Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

ATD 1-25

2013-03-07T18:36:58Z

Jglassow: /* Epigraph */

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

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

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

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

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

Read their response below:

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

:Best wishes,

:Sandy Belth 
:Tibetan Cultural Center"

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

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

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

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

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

==Epigraph==
'''"It's always night, or we wouldn't need light." - Thelonious Monk''' 
Jazz and particularly bebop seem to be a lifelong interest of Pynchon’s, appearing in some form in all his works and what biographical snippets exist. As a college student, Pynchon “spent a lot of time in jazz clubs, nursing the two-beer minimum,” by his own admission (''Slow Learner'', Introduction). The Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/that-thelonious-monk-epigraph.html notes] that: 1) in his youth, Pynchon allegedly referred to Monk as a "God"; 2) the character McClintic Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light" was apparently something Monk was given to saying, rather than something he once said. For more on McClintic Sphere and Monk, see Charles Hollander's essay [http://www.howardm.net/tsmonk/pynchon.php Does McClintic Sphere in ''V.'' stand for Thelonious Monk?]. On [[ATD_724-747#Page 732|page 732]]: "...daylit America ... its steadfast denial of night."
Epigraph's possible source: [http://aphelis.net/portrait-thelonious-monk-boris-chaliapin-1964/ Time magazine, February 28, 1964] article titled [http://www.monkzone.com/Profiles_interviews/Time%20Magazine%20article.htm “The Loneliest Monk”] written by Barry Farrell (pp. 84-88).

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

But the opening line has many possible connotations.
:The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that "it is simultaneously a self-directive and a call to the reader; suggesting that ''Against the Day'' is a culmination of his previous work, and also charging the reader to find meaning within its twisting labyrinth. It may also be a sly, preemptive joke on the book’s initial critics, as the novel begins with the launch of a bloated gasbag bearing a somewhat provocative name."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 3==

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

But the opening line has many possible connotations.
:The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that "it is simultaneously a self-directive and a call to the reader; suggesting that ''Against the Day'' is a culmination of his previous work, and also charging the reader to find meaning within its twisting labyrinth. It may also be a sly, preemptive joke on the book’s initial critics, as the novel begins with the launch of a bloated gasbag bearing a somewhat provocative name."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cameraderie and isolation are two recurring topics in Pynchon's works. The Chums are a band of heroes like those commonly featured in the 19th century boys' fiction that Pynchon evokes, but also recall Pynchon's high school fictions, [http://themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_hamster.html Voice of the Hamster] and [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_boys.html The Boys], in which the teenage Pynchon lovingly portrayed his group of high school chums, known as, simply, "The Boys."

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

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

'''World's Columbian Exposition''' 
also called The Chicago World's Fair, was held in Chicago in 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World. Chicago bested New York City, Washington, D.C. and St. Louis, Missouri, for the honor of hosting the fair. The fair had a profound effect on architecture, the arts, Chicago's self image and American industrial optimism. The International Exposition was held in a building which for the first time was devoted to electrical exhibits. It was a historical moment and the beginning of a revolution, as Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse introduced the public to electrical power by providing alternating current to illuminate the Exposition. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_Columbian_Exposition Wikipedia entry]. This World's Fair was enveloped in optimism for the future. "The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there." p.3. See also the 2004 bestseller, ''The Devil in the White City'', a non-fiction work that details the building of the Fair, the growth of Chicago, and the first serial murderer in America.

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 4==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 6==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 7==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 8==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 9==

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

'''"Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual..."''' 
This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his [[Against_the_Day_description|book description]] proclaims the world of AtD as "what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two," this paragraph seems to indicate that Pynchon, like all great fantasy or sci-fi writers, does not intend to create a world where anything goes. Rather, he will create a world that differs from ours but then obey the rules and constraints he's already established. 
Cf. Pynchon's own relevant words in the introduction to Slow Learner. He remarks that in non-realistic fiction, he had to learn that not anything went.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 11==

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

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

==Page 12==

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

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

'''Herr Riemann''' 
Riemann, Georg Friedrich Bernhard (1826-1866) (pronounced REE mahn or in IPA: ['ri:man]) was a German mathematician who made important contributions to analysis and differential geometry, some of them paving the way for the later development of general relativity. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann Wikipedia entry].

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

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

==Page 13==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 14==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 15==

'''ukulelist''' 
Ukuleles ([http://www.thomaspynchon.com/hawaiian-vacations-pynchon.html and Hawaii references]) also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', ''Vineland'', and ''Mason & Dixon''. According to Jules Siegel's article, "Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?", Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college. [[Hawaii|More on Hawaii &c. in ''Against the Day'']]...

'''Vagabonds of the Void''' 
The song performed by the Chums of Chance reflects the Rock and Roll attitude of the group towards the groundworld upon arrival. It's also the first time in the book we truly encounter the hipness of the group with some sort of Nine Inch Nails fronting edge to it. 

[[image:Macassar-Oil.jpg|thumb|175px|''Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads''|right]]'''Beaufort Scale''' 
A scale for measuring wind strength, developed 1805.

'''"Let the lightning lash ~ And the thunder trash" 
Again, the Chums are rock stars, the coolest cats in town.

'''"...forty-four buttons...one for each State of the Union." 
Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the union in 1890. Recall the patriotic bunting and red-white-blue uniforms of the opening page.

'''port section of the crew''' 
The half of the crew permitted to go freely ashore this time. The other half tomorrow. "Port" and "starboard": are these simply either/or words that sailors remember easily?

'''Macassar oil''' 
Macassar oil is an oil used primarily by men in Victorian and Edwardian times to smooth their hair. It was advertised as containing oil from Macassar, which is the former name of Ujung Pandang, a district on the island of Celebes in Indonesia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macassar_oil Wikipedia entry]
 This is why the ornamental doily-like linen cloths on the upper backs and arms of upholstered furniture were called '''''antimacassars'''''.

==Page 16==

'''mufti''' 
civvies, with an Arabic root [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mufti_(dress)]

'''ascot''' 
formal morning dress of the period, with a later counter-culture comeback (witness Fred in Scooby Doo) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascot_tie]

'''Kentucky hemp''' 
hemp was once a primary cash crop of Kentucky[http://www.kentuckyhemp.com/library/museum.html]; and, given Randy St. Cosmo's dual nature, a further counter-culture reference may be detected.

'''About the fringes,' Randolph reminded the liberty-goers, 'of any gathering on the scale of this Exposition, are apt to lurk vicious and debased elements, whose sole aim is to take advantage of the unwary.''' 
Indeed, the Chicago World's Fair was haunted by one of America's more prolific and original serial killers, H.H. Holmes. Born in 1861, Holmes came to Chicago as a pharmacist and built an office building that was eventually dubbed 'The Castle'. Consisting of commercial stores on the first floor, and offices and apartments on the upper floors, the building also housed hidden rooms where Holmes murdered his victims, chutes that conveyed the bodies to the basement, and a chamber of horrors in the basement where he destroyed the corpses. Holmes took advantage of the World's Columbian Exposition to lure victims, primarily females who had come unaccompanied to Chicago, to the Castle for torture and murder. It is estimated that he killed over 200 people at the Castle while the Exposition was in operation. Two very good books about Holmes are The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson and Depraved by Harold Schechter. It is doubtful that Pynchon was thinking explicitly of Holmes when he wrote this passage, although he must be aware of the story. Randolph could not have known about Holmes since Holmes was not captured until after the Fair was over. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._H.H._Holmes Wikipedia entry] 

This also sets up oppositions between dark vs light (of the White City), order vs disorder; good vs evil.

'''tension of the gas''' 
I.e., the pressure in the bag.

==Page 17==

'''"as if it were something the stripling had only read about, in some boys' book of adventures...as if that page of their chronicles lay turned and done"''' 
The narrator makes us aware that Darby's adventures are as if/will be written down...the 'reality' of almost killing all of them is now just words on a page.

'''"and the order 'About-face' had been uttered by some potent though invisible Commandant of Earthly Days, toward whom Darby, in amiable obedience, had turned again."''' 
Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to
all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? 
:Related Q: Do the Chums receive their orders from the author of their books?

'''we were usually out the door and on the main road''' 
Dick and Chick knew the judge was more likely to order them out of town than into the lockup.

'''Chinese foofooraw''' 
Also spelled foofaraw, a great deal of fuss, or useless frills. Cf folderol. However, why Chinese?
:Chick's father tried to sell Mississippi to a Chinese syndicate.

'''cubeb''' 
The name for the berry and for the oil obtained from the unripe berry of the East Indian climbing shrub ''P. cubeba''. The dried fruits are sometimes used as a condiment or are ground and smoked in cigarette form as an herbal remedy. [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/pepper The Free Dictionary] Also appears in ''Gravity's Rainbow,'' page 118.

'''"...goldurn Keeley Cure"''' 
A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of "bichloride" or "double chloride" of gold, and also known as the "gold cure" (note the curious use of the euphemism 'goldurn' for 'goddamn' and the recurring preoccupation with the gold standard). Named for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Keeley Dr. Leslie E. Keeley,] who opened the first of many Keeley Institutes in [http://www.dwighthigh.k12.il.us/dwight/dwight.htm Dwight, Illinois], not far from Chicago, in 1879.

==Page 18==

'''headgear''' 
Description vaguely reminiscent of "Madame Bovary". [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]

'''indigo''' 
An influential and ancient dye, not synthetic until 1878 (commercially 1897)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_dye]. Dare we mention the indigo and scarlet (πορφυροῦν καὶ κόκκινον) of Revelation 17.4's 'great prostitute'? The colors, at least, seem more ancient than the Chums' red-white-blues (and the Chums are "runts of the organization", p. 19); add in the oriental fez reference with the Shriners' Masonic/Arabic overtones [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shriners] and Arabic Mohair (angora goat, easily dyed)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohair]

'''eclipse green''' 
Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]

'''Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.''' 
Bindlestiff means hobo; hence, the Hoboes of the Sky Aeronautical Club.

'''("Penny") Black''' 
The Penny Black was the world's first official adhesive postage stamp, issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1840. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black Wikipedia entry]; See also [[ATD_219-242#Page 231|p.231]].

'''Tzigane''' 
French for "gypsy". Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) Wikipedia entry]

'''Egypt''' 
Little Egypt is the southern area of the state of Illinois in the United States of America. Named so because it has a considerable river delta and a metropolis called Cairo (KAY-roe). The region is and was sometimes called simply "Egypt," especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) Wikipedia entry]

==Page 19==

'''goin all blue from the light of that electric fluid''' 
Their ship was beset by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo%27s_fire St. Elmo's fire,] a low-energy electrical discharge often seen on surface vessels and occasionally on aircraft. Electric charge does behave in some respects like a fluid and was long described in such terms.

'''Voices calling out together''' 
There is no reason to doubt they heard the voices, but an aural hallucination is not out of the question: a chorus of voices is one of the easiest effects to produce with a synthesizer.

[[image:balloons-paris.jpg|thumb|200px|Garçons de '71|right]]'''Garçons de '71''' 
French: The Boys of '71; During the Siege of Paris in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War Franco-Prussian War], 1870-1871, balloons were manufactured within railroad stations in Paris. The balloons were used to get mail and passengers out of Paris. The ''Garçons de '71'' are a (probably) fictional cadre of young men who operated such balloons [[Garçons de '71|Read on...]]

'''a condition of ''permanent siege''''' 
Surely no one has failed to notice what a "wartime president" is allowed to get away with. "No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

'''pétroleurs de Paris''' 
An early form of Molotov cocktail thrower during the Siege of Paris. There were pétroleurs and pétroleuses.

==Page 20==

'''they'll fly wherever they're needed''' 
While the Chums obey orders from above, the Garçons de '71 follow a different imperative.

'''energy we could feel, directed personally at us''' 
Someone may be trying to influence what the Bindlestiffs do, or keep them away from the Garçons' work of mercy.

==Page 21==

'''electrical glow of the Fair''' 
Electricity played an important role at the Fair. There was a battle between Edison's direct current and Tesla's alternating current. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition#Electricity_at_the_fair here].

'''admissions gate''' 
Apparently a break in the fence, capitalized on by freelance impresarios.

'''fifty-cent pieces''' 
Odd. According to [http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Columbian/columbian.html this remarkable Columbian Exposition site,] regular admission was just half a dollar. Maybe Lindsay and Miles could have negotiated with the midget.[The link is broken.]

==Page 22==
'''quatercentennial celebration''' 
The Fair was supposed to take place in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in North America. That's why it's called the "World's Columbian Exposition."

'''Columbus's advent''' 
"advent" means something like "arrival." It's often used in relation to Christmas, which is Christ's "advent."

'''music . . . unusually syncopated''' 
nascent jazz

'''Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show''' 
Buffalo Bill's show was very popular at the time, but for some reason he was not allowed to be part of the Fair, so he set up his own exhibition right near the Fair and drew a large audience. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill here].

'''''white'' exhibits . . darkness and savagery''' .
Nice play on whiteness here. The "White City" (the center of the Fair) was so called because of the white stucco used. But the novel points out here that whiteness (aka--cultural, racial whiteness) held the center of the fair while exhibits from people/cultures of color were relegated to the perimeters of the Fair--literally marginalized.

'''Kodaks''' 
The word Kodak was trademarked in 1888, and the first Kodak camera was sold with the slogan, "You press the button - we do the rest." In 1891, the company released the first daylight-loading camera, so film could be changed without a darkroom. Kodaks would have been a novelty at the fair in 1893.

'''half-light . . . in the interests of mercy . . . the safety of the lights''' 
Interesting contrast suggesting a tradeoff between comfort/solace in the shadows and safety in the bright light.

'''Isandhlwana''' 
Isandlwana is an isolated hill in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. On January 22, 1879, it was the site of the Battle of Isandlwana, where over 20,000 Zulu warriors defeated a contingent of British soldiers in the first engagement of the Anglo-Zulu War. Almost the entire column of about 1,200 British soldiers was killed. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isandhlwana [Wikipedia]] You will find a chapter on Isandhlwana in any book that has the words "military" and "blunders" in the title.

==Page 23==

'''Tarahumara''' 
Indian tribe of Northern New Mexico, in the Sierra Madres, known for cave-dwelling in the late 19th century. [[Tarahumare_Indians|About the Tarahumara]]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarahumara [Wikipedia]]

'''"geek"''' 
A geek's act comprised things no one would do who had not sunk all the way to the bottom of the carnie world: eating live creatures, throwing fits, and so forth. Much like the television show "Fear Factor," but sad rather than stultifying.

'''Negro in a "pork-pie" hat''' 
A type of hat made of felt or straw which has a cylindrical crown and flat top, originated in mid-19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork-pie_hat Wikipedia] What with all the jazz references in Pynchon's work, this may be a tip of the hat to Charles Mingus, composer of the timeless ''Goodbye Pork Pie Hat'', or Lester Young, to whom Mingus dedicated the tune. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye_Pork_Pie_Hat Wikipedia] In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', McMingus is a partner in a law firm representing Pierce Inverarity.

'''monte''' 
Three-card monte.

==Page 24==

'''the curse of Scotland''' 
A term used in poker, bridge and various other card games for the nine of diamonds. Dates from 1710. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curse_of_Scotland [Wikipedia]]

'''nine of diamonds''' 
The name of a club in ''Inherent Vice''. See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=N here]. The nine of diamonds is also famous for possibly being the fifth card in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bill_Hickok#Death "Dead Man's Hand"]. When Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead in 1876, he was playing poker. He was holding two pairs (aces and eights), which is called the "Dead Man's Hand." The fifth card was rumored to be a nine of diamonds.

'''like the electricity coming on... how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though.''' 
From something as random as calling out a card trick comes this extremely profound quote by Miles Blundell (full quote edited here). The heart of this quote/thought seems to be crucial.

What Miles describes is also the symptoms of a mild seizure - could he be epileptic? Epileptics were often credited with shamanic or prophetic powers, and many sightings of religious figures have been attributed to seizures. On [[#Page 4|page 4]], Miles is also said to suffer from "confusion in his motor processes", which may be related.

Although seizures are electrical discharges from the brain, epileptics rarely describe sensing electricity. They see altered light, hear altered sounds, or feel auras, though usually described as inside of themselves, not around them. They also feel confusion, not clarity. The full description seems to better represent that of a "peak experience", or a transcendental state. I also wonder whether, "Pretty soon, I'm just back to tripping over my feet again", refers to more earth-bound means of attaining mind-altered states.

This is one of several early suggestions that Miles and Lew Basnight experience similar states.

'''Cracker Jack''' 
First sold at the at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]

'''New Levee district''' 
Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]

'''Epworth League''' 
A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]

==Page 25==

'''Haymarket bomb''' 
The Haymarket Riot on May 4, 1886, in Chicago may be the origin of international May Day observances and in popular literature inspired the caricature of "a bomb-throwing anarchist." The causes of the incident are still controversial, although deeply polarized attitudes separating the business class and the working class in late 19th century Chicago are generally acknowledged as having precipitated the tragedy and its aftermath. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_bombing Wikipedia entry].

'''if the Governor decides to pardon that gang of anarchistic murderers''' 
In May of 1886, 350,000 workers, including 70,000 in Chicago were taking to the streets to rally for the eight hour work day. After four workers were killed by the police on May 3, the anarchist leaders in Chicago called for a meeting in Haymarket Square. Although the rally was peaceful, the police came in on horseback to break it up and an unknown individual in the crowd hurled a homemade bomb into the air. After the explosion, which killed a policeman, the police opened fire on the crowd. Subsequently, the anarchist leaders deemed responsible for the rally were arrested and tried for the murder of the policeman. The Eight men were convicted of the bombing and seven of them sentenced to death. Governor Richard J. Oglesby commuted two death sentences to life. Four were hanged and a fifth committed suicide. A later governor, John P. Altgeld, pardoned the three survivors on June 26, 1893, concluding that all eight of them were innocent. The last words of anarchist August Spies before he was hanged were 'The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.' Two very good books on the Haymarket Riot and the events surrounding it include The Haymarket Tragedy by Paul Avrich and Death In The Haymarket by James Green.

'''Pinkertons''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkertons Pinkerton National Detective Agency] was established in 1850 and soon became the most famous and ubiquitous detective agency in the country. At one point, there were more Pinkerton agents than US soldiers. They were especially used by federal and state agencies to break up union organizations and protests.

'''mixture of contempt and pity''' 
This is ''definitely'' not from one of the Chums' adventure stories.

'''embonpoint''' 
Convexity of body; what used to be called a "prosperous" look.

'''duck soup''' 
Meaning "an easy task," but also the name of a Marx Bros. movie. Perhaps relevant, given the cameo by Groucho promised on the book sleeve. Many of the Marx Brothers early movies had animal references in the title: Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup. The titles usually had nothing at all to do with the plot, although they contributed to the lunatic nature of the comedy. The expression 'Horse Feathers' is used a few times later on in Against The Day.

==References==
<references />

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

ATD 1-25

2013-03-07T18:24:18Z

Jglassow: /* Epigraph */

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

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

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

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

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

Read their response below:

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

:Best wishes,

:Sandy Belth 
:Tibetan Cultural Center"

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

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

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

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

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

==Epigraph==
'''"It's always night, or we wouldn't need light." - Thelonious Monk''' 
Jazz and particularly bebop seem to be a lifelong interest of Pynchon’s, appearing in some form in all his works and what biographical snippets exist. As a college student, Pynchon “spent a lot of time in jazz clubs, nursing the two-beer minimum,” by his own admission (''Slow Learner'', Introduction). The Chumps of Choice blog [http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2006/12/that-thelonious-monk-epigraph.html notes] that: 1) in his youth, Pynchon allegedly referred to Monk as a "God"; 2) the character McClintic Sphere in ''V''. takes Monk's middle name, Sphere; and 3) "It's always night, or we wouldn't need light" was apparently something Monk was given to saying, rather than something he once said. For more on McClintic Sphere and Monk, see Charles Hollander's essay [http://www.howardm.net/tsmonk/pynchon.php Does McClintic Sphere in ''V.'' stand for Thelonious Monk?]. On [[ATD_724-747#Page 732|page 732]]: "...daylit America ... its steadfast denial of night."
Epigraph's possible source: Time magazine, February 28, 1964 article titled [http://www.monkzone.com/Profiles_interviews/Time%20Magazine%20article.htm “The Loneliest Monk”] written by Barry Farrell (pp. 84-88).

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

But the opening line has many possible connotations.
:The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that "it is simultaneously a self-directive and a call to the reader; suggesting that ''Against the Day'' is a culmination of his previous work, and also charging the reader to find meaning within its twisting labyrinth. It may also be a sly, preemptive joke on the book’s initial critics, as the novel begins with the launch of a bloated gasbag bearing a somewhat provocative name."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 3==

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

But the opening line has many possible connotations.
:The Modern Word's Quail [http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/pynchon_atd.html writes] that "it is simultaneously a self-directive and a call to the reader; suggesting that ''Against the Day'' is a culmination of his previous work, and also charging the reader to find meaning within its twisting labyrinth. It may also be a sly, preemptive joke on the book’s initial critics, as the novel begins with the launch of a bloated gasbag bearing a somewhat provocative name."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cameraderie and isolation are two recurring topics in Pynchon's works. The Chums are a band of heroes like those commonly featured in the 19th century boys' fiction that Pynchon evokes, but also recall Pynchon's high school fictions, [http://themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_hamster.html Voice of the Hamster] and [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_boys.html The Boys], in which the teenage Pynchon lovingly portrayed his group of high school chums, known as, simply, "The Boys."

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

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

'''World's Columbian Exposition''' 
also called The Chicago World's Fair, was held in Chicago in 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World. Chicago bested New York City, Washington, D.C. and St. Louis, Missouri, for the honor of hosting the fair. The fair had a profound effect on architecture, the arts, Chicago's self image and American industrial optimism. The International Exposition was held in a building which for the first time was devoted to electrical exhibits. It was a historical moment and the beginning of a revolution, as Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse introduced the public to electrical power by providing alternating current to illuminate the Exposition. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_Columbian_Exposition Wikipedia entry]. This World's Fair was enveloped in optimism for the future. "The thousand or more such wonders which awaited [the Chums] there." p.3. See also the 2004 bestseller, ''The Devil in the White City'', a non-fiction work that details the building of the Fair, the growth of Chicago, and the first serial murderer in America.

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 4==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 6==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 7==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 8==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 9==

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

'''"Do not imagine, that in coming aboard ''Inconvenience'' you have escaped into any realm of the counterfactual..."''' 
This may be Pynchon directly addressing the reader. Given that his [[Against_the_Day_description|book description]] proclaims the world of AtD as "what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two," this paragraph seems to indicate that Pynchon, like all great fantasy or sci-fi writers, does not intend to create a world where anything goes. Rather, he will create a world that differs from ours but then obey the rules and constraints he's already established. 
Cf. Pynchon's own relevant words in the introduction to Slow Learner. He remarks that in non-realistic fiction, he had to learn that not anything went.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 11==

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

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

==Page 12==

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

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

'''Herr Riemann''' 
Riemann, Georg Friedrich Bernhard (1826-1866) (pronounced REE mahn or in IPA: ['ri:man]) was a German mathematician who made important contributions to analysis and differential geometry, some of them paving the way for the later development of general relativity. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann Wikipedia entry].

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

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

==Page 13==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 14==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 15==

'''ukulelist''' 
Ukuleles ([http://www.thomaspynchon.com/hawaiian-vacations-pynchon.html and Hawaii references]) also appear in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', ''Vineland'', and ''Mason & Dixon''. According to Jules Siegel's article, "Who is Thomas Pynchon, and why did he take off with my wife?", Pynchon himself played the ukulele in college. [[Hawaii|More on Hawaii &c. in ''Against the Day'']]...

'''Vagabonds of the Void''' 
The song performed by the Chums of Chance reflects the Rock and Roll attitude of the group towards the groundworld upon arrival. It's also the first time in the book we truly encounter the hipness of the group with some sort of Nine Inch Nails fronting edge to it. 

[[image:Macassar-Oil.jpg|thumb|175px|''Macassar Oil. An Oily Puff for Soft Heads''|right]]'''Beaufort Scale''' 
A scale for measuring wind strength, developed 1805.

'''"Let the lightning lash ~ And the thunder trash" 
Again, the Chums are rock stars, the coolest cats in town.

'''"...forty-four buttons...one for each State of the Union." 
Wyoming was the 44th state admitted to the union in 1890. Recall the patriotic bunting and red-white-blue uniforms of the opening page.

'''port section of the crew''' 
The half of the crew permitted to go freely ashore this time. The other half tomorrow. "Port" and "starboard": are these simply either/or words that sailors remember easily?

'''Macassar oil''' 
Macassar oil is an oil used primarily by men in Victorian and Edwardian times to smooth their hair. It was advertised as containing oil from Macassar, which is the former name of Ujung Pandang, a district on the island of Celebes in Indonesia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macassar_oil Wikipedia entry]
 This is why the ornamental doily-like linen cloths on the upper backs and arms of upholstered furniture were called '''''antimacassars'''''.

==Page 16==

'''mufti''' 
civvies, with an Arabic root [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mufti_(dress)]

'''ascot''' 
formal morning dress of the period, with a later counter-culture comeback (witness Fred in Scooby Doo) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascot_tie]

'''Kentucky hemp''' 
hemp was once a primary cash crop of Kentucky[http://www.kentuckyhemp.com/library/museum.html]; and, given Randy St. Cosmo's dual nature, a further counter-culture reference may be detected.

'''About the fringes,' Randolph reminded the liberty-goers, 'of any gathering on the scale of this Exposition, are apt to lurk vicious and debased elements, whose sole aim is to take advantage of the unwary.''' 
Indeed, the Chicago World's Fair was haunted by one of America's more prolific and original serial killers, H.H. Holmes. Born in 1861, Holmes came to Chicago as a pharmacist and built an office building that was eventually dubbed 'The Castle'. Consisting of commercial stores on the first floor, and offices and apartments on the upper floors, the building also housed hidden rooms where Holmes murdered his victims, chutes that conveyed the bodies to the basement, and a chamber of horrors in the basement where he destroyed the corpses. Holmes took advantage of the World's Columbian Exposition to lure victims, primarily females who had come unaccompanied to Chicago, to the Castle for torture and murder. It is estimated that he killed over 200 people at the Castle while the Exposition was in operation. Two very good books about Holmes are The Devil In The White City by Erik Larson and Depraved by Harold Schechter. It is doubtful that Pynchon was thinking explicitly of Holmes when he wrote this passage, although he must be aware of the story. Randolph could not have known about Holmes since Holmes was not captured until after the Fair was over. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._H.H._Holmes Wikipedia entry] 

This also sets up oppositions between dark vs light (of the White City), order vs disorder; good vs evil.

'''tension of the gas''' 
I.e., the pressure in the bag.

==Page 17==

'''"as if it were something the stripling had only read about, in some boys' book of adventures...as if that page of their chronicles lay turned and done"''' 
The narrator makes us aware that Darby's adventures are as if/will be written down...the 'reality' of almost killing all of them is now just words on a page.

'''"and the order 'About-face' had been uttered by some potent though invisible Commandant of Earthly Days, toward whom Darby, in amiable obedience, had turned again."''' 
Is this just a metaphor from the narrator to describe what it is like for Darby, or is it also self-referential to
all the adventures of the Chums?. Another Q: Is the Commandant of Earthly Days the invisible presence from whom the chums get their orders? 
:Related Q: Do the Chums receive their orders from the author of their books?

'''we were usually out the door and on the main road''' 
Dick and Chick knew the judge was more likely to order them out of town than into the lockup.

'''Chinese foofooraw''' 
Also spelled foofaraw, a great deal of fuss, or useless frills. Cf folderol. However, why Chinese?
:Chick's father tried to sell Mississippi to a Chinese syndicate.

'''cubeb''' 
The name for the berry and for the oil obtained from the unripe berry of the East Indian climbing shrub ''P. cubeba''. The dried fruits are sometimes used as a condiment or are ground and smoked in cigarette form as an herbal remedy. [http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/pepper The Free Dictionary] Also appears in ''Gravity's Rainbow,'' page 118.

'''"...goldurn Keeley Cure"''' 
A treatment for alcohol, nicotine and narcotic addiction involving injections of "bichloride" or "double chloride" of gold, and also known as the "gold cure" (note the curious use of the euphemism 'goldurn' for 'goddamn' and the recurring preoccupation with the gold standard). Named for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Keeley Dr. Leslie E. Keeley,] who opened the first of many Keeley Institutes in [http://www.dwighthigh.k12.il.us/dwight/dwight.htm Dwight, Illinois], not far from Chicago, in 1879.

==Page 18==

'''headgear''' 
Description vaguely reminiscent of "Madame Bovary". [http://robotwisdom.com/flaubert/bovary/bovary1.html [notes]]

'''indigo''' 
An influential and ancient dye, not synthetic until 1878 (commercially 1897)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_dye]. Dare we mention the indigo and scarlet (πορφυροῦν καὶ κόκκινον) of Revelation 17.4's 'great prostitute'? The colors, at least, seem more ancient than the Chums' red-white-blues (and the Chums are "runts of the organization", p. 19); add in the oriental fez reference with the Shriners' Masonic/Arabic overtones [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shriners] and Arabic Mohair (angora goat, easily dyed)[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohair]

'''eclipse green''' 
Apparently an actual shade. [http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/DIO_DRO/DIRECT.html [cite]]

'''Bindlestiffs of the Blue A.C.''' 
Bindlestiff means hobo; hence, the Hoboes of the Sky Aeronautical Club.

'''("Penny") Black''' 
The Penny Black was the world's first official adhesive postage stamp, issued by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1840. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Black Wikipedia entry]; See also [[ATD_219-242#Page 231|p.231]].

'''Tzigane''' 
French for "gypsy". Also a piece by Ravel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzigane_(Ravel) Wikipedia entry]

'''Egypt''' 
Little Egypt is the southern area of the state of Illinois in the United States of America. Named so because it has a considerable river delta and a metropolis called Cairo (KAY-roe). The region is and was sometimes called simply "Egypt," especially in the 19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_(region) Wikipedia entry]

==Page 19==

'''goin all blue from the light of that electric fluid''' 
Their ship was beset by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo%27s_fire St. Elmo's fire,] a low-energy electrical discharge often seen on surface vessels and occasionally on aircraft. Electric charge does behave in some respects like a fluid and was long described in such terms.

'''Voices calling out together''' 
There is no reason to doubt they heard the voices, but an aural hallucination is not out of the question: a chorus of voices is one of the easiest effects to produce with a synthesizer.

[[image:balloons-paris.jpg|thumb|200px|Garçons de '71|right]]'''Garçons de '71''' 
French: The Boys of '71; During the Siege of Paris in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War Franco-Prussian War], 1870-1871, balloons were manufactured within railroad stations in Paris. The balloons were used to get mail and passengers out of Paris. The ''Garçons de '71'' are a (probably) fictional cadre of young men who operated such balloons [[Garçons de '71|Read on...]]

'''a condition of ''permanent siege''''' 
Surely no one has failed to notice what a "wartime president" is allowed to get away with. "No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred."

'''pétroleurs de Paris''' 
An early form of Molotov cocktail thrower during the Siege of Paris. There were pétroleurs and pétroleuses.

==Page 20==

'''they'll fly wherever they're needed''' 
While the Chums obey orders from above, the Garçons de '71 follow a different imperative.

'''energy we could feel, directed personally at us''' 
Someone may be trying to influence what the Bindlestiffs do, or keep them away from the Garçons' work of mercy.

==Page 21==

'''electrical glow of the Fair''' 
Electricity played an important role at the Fair. There was a battle between Edison's direct current and Tesla's alternating current. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition#Electricity_at_the_fair here].

'''admissions gate''' 
Apparently a break in the fence, capitalized on by freelance impresarios.

'''fifty-cent pieces''' 
Odd. According to [http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Columbian/columbian.html this remarkable Columbian Exposition site,] regular admission was just half a dollar. Maybe Lindsay and Miles could have negotiated with the midget.[The link is broken.]

==Page 22==
'''quatercentennial celebration''' 
The Fair was supposed to take place in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in North America. That's why it's called the "World's Columbian Exposition."

'''Columbus's advent''' 
"advent" means something like "arrival." It's often used in relation to Christmas, which is Christ's "advent."

'''music . . . unusually syncopated''' 
nascent jazz

'''Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show''' 
Buffalo Bill's show was very popular at the time, but for some reason he was not allowed to be part of the Fair, so he set up his own exhibition right near the Fair and drew a large audience. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill here].

'''''white'' exhibits . . darkness and savagery''' .
Nice play on whiteness here. The "White City" (the center of the Fair) was so called because of the white stucco used. But the novel points out here that whiteness (aka--cultural, racial whiteness) held the center of the fair while exhibits from people/cultures of color were relegated to the perimeters of the Fair--literally marginalized.

'''Kodaks''' 
The word Kodak was trademarked in 1888, and the first Kodak camera was sold with the slogan, "You press the button - we do the rest." In 1891, the company released the first daylight-loading camera, so film could be changed without a darkroom. Kodaks would have been a novelty at the fair in 1893.

'''half-light . . . in the interests of mercy . . . the safety of the lights''' 
Interesting contrast suggesting a tradeoff between comfort/solace in the shadows and safety in the bright light.

'''Isandhlwana''' 
Isandlwana is an isolated hill in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. On January 22, 1879, it was the site of the Battle of Isandlwana, where over 20,000 Zulu warriors defeated a contingent of British soldiers in the first engagement of the Anglo-Zulu War. Almost the entire column of about 1,200 British soldiers was killed. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isandhlwana [Wikipedia]] You will find a chapter on Isandhlwana in any book that has the words "military" and "blunders" in the title.

==Page 23==

'''Tarahumara''' 
Indian tribe of Northern New Mexico, in the Sierra Madres, known for cave-dwelling in the late 19th century. [[Tarahumare_Indians|About the Tarahumara]]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarahumara [Wikipedia]]

'''"geek"''' 
A geek's act comprised things no one would do who had not sunk all the way to the bottom of the carnie world: eating live creatures, throwing fits, and so forth. Much like the television show "Fear Factor," but sad rather than stultifying.

'''Negro in a "pork-pie" hat''' 
A type of hat made of felt or straw which has a cylindrical crown and flat top, originated in mid-19th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pork-pie_hat Wikipedia] What with all the jazz references in Pynchon's work, this may be a tip of the hat to Charles Mingus, composer of the timeless ''Goodbye Pork Pie Hat'', or Lester Young, to whom Mingus dedicated the tune. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye_Pork_Pie_Hat Wikipedia] In ''The Crying of Lot 49'', McMingus is a partner in a law firm representing Pierce Inverarity.

'''monte''' 
Three-card monte.

==Page 24==

'''the curse of Scotland''' 
A term used in poker, bridge and various other card games for the nine of diamonds. Dates from 1710. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curse_of_Scotland [Wikipedia]]

'''nine of diamonds''' 
The name of a club in ''Inherent Vice''. See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=N here]. The nine of diamonds is also famous for possibly being the fifth card in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bill_Hickok#Death "Dead Man's Hand"]. When Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead in 1876, he was playing poker. He was holding two pairs (aces and eights), which is called the "Dead Man's Hand." The fifth card was rumored to be a nine of diamonds.

'''like the electricity coming on... how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though.''' 
From something as random as calling out a card trick comes this extremely profound quote by Miles Blundell (full quote edited here). The heart of this quote/thought seems to be crucial.

What Miles describes is also the symptoms of a mild seizure - could he be epileptic? Epileptics were often credited with shamanic or prophetic powers, and many sightings of religious figures have been attributed to seizures. On [[#Page 4|page 4]], Miles is also said to suffer from "confusion in his motor processes", which may be related.

Although seizures are electrical discharges from the brain, epileptics rarely describe sensing electricity. They see altered light, hear altered sounds, or feel auras, though usually described as inside of themselves, not around them. They also feel confusion, not clarity. The full description seems to better represent that of a "peak experience", or a transcendental state. I also wonder whether, "Pretty soon, I'm just back to tripping over my feet again", refers to more earth-bound means of attaining mind-altered states.

This is one of several early suggestions that Miles and Lew Basnight experience similar states.

'''Cracker Jack''' 
First sold at the at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_Jack [Wikipedia]]

'''New Levee district''' 
Chicago's redlight district c1890. [http://www.ipsn.org/genesis.htm [cite]]

'''Epworth League''' 
A Methodist youth organization founded in 1889. [http://www.southernmethodistchurch.org/id48.htm [cite]]

==Page 25==

'''Haymarket bomb''' 
The Haymarket Riot on May 4, 1886, in Chicago may be the origin of international May Day observances and in popular literature inspired the caricature of "a bomb-throwing anarchist." The causes of the incident are still controversial, although deeply polarized attitudes separating the business class and the working class in late 19th century Chicago are generally acknowledged as having precipitated the tragedy and its aftermath. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_bombing Wikipedia entry].

'''if the Governor decides to pardon that gang of anarchistic murderers''' 
In May of 1886, 350,000 workers, including 70,000 in Chicago were taking to the streets to rally for the eight hour work day. After four workers were killed by the police on May 3, the anarchist leaders in Chicago called for a meeting in Haymarket Square. Although the rally was peaceful, the police came in on horseback to break it up and an unknown individual in the crowd hurled a homemade bomb into the air. After the explosion, which killed a policeman, the police opened fire on the crowd. Subsequently, the anarchist leaders deemed responsible for the rally were arrested and tried for the murder of the policeman. The Eight men were convicted of the bombing and seven of them sentenced to death. Governor Richard J. Oglesby commuted two death sentences to life. Four were hanged and a fifth committed suicide. A later governor, John P. Altgeld, pardoned the three survivors on June 26, 1893, concluding that all eight of them were innocent. The last words of anarchist August Spies before he was hanged were 'The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.' Two very good books on the Haymarket Riot and the events surrounding it include The Haymarket Tragedy by Paul Avrich and Death In The Haymarket by James Green.

'''Pinkertons''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkertons Pinkerton National Detective Agency] was established in 1850 and soon became the most famous and ubiquitous detective agency in the country. At one point, there were more Pinkerton agents than US soldiers. They were especially used by federal and state agencies to break up union organizations and protests.

'''mixture of contempt and pity''' 
This is ''definitely'' not from one of the Chums' adventure stories.

'''embonpoint''' 
Convexity of body; what used to be called a "prosperous" look.

'''duck soup''' 
Meaning "an easy task," but also the name of a Marx Bros. movie. Perhaps relevant, given the cameo by Groucho promised on the book sleeve. Many of the Marx Brothers early movies had animal references in the title: Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup. The titles usually had nothing at all to do with the plot, although they contributed to the lunatic nature of the comedy. The expression 'Horse Feathers' is used a few times later on in Against The Day.

==References==
<references />

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

Princess Casamassima

2012-01-04T22:11:57Z

Jglassow:

Published 1886 (James had published two others by 1893), a classic dealing with terrorists, anarchists, and bombings. It was the sequel to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roderick_Hudson ''Roderick Hudson'']. It's the only Henry James novel in which he takes on such overtly political subjects, the only one which deals with violent extremes of human behavior.

:Thematically, it's reactionary, the opposite of AtD.

:ATD is not reactionary but also not the opposite of ''The Princess Casamassima'' thematically, it can be easily argued.

Pugnax prefers in his reading "sentimental tales about his own species [rather] than those exhibiting extremes of human behavior, which he appeared to find a bit lurid." ([[ATD_1-25#Page_5|p.5]]) It seems Pynchon is slyly commenting on James' ''The Princess Casamassima'' here in that that James novel DID deal with "extremes of human behaviour" yet Pugnax prefers "sentimental tales"!

As many who have had dogs know, often when raised from puppyhood with loving owners, they "think they are human." Pugnax learns where to pee off the gondola - a pretty natural function for a dog - "like the rest of the crew."

Or: it is a theme in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], that the book, writing itself, is an abstraction from experience and not, of course, the thing itself. Noseworth, "who placed upon the word 'book' ... contempt" did, however, know the subject matter of ''The Princess Casamassima''. He, Noseworth, hopes they will "suffer no occasion for exposure more immediate than that to be experienced, as with Pugnax at this moment, safely within the leaves of some book." It matters that the Chums ARE also characters in books of their adventures.

It should also be noted that ''The Princess Casamassima'' is one of the rare characters in James' novels who appears in more than one work. She was originally a character in the 1875 novel ''Roderick Hudson'', where her name was, quite fittingly, Christina Light.

::[[User:Jglassow|Jglassow]] 2:02, 4 January 2012 (PST)

''The Princess Casamassima'' is a novel marked by disguises, masks and assumed identities. The duality of Hyacinth’s identity begins with his ambiguous origin – both French and English, both a bastard and a gentlemen, and later both a revolutionist and an aristocrat. Hyacinth considers the question of his origin important, but he cannot decide: “He didn’t really know if he were French or were English, or which of the two he should prefer to be” (James 90). Sometimes he favors one over the other in trying to decide who suffered the more, the murdered father or the condemned mother. This attitude implies to Hyacinth’s whole life as well: constantly, the hero struggles to define his own identity, but he is not able to decide who he is or who he wants to be.
[User: Jglassow, January 4, 2012]

==Other Resources==
[http://www.henryjames.org.uk/pcasa/home.htm Full text of ''The Princess Casamassima'']

Princess Casamassima, The

2012-01-04T22:11:00Z

Jglassow:

[http://www.henryjames.org.uk/pcasa/home.htm etext]

This book is the anti-''Against the Day, appropriate to the 1893-era anti-anarchist Chums.

HJ's reactionary theses:

* the nobility has a monopoly on fine feelings

* only expensive things gratify those feelings

* political movements can be successful only when led by nobles

* nobles will be loyal to their own in the end

Parallels to ''Against the Day'':

* spunky young urchiness makes limited inroads in society (Millicent/Dally)

* aristocratic women slumming with socialists (Reef and Ruperta)

* secret political meetings in back rooms (Lew, Webb)

* lower class young man learns upper class manners (Kit)

* planned political assassination (Tancredi)

I don't think it's fair to call HJ a "reactionary" just as below someone assumes, citing "most critics", that tPC is not based on any substantive knowledge of "anarchism". HJ was a socialist in hs youth and like a lot of other "canonical" authors in that time period (Shaw, Wilde, so on). Was HJ rich and famous? Yes and no. HJ had a lot of money problems and his books never made any money. He was well-known later in his life after publishing a HUGE amount of fiction and non-fiction. But TRP is rich and famous too, and nobody's calling him "reactionary" here. My own theory is that tPC engages with AtD in a number of ways only lightly touched on here. I'm trying to get my article on this overlap published so, sadly enough, I can't reveal all my research and conclusions here, though. My point is just that too many assumptions are being made about HJ and we should all go back and read his books carefully without leaping to any hasty conclusions.

* funny names (Hyacinth Robinson, Eustache Poupin)

Different people will certainly see different qualities in the book. Here's an alternative set of comments '''(with SPOILERS).'''

Set mostly in England in the early 1880s, ''The Princess Casamassima'' (''PC'') follows the life of Hyacinth Robinson, son of a French servant and (he thinks) an English aristocrat. He is fostered by Amanda Pynsett, an unsuccessful dressmaker, after his mother is sent to prison for killing the nobleman. Hyacinth grows up a sensitive man who believes he's inherited his taste and perceptiveness from his parents. People around him feel deep affection for him. The social position (or lack of it) that comes with his trade as a bookbinder brings him into contact with agitators: socialists who talk revolution.

Through a back-room acquaintance Hyacinth meets the Princess Casamassima, a great beauty who is living in London, separated from the Prince. She proves to be a sterling character who shares the ideas of the socialists. (The novel does not tell how she came to such views, though the earlier ''Roderick Hudson'' may explain.) Hyacinth and the Princess become close friends in their asymmetrical way.

Inflamed by the socialists' rhetoric, Hyacinth takes a mighty oath to obey any order he may receive from their leadership. In time, however, his relationship with the Princess weakens his feeling for "the people" and leads him to the view that it's only the class system that has made culture possible. At length the order comes: He is to murder a duke. Unable to carry out his vow in the face of his changing ideas, Hyacinth kills himself.

It isn't hard to find parallels between ''PC'' and ''AtD.'' The young assassin who fails and dies is an undeniable one (as noted at the top of the page: Hyacinth and Tancredi). Another is the evolution of characters' core beliefs and allegiances as they gain fuller exposure to conditions in the world (Hyacinth and the Chums of Chance).

Does ''PC'' play any controlling role in ''AtD,'' though? This is one of just a few books that Pynchon cites by title; Pugnax reads and appreciates it, and Lindsay is at least familiar with its setting. You have to pay attention to that! But Henry James' novel tracks just one life in one main plot, while ''AtD'' picks up and drops a couple of dozen characters' stories. Any parallel we find is likely to be contradicted by another.

Here's an example: Franz Ferdinand rubbing elbows with the Negroes in Chicago and the Princess attending a London music-hall show. F.F. outrages the crowd and leaves without paying his tab; the Princess comes away with a new appreciation for the lower classes. Not much there to draw inferences from. F.F. doesn't like Hungarians and the Princess doesn't like the French; but he hunts the one while she simply avoids the other. Again.

Of course the Spongiatostas make an analogy to the Casamassimas. Both princesses belong to the world of fashion, both befriend lower-class people possibly on their way up (Hyacinth and Dally), both have some radical leanings, neither is present when her husband is. But Princess C. drives the plot of her book, while Princess S. distinctly belongs to the third rank of characters in hers.

The biggest failed parallel between ''The Princess Casamassima'' and ''Against the Day,'' though, is in ideologies: not the apparent ideologies of their authors, but those of their characters. James' socialists express just one definite idea—the duke's murder—and it comes only in the last 40 pages of this long novel. Yes, the socialists are doing the Devil's work, thinking in unsuitable ways about the structure of society, hostile to any culture higher than a street ballad; but James doesn't even make these points explicitly, as if he knew his readers would fill in the gaping blank with lurid stereotypes. You can read all the way through ''PC'' and never think for a moment that James knew more about socialism than he could read in a day's newspapers.

Pynchon's characters express their ideas pretty clearly in word and deed. The Chums of Chance in particular—theirs is by far the most compelling plot in ''AtD''—begin as anarchist-haters working for Porfirio Díaz, but in the middle of the book (after the Harmonica Academy) they find they have become the Compassionate, and at the end they are approaching an anarchistic state of grace. Scarsdale Vibe talks out his principles, fears and plans with Foley Walker, then has Walker implement them. The Traverses acquire labor and individualist-anarchist views, but besides discussing them they put them into action. (Kit above all: His suspicion of Vibe is almost congenital, and his European stay is the way he, unlike his father, can stay alive to oppose the plutocrats in the long term.)

Because James gives the reader so little to grip, other than Hyacinth's world of sensations, it is hard to describe his premises as "reactionary," as another wiki contributor has (top of this page). The qualities that make Hyacinth a good Henry James hero have nothing to do with what Hyacinth believes. It is fair, though, to say the author leads him to a kind of class-based enlightenment.

In short, Pynchon makes articulated ideas the basis and context for action; James presents action through Hyacinth's impressions without causing the underlying ideas to be stated clearly. It's arguable that this contrast between the two novels is stronger—and more nearly a "controlling" factor—than any parallels are.

'''Some questions''' 
In the worlds that James and Pynchon write about, "socialism" or "anarchism" is a scare-word; it stands for a menace, not a set of ideas. Which of these two novels fits better with the present model of scare writing in which "terrorism" plays the same role?

The one concrete goal that anyone in ''PC'' expresses is Hyacinth's promise to kill the duke. Is the author or the narrator trying to suggest that pledging oneself to a definite goal leads to death?

The anarchists in ''AtD'' earn the opposition of plutocrats with faces. Is the lack of any definite, personal opposition to the socialists in ''PC'' a weakness in the book?

:''Does'' Henry James put reactionary ideas into his book?

::[[User:Volver|Volver]] 12:57, 7 March 2007 (PST)

Henry James' themes are deeply 'conservative', yes, in Princess Casamassima. Almost all critics and James' scholars think he had
little understanding, much less sympathy, for anarchist-socialists, (unlike, in understanding, Joseph Conrad in The Secret Agent, although he too is deeply conservative in his beliefs about society and social action) I think there are more parallels with The Secret Agent than PC in ATD. For one, the novel, based on a real incident, is about an anarchistic attempt to blow up Time, so to speak, in the real symbol of the Greenwich Conservatory!

Princess Casamassima along with The Secret Agent and Dostoevsky's Possessed (also The Devils) are the (only) major three 'canonical' works
in the literary tradition to Pynchon's coming-of-age time which deal with 'terrorists', anarchists fictionally. Essays have been written comparing and contrasting them since the sixties in major periodicals and
papers, such as American Scholar, Yale Review and the NYTimes. There was
a long, very intelligent essay in the NY Times within a few weeks of 9-11.

I will argue that we see TRP as a literary critic in ATD re Princess Casamassima, as Pugnax, dog of war, reads that famously difficult bourgeois writer of psychological complexity, Henry James' weakest book
(arguably); Pugnax, a reader who liked "lurid' tales---TRP saying if Pugnax thinks PC is "lurid", then wait...wait until all of the Chums--storybook characters at the start!--experience "real" reality. I think Pugnax and the Chums are linked to the cruise ship Stupendica and its turn into a battleship thematically in TRP's book--and to all of easy-living bourgeoisie living off of the hard labor of the exploited (and worse).
[User: MKohut, March 13, 2007]

::[[User:Jglassow|Jglassow]] 2:02, 4 January 2012 (PST)

''The Princess Casamassima'' is a novel marked by disguises, masks and assumed identities. The duality of Hyacinth’s identity begins with his ambiguous origin – both French and English, both a bastard and a gentlemen, and later both a revolutionist and an aristocrat. Hyacinth considers the question of his origin important, but he cannot decide: “He didn’t really know if he were French or were English, or which of the two he should prefer to be” (James 90). Sometimes he favors one over the other in trying to decide who suffered the more, the murdered father or the condemned mother. This attitude implies to Hyacinth’s whole life as well: constantly, the hero struggles to define his own identity, but he is not able to decide who he is or who he wants to be.
[User: Jglassow, January 4, 2012]

Princess Casamassima, The

2012-01-04T22:09:45Z

Jglassow:

[http://www.henryjames.org.uk/pcasa/home.htm etext]

This book is the anti-''Against the Day, appropriate to the 1893-era anti-anarchist Chums.

HJ's reactionary theses:

* the nobility has a monopoly on fine feelings

* only expensive things gratify those feelings

* political movements can be successful only when led by nobles

* nobles will be loyal to their own in the end

Parallels to ''Against the Day'':

* spunky young urchiness makes limited inroads in society (Millicent/Dally)

* aristocratic women slumming with socialists (Reef and Ruperta)

* secret political meetings in back rooms (Lew, Webb)

* lower class young man learns upper class manners (Kit)

* planned political assassination (Tancredi)

I don't think it's fair to call HJ a "reactionary" just as below someone assumes, citing "most critics", that tPC is not based on any substantive knowledge of "anarchism". HJ was a socialist in hs youth and like a lot of other "canonical" authors in that time period (Shaw, Wilde, so on). Was HJ rich and famous? Yes and no. HJ had a lot of money problems and his books never made any money. He was well-known later in his life after publishing a HUGE amount of fiction and non-fiction. But TRP is rich and famous too, and nobody's calling him "reactionary" here. My own theory is that tPC engages with AtD in a number of ways only lightly touched on here. I'm trying to get my article on this overlap published so, sadly enough, I can't reveal all my research and conclusions here, though. My point is just that too many assumptions are being made about HJ and we should all go back and read his books carefully without leaping to any hasty conclusions.

* funny names (Hyacinth Robinson, Eustache Poupin)

Different people will certainly see different qualities in the book. Here's an alternative set of comments '''(with SPOILERS).'''

Set mostly in England in the early 1880s, ''The Princess Casamassima'' (''PC'') follows the life of Hyacinth Robinson, son of a French servant and (he thinks) an English aristocrat. He is fostered by Amanda Pynsett, an unsuccessful dressmaker, after his mother is sent to prison for killing the nobleman. Hyacinth grows up a sensitive man who believes he's inherited his taste and perceptiveness from his parents. People around him feel deep affection for him. The social position (or lack of it) that comes with his trade as a bookbinder brings him into contact with agitators: socialists who talk revolution.

Through a back-room acquaintance Hyacinth meets the Princess Casamassima, a great beauty who is living in London, separated from the Prince. She proves to be a sterling character who shares the ideas of the socialists. (The novel does not tell how she came to such views, though the earlier ''Roderick Hudson'' may explain.) Hyacinth and the Princess become close friends in their asymmetrical way.

Inflamed by the socialists' rhetoric, Hyacinth takes a mighty oath to obey any order he may receive from their leadership. In time, however, his relationship with the Princess weakens his feeling for "the people" and leads him to the view that it's only the class system that has made culture possible. At length the order comes: He is to murder a duke. Unable to carry out his vow in the face of his changing ideas, Hyacinth kills himself.

It isn't hard to find parallels between ''PC'' and ''AtD.'' The young assassin who fails and dies is an undeniable one (as noted at the top of the page: Hyacinth and Tancredi). Another is the evolution of characters' core beliefs and allegiances as they gain fuller exposure to conditions in the world (Hyacinth and the Chums of Chance).

Does ''PC'' play any controlling role in ''AtD,'' though? This is one of just a few books that Pynchon cites by title; Pugnax reads and appreciates it, and Lindsay is at least familiar with its setting. You have to pay attention to that! But Henry James' novel tracks just one life in one main plot, while ''AtD'' picks up and drops a couple of dozen characters' stories. Any parallel we find is likely to be contradicted by another.

Here's an example: Franz Ferdinand rubbing elbows with the Negroes in Chicago and the Princess attending a London music-hall show. F.F. outrages the crowd and leaves without paying his tab; the Princess comes away with a new appreciation for the lower classes. Not much there to draw inferences from. F.F. doesn't like Hungarians and the Princess doesn't like the French; but he hunts the one while she simply avoids the other. Again.

Of course the Spongiatostas make an analogy to the Casamassimas. Both princesses belong to the world of fashion, both befriend lower-class people possibly on their way up (Hyacinth and Dally), both have some radical leanings, neither is present when her husband is. But Princess C. drives the plot of her book, while Princess S. distinctly belongs to the third rank of characters in hers.

The biggest failed parallel between ''The Princess Casamassima'' and ''Against the Day,'' though, is in ideologies: not the apparent ideologies of their authors, but those of their characters. James' socialists express just one definite idea—the duke's murder—and it comes only in the last 40 pages of this long novel. Yes, the socialists are doing the Devil's work, thinking in unsuitable ways about the structure of society, hostile to any culture higher than a street ballad; but James doesn't even make these points explicitly, as if he knew his readers would fill in the gaping blank with lurid stereotypes. You can read all the way through ''PC'' and never think for a moment that James knew more about socialism than he could read in a day's newspapers.

Pynchon's characters express their ideas pretty clearly in word and deed. The Chums of Chance in particular—theirs is by far the most compelling plot in ''AtD''—begin as anarchist-haters working for Porfirio Díaz, but in the middle of the book (after the Harmonica Academy) they find they have become the Compassionate, and at the end they are approaching an anarchistic state of grace. Scarsdale Vibe talks out his principles, fears and plans with Foley Walker, then has Walker implement them. The Traverses acquire labor and individualist-anarchist views, but besides discussing them they put them into action. (Kit above all: His suspicion of Vibe is almost congenital, and his European stay is the way he, unlike his father, can stay alive to oppose the plutocrats in the long term.)

Because James gives the reader so little to grip, other than Hyacinth's world of sensations, it is hard to describe his premises as "reactionary," as another wiki contributor has (top of this page). The qualities that make Hyacinth a good Henry James hero have nothing to do with what Hyacinth believes. It is fair, though, to say the author leads him to a kind of class-based enlightenment.

In short, Pynchon makes articulated ideas the basis and context for action; James presents action through Hyacinth's impressions without causing the underlying ideas to be stated clearly. It's arguable that this contrast between the two novels is stronger—and more nearly a "controlling" factor—than any parallels are.

'''Some questions''' 
In the worlds that James and Pynchon write about, "socialism" or "anarchism" is a scare-word; it stands for a menace, not a set of ideas. Which of these two novels fits better with the present model of scare writing in which "terrorism" plays the same role?

The one concrete goal that anyone in ''PC'' expresses is Hyacinth's promise to kill the duke. Is the author or the narrator trying to suggest that pledging oneself to a definite goal leads to death?

The anarchists in ''AtD'' earn the opposition of plutocrats with faces. Is the lack of any definite, personal opposition to the socialists in ''PC'' a weakness in the book?

:''Does'' Henry James put reactionary ideas into his book?

::[[User:Volver|Volver]] 12:57, 7 March 2007 (PST)

Henry James' themes are deeply 'conservative', yes, in Princess Casamassima. Almost all critics and James' scholars think he had
little understanding, much less sympathy, for anarchist-socialists, (unlike, in understanding, Joseph Conrad in The Secret Agent, although he too is deeply conservative in his beliefs about society and social action) I think there are more parallels with The Secret Agent than PC in ATD. For one, the novel, based on a real incident, is about an anarchistic attempt to blow up Time, so to speak, in the real symbol of the Greenwich Conservatory!

Princess Casamassima along with The Secret Agent and Dostoevsky's Possessed (also The Devils) are the (only) major three 'canonical' works
in the literary tradition to Pynchon's coming-of-age time which deal with 'terrorists', anarchists fictionally. Essays have been written comparing and contrasting them since the sixties in major periodicals and
papers, such as American Scholar, Yale Review and the NYTimes. There was
a long, very intelligent essay in the NY Times within a few weeks of 9-11.

I will argue that we see TRP as a literary critic in ATD re Princess Casamassima, as Pugnax, dog of war, reads that famously difficult bourgeois writer of psychological complexity, Henry James' weakest book
(arguably); Pugnax, a reader who liked "lurid' tales---TRP saying if Pugnax thinks PC is "lurid", then wait...wait until all of the Chums--storybook characters at the start!--experience "real" reality. I think Pugnax and the Chums are linked to the cruise ship Stupendica and its turn into a battleship thematically in TRP's book--and to all of easy-living bourgeoisie living off of the hard labor of the exploited (and worse).
[User: MKohut, March 13, 2007]

::[[User:Jglassow|Jglassow]] 2:02, 4 January 2012 (PST)

The Princess Casamassima is a novel marked by disguises, masks and assumed identities. The duality of Hyacinth’s identity begins with his ambiguous origin – both French and English, both a bastard and a gentlemen, and later both a revolutionist and an aristocrat. Hyacinth considers the question of his origin important, but he cannot decide: “He didn’t really know if he were French or were English, or which of the two he should prefer to be” (James 90). Sometimes he favors one over the other in trying to decide who suffered the more, the murdered father or the condemned mother. This attitude implies to Hyacinth’s whole life as well: constantly, the hero struggles to define his own identity, but he is not able to decide who he is or who he wants to be.
[User: Jglassow, January 4, 2012]

Princess Casamassima

2012-01-04T22:08:41Z

Jglassow:

Published 1886 (James had published two others by 1893), a classic dealing with terrorists, anarchists, and bombings. It was the sequel to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roderick_Hudson ''Roderick Hudson'']. It's the only Henry James novel in which he takes on such overtly political subjects, the only one which deals with violent extremes of human behavior.

:Thematically, it's reactionary, the opposite of AtD.

:ATD is not reactionary but also not the opposite of ''The Princess Casamassima'' thematically, it can be easily argued.

Pugnax prefers in his reading "sentimental tales about his own species [rather] than those exhibiting extremes of human behavior, which he appeared to find a bit lurid." ([[ATD_1-25#Page_5|p.5]]) It seems Pynchon is slyly commenting on James' ''The Princess Casamassima'' here in that that James novel DID deal with "extremes of human behaviour" yet Pugnax prefers "sentimental tales"!

As many who have had dogs know, often when raised from puppyhood with loving owners, they "think they are human." Pugnax learns where to pee off the gondola - a pretty natural function for a dog - "like the rest of the crew."

Or: it is a theme in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], that the book, writing itself, is an abstraction from experience and not, of course, the thing itself. Noseworth, "who placed upon the word 'book' ... contempt" did, however, know the subject matter of ''The Princess Casamassima''. He, Noseworth, hopes they will "suffer no occasion for exposure more immediate than that to be experienced, as with Pugnax at this moment, safely within the leaves of some book." It matters that the Chums ARE also characters in books of their adventures.

It should also be noted that ''The Princess Casamassima'' is one of the rare characters in James' novels who appears in more than one work. She was originally a character in the 1875 novel ''Roderick Hudson'', where her name was, quite fittingly, Christina Light.

::[[User:Jglassow|Jglassow]] 2:02, 4 January 2012 (PST)

The Princess Casamassima is a novel marked by disguises, masks and assumed identities. The duality of Hyacinth’s identity begins with his ambiguous origin – both French and English, both a bastard and a gentlemen, and later both a revolutionist and an aristocrat. Hyacinth considers the question of his origin important, but he cannot decide: “He didn’t really know if he were French or were English, or which of the two he should prefer to be” (James 90). Sometimes he favors one over the other in trying to decide who suffered the more, the murdered father or the condemned mother. This attitude implies to Hyacinth’s whole life as well: constantly, the hero struggles to define his own identity, but he is not able to decide who he is or who he wants to be.
[User: Jglassow, January 4, 2012]

==Other Resources==
[http://www.henryjames.org.uk/pcasa/home.htm Full text of ''The Princess Casamassima'']

Princess Casamassima, The

2012-01-04T22:04:19Z

Jglassow:

[http://www.henryjames.org.uk/pcasa/home.htm etext]

This book is the anti-''Against the Day, appropriate to the 1893-era anti-anarchist Chums.

HJ's reactionary theses:

* the nobility has a monopoly on fine feelings

* only expensive things gratify those feelings

* political movements can be successful only when led by nobles

* nobles will be loyal to their own in the end

Parallels to ''Against the Day'':

* spunky young urchiness makes limited inroads in society (Millicent/Dally)

* aristocratic women slumming with socialists (Reef and Ruperta)

* secret political meetings in back rooms (Lew, Webb)

* lower class young man learns upper class manners (Kit)

* planned political assassination (Tancredi)

I don't think it's fair to call HJ a "reactionary" just as below someone assumes, citing "most critics", that tPC is not based on any substantive knowledge of "anarchism". HJ was a socialist in hs youth and like a lot of other "canonical" authors in that time period (Shaw, Wilde, so on). Was HJ rich and famous? Yes and no. HJ had a lot of money problems and his books never made any money. He was well-known later in his life after publishing a HUGE amount of fiction and non-fiction. But TRP is rich and famous too, and nobody's calling him "reactionary" here. My own theory is that tPC engages with AtD in a number of ways only lightly touched on here. I'm trying to get my article on this overlap published so, sadly enough, I can't reveal all my research and conclusions here, though. My point is just that too many assumptions are being made about HJ and we should all go back and read his books carefully without leaping to any hasty conclusions.

* funny names (Hyacinth Robinson, Eustache Poupin)

Different people will certainly see different qualities in the book. Here's an alternative set of comments '''(with SPOILERS).'''

Set mostly in England in the early 1880s, ''The Princess Casamassima'' (''PC'') follows the life of Hyacinth Robinson, son of a French servant and (he thinks) an English aristocrat. He is fostered by Amanda Pynsett, an unsuccessful dressmaker, after his mother is sent to prison for killing the nobleman. Hyacinth grows up a sensitive man who believes he's inherited his taste and perceptiveness from his parents. People around him feel deep affection for him. The social position (or lack of it) that comes with his trade as a bookbinder brings him into contact with agitators: socialists who talk revolution.

Through a back-room acquaintance Hyacinth meets the Princess Casamassima, a great beauty who is living in London, separated from the Prince. She proves to be a sterling character who shares the ideas of the socialists. (The novel does not tell how she came to such views, though the earlier ''Roderick Hudson'' may explain.) Hyacinth and the Princess become close friends in their asymmetrical way.

Inflamed by the socialists' rhetoric, Hyacinth takes a mighty oath to obey any order he may receive from their leadership. In time, however, his relationship with the Princess weakens his feeling for "the people" and leads him to the view that it's only the class system that has made culture possible. At length the order comes: He is to murder a duke. Unable to carry out his vow in the face of his changing ideas, Hyacinth kills himself.

It isn't hard to find parallels between ''PC'' and ''AtD.'' The young assassin who fails and dies is an undeniable one (as noted at the top of the page: Hyacinth and Tancredi). Another is the evolution of characters' core beliefs and allegiances as they gain fuller exposure to conditions in the world (Hyacinth and the Chums of Chance).

Does ''PC'' play any controlling role in ''AtD,'' though? This is one of just a few books that Pynchon cites by title; Pugnax reads and appreciates it, and Lindsay is at least familiar with its setting. You have to pay attention to that! But Henry James' novel tracks just one life in one main plot, while ''AtD'' picks up and drops a couple of dozen characters' stories. Any parallel we find is likely to be contradicted by another.

Here's an example: Franz Ferdinand rubbing elbows with the Negroes in Chicago and the Princess attending a London music-hall show. F.F. outrages the crowd and leaves without paying his tab; the Princess comes away with a new appreciation for the lower classes. Not much there to draw inferences from. F.F. doesn't like Hungarians and the Princess doesn't like the French; but he hunts the one while she simply avoids the other. Again.

Of course the Spongiatostas make an analogy to the Casamassimas. Both princesses belong to the world of fashion, both befriend lower-class people possibly on their way up (Hyacinth and Dally), both have some radical leanings, neither is present when her husband is. But Princess C. drives the plot of her book, while Princess S. distinctly belongs to the third rank of characters in hers.

The biggest failed parallel between ''The Princess Casamassima'' and ''Against the Day,'' though, is in ideologies: not the apparent ideologies of their authors, but those of their characters. James' socialists express just one definite idea—the duke's murder—and it comes only in the last 40 pages of this long novel. Yes, the socialists are doing the Devil's work, thinking in unsuitable ways about the structure of society, hostile to any culture higher than a street ballad; but James doesn't even make these points explicitly, as if he knew his readers would fill in the gaping blank with lurid stereotypes. You can read all the way through ''PC'' and never think for a moment that James knew more about socialism than he could read in a day's newspapers.

Pynchon's characters express their ideas pretty clearly in word and deed. The Chums of Chance in particular—theirs is by far the most compelling plot in ''AtD''—begin as anarchist-haters working for Porfirio Díaz, but in the middle of the book (after the Harmonica Academy) they find they have become the Compassionate, and at the end they are approaching an anarchistic state of grace. Scarsdale Vibe talks out his principles, fears and plans with Foley Walker, then has Walker implement them. The Traverses acquire labor and individualist-anarchist views, but besides discussing them they put them into action. (Kit above all: His suspicion of Vibe is almost congenital, and his European stay is the way he, unlike his father, can stay alive to oppose the plutocrats in the long term.)

Because James gives the reader so little to grip, other than Hyacinth's world of sensations, it is hard to describe his premises as "reactionary," as another wiki contributor has (top of this page). The qualities that make Hyacinth a good Henry James hero have nothing to do with what Hyacinth believes. It is fair, though, to say the author leads him to a kind of class-based enlightenment.

In short, Pynchon makes articulated ideas the basis and context for action; James presents action through Hyacinth's impressions without causing the underlying ideas to be stated clearly. It's arguable that this contrast between the two novels is stronger—and more nearly a "controlling" factor—than any parallels are.

'''Some questions''' 
In the worlds that James and Pynchon write about, "socialism" or "anarchism" is a scare-word; it stands for a menace, not a set of ideas. Which of these two novels fits better with the present model of scare writing in which "terrorism" plays the same role?

The one concrete goal that anyone in ''PC'' expresses is Hyacinth's promise to kill the duke. Is the author or the narrator trying to suggest that pledging oneself to a definite goal leads to death?

The anarchists in ''AtD'' earn the opposition of plutocrats with faces. Is the lack of any definite, personal opposition to the socialists in ''PC'' a weakness in the book?

:''Does'' Henry James put reactionary ideas into his book?

::[[User:Volver|Volver]] 12:57, 7 March 2007 (PST)

Henry James' themes are deeply 'conservative', yes, in Princess Casamassima. Almost all critics and James' scholars think he had
little understanding, much less sympathy, for anarchist-socialists, (unlike, in understanding, Joseph Conrad in The Secret Agent, although he too is deeply conservative in his beliefs about society and social action) I think there are more parallels with The Secret Agent than PC in ATD. For one, the novel, based on a real incident, is about an anarchistic attempt to blow up Time, so to speak, in the real symbol of the Greenwich Conservatory!

Princess Casamassima along with The Secret Agent and Dostoevsky's Possessed (also The Devils) are the (only) major three 'canonical' works
in the literary tradition to Pynchon's coming-of-age time which deal with 'terrorists', anarchists fictionally. Essays have been written comparing and contrasting them since the sixties in major periodicals and
papers, such as American Scholar, Yale Review and the NYTimes. There was
a long, very intelligent essay in the NY Times within a few weeks of 9-11.

I will argue that we see TRP as a literary critic in ATD re Princess Casamassima, as Pugnax, dog of war, reads that famously difficult bourgeois writer of psychological complexity, Henry James' weakest book
(arguably); Pugnax, a reader who liked "lurid' tales---TRP saying if Pugnax thinks PC is "lurid", then wait...wait until all of the Chums--storybook characters at the start!--experience "real" reality. I think Pugnax and the Chums are linked to the cruise ship Stupendica and its turn into a battleship thematically in TRP's book--and to all of easy-living bourgeoisie living off of the hard labor of the exploited (and worse).
[User: MKohut, March 13, 2007]

::[[User:Jglassow|Jglassow]] 2:02, 4 January 2012 (PST)

The Princess Casammasima is a novel marked by disguises, masks and assumed identities. The duality of Hyacinth’s identity begins with his ambiguous origin – both French and English, both a bastard and a gentlemen, and later both a revolutionist and an aristocrat. Hyacinth considers the question of his origin important, but he cannot decide: “He didn’t really know if he were French or were English, or which of the two he should prefer to be” (James 90). Sometimes he favors one over the other in trying to decide who suffered the more, the murdered father or the condemned mother. This attitude implies to Hyacinth’s whole life as well: constantly, the hero struggles to define his own identity, but he is not able to decide who he is or who he wants to be.
[User: Jglassow, January 4, 2012]

Princess Casamassima, The

2012-01-04T22:03:30Z

Jglassow:

[http://www.henryjames.org.uk/pcasa/home.htm etext]

This book is the anti-''Against the Day, appropriate to the 1893-era anti-anarchist Chums.

HJ's reactionary theses:

* the nobility has a monopoly on fine feelings

* only expensive things gratify those feelings

* political movements can be successful only when led by nobles

* nobles will be loyal to their own in the end

Parallels to ''Against the Day'':

* spunky young urchiness makes limited inroads in society (Millicent/Dally)

* aristocratic women slumming with socialists (Reef and Ruperta)

* secret political meetings in back rooms (Lew, Webb)

* lower class young man learns upper class manners (Kit)

* planned political assassination (Tancredi)

I don't think it's fair to call HJ a "reactionary" just as below someone assumes, citing "most critics", that tPC is not based on any substantive knowledge of "anarchism". HJ was a socialist in hs youth and like a lot of other "canonical" authors in that time period (Shaw, Wilde, so on). Was HJ rich and famous? Yes and no. HJ had a lot of money problems and his books never made any money. He was well-known later in his life after publishing a HUGE amount of fiction and non-fiction. But TRP is rich and famous too, and nobody's calling him "reactionary" here. My own theory is that tPC engages with AtD in a number of ways only lightly touched on here. I'm trying to get my article on this overlap published so, sadly enough, I can't reveal all my research and conclusions here, though. My point is just that too many assumptions are being made about HJ and we should all go back and read his books carefully without leaping to any hasty conclusions.

* funny names (Hyacinth Robinson, Eustache Poupin)

Different people will certainly see different qualities in the book. Here's an alternative set of comments '''(with SPOILERS).'''

Set mostly in England in the early 1880s, ''The Princess Casamassima'' (''PC'') follows the life of Hyacinth Robinson, son of a French servant and (he thinks) an English aristocrat. He is fostered by Amanda Pynsett, an unsuccessful dressmaker, after his mother is sent to prison for killing the nobleman. Hyacinth grows up a sensitive man who believes he's inherited his taste and perceptiveness from his parents. People around him feel deep affection for him. The social position (or lack of it) that comes with his trade as a bookbinder brings him into contact with agitators: socialists who talk revolution.

Through a back-room acquaintance Hyacinth meets the Princess Casamassima, a great beauty who is living in London, separated from the Prince. She proves to be a sterling character who shares the ideas of the socialists. (The novel does not tell how she came to such views, though the earlier ''Roderick Hudson'' may explain.) Hyacinth and the Princess become close friends in their asymmetrical way.

Inflamed by the socialists' rhetoric, Hyacinth takes a mighty oath to obey any order he may receive from their leadership. In time, however, his relationship with the Princess weakens his feeling for "the people" and leads him to the view that it's only the class system that has made culture possible. At length the order comes: He is to murder a duke. Unable to carry out his vow in the face of his changing ideas, Hyacinth kills himself.

It isn't hard to find parallels between ''PC'' and ''AtD.'' The young assassin who fails and dies is an undeniable one (as noted at the top of the page: Hyacinth and Tancredi). Another is the evolution of characters' core beliefs and allegiances as they gain fuller exposure to conditions in the world (Hyacinth and the Chums of Chance).

Does ''PC'' play any controlling role in ''AtD,'' though? This is one of just a few books that Pynchon cites by title; Pugnax reads and appreciates it, and Lindsay is at least familiar with its setting. You have to pay attention to that! But Henry James' novel tracks just one life in one main plot, while ''AtD'' picks up and drops a couple of dozen characters' stories. Any parallel we find is likely to be contradicted by another.

Here's an example: Franz Ferdinand rubbing elbows with the Negroes in Chicago and the Princess attending a London music-hall show. F.F. outrages the crowd and leaves without paying his tab; the Princess comes away with a new appreciation for the lower classes. Not much there to draw inferences from. F.F. doesn't like Hungarians and the Princess doesn't like the French; but he hunts the one while she simply avoids the other. Again.

Of course the Spongiatostas make an analogy to the Casamassimas. Both princesses belong to the world of fashion, both befriend lower-class people possibly on their way up (Hyacinth and Dally), both have some radical leanings, neither is present when her husband is. But Princess C. drives the plot of her book, while Princess S. distinctly belongs to the third rank of characters in hers.

The biggest failed parallel between ''The Princess Casamassima'' and ''Against the Day,'' though, is in ideologies: not the apparent ideologies of their authors, but those of their characters. James' socialists express just one definite idea—the duke's murder—and it comes only in the last 40 pages of this long novel. Yes, the socialists are doing the Devil's work, thinking in unsuitable ways about the structure of society, hostile to any culture higher than a street ballad; but James doesn't even make these points explicitly, as if he knew his readers would fill in the gaping blank with lurid stereotypes. You can read all the way through ''PC'' and never think for a moment that James knew more about socialism than he could read in a day's newspapers.

Pynchon's characters express their ideas pretty clearly in word and deed. The Chums of Chance in particular—theirs is by far the most compelling plot in ''AtD''—begin as anarchist-haters working for Porfirio Díaz, but in the middle of the book (after the Harmonica Academy) they find they have become the Compassionate, and at the end they are approaching an anarchistic state of grace. Scarsdale Vibe talks out his principles, fears and plans with Foley Walker, then has Walker implement them. The Traverses acquire labor and individualist-anarchist views, but besides discussing them they put them into action. (Kit above all: His suspicion of Vibe is almost congenital, and his European stay is the way he, unlike his father, can stay alive to oppose the plutocrats in the long term.)

Because James gives the reader so little to grip, other than Hyacinth's world of sensations, it is hard to describe his premises as "reactionary," as another wiki contributor has (top of this page). The qualities that make Hyacinth a good Henry James hero have nothing to do with what Hyacinth believes. It is fair, though, to say the author leads him to a kind of class-based enlightenment.

In short, Pynchon makes articulated ideas the basis and context for action; James presents action through Hyacinth's impressions without causing the underlying ideas to be stated clearly. It's arguable that this contrast between the two novels is stronger—and more nearly a "controlling" factor—than any parallels are.

'''Some questions''' 
In the worlds that James and Pynchon write about, "socialism" or "anarchism" is a scare-word; it stands for a menace, not a set of ideas. Which of these two novels fits better with the present model of scare writing in which "terrorism" plays the same role?

The one concrete goal that anyone in ''PC'' expresses is Hyacinth's promise to kill the duke. Is the author or the narrator trying to suggest that pledging oneself to a definite goal leads to death?

The anarchists in ''AtD'' earn the opposition of plutocrats with faces. Is the lack of any definite, personal opposition to the socialists in ''PC'' a weakness in the book?

:''Does'' Henry James put reactionary ideas into his book?

::[[User:Volver|Volver]] 12:57, 7 March 2007 (PST)

Henry James' themes are deeply 'conservative', yes, in Princess Casamassima. Almost all critics and James' scholars think he had
little understanding, much less sympathy, for anarchist-socialists, (unlike, in understanding, Joseph Conrad in The Secret Agent, although he too is deeply conservative in his beliefs about society and social action) I think there are more parallels with The Secret Agent than PC in ATD. For one, the novel, based on a real incident, is about an anarchistic attempt to blow up Time, so to speak, in the real symbol of the Greenwich Conservatory!

Princess Casamassima along with The Secret Agent and Dostoevsky's Possessed (also The Devils) are the (only) major three 'canonical' works
in the literary tradition to Pynchon's coming-of-age time which deal with 'terrorists', anarchists fictionally. Essays have been written comparing and contrasting them since the sixties in major periodicals and
papers, such as American Scholar, Yale Review and the NYTimes. There was
a long, very intelligent essay in the NY Times within a few weeks of 9-11.

I will argue that we see TRP as a literary critic in ATD re Princess Casamassima, as Pugnax, dog of war, reads that famously difficult bourgeois writer of psychological complexity, Henry James' weakest book
(arguably); Pugnax, a reader who liked "lurid' tales---TRP saying if Pugnax thinks PC is "lurid", then wait...wait until all of the Chums--storybook characters at the start!--experience "real" reality. I think Pugnax and the Chums are linked to the cruise ship Stupendica and its turn into a battleship thematically in TRP's book--and to all of easy-living bourgeoisie living off of the hard labor of the exploited (and worse).
[User: MKohut, March 13, 2007]

::[[User:Jglassow|Jglassow]] 2:02, 4 March 2012 (PST)

The Princess Casammasima is a novel marked by disguises, masks and assumed identities. The duality of Hyacinth’s identity begins with his ambiguous origin – both French and English, both a bastard and a gentlemen, and later both a revolutionist and an aristocrat. Hyacinth considers the question of his origin important, but he cannot decide: “He didn’t really know if he were French or were English, or which of the two he should prefer to be” (James 90). Sometimes he favors one over the other in trying to decide who suffered the more, the murdered father or the condemned mother. This attitude implies to Hyacinth’s whole life as well: constantly, the hero struggles to define his own identity, but he is not able to decide who he is or who he wants to be.
[User: Jglassow, January 4, 2012]

K

2012-01-04T19:47:11Z

Jglassow:

'''Kabbalists''' 
227; the "Tree of Life" tattoo-ed on Eskimoff; 318; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah Wikipedia entry]

'''Kaffirs''' 
169; "Kaffir" was used in English and Dutch, from the 16th century to the early 20th century as a blanket term for several different peoples of southern Africa. Outside this limited historical context, the word is used today only as a derogatory and offensive term of abuse; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_%28Historical_usage_in_southern_Africa%29 Wikipedia entry]

'''Kahlil''' 
846; in Constantinople

'''Kailash, Mt.''' 
437; a mountain located in far western Tibet that over 22,000 feet. It is the world's most venerated holy place but also the least visited. The sacred site of four religions, fewer than a thousand people make pilgrimage to Kalish every year--the only way to get there is by all-terrain vehicle, and the journey takes weeks, as no planes, trains or buses travel in the region. Mythologically, Kalish is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_mundi Axis Mundi], the center and birth place of the world; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kailash Wikipedia entry]

'''Kaiser Wilhelm (1859-1949)''' 
367; William II or Wilhelm II (born Frederick William Albert Victor; German: Friedrich Wilhelm Albert Victor) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling both the German Empire and Prussia from June 15, 1888 to November 9, 1918; hair pomade, 367; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Wilhelm Wikipedia entry]

'''Kali''' 
709; goddess with a long and complex history in Hinduism (although sometimes presented in the West as dark and violent). Her earliest history as a figure of annihilation still has some influence, while more complex Tantric beliefs sometimes extend her role so far as to be the Ultimate Reality and Source of Being; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali Wikipedia entry]

'''Kanun of Lekë Dukagjin''' 
970; The most important of the hereditary codes of conduct that shape the inter-generational behavior of the rural Albanians that make up the overwhelming majority of the Kosovar population. The Kanun of Lek Dukagin probably emerged in the 15th Century but was not even written down until the 19th Century. The foundation of the Kanun is the concept of personal honor and at the center of its laws is the blood feud, a complicated system of vendettas aimed at obtaining satisfaction ''vis a vis'' punishment. There are four major offenses to personal honor under the Kanun:

#calling a man a liar in front of other men;
#insulting his wife;
#taking his weapons; and
#violating his hospitality.

These offenses are not paid for in property or by fines but by the spilling of blood or by a magnanimous pardon.

From [http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/comments/c339.htm Balkan Primer (X) - Blood Feuds, Kanuns, and American Policy]

'''Kanuni''' 
653; ancient code of conduct in Albania

'''Karl''' 
897; model, along with Dally, for a sodomistic work by Arturo Naunt

'''Kashgar''' 
630; an oasis city in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China; 631; 676; Kit's arrival in, 753; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashgar Wikipedia entry]

'''Katie''' 
Katie McDivott: 337; waitress in New York City restaurant, Schultz's Vegetarian Brauhaus, from Chillicothe, Ohio; aspiring actress, 338; 505;

'''Katie bar the door''' 
8; 894; The phrase "Katie bar the door!" (also as "Katie bar the gate!"; sometimes written as Katy) is a very American exclamation, more common in the South than elsewhere, meaning that disaster impends—“watch out”, “get ready for trouble” or “a desperate situation is at hand”. [http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kat1.htm From WorldWideWords.org]; 894;

'''Keeley Cure''' 
Devised by Leslie Keeley, this was a proprietary system of treatment for the alcohol and opium habits. The Keeley Cure was a forerunner of certain measures adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous. Relying heavily on injections of Bichloride of Gold (a chemical impossibility), it was so well-known in its day that several popular songs, such as an Irish comic song, entitled "The Keeley Cure," parodied it unmercifully. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Keeley More on Wikipedia]

'''Kellner''' 
525;

'''Kennedy, John Fitzgerald''' 
626; "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a citizen of Berlin") is a famous quotation from a June 26, 1963 speech of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin. He was underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after the Soviet-supported Communist state of East Germany erected the Berlin Wall as a barrier to prevent movement between East and West. There is an urban myth that he should have said "Ich bin Berliner" ("I am from Berlin") and that by adding the article "ein" ("a"), he was a non-human Berliner; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner More about this at Wikipedia]

'''Kensington Sid''' 
602;

'''Kepler''' 
115;

'''Keuler, Fran''' 
807; Yashmeen's landlady in Vienna

'''Khan, Genghis (Jenghiz)''' 
439; in Nuovo Rialto; 772; 776;

'''Ogdai Khan''' 
776; son of Genghis (Jenghiz);

'''Khartoum''' 
29;

'''Khäutsch, Colonel Max''' 
47; a captain in the Trabants, and field chief of K&K Special Security, who had "proven himself useful at home as an assassin"; 679; in Vienna with Theign, 812; escape from Vienna, 830; in Sarajevo, 831;

<div id="khocho">'''Khocho'''</div>
772; "ancient kingdom of";
:From Turpan I proceeded about 20 miles east to the ruins of the city of Gaochang, the southern capital of the ancient kingdom of Khocho. Shambhalists have long considered Khocho one of the main candidates for the historical kingdom of Shambhala where the Kalachakra was first composed and taught. Scholar of Indic religions Sir Charles Eliot opined as early as 1921 that, “This country [Shambhala] is seen only through a haze of myth: it may have been in India or it may have been somewhere in Central Asia, where Buddhism mingled with Turkish ideas.”

:From [http://www.doncroner.net/2006/12/china-xinjiang-province-gaochang.html Don Croner's Worldwide Wanders]

Edwin Bernbaum, in the 2001 edition of [http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FWay-Shambhala-Mythical-Kingdom-Himalayas%2Fdp%2F1570628742%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1180372355%26sr%3D1-1&tag=hyperartspynchon&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325 ''The Way to Shambhala: A Search for the Mythical Kingdom Beyond the Himalayas''], writes that he finally visited Khocho in 1984:
:“... I managed to travel to the heart of Central Asia, to the region most likely to have inspired the myth of Shambhala. There, in the Turfan Depression of western China, at the foot of the Tien Shan mountains, I visited the ruins of the ancient kingdom of Khocho or Gaochang, the most likely prototype for the hidden city itself. Gazing at the extensive walls spreading around me toward the distant mountains, I felt as thought I had come to a place of particular significance on my own journey exploring the many facets of the myth of Shambhala.” <ref>[http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FWay-Shambhala-Mythical-Kingdom-Himalayas%2Fdp%2F1570628742%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1180372355%26sr%3D1-1&tag=hyperartspynchon&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325 ''The Way to Shambhala: A Search for the Mythical Kingdom Beyond the Himalayas''], Shambhala; 1st Shambh edition (December 11, 2001)</ref>

'''Kieselguhr''' 
171; also known as: Diatomaceous earth, DE, diatomite, diahydro, Kieselgur and Celite; a porous silica-containing earth, mixed with nitroglycerine into dynamite in proportions that leaves an essentially dry and granular material, producing a solid that is resistant to shock but readily explodable by heat or sudden impact. Also used in tooth-paste and polishes, as insecticide and a main ingredient for certain kinds of cat-litter etc. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kieselgur Wikipedia Entry]

<div id="kieselguhr"></div>'''Kieselguhr Kid''' 
171; "notorious dynamiter of the San Juans"; Dynamite, a blasting explosive, was invented in 1867 by Alfred P. Nobel by mixing nitroglycerin with '''kieselguhr'''; Webb Traverse?, 214; 361; 370; Frank Traverse, 382;
:Note also the connection with a [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ '''Gravity's Rainbow'''] identity, probably a pseudonym/alternate identity for Tyrone Slothrop, the "Kenosha Kid."

'''Kimura, Mr. Shunkichi''' 
29; 318; translated Tsurigane into English, 532; 567;

'''Kindred, Deuce''' 
193; hired by mine owners to kill Webb Traverse; 260; 267; weds Lake Traverse; 395; on the move with Lake, 472; The 'K' in Philip K. Dick's name stands for ''Kindred''; in Los Angeles, 1052

'''Kindred, Hope''' 
473; Deuce's sister;

'''Kinsley's''' 
49; Famous Restaurant at 105-107 Adams St.;

'''Kipling, Rudyard (1895-1936)''' 
227; "The Great Game"; a British author and poet, born in India, and best known today for his children's books, his poems, and his many short stories; "The Great Game," a term usually attributed to Arthur Conolly, was used to describe the rivalry and strategic conflict between the British Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. Kipling popularized the term in his novel ''Kim''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling Wikipedia entry]

Who is ''Kim''? Kim (Kimball O'Hara) is the orphaned son of an Irish soldier and a poor white mother who have both died in poverty. Kim is a white boy, but Kim is culturally and psychologically an Indian native. Kim’s identity shifts between sahib and native. The two components of Kim's mind - English and Indian - are regarded as “separate” sides of [his] head” and not a unified identity but a ''dual identity''.

'''Kipperville''' 
348; "Saturday night in..."; likely not a reference to an original pynchonwiki envisioner, David Kipen, "Kipperville" is most likely a reference to the story ''Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel'' by Virginia Lee Burton, wherein Mike and promises to dig the cellar for Popperville's new town hall in one day using his steam shovel Mary Anne. The citizens from Kipperville and other nearby towns all come to watch. [[Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel|Read the Amazon description]]; 895;

'''Kiprskni''' 
830; encounters Misha and Grisha in a bar "across the river near the Careva Ulica, in Der Lila Stern"

'''Kirghiz''' 
765; 770; horses, 775; According to recent historical findings, Kyrgyz history dates back to 201 BC. The early Kyrgyz lived in the upper Yenisey River valley, central Siberia. The discovery of the Pazyryk and Tashtyk cultures show them as a blend of Turkic and Iranian nomadic tribes. The Khirgiz are present in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=K#kirghiz ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirghiz Wikipedia entry]

'''Klein, Felix (1849-1925)''' 
324; German mathematician, known for his work in group theory, function theory, non-Euclidean geometry, and on the connections between geometry and group theory. His 1872 Erlangen Program, classifying geometries by their underlying symmetry groups, was a hugely influential synthesis of much of the mathematics of the day. He was appointed lecturer at Göttingen in early 1871; 565; 593; 632; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Klein Wikipedia entry]

'''Klopski, Vangya''' 
Prokladka's "A.D.C. or ''lichnyi adiutant"

'''Knott, Professor''' 
531; from the Imperial University of Japan

'''Kolchak, Admiral Aleksandr Vasiliyevich (1874-1920)''' 
1027; relocation of his government from Omsk; a Russian naval commander and later head of part of the anti-Bolshevik White forces during the Russian Civil War. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Kolchak Wikipedia entry]

'''Kosta''' 
1013; at tent city in Ludlow

'''Kovalevskaia, Sofia 
500; Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (also known as Sonia Kovalevsky) (1850-1891) was the first major Russian female mathematician and a student of Karl Weierstrass in Berlin. In 1884, she was appointed professor at Stockholm University, the third woman in Europe to become a professor; 601; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Kovalevskaya Wikipedia entry]

'''Krakatoa''' 
506; Indonesian island group where a volcano erupted in 1883, the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa Wikipedia entry]

'''Kronecker, Leopold''' 
593; "sinister influence of..."; "the positive integers were created by God, and all else is the work of man" 593; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronecker Wikipedia entry]

'''Kropotkin, Prince Peter (Pyotr) Alexeyevich (1842-1921)''' 
373; Kropotkin was one of Russia's foremost anarchists and one of the first advocates of anarchist communism: the model of society he advocated for most of his life was that of a communalist society free from central government. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin Wikipedia entry]

'''Ksenija''' 
969; Albanian bitch companion of Pugnax; aboard the ''Inconvenience'', 1019;

'''Ku Klux Klan ("KKK")''' 
7; the name of a number of past and present fraternal organizations in the United States that have advocated white supremacy, anti-Semitism, racism, anti-Catholicism, homophobia, and nativism; 178; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_klux_klan Wikipedia entry]

'''Kundschaftsstelle''' 
715; 716; Austrian

'''Kuppelei''' 
704; ''simple or qualified...'' From the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Prostitution 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica]: "Kuppelei is a penal offence. ''Simple'' Kuppelei include (1) harbouring prostitutes for the purpose of pursuing their trade, (2) procuration, (3) having any connexion with the traffic - penalty, three to six months' imprisonment; ''qualified'' Kuppelei is (1) procuration of innocent persons (equivalent to use of false pretences), (2) procuration by parents, guardians, &c. - penalty, one to five years. The police regulations and procedure (in Austria) are similar to those in Germany, but less strict. In all these countries a special service of police is employed."

==References==
<references />

{{ATD_Alpha_Nav}}

K

2012-01-04T19:29:55Z

Jglassow:

'''Kabbalists''' 
227; the "Tree of Life" tattoo-ed on Eskimoff; 318; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah Wikipedia entry]

'''Kaffirs''' 
169; "Kaffir" was used in English and Dutch, from the 16th century to the early 20th century as a blanket term for several different peoples of southern Africa. Outside this limited historical context, the word is used today only as a derogatory and offensive term of abuse; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_%28Historical_usage_in_southern_Africa%29 Wikipedia entry]

'''Kahlil''' 
846; in Constantinople

'''Kailash, Mt.''' 
437; a mountain located in far western Tibet that over 22,000 feet. It is the world's most venerated holy place but also the least visited. The sacred site of four religions, fewer than a thousand people make pilgrimage to Kalish every year--the only way to get there is by all-terrain vehicle, and the journey takes weeks, as no planes, trains or buses travel in the region. Mythologically, Kalish is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axis_mundi Axis Mundi], the center and birth place of the world; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kailash Wikipedia entry]

'''Kaiser Wilhelm (1859-1949)''' 
367; William II or Wilhelm II (born Frederick William Albert Victor; German: Friedrich Wilhelm Albert Victor) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling both the German Empire and Prussia from June 15, 1888 to November 9, 1918; hair pomade, 367; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiser_Wilhelm Wikipedia entry]

'''Kali''' 
709; goddess with a long and complex history in Hinduism (although sometimes presented in the West as dark and violent). Her earliest history as a figure of annihilation still has some influence, while more complex Tantric beliefs sometimes extend her role so far as to be the Ultimate Reality and Source of Being; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali Wikipedia entry]

'''Kanun of Lekë Dukagjin''' 
970; The most important of the hereditary codes of conduct that shape the inter-generational behavior of the rural Albanians that make up the overwhelming majority of the Kosovar population. The Kanun of Lek Dukagin probably emerged in the 15th Century but was not even written down until the 19th Century. The foundation of the Kanun is the concept of personal honor and at the center of its laws is the blood feud, a complicated system of vendettas aimed at obtaining satisfaction ''vis a vis'' punishment. There are four major offenses to personal honor under the Kanun:

#calling a man a liar in front of other men;
#insulting his wife;
#taking his weapons; and
#violating his hospitality.

These offenses are not paid for in property or by fines but by the spilling of blood or by a magnanimous pardon.

From [http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/comments/c339.htm Balkan Primer (X) - Blood Feuds, Kanuns, and American Policy]

'''Kanuni''' 
653; ancient code of conduct in Albania

'''Karl''' 
897; model, along with Dally, for a sodomistic work by Arturo Naunt

'''Kashgar''' 
630; an oasis city in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China; 631; 676; Kit's arrival in, 753; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashgar Wikipedia entry]

'''Katie''' 
Katie McDivott: 337; waitress in New York City restaurant, Schultz's Vegetarian Brauhaus, from Chillicothe, Ohio; aspiring actress, 338; 505;

'''Katie bar the door''' 
8; 894; The phrase "Katie bar the door!" (also as "Katie bar the gate!"; sometimes written as Katy) is a very American exclamation, more common in the South than elsewhere, meaning that disaster impends—“watch out”, “get ready for trouble” or “a desperate situation is at hand”. [http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kat1.htm From WorldWideWords.org]; 894;

'''Keeley Cure''' 
Devised by Leslie Keeley, this was a proprietary system of treatment for the alcohol and opium habits. The Keeley Cure was a forerunner of certain measures adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous. Relying heavily on injections of Bichloride of Gold (a chemical impossibility), it was so well-known in its day that several popular songs, such as an Irish comic song, entitled "The Keeley Cure," parodied it unmercifully. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Keeley More on Wikipedia]

'''Kellner''' 
525;

'''Kennedy, John Fitzgerald''' 
626; "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a citizen of Berlin") is a famous quotation from a June 26, 1963 speech of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin. He was underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after the Soviet-supported Communist state of East Germany erected the Berlin Wall as a barrier to prevent movement between East and West. There is an urban myth that he should have said "Ich bin Berliner" ("I am from Berlin") and that by adding the article "ein" ("a"), he was a non-human Berliner; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner More about this at Wikipedia]

'''Kensington Sid''' 
602;

'''Kepler''' 
115;

'''Keuler, Fran''' 
807; Yashmeen's landlady in Vienna

'''Khan, Genghis (Jenghiz)''' 
439; in Nuovo Rialto; 772; 776;

'''Ogdai Khan''' 
776; son of Genghis (Jenghiz);

'''Khartoum''' 
29;

'''Khäutsch, Colonel Max''' 
47; a captain in the Trabants, and field chief of K&K Special Security, who had "proven himself useful at home as an assassin"; 679; in Vienna with Theign, 812; escape from Vienna, 830; in Sarajevo, 831;

<div id="khocho">'''Khocho'''</div>
772; "ancient kingdom of";
:From Turpan I proceeded about 20 miles east to the ruins of the city of Gaochang, the southern capital of the ancient kingdom of Khocho. Shambhalists have long considered Khocho one of the main candidates for the historical kingdom of Shambhala where the Kalachakra was first composed and taught. Scholar of Indic religions Sir Charles Eliot opined as early as 1921 that, “This country [Shambhala] is seen only through a haze of myth: it may have been in India or it may have been somewhere in Central Asia, where Buddhism mingled with Turkish ideas.”

:From [http://www.doncroner.net/2006/12/china-xinjiang-province-gaochang.html Don Croner's Worldwide Wanders]

Edwin Bernbaum, in the 2001 edition of [http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FWay-Shambhala-Mythical-Kingdom-Himalayas%2Fdp%2F1570628742%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1180372355%26sr%3D1-1&tag=hyperartspynchon&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325 ''The Way to Shambhala: A Search for the Mythical Kingdom Beyond the Himalayas''], writes that he finally visited Khocho in 1984:
:“... I managed to travel to the heart of Central Asia, to the region most likely to have inspired the myth of Shambhala. There, in the Turfan Depression of western China, at the foot of the Tien Shan mountains, I visited the ruins of the ancient kingdom of Khocho or Gaochang, the most likely prototype for the hidden city itself. Gazing at the extensive walls spreading around me toward the distant mountains, I felt as thought I had come to a place of particular significance on my own journey exploring the many facets of the myth of Shambhala.” <ref>[http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FWay-Shambhala-Mythical-Kingdom-Himalayas%2Fdp%2F1570628742%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1180372355%26sr%3D1-1&tag=hyperartspynchon&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325 ''The Way to Shambhala: A Search for the Mythical Kingdom Beyond the Himalayas''], Shambhala; 1st Shambh edition (December 11, 2001)</ref>

'''Kieselguhr''' 
171; also known as: Diatomaceous earth, DE, diatomite, diahydro, Kieselgur and Celite; a porous silica-containing earth, mixed with nitroglycerine into dynamite in proportions that leaves an essentially dry and granular material, producing a solid that is resistant to shock but readily explodable by heat or sudden impact. Also used in tooth-paste and polishes, as insecticide and a main ingredient for certain kinds of cat-litter etc. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kieselgur Wikipedia Entry]

<div id="kieselguhr"></div>'''Kieselguhr Kid''' 
171; "notorious dynamiter of the San Juans"; Dynamite, a blasting explosive, was invented in 1867 by Alfred P. Nobel by mixing nitroglycerin with '''kieselguhr'''; Webb Traverse?, 214; 361; 370; Frank Traverse, 382;
:Note also the connection with a [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ '''Gravity's Rainbow'''] identity, probably a pseudonym/alternate identity for Tyrone Slothrop, the "Kenosha Kid."

'''Kimura, Mr. Shunkichi''' 
29; 318; translated Tsurigane into English, 532; 567;

'''Kindred, Deuce''' 
193; hired by mine owners to kill Webb Traverse; 260; 267; weds Lake Traverse; 395; on the move with Lake, 472; The 'K' in Philip K. Dick's name stands for ''Kindred''; in Los Angeles, 1052

'''Kindred, Hope''' 
473; Deuce's sister;

'''Kinsley's''' 
49; Famous Restaurant at 105-107 Adams St.;

'''Kipling, Rudyard (1895-1936)''' 
227; "The Great Game"; a British author and poet, born in India, and best known today for his children's books, his poems, and his many short stories; "The Great Game," a term usually attributed to Arthur Conolly, was used to describe the rivalry and strategic conflict between the British Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. Kipling popularized the term in his novel ''Kim''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling Wikipedia entry]

Who is ''Kim''? Kim (Kimball O'Hara) is the orphaned son of an Irish soldier and a poor white mother who have both died in poverty. Kim is a white boy, but Kim is culturally and psychologically an Indian native. Kim’s shifting identity is completely subsumed by his role as disciple: “I am not a Sahib. I am thy chela [disciple],” he declares to the lama. He has an identity of a sahib and a native. The two components of Kim's mind - English and Indian - are regarded as “separate” sides of [his] head” and not a unified identity but a ''dual identity''.

'''Kipperville''' 
348; "Saturday night in..."; likely not a reference to an original pynchonwiki envisioner, David Kipen, "Kipperville" is most likely a reference to the story ''Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel'' by Virginia Lee Burton, wherein Mike and promises to dig the cellar for Popperville's new town hall in one day using his steam shovel Mary Anne. The citizens from Kipperville and other nearby towns all come to watch. [[Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel|Read the Amazon description]]; 895;

'''Kiprskni''' 
830; encounters Misha and Grisha in a bar "across the river near the Careva Ulica, in Der Lila Stern"

'''Kirghiz''' 
765; 770; horses, 775; According to recent historical findings, Kyrgyz history dates back to 201 BC. The early Kyrgyz lived in the upper Yenisey River valley, central Siberia. The discovery of the Pazyryk and Tashtyk cultures show them as a blend of Turkic and Iranian nomadic tribes. The Khirgiz are present in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=K#kirghiz ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirghiz Wikipedia entry]

'''Klein, Felix (1849-1925)''' 
324; German mathematician, known for his work in group theory, function theory, non-Euclidean geometry, and on the connections between geometry and group theory. His 1872 Erlangen Program, classifying geometries by their underlying symmetry groups, was a hugely influential synthesis of much of the mathematics of the day. He was appointed lecturer at Göttingen in early 1871; 565; 593; 632; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Klein Wikipedia entry]

'''Klopski, Vangya''' 
Prokladka's "A.D.C. or ''lichnyi adiutant"

'''Knott, Professor''' 
531; from the Imperial University of Japan

'''Kolchak, Admiral Aleksandr Vasiliyevich (1874-1920)''' 
1027; relocation of his government from Omsk; a Russian naval commander and later head of part of the anti-Bolshevik White forces during the Russian Civil War. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Kolchak Wikipedia entry]

'''Kosta''' 
1013; at tent city in Ludlow

'''Kovalevskaia, Sofia 
500; Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (also known as Sonia Kovalevsky) (1850-1891) was the first major Russian female mathematician and a student of Karl Weierstrass in Berlin. In 1884, she was appointed professor at Stockholm University, the third woman in Europe to become a professor; 601; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Kovalevskaya Wikipedia entry]

'''Krakatoa''' 
506; Indonesian island group where a volcano erupted in 1883, the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa Wikipedia entry]

'''Kronecker, Leopold''' 
593; "sinister influence of..."; "the positive integers were created by God, and all else is the work of man" 593; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronecker Wikipedia entry]

'''Kropotkin, Prince Peter (Pyotr) Alexeyevich (1842-1921)''' 
373; Kropotkin was one of Russia's foremost anarchists and one of the first advocates of anarchist communism: the model of society he advocated for most of his life was that of a communalist society free from central government. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin Wikipedia entry]

'''Ksenija''' 
969; Albanian bitch companion of Pugnax; aboard the ''Inconvenience'', 1019;

'''Ku Klux Klan ("KKK")''' 
7; the name of a number of past and present fraternal organizations in the United States that have advocated white supremacy, anti-Semitism, racism, anti-Catholicism, homophobia, and nativism; 178; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_klux_klan Wikipedia entry]

'''Kundschaftsstelle''' 
715; 716; Austrian

'''Kuppelei''' 
704; ''simple or qualified...'' From the [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Prostitution 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica]: "Kuppelei is a penal offence. ''Simple'' Kuppelei include (1) harbouring prostitutes for the purpose of pursuing their trade, (2) procuration, (3) having any connexion with the traffic - penalty, three to six months' imprisonment; ''qualified'' Kuppelei is (1) procuration of innocent persons (equivalent to use of false pretences), (2) procuration by parents, guardians, &c. - penalty, one to five years. The police regulations and procedure (in Austria) are similar to those in Germany, but less strict. In all these countries a special service of police is employed."

==References==
<references />

{{ATD_Alpha_Nav}}

ATD 397-428

2012-01-04T16:05:16Z

Jglassow:

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

==Page 397==

'''syntonic wireless''' [[Image:Columbian1892_obv.jpg|thumb|United States Mint image]][[Image:Columbian1892_rev.jpg|thumb|United States Mint image]]
syn·ton·ic (sĭn-tŏn'ĭk) adj.Psychology. Characterized by a high degree of emotional responsiveness to the environment.
Electricity. Of or relating to two oscillating circuits having the same resonant frequency.
[From Greek suntonos, high-strung, intense, attuned, from sunteinein, to draw tight : sun-, syn- + teinein, to stretch.]

Syntonic Wireless Telegraphy. [http://earlyradiohistory.us/1901ayrt.htm Ayrton Prediction]. Electrical Review, June 29, 1901, p. 820.

'''street-Arab''' 
a homeless boy who has been abandoned and roams the streets.
[http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn wordnet].

'''some koindt of a ''sailboat'' pitchuhv on it''' 
The reverse of the coin shows Columbus' flagship ''Santa Maria'' (the obverse has the navigator's portrait).

'''1893''' 
Columbian half dollars were struck in 1892 and 1893. [http://www.coinlink.com/CoinGuide/commemoratives/1892-1893-columbian-exposition-half-dollar/ CoinLink]

'''Columbian ''Half-Dollar''''' 
The 1892 Columbian Exposition half dollar was the first commemorative coin authorized by Congress. [http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/commemoratives/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=premodern]

'''"ten yeeuhz ago"''' 
Places this action in or around 1903.

==Page 398==

'''nuncio''' 
Casually, a messenger; more formally, a permanent official Papal representative at a foreign court.

'''Evening Quarters''' 
A muster of the ship's company at the end of the day. 
Is this at 1800 Hours?

'''H.G. Wells''' 
Herbert George Wells (1866-1946), one of the 19th Century science fiction writers whom Pynchon is both emulating and parodying in ''ATD''. H.G. Wells was an English novelist, sociologist, journalist, and historian. He wrote series of fantastic scientific romances ''The Time Machine'' (1895), ''The Invisible Man'' (1897), etc. In combination with scientific speculation he developed a strain of sociological idealism in ''The War of the Worlds'' (1898), ''First Men on the Moon'' (1901) and many others. He also wrote the well-known ''Outline of History'' (1920). For more see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.G._Wells Wikipedia entry].

'''jeu d'esprit''' 
French: play of wits. Witticism.
Here, Lindsay places Wells' masterful Time Machine (see above) in opposition with the more flashy and vulgar versions ("adulterated") of time travel offered in dime novels. Interesting that this comment would be made by someone who is himself a character in a dime novel.

'''National Imprest''' 
An imprest system is a system using loans as control against fraud and theft. The most common imprest system known is the petty cash system. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprest_system Wikipedia]. Interesting that the Chums' petty cash system goes
under the rubric National, not International?

'''"Plug" Loafsley''' 
Plug-ugly loafer/oaf?

'''Lollipop Lounge''' 
Lollipop is vulgar slang for an underage girl. There is at least one 'pornographic' magazine called Lollipops featuring supposedly underage girls.

'''Tenderloin''' 
2) A city district notorious for vice and graft. [After 'the Tenderloin', an area of New York City (from the easy income it once offered corrupt policeman). Cf p.334.
From the American Heritage Dictionary.

'''squalid empire''' 
Cf Alan Parker's 1976 movie "Bugsy Malone". [http://imdb.com/title/tt0074256/ IMDb]

==Page 399==

'''indigo... yellow''' 
Clashing-colors motif. Bright full-of-life colors.

'''dicer''' 
A hat [http://books.google.com/books?id=CUQSAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16&dq=dicer+hat&source=web&ots=3K_D1BkmBP&sig=xhzWDfgmMitS2mGUzL4ee8MHzTo], perhaps of the style now known as "baseball cap"[http://www.skateamerica.com/store/KR3W-Youth-Hat-Dicer-Black-ID_P15118C62.cfm].

'''opopanax and vervain''' 
Two fragrant, medicinal substances derived from flowering plants. They bloom yellow and violet, respectively. Wikipedia pages for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opoponax opopanax] and for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vervain vervain].
:Though Wikipedia prefers the spelling ''opoponax'', the ''OED'' suggests Pynchon's.

'''contrabass saxophone''' 
A spectacular piece of hardware, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxophone#Members_of_the_saxophone_family somewhat taller than the person playing it.] Pitched in E-flat—if you are keeping track—two octaves below the alto sax.

'''slide cornet''' 
A brass instrument with the voice of a cornet but using a slide instead of valves. Very, very rare.

'''mandola''' 
An eight-stringed instrument shaped like a mandolin but tuned the same as a viola. It is originally an Irish instrument.

'''"tin pan" piano''' 
A reference to New York's Tin Pan Alley. Probably, the tag means to indicate that the piano was out of tune or sounded 'cacophonous'. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_pan_alley Wikipedia entry]

'''anchored by . . . piano''' 
It's hard to imagine the sound of the ensemble: big reedy bass, lots of rhythm from the mandola, the abandoned wailing of the cornet, fuzzy arpeggios on the piano. Like a children's Fourth of July parade, plus hallucinogens.

'''houris''' 
According to the ''OED'', a "nymph of the Muslim Paradise. Hence applied allusively to a voluptuously beautiful woman." <ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary''' 2nd Ed. 1989.</ref>

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, "houris" is the plural of 'houri', as defined above.

'''Darby''' 
Over 21yo, if he's aged.

'''chanteuse''' 
A female singer of popular songs, esp. in France. <ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary''' 2nd. Ed. 1989.</ref>

==Page 400==

'''paillettes''' 
2. a spangle used to ornament a dress or costume. [from Old French,diminutive of
paille,straw]. American Heritage Dictionary.

'''louche''' 
of questionable taste or morality. From Old French, losche= squint-eyed,
ultimately from Latin, luscus = blind in one eye. Source: American Heritage Dictionary.

''OED'' Oblique, not straightforward. Also, dubious, shifty, disreputable. <ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary''' 2nd. Ed. 1989.</ref>

'''"jazz"''' 
The ''OED'' suggests that the spelling here was always more popular than ''jass'', as used on [[Pages 358-373#Page 370|p. 370]]. It makes sense that a musician like "Dope" Breedlove might use a less conventional spelling, as he would be familiar with the term before common usage had regularized its spelling. By contrast, within the "dime novel" idiom of the Chums of Chance narration (dime novelists not necessarily being, especially in those days, the swingin'-est of cats), while ''jazz'' still registers as a slang term, its spelling has already been regularized.

'''Dey high-hats us uptown''' 
They scorn or snub us.

'''Dey low-balls us downtown''' 
They underestimate us.

'''Missus Grundy''' 
Mrs. Grundy, proverbial looker-askance at any improper activity. "[A]n extremely conventional or priggish person" after a character alluded to in the play ''Speed The Plough,'' by Thomas Morton (1764-1838), British playwright. Source: American Heritage Dictionary.

''''ying'''' 
"Yen"? And play/contrast with yang?

==Page 401==

'''Angela Grace''' 
I.e., Angel of Grace

'''Gophiz... Hudson Dustuhs''' 
Gophers, Hudson Dusters. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Dusters New York street gangs.]

'''bushwahs''' 
Bourgeois.

'''slickin up''' 
Gentrification.

'''Mr. Mawgin''' 
J. Pierpont Morgan. Dr. Zoot has funding from the same source that supported Tesla earlier.

'''stanchion''' 
Upright structural member, here part of the El trestle.

'''find it''' 
(Small-penis joke.)

'''time-corroded''' 
Actually, on [[ATD 149-170#Pages 154-155|p. 154]] we learn that when these structures were erected, they were intentionally antiqued, "deliberately burned, attempts being made to blacken the stylized wreckage in aesthetic and interesting ways," a description that applies also to Pynchon's historical fiction with its antiquated language and its generally favorable view of all things black. Though, of course it's been a decade since the shrine was erected, and some actual time-corrosion may have occurred.

'''seeming to date from some ancient catastrophe, far older than the city.''' 
When, what is that catastrophe in ATD, pages 149-170?
:There's more than a hint in the geography. From Central Park to the Tenderloin, on a street where you can smell the waterfront; west and south till you hit (literally) the Ninth Avenue El; south on the El line. Eventually you get to the World Trade Center site.

'''I AM THE WAY INTO THE DOLEFUL CITY''' 
Italian: "Per me si va nella città dolente". Phrase first appears on [[ATD 149-170#Pages 154-155|p. 154]], where it is inscribed over the shrine that the citizens erect to the Destroyer. It is a quote from Canto III of Dante's ''Il Inferno,'' where it is emblazoned over the gates to Hell.

'''triatomic''' 
I.e., ozone or O3, which is a molecule composed of three bonded oxygen molecules. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone Wikipedia.]

==Page 402==

'''solenoidal relay''' 
Solenoid: a cylindrical coil of wire hollow in the center. To make a relay, stick an iron rod partway into the middle. Turn the current on, and the magnetic field pulls the iron in. Attach the rod to the bolt on the gate and you can unlock it by pushing a button.

'''Dr. Zoot''' 
homage to Zoot Sims, jazzman? 
Most often combined with Suit, as in
Zoot suit - Wikipedia. Often zoot suiters wear a felt hat with a long feather (called a tapa or ... By their dress, Zoot suiters expressed defiance, at a time when fabric was ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_suit
There is a contemporary "zootsuit" radio station devoted to old radio shows. Historically, much later than the period of ATD here, there were riots in Los Angeles called the Zoot Suit riots (alluded to in, wasn't it, ''The Crying of Lot 49''?)(Edit- nope, GR.)

'''pale''' 
Even tough-guy Plug fears the time machine.
Pynchon's perspective on artificial light, "already harsh illumination".

'''dynamo''' 
Electrical generator. Converts any rotational motion to AC or DC power.

'''Grandmother's day''' 
Pre-Civil War.

'''Breguet''' 
A distinctive fine watch of French design, usually with open circles ('moons') near the ends of the hands. (See also p.140) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breguet_(watch) Wikipedia entry]

'''shimming''' 
Insertion of thin material to make two parts line up. Think of the matchbook under the table leg.

'''revenue diverted''' 
(Why not no-revenue?)because revenue was spent---very cheaply: in only "the simplest upkeep."

==Page 403==

'''gutta-percha gasketry''' 
Gutta-percha (Palaquium) is genus of tropical trees native to southeast Asia and northern Australasia, from Taiwan south to Malaya and east to the Solomon Islands. It is also an inelastic natural latex produced from the sap of these trees. One use of gutta-percha was the "guttie" golf ball with a solid gutta-percha core, which appears [[ATD_919-945#Page 934|later in ''Against the Day'']]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutta-percha Wikipedia]

'''coaming''' 
Bodywork. Panels concealing frame, wiring, etc.

'''undog this hatch''' 
Nautical: disengage whatever is holding the door shut.

'''faith''' 
(Blind, not humble.)

'''nervous organizations''' 
Cf drugs. Cf. sympathetic vibrations, a physical kind of empathy.

'''pillioned''' 
Riding two to a horse.
Refers specifically to the "passenger seat", separated from the main saddle. Also applies to motorcycle riding where the small passenger seat is called a "pillion". Metonymically, pillion can be used to describe the passenger.

'''horses''' 
8 million horses were killed in WW1. At first battle of war, Mons, cavalry used extensively. This was before the war became fought through trench warfare. Shows how blindsided the direction the war took and how out of control it became for all involved. Note that "galloping" calvary has often been associated with romanticizing and glorifying of war in American lit. Cf. Rev Hightower in Faulkner's Light in August. (Recall, too, that Pynchon nicked AtD's title from Faulkner's famous Nobel Prize speech.)
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/horses_in_world_war_one.htm
Cavalry?

'''arrays of metallic points''' 
Bayonets? Appears to be a depiction of the (still future) Great War, WWI.

Or, if we are observing the future dead, the metallic points are the bullets fired, now holding static in the places where they interrupted the living.

==Page 404==

'''shockwaves of the Creation''' 
Anachronistic Big Bang theory? 
I must say that in the Big Bang theory, stars
were first created out of the bang; here the metaphor seems to accept that the stars already exist and "are blown through by the shockwaves of the Creation", capitalized, a common Pynchon touch, as in a Biblical allusion.

'''chamber shook''' 
(It didn't on p403.)

'''not beasts''' 
Airplanes?
Or Missiles/rockets? 'A screaming comes across the sky'....

'''smell''' 
Cf GR on Passchendaele.

==Page 405==

'''latest Oldsmobile''' 
(Dates.) 1903.

'''Candlebrow U.''' 
So what is a "candlebrow"? Consider those phallic ''ex voti'' candles offered up to [[St. Cosmo]]. The head of the candle-phallus, brow shaped, sits atop the cyclindrical candle-shaft and is, metaphorically, the candle's brow. And, natch, Gideon Candlebrow made the bucks necessary to fund Candlebrow U. with the miracle product [[#Page 407|"Smegmo,"]] the "Messiah of kitchen fats" (Imperial Margarine was advertised as "The King of Margarines") [http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Asmegma&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official smegma] is the "cheesy secretion" that collects atop the "candlebrow" beneath the foreskin. [[ATD 374-396#Page 374|Ewball Oust's name]] has similar connotations.

Maybe I'm pointing out the obvious, but it seems to me like Pynchon's way of saying Dickhead University. --[[User:Pomopaulrevere|Pomopaulrevere]]

'''double-domes''' 
'dome' is slang for the human brain, of course. [Amer Heritage] and seems to mean, in humorous context, two-headed or double-brained thinkers...(more doubling motif--as joke?)

:Or possibly a sexual ''double entendre''...consistent with the [[The Sexual Angle|rampant sexuality]] in ''AtD''. Why, several double-dome images come to mind, almost faster than "egghead"...

:also possibly a reference to numerous "mad scientist" contraptions that connect two (unwilling?) patients, hooked together by metallic helmets (domes), in order to "switch" "souls" from one body to another. Seems far-fetched, but in a book dominated by the idea of dopplegangers created by the refraction from Iceland spar, not so much...

:Also a possible reference to phrenology, the pseudo-science of skull shape in relation to personality traits. "Dome" in phrenology seems to refer to a desirable head shape, with the top of the skull large and rounded, like an egg with the larger end up. This seems to indicate morality, reason and self-restraint, in phrenology. Thus, could "double-dome" refer to someone with two possibly conflicting systems of morality, or reason? It seems a bit of a reach. But phrenology is probably something Pynchon would've paid attention to in his survey of the riot of pseudo-sciences clamoring for respect during that era.

'''drumming''' 
Traveling salesmanship.

<div id="balinhan"></div>'''a saloon down by the river called the Ball in Hand''' 
The Ball in Hand isn't the river, it's the saloon. Still, the name does have an English ring to it. The Bird in Hand is a common pub name in Britain.

Another cricket allusion? If so, rather obvious. Surely a straightforward sexual joke.
:Oh yes. As discussed a couple paragraphs down!

Ball in Hand might refer to the "orb," an emblem of sovereignty held in the monarch's left hand in many state portraits; the orb is a small globe usually surmounted by a cross. Or a physics allusion, though anachronistic by some 30 years: the dome of a Van de Graaff generator. The museum visitor places her hand on it, the docent cranks the machine, and the victim's hair flies into an [[ATD_26-56#Page_26|aigrette.]] Or a more carnal connotation, not anachronistic at all. Or fortunetelling. These remote connections do make cricket sound pretty good:

A term used in pocket billiards (especially 9-ball) when a player has scratched (sunk the cue ball) and the player who follows is allowed to place the cue ball wherever he/she wants.

:Given all the other [[The Sexual Angle|sexual references]] in ''AtD'', this definitely has a sexual ring to it. Consider that the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines "ball" as "5. Any rounded protuberant part of the body." It is thought that "ball" is derived from the Indo-European word ''bhel'', meaning to blow, swell; with derivatives referring to various round objects and to the notion of tumescent masculinity. Derivatives include ''boulevard'', ''boulder'', ''phallus'', ''balloon'', ''ballot'', and ''fool''. [http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/roots/zzb01800.html]

<div id="meatman">'''Alonzo Meatman'''</div>
Meatman translated to German is Fleischmann, as in [http://www.fleischmanns.com/products/index.jsp Fleischmann's], makers of yeast, margarine, and assorted spreads.

:Yes, perhaps a cheesy spread, like that smegmo! In 1973, Jerry Lee Lewis recorded an homage to his oral talents entitled "Meat Man" in which he brags of having "a maytag tongue with a sensitive taste." This fits in with [[The Sexual Angle]] in AtD. [[Meat Man|Read the lyrics...]]. And there ''are'' those [[ATD 57-80#Page 73|great balls of fire]] known as ball lightning.

'''they don't like to cross running water''' 
A preference shared by witches, vampires and in some accounts the Devil.

==Page 406==

'''counterfeit of the Timeless''' 
Thematic. Whole sentence seems the sharpest indictment of 'the Academy' as exemplified by Candlebrow U.

'''fatal discovery''' 
Note the contrast with "fateful discovery" on [[ATD 397-428#Page 398|p.398]].

'''''Imum Coeli''''' 
Latin for "bottom of the sky." In Astrology, it is the point in space where the ecliptic crosses the meridian in the north, exactly opposite the Midheaven. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imum_Coeli Wikipedia entry]

'''rusticated''' 
Of masonry, parts of buildings, etc.: Rendered rustic in appearance. <ref>Def. 3a. '''The Oxford English Dictionary''' 2nd. Ed. 1989.</ref>

'''managing somehow...to present an aspect of terrible antiquity''' 
Perhaps because [very mild one-page spoiler ahead:] there's some truth to the conjecture of Professor Vanderjuice on the next page that "there's nothing to keep us from going back as far as we like, and holding the Conferences then, even back when this was all prehistoric around here, dinosaurs, giant ferns, flammivomous peaks everywhere sort of thing..."

'''Gideon Candlebrow''' 
made-up founder whose scandalous fortune underlay Candlebrow U?

'''Grossdale''' 
a gross dale?

'''great Lard Scandal of the '80s'''' 
Real event? (There were a couple of 'Lard Scandals" in last ten years but in countries other than Great Britain.) 

Since Gideon had to testify before congress about it, said Scandal must have happened in the States. He seems to have shipped lard that was deemed too "adulterated" to be sold in the US to good old Britain, thereby, as Pynchon puts it with a good dose of mean-spirited humor, "compromising further an already debased national cuisine". What did he use to adulterate the lard? The secret ingredient in Smegmo, maybe?

In [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_5#113 ''V.''] Pynchon mentions the "Great Sewer Scandal of 1955."

'''Christmas pudding controversy'''' 
Lard could certainly be used while making Christmas Pudding, aka Plum Pudding [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_pudding Wikipedia entry], the quintessential British holiday treat. The traditional ingredient, though, is suet. Some families might have tried to substitute lard in the recipe, which would have radically altered the taste of the pudding, sparking bitter fights about the importance of culinary tradition. Could this "controversy" be a metaphor of the effects of American cultural imperialism? Maybe I should just do a taste test...

==Page 407==

'''"Smegmo"''' 
Smegma is a secretion of mammalian genitals [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smegma Wikipedia].

The word derives from a transliteration of the Greek word σμήγμα for soap.

As an "artificial substitute for everthing in the edible-fat category" pronounced kosher by an "eminent Rabbi of world hog capital Cincinnati, Ohio," Smegmo may be a code name for Crisco, a Procter & Gamble creation invented in Cincinnati in 1911 -- an anarchronism or time shift in the text -- and marketed through various ethnic cookbooks, including a Yiddish/English kosher cookbook published in 1933 with the "Hechsher (or certificate) of a prominent Orthodox rabbi, "denoting that Crisco contained nothing animal-based."
[http://www.crisco.com/about/history/1930.asp]

"Smegm"a + crisc "O" = Smegmo

:Interesting(?) sideline: Here in Denmark the slang word for smegma is 'nakkeost' -i.e. 'neck-cheese'. And of course anyone who's seen 'Red Dwarf' will know about the current British use of 'smeg' (Not smeggin'likely, get the smeg outa here! Smeg off!). What do Americans call it?

Smegmo and Candlebrow:
"The initial purpose [for Crisco] was to create a cheaper substance to make candles than the expensive animal fats in use at the time. Electricity began to diminish the candle market, and since the product looked like lard, they began selling it as a food." Yet another Lard Scandal? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisco]

Also P&G was founded as a candle (Procter) and soap (Gamble) company, making profits from the fat of slaughtered pigs in "Porkopolis," Cincinnati.

Finally, the stock ticker for P&G is PG which is pretty close to one of Pynchon's favorite animals -- PIG.

Cf. [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_525-556 cottonseed oil] p. 546.

'''margarine''' 
1887 saw the introduction of the Margarine Act in Great Britain, which required margarine to be labeled as such. This was in response to the adulteration of butter by oleomargarine (made from animal fats).

Candlebow + margarine reminds me of Camille Paglia on Renee Zellwegger as "margarine-browed" (which I don't really understand).

'''four thousand years''' 
Refers to the time believed to have elapsed since Abraham and the foundation of Judaism [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham Wikipedia]. Under kosher laws Jews are not allowed to mix milk and meat products in the same meal. The rabbi's proclamation about having waited 4000 years refers to the arrival of Smegmo as a non-milk substitute for butter that can be eaten with meat dishes.

'''"you kept hearing different stories about exactly what was in it"''' 
Refers to wide range of urban legend-like attributions as to the origins and/or makeup of smegma that exist especially among children.

There's a resonance with Coca-Cola, too: exaggerated secrecy about the formula, fanatical market development, endowment of a university (Emory in the case of the Woodruff and Candler fortunes).

'''First International Conference on Time-Travel''' 
MIT students held a [http://web.mit.edu/adorai/timetraveler/ Time Traveler Convention] on May 7, 2005. The organizers did only modest publicity, claiming that the event would be reported and people in the future would read about it and decide to attend. One of the principals pointed out that only one such convention would ever need to take place. Vanderjuice's reasoning is almost a mirror image of that.

'''''The Time Machine''''' 
A short novel by H. G. Wells, written as a series of articles in 1888 for ''The Science Schools Journal'', and published as a book in 1895. The central character, ''Time Traveller'', tells a group of friends that he has invented a machine which can travel through time, enabling him to investigate the destiny of the human species. In the year 802,701, where he is temporarily stranded, he finds the meek and beautiful ''Eloi'' ling in apparently idyllic circumstances, but discovers that they are the prey of the degenerate ''Morlocks'', descendants of laborers who have lived underground for centuries. In later eras he sees the life-forms which survive the extinction of man, and thirty million years hence he is witness to the world's final decline as the sun cools. (Taken from ''The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English'', 1988 Edition.) For more information from other source see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine The Time Machine].

Wells' The Time Machine portrays the splitting of the Human Species between the Upper-worlders and the subterranean species called Morlocks. Wells compares the Upper-worlders and Morlocks to our own social differences between the Capitalist and the Laborer, the Haves and the Have-nots. When the Time Traveler first encounters a Morlock in chapter 5, he sees "A pair of eyes, luminous by reflection ''against the daylight'' without,...."

'''this year''' 
??? 1903.

'''back when this was all prehistoric around here''' 
See previous page "managing somehow..."

'''flammivomous''' 
Vomiting out flame. <ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary''' 2nd. Ed. 1989.</ref>

'''sophomoric slogs''' 
Slog can be a forceful hit and a Cricket term. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slog Link]

'''nooky''' 
"nooky" is synonymous with "pussy" both of which are used metonymically to denote either the sex act or, in this case, women who are desirable as sex partners.

'''1925 or thereabouts''' 
Lindsay's unfamiliarity with the term "nooky" ''could'' continue until it becomes an accepted part of the English language, which occurred, according to the ''OED'', with its first substantiative written usage in 1928. The ''OED'', by the way, prefers the spelling ''nookie'' (the ''Shorter OED'' prefers "nooky"). However, the term was certainly in the vernacular long before it made it into the ''OED'' and is speculated to be of British origin, perhaps derived from "nugging" (having sex) or "nook" which a vagina could be considered, I suppose.

Most likely a simple "chummy" joke, implying that poor old Lindsay wouldn't get to experience the pleasures of the flesh for another 25 years. Considering that the Chums don't seem to age, I really can't say how old he will be when the blessed event finally comes.

:Actually, this seems like a fairly obvious poke at exactly the kind of scholarship we're participating in here-- Miles admits and acknowledges that the use of "nooky" here is an anachronism, which will only be of a concern to readers who were actively trying to get laid in 1903, and the kind of people who look up the origin of a word 100 years later to say "...but they didn't say 'nooky' in '03!"

'''Randolph''' 
(Has he been absent?)

==Page 408==

'''telegraphic messages''' 
(Why at night, particularly? Email parody?) Seems many telegraphic messages were delivered at night, perhaps because they could be picked up during the daytime and many came after evening began.

When telegrams were a customary means of communication, you could send a "straight wire," which would go right on the wire and get delivered promptly, or a "night letter," which would go into a queue for transmission in low-traffic times and be delivered the next morning. The rate for night letters was lower than that for straight wires.

'''"Goes with everything"''' 
Cf Al Capp's Shmoos?

'''a ''million'' uses for Smegmo''' 
Tracing out just one parallel: Coke—foundation of the Candler fortune and the Emory U. endowment—is a beverage, a sweetener and flavoring agent (Coca-Cola Cake a Southern favorite), a solvent (best thing for removing bugs from windshields) and a cleanser (''MythBuster''-tested for polishing automotive chrome). In an emergency you can fill your radiator with it, and used with care it will raise bread dough.

Tracing out another parallel: Crisco, not only the first but also emblamatic of all synthetic shortening, is "ubiquitous in the cuisine and among the table condiments..." It is found in baked products (breads, cakes, muffins, etc.), salad dressings, soups, potato chips, mayonnaise, cheese spreads, peanut butter, cake and biscuit mixes. Raisins are sometimes coated with it. You will find them in most processed foods.

'''in the way that certain odors can instantly return us to earlier years''' 
Recalls Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu in which the taste and smell of a madeleine cookie summons a collection of childhood memories.

'''"There's a seminar on that tomorrow ... Or do I mean day before yesterday?"''' 
Are all the folks at Candlebrow time travellers? Unlikely. This remark seems to be a typical collegiate witticism about classes. Seems about everyone can STUDY time travelling at Candlebrow.

'''Finney Hall''' 
Probably a Hall/Auditorium/Room in Candlebrow U. named after American author Jack Finney (1911-1995), who wrote a famous time travel novel, ''Time and Again'' (1970). See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Finney Jack Finney] for more.

'''florescent''' 
flowering, blooming.From florescense. Amer Heritage Dictionary

==Page 409==

'''Gibson Girls''' 
From illustrations of a kind of woman first made by Charles Dana Gibson. Besides certain physical features--see wikipedia---such women were thought
to be 'independent', often college girls, although not suffragettes.

'''"Why you insufferable little --"''' 
This line, paired with St. Cosmo's observation at the end of the following paragraph: "And might I add, Mr. Noseworth, that these constant attempts to strangle Suckling do our public image little good," seem a fairly direct reference to a well-worn trope from the ''Simpsons'' [http://www.snpp.com/guides/homer.file.html#strangle], in which the splenetic Homer, as played here by Noseworth, expresses his no-longer-controllable frustration with Bart, here the increasingly smartalecky Suckling.

Pynchon, as has been widely reported, has appeared on ''The Simpsons'' a couple times.

More than even "Vineland," it seems, this book is fraught with pop culture/low comedy asides. 

'''Wellesianism''' 
Typo, unless he means Orson. Should be Wellsianism. On page 412 the term
''''Wellsian''' optimism' was used.

:Orson Wellesianism seems correct: The scene, an immense inventory of discarded time machines, is reminiscent of the final scenes of ''Citizen Kane'' which show Kane's enormous collection of objects in rows of stacks extending seemingly to infinity.

Also, Orson did the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast that sent people shooting in the streets. The Wells/Welles blurring would imply Vanderjuice knew of a future event/movie and I don't think such characterological foreknowledge (in the prof's case) or authorial intrusion is active in this text. So I agree that it's a typo and not a really obvious/belabored pun.

'''Asimov Transecular''' 
Interesting to find one of Isaac Asimov's time travel machines on the pile of "picked-over hulks of failed time machines." Of course, it would have to have been deposited there from some time in the future.

transecular 
Adj "that is made through the centuries" (Portuguese) [[User:Btchakir|Btchakir]] 16:48, 19 December 2006 (PST)

Rather than troubling to search for a Portuguese word, isn't it more likely that Asimov or Pynchon coined this in a nearly trivial way? ''Trans,'' across, plus ''secular,'' ages or centuries (from Latin [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=s&p=11 ''sæculum,''] an age, a generation, 120 years; also yielding French ''siècle,'' a century).

'''Asimov''' 
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), Russian born American biochemist and science fiction writer. His family emigrated to the US in 1923 and he was naturalised in 1928. He graduated from Columbia University and had been Professor of Biochemistry of the University of Boston since 1979. He began contributing stories to science fiction magazines in 1939 and his first book ''Pebble in the Sky'' was published in 1950. Many others followed. ''The Foundation Trilogy'' (1963) made an international reputation as the master of science fiction. Since 1958 he had published few novels, preferring to concentrate on text books and works of popularized science such as ''Intelligent Man's Guide to Science'' (2 Vols. 1960). And he also wrote ''Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare'' (1970). In his life time he wrote over 500 books that spanned the realm of human knowledge. [http://www.asimovonline.com/ Asimov Home Page] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issac_Asimov Isaac Asimov].

'''Tempomorph''' 
Tempo + morph = Time change

'''Q-98s''' 
FM station? The weapon used by Loony Tunes character Marvin the Martian is called the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator

'''Flow''' 
Flow of Time.

'''vulcanite''' 
Star Trek allusion? A kind of mineralized rubber.
:a hard, readilly cut and polished rubber, obtained by vulcanizing rubber with a large amount of sulfur or some sulfur compound under a moderate heat (110-140 degree C), used in the manufacture of combs, buttons, and for electric insulation.

'''Heusler's alloy''' 
any of various alloys of manganese and other nonferromagnetic metals that exhibit ferromagnetism. Named after Conrad Heuslet, 19th-century German mining engineer and chemist.

'''bonzoline''' 
Synthetic ivory, used to make billiard balls.

'''electrum''' 
An alloy of gold and silver, presumably not the same as ''argentaurum''.

'''lignum vitae''' 
The very hard heavy wood of any of several tropical American guaiacum trees. In Latin, literally "wood of life."

'''platinoid''' 
An alloy of copper, nickel, tungsten and zinc, formerly used in elecric coils.

'''magnalium''' 
Magnesium-aluminum alloy.

'''packfong silver''' 
A Chinese alloy of nickel, zinc and copper, resembling German silver. [http://dict.die.net/packfong/ packfong].

'''The Ball in Hand''' 
[[#balinhan|See annotations to p. 405.]]

'''safe harbor''' 
Paradoxical, I think.

'''automorphic''' 
auto = Self,same. Morph = to change. The theory of automorphic functions concerns a generalization of periodic functions such as the Earth's revolution.

'''Eternal Return''' 
A fascinating interpretation of history in which Time is a single cycle and once it has reached its conclusion begins anew, and each repetition of the cycle is utterly identical to the first. Perhaps originating in ''The New Science'' by Giambattista Vico, though made most famous by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who used it as the basis for his moral philosophy. Cf. Nietzsche, ''The Will to Power''.

Notice that at Candlebrow, the conferences converged to a "form' of Eternal Return. The almost instantaneous way the conferees can be "resurrected' and seem never to age, makes this form of the Eternal
Return a lot like Never-Never Land. 
A-and perhaps a Pynchon jape at Nietzsche's vision of history?

==Page 410==

'''revenance''' 
Related to revenant, a ghost, a returner from the dead.

'''River of Time''' 
cf "the invisible river, the flow of Time", p.252. Herein a 'parable' drawn from the flowing of a literal river, by some Candlbrow conferees.

Cf. "The River of Time" (first published in 1981 as "Coexistence" in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine) 

Cf. M&D's "in America, time is a river that goes through hell"

Cf. Heraclitus's Flux and Fire Philosophy. [http://www.thebigview.com/greeks/heraclitus.html]

'''Symmes Street''' possible reference to the Symme's Hole which leads into the hollow earth, i. e. a street on the extreme fringe

Symmes Street = Symmetry ?

'''gaslit''' 
Lightfuel motif.

'''St. Louis Fair''' 
1904.

Also "Pygmy boyfriends escaped from the St. Louis Fair" - in the book Ota Benga, about a pygmy who appeared in the St. Louis Fair, there is a reference to pygmies escaping from their exhibit and disappearing into neighborhoods of St. Louis, never to be found

'''''kielbasa sausage''''' 
Often referred to as Polish sausage (which is uncooked), Kielbasa sausage is a precooked, smoked, traditionally made of pork that is highly seasoned with garlic.

also used to describe a very large penis. Judging from the "disreputable" nature of the Ball in Hand, it wouldn't seem too far-fetched to imagine Polish comedians hitting themselves over the head with their own appendages.

'''fantan''' 
Traditional Chinese gambling game; also a card game [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan-Tan].

'''"preserver"''' 
Or "life-preserver": slang, a blackjack or cosh.

'''magenta-and-green''' 
Clashing-colors motif. This combination appears in a bandana in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] (Viking p. 69 line 14). 
Life colors in Pynchon, it might be argued?, as is a bandana. 
The clashing of (anarchic) life motif, maybe? 

magenta is a color that was renamed for a battle, the Battle of Magenta!
see wikipedia.

There's something else striking about magenta and green: In the field of [http://www.rgbworld.com/color.html color mixing,] these are complementary in the sense that magenta results from filtering all the green out of white light and vice versa. Green is an additive primary (red-green-blue), while magenta is a subtractive primary (cyan-magenta-yellow). This does not hold for some other ''AtD'' color schemes (red/indigo comes to mind, but there are a dozen or so of these binary combinations).

==Page 411==

'''Finding of Unusual Circumstances Questionaire''' 
Also, presumably, known as the "F.U.C.Q." or "fucq" for short.

'''Hawaiian volcano''' 
Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park, established in 1916, displays the results of 70 million years of volcanism, migration, and evolution — processes that thrust a bare land from the sea and clothed it with complex and unique ecosystems, and a distinct human culture.

The park encompasses 333,000 acres and ranges from sea level to the summit of the earth's most massive volcano, Mauna Loa at 13,677 feet. ''Kilauea, the world's most active volcano, offers scientists insights on the birth of the Hawaiian Islands'' and visitors views of dramatic volcanic landscapes. Over half of the park is designated wilderness and provides unique hiking and camping opportunities. [[Hawaii|More on Hawaiian references in ''Against the Day'']]...

'''Zennist''' 
Practitioners of Zen Buddhism.

'''''Caged Women of Yokohama''''' 
Possible: Yokohama was one of the first Japanese cities with the heaviest
industrialization...wherein many young women from the surrounding rural
areas came to work in dreadful working and living conditions? "The early 20th century was marked by rapid growth of industry. Entrepreneurs built factories along reclaimed land to the north of the city towards Kawasaki, which eventually grew to be the Keihin Industrial Area. The growth of Japanese industry brought affluence to Yokohama, and many wealthy trading families constructed sprawling residences there, while the rapid influx of population from Japan and Korea also led to the formation of Kojiki-Yato, the largest slum in Japan at the time." Wikipedia. 
Misc. Like Telluride in the U.S., Yokohama had the first gaslit streetlamps in Japan. Wikipedia.

==Page 412==

'''koan''' 
Japanese. A ko-an is a story, dialogue, question or statement in the lore of Zen Buddhism. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koan koan].

'''"Does a dog possess the Buddha-nature?" [...] "Yes, obviously"''' 
According to the Zen parable the answer to the question is "Mu", which is both "No" and the sound of a dog's bark, thus neither simply yes nor no. See the explanantion given by the Learned English Dog in Mason & Dixon (Ch. 3, p. 22).

'''apricot and aquamarine''' 
Clashing-colors motif.

'''F.I.C.O.T.T.''' 
As Alonzo Meatman goes right on to explain, F.I.C.O.T.T. is the acronym for the First International Conference On Time Travel, but readers of ''Gravity's Rainbow'' will recall also "Fickt" from the line "Fickt nicht mit dem Raketemensch," or "Don't f--k with the Rocketman."

'''hootnanny''' 
Typo? Should be hootenanny, an informal performance by folk singers, typically with participation by the audience. The OED says that it can be spelled either way, and also hootananny.

'''Bohr... Mach... young Einstein... Spengler... Wells... McTaggart''' 
All of these people did work involving either speculation about time (Wells) or other subjects that reached their highest expression in Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which had implications regarding the nature of time and spacetime [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity Wikipedia]. Pynchon refers to the fact that this work was underway and 'in the air' at the time of the novel. [[Bohr, Mach, Einstein, et al.|History and Discussion...]]

Notice how, among this stellar cast of scientists, Wells seems to be placed above the rest (cf: "Mr. Wells himself"), as if the writer of fiction trumped "real" scientists when it came to the idea of time travel.

'''dismissing . . . the ''existence'' of Time''' 
In a 1908 essay, ''The Unreality of Time'', McTaggart said "Our ground for rejecting time . . . is that time cannot be explained without assuming time." For the full text of the essay [http://www.ditext.com/mctaggart/time.html The Unreality of Time (1)] and other information [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unreality_of_Time The Unreality of Time (2)].

'''the McTaggartite''' 
disciple of Mctaggart?

'''neo-Augustinian''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo St. Augustine of Hippo] (354-430), in his autobiographical [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/augustine/confessions/confessions.html ''Confessions''], is credited with reconceptualizing the notion of time in Christian terms. Throyle, on [[ATD 119-148#Page 143|p.143]], summarizes what he terms "Christian time," as a "linear way of regarding time, a simple straight line from past, through present, into the future." See also [[ATD E|'''Eschatology''']].

<div id="pudding">'''fatal steamed pudding'''</div>
Presumably the subject of the "Christmas-pudding controversy" mentioned on p. 406. In the context of Prof. Taggart's disbelief in time and the Augustinian's presumed belief that time moves inevitably toward Christ's return, a Christmas pudding (which, one should mention, is prepared with suet or similar animal fat, though presumably Smegmo can be substituted) is a symbol, insofar as it invokes the birth of Christ, of a pivotal moment in the proper sequence of Augustinian time. The pudding, which context here suggests the neo-Augustinian dropped on the McTaggartite, at once symbolizes the Fall of Man, as well as the McTaggartite's inevitable descent into Hell. The whole arrangement is problematized, however, by the comments of the County Coroner, who describes the outcome of the event dependent on "wagering," chance being irreconcilable with Augustinian time.

'''vertical distance''' 
Of pudding-drop?

<div id="stearinery">'''Old Stearinery Bell Tower'''</div>
A stearinery (probably made-up word) is a facility where stearin is made. Chemically, stearin is an ester of glycerol with stearic acid, or stearic acid itself. The name also denotes the solid component of a fat. Smegmo undoubtedly contains stearin, so the Old Stearinery was a key part of the original production process.

"Until 1863 lard stearin was used to produce the stearic acid for candle making. With lard expensive and in short supply, a new method was discovered to produce the stearic acid using tallow. What lard and lard stearin was available was instead developed into a cooking compound. The same process was later adapted to create Crisco, the first all-vegetable shortening." [http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/The-Procter-amp;-Gamble-Company-Company-History.html]

==Page 413==

'''322 feet''' 
The ''average'' acceleration produced by gravity at the Earth's surface (sea level) is 32.2 (or 32.17405 to be exact) feet per second per second. This apllies "in any direction out to the curve of the Earth, notorious locally for exerting a fascination upon minds healthy and disordered alike."

''Pedantry Alert:'' From a height of 322 feet, you see the horizon at a distance of 22 miles.

'''disordered''' 
Eg clocktower assassins?
:Also people who may be moved to ''knock towers down.''

'''homeopathist''' 
One who practices homeopathy.

'''"the ''lycopodium'' type"... Fear''' 
Lycopodium is a common homeopathic remedy for many disorders. Homeopathy being the introduction into the body, in infinitesimal amounts, of a possibly toxic or irritating agent that ends up stimulating the body to heal itself.

'''sky-brother''' 
???
My take was that he was assuaging any hurt feelings with Meatman by placing him on the level of a fellow "Chum of Chance".

Hmm... maybe Chick is implying that he and Meatman are indeed of the same cloth, not bound by the earthly realm, the former spending most of his time in the air and the latter being able to travel to other dimensions.

'''other Promise... resurrected... two millennia''' 
???
:maybe this refers simply to the Resurrection (and therefore the end of Time); the Promise is that the trumpet (Chick's?) shall sound, and the dead shall be raised.

God's promise of eternal life vs. Time Travel's promise of making you immortal.

'''speaking trumpet''' 
Brass forerunner of the megaphone. [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1671RSPT....6.3056M Abstract] of a 1671 paper; [http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conMediaFile.2647 photo] of a ship's speaking trumpet, 1799; [http://www.auroraregionalfiremuseum.org/giftshop/1850figure/source/horn.htm catalog entry] for a replica American fire brigade speaking trumpet, mid-19th century.

==Page 414==

'''purlieus''' 
outskirts, outlying areas; also (OED) "meaner streets about some main thoroughfare; a mean, squalid or disreputable street or quarter."

This whole section is a progress into the outlying areas, the fringes
(Cf. Pynchon's story ''Low-lands'', which takes place at a town dump)

'''millwork''' 
woodwork, doors, molding, wainscotting, etc, but cheap, prefabricated, not custom-fabricted on site.

'''penumbrae''' 
A penumbra is the outer and lighter part of the shadow created by an eclipse. "Penumbrae" is the plural form.

'''quiescence''' 
His name suggests a purveyor of meat, and he does "deliver" Chick to Mr. Ace.

==Page 415==

'''"Mr. Ace"''' 
This could be a nod to the 1946 film [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038752/ ''Mr. Ace''] starring Sylvia Sidney and George Raft who plays Eddie Ace, the head man of a crooked political machine who intends to scuttle the gubernatorial campaign of female senator Margaret Wyndham Chase (Sylvia Sidney). He uses every dirty trick in the book to destroy Margaret, but she perseveres on the strength of sheer honesty and integrity. Through her example, Ace mends his own ways, earning Margaret's love as a bonus, and he helps her to run as an independent on a clean-government ticket.

It may, more specifically, refer to the old-time radio show called ''The Cases of Mr. Ace'' which had a very limited run mostly on WNEW in New York in the late forties. Raft played Eddie Ace, the sole owner of Ace Detective Agency on 6th Avenue. In the episode from June 25, 1945, Ace described one gangster thus:

:"The face of a small fragile old man. His hair was glossy and deep black. His eyes were glossy and deep black."

Compare this to Pynchon's Mr. Ace: "Glossy black eyes, presented like weapons in a duel."

'''phatic''' 
Relating to speech that serves to establish social relationships rather than to inform.

'''Those of us who spoke this truth were denounced as heretics''' 
Yes, the old Pynchon theme of those in control, the oligarchs, silencing the counterforce.

Taking of refuge in a planet's past was the plot of a Captain Kirk-era ''Star Trek'' episode; the unintentionally transported Kirk is taken to be a religious dissenter; fortunately his judge is one of the "refugees".

'''certain of your great dynamos''' 
Cf. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Brooks_Adams Henry Adams], author of ''The Virgin and The Dynamo''. Pynchon has written of being influenced deeply by Adams, and his ideas are particularly evident in Pynchon's [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''V.''].

'''Fraternity of the Venturesome''' 
Mistranslated 'Chums of Chance'.

'''''nzzt''''' 
Electrical short?

Suggests "he" could be a holographic image. Time traveling holograms were one feature of the "Temporal Cold War" subplot of ''Star Trek: Enterprise''; one such manifestation (complete with "nzzt's") is set in a huge dynamo station in a Nazi-occupied New York. This is two possible ''Star Trek'' allusions in a single page.

Electrical short is certainly relevant. The mistranslation is a kind-of short-circuit, then he gets the right phrase from his data bank. Bit like C3P0 in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_wars ''Star Wars'']?

'''You are not aware that each of your mission assignments is intended to prevent some attempt of our own to enter your time-regime.''' 
Aha! A little peek into the True Mission of the Chums. Time to take another look at those various adventures:

* ''Chums of Chance and The Evil Halfwit'' ([[ATD_1-25#Page_5|p.5]])
* ''Chums of Chance and The Curse of the Great Kahuna'' ([[ATD_1-25#Page_5|p.5]])
* ''Chums of Chance at Krakatoa'' ([[ATD_1-25#Page_6|p.6]])
* ''Chums of Chance Search for Atlantis'' ([[ATD_1-25#Page_6|p.6]])
* ''Chums of Chance in Old Mexico'' ([[ATD_1-25#Page_7|p.7]])
* ''Chums of Chance and the Bowels of the Earth'' ([[ATD_97-118#Page_117|p.117]])
* ''The Chums of Chance and the Ice Pirates'' ([[ATD_119-148#Page_123|p.123]])
* ''The Chums of Chance Nearly Crash into the Kremlin'' ([[ATD_119-148#Page_123|p.123]])
* ''Chums of Chance at the Ends of the Earth'' ([[ATD_199-218#Page_214|p.214]])
* ''Chums of Chance and the Caged Women of Yokahama'' ([[ATD_397-428#Page_411|p.411]])
* ''Chums of Chance and the Wrath of the Yellow Fang'' ([[ATD_1018-1039#Page_1019|p.1019]])

==Page 416==

'''ZZnrrt''' 
Cf 415.

'''"irreversible processes"''' 
In thermodynamics, an irreversible process is one in which the intermediate states cannot be specified by any set of macroscopic variables, and which are not equilibrium states. Since the intermediate states are unknown this process cannot be reversed.

'''Squanto and the Pilgrims''' 
Squanto (Tisquantum) was one of the two Native American Indians (Samoset being the other) that assisted the Pilgrims during their first winter in the New World. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squanto Squanto].

Ironic (although Chick means it sincerley) since in this case the Chums of C are "Squanto" and their strange interlocutors from another dimension are the pilgrims. Chick innocently suggests that the strangers from the future just want help (as, like the pilgrims, they have just arrived and are low on supplies, so to speak). It is implied that just as the Indian's helping the pilgrims was re-payed with disease, genocide and war, the payback the Chums reap for helping these visitors from another dimension may not be what they expect.

'''entropy''' 
A term first used in 1850s by the German physicist Rudolf Clausius (1822-1888). It is the name of a quantity in thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and information theory variously representing the degree of disorder in a physical system, the extent to which the energy in a system is available for doing work, the distribution of the energy of a system between different modes, or the uncertainty in a given item of knowledge. In thermodynamics absolut entropies cannot be determined, only ''changes'' in entropy. One way of stating the second law of thermodynamics (Cf [[ATD_219-242#Page 238|page 238]]) is to say that in any change in an isolated system, the entropy increases. This increase in entropy represents the energy that is no longer available for doing work in that system. See [http://www.entropylaw.com/ Entropy & Laws of Thermodynamics.]

'''"It's our innocence . . . ."''' 
Speculation about the motives of people who come from the future claiming to need something from the past. It is a common fallacy in all ages to think back to the past as a 'golden age' and an age of 'innocence'. Lindsay elaborates further down the page: "[I]magine ''them''... so fallen, so corrupted, that we — even we — seem to them pure as lambs. And their own time so terrible that it's sent them desparately back...." Think also of the kind of 'golden age' rhetoric often employed by certain politicians.

==Page 417==

'''"we're totally"''' 
...fucked.

'''"He is not what he says he is."''' 
Pynchon denies Chums backstory/explanation.

In addition, his story would be plausible almost too plausible in terms of the thermodynamic theories of the day, i.e. the Heat Death of the Universe (about which Pynchon has written before: see [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''V.''] and ''Entropy'').

'''trespassers''' 
Presumably individuals in the company of Mr. Ace and Alonzo Meatman, whose intentions toward the Chums of Chance are apparently sinister and for their own benefit. They appear to travel back through the stream of time without any kind of permission to execute their plans, thus making them trespassers (or parasites).

The idea of trespass could be thought of in another way too. Miles mentions Mr. Ace knowing him as a 'peeper' who observes the trespassers as they come to his time. We could think of the 'trespassers' as anyone in any time who looks back at a point in history. As such, they are actually 'peepers'. That these seem to have found a way not just to peep but actually to participate makes them more than peepers, in fact, it is this that constitutes their 'trespass'.

Pynchon seems to be playing with how we view history and the past, a theme common to all his work. The Chums, whose existence is, to an extent, fictional even within the work of fiction, are a nexus meant to control boundaries between points in time (e.g. the future and the present, or its past). Historians and other future observers want to use the past for their own purposes. If they become visible to the people in that past, they will appear as 'trespassers' and violators. As Miles says, they do "not have our best interests in mind".

We ourselves (readers and perhaps even more, Wiki authors) are also trespassers from the standpoint of the Chums. We read about them in the novel, which takes us to the past, to their present, and inserts us in a way that is invisible to them. We then write up entries and think thoughts about what they do. We are in their world in some way that to them is utterly mysterious and sinister because, again, we have own agendas in mind and not theirs.

Right: And what about the biggest trespasser of all - the author himself. After all, he's the one who can offer them immortality.

As opposed to Tyrone Slothrop, who seemed to have taken on a life of his own and escaped from the book totally in GR.

'''I see them ''pointing something'' back at me not exactly a weapon an enigmatic object.''' 
Hmmm. Could this have anything to do with the [[Q-weapon_and_Photography|Q-weapon]]?

— – – mmm... does anyone think that it might be just a remote control, and that the window through which the trespassers and the Chums see each other might be just a TV set? [[[User:Sonni|Sonni]] 09:19, 21 February 2008 (PST)]

==Page 418==

'''Trespass''' 
With a capital T.

'''evidence... everywhere''' 
Cf [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Crying of Lot 49''].

'''neuropathy''' 
An abnormal and usually degenerative state of the nervous system or nerves.

'''contracts''' 
With Devil.
More specifically, like Faust with Mephistopheles.

'''Other Units''' 
(So our five gossiped to others?)

'''exhaustive''' 
Cf Trekkies.

'''came to recall''' 
Cf PK Dick.

'''red and indigo''' 
Clashing?

'''Marching Academy Harmonica Band''' 
In this episode the academy goes by seven permutations of the name:
*Marching Academy Harmonica Band
*Harmonica Band Marching Academy
*Marching Harmonica Band Academy
*Harmonica Marching Band Academy
*Harmonica Band Marching Academy
*Marching Harmonica Band activities
*Harmonica Marching Band Training Academy
Its identity is not very securely tied down.
Clearly it's mutable, a kind of mirage. And surely there's a resonance with 'laughing academy'? And a hint of the Hogwarts train in 'Harry Potter'?

Pynchon devotes enough attention to that whole baffling "Academy" episode to make it appear fairly pivotal. The word order variations suggest an anagram _ "ham," as in "pig" again? "MBA," as in academic initiation into capitalism? "Bam!?" Maybe that whole episode hints at a naive, early 20th-century romanticized myth of military service _ boys seeking some adventure story, equated with a goofy lark like a harmonica band, but being thrust into the horrific mechanized slaughter of WWI. All the while, though, the anarchic jazz symbol of the harmonica, that other side of classic American soul, is trying to sneak through.

==Page 419==

'''"El Capitán"''' 
Sousa march. "El Capitán" was played by a military band on the deck of Admiral Dewey's battleship as he steamed into the Bay of Manila in 1898, to "liberate" the Philippines from Spain and also, not coincidentally, achieve access for U.S. capital and goods to East Asian markets once the Philippines became a colony. Thus the references to the "intricacies of greed as then being practiced by global capitalism" a few sentences later on p. 419 is hardly out of place for TRP, particularly when mixed with comments on how patriotic bromides and marching tunes go together. The harmonicas and the comment that improvisation is definitely NOT welcome in marching band arrangements, of course, provide Pynchon's own inimitable caustic/satiric touch; cf. the kazoos in GR. On "El Capitán": see Hess, Carol A. “John Philip Sousa’s ‘El Capitan’: Political Appropriation and the Spanish-American War.” ''American Music'' (Spring 1998).

'''"Whistling Rufus"''' 
[http://hetzler.homestead.com/NBCakeWalk.html A cakewalk song] written in 1899.

'''consecrated''' 
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/consecrate] "1. To declare or set apart as sacred: consecrate a church."

'''Richardson Romanesque''' 
Style of American Romanesque architecture from 1880s-1890s, named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson, notable for use of brown stone, rounded corners, arches and cylindrical turrets. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richardson_Romanesque Wikipedia Entry].

'''modal theory''' 
Context is suggestive of music theory, types of scales and keys of tonal music. However, Modal Realism is the view, notably propounded by David Lewis, that possible worlds are as real as the actual world. Possible worlds exist; the actual world is merely one among an infinite set of logically possible worlds, some nearer to the actual world and some more remote. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_realism]

'''chit''' 
Piece of military or bureaucratic paperwork; context suggests "request for transfer".

'''Bing Spooninger''' 
Like "Bing" Crosby, a crooner.

'''rack''' 
Current military and collegiate slang for "bed"--an anachronism.

==Page 420==

'''every note''' 
Om?

'''say "Wall"''' 
???

'''Yippy dippy dippy, doo!''' 
cf. ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (p. 66) where Slothrop goes down the toilet after, appropriately, a harmonica.

'''Now, it ain't that I wouldn't, 'cause I can but I won't,''' 
'''And I would if I wasn't, but I am so I don't''' 
This sounds very similar to a lyric from Frank Zappa's 'Stink-Foot:'

He said:
"IT DOESN'T, 'n YOU CAN'T!

I WON'T, 'n IT DON'T!

IT HASN'T, IT ISN'T, IT EVEN AIN'T

'N IT SHOULDN'T . . .

IT COULDN'T!"

He told me NO NO NO!

I told him YES YES YES!

I said: "I do it all the time . . .

Ain't this boogie a mess!"

'''difficult vocal feat''' 
???

'''segueing''' 
A deejaying term for moving from one song/track to another with no noticeable break if done correctly. 
Cf. [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow,''] Viking p. 70, line 36, where the phonetic spelling "segway" appears.

'''cakewalk''' 
An African-American entertainment having a cake as prize for the most accomplished steps and figures in walking; also, a stage dance developed from walking steps and figures typically involving a high prance with backward tilt. From this, slang for a one-sided contest or an easy task.

'''draw-note''' 
Note played on harmonica by "drawing" air through reed by sucking in rather than blowing out (insert crude sex joke here).

==Page 421==

'''popularity''' 
Masochistic love of oppressors.

'''''cover identity''''' 
Burden of resistance.

'''unannounced punishments . . . Combat-Inside-Ten-Meters''' 
Points up the Kafkaesque nature of the Academy.

:This bit in re: the Academy-- including the Combat-Inside-Ten-Meter-- could echo the Enfield Tennis Academy, one of the central locations in D.F. Wallace's "Infinite Jest."

'''Lombardy poplars.''' 
A large deciduous tree, reaching 30-40 m tall. They resemble large shrubs, due to their tall, slender appearance. They grow tall very quickly and usually die within 15 years of first planting. 

'''Out the window...''' 
The longest sentence so far in ATD.

'''Chromatic Harp''' 
A harmonica that plays all notes in an octave rather than a scale in a certain key. [http://www.hohnerusa.com/hchromatic.htm Examples].

'''Pitch Integrity Guard''' 
To prevent tampering with the notes in the ways described below - i.e. monitoring any tendency towards the 'Negroid'. 
= PIG - pigs long have held a fascination over Pynchon. 
A-and a Pitch Integrity Guard is a kind of cop, right? 

'''harmonica-reed files''' 
Filing the reeds would alter the notes slightly, allowing you to get 'in-between' notes that aren't in the normal major or minor scale.

'''sucking the tonic chords...Negroid sound''' 
Standard technique for playing blues harmonica ('harp'), also known as cross-blowing. The sucked notes are easier to 'bend' and wail with, so you can get the blues 'third', not quite minor, not quite major. Another technique that helps you get the 'Negroid sound' is soaking the harmonica, which gives the reeds a rougher, more bendable quality. That's probably the point of the 'late night visits to the latrine'. Compare with GR, where Slothrop (at college!) loses his harmonica down the toilet (he finds it much later in a stream in Germany! Gone back home, so to speak). There's a harmonica-soaking scene in Pennebaker's Dylan film 'Don't look Back'.
It wouldn't surprise me if there was some kind of folk wisdom that piss is even better than water for soaking the harp. Pee-culiar.

==Page 422==

'''I.G. Mundharfwerke''' 
Interessen-Gemeinschaft Mundharfwerke (Harmonica-works Association of Common Interests). "Mundharf" is Swabian German for "Harmonica". By analogy with I.G. Farben in ''GR'': the Mouth-Harp Cartel.

'''drifted''' 
Cf. Slothrop's desk in ''GR''.

'''the sprightly Offenbach air "Halls of Montezoo-HOO-ma!"''' 
The "Marines' Hymn" borrows the tune of the "Gendarmes' Duet" from the opera ''Geneviève de Brabant'' (1859) by French composer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Offenbach Jacques Offenbach] (1819-1880). 
The lyrics of which are not entirely irrelevant: 
And if we meet a helpless woo-o-man 
Or little boys who do no harm 
We run them in, we run them in, 
We run them in, we run them in 
Because we are the bold gen-darmes! 

'''into the Latrine''' 
Cf. Slothrop's hallucination in ''GR''.

'''dentifrice''' 
A powder or other preparation for rubbing or cleansing the teeth; a tooth-powder or tooth-paste; also applied to liquid preparations.<ref>'''Oxford English Dictionary''' 2nd. ed. 1989.</ref>

'''vapor bearing...minerals''' 
Rows of mirrors facing each other (thus creating regular patterns, "chaining away for uncounted leagues") have been stained with images formed by regular use: breath, tiny bits of toothpaste or powder ("atomized dentifrice"), "shaving preparations," and mineral deposits from tapwater.

'''A.D.C.''' 
Aide-de-camp, administrative assistant to a commanding officer.

'''but they could find no entries in any of the daily Logs to help them remember''' 
Their situation has no precedent in any of the ''Chums'' novels. They have been betrayed, isolated and brainwashed, and they even doubt whether they are the authentic Chums. The following is not a spoiler: Any elementary handbook of plotting will tell you that they can't just single up all lines at the end of this episode and fly their ship "cheerly" on to the next adventure.

==Page 423==

'''revisit places where destinies took a wrong turn, or revisit in dreams the dreaming body of one loved more than either might have known...''' 
As far as we know, none of the Chums has actually experienced this. Sounds to me like an allusion to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust Faust] and Gretchen/Marguerite, since this actually happens in several of the Faust versions. Especially in the context of the Faustian bargain they have made with Mr. Ace.

'''None of them...''' 
Cf [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuangzi#The_butterfly_dream Chuang Tzu's dream]: is he a man dreaming he's a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he's a man? On the rhetorical level of the story, this passage reiterates the dreamlike, near-delusional nature of the Chums' latest escape from what seems to have become their most dangerous foe. (418: "As if in a dream...").

'''volunteer decoys''' 
Fan-meme. 
Decoy = is usually a person, device or event meant as a distraction to conceal what an individual or a group might be looking for. 
I think this surprising phrase has Pynchonian meaning about the meaning of fiction like the Chums': 'escape', 'adventure' fiction is a decoy from
reality?

'''"At a Georgia Camp Meeting"''' 
a song by a Kerry Mills originally published in 1897.
Became a very popular 'cakewalk' tune. 
Lyrics: 
A camp meeting took place, by the colored race; way down in Georgia.
There were folks large and small, lanky, lean, fat and tall, at this great Georgia camp meeting.
When church was out, how the "sisters" did shout, they were so happy.
But the young folks were tired and wished to be inspired, and hired a big brass band.

Chorus: When the big brass band began to play pretty music so gay, hats were thrown away.
Thought them foolish people their necks would break,
When they quit their laughing and talking and went to walking for a big choc'late cake.

The old "sisters" raised sand, when they first heard the band; way down in Georgia.
The preacher did glare and the deacons did stare, at the young people prancing.
The band played so sweet that nobody could eat, 'twas so entrancing.
So the church folks agreed it was not a sinful deed, and they joined in with the rest. 

''':definition within above definition: 'cakewalk'''' 
Cakewalk is a traditional African American form of music and dance which originated among slaves in the US South. A cake, or slices of cake, were offered as prizes for the best dancers — a rare treat during slavery — giving the dance its name.
The dance was invented as a satirical parody of the formal European dances preferred by white slaveowners, and featured exaggerated imitations of the dance ritual, combined with traditional African dance steps. One common form of cakewalk dance involved couples (one male and one female, with their arms linked at the elbows) lined up in a circle, dancing forward alternating a series of short hopping steps with a series of very high kicking steps. Costumes worn for the cakewalk often included large, exaggerated bowties, suits, canes, and top hats....
The dance became nationally popular among whites and blacks for a time at the end of the 19th century. The syncopated music of the cakewalk became a nationally popular force in American mainstream music, and with growing complexity and sophistication evolved into ragtime music in the mid 1890s. The music was adopted into the works of various white composers, including John Philip Sousa and Claude Debussy; the latter wrote Golliwog's Cakewalk as the final movement of the Children's Corner suite (1908).

'''"deps"''' 
Dep. from American Heritage Dictionary = 1. department 2. departure 3. dependency 4. deponent 5. deposed 6. deposit 7. depot 8. deputy 
barring any other allusion, I think 'deps' here might stand for 1) departures or 2) departments (given words about other Chums above.
:Surrogates, decoys, escape: Surely these all make it certain that "deps" means "deputies."

'''route out of the past''' 
The nostalgia trap.

'''We wish we could tell you about everything that's been going on, but it's not over yet, it's at such a critical stage, and the less said right now the better. But someday . . . ''' 
The Chums imagine "the real Chums" as being engaged in a secret war that demands only one sacrifice from "the people," that of their innocence.

==Page 424==

''''coon' material''' 
Songs and humor in which African-Americans were stereotyped (as lazy, immoral, stupid, vain, etc.) and held in contempt. The most popular coon song, though, was written by an African-American, Ernest Hogan; titled "All Coons Look Alike to Me," it has an ''AtD'' resonance. Coon material was extremely popular between about 1880 and 1910; stripped of the word "coon," a diluted form still appears nightly on your TV. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coon_song Wikipedia] has a strikingly good article. For a partial list of coon references in ''AtD,'' [[ATD_26-56#Page_48|see annotation to p. 48.]]

'''isotropy''' 
the quality or condition of being equal along all directions. For more technical information see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotropy isotropy].

'''presently''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Crumb R. Crumb] did a comic like this: [http://crumbproducts.com/prints_images/sha.gif pic] 
Nice find. That comic succintly summarizes TRP's view of the effects of railroads and "civilization."

'''opposition''' 
(Was unconscious, now conscious?)Are the Chums now able to intercede
in 'human' affairs, unlike their earlier mandate?
:That's exactly it, their stretch in the camp—sorry, the harmonica academy—has modified the terms of the C of C Prime Directive.

'''dropped from altitudes''' 
(Cf pudding above, Padzhitnoff's four-block fragments)

==Page 425==

'''"After the Ball"''' 
Music and lyrics by Charles K. Harris. This number was interpolated into the score of the hit musical ''A Trip to Chinatown'' (1892) during its record-setting Broadway run. It was introduced by J. Aldrich Libbey. When Kern and Hammerstein wanted to add period flavor to ''Show Boat'' (1927), they used "After the Ball" in the Trocadero scene where it was performed by Norma Terris. [[After the Ball|Read the lyrics...]]

See also the [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_174-177 pantomime song] in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' (pages 174-175):
<blockquote>"And the lamps in the stairway are dying, 
It's the season just after the ball . . ."</blockquote>

'''Bukhara''' 
Either the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirate_of_Bukhara Emirate of Bukhara], a former country in Central Asia or its [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukhara capital]

'''T.D.Y.''' 
Abbrevation for Temporary Duty. [http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r614_11.pdf weblink]

'''Subdesertine''' 
submerge beneath the desert or sand.

'''''Saksaul''''' 
A plant/tree native to the deserts of Central Asia, particularly the Gobi desert; it has a very hard wood and is covered with knobs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxaul Wikipedia] [http://www.pbase.com/william_sokolenko/image/68724037 pic]

It may be significant that the saksaul tree is often planted in order to stabilize the sands. Part of western Europe's civilizing mission?

'''Q. Zane Toadflax''' 
(Sounds like Douglas Adams?). Toadflax is the name of an [http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/weedfeeders/toadflax.html invasive plant species]

'''Hypopsammotic... Hypops''' 
''Hypo-'' (under) + ''psammot-'' (sand, from Greek ''psammos'') + ''-ic.'' Pynchon explains the device's function on the next page (426).

==Page 426==

'''beating their prices''' 
Contradicts p. 425 "no further expenditure".
:P. 425 merely says that "no further expenditure for that purpose [i.e. for Hypops rigs] will be approved." Presumably, the Chums have some additional discretionary fund from which to draw cash for emergency purchases such as these.

'''that medium which is wavelike as the sea, yet also particulate''' 
Alluding to the æther theory and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave-particle_duality dual (wave/particle) nature of light].

==Page 427==

'''temporarily lapsing into English''' 
Contrasts with the technical jargon the Chums have been steeped in over the past few days, including lectures by Roswell Bounce (they're only boys, after all). Often, mathematicians, physicists, and their students fail to explain their theories "in English." This little phrase can be taken as a professorial joke, aimed at both the author (for always coming back to obscure or difficult theories) and the reader (for never understanding them). 
I thought it was contrasting with Miles' frequent babbling habit. 

'''''pigs fly''''' 
Lindsay = pig. "When (or until) pigs fly" = never.

But Darby's surname is "suckling," which of course is highly suggestive of a young, maturing "pig," and he does seem to be exhibiting some legalistic _ fascist? _ tendencies.

'''X.O.''' 
The Executive Officer (XO) is the second-in-command, reporting to the Commanding Officer (CO).

'''legalistic''' 
Yes, Darby is now Legal Counsel.

==Page 428==
'''ill-starred Bell Tower''' 
Referring back of course to the [[#stearinery|Old Stearinery Bell Tower]] and the [[#pudding|Fatal Pudding]], and in turn to the [[Campanile]].

:The Campanile picture has me wondering. According to the sources, the old picture of the collapse of the Campanile is actually a fake. And it doesn't have the airship. It's a fun picture, but what is its status? There doesn't seem to be an appropriate place for this information in the wiki, or have I missed something?

:The Campanile picture is an illustration. Doubtful that anyone had their camera all set up for the awesome event. The airship was photoshopped in for, um, color...

::See also last paragraph of page 255.

Cf. Renata's tarot reading on [[ATD 243-272#Page 253|p. 253]], the last card of which is The Tower.

Cf. ''The Bell-Tower'' by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Melville Herman Melville], a famous short story from ''The Piazza Tales'' (1856) with an "ill-starred
bell tower" for sure. "Glancing backwards, they saw the groined belfry crashed sideways in.", a line from it which echos the picture used for the pynchonwiki home page. [http://www.melville.org/belltowr.htm Full text of ''The Bell-Tower'']

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

S

2012-01-03T23:45:18Z

Jglassow:

'''Sabine''' 
1007; Stray's neighbor in the tent city

'''St. Barbara''' 
81; According to legend, Saint Barbara was the extremely beautiful daughter of a wealthy heathen named Dioscorus, who lived near Nicomedia in Asia Minor, in the 4th Century AD. Because of her singular beauty and fearful that she be demanded in marriage and taken away from him, he jealously shut her up in a tower to protect her from the outside world. When Barbara converted to Christianity, her enraged father killed her and was subsequently struck down by lightening. St. Barbara was venerated as early as the seventh century. The legend of the lightning bolt which struck down her father caused her to be regarded as the patron saint in time of danger from thunderstorms, fires and sudden death. When gunpowder made its appearance in the Western world, Saint Barbara was invoked for aid against accidents resulting from explosions since some of the earlier artillery pieces often blew up instead of firing their projectile, Saint Barbara became the patroness of the artillerymen.[http://sill-www.army.mil/pao/pabarbar.htm From this website.] According to Codex Vaticanos 866 ([http://www.bergbaumuseum.at/Barbaralegende.htm german translation]) and the [http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/goldenLegend/barbara.htm Golden Legend], St. Barbara, when fleeing her father prayed and "marvellously" a stone/rock took her in and released her on top of a mountain. That^s probably why she is patroness of miners, too. The [http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/book/dec4.html wilsonalmanac] lists some interesting facts about St. Barbara customs around the world. There seems to be a special icelandic St. Barbara legend but all i could find out is that [http://scandinavian.wisc.edu/wolf/index.html Kirsten Wolf] edited a book called "The Old Norse-Icelandic Legend of Saint Barbara"

'''St. Cosmo, Randolph''' 
24; Ship Commander of ''The Inconvenience''; Historically, there are two versions St. Cosmo (aka St. Cosmas): the "randy" St. Cosmos, aka the "modern Priapus," and the saintly martyred St. Cosmos of Catholic/Church lore. Pynchon, it seems, is connecting Randolph St. Cosmo to the former. "Randy," as astute observers will note, is an adjective which means, well, "horny." There's a distinct sexual thread woven throughout ''Against the Day'' [[Basnight%2C_Lewis_%28%22Lew%22%29|(See the ''beginnings'' of exploring this angle...]]) a-and Heartsease, St. Cosmo's skymate, is the first to get pregnant! so this seems to fit right in. [[St. Cosmo|Read more about the historical St. Cosmo...]]; and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sts._Cosmas_and_Damian Wikipedia entry]

'''St. Masque''' 
108; Indian Ocean island; volcano, 109;

'''St. Paul''' 
107; Indian Ocean island

'''Saint-Saëns, Camille''' 
27; his "wonderful 'Bacchanale'"; from his opera "Samson and Delila which premiered in Weimar, Germany on December 2, 1877; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Saint-Sa%C3%ABns Wikipedia entry]

'''''Saksaul'', H.M.S.F.''' 
425; The ''saksaul'' is a plant/tree native to the deserts of Central Asia, particularly the Gobi desert where some believe Shambhala lies underground; it has a very hard wood and is covered with knobs [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxaul Wikipedia] [http://www.pbase.com/william_sokolenko/image/68724037 pic]; "subdesertine craft" 432; 434; attacked, 444;

'''Salas, José González''' 
983; "former fencing coach" and "Madero's war minister" put in campaign against Orozco;

'''Salazar José Inés, General''' 
983; "former Magonista ... raising a small army" in Casas Grandes, and Frank Traverse joins up

'''Salisbury, Lord (1830-1903)''' 
58; Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, known as Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and as Viscount Cranborne from 1865 until 1868, was a British statesman and Prime Minister on three occasions, for a total of over 13 years; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gascoyne-Cecil%2C_3rd_Marquess_of_Salisbury Wikipedia entry]

'''Sananzolo, Ettore''' 
571; engineer at mirror factory in Venice

'''Sanatorium Böfli-Spazzoletta''' 
692; "Bright red private hostel stamp"

'''sand-fleas''' 
440; aka ''Chong pir'' ("big lice"), live under the desert and feed on human blood; ''Pulex'';

'''Sands, Captain''' 
444; aka Inspector at Whitehall in London; 607; "Inspector Sands" is a code phrase used on the London Underground to alert authorities of a potential emergency without causing panic amongst travellers. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_Sands Wikipedia entry]

'''San Miguel County''' 
80; where Merle Rideout and Dally lived, in Colorado

'''Santos-Dumont, Monsieur''' 
529; 576;

'''sap-head''' 
7; a fool: a person who lacks good judgment

'''Saracens''' 
436; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saracen Wikipedia entry]

'''Saratoga chips''' 
39; Potato chips; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saratoga_chips Wikipedia entry]

'''Satan''' 
"some ruler of some underworld," 231; "the Evil One," 333; Darby's and Chick's faith that Dr. Zoot "will prove not altogether diabolical," 403; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan Wikipedia entry]

'''Scarlet Pimpernel''' 
846; ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' is a classic play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the French Revolution. It first opened on 15 October 1903 at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal, in London; the character is an anonymous hero who, through a combination of courage and daring, has rescued many French aristocrats from the guillotine and brought them safely to England. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scarlet_Pimpernel Wikipedia entry]; Double Identity: Sir Percy Blakeney, a British nobelman, is masked by various disguises as The Scarlet Pimpernel who seeks to undermine the Reign of Terror after the French Revolution.

'''Scent''' 
See [[#smell|Smell]], below.

'''''Schicksal, das''''' 
635; german: fate, destiny

'''Schiff, Jacob Henry''' 
131; banker [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Schiff Wikipedia Entry]

'''Schleppingsdorff''' 
914; Royal advisor in ''The Burgher King''; the name is reminiscent of the German actor Max Schlepzig in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''Gravity's Rainbow'']; a "schlep" is Yiddish slang for a stupid person, a loser.

'''Schmidt, Chief''' 
59; Cleveland cop

'''Schwärmer''' 
613; gas pressure;

'''Schwartz''' 
511; mathematician at University of Berlin

'''Scioto''' 
66;

'''Scorcher cap''' 
42; "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 shirt 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." (From [http://www.velorution.biz/?p=1288 this website...])

'''Screaming''' 
145; 404; 440;

'''scuttlebutt''' 
3; The origin of the word scuttlebutt which is nautical parlance for a rumor, comes from a combination of scuttle - to make a hole in the ship's side causing her to sink - and butt - a cask or hogshead used in the days of wooden ships to hold drinking water; thus the term scuttlebutt means a cask with a hole in it. Scuttle; describes what most rumors accomplish if not to the ship, at least to morale. (from [http://www.goatlocker.org The Goat Locker Website])

'''Scylla''' 
1043; "astrologer of Lew's acquaintance"

'''Second Law of Thermodynamics''' 
1020; The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy. In simple terms, it is an expression of the fact that over time, differences in temperature, pressure, and density tend to even out in a physical system which is isolated from the outside world. Entropy is a measure of how far along this evening-out process has progressed; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Law_of_Thermodynamics Wikipedia entry]

'''Secret Service''' 
94; "to keep the President from gettin shot [...] and go after counterfeiters"

'''Self-reference''' 
117; "my harmless little intraterrestrial scherzo"; "Hundreds, by now thousands, of narratives, all equally valid what can this mean?" 681-82;

'''Semana Santa''' 
376; Easter or Holy Week; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semana_Santa Wikipedia entry]

'''Sempitern''' 
452; Candlebrow's canoeable river; "sempiternal" means "enduring forever" or "eternal" and derives from the Latin ''sempiternus'' : semper, always.

'''Senta''' 
834; member of The Black Hand, the feared Serbian outfit

'''Sentience''' 
Sentient Rocksters, 133, 149; the railroad's "steel webwork was a living organism" 177; sand dunes, 752; the journey as "conscious being" 765; wind 773; talking wolves, 784; Ssagan, the talking horse, speaking Buriat, 785; the sea, 818; roses, 949; Tesla rig, 952;

'''Sentient Rocksters''' 
133. The phrase also appears on p. 612 of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''Gravity's Rainbow'']

'''Sergei, Grand Duke''' 
595; assassinated;

'''Sergeievitch, Pavel''' 
780; on the ''Bol'shaia Igra''

<div id="serpents"></div>'''Serpents'''
"serpentine hypnosis," "serpent-like," 141; 145; 195; "Serpent in the Garden was never symbolic," 223; "Aztec foundation story of the eagle and the serpent

'''Seurat, Georges-Pierre (1859-1891)''' 
584; French painter and the founder of Neoimpressionism. His large work ''Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'' is one of the icons of 19th century painting; 587; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Seurat Wikipedia entry]

'''Seven Sisters''' 
159;

'''Sfinciuno Itinerary''' 
248; "a map or chart of post-Polo routes into Asia, believed by many to lead to the hidden city of Shambhala itself" 248; "not a geographical map at all"? 425; Alonzo Meatman arrives with a copy of the "enigmatic map." 436; "additional level of encryption" 437; [[Sfinciuno Itinerary|DISCUSSION]]

'''''Shabotshi''''' 
390; The Tarahumare Indians of the Sierra Madre, one of the least known among the Mexican tribes, live in caves to such an extent that they may properly be termed the American Cave-Dwellers of today. In their iconography, the devil is always represented with a beard, and the Tarahumari call Mexicans "Shabotshi" ("the bearded ones"); [[Tarahumare Indians|About the Tarahumare Indians]]

'''shady side of forty''' 
1051; that would be over forty; I vaguely recall Pynchon referring to his wife as being on the "sunny side of forty" ... what goes around comes around.

'''Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)''' 
344; English poet and playwright widely regarded as the greatest writer of the English language, and as the world's preeminent dramatist (although some don't buy it!); 385; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice ''Merchant of Venice''] (Antonio, the merchant in the play, is worried about pirates attacking his shipping), 819; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare Wikipedia entry]

'''Shambhala''' 
248; 259; 435; In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala (also spelled Shambala or Shamballa) is a mystical kingdom hidden somewhere beyond the snowpeaks of the Himalayas; 441; 609; "An ancient metropolis of the spiritual, some say inhabited by the living, others say empty, in ruins, buried someplace beneath the desert sands of Inner Asia. And of course there are always those who'll tell you that the true Shambhala lies within."" 628; 631; "the Pure Land" 686; 718; and secular European politics, 748; and Rinpungpa, 750; "north of the Taklamakan" 767; Kit's vision of, 770; [[K#khocho|Khocho]], 772; post-Tunguska, 793; "not a goal, but an absence" 975; album of Shambhala postage stamps, 1081; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala Wikipedia entry] [[Shambhala|Notes on Shambhala in the Gobi Desert]]; [http://www.trivia-library.com/c/history-of-the-search-for-shambhala-part-1.htm History of the Search for Shambhala Website]; [http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FWay-Shambhala-Mythical-Kingdom-Himalayas%2Fdp%2F1570628742%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1180372355%26sr%3D1-1&tag=hyperartspynchon&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325 Edwin Bernbaum's ''The Way to Shambhala: A Search for the Mythical Kingdom Beyond the Himalayas''] (''The'' resource!)

'''Shambles''' 
The Chicago Stockyards, 10; "'End of the line for you all,'" 82; "Ireland has become a literal shambles," 230; "great planetary killing-floor," 443;

'''Sharma''' 
760; Mushtaq's cousin

'''Shorty''' 
506; ship's cook near Krakatoa

'''Siege of Paris''' 
19;

'''Signat''' 
584;

'''Signori di Notte''' 
880; Doge Gradengio's "cutthroat squad" in Venice;

'''Sigurd, King''' 
127;

'''Silent Frock''' 
803; Noellyne's

'''Sillery''' 
162; drinking;

'''Siluro Dirigibile a Lenta Corsa''' 
529; 706;

<div id="silveract">'''Silver Act'''</div>
89; repeal of in 1893, 89; President Cleveland, convinced that the Sherman Silver Act, passed in 1890, was the cause of the drain on the U.S. gold reserves, called a special session of congress and convinced them to repeal the Act. [[Sherman Silver Act|Read more...]]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Silver_Purchase_Act Wikipedia entry]

<div id="simla">'''Simla'''</div>
758; Now Shimla, Simla was the summer capital of the erstwhile British Raj in India. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimla Wikipedia entry]

'''single up all lines''' 
3; 442; 821;

'''Sipido''' 
528; Anarchist assassin

[[Image:ball-lightning.jpg|thumb|Ball Lightning|right]]'''Skip''' 
73; sentient ball lightning; Ball lightning reportedly takes the form of a short-lived, glowing, floating object often the size and shape of a basketball, but it can also be golf ball sized or smaller. It is sometimes associated with thunderstorms, but unlike lightning flashes arcing between two points, which last a small fraction of a second, ball lightning reportedly lasts many seconds. There have been some reports of production of a similar phenomenon in the laboratory, but some still disagree on whether it is a real phenomenon; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning Wikipedia entry]

'''sky-dogs''' 
14; canines who rode in the airships

'''Sleepcoat, Professor''' 
940; piano-playing colleague of Ratty McHugh

'''Sloane laboratory''' 
29;

'''Sloper, Phoebe''' 
486; childhood friend of Tace Boilster's;

'''''Slow and the Stupified, The''''' 
611;

'''"Smegmo"''' 
407; "an artificial substitute for everything in the edible-fat category, including margarine"; [[ATD_397-428#Page_405|More on Smegmo...]]

<div id="smell"></div>'''Smell''' 
6; 70; Chums "guided only by their sense of smell," 115; "a ''scent'', a sea-smell of deep decay and reproduction," 127; "scentless snow walls," 142; 144; 297; 382; 388; "a strong polyaromatic gust, exhaled from the lungs of Depravity herself," 399; "'Gotta use ah snoot,'" "'till ah snoot tells us we're dere,'" 401; "odor of spilled . . . whiskey," 403; "the smell of excrement and dead tissue," 404; "Nasotemporal Transit," 408;

'''Smith, "Pixie" Coleman''' 
901; Pamela "Pixie" Coleman Smith was the designer who designed and executed the Tarot deck conceived by Arthur Edwart Waite

'''Smoked Haddock''' 
447; one of Gaspereaux's many "locals" in London

'''Smokefoot, I.J.&K.''' 
345; department store where Dally goes to buy a dress and briefly glimpses a woman she thinks might be her mother.

'''Smokestacks''' 
10; 243; cf., '''Towers of Silence'''

'''Snakes''' 
See [[#serpents|Serpents]], above.

'''Snazzbury, Dr.''' 
500; of Oxford University, "Snazzbury's Silent Frock";

'''Snidell, Bert''' 
75; former husband of Erlys; Dally's biological dad who died before she was born, 357;

'''Snidell sisters''' 
573;

'''Soane, Sir John (1753-1837)''' 
219; mansion that houses T.W.I.T. is attributed to him; John Soane was born in Goring-on-Thames in 1753. In 1809 Soane became Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy. In 1814 Soane he was appointed to the Board of Works, a post which lasted until his retirement in 1832. Soane displays an originality and control that places him among a small group of architectural innovators. In his work he concentrates on the detailing of internal spaces and lighting. He frequently incorporated shallow domes, segmental arches, and clerestories which he emphasized with linear ornamentation and color. [http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Sir_John_Soane.html]

'''Socialism''' 
32;

'''Sodality of Ǣtheronauts''' 
1030; Heartsease, Primula, Glee, Blaze, and Viridian, who "found [their] way to this Ǣtherist sorority through the mysteries of inconvenience..."

'''Soltera, E. B.''' 
644; Dwayne's contact in Juarez Regeneration Equipment;

'''Somble, Strool & Fleshway''' 
34; Scarsdale Vibe's attorneys; 455;

'''South Seas Pavilion''' 
26; at the Chicago World's Fair

'''Spazzoletta''' 
669; Italian: small brush (as in a wire brush); 670;

'''Special Relativity''' 
797; The special theory of relativity was proposed in 1905 by Albert Einstein in his article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies". Some three centuries earlier, Galileo's principle of relativity had stated that all uniform motion was relative, and that there was no absolute and well-defined state of rest; a person on the deck of a ship may be at rest in his opinion, but someone observing from the shore would say that he was moving. Einstein's theory combines Galilean relativity with the postulate that all observers will always measure the speed of light to be the same no matter what their state of uniform linear motion is; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity Wikipedia entry]

'''Spectral Theory''' 
603;

'''speed of sound''' 
770; shades of the V-2 rockets in [[http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']

'''Spengler, Dr.''' 
412;

'''Spielmacher, Herr''' 
615; International Manager - Bank of Prussia;

'''''Spirit of Bimetallism''''' 
895; statue Dally modeled for in New York

'''Spokeshave, "Doggo" 
906; acquaintance of Crouchmas; "doggo" is slang for "in hiding" or "out of sight" o-or "invisible"

'''Spongiatosta, Principessa''' 
582; semi-notorious aquaintance of H. Penhallow; Spongia Toasta ("roasted sponge") is a homeopathic remedy for goitre and other thyroid problems; 730-31; family arms, 731; 798; "regular associate" of Theign's, 867; [http://www.elixirs.com/spongia.cfm elixirs.com]

'''Spooninger, Bing''' 
419; "Mouthorganman Apprentice"

'''''Squalaccio, Il''''' 
855; Italian: the evil shark; Pino's and Rocco's submarine

'''Squanto and the Pilgrims''' 
416;

'''Squarciones, Francesco''' 
725; Italian painter; teacher of Mantegna. According to tradition he was a tailor and embroiderer who turned to painting c.1429 and established a school of painting in Padua. Only two signed works of his exist, ''Madonna with Child'' (Berlin) and an altarpiece in five sections (Padua). [http://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedia/squarcione-francesco.jsp]

'''Ssagan 
785; "Buriat pronunciation of ''tsagan''"; "pure white" reindeer who speaks Buriat to Kit Traverse; In Burkhanism, a Russian religious movement that flourished among the indigenous people of Russia's Gorno Altai region between 1904 and the 1930s, Ak-Burkhan ("White Burkhan) is a deity who is depicted as an old man with white hair, a white coat, and white headgear, who rides a white horse. Possibly analogous to the Mongolian "white old man," Tsagan Ebugen. The Buryat language (or Buriat) is a Mongolic language spoken by the Buryats of Siberia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkhanism]

'''Standard Oil''' 
101;

'''Stein, Aurel''' 
436;

'''Steve, aka Ramon''' 
638; in Mexico (recall Foppl's in ''V.'');

'''Stiftskaserne''' 
703; Military barracks area in Vienna; The Stiftskaserne tower was the most heavily-armed Vienna flak tower, mounting four twin 128mm guns.

'''Stinerite''' 
528;

'''Stockmen's Hotel''' 
31;

'''Stockyards''' 
See '''Shambles''', above.

'''Stockton, Bob''' 
368; his bar in Denver

'''''stranniki''''' 
663; wandering men in Russia; 745;

'''Strauss, Richard (1864-1949)''' 
498; German composer of the late Romantic era, particularly noted for his tone poems and operas. He was also a noted conductor; ''Salome'' opera, 626; Strauss Jr., 741; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Strauss Wikipedia entry]; [http://www.richardstrauss.at/html/index.html The Official Richard Strauss Website]

'''straw "skimmer"''' 
13; straw hat with a narrow brim, popular boating hat during the 1890's;

'''Stuffed Edge''' 
609; "remote and horrible town of..."; a perversely English pizza reference; [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22stuffed+edge%22+pizza Google search]

'''''Stupendica, S.S.''''' 
356; liner takes Zombini's to Europe; distinct versions of, 514; "latent identity as the battleship H.M.S. ''Emperor Maximilian''" 515; "Liner-to-Battleship Effect" 518; "Two-''Stupendica'' problem" 521;

'''Suárez, Pino''' 
994

'''sub-Clerkenwell trinket''' 
489;

'''Suckling, Darby''' 
3; the baby of the ''Inconvenience'' crew who serves "as both factotum and mascotte"; 109-110; as "Ship's Legal Officer," 398;

'''Sue, Marie Eugène (1804-1857)''' 
125; a ''roman-feuilleton'' by; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Sue M. Eugène Sue] was a French novelist, born in Paris. A ''feuilleton'' (a diminutive of French ''feuillet'', the leaf of a book) was originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers. A ''roman-feuilleton'' is a serialized novel;

'''Sukhomlinoff, General''' 
780; intelligence officer on ''Bol'shaia Igra''

'''Svegli, Professore''' 
569; University of Pisa

'''Swedes''' 
441;

'''Swift, Tom''' 
794; Chums of Chances' "Brother"; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift Tom Swift] is the young protagonist in several series of juvenile adventure novels starting in the early twentieth century and continuing to the present. More exactly, each such series stars a young protagonist named Tom Swift who is a genius inventor and whose breakthroughs in technology (especially transport technology) drive the plots of the novels, thus placing them in a genre sometimes called "invention fiction" or "Edisonade". The Chums of Chance stories are titled like the Tom Swift novels, eg ''Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle; or, Fun and Adventure on the Road''; ''Tom Swift and His Motor Boat; or, The Rivals of Lake Carlopa''; ''Tom Swift and His Airship; or, The Stirring Cruise of the Red Cloud'';
''Tom Swift and His Submarine Boat; or, Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure'' &c &c.

'''Swinburne''' 
535;

'''Swome, Lionel''' 
628; T.W.I.T. travel coordinator; 668; 720; 752;

[[image:spirit-of-ecstacy.jpg|thumb|150px|''Spirit of Ecstacy''|right]]'''Sykes, Charlie''' 
895; In May 1902, Montagu founded the weekly magazine Car Illustrated, which Charles Rolls was a contributor to. He also opened the new Rolls-Royce factory at Derby in 1908 and owned a Silver Ghost. It was for this car that Montagu commissioned a one-off mascot from artist Charles Robinson Sykes. The model was Eleanor Velasco Thornton, a vivacious beauty, and the figure was called ''The Whisper'' - the woman has her fingers to her lips as if to tell the onlooker to help her keep a secret.

Such was the popularity of the mascot fad that people were attaching all kinds of things to their cars: golliwogs, toy policemen, etc. Claude Johnson, now general managing director of Rolls-Royce Ltd and Eleanor’s old boss, decided to commission an official mascot for Rolls-Royce. This would ensure that the mascot was in keeping with the overall style and quality of the car. Charles Sykes was once again the man chosen to create it and ''The Spirit of Ecstasy'' bears many similarities to ''The Whisper''. Although initially offered as an optional extra from February 1911, in practice, the ''Spirit'' adorned almost all Rolls-Royce motor cars from that day onwards.

'''Symmetry''' 
537;

'''Symons, Arthur William (1865-1945)''' 
945; called Boulevard Knyaginya Mariya Luiza "the most horrible street in Europe"; a British poet and critic; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Symons Wikipedia entry]

'''syntonic wireless''' 
951; to communicate with the dead

{{ATD_Alpha_Nav}}

ATD 243-272

2009-08-13T21:49:47Z

Jglassow: /* Page 260 */

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

==Page 243==

'''The Chums return''' 
When were the Chums last seen in AtD? As far back as page 142?

A brief reminder of who the Chums are and what we know about them so far:
:'''Randolph St. Cosmo''', commander.
:'''Lindsay Noseworth''', Master-at-Arms and second in command, hates slackers and slang.
:'''Miles Blundell''', handyman, awkward, with an "ample waist" (11), also ship's Commissary, whose cooking ranges from pure cordon bleu to inedible. (110)
:'''Darby Suckling''', the baby of the crew, served "as both factotum and mascotte". By page 141 or so, has transformed from spirited youth to bomb obsessed, (111) sneering, snide cynic. Because of hitting adolescence?
:'''Chick Counterfly''', the newest member of the crew, picked up by the Chums in the South while on the run from the KKK. At last appearance, had become Dr. Counterfly, knowledgeable Science Officer aboard the Inconvenience (141). Reliably humorous. (110). Chick's style of speech here seems intermediate between the country boy of the early chapters and the sophisticated Dr Counterfly who met the Vormance expedition. Are we also at an intermediate point on the timeline?

[[image:fumaioli.jpg|thumb|150px|Fumaioli in Venice|right]]
'''''fumaioli''''' 
Italian: ''funnels''; fumaioli are large wide-topped chimneys, common to the rooftops of Venice.

'''''certo''''' 
sure, certain.

'''''Seccatura''''' 
Italian: ''Inconvenience''

==Page 244==

'''''ragazza''''' 
Italian: ''girl''.

'''Picardy thirds''' 
The use of a major chord at the end of a musical section in a minor key. Miles seems just as moved by them as Lew. [[ATD_26-56#Page_50 | Cf p50]]

The gondolier is singing harmony with himself, or else Miles is imagining the accompaniment.

Picardie is also a region in northern France and "during the Middle Ages... included the Dutch speaking Flanders." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy] The region was a hotbed of action along the Western Front in WWI and played host to the Battle of the Somme, which totaled more than a million casualties and was "one of the bloodiest battles in human history."[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme]

'''''stabilimento''''' 
Italian: establishment.

==Page 245==
'''Garibaldi''' 
Famous Italian leader, major figure in the Italian Unification. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garibaldi Wikipedia]

'''''"Ehi, sugo!"''''' 
"Hey, sauce!" Does this make sense to anyone?
It does not make any sense in Italian. 
To a good approximation, this is what the Fonz used to say in the TV series ''Happy Days.'' People mostly understood his melodic "Aaayy" as a variant of "Hey," but maybe instead it was something his Uncle Pio brought from the old country.

'''twentyfold''' 
5 chums times 4 suspects each. (Randolph suspects Lindsay, Miles, Darby and Chick of being the leak; and so on around the crew. And that assumes no one suspects Pugnax!)

'''''osteria''''' 
tavern.

'''San Polo''' 
The smallest district/area in Venice, and among the oldest. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Polo Wikipedia]

'''''rio''''' 
narrow waterway in Venice.

'''against the night''' 
OK...

'''''calli''''' 
Venetian 'street' or 'lane'.

==Page 246==

'''''sotoporteghi''''' 
passageways. See picture for one example [http://www.dialetto-veneto.it/images/FotoComano/Comano-Cattognano.jpg].

'''''"Sa stai, O! Lungo, ehi!"''''' 
It does not mean anything in Italian or in the Venetian dialect. One possibility is mimicking the callouts of gondoliers. ''Lungo'' could be someone's nickname. 
Other possibility is a wrong lettering of: ''Xa star, oh! Lungo, ehi!'', meaning ''Ehi, Lungo, let it be and let's go!'' or something similar.

'''''cameriere''''' 
Italian: waitresses (plural of ''cameriera'').

'''''pallonisti''''' 
(fake-)Italian: balloonists.

'''''Ehi, macché, Pina! ''''' 
Italian: Ehi, Giusep(Pina), what are you telling me?

'''''giadrul''''' 
Again, doesn't mean anything in Italian or Venetian dialect. Seems to be a [https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0007&L=irtrad-l&D=0&T=0&P=94630 term of insult], variously described as American-Italian only (see previous link) and southern Italian (see next). One source gives one meaning as "[http://it.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070318034908AAem49X zuccone]" - this appears to mean "[http://notes.tranq.com/archives/2004/01/23/zuccone/ pumpkinhead]". I guess we're looking for something phallic, given the context. 
(''as far as I can see, it is an American-Italian deformation of the correct italian word "citrullo", which in fact is some sort of "dumb ass", and is derived from neapolitan for "cetriolo", that is, "cucumber" '')

'''"with all the spaghetti-joints in this town to choose from, are you saying those dadblame Russians have come in ''here''?"''' 
reminiscent of a similar line from the film ''Casablanca'', spoken by Humphrey Bogart: "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."

==Page 247==

'''tacchino in pomegranate sauce''' 
turkey in pomegranate sauce and, presumably, the "Purple Thanksgiving" to which Miles refers above.

'''''Dum vivimus, bibamus''''' 
While we live, let us drink. Paraphrase of "Dum vivimus, vivamus".

'''vini frizzanti''' 
sparkling wine (plural).

'''SANGUIS RUBER, MENS PURA''' 
Latin: Red blood, clean mind.

'''''Serrata del Maggior Consiglio''''' 
Great Council Lockout, 1297. Link to the "Maggior Consiglio" entry on Reference.com [http://www.reference.com/browse/all/Maggior%20Consiglio]

'''Napoleon's abolition''' 
1797. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doge_of_Venice Wikipedia]

'''Polos' return''' 
Marco Polo together with his father and uncle returned to Venice in 1295 from their travel to China started in 1271. 

''Marco Polo'' (1254-1324), a Venetian traveller. Was born of a nobel family at Venice, while his father and uncle had gone on a mercantile expedition by Constantinople and the Crimea to Bokhara and to Cathy (China). The Mongol prince commissioned them as envoys to the Pope, a commission they tried in vain to carry out in Italy (1269). The Polos started again a new trip to China in 1271, taking with them young Marco,
and arrived at the court of Kublai Khan in 1275 by way of Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan to Lop Nor, then across the Gobi desert to Kansu and Shang-tu. Marco Polo entered the diplomatic service of Kublai Khan and was sent on missions to various parts of the Mongol empire. The Polos left China on 1282 and returned by way of Sumatra, India, and Persia to Venice (1295). In 1298 Marco was in command of a galley at the battle of Curzola, where the Venetians were defeated by the Genoese, and he was a prisoner for a year at Genoa. Here it was thought that he dictated to another captive an account of his travels, published under the title of ''Divisamemt dou monde''. (English title: ''The Travels of Marco Polo''.) ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo Marco Polo].)

''Kublai Khan'' (1214-94), Mongol khan, emperor of China, grandson of Jenghiz Khan. He completed the conquest of northern China and became the first foreigner ever to rule China. An enegetic prince, he suppressed his rivals, adopted the Chinese mode of civilisation, encouraged men of letters and made Buddhism the state religion. But his attempt to invade Japan ended in disaster. His dominions extended from Arctic Ocean to the Strait of Malacca, and from Korea to Asia Minor and the confines of Hungary. The splendor of his court inspired the graphic pages of Marco Polo. (from Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 1984 edition.) 
Jack Weatherford, in ''Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World'' (2004), calls him Khubilai Khan and makes rather different statements about the extent of his realm and his treatment of religion. 
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1816 poem "Kubla Khan" uses yet another spelling. Weatherford identifies "Xanadu" as Shengdu.

==Page 248==

[[image:doge.jpg|thumb|100px|Doge by Giovanni Bellini|right]]'''Doge's hat''' 
For some thousand years, the chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice was styled the Doge, a rare but not unique Italian title derived from the Latin Dux, as the major Italian parallel Duce and the English Duke. Doges of Venice were elected for life by the city-state's aristocracy. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doge_of_Venice Wikipedia entry]

'''''Attenzione al culo''''' 
Italian: watch your ass.

'''Shambhala''' 
In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala is a mystical kingdom hidden somewhere beyond the snowpeaks of the Himalayas. Shambhala is believed to be a society where all the inhabitants are enlightened. During the 19th century, Theosophical Society founder H.P. Blavatsky alluded to the Shambhala myth, giving it currency for Western occult enthusiasts. Later esoteric writers further emphasized and elaborated on the concept of a hidden land inhabited by a hidden mystic brotherhood whose members labor for the good of humanity. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambhala Wikipedia entry]

'''cicerone''' 
A guide who shows and explains the antiquities or curiosities or a place to strangers. <ref>'''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''Professor Svegli of the University of Pisa''' 
The fictional professor's name comes from the Italian ''sveglio'' for "clever, dextrous, skillful."

'''"try to forget the usual picture in two dimensions"''' 
Cf. page 220, the idea behind the ''Tetractys'' as explained by Nigel and Neville.

'''an episode of intentional blindness''' 
Echoes the "denial of ordinary vision" that Lew sees when he meets Professor Renfrew (p. 240). Might these "blind spots" in sense evoke Iceland Spar?

==Page 249==

'''"Those whose enduring object is power in this world are only too happy to use without remorse the others, whose aim is of course to transcend all question of power. Each regards the other as a pack of deluded fools."''' 
Over time, Pynchon appears to have come to a belief in a massive conflict between cultures "valuing analysis and differentiation" and those valuing "unity and integration". The two alternate maps of Asia could be a reference to these disparate worldviews.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V. Wikipedia entry on V.]

'''The problem lies with the projection''' 
(a) Projection by each group of its own obsession onto the other group. (b) Cartographic projection, i.e., how the round world gets imaged onto a flat sheet of paper.

'''Imaginary surface''' 
Presumably meant to mean (or at least allude to) imaginary in the mathematical sense: involving the square root of -1.

'''paramorphoscope''' 
AtD is itself a paramorphoscope; satire and science fiction typically hold up a distorting mirror to the world in which they are written, and present worlds "set to the side of the one we have taken". In the end the correct paramorphic "mirror" shows the world clearly.

'''"a certain percentage of them went mad and ended up in the asylum on San Servolo"''' 
Cf. the Northern Ohio Insane Asylum with its light-obsessed inmates at [[ATD_57-80#Page_59|page 59]].

'''the asylum on San Servolo''' 
First established as a military hospital in 1715, later became a mental asylum. Seems that San Servolo is to Venice what Bedlam is to London. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Servolo Wikipedia]

'''Clifford's term''' 
W.K. Clifford, (1845-1879): an English mathematician. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kingdon_Clifford Wikipedia]

==Page 250==

[[Image:stmarks.jpg|thumb|200px|right|St Mark's Basilica (Basilica di San Marco) in Venice]]
'''Dr. Cantor''' 
Georg Cantor (1845 - 1918), German mathematician. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantor%27s_theorem Cantor's Theorem] is what is most relevant to his mention here.

'''the plano-convex designs of Griendl von Ach''' 
For a brief history of the compound-lens microscope, and the roles played by the Italians and the Dutch, including Griendl von Ach, see:
http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Microscope

'''prophetic vision of St. Mark''' 
Mark the Evangelist (1st century) is traditionally believed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark and a companion of Peter. From [http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/brown-venice.html this site]: "...a prophetic dream that Mark was said to have experienced during his earlier, supposed ministry in the area of the Venetian lagoon. In it he was visited by an angel who told him that he would find his final resting place on the very site where San Marco would later be built." In the first century there was no settlement worth mentioning in the Lagoon yet. The prophecy was "fulfilled" in 828 when the saint's remains stolen on orders of Doge Giustiniano Participazio in Alexandria were brought to Venice. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_the_Evangelist Wikipedia entry] St. Mark is represented by a winged lion and is the patron saint of Venice [http://www.catholic-forum.com/SAINTS/saintm08.htm].

'''''but in reverse''''' 
Miles now takes the place of the angel. Who or what is the "Being" and what form does the prophecy take?

'''cormorant''' 
A large and voracious sea-bird, about three feet in length, and of a lustrous black color. <ref>Def.1. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''scirocco''' 
An oppressively hot and blighting wind, blowing from the north coast of Africa over the Mediterranean and affecting part of southern Europe. <ref>Def.1a. '''The Oxford English Dictionary'''. 2nd ed. 1989.</ref>

'''neither sails, masts, nor oars''' 
Not a craft that is driven by the wind or human muscle. To say more could spoil a plot point.

==Page 251==

[[Image:stmarklion.jpg|thumb|600px|center|The Lion of St. Mark, by Carpaccio]]

'''Lion of St. Mark by Carpaccion''' 
Vittore Carpaccio (c.1460–1525/6) was a Venetian painter. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittore_Carpaccio Wikipedia entry]

'''the vision of St. Mark, but in reverse''' 
In St. Mark's vision, an angel appeared to Mark and informed him that his remains would one day end up in his present location, which later became Venice. Here, Miles seems to assume the form of the angel (in the form of a lion?) and the 'promise' Pynchon mentions seems to be the angel's promise to Mark.

'''our own duty, our own fate... the real journey''' 
Pynchon's one-paragraph summation of human life and its meaning recalls a letter Pynchon wrote in the early 1960s, [[The_World_is_at_Fault|The World is at Fault]], in which he also summed up the entirety of human life in a few tidy sentences. Both employ the word 'pilgrimage.'

==Page 252==

'''''sotopòrteghi''''' 
Tunnels or passageways under large buildings.

'''tenebrous''' 
Means "shadowy" but is also a link back to the previous paragraph. The Tenebrae Service is a special form that is meant to recreate the feelings of the Passion story, also represented by the Stations of the Cross.

'''Renata''' 
Note that Renata is the name of the female protagonist in Ernest Hemingway's ''Across the River and into the Trees'', set in Venice.

'''Glagolitic''' 
The Glagolitic Alphabet is the oldest known Slavic alphabet (9th c.). It originated as a tactic to lessen the dependence of the subjects of the Prince of Greater Moravia on Frankish priests, who banned it but could not suppress it; it played a similar role in preserving Bulgarian independence from Byzantium. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glagolitic] It appears to be a nexus of the kind of simultaneous temporal and spiritual tasks the Chums of Chance are now involved in. In this, it raises the issues first explored by Pynchon in the "Tchitcherine in Kyrghizia" sections of ''Gravity's Rainbow'' in which the introduction of a written alphabet causes immense political and social change.

'''Gauloise''' 
famous French cigarette. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauloise Wikipedia].

'''''scusi''''' 
Italian: Excuse me.

'''''Affascinante, caro''''' 
Italian: Fascinating, dear (addressed to a male person).

'''''ragazzo''''' 
Italian: Boy.

'''''Mattoidi''''' 
Italian: Semi-insane persons. The word was [http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-mat1.htm coined by Cesare Lombroso,] the physiognomist.

'''''Prego''''' 
Italian: Please.

==Page 253==

'''Pozzuoli''' 
A city in the Province of Naples (''Napoli'') in the region of Campania. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozzuoli Wikipedia].

'''The Tarocchi are much, much older.''' 
Not at all! This is one of those ideas that rarely gets questioned, especially since some "interpreters" of the tarot claim ancient Egyptian origins. The actually only [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot date back to the 15th century], as playing cards, and tarot divination was invented in the 19th century, with absolutely no historical precedent.

However, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley Aleister Crowley] in his writings and the design of his own version of the tarot, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Thoth_(Crowley) Thoth Deck], made a case for the Tarot unifying and being rooted in much older divination methods from Ancient egypt to the[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabbalah Kabbalah] to Greek [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology astrology]. Crowley's Golden Dawn gets a previous mention in ATD. Though work on the Thoth deck would not begin until 1938, Crowley´s assignment of the Kabbalah's [http://jktarot.com/naples Sephiroth to the major arcana] probably bears attention when considering the chapter structure of ATD: he called the correspondence "The Naples Arrangement" in honour of having worked it out there, and this passage's mention of Renata's business associate being in Naples at this moment is unlikely to be coincidence.
:Surely a robust skepticism toward Crowley and his research methods is in order? Consider, for example, this [http://www.tarothermit.com/letter.htm "open letter"] to tarot users—from a judicious scholar and believer, not a committed skeptic—making the point that if the cards embody images (of whatever origin) "speaking" to the reader or student, it isn't essential to press the further claim that they were invented by the god Thoth. The paintings lack a couple of millennia of "temporal bandwidth" but aren't necessarily voided of appeal by that, any more than Michelangelo's ''Pietà'' is a less-valid devotional object for having been sculpted 1500 years after the event.

'''''sfumato''''' 
Refers to a well known painting method which blends so subtly the colors and tones that no perceptible transition is visible, as demonstrated by Leonardo da Vince's ''Mona Lisa''. See [http://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/Sfumato Wikipedia]. 
The context seems to imply ''smoke'', then ''fumo'' instead should be used.
:No, the evocation of the painterly effect becomes a metaphor for the way the boat comes into sight.

:might just be a description the morning fog over the water, but the following sentence ("which would not burn off till later in the morning"), although possibly another element of the allegory, could point to actual smoke.

==Page 254==

'''''Pax tibi, Darbe''''' 
Latin: Peace to you, Darby. ''Pax tibi'' is not at all obscure—devout Catholics used it as a parting formula—but Chick has Latinized Darby's name to ''Darbus'' (vocative case ''Darbe'') and may be consciously echoing the text in [[#Page_251|Carpaccio's lion painting]] or on a [[#Page_247|pre-Napoleonic]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Most_Serene_Republic_of_Venice.svg flag of the Most Serene Republic of Venice:] ''Pax tibi Marce evangelista meus,'' "Peace to you, Mark, my evangelist."

'''like some damned ''Farewell'' Symphony''' 
Franz Josef Haydn, 1772, Hungary. Musicians at Count Esterházy's court had been kept too long on duty (and away from their families). Going on strike would have been disrespectful, so in the last movement of Haydn's hinting work, the players one by one extinguish their candles and exit, leaving two violins to play the last phrases.

'''"Chums of Chance were expected to die on the job. Or else live forever, there being two schools of thought, actually."''' 
Possibly a reference to the fact that the Chums seem to live simultaneously in the "real" world of the novel and also in fictional stories within the novel.

'''Irredentist''' 
In Italian politics (after 1878), an adherent of the party which advocated the recovery and union to Italy of all Italian-speaking districts subject to other countries (OED).

==Page 255==

'''Mostruccio''' 
Italian, literally: small monster, meant as a lovely nickname.

[[Image:samoyeds.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Samoyeds]]
'''Samoyeds''' 
These nomadic reindeer herders help with the herding, pull sleds, and are sometimes called "the smiley dog" in reference to their seemingly smiling faces. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoyed_(dog) Wikipedia]

'''Bastille Day''' 
The Campanile di San Marco collapsed 14 July 1902. Pynchon Wiki on the [[Campanile]].

'''''lasagnoni''''' 
Italian, plural of ''lasagnone'': Blowhard, braggart.

A hint may come from an Italian dictionary: a ''lasagnone'' being an awkward, simple person, the kind of loafers who abound on city squares or street corners and, consequently, may appear in tourists' pictures.

==Page 256==
[[Image:Campanile.jpg|thumb|200px|right]]

'''dual citizenship''' 
They live in two places, there are two skycraft, they point a gun at one place but the shell strikes a different place. Lots of '''bi-''' somethings in this passage.

'''the little-understood enigmata of the simultaneous''' 
The concept of simultaneous events, including the accurate definition and, moreover, the very ''need'' of such a definition, played a significant role in the soon-to-be formulated [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity Special Relativity Theory]. One of the main consequences of the theory is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity relativity of simultaneity].

'''four-brick groupings''' 
Padzhitnoff sees the Campanile come apart as a game of Tetris! The "four-brick groupings [...] begin their gentle, undeadly descent, rotating and translating in all available modes". (See [[ATD_119-148#Page_123|page 123]] for more on Tetris.)

'''the tower collapses''' 
Might have some relation to the final poem of ''Gravity's Rainbow''. The fall of the tower is foreshadowed -- foretold, actually -- in Chick´s Tarot reading by Renata (See [[ATD_243-272#Page_253|page 253]]).

==Page 257==

'''What stood for a thousand years''' 
Pretty close: Construction of the Campanile began in the year 912.

'''deciduous''' 
Something that falls, drops or is shed, like leaves from a tree or baby teeth.

'''We had the weather-gauge''' 
In the days of sail, [http://www.weathergage.com/ weather gage] described the relative position of two ships or forces. If you were downwind you could run or, if you meant to engage the enemy, tack to approach him. Every time you changed tack you lost an opportunity to shoot (because your guns pointed left and right). If you lay upwind, you could keep your guns trained on the enemy throughout the engagement. The weather gage was an often decisive battle advantage, and the phrase is common in nautical narratives.

'''Or we might send in pursuit your maternal relation...transform them all into masonry''' 
Yet another Mother joke. This time in reference to her being as ugly as Medusa and therefore able to turn the crew of the enemy airship into stone (masonry).

'''neuræsthenic prostration''' 
This is the third (at least) time Randolph has exhibited this tendency.

:This is the third time that this word has appeared so far, but in the second instance (page 188) it was used by Nigel to describe Lew Basnight, not Randolph.

:Not the word, but this reaction in Randolph occurred on pages 12 and 28. It seems to be a regular thing with him.

==Page 258==
'''Vibrational Rays... sympathetic frequency... divergent oscillation''' 

ie, what took down the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_Collapse Tacoma Narrows], the famous wobbly bridge collapse I'm sure we've all seen footage of. Same phenomenon weaponized taking down the Campanile, or at least, this is the best guess by Dr. Gerasimoff.

'''Tetralith''' 
Modern math term for three dimensional solid formed by merging three hyperbolic paraboloids in a manner that they have a common midpoint. See [http://www.tetranometry.com/#tetralith Tetralith Photo #2]. Pynchon just means a Tetris-shaped projectile, a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetromino Tetromino].
:A "monolith" (as in ''2001: A Space Odyssey'')means an "object made of a single block of stone". Hence "tetralith" means an "object made of four blocks of stone", which is exactly what you see on the game "Tetris".

'''Japanese character for "four" being same as that for "death"''' 
Not quite correct. The Japanese kanji (Chinese) characters for four 四 and death 死 are quite distinct, but can be pronounced in the same way, hence the taboo.

'''Ryohei Uchida''' 
Ultra-nationalist, founder of the Black Dragon Soceity (see below), a right-wing, paramilitary organization. See [http://members.tripod.com/ravenshrine/uchida.html Ryohei Uchida].

Interestingly - or, perhaps, as certain sorts of people might be inclined to say, coincidentally - the name 'Uchida' is homonymous with the Italian 'uccidere', meaning 'to kill', in several of its commonly seen conjugated forms.

'''''polny pizdets''''' 
Crude Russian: a total screwup.

'''Black Dragon Society''' 
A paramiltary, ultra-nationalist, right-wing organization in Japan founded by Ryohei Uchida in 1901. Its initial public goal was to support Janpanese expansion in Manchuria. Therefore, during the period from 1901 to the end of World War I, it aimed to help the Japanese government drive the Russian presence out of that region. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 (a war fought over Manchuria, with the Russians soundly defeated) it was active in espionage, sabotage and assassination against the Russians. During the 20's, 30's and later periods the Black Dragon Society evolved and expanded its activities around the world, including the United States. It was finally disbanded in 1946 by General MacArthur after World War II. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokuryu-kai Wikipedia entry].

'''''Smirno''''' 
Russian: quiet!

==Page 259==

'''''dov'era, com'era''''' 
Italian: where it was, as it was. See [http://veniceblog.typepad.com/veniceblog/2003/12/comera_dovera.html veniceblog]. On July 14, 1902 the St. Mark's Campanile in Piazza San Marco, Venice, mysteriously and totally collapsed. Under the 'battle cry' of '''''com'era, dov'era''''' it was rebuilt. The Campanile was reopened on April 25 (St. Mark's Day) 1912. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mark's_Campanile St. Mark's Campanile]. Also, Cf [[ATD_243-272#Page 256|page 256:the tower collapses]].

''''La Marangona''''' 
The largest bell in the campanile is called la Marangona. At midnight, that massive bell resounds alone from high in the Piazza, and can be heard from almost any point in the city. There are four other bells in the campanile and they each have a name.

'''"Bells are the most ancient objects. They call to us out of eternity"''' 
This chapter is bookended by references to bells. It opens, "Across the city noontide a field of bells emerged into flower."

==Page 260==

'''Deuce and Sloat return''' 
These two, it will be recalled, are the men hired by the mine owners to kill Webb Traverse. (193) It is unclear who is whose sidekick. ([[ATD_171-198#Page_195|195]]) Sloat tends to bodies, Deuce the spirit. ([[ATD_171-198#Page_197|197]])

'''Curly Dee''' 
Mathematicians call the "partial derivative" symbol "curly d." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_derivative Wikipedia shows the symbol.]

'''Big Billy's or Jew Fanny's''' 
Big Billy (or "Billie") was a madam at the Silver Bell in Telluride, Colorado. Found on the corner of Pacific Avenue and Spruce Street, the Silver Bell was situated in the center of Telluride’s red-light district. According to [http://telluridepublishing.com/articles.asp?title=112 this source], Jew Fanny was a prostitute who worked for Big Billy.

[[image:Cosmopolitan.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Interior of Cosmopolitan Saloon, c. 1905]]'''the Cosmopolitan''' 
The Cosmopolitan Saloon in Telluride, Colorado, featured all the masculine comforts gambling, plenty of bar space, tables for talk, and an assortment of saloon art. [http://books.google.com/books?id=X3hSG8xhScMC&pg=PA147&lpg=PA147&dq=cosmopolitan+%2B+saloon+%2B++telluride+%2B+gambling+%2B+mining&source=web&ots=YyBLNquez5&sig=cyt612wQnVOEVU8yPrwqiQQWfw4&hl=en]

The Cosmopolitan was a sophisticated establishment located at 109 East Colorado Avenue and was frequented by merchants, lawyers, and mine officials. Its bill of fare listed "fine old California wines and champaigns." Papered walls were hung with art, and a hired hand kept the spittoon and brass rails polished. At the bar, lawman Kenneth Angus Maclean keeps an eye on things (at right). [http://books.google.com/books?id=HPNgqJI7WJoC&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&dq=%22cosmopolitan+saloon%22+telluride&source=web&ots=l9Zw--XiJa&sig=A_YlheB44cus8oh-n3kAOlFPAs0&hl=en#PPA85,M1]

'''"Pussy on the brain, Big S."''' 
Cf. the "Beavers of the Brain"/"Beaver on the Brain" episode, [[ATD_171-198#Page_183|p.183]]

'''inside out''' 
Optical illusion.

'''Deuce's on-and-off romance with Hsiang-Chiao''' 

Hsiang-Chiao: (Chinese) Banana

==Page 261==

'''Nonpareil Eating House''' 
The motto over the door was probably "None Like It!"

French, meaning "without equal". Webster's also lists other definitions, including this one, pertaining to the animal kingdom: "Marked with bright colors; as, the painted turtle; painted bunting". I have also noticed that whenever I buy capers, they tend to be of the "nonpareille" variety (at least that's what the label says). This most likely refers to their size, as nonpareil is also a printing term that describes "A size of type next smaller than minion and next larger than agate".

'''Mayva and Lake''' 
Webb Traverse's wife and daughter.

'''lard smoke''' 
Cf. p. 10, "tall smokestacks unceasingly vomiting black grease-smoke," and p. 216, "Just greasy ashes by the trailside."

'''biscuit-shooter''' 
I.e., a cook.

'''Cañon City''' 
Site of the Colorado State Penitentiary, meant to suggest Deuce and Sloat had done time there.

'''gong''' 
???
17:18, 1 January 2007 (PST)[[User:Bklyn48|Bklyn48]]
 "kicking the gong around" is slang for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_the_Moocher smoking opium]. Here, Sloat seems to mean that Deuce's opium smoking has affected his judgement.

==Page 262==

'''Willis Turnstone''' 
Turnstones are members of the sandpiper family, stocky birds that use their stout bills to flip over rocks and such in search of food. There are two species: Black Turnstone (''Arenaria melanocephala'') and Ruddy Turnstone (''A. interpres''). The [http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Ruddy_Turnstone.html Ruddy's] breeding plumage is a bold calico of white, orange, and black.

==Page 263==

'''"Crazier."''' 
Cf Bonnie and Clyde.

'''Oleander Prudge''' 
A name that brings joy to the heart of any Dickensian who happens to be reading along.

==Page 264==

'''single-jacker''' 
A miner who with a hammer and spike cuts a hole into rock for placement of a stick of dynamite. A set of holes are cut for each "synchronized" blast.
(Double jackers work as a team.)
Infer (this) one as a loner, a bit crazy, single minded, silent, easily hurt or misunderstood, doesn't play well with others...

'''How I feel about Mr. Kindred...and...Webb Traverse are two different things''' 

This is an interesting exchange between Lake and Oleander Prudge. Clearly Oleander hits a nerve as Lake spills the hotcakes. Lake goes into denial, saying her love of someone she would normally hate (Deuce -- her father's killer) and hating someone she would normally love (her father Webb) are "two different things."

Oleanders rejoinder, "they can't be," has the finality of a mathematical proof.

It's as if Lake is looking at passion through an emotional lense of iceland spar and sees two sets of images (father/lover, hate/love)and wants to believe they're different, whereas Oleander sees that in fact they are one. This won't be the last time Lake gets herself a "twofer."

==Page 265==

'''backing away down the valley''' 
It's instructive to look at a [http://www.vacationtelluride.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=standard&categoryId=11&subCategoryId=0 map or satellite photo of Telluride.] You could very well lay a single track from the mouth of the valley up to the town, but no farther. So the train drives into the station, then backs out until there's room for a spur where it can turn around.

'''gullet of days''' 
Metaphor. The miners' lives "as easily (as jug whisky)disappeared down the throat of everyday life".

==Page 266==

'''white-throated swift''' 
A swift is a small plainly colored bird similar to a swallow. The [http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/187/_/White-throated_Swift.aspx white-throated species,] which breeds in the western U.S. and winters in Mexico, is less plain than some. And get the species name: '''''Aeronaut'''es saxatalis.''

'''November''' 
November 1903.

'''in January, martial law''' 
January 3, 1904.

'''nymph du pave''' 
should probably read "nymphE du pave": [http://dict.die.net/nymphe%20du%20pave/ street-whore]. Theoretically this could also translate as: (image of a) nymph on a mosaic (tesselated floor) - like the huge roman one of Ariadne in the Rue du Pavé in Avenche (Switzerland) [http://www.stub.unibe.ch/welten/texte/herzig.html german weblink]

Most likely not (the mosaic idea); this is a consecrated term for prostitute. Note: in French, pavé means cobblestone. --[[User:Kirkm|Kirkm]] 02:09, 3 March 2007 (PST)

'''geometric episode''' 
Vaguely reminiscent of Proust on Combray: "And on one of the longest walks we ever took from Combray there was a spot where the narrow road emerged suddenly on to an immense plain, closed at the horizon by strips of forest over which rose and stood alone the fine point of Saint-Hilaire's steeple, but so sharpened and so pink that it seemed to be no more than sketched on the sky by the finger-nail of a painter anxious to give to such a landscape, to so pure a piece of 'nature,' this little sign of art, this single indication of human existence." [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/8swnn10.txt etext]

'''Engelmann spruce''' 
[http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=175 Picea engelmannii,] a light-colored, easily worked wood with fairly straight grain and slight contrast between heartwood and sapwood; [http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/boise/trees/engelmann.shtml uses include] piano sounding boards and the tops of violins and guitars, hence the association with the acoustics of the church.

A short biography of Dr. Engelmann (lit. Angel-Man) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Engelmann Wikipedia-Entry], more elaborated on [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Engelmann german site]

'''albatross cloth''' 
Evidently a distinct color/design for a wedding or wedding party dress in the West at the time. I have no OED at the moment, but there are at least two online "diaries" or descriptions using the phrase. Here is one: "We were married August 6, 1896 at 7:30 AM at my folk’s residence among friends and relatives. To honor the event, my folks had our parlor decorated with many flowers including roses, myrtle and geraniums. I wore an elegant gown of white silk and albatross cloth."

==Page 267==

'''Osterbybruk''' 
Town noted for ironmaking, 20 miles (32 km) north of Uppsala, eastern Sweden, nowhere near Jämtland (next entry).

The reference is probably more to a tune than a place. Swedish folk fiddlers, accordionists etc. have lots of bridal marches, waltzes etc. called after the place where they were composed/first used. There are collections of folk tunes from Österby bruk. I would guess that TRP has probably heard a recording of this kind of music.

'''Jemt-land''' 
A Province in west central Sweden [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A4mtland Wikipedia.] The hyphen is not part of the name and probably marks a syncopation in the rev's delivery.

Vintage Books paperback edition gives "Jämtland" as the name of the region.

'''Virgin bride''' 
Oh no she wasn't. See pp 190-191.

'''Child of the storm''' 
See the [http://againsttheday.wordpress.com/?s=child+of+the+storm ATD Weblog entry]. And page 190.

==Page 268==

'''sideways pussy''' 
Folklore.

'''side hobbles''' 
A hobble is a device for a horse or a dog that restricts the range of motion of the legs. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobble Wikipedia entry]. 
A [http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/archive/index.php/t-67850.html side hobble or Scotch hobble] links the horse's two left or two right legs, restricting its movement. 
"Hobble" also describes a type of skirt used (apparently) in bondage, see this [http://www.darksidecreations.com/product.asp?productid=19 example (not safe for work)] in latex.

==Page 269==

'''items, nearly always stolen''' 
Cf bower-bird.

'''marmot''' 
A stout-bodied, short-legged rodent that has coarse fur, a short bushy tail, and very short ears, lives in burrows, and hibernates in winter; also: a prairie dog or one of the larger ground squirrels. Marmots are native to Colorado and live at the higher altitudes. They are about the size of a weasel.

'''''"huevón"''''' 
From huevo (egg). According to [http://juantornoe.blogs.com/hispanictrending/2004/06/huevon_and_guey.html this blog] huevon "literally refers to the size of a mans "cojones" (another pseudo decent word that has seen a lot of mainstream play). It is commonly used to indicate how lazy someone is. The bigger the "huevon" you are, the lazier. As with "guey", however, this too has often been used to say dude or buddy."

'''''pinche cabron''''' 
fucking asshole.

==Page 270==

'''same hour, just before dawn...he even bombs by the moon''' 
I.e., he waits for a favorable phase. People who "plant by the signs," for example, associate days of the lunar month to parts of the plant and of the human body. They sow squash (vines) under one sign and lettuce (leaves) under another; they sow nothing at all when the moon is waning. Would a moon-guided bomber blow up trestles (legs) at one phase and plutocrats (belly) at another?

Here we see that Webb is "deuced" again -- first by being killed by Deuce, second by having his modus [operandi] imitated.

The time signature for the modus is given in both solar terms -- "the same hour just before dawn" -- and lunar terms. Depending on the time of year, the bombings probably happen from 4am to 6am.

It would be interesting if the anarchists had esoteric moon teachings as to which moon position is best for success.

Given that the authorities know the time of day and that the moon is the same in a relative way, they pretty much can predict the time of the next bombing, they just don't know exactly where. Sort of a variation of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

Since TRP is conversant with astrology and the moon seems to be signaling ideas in AtD, it may be of interest to drill down into this passage a bit more from an astronomical, astrological perspective.

In the Northern Hemisphere, in the hours just before dawn, any visible moon will be a waning moon along the full to new moon spectrum. Vedic astrology calls this the Krishna Paksha or dark half of the full lunar cycle. A waning moon 72 degrees (approx) past full (a waning moon less than 108 degrees from the sun) takes on a negative, slightly malefic tone. If you had a clock where the sun was the hour hand stuck at noon, and the minute hand was the moon, the moon turns bad at 18 minutes to the hour and reaches it nadir in badness at the hour or new moon. 

Drilling down further, Indian astrological analysis considers the tithi. A tithi does not consider the stellar zodiacal place of the moon, but the angular distance between sun and moon -- in the clock metaphor, we look at the minute. Instead of the 8 phases of standard western classificaton, there are 30 tithis, each lasting a little less than a day. Each tithi has its own interpretation. 

If there were an esoteric aspect to anarchist bombing technique regarding an auspicious time for maximum destruction, it would perhaps be in the Mars-ruled 11th tithi (Ekadasi), a time of strong, energetic conflict, fighting, explosions. Such a moon can be seen the morning of Oct 6th, 2007. At 42 to 54 degress before new moon, it's analogous to the sun at noon and the moon at 7-9 minutes to the hour. It's your basic waning crescent moon. Further, this moon can be in the 12th house (loss and secret enemies) when the sun is predawn, but only for about 2.5 hours.
In Telluride, CO, on Oct 6th, 2007, this type of moon will be in the 12th house from about 3:14am to 5:42am with sunrise at 7:15am. So one could expect an explosion probably between first predawn light and 5:42am.

==Page 271==

'''"...sufficient unto the day and so forth"''' 
Deuce is reiterating Webb's own words from Matthew 6:34 [[ATD_81-96#Page 96]]"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

'''skip''' 
In mining, a skip is "an iron bucket, which slides between guides,
for hoisting mineral and rock." Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 

'''ex-Danite''' 
Danites were Joseph Smith's vigilantes, "Armies of Israel", during the Mormon War 1838 in Missouri, i.e., before travel to Utah.

'''"Avenging Angels"''' 
Refers to [http://www.ugca.org/ugca1099/ugca1099main.htm Civil War-vintage Colt pistols] usually with sawn off barrels.

==Page 272==

'''the Dolores''' 
Dolores River runs through Cortez (where Deuce seems to be, next to exploding cactus p270). "We woke up in the Dolores... [VALLEY/REGION/HOTEL]"

'''a luminous face suspended''' 

Some large convex object in the sky.

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