 1893 World's Fair and Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(dancer) Wikipedia entry] Also a 1961 [[Little_Egypt|song]] by the Coasters.<br />
<br />
==Page 27==<br />
<br />
'''Bacchanale'''<br><br />
From ''Samson et Dalila'', op. 47 (1877) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Delilah_%28opera%29 Wikipedia entry]. Listen to a [http://themodernword.com/wiki/bacchanale.mp3 30 second MP3 sample]<br />
<br />
'''Dally'''<br><br />
Merle's relationship with Dally is reminiscent of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's characters in the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, "Paper Moon".<br />
<br />
==Page 28==<br />
<br />
'''''Imbottigliata!'''''<br>Italian for "bottled".<br />
<br />
'''Dahlia Rideout'''<br><br />
The lolita motif is common in Pynchon's works. Other lolitas include Bianca in ''Gravity's Rainbow.''<br />
'''Dahlia is four or five years old! She is not a lolita motif here. Lolita was twelve and Humbert was sick. Even her sick father, Merle Rideout, who would sell her to one of the Chums, won't until she is sixteen, maybe fifteen.<br />
<br />
==Page 29==<br />
<br />
'''a l'étouffée'''<br><br />
French, meaning a dish fried in a pan. So, pan-fried alligator meat.<br />
<br />
'''Sloane Laboratory'''<br><br />
Yale's physics lab built 1882.<br />
<br />
'''Ray Ipsow'''<br><br />
In Latin ''re ipso'' means "the thing itself." "To the thing itself" was the motto and rallying cry of the investigational method known as phenomenology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology Wikipedia entry] developed by Edmund Husserl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Husserl Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Outer Indianoplace'''<br><br />
Derogatory nickname for Indianapolis.<br />
<br />
'''Khartoum... Mahdi's army... Oltre Giubba, instead of down in Alex'''<br><br />
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army was an Islamic group in the 1880s that advocated a return to strict Islamic values and battled with the government of Khartoum and Egyptian armies. More on these convoluted events at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sudan_(1884-1898) Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
==Page 30==<br />
<br />
'''railroad watch'''<br><br />
High-quality pocket watch. [http://www.pockethorology.org/Railroad/Railroad.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
==Page 31==<br />
<br />
'''Scarsdale Vibe'''<br><br />
Scarsdale NY boasts that it's Westchester County's wealthiest community, so a 'Scarsdale vibe' implies 'stinking of money'. Vibe is another Pynchon baddie whose last name starts with "V", ''e.g.'', Brock Vond in ''Vineland.''<br />
<br />
'''Foley Walker'''<br><br />
"Foley walker" is a term used to indicate a sound-effects expert. Also known as a foley artist [http://www.natf.org/wad/foley.htm [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 32==<br />
<br />
'''Second Corinthians'''<br><br />
This exchange between Vibe and Ipsow refers specifically to 2 Corinthians 11:19 -- For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 33==<br />
<br />
'''"Old Zip Coon"'''<br><br />
"Old Zip Coon" dates from as early as 1834 and is considered the original name for the 19th-century American folk song, 'Turkey in the Straw'. [[Old Zip Coon | lyrics]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Straw Wikipedia] See also [http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/Amsong59.htm] and [http://www.csufresno.edu:80/folklore/ballads/RJ19258.html]<br />
<br />
<br />
==Page 34==<br />
<br />
'''"Pierpont"'''<br><br />
John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker, who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation.<br />
[...]<br />
By the 1870s Morgan was deeply involved in financing railroads. He raised large sums in Europe but instead of just handing the funds over he helped the railroads reorganize and achieve greater efficiencies. He fought against the speculators interested in speculative profits, and built a vision of an integrated transportation system. In 1885 he reorganized the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, leasing it to the New York Central. In 1886 he reorganized the Philadelphia & Reading, and in 1888 the Chesapeake & Ohio. After Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, Morgan set up conferences in 1889 and 1890 that brought together railroad presidents in order to help the industry follow the new laws and write agreements for the maintenance of "public, reasonable, uniform and stable rates" The conferences were the first of their kind, and by creating a community of interest among competing lines paved the way for the great consolidations of the early 20th century.<br />
[...]<br />
In 1900, Morgan financed inventor Nikola Tesla and his Wardenclyffe Tower with $150,000 for experiments in radio. Tesla was unsuccessful and, in 1904, Morgan pulled out. Later, Tesla created a AC generator<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 36==<br />
<br />
'''Lew Basnight'''<br><br />
"Bas" is French for "low."<br />
<br />
A detective named 'Lew' reminds us of Ross Macdonald's character Lew Archer which in turn recalls another detective, Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade in San Francisco detective agency Spade & Archer. This may be a bad pun on 'lube-ass night'.<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
The name recalls the White Visitation of ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Any connection?<br />
<br />
==Page 37==<br />
'''fictitiousness'''<br><br />
On this and the previous page, there is a question raised of whether the Chums are fictional. Or it could be saying that such fantastical sights as the airship are easy to miss at the fair. <br />
<br />
'''Wyatt Earp'''<br><br />
(1848–1929), was a teamster, sometime buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, and saloon-keeper in the Wild West and the U.S. mining frontier from California to Alaska. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''Nellie Bly'''<br><br />
(1864-1922) was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''"Although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction."'''<br><br />
May express Pynchon's reaction to the press' treatment of him over the years. In 1964, when Pynchon heard that the ''New York Herald Tribune'' was writing an article about him, Pynchon wrote to his agent that he assumed the piece "will be riddled with the same lies, calumnies and all-around knavish disregard for my privacy" as previous articles. ("Pynchon's Letters Nudge His Mask," ''New York Times,'' 4 Mar 1998). <br />
<br />
==Page 39==<br />
<br />
'''kazoos'''<br><br />
This silly instrument appears in several Pynchon novels.<br />
<br />
'''slow ritual movement'''<br><br />
Maybe tai chi, or anachronistic Gurdjieffian dance?<br />
<br />
'''Drave'''<br><br />
Possibly a back formation from 'Dravidians,' referring to David Koresh's Branch Davidians.<br />
: huh? [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 16:23, 19 December 2006 (PST)<br />
Another possibility is that Pynchon had in mind the Scottish noun "drave," which the OED defines as a "fishing expedition in which several men take part, each supplying a net and receiving a share of the profits made. Later, A haul (of fish); also, a shoal." This resonates with the evangelical role that Drave plays (Cf. Matthew 4:18, where Jesus addresses Peter and Matthew, "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.")<br />
<br />
It should be noted, though, that there is also a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drave Drave river] in south central Europe, though there seems to be little textual evidence to support this association.<br />
<br />
'''"liable for criminal penalties"'''<br><br />
Law and the legal profession so far appear in AtD more than any other Pynchon novel (perhaps save ''The Crying of Lot 49''), and so far, like here, in a negative or confusing light, perhaps as part of the establishment Pynchon seems to rail against in the novel.<br />
<br />
==Page 40==<br />
<br />
'''remembrance stick'''<br><br />
Similar to keisaku in Zen Buddhism, an attempt by a sensei to alert students to their mindlessness in zazen (sitting meditation), usually administered by a stick. An English translation is stick of compassion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyosaku [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
==Page 42==<br />
'''scorcher cap'''<br><br />
The cap of an early bicycling enthusiast. According to [http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288 this] site, <br />
<br />
:"In […]1892 [… a] bicyclist to be considered genuine had to be dressed in bicycle clothes. A man had to wear bicycle pants which were baggy at the top and tight to the legs below. Then he had to have bicycle socks and shoes. The shoes were made of canvass. Then he had to have a loose fitting grey colored short which we would designate now as a sport shirt. Then on his head he had to wear a tight fitting cap with a long bill in front, the longer the better up to a certain ceiling length. With this outfit and a bicycle with drop handlebars he was ready to appear in public as a real cyclist. If he could make 20 miles an hour on a good track he was called a 'scorcher,' the idea being that he was going so fast that he would scorch at least the end of his nose if nothing else."<br />
<br />
==Page 43==<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
Since the White City dates from 01 May 1893, this ought to be later.<br />
<br />
'''"leisurely rips through the fabric of the day"'''<br><br />
See below<br />
<br />
==Page 44==<br />
<br />
'''"He had learned to step to the side of the day."'''<br><br />
Through the book there are juxtapositions of things with and against the day. Here, we see Lew set "to the side" of the day.<br />
<br />
==Page 45==<br />
<br />
'''Trabants'''<br><br />
"Trabanten" (German for 'satellites') originally - during the Thirty Years' War - were lightly armed foot soldiers; later this term was used for servants and/or bodyguards of high-ranking persons.<br />
<br />
'''"have a lawyer explain civil liability to you"'''<br><br />
Again, law. Pynchon must have boned up on legal jargon (or perhaps he got sued?). <br />
<br />
'''Francis Ferdinand'''<br><br />
This is indeed the same Franz Ferdinand whose assassination in 1914 triggered World War I. At the time of his appearance in AtD, he would have been 30, and his two passions throughout young adulthood and his 20s were travel and hunting (it is estimated that he shot more than 5,000 deer in his lifetime). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria Wikipedia entry]. He did indeed attend the Chicago Exposition. [http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/ch27.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 46==<br />
<br />
'''"staff"'''<br><br />
[http://ftp.apci.net/~truax/1904wf/WF_Mem-Staff.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
'''"In Austria, the Archduke was explaining"......through the line about<br />
renting out the Chicago Stockyards "for a weekend's amusement", Pynchon <br />
continues his linking of the Stockyard killing-floor with the genocidal horrors of the 2oth Century, it seems. See above. Heidegger (sic) made this connection somewhere and J.M Coetze's novel Elizabeth Costello uses it in a key chapter that was published separately. Researching the details. <br />
<br />
'''"Hungarians are the lowest level of brute existence"'''<br><br />
It is unclear whether this shocking sentiment (especially to Hungarians!) expressed by the Archduke is more fictitious than factual. Hungary had become an equal partner in the Austro-Hungarian empire by the 1890s, and Empress Elizabeth herself spoke the Hungarian language and loved its country and people, visiting and residing there often. Pynchon's portrayal of Franz seems to indicate, however, that despite the historic nature of his assassination, he deserved it...!<br />
<br />
'''Mannlicher'''<br><br />
A double-barreled rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. It is reported that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had several of these made special for him.<br />
<br />
Interestingly enough, the rifle is also mentioned in ''Green Hills of Africa'' and ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' by Ernest Hemingway, who used it extensively on hunting.<br />
<br />
Franz was eventually assassinated in Sarajevo. Coincidentally (?), fellow assassinee JFK was initially claimed to have been a victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher rifle.<br />
<br />
==Page 47==<br />
<br />
'''K&K Special Security'''<br><br />
"K&K" stands for "Kaiserlich und Königlich," German for "imperial and royal (kingly)," to indicate the Austrian two titles of the ruler of the Dual Monarchy: King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserlich_und_königlich Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit'''<br><br />
This is not a german word as far as I know and most likely not even a degenerate Habsburg will have used it (but then i havent read Franz Ferdinands account of his travels...). Sounds more like some babelfish automatic translation of "pastry-depravity" to me. I wonder what the german translator will make of this. My guess is, s/he will not make a "typical german" combined noun out of it, but turn the phrase to be able to use an adverb like "mehlspeisennarrisch" instead (what with in Austria and Bavaria there is a word for (mostly sweet) pastry: "Mehlspeise" (literally "flour-meal), and "narrisch" is Austrian/Viennese for being (slightly) mad). But then, of course, there might be a pun intended I as a bad english-speaker just dont get. Maybe via the pronounciation? Check out this [http://www.dict.cc/?s=Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit dictionary], head for "continue searching" and press "voice output" - voila, thats what "Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit" sounds like.<br />
<br />
'''...the only place in Chicago a man could find a decent orange phosphate...'''<br><br />
A reference to the modern stereotype that black people like orange soda, here called a phosphate.<br />
<br />
==Page 48==<br />
<br />
'''grip cars'''<br><br />
The lead cars in cable-car systems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_City_Railway [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
''' ''"...'st los, Hund?"'' '''<br><br />
German for "'s up, dog?"<br />
<br />
'''And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!'''<br><br />
WWI?<br />
<br />
==Page 49==<br />
<br />
'''Kinsley's'''<br><br />
A famous steakhouse at 105-107 Adams St. in downtown Chicago. The building was erected in 1885.<br />
<br />
'''Welsbach mantles'''<br><br />
One of the most important advances in the history of lighting, the Welsbach mantle (for a period so ubiquitous it became more commonly known simply as 'gas mantle') was first sold commercially in 1892 and quickly spread throughout Europe. It remained an important part of street lighting until the widespread introduction of electric lighting in the early 1900s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Reverend Moss Gatlin'''<br><br />
A fictional character. Is he connected to Rev. Cherrycoke? They are both Reverends with strong political opinions and you can hear Pynchon's voice here very strong.<br />
<br />
'''fascinators'''<br><br />
Hair adornments. [http://www.ribbonsandpearls.co.uk/catalogue/fascinators/fascinator_hair_accessories_intro.htm [pix]]<br />
<br />
'''"bearing the insults of the day"'''<br><br />
See note on page 44 above<br />
<br />
'''Blake's Jerusalem'''<br><br />
The original lines From William Blake's poem are:<br />
<br />
I will not cease from mental fight,<br><br />
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand<br><br />
Till we have built Jerusalem<br><br />
In England's green and pleasant land.<br><br />
<br />
==Page 50==<br />
<br />
'''Picardy third'''<br><br />
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
==Page 51==<br />
<br />
'''deadfalls'''<br><br />
Low points where refuse collects? Cf. Pynchon's story, Low-Lands?[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deadfalls [def]]<br />
<br />
'''"prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate"'''<br><br />
Coupled with the cover blurb Pynchon wrote: "If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction." Could ''Against the Day'' be Pynchon's prophecy of a future America?<br />
<br />
'''The Unsleeping Eye'''<br><br />
an apparent reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency. See also [[ATD_1-25#Page_13|page 13]].<br />
<br />
==Page 52==<br />
<br />
'''''Inconvenience'''''<br><br />
Lew Basnight's temporary presence on the airship may be the first clue as to why it's called ''Inconvenience''. Perhaps his growing sympathy for the anarchists will lead to greater involvement by him, the Chums, or at least the book in portraying the anarchist movement, which is viewed as an inconvenience to the ruling classes. Pynchon may consider his novel's message, similarly, as an inconvenient truth about America's past, present or both.<br />
<br />
:I thought it was just a polysyllable that sounds stately but means the opposite.--[[User:Robot|Robot]] 13:18, 5 December 2006 (PST)<br />
<br />
'''"some weeks till the fair closes"'''<br><br />
30 October 1893.<br />
<br />
'''Freddie Turner'''<br><br />
"The Significance of the Frontier in American History" From this paper:"In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave--the meeting point between savagery and civilization." <br />
[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1893turner.html [etext]]<br />
<br />
==Page 53==<br />
<br />
'''Blitz Instruments and Wackett Punches'''<br><br />
Mentioned in 1911 Britannica article 'Slaughter-house' [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Slaughter-house [etext]]<br />
<br />
'''"The frontier ends and disconnection begins"'''<br><br />
Here, the free cowboy myth of Buffalo Bill's show is replaced by the grim reality of the stockyard worker.<br />
<br />
'''Cause and effect'''<br><br />
A major theme in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.<br />
<br />
'''How the dickens do I know?'''<br><br />
A possible reference to the novels of Charles Dickens, who critiques in such works as ''Hard Times'' (1854) the onset of urban decay, and the choked living and working conditions of the proletariat as the Industrial Revolution steams onward.<br />
<br />
==Page 55==<br />
'''"...they continued in a fragmented reverie which,... often announced some change in the works"'''<br><br />
Good to notice when the Chums get like this again: i.e. unfocused, depressed, without direction, it may lead to patterns in the plot.<br />
<br />
'''"Speculation begun to fill the day."'''<br><br />
See note on [[ATD_26-56#Page_44|page 44]] above<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_26-56&diff=4652ATD 26-562006-12-29T03:49:56Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 31 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 26==<br />
<br />
'''Little Egypt'''<br><br />
was the stage name for two popular exotic dancers, Ashea Wabe who danced at the Seeley banquet at the 1893 World's Fair and Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(dancer) Wikipedia entry] Also a 1961 [[Little_Egypt|song]] by the Coasters.<br />
<br />
==Page 27==<br />
<br />
'''Bacchanale'''<br><br />
From ''Samson et Dalila'', op. 47 (1877) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Delilah_%28opera%29 Wikipedia entry]. Listen to a [http://themodernword.com/wiki/bacchanale.mp3 30 second MP3 sample]<br />
<br />
'''Dally'''<br><br />
Merle's relationship with Dally is reminiscent of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's characters in the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, "Paper Moon".<br />
<br />
==Page 28==<br />
<br />
'''''Imbottigliata!'''''<br>Italian for "bottled".<br />
<br />
'''Dahlia Rideout'''<br><br />
The lolita motif is common in Pynchon's works. Other lolitas include Bianca in ''Gravity's Rainbow.''<br />
'''Dahlia is four or five years old! She is not a lolita motif here. Lolita was twelve and Humbert was sick. Even her sick father, Merle Rideout, who would sell her to one of the Chums, won't until she is sixteen, maybe fifteen.<br />
<br />
==Page 29==<br />
<br />
'''a l'étouffée'''<br><br />
French, meaning a dish fried in a pan. So, pan-fried alligator meat.<br />
<br />
'''Sloane Laboratory'''<br><br />
Yale's physics lab built 1882.<br />
<br />
'''Ray Ipsow'''<br><br />
In Latin ''re ipso'' means "the thing itself." "To the thing itself" was the motto and rallying cry of the investigational method known as phenomenology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology Wikipedia entry] developed by Edmund Husserl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Husserl Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Outer Indianoplace'''<br><br />
Derogatory nickname for Indianapolis.<br />
<br />
'''Khartoum... Mahdi's army... Oltre Giubba, instead of down in Alex'''<br><br />
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army was an Islamic group in the 1880s that advocated a return to strict Islamic values and battled with the government of Khartoum and Egyptian armies. More on these convoluted events at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sudan_(1884-1898) Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
==Page 30==<br />
<br />
'''railroad watch'''<br><br />
High-quality pocket watch. [http://www.pockethorology.org/Railroad/Railroad.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
==Page 31==<br />
<br />
'''Scarsdale Vibe'''<br><br />
Scarsdale NY boasts that it's Westchester County's wealthiest community, so a 'Scarsdale vibe' implies 'stinking of money'. Vibe is another Pynchon baddie whose last name starts with "V", ''e.g.'', Brock Vond in ''Vineland.''<br />
<br />
'''Foley Walker'''<br><br />
"Foley walker" is a term used to indicate a sound-effects expert. Also known as a foley artist [http://www.natf.org/wad/foley.htm [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 32==<br />
<br />
'''Second Corinthians'''<br><br />
This exchange between Vibe and Ipsow refers specifically to 2 Corinthians 11:19 -- For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. <br />
[http://www.kingjamesversionofthebible.com/47-secondcorinthians.html [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 33==<br />
<br />
'''"Old Zip Coon"'''<br><br />
"Old Zip Coon" dates from as early as 1834 and is considered the original name for the 19th-century American folk song, 'Turkey in the Straw'. [[Old Zip Coon | lyrics]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Straw Wikipedia] See also [http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/Amsong59.htm] and [http://www.csufresno.edu:80/folklore/ballads/RJ19258.html]<br />
<br />
<br />
==Page 34==<br />
<br />
'''"Pierpont"'''<br><br />
John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker, who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation.<br />
[...]<br />
By the 1870s Morgan was deeply involved in financing railroads. He raised large sums in Europe but instead of just handing the funds over he helped the railroads reorganize and achieve greater efficiencies. He fought against the speculators interested in speculative profits, and built a vision of an integrated transportation system. In 1885 he reorganized the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, leasing it to the New York Central. In 1886 he reorganized the Philadelphia & Reading, and in 1888 the Chesapeake & Ohio. After Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, Morgan set up conferences in 1889 and 1890 that brought together railroad presidents in order to help the industry follow the new laws and write agreements for the maintenance of "public, reasonable, uniform and stable rates" The conferences were the first of their kind, and by creating a community of interest among competing lines paved the way for the great consolidations of the early 20th century.<br />
[...]<br />
In 1900, Morgan financed inventor Nikola Tesla and his Wardenclyffe Tower with $150,000 for experiments in radio. Tesla was unsuccessful and, in 1904, Morgan pulled out. Later, Tesla created a AC generator<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan]<br />
<br />
==Page 36==<br />
<br />
'''Lew Basnight'''<br><br />
"Bas" is French for "low."<br />
<br />
A detective named 'Lew' reminds us of Ross Macdonald's character Lew Archer which in turn recalls another detective, Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade in San Francisco detective agency Spade & Archer. This may be a bad pun on 'lube-ass night'.<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
The name recalls the White Visitation of ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Any connection?<br />
<br />
==Page 37==<br />
'''fictitiousness'''<br><br />
On this and the previous page, there is a question raised of whether the Chums are fictional. Or it could be saying that such fantastical sights as the airship are easy to miss at the fair. <br />
<br />
'''Wyatt Earp'''<br><br />
(1848–1929), was a teamster, sometime buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, and saloon-keeper in the Wild West and the U.S. mining frontier from California to Alaska. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''Nellie Bly'''<br><br />
(1864-1922) was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''"Although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction."'''<br><br />
May express Pynchon's reaction to the press' treatment of him over the years. In 1964, when Pynchon heard that the ''New York Herald Tribune'' was writing an article about him, Pynchon wrote to his agent that he assumed the piece "will be riddled with the same lies, calumnies and all-around knavish disregard for my privacy" as previous articles. ("Pynchon's Letters Nudge His Mask," ''New York Times,'' 4 Mar 1998). <br />
<br />
==Page 39==<br />
<br />
'''kazoos'''<br><br />
This silly instrument appears in several Pynchon novels.<br />
<br />
'''slow ritual movement'''<br><br />
Maybe tai chi, or anachronistic Gurdjieffian dance?<br />
<br />
'''Drave'''<br><br />
Possibly a back formation from 'Dravidians,' referring to David Koresh's Branch Davidians.<br />
: huh? [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 16:23, 19 December 2006 (PST)<br />
Another possibility is that Pynchon had in mind the Scottish noun "drave," which the OED defines as a "fishing expedition in which several men take part, each supplying a net and receiving a share of the profits made. Later, A haul (of fish); also, a shoal." This resonates with the evangelical role that Drave plays (Cf. Matthew 4:18, where Jesus addresses Peter and Matthew, "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.")<br />
<br />
It should be noted, though, that there is also a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drave Drave river] in south central Europe, though there seems to be little textual evidence to support this association.<br />
<br />
'''"liable for criminal penalties"'''<br><br />
Law and the legal profession so far appear in AtD more than any other Pynchon novel (perhaps save ''The Crying of Lot 49''), and so far, like here, in a negative or confusing light, perhaps as part of the establishment Pynchon seems to rail against in the novel.<br />
<br />
==Page 40==<br />
<br />
'''remembrance stick'''<br><br />
Similar to keisaku in Zen Buddhism, an attempt by a sensei to alert students to their mindlessness in zazen (sitting meditation), usually administered by a stick. An English translation is stick of compassion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyosaku [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
==Page 42==<br />
'''scorcher cap'''<br><br />
The cap of an early bicycling enthusiast. According to [http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288 this] site, <br />
<br />
:"In […]1892 [… a] bicyclist to be considered genuine had to be dressed in bicycle clothes. A man had to wear bicycle pants which were baggy at the top and tight to the legs below. Then he had to have bicycle socks and shoes. The shoes were made of canvass. Then he had to have a loose fitting grey colored short which we would designate now as a sport shirt. Then on his head he had to wear a tight fitting cap with a long bill in front, the longer the better up to a certain ceiling length. With this outfit and a bicycle with drop handlebars he was ready to appear in public as a real cyclist. If he could make 20 miles an hour on a good track he was called a 'scorcher,' the idea being that he was going so fast that he would scorch at least the end of his nose if nothing else."<br />
<br />
==Page 43==<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
Since the White City dates from 01 May 1893, this ought to be later.<br />
<br />
'''"leisurely rips through the fabric of the day"'''<br><br />
See below<br />
<br />
==Page 44==<br />
<br />
'''"He had learned to step to the side of the day."'''<br><br />
Through the book there are juxtapositions of things with and against the day. Here, we see Lew set "to the side" of the day.<br />
<br />
==Page 45==<br />
<br />
'''Trabants'''<br><br />
"Trabanten" (German for 'satellites') originally - during the Thirty Years' War - were lightly armed foot soldiers; later this term was used for servants and/or bodyguards of high-ranking persons.<br />
<br />
'''"have a lawyer explain civil liability to you"'''<br><br />
Again, law. Pynchon must have boned up on legal jargon (or perhaps he got sued?). <br />
<br />
'''Francis Ferdinand'''<br><br />
This is indeed the same Franz Ferdinand whose assassination in 1914 triggered World War I. At the time of his appearance in AtD, he would have been 30, and his two passions throughout young adulthood and his 20s were travel and hunting (it is estimated that he shot more than 5,000 deer in his lifetime). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria Wikipedia entry]. He did indeed attend the Chicago Exposition. [http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/ch27.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 46==<br />
<br />
'''"staff"'''<br><br />
[http://ftp.apci.net/~truax/1904wf/WF_Mem-Staff.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
'''"In Austria, the Archduke was explaining"......through the line about<br />
renting out the Chicago Stockyards "for a weekend's amusement", Pynchon <br />
continues his linking of the Stockyard killing-floor with the genocidal horrors of the 2oth Century, it seems. See above. Heidegger (sic) made this connection somewhere and J.M Coetze's novel Elizabeth Costello uses it in a key chapter that was published separately. Researching the details. <br />
<br />
'''"Hungarians are the lowest level of brute existence"'''<br><br />
It is unclear whether this shocking sentiment (especially to Hungarians!) expressed by the Archduke is more fictitious than factual. Hungary had become an equal partner in the Austro-Hungarian empire by the 1890s, and Empress Elizabeth herself spoke the Hungarian language and loved its country and people, visiting and residing there often. Pynchon's portrayal of Franz seems to indicate, however, that despite the historic nature of his assassination, he deserved it...!<br />
<br />
'''Mannlicher'''<br><br />
A double-barreled rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. It is reported that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had several of these made special for him.<br />
<br />
Interestingly enough, the rifle is also mentioned in ''Green Hills of Africa'' and ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' by Ernest Hemingway, who used it extensively on hunting.<br />
<br />
Franz was eventually assassinated in Sarajevo. Coincidentally (?), fellow assassinee JFK was initially claimed to have been a victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher rifle.<br />
<br />
==Page 47==<br />
<br />
'''K&K Special Security'''<br><br />
"K&K" stands for "Kaiserlich und Königlich," German for "imperial and royal (kingly)," to indicate the Austrian two titles of the ruler of the Dual Monarchy: King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserlich_und_königlich Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit'''<br><br />
This is not a german word as far as I know and most likely not even a degenerate Habsburg will have used it (but then i havent read Franz Ferdinands account of his travels...). Sounds more like some babelfish automatic translation of "pastry-depravity" to me. I wonder what the german translator will make of this. My guess is, s/he will not make a "typical german" combined noun out of it, but turn the phrase to be able to use an adverb like "mehlspeisennarrisch" instead (what with in Austria and Bavaria there is a word for (mostly sweet) pastry: "Mehlspeise" (literally "flour-meal), and "narrisch" is Austrian/Viennese for being (slightly) mad). But then, of course, there might be a pun intended I as a bad english-speaker just dont get. Maybe via the pronounciation? Check out this [http://www.dict.cc/?s=Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit dictionary], head for "continue searching" and press "voice output" - voila, thats what "Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit" sounds like.<br />
<br />
'''...the only place in Chicago a man could find a decent orange phosphate...'''<br><br />
A reference to the modern stereotype that black people like orange soda, here called a phosphate.<br />
<br />
==Page 48==<br />
<br />
'''grip cars'''<br><br />
The lead cars in cable-car systems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_City_Railway [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
''' ''"...'st los, Hund?"'' '''<br><br />
German for "'s up, dog?"<br />
<br />
'''And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!'''<br><br />
WWI?<br />
<br />
==Page 49==<br />
<br />
'''Kinsley's'''<br><br />
A famous steakhouse at 105-107 Adams St. in downtown Chicago. The building was erected in 1885.<br />
<br />
'''Welsbach mantles'''<br><br />
One of the most important advances in the history of lighting, the Welsbach mantle (for a period so ubiquitous it became more commonly known simply as 'gas mantle') was first sold commercially in 1892 and quickly spread throughout Europe. It remained an important part of street lighting until the widespread introduction of electric lighting in the early 1900s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Reverend Moss Gatlin'''<br><br />
A fictional character. Is he connected to Rev. Cherrycoke? They are both Reverends with strong political opinions and you can hear Pynchon's voice here very strong.<br />
<br />
'''fascinators'''<br><br />
Hair adornments. [http://www.ribbonsandpearls.co.uk/catalogue/fascinators/fascinator_hair_accessories_intro.htm [pix]]<br />
<br />
'''"bearing the insults of the day"'''<br><br />
See note on page 44 above<br />
<br />
'''Blake's Jerusalem'''<br><br />
The original lines From William Blake's poem are:<br />
<br />
I will not cease from mental fight,<br><br />
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand<br><br />
Till we have built Jerusalem<br><br />
In England's green and pleasant land.<br><br />
<br />
==Page 50==<br />
<br />
'''Picardy third'''<br><br />
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
==Page 51==<br />
<br />
'''deadfalls'''<br><br />
Low points where refuse collects? Cf. Pynchon's story, Low-Lands?[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deadfalls [def]]<br />
<br />
'''"prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate"'''<br><br />
Coupled with the cover blurb Pynchon wrote: "If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction." Could ''Against the Day'' be Pynchon's prophecy of a future America?<br />
<br />
'''The Unsleeping Eye'''<br><br />
an apparent reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency. See also [[ATD_1-25#Page_13|page 13]].<br />
<br />
==Page 52==<br />
<br />
'''''Inconvenience'''''<br><br />
Lew Basnight's temporary presence on the airship may be the first clue as to why it's called ''Inconvenience''. Perhaps his growing sympathy for the anarchists will lead to greater involvement by him, the Chums, or at least the book in portraying the anarchist movement, which is viewed as an inconvenience to the ruling classes. Pynchon may consider his novel's message, similarly, as an inconvenient truth about America's past, present or both.<br />
<br />
:I thought it was just a polysyllable that sounds stately but means the opposite.--[[User:Robot|Robot]] 13:18, 5 December 2006 (PST)<br />
<br />
'''"some weeks till the fair closes"'''<br><br />
30 October 1893.<br />
<br />
'''Freddie Turner'''<br><br />
"The Significance of the Frontier in American History" From this paper:"In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave--the meeting point between savagery and civilization." <br />
[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1893turner.html [etext]]<br />
<br />
==Page 53==<br />
<br />
'''Blitz Instruments and Wackett Punches'''<br><br />
Mentioned in 1911 Britannica article 'Slaughter-house' [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Slaughter-house [etext]]<br />
<br />
'''"The frontier ends and disconnection begins"'''<br><br />
Here, the free cowboy myth of Buffalo Bill's show is replaced by the grim reality of the stockyard worker.<br />
<br />
'''Cause and effect'''<br><br />
A major theme in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.<br />
<br />
'''How the dickens do I know?'''<br><br />
A possible reference to the novels of Charles Dickens, who critiques in such works as ''Hard Times'' (1854) the onset of urban decay, and the choked living and working conditions of the proletariat as the Industrial Revolution steams onward.<br />
<br />
==Page 55==<br />
'''"...they continued in a fragmented reverie which,... often announced some change in the works"'''<br><br />
Good to notice when the Chums get like this again: i.e. unfocused, depressed, without direction, it may lead to patterns in the plot.<br />
<br />
'''"Speculation begun to fill the day."'''<br><br />
See note on [[ATD_26-56#Page_44|page 44]] above<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_26-56&diff=4650ATD 26-562006-12-29T03:43:41Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 33 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 26==<br />
<br />
'''Little Egypt'''<br><br />
was the stage name for two popular exotic dancers, Ashea Wabe who danced at the Seeley banquet at the 1893 World's Fair and Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(dancer) Wikipedia entry] Also a 1961 [[Little_Egypt|song]] by the Coasters.<br />
<br />
==Page 27==<br />
<br />
'''Bacchanale'''<br><br />
From ''Samson et Dalila'', op. 47 (1877) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Delilah_%28opera%29 Wikipedia entry]. Listen to a [http://themodernword.com/wiki/bacchanale.mp3 30 second MP3 sample]<br />
<br />
'''Dally'''<br><br />
Merle's relationship with Dally is reminiscent of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's characters in the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, "Paper Moon".<br />
<br />
==Page 28==<br />
<br />
'''''Imbottigliata!'''''<br>Italian for "bottled".<br />
<br />
'''Dahlia Rideout'''<br><br />
The lolita motif is common in Pynchon's works. Other lolitas include Bianca in ''Gravity's Rainbow.''<br />
'''Dahlia is four or five years old! She is not a lolita motif here. Lolita was twelve and Humbert was sick. Even her sick father, Merle Rideout, who would sell her to one of the Chums, won't until she is sixteen, maybe fifteen.<br />
<br />
==Page 29==<br />
<br />
'''a l'étouffée'''<br><br />
French, meaning a dish fried in a pan. So, pan-fried alligator meat.<br />
<br />
'''Sloane Laboratory'''<br><br />
Yale's physics lab built 1882.<br />
<br />
'''Ray Ipsow'''<br><br />
In Latin ''re ipso'' means "the thing itself." "To the thing itself" was the motto and rallying cry of the investigational method known as phenomenology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology Wikipedia entry] developed by Edmund Husserl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Husserl Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Outer Indianoplace'''<br><br />
Derogatory nickname for Indianapolis.<br />
<br />
'''Khartoum... Mahdi's army... Oltre Giubba, instead of down in Alex'''<br><br />
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army was an Islamic group in the 1880s that advocated a return to strict Islamic values and battled with the government of Khartoum and Egyptian armies. More on these convoluted events at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sudan_(1884-1898) Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
==Page 30==<br />
<br />
'''railroad watch'''<br><br />
High-quality pocket watch. [http://www.pockethorology.org/Railroad/Railroad.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
==Page 31==<br />
<br />
'''Scarsdale Vibe'''<br><br />
Scarsdale NY boasts that it's Westchester County's wealthiest community, so a 'Scarsdale vibe' implies 'stinking of money'. Vibe is another Pynchon baddie whose last name starts with "V", ''e.g.'', Brock Vond in ''Vineland.''<br />
<br />
'''Foley Walker'''<br><br />
"Foley walker" is a term used to indicate a sound-effects expert. Also known as a foley artist [http://www.natf.org/wad/foley.htm [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 33==<br />
<br />
'''"Old Zip Coon"'''<br><br />
"Old Zip Coon" dates from as early as 1834 and is considered the original name for the 19th-century American folk song, 'Turkey in the Straw'. [[Old Zip Coon | lyrics]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Straw Wikipedia] See also [http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/Amsong59.htm] and [http://www.csufresno.edu:80/folklore/ballads/RJ19258.html]<br />
<br />
<br />
==Page 34==<br />
<br />
'''"Pierpont"'''<br><br />
John Pierpont Morgan I (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and banker, who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation.<br />
[...]<br />
By the 1870s Morgan was deeply involved in financing railroads. He raised large sums in Europe but instead of just handing the funds over he helped the railroads reorganize and achieve greater efficiencies. He fought against the speculators interested in speculative profits, and built a vision of an integrated transportation system. In 1885 he reorganized the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, leasing it to the New York Central. In 1886 he reorganized the Philadelphia & Reading, and in 1888 the Chesapeake & Ohio. After Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, Morgan set up conferences in 1889 and 1890 that brought together railroad presidents in order to help the industry follow the new laws and write agreements for the maintenance of "public, reasonable, uniform and stable rates" The conferences were the first of their kind, and by creating a community of interest among competing lines paved the way for the great consolidations of the early 20th century.<br />
[...]<br />
In 1900, Morgan financed inventor Nikola Tesla and his Wardenclyffe Tower with $150,000 for experiments in radio. Tesla was unsuccessful and, in 1904, Morgan pulled out. Later, Tesla created a AC generator<br />
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._P._Morgan]<br />
<br />
==Page 36==<br />
<br />
'''Lew Basnight'''<br><br />
"Bas" is French for "low."<br />
<br />
A detective named 'Lew' reminds us of Ross Macdonald's character Lew Archer which in turn recalls another detective, Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade in San Francisco detective agency Spade & Archer. This may be a bad pun on 'lube-ass night'.<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
The name recalls the White Visitation of ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Any connection?<br />
<br />
==Page 37==<br />
'''fictitiousness'''<br><br />
On this and the previous page, there is a question raised of whether the Chums are fictional. Or it could be saying that such fantastical sights as the airship are easy to miss at the fair. <br />
<br />
'''Wyatt Earp'''<br><br />
(1848–1929), was a teamster, sometime buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, and saloon-keeper in the Wild West and the U.S. mining frontier from California to Alaska. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''Nellie Bly'''<br><br />
(1864-1922) was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''"Although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction."'''<br><br />
May express Pynchon's reaction to the press' treatment of him over the years. In 1964, when Pynchon heard that the ''New York Herald Tribune'' was writing an article about him, Pynchon wrote to his agent that he assumed the piece "will be riddled with the same lies, calumnies and all-around knavish disregard for my privacy" as previous articles. ("Pynchon's Letters Nudge His Mask," ''New York Times,'' 4 Mar 1998). <br />
<br />
==Page 39==<br />
<br />
'''kazoos'''<br><br />
This silly instrument appears in several Pynchon novels.<br />
<br />
'''slow ritual movement'''<br><br />
Maybe tai chi, or anachronistic Gurdjieffian dance?<br />
<br />
'''Drave'''<br><br />
Possibly a back formation from 'Dravidians,' referring to David Koresh's Branch Davidians.<br />
: huh? [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 16:23, 19 December 2006 (PST)<br />
Another possibility is that Pynchon had in mind the Scottish noun "drave," which the OED defines as a "fishing expedition in which several men take part, each supplying a net and receiving a share of the profits made. Later, A haul (of fish); also, a shoal." This resonates with the evangelical role that Drave plays (Cf. Matthew 4:18, where Jesus addresses Peter and Matthew, "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.")<br />
<br />
It should be noted, though, that there is also a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drave Drave river] in south central Europe, though there seems to be little textual evidence to support this association.<br />
<br />
'''"liable for criminal penalties"'''<br><br />
Law and the legal profession so far appear in AtD more than any other Pynchon novel (perhaps save ''The Crying of Lot 49''), and so far, like here, in a negative or confusing light, perhaps as part of the establishment Pynchon seems to rail against in the novel.<br />
<br />
==Page 40==<br />
<br />
'''remembrance stick'''<br><br />
Similar to keisaku in Zen Buddhism, an attempt by a sensei to alert students to their mindlessness in zazen (sitting meditation), usually administered by a stick. An English translation is stick of compassion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyosaku [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
==Page 42==<br />
'''scorcher cap'''<br><br />
The cap of an early bicycling enthusiast. According to [http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288 this] site, <br />
<br />
:"In […]1892 [… a] bicyclist to be considered genuine had to be dressed in bicycle clothes. A man had to wear bicycle pants which were baggy at the top and tight to the legs below. Then he had to have bicycle socks and shoes. The shoes were made of canvass. Then he had to have a loose fitting grey colored short which we would designate now as a sport shirt. Then on his head he had to wear a tight fitting cap with a long bill in front, the longer the better up to a certain ceiling length. With this outfit and a bicycle with drop handlebars he was ready to appear in public as a real cyclist. If he could make 20 miles an hour on a good track he was called a 'scorcher,' the idea being that he was going so fast that he would scorch at least the end of his nose if nothing else."<br />
<br />
==Page 43==<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
Since the White City dates from 01 May 1893, this ought to be later.<br />
<br />
'''"leisurely rips through the fabric of the day"'''<br><br />
See below<br />
<br />
==Page 44==<br />
<br />
'''"He had learned to step to the side of the day."'''<br><br />
Through the book there are juxtapositions of things with and against the day. Here, we see Lew set "to the side" of the day.<br />
<br />
==Page 45==<br />
<br />
'''Trabants'''<br><br />
"Trabanten" (German for 'satellites') originally - during the Thirty Years' War - were lightly armed foot soldiers; later this term was used for servants and/or bodyguards of high-ranking persons.<br />
<br />
'''"have a lawyer explain civil liability to you"'''<br><br />
Again, law. Pynchon must have boned up on legal jargon (or perhaps he got sued?). <br />
<br />
'''Francis Ferdinand'''<br><br />
This is indeed the same Franz Ferdinand whose assassination in 1914 triggered World War I. At the time of his appearance in AtD, he would have been 30, and his two passions throughout young adulthood and his 20s were travel and hunting (it is estimated that he shot more than 5,000 deer in his lifetime). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria Wikipedia entry]. He did indeed attend the Chicago Exposition. [http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/ch27.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 46==<br />
<br />
'''"staff"'''<br><br />
[http://ftp.apci.net/~truax/1904wf/WF_Mem-Staff.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
'''"In Austria, the Archduke was explaining"......through the line about<br />
renting out the Chicago Stockyards "for a weekend's amusement", Pynchon <br />
continues his linking of the Stockyard killing-floor with the genocidal horrors of the 2oth Century, it seems. See above. Heidegger (sic) made this connection somewhere and J.M Coetze's novel Elizabeth Costello uses it in a key chapter that was published separately. Researching the details. <br />
<br />
'''"Hungarians are the lowest level of brute existence"'''<br><br />
It is unclear whether this shocking sentiment (especially to Hungarians!) expressed by the Archduke is more fictitious than factual. Hungary had become an equal partner in the Austro-Hungarian empire by the 1890s, and Empress Elizabeth herself spoke the Hungarian language and loved its country and people, visiting and residing there often. Pynchon's portrayal of Franz seems to indicate, however, that despite the historic nature of his assassination, he deserved it...!<br />
<br />
'''Mannlicher'''<br><br />
A double-barreled rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. It is reported that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had several of these made special for him.<br />
<br />
Interestingly enough, the rifle is also mentioned in ''Green Hills of Africa'' and ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' by Ernest Hemingway, who used it extensively on hunting.<br />
<br />
Franz was eventually assassinated in Sarajevo. Coincidentally (?), fellow assassinee JFK was initially claimed to have been a victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher rifle.<br />
<br />
==Page 47==<br />
<br />
'''K&K Special Security'''<br><br />
"K&K" stands for "Kaiserlich und Königlich," German for "imperial and royal (kingly)," to indicate the Austrian two titles of the ruler of the Dual Monarchy: King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserlich_und_königlich Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit'''<br><br />
This is not a german word as far as I know and most likely not even a degenerate Habsburg will have used it (but then i havent read Franz Ferdinands account of his travels...). Sounds more like some babelfish automatic translation of "pastry-depravity" to me. I wonder what the german translator will make of this. My guess is, s/he will not make a "typical german" combined noun out of it, but turn the phrase to be able to use an adverb like "mehlspeisennarrisch" instead (what with in Austria and Bavaria there is a word for (mostly sweet) pastry: "Mehlspeise" (literally "flour-meal), and "narrisch" is Austrian/Viennese for being (slightly) mad). But then, of course, there might be a pun intended I as a bad english-speaker just dont get. Maybe via the pronounciation? Check out this [http://www.dict.cc/?s=Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit dictionary], head for "continue searching" and press "voice output" - voila, thats what "Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit" sounds like.<br />
<br />
'''...the only place in Chicago a man could find a decent orange phosphate...'''<br><br />
A reference to the modern stereotype that black people like orange soda, here called a phosphate.<br />
<br />
==Page 48==<br />
<br />
'''grip cars'''<br><br />
The lead cars in cable-car systems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_City_Railway [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
''' ''"...'st los, Hund?"'' '''<br><br />
German for "'s up, dog?"<br />
<br />
'''And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!'''<br><br />
WWI?<br />
<br />
==Page 49==<br />
<br />
'''Kinsley's'''<br><br />
A famous steakhouse at 105-107 Adams St. in downtown Chicago. The building was erected in 1885.<br />
<br />
'''Welsbach mantles'''<br><br />
One of the most important advances in the history of lighting, the Welsbach mantle (for a period so ubiquitous it became more commonly known simply as 'gas mantle') was first sold commercially in 1892 and quickly spread throughout Europe. It remained an important part of street lighting until the widespread introduction of electric lighting in the early 1900s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Reverend Moss Gatlin'''<br><br />
A fictional character. Is he connected to Rev. Cherrycoke? They are both Reverends with strong political opinions and you can hear Pynchon's voice here very strong.<br />
<br />
'''fascinators'''<br><br />
Hair adornments. [http://www.ribbonsandpearls.co.uk/catalogue/fascinators/fascinator_hair_accessories_intro.htm [pix]]<br />
<br />
'''"bearing the insults of the day"'''<br><br />
See note on page 44 above<br />
<br />
'''Blake's Jerusalem'''<br><br />
The original lines From William Blake's poem are:<br />
<br />
I will not cease from mental fight,<br><br />
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand<br><br />
Till we have built Jerusalem<br><br />
In England's green and pleasant land.<br><br />
<br />
==Page 50==<br />
<br />
'''Picardy third'''<br><br />
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
==Page 51==<br />
<br />
'''deadfalls'''<br><br />
Low points where refuse collects? Cf. Pynchon's story, Low-Lands?[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deadfalls [def]]<br />
<br />
'''"prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate"'''<br><br />
Coupled with the cover blurb Pynchon wrote: "If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction." Could ''Against the Day'' be Pynchon's prophecy of a future America?<br />
<br />
'''The Unsleeping Eye'''<br><br />
an apparent reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency. See also [[ATD_1-25#Page_13|page 13]].<br />
<br />
==Page 52==<br />
<br />
'''''Inconvenience'''''<br><br />
Lew Basnight's temporary presence on the airship may be the first clue as to why it's called ''Inconvenience''. Perhaps his growing sympathy for the anarchists will lead to greater involvement by him, the Chums, or at least the book in portraying the anarchist movement, which is viewed as an inconvenience to the ruling classes. Pynchon may consider his novel's message, similarly, as an inconvenient truth about America's past, present or both.<br />
<br />
:I thought it was just a polysyllable that sounds stately but means the opposite.--[[User:Robot|Robot]] 13:18, 5 December 2006 (PST)<br />
<br />
'''"some weeks till the fair closes"'''<br><br />
30 October 1893.<br />
<br />
'''Freddie Turner'''<br><br />
"The Significance of the Frontier in American History" From this paper:"In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave--the meeting point between savagery and civilization." <br />
[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1893turner.html [etext]]<br />
<br />
==Page 53==<br />
<br />
'''Blitz Instruments and Wackett Punches'''<br><br />
Mentioned in 1911 Britannica article 'Slaughter-house' [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Slaughter-house [etext]]<br />
<br />
'''"The frontier ends and disconnection begins"'''<br><br />
Here, the free cowboy myth of Buffalo Bill's show is replaced by the grim reality of the stockyard worker.<br />
<br />
'''Cause and effect'''<br><br />
A major theme in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.<br />
<br />
'''How the dickens do I know?'''<br><br />
A possible reference to the novels of Charles Dickens, who critiques in such works as ''Hard Times'' (1854) the onset of urban decay, and the choked living and working conditions of the proletariat as the Industrial Revolution steams onward.<br />
<br />
==Page 55==<br />
'''"...they continued in a fragmented reverie which,... often announced some change in the works"'''<br><br />
Good to notice when the Chums get like this again: i.e. unfocused, depressed, without direction, it may lead to patterns in the plot.<br />
<br />
'''"Speculation begun to fill the day."'''<br><br />
See note on [[ATD_26-56#Page_44|page 44]] above<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_26-56&diff=4648ATD 26-562006-12-29T00:59:34Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 33 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 26==<br />
<br />
'''Little Egypt'''<br><br />
was the stage name for two popular exotic dancers, Ashea Wabe who danced at the Seeley banquet at the 1893 World's Fair and Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(dancer) Wikipedia entry] Also a 1961 [[Little_Egypt|song]] by the Coasters.<br />
<br />
==Page 27==<br />
<br />
'''Bacchanale'''<br><br />
From ''Samson et Dalila'', op. 47 (1877) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Delilah_%28opera%29 Wikipedia entry]. Listen to a [http://themodernword.com/wiki/bacchanale.mp3 30 second MP3 sample]<br />
<br />
'''Dally'''<br><br />
Merle's relationship with Dally is reminiscent of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's characters in the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, "Paper Moon".<br />
<br />
==Page 28==<br />
<br />
'''''Imbottigliata!'''''<br>Italian for "bottled".<br />
<br />
'''Dahlia Rideout'''<br><br />
The lolita motif is common in Pynchon's works. Other lolitas include Bianca in ''Gravity's Rainbow.''<br />
'''Dahlia is four or five years old! She is not a lolita motif here. Lolita was twelve and Humbert was sick. Even her sick father, Merle Rideout, who would sell her to one of the Chums, won't until she is sixteen, maybe fifteen.<br />
<br />
==Page 29==<br />
<br />
'''a l'étouffée'''<br><br />
French, meaning a dish fried in a pan. So, pan-fried alligator meat.<br />
<br />
'''Sloane Laboratory'''<br><br />
Yale's physics lab built 1882.<br />
<br />
'''Ray Ipsow'''<br><br />
In Latin ''re ipso'' means "the thing itself." "To the thing itself" was the motto and rallying cry of the investigational method known as phenomenology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology Wikipedia entry] developed by Edmund Husserl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Husserl Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Outer Indianoplace'''<br><br />
Derogatory nickname for Indianapolis.<br />
<br />
'''Khartoum... Mahdi's army... Oltre Giubba, instead of down in Alex'''<br><br />
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army was an Islamic group in the 1880s that advocated a return to strict Islamic values and battled with the government of Khartoum and Egyptian armies. More on these convoluted events at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sudan_(1884-1898) Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
==Page 30==<br />
<br />
'''railroad watch'''<br><br />
High-quality pocket watch. [http://www.pockethorology.org/Railroad/Railroad.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
==Page 31==<br />
<br />
'''Scarsdale Vibe'''<br><br />
Scarsdale NY boasts that it's Westchester County's wealthiest community, so a 'Scarsdale vibe' implies 'stinking of money'. Vibe is another Pynchon baddie whose last name starts with "V", ''e.g.'', Brock Vond in ''Vineland.''<br />
<br />
'''Foley Walker'''<br><br />
"Foley walker" is a term used to indicate a sound-effects expert. Also known as a foley artist [http://www.natf.org/wad/foley.htm [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 33==<br />
<br />
'''"Old Zip Coon"'''<br><br />
"Old Zip Coon" dates from as early as 1834 and is considered the original name for the 19th-century American folk song, 'Turkey in the Straw'. [[Old Zip Coon | lyrics]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Straw Wikipedia] See also [http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/Amsong59.htm] and [http://www.csufresno.edu:80/folklore/ballads/RJ19258.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 36==<br />
<br />
'''Lew Basnight'''<br><br />
"Bas" is French for "low."<br />
<br />
A detective named 'Lew' reminds us of Ross Macdonald's character Lew Archer which in turn recalls another detective, Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade in San Francisco detective agency Spade & Archer. This may be a bad pun on 'lube-ass night'.<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
The name recalls the White Visitation of ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Any connection?<br />
<br />
==Page 37==<br />
'''fictitiousness'''<br><br />
On this and the previous page, there is a question raised of whether the Chums are fictional. Or it could be saying that such fantastical sights as the airship are easy to miss at the fair. <br />
<br />
'''Wyatt Earp'''<br><br />
(1848–1929), was a teamster, sometime buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, and saloon-keeper in the Wild West and the U.S. mining frontier from California to Alaska. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''Nellie Bly'''<br><br />
(1864-1922) was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''"Although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction."'''<br><br />
May express Pynchon's reaction to the press' treatment of him over the years. In 1964, when Pynchon heard that the ''New York Herald Tribune'' was writing an article about him, Pynchon wrote to his agent that he assumed the piece "will be riddled with the same lies, calumnies and all-around knavish disregard for my privacy" as previous articles. ("Pynchon's Letters Nudge His Mask," ''New York Times,'' 4 Mar 1998). <br />
<br />
==Page 39==<br />
<br />
'''kazoos'''<br><br />
This silly instrument appears in several Pynchon novels.<br />
<br />
'''slow ritual movement'''<br><br />
Maybe tai chi, or anachronistic Gurdjieffian dance?<br />
<br />
'''Drave'''<br><br />
Possibly a back formation from 'Dravidians,' referring to David Koresh's Branch Davidians.<br />
: huh? [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 16:23, 19 December 2006 (PST)<br />
Another possibility is that Pynchon had in mind the Scottish noun "drave," which the OED defines as a "fishing expedition in which several men take part, each supplying a net and receiving a share of the profits made. Later, A haul (of fish); also, a shoal." This resonates with the evangelical role that Drave plays (Cf. Matthew 4:18, where Jesus addresses Peter and Matthew, "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.")<br />
<br />
It should be noted, though, that there is also a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drave Drave river] in south central Europe, though there seems to be little textual evidence to support this association.<br />
<br />
'''"liable for criminal penalties"'''<br><br />
Law and the legal profession so far appear in AtD more than any other Pynchon novel (perhaps save ''The Crying of Lot 49''), and so far, like here, in a negative or confusing light, perhaps as part of the establishment Pynchon seems to rail against in the novel.<br />
<br />
==Page 40==<br />
<br />
'''remembrance stick'''<br><br />
Similar to keisaku in Zen Buddhism, an attempt by a sensei to alert students to their mindlessness in zazen (sitting meditation), usually administered by a stick. An English translation is stick of compassion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyosaku [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
==Page 42==<br />
'''scorcher cap'''<br><br />
The cap of an early bicycling enthusiast. According to [http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288 this] site, ''In […]1892 [… a] bicyclist to be considered genuine had to be dressed in bicycle clothes. A man had to wear bicycle pants which were baggy at the top and tight to the legs below. Then he had to have bicycle socks and shoes. The shoes were made of canvass. Then he had to have a loose fitting grey colored short which we would designate now as a sport shirt. Then on his head he had to wear a tight fitting cap with a long bill in front, the longer the better up to a certain ceiling length. With this outfit and a bicycle with drop handlebars he was ready to appear in public as a real cyclist. If he could make 20 miles an hour on a good track he was called a “scorcher,” the idea being that he was going so fast that he would scorch at least the end of his nose if nothing else.''<br />
<br />
==Page 43==<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
Since the White City dates from 01 May 1893, this ought to be later.<br />
<br />
'''"leisurely rips through the fabric of the day"'''<br><br />
See below<br />
<br />
==Page 44==<br />
<br />
'''"He had learned to step to the side of the day."'''<br><br />
Through the book there are juxtapositions of things with and against the day. Here, we see Lew set "to the side" of the day.<br />
<br />
==Page 45==<br />
<br />
'''Trabants'''<br><br />
"Trabanten" (German for 'satellites') originally - during the Thirty Years' War - were lightly armed foot soldiers; later this term was used for servants and/or bodyguards of high-ranking persons.<br />
<br />
'''"have a lawyer explain civil liability to you"'''<br><br />
Again, law. Pynchon must have boned up on legal jargon (or perhaps he got sued?). <br />
<br />
'''Francis Ferdinand'''<br><br />
This is indeed the same Franz Ferdinand whose assassination in 1914 triggered World War I. At the time of his appearance in AtD, he would have been 30, and his two passions throughout young adulthood and his 20s were travel and hunting (it is estimated that he shot more than 5,000 deer in his lifetime). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria Wikipedia entry]. He did indeed attend the Chicago Exposition. [http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/ch27.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 46==<br />
<br />
'''"staff"'''<br><br />
[http://ftp.apci.net/~truax/1904wf/WF_Mem-Staff.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
'''"In Austria, the Archduke was explaining"......through the line about<br />
renting out the Chicago Stockyards "for a weekend's amusement", Pynchon <br />
continues his linking of the Stockyard killing-floor with the genocidal horrors of the 2oth Century, it seems. See above. Heidegger (sic) made this connection somewhere and J.M Coetze's novel Elizabeth Costello uses it in a key chapter that was published separately. Researching the details. <br />
<br />
'''"Hungarians are the lowest level of brute existence"'''<br><br />
It is unclear whether this shocking sentiment (especially to Hungarians!) expressed by the Archduke is more fictitious than factual. Hungary had become an equal partner in the Austro-Hungarian empire by the 1890s, and Empress Elizabeth herself spoke the Hungarian language and loved its country and people, visiting and residing there often. Pynchon's portrayal of Franz seems to indicate, however, that despite the historic nature of his assassination, he deserved it...!<br />
<br />
'''Mannlicher'''<br><br />
A double-barreled rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. It is reported that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had several of these made special for him.<br />
<br />
Interestingly enough, the rifle is also mentioned in ''Green Hills of Africa'' and ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' by Ernest Hemingway, who used it extensively on hunting.<br />
<br />
Franz was eventually assassinated in Sarajevo. Coincidentally (?), fellow assassinee JFK was initially claimed to have been a victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher rifle.<br />
<br />
==Page 47==<br />
<br />
'''K&K Special Security'''<br><br />
"K&K" stands for "Kaiserlich und Königlich," German for "imperial and royal (kingly)," to indicate the Austrian two titles of the ruler of the Dual Monarchy: King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserlich_und_königlich Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit'''<br><br />
This is not a german word as far as I know and most likely not even a degenerate Habsburg will have used it (but then i havent read Franz Ferdinands account of his travels...). Sounds more like some babelfish automatic translation of "pastry-depravity" to me. I wonder what the german translator will make of this. My guess is, s/he will not make a "typical german" combined noun out of it, but turn the phrase to be able to use an adverb like "mehlspeisennarrisch" instead (what with in Austria and Bavaria there is a word for (mostly sweet) pastry: "Mehlspeise" (literally "flour-meal), and "narrisch" is Austrian/Viennese for being (slightly) mad). But then, of course, there might be a pun intended I as a bad english-speaker just dont get. Maybe via the pronounciation? Check out this [http://www.dict.cc/?s=Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit dictionary], head for "continue searching" and press "voice output" - voila, thats what "Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit" sounds like.<br />
<br />
'''...the only place in Chicago a man could find a decent orange phosphate...'''<br><br />
A reference to the modern stereotype that black people like orange soda, here called a phosphate.<br />
<br />
==Page 48==<br />
<br />
'''grip cars'''<br><br />
The lead cars in cable-car systems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_City_Railway [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
''' ''"...'st los, Hund?"'' '''<br><br />
German for "'s up, dog?"<br />
<br />
'''And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!'''<br><br />
WWI?<br />
<br />
==Page 49==<br />
<br />
'''Kinsley's'''<br><br />
A famous steakhouse at 105-107 Adams St. in downtown Chicago. The building was erected in 1885.<br />
<br />
'''Welsbach mantles'''<br><br />
One of the most important advances in the history of lighting, the Welsbach mantle (for a period so ubiquitous it became more commonly known simply as 'gas mantle') was first sold commercially in 1892 and quickly spread throughout Europe. It remained an important part of street lighting until the widespread introduction of electric lighting in the early 1900s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Reverend Moss Gatlin'''<br><br />
A fictional character. Is he connected to Rev. Cherrycoke? They are both Reverends with strong political opinions and you can hear Pynchon's voice here very strong.<br />
<br />
'''fascinators'''<br><br />
Hair adornments. [http://www.ribbonsandpearls.co.uk/catalogue/fascinators/fascinator_hair_accessories_intro.htm [pix]]<br />
<br />
'''"bearing the insults of the day"'''<br><br />
See note on page 44 above<br />
<br />
'''Blake's Jerusalem'''<br><br />
The original lines From William Blake's poem are:<br />
<br />
I will not cease from mental fight,<br><br />
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand<br><br />
Till we have built Jerusalem<br><br />
In England's green and pleasant land.<br><br />
<br />
==Page 50==<br />
<br />
'''Picardy third'''<br><br />
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
==Page 51==<br />
<br />
'''deadfalls'''<br><br />
Low points where refuse collects? Cf. Pynchon's story, Low-Lands?[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deadfalls [def]]<br />
<br />
'''"prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate"'''<br><br />
Coupled with the cover blurb Pynchon wrote: "If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction." Could ''Against the Day'' be Pynchon's prophecy of a future America?<br />
<br />
'''The Unsleeping Eye'''<br><br />
an apparent reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency. See also [[ATD_1-25#Page_13|page 13]].<br />
<br />
==Page 52==<br />
<br />
'''''Inconvenience'''''<br><br />
Lew Basnight's temporary presence on the airship may be the first clue as to why it's called ''Inconvenience''. Perhaps his growing sympathy for the anarchists will lead to greater involvement by him, the Chums, or at least the book in portraying the anarchist movement, which is viewed as an inconvenience to the ruling classes. Pynchon may consider his novel's message, similarly, as an inconvenient truth about America's past, present or both.<br />
<br />
:I thought it was just a polysyllable that sounds stately but means the opposite.--[[User:Robot|Robot]] 13:18, 5 December 2006 (PST)<br />
<br />
'''"some weeks till the fair closes"'''<br><br />
30 October 1893.<br />
<br />
'''Freddie Turner'''<br><br />
"The Significance of the Frontier in American History" From this paper:"In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave--the meeting point between savagery and civilization." <br />
[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1893turner.html [etext]]<br />
<br />
==Page 53==<br />
<br />
'''Blitz Instruments and Wackett Punches'''<br><br />
Mentioned in 1911 Britannica article 'Slaughter-house' [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Slaughter-house [etext]]<br />
<br />
'''"The frontier ends and disconnection begins"'''<br><br />
Here, the free cowboy myth of Buffalo Bill's show is replaced by the grim reality of the stockyard worker.<br />
<br />
'''Cause and effect'''<br><br />
A major theme in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.<br />
<br />
'''How the dickens do I know?'''<br><br />
A possible reference to the novels of Charles Dickens, who critiques in such works as ''Hard Times'' (1854) the onset of urban decay, and the choked living and working conditions of the proletariat as the Industrial Revolution steams onward.<br />
<br />
==Page 55==<br />
'''"...they continued in a fragmented reverie which,... often announced some change in the works"'''<br><br />
Good to notice when the Chums get like this again: i.e. unfocused, depressed, without direction, it may lead to patterns in the plot.<br />
<br />
'''"Speculation begun to fill the day."'''<br><br />
See note on [[ATD_26-56#Page_44|page 44]] above<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_26-56&diff=4647ATD 26-562006-12-29T00:57:30Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 33 */</p>
<hr />
<div>:'''<big>Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.</big>'''<p><br><br />
<br />
==Page 26==<br />
<br />
'''Little Egypt'''<br><br />
was the stage name for two popular exotic dancers, Ashea Wabe who danced at the Seeley banquet at the 1893 World's Fair and Farida Mazar Spyropoulos, also performing under the stage name Fatima, appeared at the "Street in Cairo" exhibition on the Midway at the World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(dancer) Wikipedia entry] Also a 1961 [[Little_Egypt|song]] by the Coasters.<br />
<br />
==Page 27==<br />
<br />
'''Bacchanale'''<br><br />
From ''Samson et Dalila'', op. 47 (1877) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Delilah_%28opera%29 Wikipedia entry]. Listen to a [http://themodernword.com/wiki/bacchanale.mp3 30 second MP3 sample]<br />
<br />
'''Dally'''<br><br />
Merle's relationship with Dally is reminiscent of Ryan and Tatum O'Neal's characters in the 1973 Peter Bogdanovich film, "Paper Moon".<br />
<br />
==Page 28==<br />
<br />
'''''Imbottigliata!'''''<br>Italian for "bottled".<br />
<br />
'''Dahlia Rideout'''<br><br />
The lolita motif is common in Pynchon's works. Other lolitas include Bianca in ''Gravity's Rainbow.''<br />
'''Dahlia is four or five years old! She is not a lolita motif here. Lolita was twelve and Humbert was sick. Even her sick father, Merle Rideout, who would sell her to one of the Chums, won't until she is sixteen, maybe fifteen.<br />
<br />
==Page 29==<br />
<br />
'''a l'étouffée'''<br><br />
French, meaning a dish fried in a pan. So, pan-fried alligator meat.<br />
<br />
'''Sloane Laboratory'''<br><br />
Yale's physics lab built 1882.<br />
<br />
'''Ray Ipsow'''<br><br />
In Latin ''re ipso'' means "the thing itself." "To the thing itself" was the motto and rallying cry of the investigational method known as phenomenology [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology Wikipedia entry] developed by Edmund Husserl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Husserl Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Outer Indianoplace'''<br><br />
Derogatory nickname for Indianapolis.<br />
<br />
'''Khartoum... Mahdi's army... Oltre Giubba, instead of down in Alex'''<br><br />
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. The Mahdi army was an Islamic group in the 1880s that advocated a return to strict Islamic values and battled with the government of Khartoum and Egyptian armies. More on these convoluted events at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sudan_(1884-1898) Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
==Page 30==<br />
<br />
'''railroad watch'''<br><br />
High-quality pocket watch. [http://www.pockethorology.org/Railroad/Railroad.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
==Page 31==<br />
<br />
'''Scarsdale Vibe'''<br><br />
Scarsdale NY boasts that it's Westchester County's wealthiest community, so a 'Scarsdale vibe' implies 'stinking of money'. Vibe is another Pynchon baddie whose last name starts with "V", ''e.g.'', Brock Vond in ''Vineland.''<br />
<br />
'''Foley Walker'''<br><br />
"Foley walker" is a term used to indicate a sound-effects expert. Also known as a foley artist [http://www.natf.org/wad/foley.htm [cite]]<br />
<br />
==Page 33==<br />
<br />
'''"Old Zip Coon"'''<br><br />
"Old Zip Coon" dates from as early as 1834 and is considered the original name for the 19th-century American folk song, 'Turkey in the Straw'. [[Old Zip Coon | lyrics]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_in_the_Straw Wikipedia] See also [http://www.stephen-foster-songs.de/Amsong59.htm]<br />
<br />
==Page 36==<br />
<br />
'''Lew Basnight'''<br><br />
"Bas" is French for "low."<br />
<br />
A detective named 'Lew' reminds us of Ross Macdonald's character Lew Archer which in turn recalls another detective, Miles Archer, partner of Sam Spade in San Francisco detective agency Spade & Archer. This may be a bad pun on 'lube-ass night'.<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
The name recalls the White Visitation of ''Gravity's Rainbow''. Any connection?<br />
<br />
==Page 37==<br />
'''fictitiousness'''<br><br />
On this and the previous page, there is a question raised of whether the Chums are fictional. Or it could be saying that such fantastical sights as the airship are easy to miss at the fair. <br />
<br />
'''Wyatt Earp'''<br><br />
(1848–1929), was a teamster, sometime buffalo hunter, officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, gambler, and saloon-keeper in the Wild West and the U.S. mining frontier from California to Alaska. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''Nellie Bly'''<br><br />
(1864-1922) was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''"Although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction."'''<br><br />
May express Pynchon's reaction to the press' treatment of him over the years. In 1964, when Pynchon heard that the ''New York Herald Tribune'' was writing an article about him, Pynchon wrote to his agent that he assumed the piece "will be riddled with the same lies, calumnies and all-around knavish disregard for my privacy" as previous articles. ("Pynchon's Letters Nudge His Mask," ''New York Times,'' 4 Mar 1998). <br />
<br />
==Page 39==<br />
<br />
'''kazoos'''<br><br />
This silly instrument appears in several Pynchon novels.<br />
<br />
'''slow ritual movement'''<br><br />
Maybe tai chi, or anachronistic Gurdjieffian dance?<br />
<br />
'''Drave'''<br><br />
Possibly a back formation from 'Dravidians,' referring to David Koresh's Branch Davidians.<br />
: huh? [[User:Bleakhaus|Bleakhaus]] 16:23, 19 December 2006 (PST)<br />
Another possibility is that Pynchon had in mind the Scottish noun "drave," which the OED defines as a "fishing expedition in which several men take part, each supplying a net and receiving a share of the profits made. Later, A haul (of fish); also, a shoal." This resonates with the evangelical role that Drave plays (Cf. Matthew 4:18, where Jesus addresses Peter and Matthew, "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.")<br />
<br />
It should be noted, though, that there is also a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drave Drave river] in south central Europe, though there seems to be little textual evidence to support this association.<br />
<br />
'''"liable for criminal penalties"'''<br><br />
Law and the legal profession so far appear in AtD more than any other Pynchon novel (perhaps save ''The Crying of Lot 49''), and so far, like here, in a negative or confusing light, perhaps as part of the establishment Pynchon seems to rail against in the novel.<br />
<br />
==Page 40==<br />
<br />
'''remembrance stick'''<br><br />
Similar to keisaku in Zen Buddhism, an attempt by a sensei to alert students to their mindlessness in zazen (sitting meditation), usually administered by a stick. An English translation is stick of compassion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyosaku [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
==Page 42==<br />
'''scorcher cap'''<br><br />
The cap of an early bicycling enthusiast. According to [http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288 this] site, ''In […]1892 [… a] bicyclist to be considered genuine had to be dressed in bicycle clothes. A man had to wear bicycle pants which were baggy at the top and tight to the legs below. Then he had to have bicycle socks and shoes. The shoes were made of canvass. Then he had to have a loose fitting grey colored short which we would designate now as a sport shirt. Then on his head he had to wear a tight fitting cap with a long bill in front, the longer the better up to a certain ceiling length. With this outfit and a bicycle with drop handlebars he was ready to appear in public as a real cyclist. If he could make 20 miles an hour on a good track he was called a “scorcher,” the idea being that he was going so fast that he would scorch at least the end of his nose if nothing else.''<br />
<br />
==Page 43==<br />
<br />
'''White City Investigations'''<br><br />
Since the White City dates from 01 May 1893, this ought to be later.<br />
<br />
'''"leisurely rips through the fabric of the day"'''<br><br />
See below<br />
<br />
==Page 44==<br />
<br />
'''"He had learned to step to the side of the day."'''<br><br />
Through the book there are juxtapositions of things with and against the day. Here, we see Lew set "to the side" of the day.<br />
<br />
==Page 45==<br />
<br />
'''Trabants'''<br><br />
"Trabanten" (German for 'satellites') originally - during the Thirty Years' War - were lightly armed foot soldiers; later this term was used for servants and/or bodyguards of high-ranking persons.<br />
<br />
'''"have a lawyer explain civil liability to you"'''<br><br />
Again, law. Pynchon must have boned up on legal jargon (or perhaps he got sued?). <br />
<br />
'''Francis Ferdinand'''<br><br />
This is indeed the same Franz Ferdinand whose assassination in 1914 triggered World War I. At the time of his appearance in AtD, he would have been 30, and his two passions throughout young adulthood and his 20s were travel and hunting (it is estimated that he shot more than 5,000 deer in his lifetime). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria Wikipedia entry]. He did indeed attend the Chicago Exposition. [http://columbus.iit.edu/bookfair/ch27.html]<br />
<br />
==Page 46==<br />
<br />
'''"staff"'''<br><br />
[http://ftp.apci.net/~truax/1904wf/WF_Mem-Staff.htm [pix and info]]<br />
<br />
'''"In Austria, the Archduke was explaining"......through the line about<br />
renting out the Chicago Stockyards "for a weekend's amusement", Pynchon <br />
continues his linking of the Stockyard killing-floor with the genocidal horrors of the 2oth Century, it seems. See above. Heidegger (sic) made this connection somewhere and J.M Coetze's novel Elizabeth Costello uses it in a key chapter that was published separately. Researching the details. <br />
<br />
'''"Hungarians are the lowest level of brute existence"'''<br><br />
It is unclear whether this shocking sentiment (especially to Hungarians!) expressed by the Archduke is more fictitious than factual. Hungary had become an equal partner in the Austro-Hungarian empire by the 1890s, and Empress Elizabeth herself spoke the Hungarian language and loved its country and people, visiting and residing there often. Pynchon's portrayal of Franz seems to indicate, however, that despite the historic nature of his assassination, he deserved it...!<br />
<br />
'''Mannlicher'''<br><br />
A double-barreled rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher. It is reported that Archduke Franz Ferdinand had several of these made special for him.<br />
<br />
Interestingly enough, the rifle is also mentioned in ''Green Hills of Africa'' and ''The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber'' by Ernest Hemingway, who used it extensively on hunting.<br />
<br />
Franz was eventually assassinated in Sarajevo. Coincidentally (?), fellow assassinee JFK was initially claimed to have been a victim of Lee Harvey Oswald's Mannlicher rifle.<br />
<br />
==Page 47==<br />
<br />
'''K&K Special Security'''<br><br />
"K&K" stands for "Kaiserlich und Königlich," German for "imperial and royal (kingly)," to indicate the Austrian two titles of the ruler of the Dual Monarchy: King of Hungary and Emperor of Austria. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserlich_und_königlich Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit'''<br><br />
This is not a german word as far as I know and most likely not even a degenerate Habsburg will have used it (but then i havent read Franz Ferdinands account of his travels...). Sounds more like some babelfish automatic translation of "pastry-depravity" to me. I wonder what the german translator will make of this. My guess is, s/he will not make a "typical german" combined noun out of it, but turn the phrase to be able to use an adverb like "mehlspeisennarrisch" instead (what with in Austria and Bavaria there is a word for (mostly sweet) pastry: "Mehlspeise" (literally "flour-meal), and "narrisch" is Austrian/Viennese for being (slightly) mad). But then, of course, there might be a pun intended I as a bad english-speaker just dont get. Maybe via the pronounciation? Check out this [http://www.dict.cc/?s=Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit dictionary], head for "continue searching" and press "voice output" - voila, thats what "Kuchenteigs-Verderbtheit" sounds like.<br />
<br />
'''...the only place in Chicago a man could find a decent orange phosphate...'''<br><br />
A reference to the modern stereotype that black people like orange soda, here called a phosphate.<br />
<br />
==Page 48==<br />
<br />
'''grip cars'''<br><br />
The lead cars in cable-car systems. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_City_Railway [Wikipedia]]<br />
<br />
''' ''"...'st los, Hund?"'' '''<br><br />
German for "'s up, dog?"<br />
<br />
'''And when Franz Ferdinand pays, everybody pays!'''<br><br />
WWI?<br />
<br />
==Page 49==<br />
<br />
'''Kinsley's'''<br><br />
A famous steakhouse at 105-107 Adams St. in downtown Chicago. The building was erected in 1885.<br />
<br />
'''Welsbach mantles'''<br><br />
One of the most important advances in the history of lighting, the Welsbach mantle (for a period so ubiquitous it became more commonly known simply as 'gas mantle') was first sold commercially in 1892 and quickly spread throughout Europe. It remained an important part of street lighting until the widespread introduction of electric lighting in the early 1900s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_mantle Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Reverend Moss Gatlin'''<br><br />
A fictional character. Is he connected to Rev. Cherrycoke? They are both Reverends with strong political opinions and you can hear Pynchon's voice here very strong.<br />
<br />
'''fascinators'''<br><br />
Hair adornments. [http://www.ribbonsandpearls.co.uk/catalogue/fascinators/fascinator_hair_accessories_intro.htm [pix]]<br />
<br />
'''"bearing the insults of the day"'''<br><br />
See note on page 44 above<br />
<br />
'''Blake's Jerusalem'''<br><br />
The original lines From William Blake's poem are:<br />
<br />
I will not cease from mental fight,<br><br />
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand<br><br />
Till we have built Jerusalem<br><br />
In England's green and pleasant land.<br><br />
<br />
==Page 50==<br />
<br />
'''Picardy third'''<br><br />
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third Wikipedia entry]<br />
<br />
==Page 51==<br />
<br />
'''deadfalls'''<br><br />
Low points where refuse collects? Cf. Pynchon's story, Low-Lands?[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deadfalls [def]]<br />
<br />
'''"prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate"'''<br><br />
Coupled with the cover blurb Pynchon wrote: "If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction." Could ''Against the Day'' be Pynchon's prophecy of a future America?<br />
<br />
'''The Unsleeping Eye'''<br><br />
an apparent reference to Pinkerton's competing PI agency. See also [[ATD_1-25#Page_13|page 13]].<br />
<br />
==Page 52==<br />
<br />
'''''Inconvenience'''''<br><br />
Lew Basnight's temporary presence on the airship may be the first clue as to why it's called ''Inconvenience''. Perhaps his growing sympathy for the anarchists will lead to greater involvement by him, the Chums, or at least the book in portraying the anarchist movement, which is viewed as an inconvenience to the ruling classes. Pynchon may consider his novel's message, similarly, as an inconvenient truth about America's past, present or both.<br />
<br />
:I thought it was just a polysyllable that sounds stately but means the opposite.--[[User:Robot|Robot]] 13:18, 5 December 2006 (PST)<br />
<br />
'''"some weeks till the fair closes"'''<br><br />
30 October 1893.<br />
<br />
'''Freddie Turner'''<br><br />
"The Significance of the Frontier in American History" From this paper:"In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave--the meeting point between savagery and civilization." <br />
[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1893turner.html [etext]]<br />
<br />
==Page 53==<br />
<br />
'''Blitz Instruments and Wackett Punches'''<br><br />
Mentioned in 1911 Britannica article 'Slaughter-house' [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Slaughter-house [etext]]<br />
<br />
'''"The frontier ends and disconnection begins"'''<br><br />
Here, the free cowboy myth of Buffalo Bill's show is replaced by the grim reality of the stockyard worker.<br />
<br />
'''Cause and effect'''<br><br />
A major theme in ''Gravity's Rainbow''.<br />
<br />
'''How the dickens do I know?'''<br><br />
A possible reference to the novels of Charles Dickens, who critiques in such works as ''Hard Times'' (1854) the onset of urban decay, and the choked living and working conditions of the proletariat as the Industrial Revolution steams onward.<br />
<br />
==Page 55==<br />
'''"...they continued in a fragmented reverie which,... often announced some change in the works"'''<br><br />
Good to notice when the Chums get like this again: i.e. unfocused, depressed, without direction, it may lead to patterns in the plot.<br />
<br />
'''"Speculation begun to fill the day."'''<br><br />
See note on [[ATD_26-56#Page_44|page 44]] above<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204https://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_460-488&diff=4445ATD 460-4882006-12-26T16:09:44Z<p>Dedalus204: /* Page 467 */</p>
<hr />
<div>==Page 460==<br />
<br />
'''so close... rocking'''<br><br />
(Fact?)<br />
<br />
==Page 461==<br />
<br />
'''bust'''<br><br />
Eg 'gone bust'?<br />
<br />
'''day... set to the side'''<br><br />
Title motif.<br />
<br />
'''came by'''<br><br />
(Page ref.)<br />
<br />
==Page 462==<br />
<br />
''''cute'''<br><br />
The word 'cute' is a shortened form of 'acute'.<br />
<br />
'''Fickle Creek'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ice-points'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''red whiskey'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Noctambulo'''<br><br />
Sleepwalker (Spanish).<br />
<br />
'''insomnia'''<br><br />
Parody of think tanks, etc?<br />
<br />
==Page 463==<br />
<br />
'''"echoed off the steep mountainside"'''<br><br />
[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=%22echoed%20off%20the%20steep%20mountainside%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp One hit].<br />
<br />
'''for no more'''<br><br />
Solecism?<br />
<br />
'''Silent Gray Fellows'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Indian V-twins'''<br><br />
Motorcycles first produced in 1907 by the Indian Motorcycle Manufacturing Company [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Motorcycles Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''Joe Hill's "Pie in the Sky"'''<br><br />
A/k/a "The Preacher and the Slave." Song written by IWW leader Joe Hill [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hill Wikipedia entry] in 1911 that was an attack on organized religion as a means for keeping the workers down: "You get pie in the sky when you die." A parody of "In the Sweet Bye and Bye." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Preacher_and_the_Slave Lyrics here]. Later recorded by Woody Guthrie.<br />
<br />
'''love lines, life lines, girdles of Venus'''<br><br />
Lines in the palm figuring in palmistry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmistry#The_Lines Wikipedia entry].<br />
<br />
'''overmapped'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''barbwire'''<br><br />
AtD usually says 'bobwire'.<br />
<br />
'''Four Corners Gang'''<br><br />
(Mentioned above?)<br />
<br />
'''Taos Lightning'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Zoltan'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Werner'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 464==<br />
<br />
'''Excelsior'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Vang Feeley'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''silencer bypass'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''multiple outcomes'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
'''clock-seconds'''<br><br />
(Interesting disambiguation.)<br />
<br />
'''routine as elaborate'''<br><br />
I'm thinking maybe Ann Margaret in a 50s biker flick?<br />
<br />
==Page 465==<br />
<br />
'''Ed Chase's town'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Tortoni's'''<br><br />
See page 176.<br />
<br />
'''Bill Jones's'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''honorary Negro'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ankle-biter'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''breakbeam stiff'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''couple wives'''<br><br />
(Divorce, or bigamy?)<br />
<br />
'''Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Well.'''<br><br />
Not an answer, apparently.<br />
<br />
==Page 466==<br />
<br />
'''Hammers o' Hell'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Jephthah'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''narrow-gauge'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''traitor to his class'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''mucker work'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''South Slavic knitted caps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Austrian boys'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''vengeful ghosts'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 467==<br />
<br />
'''fifteen years old... Julius'''<br><br />
Groucho Marx. Indeed born 1890, but didn't tour West until aged 20+. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx Wikipedia]<br />
<br />
'''Mr. Archer'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Victor'''<br><br />
Colorado mining town near Cripple Creek.<br />
<br />
'''East Ninety-third'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 468==<br />
<br />
'''Cone Amor'''<br><br />
'Con amor' = 'with love' (Spanish). Ice cream cones were invented in 1904, so this is not quite anachronistic.<br />
<br />
'''me? lady'''<br><br />
Capitalisation typo, or stylistic?<br />
<br />
'''Fruita'''<br><br />
Town on Colorado's Western Slope.<br />
<br />
'''Lois... Poutine'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 469==<br />
<br />
'''teeth were gone'''<br><br />
It's only been a couple of years. She's about 50.<br />
<br />
==Page 470==<br />
<br />
'''bengalines'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Barbary Coast'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''lettuce opium'''<br><br />
Lactucarium, the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, usually from the base of the stems. Lactucarium is known as lettuce opium because of its sedative and analgesic properties, and because it can be reduced to a thick smokeable solid. Long known in the U.S., regained popularity in the 1960's when people were looking for any cheap way to get high.<br />
<br />
==Page 471==<br />
<br />
'''Hippodrome'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 472==<br />
<br />
'''reoccupation'''<br><br />
Replacing Indians?<br />
<br />
'''criminal palps'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 473==<br />
<br />
'''Crystal... Oneida'''<br><br />
Oneida crystal is a type of glassware. [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oneida+crystal Google search]<br />
<br />
'''sash-weights'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''casementing'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 474==<br />
<br />
'''inside the angle'''<br><br />
Echoes p258.<br />
<br />
==Page 475==<br />
<br />
'''double-ought'''<br><br />
Deuce had been in Cripple Creek by 1895 (p195). He might have returned, or not been present.<br />
<br />
==Page 476==<br />
<br />
'''put his head into'''<br><br />
[http://www.cartoonbank.com/product_details.asp?mscssid=NPEVMXGFPTVD8NHJDW4N28U7R8QD077A&sitetype=1&sid=123465&did=4 pic]<br />
<br />
'''Wall o' Death'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''ellipses'''<br><br />
(Not circular?)<br />
<br />
==Page 477==<br />
<br />
'''"For It Is Thou, Lord"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Eugene Boilster.'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Happy Jack La Foam'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''police ticker'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Flor de Coahuila'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''twenty-five'''<br><br />
Would make him 15 in 1895 (p195).<br />
<br />
==Page 478==<br />
<br />
'''''senorita chinga chinga'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''''mas cerveza'''''<br><br />
No 'por favor'!<br />
<br />
'''co-conscious'''<br><br />
(What's Pynchon up to with this word?)<br />
<br />
'''more shit'''<br><br />
Because shot through gut.<br />
<br />
'''surprisingly careful latchclick'''<br><br />
Nice!<br />
<br />
==Page 479==<br />
<br />
'''Tace Boilster'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 480==<br />
<br />
'''Elsie Dinsmore'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Roy Mickie'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''Salida'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''blue columbines'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''''atole con el dedo'''''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
==Page 481==<br />
<br />
'''caps'''<br><br />
Pun.<br />
<br />
'''wall of death'''<br><br />
(Mayva's not dead!?)<br />
<br />
'''a week or ten days'''<br><br />
(Contradicts recent text?)<br />
<br />
==Page 482==<br />
<br />
'''getting deep'''<br><br />
Wifely surrender is a con?<br />
<br />
==Page 483==<br />
<br />
'''heeled'''<br><br />
Armed.<br />
<br />
'''Champagne'''<br><br />
Pynchon consistently capitalises this.<br />
<br />
==Page 484==<br />
<br />
'''before the days'''<br><br />
Title motif?<br />
<br />
'''eyeball hydraulics'''<br><br />
Tears, not rolling eyes.<br />
<br />
'''Swede'''<br><br />
See p266.<br />
<br />
'''separate tracks'''<br><br />
Worldline motif.<br />
<br />
==Page 485==<br />
<br />
'''delivered into his own life'''<br><br />
(Born doomed, or early bad karma?)<br />
<br />
'''Furies'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''"free"'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''no little ones'''<br><br />
Fertility karma.<br />
<br />
'''Sioux... melancholy'''<br><br />
Un-cliched?<br />
<br />
'''her belly'''<br><br />
(Naked?)<br />
<br />
==Page 486==<br />
<br />
'''Phoebe Sloper'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''seldom'''<br><br />
(With no kids, why not more free time?)<br />
<br />
'''all he talked about'''<br><br />
Cf pp196-197.<br />
<br />
==Page 487==<br />
<br />
''''Child of the Storm''''<br><br />
Cf p190.<br />
<br />
'''stove shovel'''<br><br />
For emptying wood ashes.<br />
<br />
'''Greener shotgun'''<br><br />
???<br />
<br />
'''she lit up'''<br><br />
(Anxiety, or freedom?)<br />
<br />
==Page 488==<br />
<br />
'''cahoots'''<br><br />
Marriage as cahoots?<br />
<br />
==Annotation Index==<br />
{{ATD PbP}}</div>Dedalus204